Highland Chiapas — Tzotzil markets, amber, and colonial cobblestones
San Cristóbal de las Casas sits at 2,200 metres in the highlands of Chiapas, where colonial Spanish architecture blends with the living traditions of the Tzotzil and Tzeltal Maya — women in hand-woven huipiles sell textiles and amber in the mercado, and the surrounding villages each maintain distinct ceremonial dress that hasn't changed in centuries. The food is among Mexico's most distinctive: black bean tamales, cochito (slow-roasted pork), Chiapas coffee, and pox (a traditional sugarcane spirit) served in the coloured courtyard restaurants off Real de Guadalupe. The nearby Sumidero Canyon…
Founded by the Spanish in 1528 and named for the Dominican bishop Bartolomé de las Casas, who famously defended the rights of indigenous people against colonial enslavement, the city has remained a centre of indigenous resistance ever since. On 1 January 1994 — the day NAFTA came into force — the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) seized San Cristóbal and five other Chiapas towns in an armed uprising that drew worldwide attention to the rights of Mexico's indigenous poor; the Zapatistas still control autonomous communities in the surrounding highlands today.