We´ve had an incredibly busy few days here in San Cristobel, not to mention the horrendous bus ride which brought us here! It took 4 hours to get here from Palenque, and even though i don´t usually get motion sickness, even i felt nauseous - and some of the group were quite ill. It was so windey around the mountains and the driver was taking the corners at such a speed i´m suprised we didn´t jack-knife!

The following day we decided to go on a speed boat ride through the Sumidero Canyon, which is 1km high in some points and it was pretty cool. Unfortunately they had some flooding in Guatemala recently and that had brough with it loads of debris and even some dead animals which were floating in part of the river - that was quite disgusting especially as it was filled with loads of plastic bottles - makes you think about all the rubbish we have because it has to end up somewhere!

Anyway, we saw crocs, monkeys, vultures, pelicans, and heaps of other birds. It was quite spectacular but not quite as good as the trip the following day. We got taken out to 2 of the traditional Mayan villages. They were different tribes but we got to have a look around both the towns and our guide was actually born into one of the tribes so he knew all about the practices etc.

At the first village of Zincantan, we went into the weekly meeting of the village elders (all men). They go to the meeting room next to the church every sunday at 2am, and discuss local plans and problems, all thw while drinking a specially made alcohol which is about 60% proof!! We got there at 10am and they were absolutely hammered!!! I´m not too sure what exactly about that constitutes work!

Afterwards we went to a local families house, where the guide was explaining about the Shamans and some of the religious significances of things. They burn different coloured candles depending on what they want to provide to the gods, and also bring in chickens to sacrifice to feed the gods - this actually happens in the church!!

From here, we went to the next village of Chamula. It was quite different here as they don´t let you take pictures because they think it steals a little piece of your soul - but an eye opener anyway.

We went to the main square where they held the sunday market, and they also have the village elders meeting but it is public and so there was a big crowd of people around airing their grievances - very calmly i must say! The guide also explained that they don´t follow the same laws here even though they are part of Mexico. In this village if someone commits a crime, that they get taken to the jail so 3 days - the same for every crime expect murder (when the Mexican police get involved).The jail is in the main square and everyone can see who is in there so must be like public humiliation; but the best bit is that if they commit another crime they have to go to jail for a further 3 days and then when they get out they have to do a year community service............ as a policeman!!! So basically the whole police force in that community is made up of convicted criminals!!! I suppose at least they know how to commit crimes so they might be better at catching people!!

We also went to a church here and saw some of the traditional things they use for their gods. Outside it looks like a traditional Catholic church but inside it is amazing; The floor was covered in pine needles for the scent, and they have no pues just people sat on the floor with loads of different coloured candles and chickens for sacrifice! My personal favorite is that they take loads of fizzy drinks into church, and drink them because they believe that when you burp you release the demons inside you - i´ve never seen so much coke, sprite, pepsi in all my life!!