# San Cristóbal questions, and thanks for past advice



## shomer (Jul 7, 2014)

I've been away from San Cristóbal de las Casas since late 2013, but I'm finally headed back for a 3-month stay beginning early in September. I'd enjoy meeting up with some of the local expats while I'm there. 

I have a couple of questions for the locals:

1) What's the taxi fare in the central zone these days? 

2) Can someone recommend a periodontist? I'm hoping to get in a bit of medical tourism on this trip. 

Several folks on the forum wrote helpful suggestions when I posted a few months ago about relocating to Mexico with a reluctant spouse. Thanks for those comments. We ended up, kind of on impulse, buying a house in Asheville NC instead. Funny how these things work out!


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

30 pesos

There was a good periodondist on 20th of November, do not know if she is still there. On the left giong towards the market a little past Santo Domingo.
My husband went there about 8 years ago and I do not remember her name. If you ask around people should know. 
I am not there right now but other who live in San Cristobal may be able to give you a name as well.

I have heard some expats meet for coffee in some place on the plaza but I have never looked so I cannot answer your questions about expats in SC, I am too busy when down there to hang out on the plaza.
Good luck.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

By the way I do not find thatgood m docotrs or dentists are cheapaer in Chiapas, actually we pay more down there than we pay in the Chapala area and that includs lab work and there are way more doctors and dentists up here than down there. My husband had to have a back surgery a couple of weeks ago and believe meweI would not have had it down there for anything, we had surgery down there once and that was enough.


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## JenCoop (Aug 18, 2015)

Hi, I arrived in San Cristobal a week ago but learning fast. I have a vehicle - drove from the U.S.- but take taxis when navigating downtown. Fare is about 30 pesos - 20 to 35 - depending on distance and traffic situation. I'm currently looking for housing by the month. It would work for me to meet up when you get here and share ideas, resources.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Fare does not depend on distance it is all 30 pesos when in town pas the pereferico it is higher and after 10pm it is higher,
The best way to circulate is to walk .
Check the House of Blues pn Dr Navaro. 
There are rentals on Dr Navaro right next toBela B& B from General Utrilla it is one the lft on Dr Navarro about 3 doors down.
Also rentals on Diego Dugeley , it is a Frida blue house there are apartments there 4 of them. On the left going away from Real de Guadalupe towards the Cerrillo.
Margarita the owner of the cheese store has unfurnished places ask there.
There are place accross from the art gallery on Dr. Navarro in la Cola del Diablo on the right going up right in the curve.
and many more..walk the town and you will see the signs. Check the for rent at the supermarket on Real de Guadalupe.
There was a small house in San Nicolas and a cabin on the hill behind the cocacola Plant.
Those are rentals ..do not know if they are free.
There is a 3 or 4 bedroom house on Calle Tonala i is called casa Berta check the rent by owner sites on the internet.
Walk and ask around that is how places are found.
T


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## JenCoop (Aug 18, 2015)

Thanks for the good information. Since I have a vehicle I was hoping to get a place on the outskirts of town so I don't have a nuisance parking it everyday. Plus, I don't need to be in town everyday and figure I'll pay less for the same quality a bit further out. You've given me some good ideas and I appreciate it.


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## shomer (Jul 7, 2014)

JenCoop said:


> Hi, I arrived in San Cristobal a week ago but learning fast. I have a vehicle - drove from the U.S.- but take taxis when navigating downtown. Fare is about 30 pesos - 20 to 35 - depending on distance and traffic situation. I'm currently looking for housing by the month. It would work for me to meet up when you get here and share ideas, resources.


Hi Jen - 

Thanks for the reply. Once I have a local SIM card and a new phone number, I'll message you and perhaps we can meet up. I'm staying in Barrio de Mexicanos.


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## shomer (Jul 7, 2014)

citlali said:


> By the way I do not find thatgood m docotrs or dentists are cheapaer in Chiapas, actually we pay more down there than we pay in the Chapala area and that includs lab work and there are way more doctors and dentists up here than down there. My husband had to have a back surgery a couple of weeks ago and believe meweI would not have had it down there for anything, we had surgery down there once and that was enough.


I'm pretty sure that dentists will be cheaper in San Cris than in California, but it's good to know that you've found good care around Lake Chapala. Back surgery sounds scary anywhere! Perhaps I can persuade my wife to vacation at Lake Chapala with me next year? Good medical care would be one of her top priorities if we ever do move to Mexico. 

Thanks too for the taxi fare information.


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## JenCoop (Aug 18, 2015)

Shomer, that sounds good.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

shomer said:


> I'm pretty sure that dentists will be cheaper in San Cris than in California, but it's good to know that you've found good care around Lake Chapala. Back surgery sounds scary anywhere! Perhaps I can persuade my wife to vacation at Lake Chapala with me next year? Good medical care would be one of her top priorities if we ever do move to Mexico.
> 
> Thanks too for the taxi fare information.


We reside in San Cristóbal de Las Casas for about 1/2 of each year and and Lake Chapala for 1/2 of each year (usually summers at Lake Chapala and winters in San Cristóbal) and have experienced the need for major medical and dental care on several occasions in both places since 2001 when we retired to Mexico from San Francisco.

From direct personal experience, I can assure the reader that both medical care requiring hospitalization including the undertaking of complex surgical procedures and advanced dental care available in Metro Guadalajara and environs (including the exurban municipality of Chapala) are far superior to similar services available in San Cristóbal or the nearby Chiapas state capital of Tuxtla Gutiérrez. My personal medical experience over the past 14 years in Mexico includes life-threatening gall bladder removal surgery at a hospital in San Cristóbal and four surgeries/major medical procedures at Guadalajara hospitals including complex back surgery, cardiac intervention for a heart arrhythmia, a hernia operation and intervention for kidney malfunctions) all successfully administered in both San Cristóbal and Guadalajara. I have also had ongoing dental care, some quite advanced, in both Chapala and San Cristóbal.

There is no comparison between the quality of health and dental care I have received in the Guadalajara/Lake Chapala área and that I have received in San Cristóbal and Tuxtla Gutiérrez and the cost of that care in both places has been similar with no discernable difference in the financial burden imposed on me or my health insurance company in either región. Because of my own personal experience, I will, if currently resident in Chiapas at the time of serious (rather than routine) medical need, return, if feasible, to the Guadalajara/Lake Chapala área for either major medical care or ongoing dental care before I subject myself to care in a marginal (and in my case, filthy and mismanaged) hospital in San Cristóbal; a hospital that, at the time of my gall bladder surgery (2008) was the primary hospital in that city. 

As an aside, my health insurance company (AXA, a major international insurance provider), designates a number of hospitals in the Guadalajara área as good to outstanding but refuses to rate as superior quality under their criteria, any hospital in either San Cristóbal or Tuxtla. 

For those of you considering a permanent move to Mexico in retirement, keep in mind that as you age your need for quality medical and dental care will increase concomitantly and make accessability to good medical and dental care a major criterion in deciding where to put down roots in God´s Waiting Room. 

By the way, we lived in San Francisco, California for many years before retiring to Mexico and I´ll take Guadalajara´hospitals over San Francisco hospitals any day. I have also been highly pleased with the quality of the teams of Guadalajara área physicians I have employed in my various crises over the years while down here in Mexico. California is yesterday.


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## coondawg (May 1, 2014)

Hound Dog said:


> [.


Welcome back, Dawg !


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

coondawg said:


> Welcome back, Dawg !


Yes, we're really glad to have you back on the forum, HD!


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Hound Dog said:


> …


Yes. Welcome back. I have been bored every day during the hour that I used to spend reading your posts. Now my schedule is back to normal. :cheer2:


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

I will have to allot another block of time for this site now. My nap time will have to be shortened.


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## shomer (Jul 7, 2014)

JenCoop said:


> Shomer, that sounds good.


Well, Jen, I've arrived in San Cris, but looks like you haven't made your minimum 5 posts so I can't private-message you and arrange to meet up. Perhaps if you make a couple of posts about, say, the weather, that will unlock the chat feature? 

¡Hasta pronto!


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## antonieta (Feb 14, 2015)

I've had fantastic dental care, including a couple of crowns, at Salud Oral in SanCris over the last 10 years. It's at Cuahtemoc 13 right in the centro. My landlord, a SanCris native, 10 years ago recommended them to me. Look at their website; it's a father and his son(s) who are all well-trained and very friendly, caring dentists and they also do peridontal work. I saw Dr. Pepe Jr. who was trained in Zurich & Barcelona and is very sweet, professional and prices are super reasonable compared to anything in the US. The office is more high tech and well-designed than anything I've seen in the US also. They always did everything they could to help me, work within my schedule, and I can't recommend them highly enough.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

great I will have to try them... By the way Antonieta are you a friend of Sherry? I heard your name if you are posting under your real name but I cannot remember if it was Sherry or someone else.


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## antonieta (Feb 14, 2015)

No, I don't think I know Sherry  I am not in SanCris now but have spent years there since the late 70s and love the city, though I agree with a comment or 2 you have made about how it's oversaturated with accomodations and other now. I saw Dr. Pepe, the guy in the video on their website, and I loved him; other friends of mine from Italy and the US also had good reports. However a couple of other longterm expats found SaludOral's prices too high for SanCris and went elsewhere; they later had problems with their implants though this may just be a fluke. I mean to say that SaludOral's prices may not be the lowest in town but for me the quality is worth it. And Dr. Pepe does lots of volunteer work in the comunidades and supported me when I was doing the same. They have their own ceramics lab for making crowns and other replacement bits. I hope your experience is as good as mine!


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Good to know you like the Oral lab..expats in San Cristobal are always complaining about prices..My husband went to a woman Dr. on 20th of Noviembre who was recommended to us by one of the Italian restaurateur that had a motobike accident and had to have many implants she was good but I do not remember her name. She was good but about the same price as the dentist we have here so not cheap for Chiapas.
We got a good orthopidist this time in San Cristobal but I think the hospitals there are pretty bad. The Colonial is dirty and the nurses not attentive to what she should be attentive too. The Hospital of the Nuns on Diego Dugeley is spotless the nurses good but they do not have a good operation facility . I have heard that the best is the Chamula hospital you may know if that is true..
A woman from Las Hormigas last week shot her ankle by accident and was taken to the hospital del Campo where she was told they could not operate on her for 2 months.. Las Culturas is overcrowded as well ..since you have been there since the 70´s you must know which hospital do you go to when you get really sick and need surgery? 
We have only been there on and off for 10 years had surgery at the colonial and we are not anxious to repeat that experience so when my husband fractured his shoulder last week we flew back to Guadalajara where there are plenty of good hospitals and doctors.


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## antonieta (Feb 14, 2015)

I've never been to a medical doctor in Chiapas, or anywhere in Mexico (am searching my memory) but am not at all surprised at what you say. I've heard of local people going to Tuxtla to see specialists and complaining of the cost and time required. I'm sure the GDL/Chapala area has good care and would have done exactly as you did with a similar situation. As I get older, I am less comfortable with the conditions in much of Chiapas, especially the lack of hot water. I have never owned a house there and rentals I found had so-so water heaters; the homes of my poorer friends had no water heater at all which was a sad discovery. Best of luck for your husband's quick and painless recovery!!! A good thing about Mexico is the relative ease and low cost of pharmacies. I've been healthy enough to not need any surgery, and still have a foot in the US health care system so have used that for the few occasions I needed it. Now that Obamacare exists I may re-kindle this link, as I am not a fulltime resident in Mexico. I've visited for long stretches of time but never taken citizenship.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

yes I agree with you about the conditions there, we own the house so it is comfortable but people there have no heat in the houses and many have no hot water and sometimes even in San Cristobal there is no water. Last year we were without water for 1 month and the pipa would come, if you were not in the house, tough luck no water and my neighbors told me not to put pipa water in the house as it would contaminate everything... We live on a hill so the water delivery sometimes fails..
We went to a specialist in Tuxtla a few years ago and that was dismal too..a man from somewhere byong Carranza had just arrived he was in horrible pain and I thought he was going to die anytime and everyone ignored him. We had an appointment but that was not respected either , the crowd was out the door the poor man was lying on the floor it was pitiful so we walked out. This was a regular specialist not one for the poor. That was about 10 years ago..now I got smart and ask the wealthy from Tuxtla where they go so no problem with the lines. I also found out that the better off people go to Mexico City when they get really sick...There are some good doctors and specialists but you have to hunt them down and they can be crowded if they are not expensive. I mean crowded out the door as whole families show up..
Yes San Cristobal is not a great place if you get really sick...


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## antonieta (Feb 14, 2015)

Sorry that I am hijacking the original posters' thread here  I really love SanCris and encourage anyone to visit and live in this city. However one thing that was difficult for me was the Chiapan flea. Not all humans are sensitive to them, but unfortunately I am, and whoa, the misery their bites can cause. As many still live with animals in their houses, or care for animals in Chiapas, the fleas flourish, and the Mexican government does not impose standards of agricultural animal bathing as the US and Europe do. Chiapan fleas are large and the bites can also be sizeable. Street dogs and wool clothing worn by many Chiapans add to the mystery. Most natives do not react to the bites so will not know what you're talking about; vacuuming to destroy fleas and their eggs is nearly inexistant in most of Mexico. Again, I love Chiapas and do not mean to paint a negative picture of this area but this is a fact of life that caused me to restrict my time in this lovely area.


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## shomer (Jul 7, 2014)

antonieta said:


> Sorry that I am hijacking the original posters' thread here


Adding helpful and relevant information is hardly a hijacking! I have another month here in San Cristóbal and I have been procrastinating finding a periodontist, so my teeth and I thank you.


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## antonieta (Feb 14, 2015)

Shomer, enjoy your time in this wonderful city!! And good luck with the periodontist, I hope you find someone good. Hasta luego.


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## shomer (Jul 7, 2014)

antonieta said:


> I've had fantastic dental care, including a couple of crowns, at Salud Oral in SanCris over the last 10 years. It's at Cuahtemoc 13 right in the centro. My landlord, a SanCris native, 10 years ago recommended them to me. Look at their website; it's a father and his son(s) who are all well-trained and very friendly, caring dentists and they also do peridontal work. I saw Dr. Pepe Jr. who was trained in Zurich & Barcelona and is very sweet, professional and prices are super reasonable compared to anything in the US. The office is more high tech and well-designed than anything I've seen in the US also. They always did everything they could to help me, work within my schedule, and I can't recommend them highly enough.


I dropped by Salud Oral yesterday, and the woman I spoke to said they no longer have a periodontist on staff. They wanted to charge MEX$1000 for a cleaning, which seemed rather expensive. I'll keep looking....


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

shomer said:


> They wanted to charge MEX$1000 for a cleaning, which seemed rather expensive. I'll keep looking....


That's double what I pay in Mexico City for a check-up and cleaning!


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

As I said before it is cheaper in Guadalajara. For equal quality, you pay more in San Cristobal than in Guadalajara..


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