Zinacatan, Chiapas

After a very squashy 10 minute drive our taxi arrived near the church and main square of the village of Zinacatan.  Again the villages here have their unique traditional costume, made from local wools with the brilliant and dominate colours of purple, pink and blue. Everyone in the village was dressed up in their best gear for the Christmas celebrations.  Amazing!!

As soon as we crossed the square we were met by one of the beautifully dressed women asking if we would like to see one of the local women weaving the fabric for the costumes.  She directed a small girl who was around 12 years old to take us down to one of the local homes.  There was quite a fuss when we arrived, the woman who did the weaving was inside having a meal.  There was a mad rush, and scurry as everyone raced around getting the show room ready for us, within 5 minutes the lady was out, wiping the food from her mouth and setting up her weaving.   She was very sweet and very happy for us to take her picture.

On of the young girls delighted in dressing us up in the local costumes.  A very good tactic, how could you refuse to buy something when they went to so much trouble. After our fashion parade and a couple of purchases we headed back up to the main plaza in front of the church, where many of the villages were celebrating with pantomines and fireworks.

Men making firecrackers

In the centre of the plaza there was a group of men sitting on small stools stuffing gunpowder and explosives into home made crackers, and then as soon as they had made enough to make a good bang!! they would let them off without any warning.

What a morning!!! complete sensory overload, the smells of the pine needles and incense in the churches, the brilliant colours of the local costumes and the sounds of the local music and dancing and of course the fireworks!!!  A little after mid day, we crammed into another taxi and headed back to San Cristobal for Christmas lunch.