Comitán (officially Comitán de Dominguez) is a city of 142,000 people (2010) in Chiapas in Mexico. Comitán is a popular tourist destination, mostly for Mexican nationals, though some foreign visitors can also be seen. The town has colonial architecture, narrow avenues, and clean streets.
Understand
It is a thriving municipality characterized by its variety of architectural styles ranging from Baroque to Neoclassical and Neo-Gothic. Its main cultural influences are derived from the Conquest, but it also has a rich history and Mayan traditions, such as the remains of Tenam Puente and Junchavín.
Comitán has been designated a Pueblo Magico by the Mexican government, in recognition of its historical and cultural value as a tourist destination.
Climate
The climate is cool most of the year, and can get quite chilly from October to March. Afternoons are very warm with fairly high humidity almost throughout the year, whilst mornings are cool in the dry season and mild during the rainy season. The dry season gradually warms up between March and May, before the rainy season begins during May and continues with higher humidity until October, following which the coolest and most pleasant weather of the year prevails.
Get in
- Colectivo from San Cristóbal de las Casas (2 hours) or Tuxtla Gutierrez (3 hours).
- From Tapachula, first class buses (M$270) go from the OCC terminal in Tapachula to Comitán. You can also take a urban (45 min, M$19) from the terminal de combis to Huixtla. Upon arrival to Huixtla, there are two small terminals on the right. There you can catch a colectivo or urban to Motozintla (90 min, M$40.) From there take another colectivo or go first class with Cristobal Colón (from the OCC terminal) or La Angostura (4 hr, M$130, leaving from the street corner two blocks west from the OCC terminal; tickets can be bought half a block north from there)
Get around
See
Comitán is a pleasant somewhat colonial style city that can be a nice alternative to San Cristóbal de las Casas. It has a large section of the city in colonial style, several nice plazas with beautiful churches.
- Archaeological Museum of Comitán (Museo Arqueológico de Comitán), 1st. Calle Sur Oriente s / n Barrio Centro. Tu-Sa 09:00-18:00. It houses a collection on pre-Hispanic culture in Los Altos de Chiapas, the heyday of Mayan culture, city-state trade routes, hunter-gatherer groups, archaeological heyday areas. It also has temporary exhibitions.
It is a good launching point for a number of sites in Chiapas:
- Lagunas de Montebello
- El Chiflón which is a series of waterfalls (this costs a few pesos to enter)
- Tenam Puente, an archeological Mayan place
Do
The most important of the municipality are:
- San Sebastián (January 20)
- the Virgen de la Candelaria (February 2)
- San Caralampio (February 11 to 20) — it generates great fervor and devotion among the inhabitants; legend has it that thanks to his intervention, the martyr Caralampio saved the town of Comitán de Domínguez from the ravages of a smallpox and cholera epidemic that occurred in the mid-19th century.
- Santo Domingo and the Expoferia (August 4)
- the Virgen del Rosario (October 7)
- the celebration of San José (March 19)
- San Judas Tadeo (October 28)
- Virgin of Guadalupe (December 12) — a great pilgrimage is celebrated year after year in the Guadalupe neighborhood that is the largest in Central America because many pilgrims travel from many cities in the state, the country and the main cities of Central America. It is accompanied by a fair and celebrations.
Buy
Eat
The typical dishes of the municipality are: pieshete sandwiches, chicharrón and pellizcadas (seat toast), chilevinagre, picles, roasted bone, butifarras (a kind of boiled regional chorizo), without leaving aside the chorizo and longaniza (different from others localities), compound bread, tzisim, rotten pot, chalupas, chanfaina, cooked, tongue in pebre, chinculuaj (tortilla made with refried bean filling and chile de arbol), patzitos de manjar (sweet tamales filled with pudding based on starch corn and cinnamon), pitaúl, banana leaf tamales, patzitos de momón (tamales made from holy leaf, known in Chiapas as momón plant), patzitos de chipilín (chipilín is a plant), ball tamale, pork ribs in green sauce, cooked baked.
Some of the typical sweets that can be found in different parts of the municipality are: the chimbo, the Africans, the peanut sweet, the coyol sweet, the mueganos, the marshmallow, the breaker, the trompadas, the salvadillo with temperante (it is prepared condensing boiled sugar with cinnamon, cloves and red vegetable color).
Breads: Marquesote, Salvadillo.
Budget
All these are in the city center:
Mid-range
Splurge
- 🌍 Pizzeria "Due Torri", Central Nte. No. 30.
Drink
The comiteco (a brandy that used to be made from agave), mistela (a fruit liqueur), jocoatol, atole de granillo, temperante, pozol de peanut.
Sleep
- Posada Las Flores, 1a av pte nte 17 (One block west then north of parque central), ☏ +52 963 632 33 34. Check-out: noon. A quiet hotel a few minutes from the central park. Rooms surround a courtyard. Hot water and clean rooms named after flowers. Singles, double and triples available with or without private bathrooms at varying prices. Single M$100, double M$130 (w/o bath).
Connect
Go next
OCC and several private mini-bus operations service surrounding locales, including the Mexican-Guatemalan border and San Cristóbal de las Casas. Their terminals are located on Boulevard Belisario Dominguez Sur. To get to the jungle lake of Laguna Miramar from Comitan it is necessary to take a colectivo to the small town of Las Margaritas from where there is a second colectivo to San Quintin (6 hours). It is a 1-km walk from San Quintin to the village of Emiliano Zapata from where you can hire a guide to take you through the Lacondon jungle to Laguna Miramar.
Cascada El Chiflón - a series of beautiful, radiant blue waterfalls about 40 minutes away from Comitán. It is possible to hike almost to the very top, and the views are quite spectacular, but be aware that it will likely be a lot hotter than in Comitán due to the lower elevation. It is also possible to swim in a few of the pool areas in the lower/middle sections, but not under any of the actual waterfalls. Colectivos (40 pesos per person, updated April 2023) leave fairly regularly from Transporte La Angostura bus station on the main highway through the city. Entrance to the waterfalls is 80 pesos (updated April 2023), and food/drinks can be purchased at several locations on the path up the waterfall.
Lagunas de Montebello - lovely blue lakes located inside a national park. Entrance to the park costs 30 pesos. Many people take a tour from San Cristobal, but collectivos (70-80 pesos) depart somewhat regularly from Transporte Montebello in Comitán, a few blocks from Parque Central Bonito Juarez. The collectivos go straight down the highway through the park, so you can get off near any of the lakes. You can swim in the lakes (updated April 2023)