Carnaval in Tenejapa

In contrast to our experiences in, and Nyall's blog about, San Juan Chamula, I thought I should give the Chiapas villages justice by writing about our experience in Tenejapa.

The following morning, a chilly Sunday, we hitched a ride with three people from our house, and their two dogs, to Tenejapa. Tenejapa is a small village about 20km from San Cristobal de las Casas, through some scenic, windy roads. We passed interesting graveyards and holy land, small shanty houses perched on the side of steep cliffs, and farmers working in their fields. We moved further into hidden valleys, until finally we descended into the village of Tenejapa.












Immediately the town's people were friendly towards us. On finding a park for the large truck we arrived in, two locals came and quickly spoke to us, half in Spanish, and half in their local tongue. They were wearing these fantastic costumes and carried tall sticks, which we later found out meant that they were village leaders. We greeted them with suspicion, due to our experiences in San Juan Chamula the previous day, but these two men were friendly and returned our greetings with smiles.

We walked to the town square, which was a buzz with activity and colour. Immediately the children of the town became fascinated with the two black poodles that were with us, which I think broke the ice between us and them. Thanks to the international language of 'thumbs up' we learnt that we were allowed to take photos of the festivities around us.






















Not a minute after we entered the town square, a procession of men, teenagers and small boys dressed in vibrant colours, predominantly red, carrying flags and wearing interesting hats with an assortment of coloured ribbons attached to them, made their way past us. We couldn't quite work out what was going on, apart from the fact that they were marching around the square, and drinking their local alcoholic drink made from sugar cane, "posh". In front of the church stood a large gathering of by-standers, with a small group of teenagers and children dancing around wearing monster masks, these too were also drinking posh, handed out by the bishop. Some were drinking it on the spot, and others were saving this holy drink in Coca-Cola bottles for another time. After much dancing by the people wearing masks, the men dressed in red costumes came running through the square disrupting the gathering of people chasing a man dressed as a bull. This routine happened over and over again as they stopped on one side of the square to grab a breath and a drink of posh, and then continue to rampage around to the other side of the square after the bull. Photos can't really do this justice, so we are hoping that this small video captures it a bit more for you.



It was all rather bizarre, but a very different feeling to what we felt in San Juan Chamula. The villagers were so friendly and welcoming, we never felt afraid of being there, nor like we were an outsider. We could really feel the joy in this village, the processions were part of a huge celebration, and it was very clear that the local Indians were just having a lot of fun.

We had a really fun day, and were so pleased to see a different side to the Chiapas. We are now left with a different opinion of the Indian villages surrounding San Cristobal, and are feeling much more comfortable with it.