Getting Here

Casa Umar is in San Cristóbal de las Casas, a small colonial town in the highlands of Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico. The town sits at about 2,200 metres, so the air is thin and the nights are cold, whatever the month.

The nearest airport is Tuxtla Gutiérrez (TGZ), about 70 km away and roughly an hour and a quarter by road, most of it a climb of 1,600 metres into the hills.

Casa Umar is the project, and its places have names you will hear used every day:

• La Escuela, the school, on the edge of town. This is where you sleep, and where the classrooms and the garden are.
• La Mezquita, the mosque, in the building next door to it.
• La Cocina, the kitchen, in the centre of town.

So you will be living at La Escuela, with La Mezquita a few steps away, and going into the centre for La Cocina. That journey is about 45 minutes on foot, 10 to 15 minutes on the colectivo plus a short walk, or a taxi at 70 to 100 pesos.

We do not publish the street address or a map pin, for the safeguarding of the children at the school. Grecia sends you the exact location on WhatsApp once your stay is confirmed.

• A passport book, valid for your whole stay. Passport cards are not accepted for air travel.
• Visitors from the UK, the US, Canada and most of Europe do not need a visa for a visit. The immigration officer decides how many days you get, up to a maximum of 180. Since 2025 that number is recorded electronically: arrivals by air no longer fill in the paper FMM form. You can check the days you were given on the INM website afterwards, so keep your boarding pass until you are through.
• Rules depend on your passport and they change. Check your own government's travel advice before you fly.

Casa Umar cannot advise on visas or immigration. If your stay is long or you are unsure of your position, ask your own embassy, not us.

Yes. Casa Umar carries no insurance covering volunteers or guests: no medical cover, no travel cover, no personal accident cover. Arrange travel and medical insurance before you leave home and bring the policy details with you. We do not ask to see it, but we do want you to have it.

No, but it helps, and people are patient with anyone who tries. The people you deal with before you arrive work in English. On site some of the team speak English and some do not; day to day in the town is Spanish, and Tsotsil is spoken in the community. Google Translate covers the rest. Learn the numbers and gracias before you land and you will do fine.

Any month works. The dry season, November to April, has the brightest days and the coldest nights. The wet season, May to October, is green, with rain most afternoons. Ramadan and the two Eids change the rhythm of the community and are a special time to be here; check the dates for your year.

Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Ángel Albino Corzo International Airport (TGZ). It is the state capital's airport, down in the hot lowlands an hour and a quarter from us. Do not book to Villahermosa or Oaxaca thinking they are close; each is a long day's bus ride away.

From 28 October 2026 United Airlines flies non-stop between Houston (IAH) and Tuxtla, three times a week: Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The flight leaves Houston at 09:50 and lands at 12:45; the return leaves Tuxtla at 13:35. It is the first direct service between the US and Chiapas since 2013, and it makes Casa Umar a one-stop trip from most of the country.

Before that date, or on other days of the week, connect through Mexico City.

Fly to Mexico City (MEX) and connect to Tuxtla. British Airways and Aeroméxico both fly non-stop from London Heathrow, around eleven and a half hours. Aeroméxico, Volaris and VivaAerobus then fly Mexico City to Tuxtla in about 1 hour 50, several times a day.

Give yourself at least three hours in Mexico City. You clear immigration there, collect your bag, and check in again for the domestic leg, which may leave from a different terminal. If your flight lands late, a night in Mexico City is the relaxed option.

Book the two legs on one ticket where you can. If not, leave a generous gap.

Tuxtla has direct flights from Mexico City, Cancún and several other cities on Aeroméxico, Volaris and VivaAerobus.

By bus, ADO and OCC run comfortable long-distance coaches straight to San Cristóbal's terminal: roughly 13 hours from Mexico City, 11 from Oaxaca, 5 from Palenque, and an overnight of about 18 hours from Cancún or Tulum. Book online with ADO. The overnight services save a hotel night.

Land in daylight if you can. The last stretch is a winding climb into the hills, and it is nicer and easier in the light. Send Grecia your flight number and arrival time on WhatsApp at least a day before. If someone is free we will try to collect you; if not, we will tell you exactly what to take.

Three ways, all from the terminal:

• Private taxi straight to the door at La Escuela, about 1 hour 15. Expect roughly 1,000 pesos.
• Shared van or the OCC bus, 200 to 300 pesos a seat, to the bus terminal in San Cristóbal, then a short taxi to us: about 15 minutes, around 100 pesos.
• Colectivo, the local minibus: the cheapest, and fine in daylight. It goes to the centre of town first; take a taxi from there.

Prices go up, so treat these as a guide and check the current figure with Grecia before you land. The airport has ATMs, so you can get pesos on arrival.

Sometimes. There are few of us and the drivers have school runs, so it depends on the day. Message Grecia with your arrival time as early as you can and she will tell you. If nobody can come, a taxi or the shared van is straightforward, and she will tell you what to say to the driver.

The ADO and OCC terminal is on the main road in the south of town. From there we are a 15-minute taxi ride, around 100 pesos. Message Grecia when you land and she will send the location to give the driver.

San Cristóbal sits at about 2,200 metres. Most people feel nothing worse than a slower first walk uphill and a thirst. Take the first day gently, drink plenty of purified water, and go easy on coffee and heavy food until you have settled. If you have a heart or lung condition, ask your doctor before you travel.

Mexican pesos. Cards are accepted in most restaurants and supermarkets in town; you need cash for colectivos, taxis, the market and small shops.

Personally we recommend a Wise or Revolut card: both work without any problems here and the exchange rate is fair. Tell your bank you are travelling so your card is not blocked, and bring a second card in case one fails.

The easiest way to get pesos is a bank ATM in the centre (BBVA, Banorte, Santander and HSBC all have branches). Most machines cap a withdrawal at about 10,000 pesos; some bank branches allow 20,000, the Banorte near Chedraui for one. Avoid the standalone machines in shops, which charge more.

You may not need a local number at all: most people here run their lives on WhatsApp and Facebook, so your own number with data roaming or an eSIM bought before you fly is usually enough. If you do want a Mexican SIM, we use Sayle, which is easy to top up online, with no trip to a shop or petrol station for a top-up card. Telcel has the widest coverage in Chiapas if you are heading into the hills.

WhatsApp is how everyone here talks: Grecia, the team, taxi drivers, the shops. Make sure it is set up on your number.

There is Wi-Fi in all three of our spaces. It is fine for messages, calls and ordinary work. Do not rely on it for very large uploads, and it goes down when the power does.

Rarely. It is not a common thing here, nothing like a scheduled outage: when it happens it is usually a tree on a line after a storm, and it is usually back within a few hours, rarely a day. A power bank and a torch cover it.

Sockets are the North American type, two flat pins, at 127 volts. Visitors from the UK and Europe need a plug adapter; most phone and laptop chargers cope with the voltage on their own.

No. Do not drink the tap water anywhere in San Cristóbal, and do not brush your teeth with it either. The water here makes people ill, visitors especially.

Drink purified water. The school has one purified-water tap, and the 20-litre bottle in your space is refilled there. It is a thirty-second walk, and someone will carry it for you if it is heavy. Use it for drinking, for tea and coffee, for ice, and for washing fruit and vegetables.

Eating out, avoid raw leafy greens and salad unless you trust the kitchen, and go for cooked food. San Cristóbal has had years of water mismanagement, especially by SAPAM, the water authority, so be careful.

Bring some diarrhoea tablets in case. What we actually recommend is the local herb chilchahua, which is very effective; and on site we have women who have studied plant medicine and can offer remedies.

The supply itself is reliable at La Escuela. If the school has water, you have water, and it is filled regularly.

During school hours, breakfast and lunch come from the school kitchen and you eat with the children, which is the best part of the day and the quickest way to get to know them. It depends on the school's own day, so treat it as a kindness rather than a promise.

Dinner is yours. The kitchens in all three spaces are properly equipped, so you can cook, or you can eat out. There are no halal restaurants in San Cristóbal, so people here eat a lot of pizza (it is vegetarian by default), and there is plenty of vegetarian, egg and fish food around. Ask us and we will recommend good vegan and vegetarian places.

For a longer stay we can arrange someone to cook for you. Tell Safa what you would want before you arrive; we fix a price, and it is added to your single donation so you pay once.

For volunteers, the first few days are taken care of. We stock the fridge with breakfast basics and snacks for the first three or four days, eggs, milk, bread, fruit, coffee and the like. We are happy to hear your dietary needs and your likes at your intake call: we want your stay to be as comfortable as possible, so we do a good shop before you land and you do not have to think about it in your first days.

San Cristóbal is a tourist town, so it is priced for visitors: cheap for someone arriving from Britain or the US, expensive for a local.

• Breakfast in a café: around 100 pesos.
• A large pizza: 200 to 300 pesos.
• A good dinner somewhere nice: around 500 pesos.
• A colectivo ride: 10 pesos. A taxi between La Escuela and the centre: 70 to 100 pesos.

For groceries there is a large supermarket and the town market, which is the place for fruit, vegetables and bread.

Chiapas has grown coffee since the eighteenth century and the town's cafés take it seriously. Our favourites are Café Majomut, the cooperative's own café, Cafeología, Frontera, which has several branches in town, and La Friandise, the French bakery, for the pastries as much as the coffee. The artisan market and the Amber Museum are worth an afternoon too.

There is a washing machine on the roof of the hostel and apartment building, or the staff will arrange it with you. In town, the lavanderías wash and fold by the kilo in a day.

Two seasons, and cold nights in both.

• Dry season, November to April: bright, dry days around 18 to 22 °C and cold nights. December and January can drop close to freezing after dark, and the houses are not heated.
• Wet season, May to October: mild days, rain most afternoons, cool evenings, everything green.

The sun is strong at this altitude even when the air is cool.

Adjust the list to the season you are coming in, wet or dry: the temperature itself stays fairly consistent through the year, it is the rain that changes.

• Layers: t-shirts, long sleeves, a fleece and a proper warm jacket for the evenings, whatever the month.
• A rain jacket, and shoes or boots that do not mind mud, especially in the wet season.
• Modest clothes for the community: shoulders and knees covered. A hijab is not required and nobody will ask you to cover your hair.
• Sunscreen, a hat and sunglasses. The sun is strong at altitude.
• Thick and thin socks, and sandals for the shower.
• A head torch or torch, a power bank and a plug adapter.
• A refillable water bottle.
• Your own medication for the whole stay, and a small first-aid kit.
• Work gloves if you want to help in the garden, and a modest swimsuit for the waterfalls.
• A small daypack for days out.

At La Escuela, the school site, in one of three spaces:

• The Artist Cottage: two bedrooms, sleeps four, a house to yourself.
• The AWI Hostel: six beds in one shared room, single sex for the nights you are there, a shared kitchen and a balcony over the school. Where most volunteers end up, and where people get to know each other.
• The Casa Umar Apartment: a whole apartment to yourself, sleeps up to five, next to La Mezquita.

Volunteers are placed by Grecia depending on what is free. Guests choose on the stays page. Check-in is from 1:00 pm and check-out by 12:00 pm; later is usually possible if you ask.

Guests give a suggested donation per night: US$45 for the cottage, US$35 for the apartment, US$15 per bed in the hostel.

Volunteers stay free for the first month and give a one-off US$50 per booking towards the administration of the programme. After a month, any of the spaces is available at half its published rate: US$22.50, US$17.50 and US$7.50 a night. No nightly donation is asked of volunteers on top of that; the work is the contribution.

• The gate is locked shortly after Isha and opened before Fajr, following the prayer timetable rather than the clock. If you will be back later, arrange it with Grecia beforehand.
• Quiet from 10:00 pm. Sound carries a long way in the highlands.
• No alcohol, no smoking or vaping, and no drugs, anywhere on the grounds.
• Overnight guests are not part of a booking. Ask first.
• Dress modestly and treat the place as a working community with children in it.
• You are never alone with the children. Teaching staff are present whenever the children are on site, and the children go home at the end of the school day.

At La Mezquita, the mosque, which is the building beside the hostel and the apartment: a few steps from the door for all five prayers, and the Friday congregation gathers there.

No. The colectivo, a shared minibus, is how everyone moves. One leaves from the bottom of the school entrance straight into town, runs all day, and costs 10 pesos. Taxis are everywhere; between La Escuela and the centre expect 70 to 100 pesos, and agree the price before you get in. The walk into town is about 45 minutes. The centre itself is walkable, hilly and cobbled, so bring shoes you can walk in. Rent a car only if you plan your own excursions.

La Escuela is on the edge of town and La Cocina is in the centre. From one to the other is 10 to 15 minutes on the colectivo and then about a 15-minute walk, or 45 minutes on foot in a straight line, or a taxi at 70 to 100 pesos. Volunteers may find themselves working at both, and the colectivo makes that easy.

No. Each task on the volunteer board carries its own estimate of the time it needs, and you organise your own days around it. There are very few people on the ground and nobody will manage you day to day; if that sounds like freedom, you will be happy here. The more you are willing to take on, the better for the community, so talk to Grecia about how you can help out. Day trips are fine when you plan them with Grecia, and weekends are yours.

A lot, and Grecia and Firdaus are happy to come along or to help you plan:

• The Sumidero Canyon by boat, from Chiapa de Corzo.
• The waterfalls at El Chiflón, and the Montebello lakes.
• The ruins at Tenam Puente, and the caves in the hills above town.
• The villages of San Juan Chamula and Zinacantán, on a Sunday for the markets.
• In town: the artisan market, the Amber Museum, the cafés, and the steps up to the Guadalupe church for the view.

Roads in Chiapas are sometimes blocked by protests for hours. Allow slack in your plans and check with us before a long road trip.

Take all the photographs you like for yourself. What we are careful about is what gets published:

• For the safeguarding of the children, no geotagging: do not tag La Escuela or La Cocina, and do not add either to Google Maps or any other public map or listing.
• Nothing with the children in it goes out unless it has been arranged with us beforehand. Safeguarding comes first, and we hold to it.
• Ask people before you film them. Mudar is happy to be filmed; ask and it can be arranged.

• Before you travel: Safa, who runs the volunteer calls, at volunteers@casaumar.org. For guest bookings, info@casaumar.org.
• Once you are here: Grecia Rodríguez Villegas, Operational Manager, on WhatsApp at +52 33 1300 7316. Keys, arrivals, practicalities, anything at all.
• Emergencies in Mexico: 911.

Nos vemos pronto. See you soon.