Up at 8am, I decided to avoid the hot breakfast to get a juice and a few bananas. We leave at 9:30am on a private little van to go check out some local native villages, Chamula and Zinacanton. A guide had been organised for the trip to help us understand the people and there customs.
Our first stop was Chamula, we walk through town to the Priests house, as part of taking the office he has to make a place in his home where people are welcome to pray. It had allot of fresh plants through hanging from the roof and pine needles on the floor. They are believed to ward off evil spirits. As part of the visit, we all tried some fire water, a home made alcoholic drink at about 48%, it warmed you up and wasn't to bad.
Next stop was a huge church in the middle of town. It had pine needles on the floor that were replaced every few days just like the last place and was filled with around 1000 candles all through the church. On the walls, statues of all the saints were displayed with tables in front of each for the candles. Medical men were on the floor, opening a space in the pine needles to get down to the tiles, setup a heap of candles on the floor, spit alcohol onto the flames while having a few drinks themselves and doing there magic. All people that pray in this place must be constantly drunk as they aren't allowed to knock back a drink of fire water if it is offered to them.
We get back into the van and head up to Zinacanton, a much smaller town. The church is very different to the first as it is allot quieter and only has pine needles on the floor on special occasions. Our guide then takes us up to a local families house to watch them cook and make fabric. 5 generations live in this house with all the building spread out. We got to have tortillas made there on the spot with a little cheese, pumpkin seeds, salsa and chilli, they were real nice and very filling. That was our last stop, so we all tipped and thanked the family before going back to the hotel.
The afternoon and night was mainly checking out bars around the area and celebrating Barbs birthday. A bar full of locals had beers at the best price in town and the place we had dinner gave 2 for 1 margaritas, probably should have stayed on beer.
No comments:
Post a Comment