April 11 - Comitán

We leave San Cristóbal for Comitán via an ADO bus in the late morning.

(You can check the bus schedules on the ADO bus website: http://www.ado.com.mx/ado/index.jsp.
But there is a Ticket Bus office on the pedestrian section of Calle Real de Gaudalupe - about a block or so east of the zócalo - where you can purchase tickets without the hassle of treking to the bus station.  They seemed to be open early in the morning until late at night.)

Thankfully, the road south to Comitán is mostly flat and straight.  (Trust me, I checked the route on the map before we left.  I wanted to keep my breakfast.)  The trip takes about 1 hour and 45 minutes. 

When we arrive, we take a taxi (25 pesos) to the zócalo.  Most of the hotels in the city’s center are located only a few blocks from the zócalo. 

Santo Domingo Church in Comitan

As soon as we disembark from the taxi, we are approached by one the tourist police.  He asks if we need help and takes us to the nearby tourist office.  We get some maps.  None of these maps are as helpful as the one in the Moon Handbook.  They are small and difficult to read. 

Hotel Los Faroles room - note tilting fan

We try to find a room at several hotels: Posada El Castellano, no rooms available; Hotel Delfin, one small, dark room, no others; a motel/hotel across the street from the Delfin – large, charmless rooms all located above a parking area.  It is still vacation time for Mexicans and there are very few hotels in this town.  Hacienda de los Ángeles did not have a room for that night but they had a handicapped accessible room available for the next night.  We find a room in Hotel Los Faroles for 400 pesos a night.  And it is the only room available.  Its main appeal was that it is fairly large. (The picture makes the room look better than it is.)  Peeling paint adorns the walls in the bedroom; mold is ensconced on the bathroom walls; one lonely standing, portable fan lazily leans against a bedroom wall - its head droops inconsolably, held in place with patches of black electrical tape.  We realize this is the best of our limited choices.  We take it.  We then rush back to book a room for the following night at Hacienda de los Ángeles (http://hotelhaciendadelosangeles.com/)– the best hotel in town – for 805 pesos, including a buffet breakfast.

Sculpture in the zocalo of Comitan

We sit down for lunch at a restaurant along the zócalo.  The restaurant serves one of the region’s uniqiue, non-alcoholic drinks – tascalate:  a corn-based drink mixed with chocolate, pine nuts, achiote, vanilla, sugar and water. A strange combination: not sweet but also not good.  This will be our own and only tascalate for the trip.

Our “to do” list for the day includes dropping off our laundry at Takana Lavanderia (located on Calle Central Pte – a couple blocks from the zocalo) and only open from 9 to 2 and then from 5 to 8.  Most of the shops in town follow these hours.  In mid-afternoon, the town feels abandoned.  But at 5:00 pm, life returns:  shops open and sidewalks fill.  This feels like a more typical Mexican town than San Cristóbal; it is also much smaller.  Comitán's has a population of about 120,000; San Cristóbal has about 250,000 inhabitants.

We seek out a travel agency on Pasaje Morales (a small walking street off the zocalo) to book day trips to nearby Lagos de Montebello and El Chiflón.  They want 1500 pesos for a 2-hour tour around the lakes. Instead, we decide to try to get there by combi – as outlined in several of the guidebooks.

There is just enough time in the afternoon to check out the Museo de Arte – the town’s modern art museum.  For 10 pesos apiece, we check out the two-story gallery space filled with mainly surrealist-style paintings.  Fifteen minutes later and we are done with this museum.  Just in time.  It begins to rain.

In the early evening, we head back the zócalo.  There is a free concert by a local marimba band.    At the beginning of the concert, the audience members are seated in the rows of folding chairs set up in front of the concert stage.  They are politely listening.  There is only one couple dancing.

Marimba Band

We linger for an hour or so and then decide to ride one of the tourist trolleys that loop around the town, showing off the highlights.  Normally, we would shun such a ride.  But the town is surprisingly hilly (more arduous to walk around the town), it only cost 50 pesos a person and there is little else to do.  The concert looks like it will last for hours. 

We climb aboard the trolley.  The narration is taped with some live descriptions supplemented by the driver/tour guide.  We are the only gringos on the trolley.  The driver, upon his signal, asks everyone to shout “Oh, fantastico”.  We yell this phrase at least a dozen times during the tour.  The passengers are jovial; totally into the corniness of the driver’s script.  The 45-minute ride is an overly enthusiastic tour of the town’s modest offerings.   

Santo Domingo at night

  

By the end of the evening, the scene has changed. Groups of women have formed large, informal circles of dancers – like at a wedding - on each side of the stage.  Each woman takes a solo turn, leaves the circle and briefly dances in the center.   More couples join the initial pair of dancers.   The atmosphere is joyous, not raucous.  Disappointment reigns when the band reluctantly has to play its last number.  The concert is over by 11:00 pm.