San Cristobal
Door: Nils Roturier
26 Oktober 2015 | Mexico, Tuxtla Gutiérrez
Hey followers!
Back again! The last few weeks have been going pretty fast and I have been doing a lot of things, time is flying by. There are still a lot of months to go, but I think that this year will pass by in a wink.
Recently I think I had one of my most incredible experiences this year: I went to a little city, which is called San Cristobal de Las Casas and it was incredible, let me tell you why.
First of all, let me tell you something about San Cristobal de Las Casas, or just San Cristobal.
San Cristobal is a city, 1 hour by car away from Tuxtla, surrounded by mountains and located at an altitude of approximately 2200m. One great consequences of this is that the climate is very different from the heat in Tuxtla. In San Cristobal, the temperature in the summer varies in between 15 and 25 degrees, and in the summer it can go all the way down to 0 degrees! (in comparison to 30-35 in Tuxtla all year long). And this knowing that it is just an hour away from where I live!
San Cristobal is a city, which was founded by the Spanish in the 16th century, when they invaded Latin America. The fact is that the Spanish firstly were living in the pre-Hispanic town where Tuxtla is located now, but they could not stand the heat. Because of this they founded a new city up in the mountains, where the weather is colder, and named it San Cristobal de Las Casas. Due to this century-long Spanish occupation of San Cristobal, the city has amazing architecture and over 40 catholic churches!
I went to San Cristobal with some friends and we really had an amazing time. I really enjoyed the typical Hispanic/Mexican look, because unfortunately Tuxtla is just a big modern city, without any cultural leftovers.
I included some picture, I hope you like them.
Moreover, the last couple of days, the weather here has been crazy. Normally, when it rains in these tropical regions, it rains only in the afternoon, shortly, but incredibly hard. Though, this week it has rained for 72 hours continuously but very slowly. The problem is that the city is not made to evacuate water efficiently, because normally it just rains for half an hour. Because of this, this rain of the last three days has caused some very serious inundations in the lower part of the city (in between the mountains, luckily we live up the mountain so that the water flows away). And sometimes it was just a disaster: water in the streets up to half a meter, flowing like little rivers.
The only good part of this weather was that the temperature dropped to a nice 20 degrees, which actually I experienced as pretty cold haha. I think I am already used to the heat of the south.
This week we also ate what is probably the most Mexican dish of all: Pozole. And the funny fact is that the most Mexican dish non-Mexicans think of are tacos, nachos, burritos and guacamole. Now don’t get me wrong, Mexicans adore tacos and guacamole (nachos and burritos are really more inventions of the USA, or gringos as they say here), but there are more than a 100 dishes which are considered as more typical by Mexicans. These include mole poblano, pozole, pozol (a cacao based drink), tamal, chile relleno, barbacoa (which isn’t barbeque), gorditas, chicharrón, chilaquiles and maaaaaany more.
But pozole really is one of my favorites. It is a kind of soup, made only of hot chiles (surprisingly it is not very spicy) with a kind of puffed mais and chicken of porc meat. To this you add your avocado, chopped radish, chopped onions, lemon juice and a little bit of chile habanero, and it tastes wonderful.
I think I’ll leave you guys here. In a week it will be the 31th of October which is Halloween, but much more known here as El dia de los muertos, on which they celebrate the dead. It is an enormous fiesta here in Mexico and it goes along with great traditions and celebrations. I will obviously share this event with you in my next blog.
Further on, in two weeks I will be going to Veracruz, a nice city 6 hours away from here on the east coast of Mexico. They tell me it is a very pretty city and I am very excited to go there!
See you next time!
Nils
Back again! The last few weeks have been going pretty fast and I have been doing a lot of things, time is flying by. There are still a lot of months to go, but I think that this year will pass by in a wink.
Recently I think I had one of my most incredible experiences this year: I went to a little city, which is called San Cristobal de Las Casas and it was incredible, let me tell you why.
First of all, let me tell you something about San Cristobal de Las Casas, or just San Cristobal.
San Cristobal is a city, 1 hour by car away from Tuxtla, surrounded by mountains and located at an altitude of approximately 2200m. One great consequences of this is that the climate is very different from the heat in Tuxtla. In San Cristobal, the temperature in the summer varies in between 15 and 25 degrees, and in the summer it can go all the way down to 0 degrees! (in comparison to 30-35 in Tuxtla all year long). And this knowing that it is just an hour away from where I live!
San Cristobal is a city, which was founded by the Spanish in the 16th century, when they invaded Latin America. The fact is that the Spanish firstly were living in the pre-Hispanic town where Tuxtla is located now, but they could not stand the heat. Because of this they founded a new city up in the mountains, where the weather is colder, and named it San Cristobal de Las Casas. Due to this century-long Spanish occupation of San Cristobal, the city has amazing architecture and over 40 catholic churches!
I went to San Cristobal with some friends and we really had an amazing time. I really enjoyed the typical Hispanic/Mexican look, because unfortunately Tuxtla is just a big modern city, without any cultural leftovers.
I included some picture, I hope you like them.
Moreover, the last couple of days, the weather here has been crazy. Normally, when it rains in these tropical regions, it rains only in the afternoon, shortly, but incredibly hard. Though, this week it has rained for 72 hours continuously but very slowly. The problem is that the city is not made to evacuate water efficiently, because normally it just rains for half an hour. Because of this, this rain of the last three days has caused some very serious inundations in the lower part of the city (in between the mountains, luckily we live up the mountain so that the water flows away). And sometimes it was just a disaster: water in the streets up to half a meter, flowing like little rivers.
The only good part of this weather was that the temperature dropped to a nice 20 degrees, which actually I experienced as pretty cold haha. I think I am already used to the heat of the south.
This week we also ate what is probably the most Mexican dish of all: Pozole. And the funny fact is that the most Mexican dish non-Mexicans think of are tacos, nachos, burritos and guacamole. Now don’t get me wrong, Mexicans adore tacos and guacamole (nachos and burritos are really more inventions of the USA, or gringos as they say here), but there are more than a 100 dishes which are considered as more typical by Mexicans. These include mole poblano, pozole, pozol (a cacao based drink), tamal, chile relleno, barbacoa (which isn’t barbeque), gorditas, chicharrón, chilaquiles and maaaaaany more.
But pozole really is one of my favorites. It is a kind of soup, made only of hot chiles (surprisingly it is not very spicy) with a kind of puffed mais and chicken of porc meat. To this you add your avocado, chopped radish, chopped onions, lemon juice and a little bit of chile habanero, and it tastes wonderful.
I think I’ll leave you guys here. In a week it will be the 31th of October which is Halloween, but much more known here as El dia de los muertos, on which they celebrate the dead. It is an enormous fiesta here in Mexico and it goes along with great traditions and celebrations. I will obviously share this event with you in my next blog.
Further on, in two weeks I will be going to Veracruz, a nice city 6 hours away from here on the east coast of Mexico. They tell me it is a very pretty city and I am very excited to go there!
See you next time!
Nils
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26 Oktober 2015 - 13:13
Papou à Poux Et Papou Pas à Poux:
tu vas bientot pouvoir ecrire un livre, que dis-je un roman.
Ca sent le prix Poulitzer! -
26 Oktober 2015 - 22:27
De Roturiertjes:
Hahaha 20 graden koud? Je gaat het zooooo koud krijgen als je hier weer terug bent :)) Goed blog!! -
27 Oktober 2015 - 14:41
Roos Bruggenweerth:
Hoi Nilsito, Op naar Veracruz ! Je word dus een echte snuiver......cultuursnuiver dat je bent ! Je hebt nog heel wat kerken te bekijken Nils, prachtig lijkt me dat, eens in je leven, geniet ervan ! Zouden ze enige notie hebben van onze ontkerkelijking ? En de opruk van de islam? Je verhaal was weer beeldig geschreven, interessant voor ons thuisblijvers !! Zo kom ik ook nog eens " ergens " , huismus als ik ben! Mijn gevoel omtrent kleinzoon Nilsito is perfect , je slaat er je niet alleen goed doorheen , maar je geniet er ook heel erg van en dat voelt goed , op deze manier vliegt het jaar voorbij. Dank voor je prachtige verhaal , daar kom ik helemaal van bij !!! Liefs van oma en wacht weer op je volgend schrijven, het wordt een mooi boek alles samen!! -
30 Oktober 2015 - 14:26
Opa Hans:
Hoi Nils, mool beschreven ervaringen in perfect Engels!! Vergeet je niet de voornaamste recepten mee terug te nemen van die heerlijke Mexicaanse gerechten als je t.z.t. weer terugkomt zodat ook wij er ook een keer van kunnen genieten? Hoe gaat het intussen met je Spaans, kun je jezelf al een beetje redden? Nou , geniet van je verblijf en tot je volgende blog.gr. Opa
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
