San Cristobal

In San Cristobal de las Casas:
You are at such an altitude that it is cool at night.  
The streets are clean and paved with smooth cobblestones.
Boys ply the streets with shoeshine kits.
Mayan women work hard, carrying loads of beautiful handwoven textiles that they sell. The loads are often as big as the women, who are smallish in stature. These women often carry babies as well, and hAve their daughters selling with them. The mothers wear hairy black goat hide skirts.
Marimba can be danced to at night, in the town square.
Fantastic French pastry and great coffee can be had to both start and end the day. It can be served to you by a young waiter named Jesus, who will refer to you as the Caballero, and to your wife as Senorita.

White tarps cover a labyrinthine indigenous craft market, where you can spend a lot of time and only a little money for something handmade, colourful, and fantastic.
Tin covers an absolutely insane local market for everything else. Chickens are sold that are pre-KFC in size and colour. Beautifully displayed bins of dried beans are displayed by self-satisfied men in goat vests. It so narrow and low that you crouch and twist your way simultaneously past the hundreds of little shops, constantly and automatically avoiding, gawking, and shopping.
You buy tamales for supper from an indigenous woman who pushes a cart up the street. The dough is hot and fluffy, with a piece of chicken hidden inside. This is your supper and it costs fifteen pesos for the two of you. About a dollar five in Canadian money.
Fresh sliced mango is ten pesos for a twelve ounce cup. I had mine with Chili and lime and it was delicious.
It feels like Europe.
Zapatista rebels have obvious support here to this day. Stores sell Zapatista art, stickers and tee shirts. In the craft market, hand stitched Zapatista dolls, women and children, hold hand stitched rifles. Zapatista cafes host political talks.
Persistent kindergarten aged girls play cute and sorrowful as they try to sell you something, anything. They will grow up and eventually donn black goatskin skirts .