San Juan Chamula and Horses!

Today marks our fifth day in San Cristobal. San Cristobal is medium-sized colonial town that is bordered by many traditional communities. There are quite a few tourists and even some expats that have settled into San Cristobal, giving the town a little bit of an international flare. Overall, the people who live within the city center have a laid back vibe. The San Cristobal area is known for their coffee and amber, both being some of the best in the world.

Although there are some sites to see in the area, we have enjoyed most of our time going to their amazing traditional produce market and sipping on their rich coffee. It has been a great town to spend time just wandering around a little. However, we did spend one day here taking a horseback ride tour to a local traditional village. We left in the morning, taking a shared colectivo to a nearby farm. They assigned horses based on whether or not you have had experience riding. We discovered it is always better to say that you have no horse riding experience, as some of the other people on the tour ended up with independently spirited horses.

Rich was lucky enough to get a nice healthy horse. Kendra´s horse resembled a starving pony. We were unfortunately unable to ride next to each other for very long since Kendra´s horse lacked the ambition to keep up with the others horses, and Rich´s horse kept biting any horse within a foot or two. All said, no one was bucked off and no horse attempted a break away, so we considered it a pretty good trip.

After riding for about an hour, we arrived at a local village that is known for its traditional dress and unique religious practices. We are unable to show any pictures of the town as we were told several times that we could not take pictures of the people or their religious services, only of ourselves. The town center was composed of a large church, with an open market in front. We were able to go and visit the church, which has worshipers everyday of the week except for Wednesday, which they consider to be bad luck. The church was built in the Spanish colonial style, but it was clear that the people had retained much of their previous beliefs from before the Spanish conquered the area.

Inside the church, there were no pews, rather the floor was covered with fresh pine needles. Space was cleared on the floor for thousands of candles, spread out throughout the church. Local worshipers sat on the floor praying. They incorporate burping into their prayers and use carbonated beverages, like Coke, to assist them in burping. They cracked eggs to help tell the direction of sicknesses, and even occasionally sacrificed chickens inside the church. We did see a live chicken inside, but did not stay around long enough to see it meet its fate. Although statues of saints line the walls all the way to the front of the church, it was Saint John the Baptist, not Jesus, that took the prominent place a the front. It was a very interesting experience, although the many tourists (of which we are included) did seems to delute the natural feel of the town.