Today we woke up pretty early as we had a long day ahead of us to get to Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.
Unfortunately Bo woke up feeling under the weather due to something he ate the night before. We decided that it made more sense for us to stay one more day so he could rest and recuperate his strength.
That meant that Dave and I had one a day to visit San Cristobal de las casas and after having a hearty breakfast at 7:00 we took a taxi and went to the Cerrito of San Cristobal where there is a church and you can see the city from up above. The air was cool and crisp and there was some fog around the mountains that surrounds the city. We walked around and came down the stairs and it felt good as the sun started to shine stronger and brighter and the fog lifted away and the city became more and more visible.
After walking down the stairs we walked around the city where we visited a number of churches that unfortunately we could not get in and we could only see them from the outside. The vast majority of churches in the city are closed for construction due to a big earthquake that shook the city in September 2017. After the main tremor hit at about 10:30pm, it seems that there over 300 after shock waves and people left their houses and that night everyone slept on the streets. The other unexpected event that happened that night, as the earth shook, is that the sky got illuminated by sparks of different colors (blue, green and red) which it seems sometimes happens as the earthquake is taking place, although there is not yet a scientific reason for this event. People thought the world was coming to an end and speaking to people that went through it, you can feel that it was an event that has marked them forever.
San Cristóbal is a very charming colonial town with an almost alpine atmosphere and buildings painted in shades of pastel yellow, orange, blue, and purple. It is considered to be one of the most scenic towns in Mexico.
This area is well known for amber and jade and we also took the opportunity to visit the museum of amber and the museum of jade and learn about their history.
“San Cristóbal is the centre point of the constellation of numerous indigenous villages, extending deep into the mountains. Each village has developed its own identity. These villages are an anthropologist’s delight with traditions dating to pre-Conquest times. They tend to be distinct, possessing their own unique laws, dress codes with respect to colours and designs, crafts, languages and patron saints. Often, many features of their daily lives are pre-Columbian in origin. People do not marry someone outside their community. And if they do, they are expelled from their respective communities, leaving the couple and their offspring to fend for themselves, deprived of any help and protection from the communities they were born into.”
Having some pollo assado for lunch on top of the boot of our taxi under the shade of some trees, we made our way to two of the many indigenous villages that surround the town.
The first one was San Juan Chamula which is about 10 km from San Cristóbal and is a major attraction amongst all local villages. “Located at an altitude of 7,218 feet, it is the principal town of the Tzotzil-speaking community with around 80,000 inhabitants. This place enjoys a unique autonomous status within Mexico. No outside police or military are allowed in the village. The people have their own police force.
The Chamulans are very strict about their traditions, in comparison to the other villages. Anyone refusing to be a ‘Catholic’ which is Catholicism blended with Maya ritualism, is ostracized and expelled from the community and the village. The Chamulans acknowledge only one of the seven sacraments, that of Baptism, rejecting the other six. They revere St John the Baptist above Jesus Christ.
The main attraction of the village is its colonial era church, known as the Ceremonial Centre of Chamula. This lone village church serves hundreds of indigenous communities from the surrounding mountains. Though it appears like any other church on the outside, it is not a typical Catholic church. There are no priests, nor is any holy mass conducted. The only Catholic ceremonies conducted here are baptisms. Every year, on 24th June, a priest comes to perform all the baptisms of children born during the past year. There are no church weddings, only civil marriages. Instead of masses, healing rituals are conducted with candles, eggs, chickens and Coca-Cola. These rituals are done for each individual or family simultaneously inside the huge structure.”
We visited this church and since it is not permitted to take photos inside let me try to explain by getting your imagination do the work: There are no pews, people sat on the floor intoning mantras over lighted candles which were all over the church. The internal left hand wall has a line of images of catholic saints to whom people pray based on their specific problem. Each devotee has a favorite saint amongst the many whose statues flank the nave. The statues of the saints are dressed in layers of brilliantly flowered clothes with mirrors hung around their necks. Offerings made to them include alcohol, herbs, food, candles and incense. The right hand side is covered mostly in white flowers. The stone floor is covered with green pine branches and there are thousands of lit candles. Because of the candles the temperature inside the church is quite high, specially as you get closer to the part of the church away from the entrance door and there is smoke in the air. You cannot be here without thinking how many fire codes are being broken but soon you forget about all that as your attention is moved towards the actual prayer rituals based on the specific problem they are trying to get rid of - chanting, Coca Cola drinking with gassy burps, chicken being used to drive out evil spirits (we did not see how it ended and if it got sacrificed but understand it happens sometimes).
The Catholic Trinity is represented by St Peter, St John and St Sebastian. Although, the Christian cross is found throughout the village, it does not represent the Trinity, but rather the cardinal directions of North, South, East and West.
The Virgin Mary has a place in the observances, but as a saint, not as the Mother of God, because the indigenous villagers discard the concept of a virgin birth. They worship the traditional Catholic saints as images of their own gods. This obviously reflects back to the times when they were forced to accept the Catholic religion by the Spanish conquistadores.
Inside the church, the pagan rites of the Maya merge magically with the Catholic religion, diverging completely from the traditions of western Christianity.
After this very interesting experience we moved to the other village of Zinacantán, which is located 12 km from San Cristóbal.
“About 98% of its population are Tzotzil Maya and speak Tzotzil. The Zinacantans are believed to have descended from a mixture of Tzotzil and Aztec blood. The people here are more open and western in their outlook than those from the village of San Juan Chamula.
The village dates back to Aztec times and a growing tourism business also has helped this village to prosper. But the principal economic activity today, is the export of flowers and this is quite visible through the numerous greenhouses full of flowers dotting its valley. Zinacantans are responsible for a lot of the tropical flowers shipped throughout the surrounding Mexican states. Flowers have played an important role in their culture as their means of prosperity, which explains the floral patterns on their clothes.
We visited a small church that they have erected temporarily while their main church is being repaired and there are thousands of flowers and plants. I could not get in much past a couple of feet from the door as it felt to me as if oxygen had been removed from the atmosphere. Dave had no issues.
We came back into the town and as we were getting off the bike saw Heike and Toshi´s bike arriving and told them we would contact them later on that evening. We met for a beer and a chat after dinner. I really enjoyed meeting them face to face and we exchanged our stories.
Got to the hotel late and went to speak to Bo who looked better and hopefully we can be back on the road tomorrow.
Make Life a Ride !
Beautiful colors and tastes at Mercado de Dulces y Artesanias
Mexican masks
Mexico movie stars
Cerrito de San Cristobal de las Casas
Lunch on the side of the road
Meeting Heiki and Toshi
Facebook post for the day
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