San Cristobal de las Casas

San Cristobal de las Casas is reportedly one of Mexico's most beautiful cities.  It is very much a Spanish colonial city, with amazing cathedrals dating from the 1600's.  Now it is a popular tourist stop for people visiting the many, nearby Mayan ruins, such as Palenque.  The central part of the city is a delightful collection of colonial architecture, with thousands of streetside cafes, restaurants in beautiful courtyards, and eclectic shops that stretch the imagination.  Obviously, tourism is responsible for driving this economy, but the creative spark seems to come from the large numbers of European expats who have settled there and compete with each other daily for tourist dollars.  Never have I seen such smorgasboard of clean, attractive boutique hotels, some for $10 per night.  The sidewalk cafes are inviting and the menu prices show excellent bargains.  But one thing stuck out like a sore thumb.  It seems that the attractive female entreprenuers who created such a delightful atmosphere forgot to leave their deadbeat boyfriends at home.  In the midst of such beauty, it is jarring to see the dregs of modern society walking along barefoot, with filthy clothes, unkempt hair and beard, and worst of all that smug "I am better than you" demeanor of the professional misfit.  The kind who delights in conspicuously wasting all of his parents' and society's best intentions in an appalling display of degeneration.  Is such a creature really what Western civilization calls men these days?  If so, then let us turn back the clock to where we could burn such creatures at the stake, because they surely have the devil in them.  Overall, San Cristobal is a great place to be tourist.