Day 187 : San Cristobal de Las Casas

After an overnight bus from Oaxaca to San Cristobal de Las Casas I met up with Mike, Noel, and Simon for what would be our 4 day road trip through Chiapas. This morning we started by exploring a bit of the city and it's beautiful churches.

'Sketchy' architects on vacation.

This afternoon we visited the small town of San Juan Chamula by horse back. Once we arrived in town we made our way to the Church of San Juan, quite possibly one of the most moving religious spaces I have seen throughout my nine month adventure. The interior of the church is rather stark and dimly lit. The floor is covered in pine boughs and the white walls are stained with smoke. Lit candles line the perimeter of the space and form several islands throughout the surface of the floor. I stood in awe as locals entered, brushed aside the pine boughs to claim their territory, planted their candles and arranged their coke bottles, then began to pray. When the process was complete they scraped the wax from the floor and carefully covered their prayer patch with pine boughs. The process was mezmorizing - I could have watched for hours...

Click here for San Cristobal de Las Casas photos!