San Cristobel

Today we went up to san Cristobel. It is 2200 meters higher than here so quite cold. Been there several times but this time, we first went to the Indian village of Chamela. No photos are allowed here, except of the outside of the church and you cannot take photos of the people. They are too superstitious and it is a very male oriented society, a woman who cheats is beaten and forced to sweep the main square for several days. If a man cheats he just goes drinking with his buddies. We went inside the church. Well, it's sort of a church. No priest, he has been run off, just a lot of saint effigies. John the Baptist is the most prominent, and he is considered above Jesus in pecking order. Inside the church they have laid out pine needles and people are sitting on the floor lighting candles and praying to the saints. One woman had a sick child and  sacrificed a chicken in there to heal her. She wasn't the only one. It's definetly more Mayan religion than Christian, but has elements of both. One of the strangest places I have been. I have seen similar in the highlands of Guatemala, including a cigar smoking, rum drinking effigy (Mashimon) with inebriated priests to go along with it. Sacrificing chickens in there seems to be common practice along with breaking eggs over heads to cure disease.

After we visited anothe village that was far better off and observed some weaving, then we toured San Cristobel itself. We could not go into the church there, it is unsafe after the recent earthquake.