San Cristobal de las Casas is a fascinating town with such a mix of people and culture that is not to be missed during your stay there.
Most people come and go rather quickly, stopping to see the Sumidero Canyon, Chamula Indigenous Town and spending a day in the town before moving on to Palenque or Puerto Escondido.
However, San Cristobal is one of the easiest places to connect with the community even in your short time there.
I got off the bus in San Cristobal and immediately knew it was a place I would spend a number of weeks. Within the first week, I had made friends across the city and offered multiple volunteering positions, leading to me staying there for 7 weeks and going on sunrise hikes, joining potlucks and being invited to the towns of the local women who I worked alongside.
My main tips in this blog post are:
- Get talking to the locals
- Attend events, workshops and restaurants
- Follow the community on socials
1. Talk to locals
Like anywhere, the way to connect with the community is to talk to the locals and the people working at the hostel/hotel you are staying. The more curious you are about who they are and what they like about their town, the more they’ll open up and share.
Don’t just talk to the hostel reception, often they are here for a shorter time. Talk to the people who work in maintenance and cleaning too. Most people don’t even ask their names.
When asked where they are from, most travellers will respond and talk mostly about their country or they stop the conversation there. I always take this opportunity to ask the person if they are from that town or elsewhere, which often turns into a conversation about their favourite parts of their country/state/town, best local places to eat and can sometimes lead to invitations for dinner and church. The latter isn’t for everyone obviously, but for big celebrations like Día de la Guadalupe in December, the posadas and fireworks can be a fun experience despite your religious beliefs.
2. Meeting the expat community
San Cristobal has a really interesting mix of people, the local people and those who have migrated here (hundreds during Covid times). Most of the Mexican migrants I met were from Mexico City and were drawn to the mountains, tranquility and spiritual nature of this town. Many from Mexico City and from travellers from around the world have settled down and started businesses or other ventures here.
These people have brought so many different ideas to San Cristobal, from healing rituals like sound bathing, reiki and snake venom medicine, to creativity workshops and restaurants with their home cuisine.
I’ll link some pages to find out about these workshops in the connecting section below.
There are also so many events held at local bars and restaurants every week. These events can be a great place to make friends and connect with the local expat community.
I recommend visiting events at the following places:
- Sultan-i Yegah: a Turkish restaurant with stunning outdoor and indoor spaces. They hold events most Sundays including Middle Eastern or medieval music, jamming sessions, ecstatic dance and belly dancing. Semih also hosts workshops for marbling art (known as Arte Ebru). Check out their instagram for events.
- Encuentro Ecopark: this is an ecopark at the edge of the city that hosts many events, related to conservation, nature and music. They host the Day Off events and also have a Jazz and Rhythms festival held in March. Check the instagrams for Encuentro here, Day Off here, and the Jazz and Rhythms festival here for an insight into their upcoming events.
- Cervecería Naufragio: a bar where a lot of the local expats hang out on a Friday night. Delicious pizza and tortas, artisan beers on tap and live music. Here’s their Facebook and instagram.
- Serendipia: probably the coolest bar/gallery I found in San Cristobal, it had an old school DJ spinning vinyls and cheap margaritas. We got chatting to the owner and he gave us a tour of the place, including an awesome terrace to look out over the city. Have a look at their instagram for any events.
- Wapani Cultural Space: an independent cultural space that offers workshops, events, bazaars (second hand sales) and other entertainment. They often post on their facebook and instagram about their events.
- Attend the Food Walking Tour: Claudio is a chatty local tour guide who not only provides you with awesome options in terms of food, but can tell you about local events and help plan visits to some unknown places around the state. Here is their instagram.
- Jangala: hands down the best place in San Cris to buy your cacao, this cafe also runs retreats into the jungle, experiences and cacao tastings. Check their website or instagram for more information.
- Sabi: a speakeasy gallery and Japanese restaurant. Check out their instagram to see what events they have coming up.
3. Get connected to the community on socials
San Cristobal is one of those places that has an incredibly active social media presence. I’ve linked a couple of social media pages that you can join to find out what events are happening.
Events San Cristobal: Their instagram has multiple daily posts alerting their followers to what events are happening around the city. From there you can access their Whatsapp group.
Eventos San Cristobal: a private facebook group focused just on sharing social events.
San Cristobal de las Casas Events & Community: another facebook group for local events that averages about 7 posts a day.
Cartelera Eventos San Cristóbal de las Casas: a facebook group with daily posts from locals promoting their workshops, events and more.
I won’t share the local expat Whatsapp group here in case it leads to bots finding it and spamming it, however if you are interested, contact me and I’ll share it.
Otherwise join the one linked to Event San Cristobal’s instagram (I was never a part of this so cannot share how good it is).