san cristobal, gateway to adventures
Travel Location: San-Cristobal-Las-Casas,Mexico
the first thing i noticed about san cristobol was the women. no, not that they are beautiful, because i´ve found mexican women everywhere to be beautiful. rather, i found them strong. just walking down the street, one has the feeling that as a man, one had better step off the narrow sidewalk when a woman is coming towards you. not because she is tough or threatening, but because she has respect, and she knows that her culture has respect, and you will have respect, too.
it wasn´t until later i found out exactly how strong women here can be. when i read about the zapatista uprising in 1994, for instance, when the indiginous maya said “it is enough!”, and took up arms and marched on san cristobal, it was a woman that lead the armed forces the captured the town, set the political prisoners free, and burned down the police station.
san cristobal is like spring break for backpackers.
the town itself is absolutely gorgeous. everywhere you turn there are tiny little cobblestone streets winding around the gentle hills. the churches here have an unique kind of art to the facades, a kind of floral scrollwork. the little restaurants and shops are friendly.
and the travellers are everwhere. san cristobal is like spring break for backpackers. sure, there are spanish schools and volunteer options, but what i saw most was packed bars playing salsa and reggaeton into the wee hours of the morning. it´s almost hard to avoid getting sucked in to partyville.
still, the town is a total haven to all kinds of travelers. for one it is pretty much the sole gateway, the last major stopping point, between mexico and the rest of central america. for another, it is the first place in mexico where i felt i finally left the desert ecology, and found tons of green green trees and (gasp!) a little patch of grass to lie on! luxury! in fact as soon as i arrived and found my hostel, a fellow guest handing me a joint and sparked in up, and i just lay back into the grass and soaked up some moisture.
what really moved me in san cristobol was my day tour to the mayan pueblo (village) of chamula, run by mercedes tours. at first i was skeptical; our tour guide was dressed so conventionally, and the van he pick us up in was so new, and the rest of the travelers were so white, that i figured i had fallen for some fleece-the-gringo scheme and was in for a boring afternoon.
but i was so wrong. when we arrived in the village we skipped the more touristed market and parked on a hill. our guide not only spoke spanish and english, but also some tzotzil, the local language that the maya of this community speak. he would explain aspect of mayan life to us in spanish, then english, and then say hello to a couple of locals in their own lingo. he had bothered to make friends in the community, and so we were treated more like guests than tourists.
the first thing we learned about chamula was that photos of the people is strictly forbidden. like most maya i have met, the chamula people wear traditional and colorful garb, and here that included gorgeous goat fur skirts for the women and goat fur vest for the men. but if you try to photograph them, your are in deep shit. one of their many spiritual leaders will have no problem chasing you down, taking your camera, and smashing on the ground; and absolutely no one will have any sympathy for you. i later met a traveling canadian father-daughter pair, and the father tried to sneek a shot off when no one was looking. he was not successful, and while he was allowed to keep his camera, he and his daughter were instantly and angrily marched to the buses and evicted from the town.
some of the more fascenating information was regarding the mayan religion. each mayan household, for instance, has it´s own green cross in the yard or next to the house facing the street. this cross is made of wood, and it is an acient tradition, predating even the existance of christianity by several hundred years, let alone the invasion of the spanish over a thousand years later. the cross represents the sacred tree of the maya, the tree that the three creator gods used to hold heavens up to keep them separate from the earth. the cross is always “dressed up” with flowers, boughs, and vines, and all births, deaths, and marriages in that family happen in front of that cross.
our guide explained the meanign of the woven arches of flowers that adorned some households. each of these respresented the house of a spiritual leader. while shamán could be of either gender, spiritual leader is a role held only by men. anyone could ask to be put on the list to become such a leader, but the list was long. if you were chosen, you built and maintained a small chapel at your house and performed many community religious duties. combined with the cost of the spiritual garb that was required along with the community service, a spitual leader might spend 100,000 pesos ($10,000 dollars) in his year long term. at the end of his term he gains significant respect and honor in his community.
the church of san juan chamula itself was another eye opener. like the people, you are not allowed to photograph the inside, but when i aksed i was allowed a photo of the outside. the opening to the church was decorated with pine boughs and flowers which instantly gave it a life that almost all other christian churches lack.
but it was the inside that was the most stunning. as you step into the dim coolness inside the church you are assaulted with the sweet smell of incense and pine and the sounds of the healer´s tzotzil chants. as your eyes adjust you see a seeming endless sea of burning candles; candles on the tables, on stands, in nooks, and everywhere in rows and lines across the floors. the floor is covered with pine needles, and the along the walls are the glass boxes containing the dozens of honored saints.
our guide gaves us the cosmological background of the church here. maya beliefs are strong on cycles and circles, and the path of the sun is one such circle. the layout of the church mirrors the path of the sun laid on its side, with sunrise on the east side, noon and the world of light on the north, sunset and the doors of the church on the west, and midnight and darkness on the south side. from the door to the midnight section is the world of death, and no icons are here except for the catholic cross, which unlike the mayan cross has its base touching the ground, representing connection to the underworld. at midnight is the greatest icon in the church, the sacred virgen de guadelupe. other saints line the wall from her to the east wall, where saint john the major occupies the center and jesús is on his left. jesús is not central, because he is just into the daylight side in the word of light, while saint john is on the boarder of dawn. more saints run from there until noon, where a dozen extra saints are visiting from a neighboring church that burned down. some say these extra saints are being punished for not protecting their church; others say they let the church burn because the saints all wanted to share one church.
i made a circuit of the church, and knelt before the virgin. she is my favorite goddess in mexico, a feeling that apparently i share with most mexicans. she represents the mother of god to me, the original goddess, and she who takes all darkness and pain and recycles it in the earth and creates life anew. i said a prayer for zero, my sweet little dog who just passed away while i was on the road. i cried for her and felt a sense of power from the virgin. her icon, the candles, the sounds, are all so powerful, it is hard not to feel moved.
returning from chamula, we stopped at a neighboring pueblo. here, photos were allowed, and the people were more traditionally catholic than mayan in their religion, although the traditional costumes were still very evident.
we stopped at the home of friends of our guide. this family lived in the traditional style, in a mud brick house with thatched roof. in the back was a yard where the two daughters sat at looms weaving. the mother sat in another adobe structure that was the kitchen, and made corn tortillas by hand for the family. we were also able to sample some of the local hootch called “poch”, used in the sacred rituals in the chapels and churches.
lastly, i was able to visit the caves south of chiapas. las gutas is a deep cleft that runs for many many meters into the earth. it has a paved elevated walkway and lights down about a third of it. i also splurged and did the touristy thing, and rented horses for an hour, for 50 pesos. yes, that’s about $5.
