Flamingshoe: San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico

And here I am, finally in Chiapas, the land of Zapatistas, where el comandante Marcos has his headquarter to bring on the fight for the campesinos and indigenous people right.

The town is one of those typical colonial town you can find in Central America, with its colored houses and the many churches, but the energy you can feel here is something you can not find anywhere else in Mexico. Europeans walk next to Mexicans, Mexicans to Americans and Asians to Mayans...you heard right , Mayans! Chiapas has been since the 90's the center of a cultural fight leading all the indigenous people from this area (there are 21 different languages in Chiapas) to join together and struggle against the injustice of a government taking advantage of the lands and the labor of these people. I'm not here to make a campaign, but if you want to know more about this issue and have your own idea, google it and have a blast! There's much to read.

Talking about places to stay I totally recommend the hostel "Puerta Vieja"! For 100 pesos you'll get to sleep in super comfortable beds and enjoy a wonderful well restored colonial building in the middle of the old town. Trust me because during this trip I haven't seen anything like that! Walking distance from here (San Cristobal is quite small, so everything is walking distance) there is "la vigna di bacco" where you can go have an aperitivo before heading somewhere else for dinner, maybe. Cocoliche is hands down worth a visit if you want to taste something different while listening to some live music. They arrange wonderful Mexican dishes next to Asian cuisine or even Italian ones if you're in the mood for pasta. This is also a melting pot; a lot of the night life starts here to reach then the "Revolucion cafè". But San Cristobal has it for all!!! In case around 2 you're not tired and what to see the sun rise...Madre Tierra is waiting for you, with live dj's or live bands (that was my case) driving you crazy in an astonishing location.

But let's quit it with this bull shit and let's get back to what Chiapas is famous for! First of all the Zapatistas; in San Cristobal they are like heroes and if you take a look around you'll find out plenty of places where you can feel in the air this sub culture. One of these is "Casa del pane", a restaurant, a cinema, a land of feelings. In here I watched a couple of docs on the Zapatistas (from their origins till nowadays) in a super vintage theater that I wouldn't have found if it wasn't for my great friend Josè. Go check this place out...they always organize something interesting!
Ovendic is one of the five Zapatistas Caracoles spread around the state. Caracoles are basically autonomous zones where the movement trains and develops its ideas, takes decisions and does a whole bunch of social activities to improve the indigenous lives.

Because they're constantly in a guerrilla with the Mexican army, these places are very hard to visit and don't ask me how I made it but for about 45 minutes I wondered alone in town taking pictures all over and had lunch with them (in change I rolled almost 10 cigarettes for all my new compañeros) before getting kicked out!
Coffee is another great feature for this region. Where ever you'll be walking you'll smell this wonderful essence and you won't resist from drinking and drinking and drinking more coffee. Pretty much everywhere is good but on real Guadalupe there are some outstanding dealers.
But let's cut it or I could go on for ever. Chiapas is not only all this...it's much more, go discover it by yourself!