Ancestral Chiapas: Chamula & Zinacantan Spiritual Journey

Especially the visit of Chamula was impressive with the Church and the praxtices inside of it. However all in all it felt too much like a sales tour, even in the church you could get yourselve a "cleansing" for some hunderds pesos.

We had a lovely time visiting Dan Juan Chamula and Zincantan near San Cristobal de la Casas. Our guide Annulfo was excellent and made a real effort to enlighten us on the history and cultural practices of the two villages. He also explained the lifestyle of the local people and as an extra took us on a tour in San Cristobal itself! Wonderful trip!

On the morning we were scheduled to visit the Sumidero Canyon, Lucero, the administrator of Cepsu called to advise the tour had been cancelled due to bad weather. She quickly rearranged our day to visit 2 indigenous communities, and our family of 4 ended up having a private tour. Our tour guide, Nahum, was professional, courteous, knowledgeable and very pleasant to spend the day with. He gave us a lot f information about the two communities we visited. We had an extremely interesting day, despite the bad weather. I highly recommend this tour company. They are professional and a pleasure to deal with. Our trip to Chiapas was made all the more enjoyable thanks to them.

9.30 to 2.30 is hardly a full day tour, did not go to markets or central plaza or cathedral. The indigenous communities were good, but overall did not deliver what is in the tour description.

The tours are very worth it, you can choose several tour options, we went to the Montebello lagoons and we reached the border with Guatemala, we also went to the El Chiflón waterfall, it is a spectacular place and the waterfalls are super beautiful. Another route is Zinacantán and San Juan Chamula. In Zinacantán they take you to a workshop for embroiderers and belt weavers, a very nice experience. In Chamula it was not so nice, they are very particular people and they take great care of the entrance to their temple, you cannot take photos inside the place and if they catch you they will fine you, follow the instructions of your guide in this place. The people there are not very nice.

We made the trip with our own car. The church in Chamula is a must and really special. The rites in the church (mixture of indigenous and Catholic elements) are worth seeing. Attention when photographing : is prohibited and is also monitored in the church. Zinacantan is less interesting, there are only a handful of businesses that produce indigenous clothing.

I visited this church San Juan chamula and I was amazed by the devotion of the people who pray the whole church and full of candles many and on the ground there are pine needles and 5 large containers where burns l, incense you can not absolutely photograph all, inside because they say it takes away l, soul

Beautiful and picturesque place to spend a few days of rest. Restaurants with regional and national food a lot to see and a pleasant climate plus there is for everyone budget$$$. The only bad thing is that when I went the temples were closed because of the past tremor.