This write-up is about two distinctly distinct journeys. The initial to Costa Rica, and the 2nd to Mexico.
It truly is a clear, moonless evening when we assemble for our pilgrimage to the beach. I can not understand how we are going to see something in the blackness, but the guide's eyes appear to penetrate even the darkest shadows. We commence strolling, our vision adjusting slowly.
We've come to Tortuguero Nationwide Park, in northeast Costa Rica, to witness sea turtles nesting. As soon as the domain of only biologists and locals, turtle-viewing is now 1 of the much more common actions in ecotourism pleasant Costa Rica. As the most critical nesting web site in the western top caribbean resorts, Tortuguero sees more than its honest share of guests. In reality because 1980, the yearly amount of observers has gone from 240 to 50,000.
The guide stops, points out two deep furrows in the sand - the indicator of a turtle's presence - and places a finger to his lips, creating the 'shhh' gesture. The nesting females can be spooked by the slightest noise or light. He gathers us all around a crater in the seashore within it is an huge creature. We hear her rasp and sigh as she brushes aside sand for her nest.
In whispers, we comment on her plight and the solitude of her activity, the low survival fee of her hatchlings simply because only a single of every 5000 will make it previous the birds, crabs, sharks, seaweed and human pollution to adulthood.
We are all mesmerized by the turtle's bulk. Although we are not permitted to get as well near, we can catch the glint of her eyes. She isn't going to look to register our presence at all. The whirring sound of discharged sand continues. Soon after a bit the manual moves us away. My eyes have adapted to the darkness now, and I can make out other gigantic oblong forms labouring gradually up the seashore in a silent, purposeful armada.
As the chanting reached a crescendo and the incense thickened to a fog, the chicken's neck snapped like a pencil. The seemingly ageless executioner sat on a carpet of pine needles, surrounded by hundreds of candles, his eyes fixed on a brightly painted saintly icon, The man took a swig from a Coca-Cola bottle, a sign not of globalization, but of the expurgating power of soda since the Tzotzil people believe that evil spirits can be expulsed via a robust burp. Right here, within the church of San Juan de Chamula, this kind of faith isn't going to seern all that far-fetched.
This is the Zapatista heartland of Chiapas, a misplaced planet of dense jungle and indigenous villages exactly where descendants of the Maya cling to the rituals of their ancestors. All through the area, the iconography of Subcomandante Marcos, guerrilla leader and poster youngster of the struggle for indigenous rights, reveals a continuing undercurrent of rebellion. San Cristobal : de las Casas, one particular of Mexico's most alluring towns, was the internet site of an armed Zapatista revolt in 1994.
Outdoors San Cristobal, the village of San Juan de Chamula is practically a law unto itself, with its own judges, jail and council. Timeless rituals are unveiled here, in which women sell brightly coloured, hand-woven garments in the main square, returning residence at midday to put together a meal for their husbands, several of whom are shared. Men can have up to three wives at a time, and I'm not particular to be envious or not!! Each and every 12 months during the pre Lenten festival, probably the most fascinating time to pay a visit to, the village's males run barefoot by means of blazing wheat.
Four kilometres from Chamula, San Lorenzo Zinacantan is equally fascinating. Right here, the males, in red-and-white ponchos and flat hats strewn with ribbons, which are tied if they are married, loose if not, launch rockets skyward to stir the gods into sending rain. The girls pummel tortillas and weave textiles, always with a watchful eye on the sky due to the fact a lot of houses have gone up in smoke as a consequence of rogue fireworks.