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Palenque's ruins, riding horseback through the
forest, and the colonial city of San Cristóbal de Las Casas.
Just after dawn on the plaza principal, a wizened old Maya woman
approaches a group of travelers on their way to breakfast. She is
eager to sell her brightly colored weavings, and they are not so
certain they want to talk business before coffee. She is an assertive
saleswoman, however, and after some haggling persuades the travelers
to buy an eye-shocking huipil and some Maya worry dolls. As she
walks away, one of the travelers notes with surprise a little head
peeping out of the shawl wrapped around the woman's torso. The little
baby was awake, and had been watching the whole time. Talk about
on-the-job training.
The state of Chiapas, Mexico differs from the rest of the country
in many ways. Unfortunately, Chiapas is perhaps best known to the
outside world for the short-lived Zapatista uprising in 1994, and
the subsequent grinding tension between insurrectionists in the
countryside and the Mexican Army. The ubiquitous dolls of Subcomandante
Marcos hawked on the streets of the adorable colonial town of San
Cristóbal de las Casas are a frequent reminder that the problems
that caused the uprising have certainly not gone away, but both
sides in this currently low-level conflict are welcoming to visitors,
and the area is safe and rewarding for travelers. Upon entering
Chiapas, its energy captivates and intrigues visitors with its lush
wild lands and its multiple groups of people, each faithful to their
own cultural traditions, craft and clothing. Most travelers choose
San Cristóbal as a base for exploring the area. The roads
into town are windy most of the way but in good condition and there
is plenty of beauty in every direction.
San Cristóbal's charm only increases with a lengthy stay
as its treasures unfold like magic. The city was the capital of
Chiapas state until losing the honor to Tuxtla Gutierrez in 1892.
The zócalo is lively day and night with vendors from the
nearby villages touting their woven goods and others selling roasted
corn and cotton candy. Every day feels like a fair, or special fiesta.
Families gather in the square at night to watch marimba players
on makeshift stages, and there is a permanent kiosk in its center
where live marimba music plays nightly year round.
Chiapas is cheaper than the rest of Mexico for food and accommodations,
and in San Cristóbal each little hotel is more enchanting
than the last. This is not apparent from the street, as buildings
are plain on the outside, sidewalks are too narrow, and cobblestone
streets are full of traffic. One has only to step inside, however,
to find peaceful, verdant gardens, fountains, immaculate restaurants,
and thoughtful beauty. Nearly every kind of food can be found here,
and French food especially is in abundance. The local food is more
Central American than Mexican in character and fried plantains,
black beans and tortillas will be served with every typical meal.
This should not be too surprising, given its proximity and cultural
ties to Guatemala. In fact, Chiapas joined Mexico only in 1824 after
being persuaded to exit the United Provinces of Central America.
Tours from San Cristóbal to the surrounding villages are
easy to come by, and guides will also take adventurers on horseback
through the forest. Another option is to catch a combi van, the
local transportation, to get a glimpse of the life led by the mountain
people who despite their proximity to each other lead very distinctive
lifestyles. The most commonly visited village is San Juan de Chamula
where the women dedicate themselves mostly to weaving and embroidery.
They are fond of bright primary colors and designs including sunflowers
and calla lilies.
Chamula has a special church, which provides one of the best examples
of the fusion that happened between Catholicism and Mayan religion
during the Spanish conquest. The church and the people are "Catholic",
but inside one encounters a spirituality that would almost certainly
give the pope the shivers. There are no benches or pews and the
floor is strewn with fragrant pine needles. Families gather in semi
circles around lines of tall, thin candles stuck with wax to the
floor and offerings of Coke and Pepsi. Saint John the Baptist holds
the highest position on the front altar, even above Jesus, and the
other saints displayed are mostly women. The smell inside is heavenly,
and to witness the people in prayer there is deeply moving. Of course,
if you are a foreigner, you must pay five pesos to go in, and photographs
are strictly forbidden.
Only four kilometers beyond Chamula lies a smaller village called
Zinacantán where weaving and embroidery are also the main
livelihood of the women but take on a completely different style.
The predominant colors here are red and black interspersed with
darker hues of purple, green, and even shiny threads. Designs include
flowers with large petals, deer, birds, and diamond patterns. The
traditional costume for the women includes an ornately embroidered
shawl and for men a poncho with similar colors and design. Each
piece takes two months or more to create.
On the road between San Cristóbal and Comitán, the
women of Amatenango del Valle are potters and the men work in the
cornfields. They gather a special, gray clay from a depth of six
meters and make dove-shaped pots for houseplants and smiling suns
to adorn the walls. They are also fond of calla lily designs on
large pots. Although the pottery is fired in the earth, they don't
use much paint. Occasionally a piece will be painted a red ochre
color, but most of it is sold in the natural gray color. The people
of this village are open to showing off their skills and visitors
can see artists at work in their homes.
Also on route to Comitán, local brewers in Teopisca make
apple, plum, peach and other liquors "to keep themselves warm".
To be fair, it is always a little chilly at 6600 feet above sea
level at this latitude.
Another delicious treat from this pueblo is honey candy. Comitán
itself is a pleasant city known for its clean streets. South of
Comitán is the turn off for Lagos de Montebello, an area
of incredible natural beauty with 59 lakes in the midst of thick
green foliage. It is possible to hire a guide here and trek in the
surrounding Lacandón jungle for up to seven days. These lakes
extend into Guatemala, and it is possible to cross the border here,
but only on foot. All of these places can be visited on day trips
from San Cristóbal.
If all you are after in Chiapas is the Mayan ruins of Palenque,
however, San Cristóbal is probably not the best base. The
less attractive town of Villahermosa (surely an irony), the capital
of neighboring Tabasco state, has air connections to Mexico City
and is only an hour an a half by car from Palenque. The journey
from San Cristóbal, on the other hand takes about five hours
one way, with a few stops for personal necessities as well as side
journeys to the impressive waterfall of Agua Azul and the Misol-Ha
Cascades. Adding to an already tiring journey, tour operators often
pack their vans to the gills.
Agua Azul is perhaps too well set up for tourists, with comedores
and T-shirt vendors lining the river all the way to the top of the
series of waterfalls. Despite the development, it is thrilling to
see the crosses lined up on the shore opposite the biggest waterfall,
nicknamed "Licuadora" (blender). Most of the crosses are
marked DEP, or "descansar en paz" and presumably mark
the passing of someone who got just a bit too close to the falls.
Misol-Ha is avery pretty waterfall that towers 35 meters over a
deep pool, and tourists can cross behind the curtain of water falling
down. It is less developed than Agua Azul, but is worth the 10 minutes
spent on the side journey for the photo opportunity and the chance
to break up the trip.
Palenque itself is worth every minute of the tiring two-way journey.
This ancient city is spectacular-and huge. According to one guide
at the site, a satellite survey of the vicinity last year revealed
1,453 locations that are likely to be temples. Only a few dozen
have been excavated.
Tiptoeing through giant heliconia and other plants with leaves
as big as blankets, it is not hard to see why Palenque seems to
inspire flights of fancy. Father Ordoñez y Aguilar, who rediscovered
Palenque in 1773, wrote a book claiming the city was the capital
of an Atlantis-like civilization, and inspired generations of explorers.
Nowadays, some of the guides at the site are convinced that, for
political reasons, the government is covering up evidence of cultural
contact between the Maya at Palenque and other ancient civilizations,
from the Chinese to the ancient Egyptians to the Arabs in more modern
times. Their attempts to convince visitors of this theory can be
somewhat distracting, but it is entertaining.
It seems far-fetched to imagining ancient Mayans building their
temples with steel chainsaws, based on advice from (or giving advice
to) ancient Egyptians. It is almost understandable, however, standing
in the courtyard of one of these edifices, fitting your little finger
into one of the pull-holes used to drag into position a flawlessly
cut stone block weighing hundreds of tons. The scale the Mayans
worked on was immense, and it remains a mystery how they did everything
without the benefit of metal, when their only beasts of burden walked
on two legs.
The museum at the entrance to the city, unfortunately, is closed
for remodeling at the moment, but it should re-open next year, giving
visitors the chance to see some of the antiquities recovered from
the temples. Keep an eye out for any statues of Anubis or Kuan Yin
that the government may have overlooked.
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