From Time Immemorial

The Museo del Amber de Chiapas, housed in an old partly restored convent in San Cristobel has immense pieces of amber ranging in colour from a dark burnt sienna to a golden honey colour. 30,000,000 years ago, bugs, earth and wood became embedded into the resin of pine trees. If you are lucky (I am still looking), you can find amber containing a complete insect.

A miner labouring for a whole week will only dig 250 grams of crude amber. A tradesperson will scrape, sculpt, sand and polish the piece into a final product -- a very long process. Dark amber is the most expensive.

Amber is mined in the Balkans (my Mother-in-Law gave me a necklace and earrings mined from the Balkans), Russia, Australia, Canada and right here in amber mines just outside the city -- the main tourist street here has more amber stores than you could count. Prices are fixed with no haggling.

I'm including a photo of the convent terrace recently rescued from an overgrowth of trees and weeds and also one the original unrestored courtyard walls of the 15th century building.