Chiapas

We ended our time in Mexico in the southern state of Chiapas.
The city of San Cristobal de las Casas is an old Spanish colonial city that has beautiful churches and pedestrian thoroughfares. You have to walk up a lot of stairs to the churches. We found the best place in town was this little wine bar called Viña de Bacco.







On our way out of S.C.d.l.C, we stopped in the village of San Juan Chamula. Chamula is an unusual town, as it has autonomy and an indigenous government. It has a simply painted church, but inside, a combination of Catholic and Mayan rituals are intertwined. There are no pews and the floor is carpeted with fresh pine needles. In front of the altar, elaborately costumed medicine men are apparently diagnosing various sins or maladies and prescribing anything from prayers and lighting candles to sacrificing live chickens, if that is the cure for what ails you. Along the walls are statues of many saints, many covered in mirrors to deflect evil. Pungent incense is burnt, and many Mayan women in their traditional dress were kneeling to pray.
The town was preparing for Carnaval-- the time of celebration before Lent begins (known to most Americans as Mardi Gras).  Many people were walking the streets and lining up for parades in traditional costumes-- the men in big fur jackets that made them look like bears. Little boys were lined up with ice cream carts in the main plaza waiting for the festivities to begin. The waiting devolved into ice cream cart bumper cars.

We had to get on the road, and a last stop before leaving the country was to check out some Mayan ruins at Tenem Puente.  They are not in the top ten Mayan ruins of Central America, but there are ball courts and pyramid temples, so you get the idea. Mayan ruins are prolific throughout southern Mexico and Central America, as is the Mayan culture. Even though they don't live in these elaborate stone cities any longer, Mayans are everywhere-- especially throughout Chiapas.