On Easter Monday in San Cristobal we headed out on what has been perhaps the best tour we've been on here. We visited two indigenous villages - interestingly which speak the same language and are only a 15 minute drive from each other, but which have quite different cultures. We watched shaman rituals inside a Catholic church, the floor of which was covered in pine needles and thousands of candles on tables - incredibly beautiful (sorry, no pictures were allowed); learnt about the ways in which Catholicism has been both adopted and rejected and eventually adapted to the way of life and beliefs here; how the Mayans here had their own cross, which still retains its old meaning as a kind of compass (north, south, east, west and centre), but which now has the added new meaning of the crucifixion; and we learnt why Coca Cola is used in spiritual ceremonies (it's colour is black, representing south on the Mayan cross); as well as about why corn is such an important crop.
Cemetery in the first village - black crosses are for the old, green for the young, and white for children.
Funeral procession for a young child
Goodies we bought at the market, including wild berries (a bit like mulberries or logan berries - yum!)
Weaving
Preparing threads for the loom
Produce from the loom
Despicable example of a poster put up around this village a few years' back... Awful.
Kitchen in a family home
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