Some San Cristobal Pictures!

The first few pictures are from in front of the cathedral in San Cristobal, and from our trip to Chamula and Zinacantan.

We also visited Na-Bolom, the home of Frans and Trudy Blom (the name of the house is a play on their name, and means "House of the Jaguar" in a native language), a European couple who lived in San Cristobal for decades. Frans was an archaeologist, and actually did quite a lot of the excavation at Palenque, and Trudy was interested in the culture and welfare of the indigenous peoples. Though they are no longer living, Na-Bolom still does volunteer work with the Lacandon people, in particular. The house has exhibits about the Bloms, Mayan medicinal plants, and photography exhibits about the region. It was a great museum!

The last picture is Sergio with Alex, a friend we made in San Cristobal. Many children (I think mostly people from Chamula who have been expelled because they have converted to evangelical Christianity - a huge political issue here that Sergio and I have become really interested in. We have been following a story in the local press about a town called Nachig, near Zinacantan, where Catholic Traditionalists have cut the water and electricity of Protestant families, and they detained a local government official for 19 hours when he tried to reinstate their services. They finally reached an agreement when the Protestants promised to participate in community life, as long as they weren't required to participate in religious traditions - sorry, that was a long tangent) sell little handicrafts in the streets in San Cristobal, and they often came up to our tables when we were eating. Alex tried to sell us some little animals, but neither of us had any change, so we invited him to eat breakfast with us and chatted with him for awhile. Then, last night, when we were out having a drink, he found us again! He was a really sweet boy, and I'm glad I got a picture of him so that we will remember him!