I think that the image above shows several aspects of the beautiful, colonial city of San Cristobal de las Casas in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, one of the country’s poorest.  The prevalence of the Mayan people and their culture is evident throughout the city.  Here, a Mayan lady looks in her purse for the coins to pay for her ice cream while in the background, an indigent señora sits with her gifted ice cream next to a postcard stand.  Visitors from all over the world flock to San Cristobal to wander the beautiful colonial streets (a glimpse in the background), buy art, crafts and clothes, drink locally grown coffee and visit the many surrounding mountain villages.  Street dogs (link to Ode to the Latin American Street Dog) roam freely or in this case, lie oblivious to the surrounding world.

I took the photos during a brief visit in December 2014.