We spent the whole day walking around the city. The historic center has a Spanish colonial layout. Narrow cobblestone streets, facades painted in various colors, red roofs covered with clay tiles make San Cristóbal de las Casas an attractive place.

We started with the visit to Church of Guadalupe. This is a place where “relay of pilgrims” was heading when we encountered them back in December. The church dedicated is to the cult of Our Lady of Guadalupe. For any casual visitor it might just be another Catholic church in Mexico. However, we were extremely surprised to find a place there that only the Tzotzil Maya use In a side yard of the Church of Guadalupe stands a small blue chapel covered in soot from candles. This place has nothing to do with Blessed Virgin Mary. The chapel is exclusively used to perform the rite identical to the one we saw in Chamula the day before. Here we witnessed local Maya women lighting candles on the floor, praying in Tzotzil language, and having a live chicken ready on the side ready to be sacrificed. The proximity to the church made us understand that the local priest gave his consent.

While walking around San Cristóbal, we visited the Amber Museum. Chiapas Amber recovered is in the mountains from rocks containing fossils, it is mined in small community mines. Many indigenous Tzotzil families rely on amber as their main source of income.

Museum of Maya Medicine is not worth a visit. This place is neglected. We have learned a few things, but it was not worth going that far from the historic part of the city.

No one seems to worry about coronavirus here. New disease is a distant problem so far. While passing crowded street markets we wondered, what will happen when COVID gets here? It could be a disaster.