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Published: October 26th 2008
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The night bus from Oaxaca was not the best bus ride I have ever had. The bus was pretty basic, unlike the plush nigh busses one gets in Peru. And the road was definately windy. I took 2 of my wonderful antinausia tablets and did not feel at all ill. However, I had hoped that the pills would knock me out as they normally do... nope. I was wide awake. I did manage to doze off around 3.00am once the road had straightened out.
I had originally planned to just chill out at the hotel and do my own thing around town following the bus ride, but, a hot shower can perk one right up, so instead I went with some of the others to visit a village.
The village of Chamula is about 30 minutes out of San Cristobal but might as well be a world away. Here, the people are natives and no mistiso, the natives mixed with Spanish, are allowed to live. The people also practice their own mixed religion of part Catholic and part Mayan. There is a church with no priest. Apparently he comes only to Christen babies but that is about all. They
elect their own spritual leaders who perform rituals, including sacrificing chickens in the church. They break the chickens necks as no blood is to be spilt in the church.
Our guide for the day was a fellow called Cesar and he was VERY much against any of the missionaries who came to the village to convert the people. He was convinced they should be left alone to practice their rituals their own way.
We then went onto a village called Zinacantan basically to visit a house where one of the local families produced some fantastic tapestries. Cesar also explained some of the rituals the people followed, not killing chickens! These were on how people are healed etc. Funnily enough, some of the rituals are not that different to what my grandmother and mother would do.
Day 2 was a visit to the Zapatista guerrillas. Yes, you can now tour guerilla villages. I was a bit worried saying yes to this tour as I had seen lots of photos of men in balaclavas carrying machine guns. There was also the Zapatista uprising in 1994 that was not that long ago. But, when given the chance to meet some
true to life rebels, well, one cannot really say no, surely?
Their village or compound was up in the mountains. We were greeted at the gate by a balaclava covered man and allowed to enter only once we had provided copies of our passports. It was then straight into a shed with 3 other balaclava covered faces taking down details of where we were from, what we did etc.
Then off to another shed where 2 more balaclava covered faces spoke of the Zapatista struggle, uprising, and current existance. They were basically farmers trying to get rights for the native people. They no longer used guns but rather were trying to succeed in their cause by setting up their own communities and having no reliance on the government at all.
In the end, the feeling was that this was a fairly impotent guerrilla group. I kind of felt sorry for them. The government did not take them seriously, they did not have any real plan for moving forward, and when we asked them about the Accord that they wanted signed by the government, which would bring an end to their struggle, they did not know what was actually in the Accord. The Accord had actually been written and signed, then disgarded by the government, back in 1996 or something. I found it sad that they did not know what they were actually fighting for.
Anyway, they were very polite and friendly and happy to receive visitors at that meant their messages would get out into the wider world. Apparently the government keeps saying that the Zapatistas no longer exist. Well, they do... just not how they used to.
Today is a trip out to see the canyon somewhere around here then onto a bus to Palenque. There may not be any internet connectivity there... it sounds like an out of the way place in the jungle, so it may be a few days before I can give another update.
I am also having trouble uploading photos from this machine... sorry. But I will do so when I can get to a pc that works.
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matt
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loving the updates
Hi Vera, I'm loving the updates. I usally struggle to read other people's travel blogs but I'm having no trouble with this one. Thanks matt x