A Sunday I shall never forget now let me see if I can paint a picture with words so you may have some understanding of the sights I was privileged to witness today.

The guidebook recommends a tour to a near by Indian village called San Juan Chamula which is like the cultural centre of the Mayan in this area.

I went down to the city plaza and found the tour guide paid my 180 pesos, about 17 dollars and with about another 14 tourists one of whom was from Nanaimo and I had met at a friend’s garage sale in the summer, small world, we got into a van and headed out for the town. Our guide spoke wonderful English and he imparted so much information about the area and culture and the history of these lovely people.

He first took us through a walk to see some of the houses and their construction but first he warned us we were not under any circumstances to take photos of the people but we could take pictures of the buildings. The houses are made of mud, straw, corn stalks and water mixed together the walls are not solid because this way when the 70 or so earthquakes they get each year hit the walls move slightly with the tremors. You will notice in the houses there are no windows this is a religious belief and most of their time during the day is spent outside working. Agriculture and selling handicrafts are the main sources of income.

The people are very religious but it is a mix of religions and the green crosses that are all over town are worship posts that people congregate at and worship their Gods and offer thanks and offerings.

We then went to the church which is the largest Mayan church and attracts 1000’s of people before we went in we had to hide our cameras and were told that if we took pictures inside the church we would be escorted out, our cameras broken and made to leave town in disgrace.

I have never seen anything like the inside of this church. First of all the entire east side of the church has no windows that is because the sun rises there and the windows are on the west side of the church. There is an alter with John the Baptist being the centre figure and Jesus Christ on his right, that is where any semblance of a church ends. There are no pews, rows, chairs or anything the whole floor is covered with pine needles and huddled on the floor in small groups are these Indigenous families praying. There were about 40 groups around the floor and I shall try and describe what the groups were doing.

The first thing on the floor in front of them they have 100’s of small candles and they are sitting around these candles. They are passing to each other large bottles of coke and drinking it. This is for the gas that it causes them to burp and thus expel evil spirits. The next thing they do is to take an egg and move it over each other bodies from head to foot again to expel the spirits then they break the egg thus destroying the evil spirit. The Shamans are present with live chickens, which again they pass over their bodies and then kill the chicken for the same reasons as the eggs. Down the sides of the church are hundreds of thousands of candles. We as tourist were allowed to walk all around the inside of the church and watch these rituals and the local people were completely unconcerned with our stares. It is true to say that I have never experienced anything quite like this and I just think of all the churches in our country where people get dressed up to go and sit quietly and this scene is like a million miles away.

We then had about 45 minutes to wander around on our own through the markets and I did and I must say that the view of these people to having their photograph taken because it takes away their spirit is not in force when they ask you for 10 pesos for a picture. I guess the western culture of making a buck is evident here also.

The next stop was like a private home come store where we were encouraged to take photos, watch the ladies weaving, making tortillas and the kids selling trinkets. Our guide was wonderful and he imparted so much information to us that this was one of the best tours I have ever taken and a day to remember.

Please enjoy the photos and try to imagine the inside of the church and the practices and be assured I harmed no one in taking the photos of the people.

Tomorrow I leave and hope to see my first Mayan ruin I am going into some remote areas so I think the blog may be delayed but I will post when I can. Take care and blessings