Andador Guadalupano (Ocosingo)

Ocosingo is a town of about 47,700 people (2020 census), many of them Tseltal Maya, set at 893 metres in a valley between the Chiapas highlands and the Lacandon Jungle. It is the seat of the largest municipality in the state. In July 2023 Mexico's federal Tourism Secretariat (SECTUR) gave the Barrio Mágico designation to the Ocosingo district, the first in Chiapas; it centres on the Andador Guadalupano, the pedestrian street downtown, and the area around the main square.

The name comes from Tseltal and is usually translated as "place of the ocote", after the resinous pines of the valley. It was already a sizeable Tseltal settlement before the Spanish arrived, and in the mid-16th century the friar Pedro Lorenzo resettled villages from the jungle here. The church of San Jacinto de Polonia, built in 1569 as the seat of a Dominican convent, faces the central park next to the Porfirian-style town hall, and a public water basin from 1890 survives nearby. In 1994 the Zapatista army occupied the town, and unlike most of the places it took, Ocosingo saw several days of heavy fighting when the federal army arrived.

The Andador Guadalupano runs under arched trellises of climbing plants, lined with painted facades, murals, small restaurants serving regional food and craft shops; it is a quiet stroll by day and lit up at night. About 500 metres east of the park, the Belisario Domínguez market fills several blocks, and the Mercado Nuevo de la Selva stands on the southern edge of town. The local product is queso de bola, made here since 1927, when it started on the Laltic ranch: a double-cream centre inside a rind of skimmed-milk cheese that keeps without refrigeration. It is crumbled over beans, stuffed with spiced pork, or its rind is fried into cheese crackling. The main festival is the fair of San Jacinto de Polonia in August.

Ocosingo is also the base for the Toniná archaeological site, about 10 km east, whose stepped acropolis rises some 75 metres; it was closed from September 2023 and reopened on 21 March 2026. The dry season runs from November to April, and from May to October it rains often, mostly in the afternoon. Cash machines are few, so bring cash.