Crisp-eating and Alternative Culture in San Cristobal de las Casas
I feel fairly confident in asserting that, if ever crisp-eating became a competitive event at the Olympics, then the Mexicans would walk it, trouncing even the British. It was extreme in Mexico City but here in the southernmost state of Chiapas, things are out of control.
A good 70% of the shelf space in the grocery store around the corner from my little place in San Cristobal de las Casas is devoted to crisps. Giant bags, small bags, all the spicy flavours Mexicans love and ranging from mass-processed Doritos to locally made mini tostadas de mais. The remaining space goes to fizzy drinks, beer and a few cans of frijoles.
But, actually, I do love San Cris. A sprawling large town, of nearly exclusively single or double-storied buildings, perched 2000 metres up in the mountains to the east of Tuxtla Gutierrez, you get here via a steep road that is currently being rebuilt. At a population of nearly 200,000, it's big enough to be exciting, but small enough to feel very chilled, particularly after a couple of months in CDMX.
There is a palpable energy noticeable on entering the old, central part of the town, similar to that felt on entering the medina in Marrakesh or Fez. And it seems that this has resulted in it becoming a mecca for alternative, spiritual tourism. Yoga centres, Buddhist centres and independent meditation centres are to be found. Psytrance devotees mix it up with spiritual seekers and the more hippie-ish digital nomads. Mayan women vend their wares around the streets, offering homemade ponchos and similar indigenous clothing.
Mexico's policy of allowing unvaccinated tourists in has only increased the flow of alternative types to this haven in the mountains. The streets are filled with those who seem to feel that San Cris is a place where you can stop the world if you want to get off.
Although I do despair at the lack of alternatives to hippiedom in the counter-culture of Western Europe (a situation very different in newer cultures like the US), I do like it here. I like the cobbled streets. I like the absurdly high pavements that you have to jump off, and which indicate that every now and again a serious amount of rain must fall in a very short time. I like that I can simply sit for 30 minutes and feel myself entering an altered state. I like the look of perpetual mild amusement in the eyes of the locals, on observing the legions of Westerners who arrive.
I'm planning to stay til mid March, when I have to come back to the UK. But I may come back later in the Spring. Maybe I'll set up my own little centre here for Bioenergetics and Reichian work, an idea that's been ticking over in my head and that feels like the next step for me.
Devaraj, February 2022