Sunriser

It is 31 October, Halloween in the Anglo-Saxon culture. However, the Mexicans give an entirely own twist to this celebration. We are in Chiapa de Corzo, a small town in Chiapas, going for a walk in the main square. We marvel at the colourful statues in display raised only for this occasion, depicting a variety of ghosts, skeletons, zombies and all related aspects of the underworld. 

These statues are called Catrinas and they represent the notion that we will all eventually be faced with death. No matter how rich or beautiful we are in life, we will all turn into skeletons. 

At home and businesses people build altars in commemoration of their dead relatives, even of their pets, so in this time of year the deceased are a bit present again. They also get offerings of food, especially ‘Pan de muerto’ a brioche like bread. 

In the bigger town of San Cristobal de las Casas the whole happening really took off. Children are encouraged to participate and dress up as their favorite spooky character; the whole town was in a festive atmosphere, with music, parades, Catrina’s competitions and lots of food and drink. 

During a tour of San Cristobal we learned about the controversial use of Coca Cola as a ceremonial drink in the indigenous communities as a part of the rituals for Dia de Los muertos. Sadly, the influence of Coca Cola in Chiapas is so strong that it is more consumed than drinking water, having an important weight in the high incidence of diabetes in the population and depleting the water resources of the communities. A local alcoholic drink called Pox is also used as a ceremonial drink and is offered to visitors during the festivities.

On November 1st and 2nd, the deceased are visited in their resting place, again in an atmosphere of celebration of life, rather than gloom and sadness. Tombs are covered in pine needles which help the spirit of the deceased to rise up. The whole family sits around the tomb decorated with orange ‘cempasuchil’ flowers, to celebrate with the favorite food and drink of the deceased, their favorite music is played and there is certainly no shortage of the local alcoholic drink Pox (pronounced as Posh). 

We visited on this day the cemetery of the San Juan Chamula, a Tzotzil Maya community and the more urban cemetery of San Cristobal, two strikingly different settings: where the Tzotzil people keep their dead very close to nature, just buried without tombstones, the city cemetery looked like a town with actual houses where the living can visit the dead in all comfort.

In between the festivities we took some time to visit the market, a maze of stalls selling absolutely everything under the sun in the categories of food and handicraft.

We also always get into all the churches in our pathway, so no shortage of that in Mexico. The “Virgen de Los No Nacidos” (virgin of the unborn) was new to us.

After the intense days with all the noise and new impressions we needed some rest. The stunning nature of Chiapas offered now and then some days of quiet and peace away from the bustling towns. 

The Sumidero canyon can be visited by boat and by driving near the rim of the same canyon, very different experiences, so we did both.

By the village of Comitán we did day trips to the lakes of Montebello (beautiful mountain) very deserving of its own name. We did a short hike over some of the mountains and got onto a raft, had a swim and were picked up by our taxi afterwarts.

Next day the 6 waterfalls of El Chiflón amazed us with their beauty. We swam and later flew on a zip line on the way back down.

We closed our Chiapas round tour again in a festive atmosphere in the city of Tuxtla, enjoying the marimba square where every week from Thursday to Sunday the locals gather and dance.

We now go back to Sunriser and wait for a weather window to pass the notoriously difficult passage of Tehuantepec..