July 12, A Day Off in San Cristobal de las Casas

It was a day off. The schedule stated it and Jacques confirmed it; so why were so many of us up at 7 A.M. and working out a schedule? Today we would be going in different directions today. Today, there would be few common experiences, but I suppose even common experiences are rarely so.

The early morning found a few of us on the top of the hill that housed the Church of Guadalupe. The site provided a wonderful view of the city. The galvanized roofs reflected the rising sun. The blues, pinks, reds and other bright colors that show off the houses were vivid. Also apparent from this view is that San Cristobal is surrounded by hills. What a sight!

After breakfast, Alisa, Shauna and I decided to visit the pottery village, Amatenango and the weaving village Aguatenango. On the car ride there we would find out that the road to Aguatenango was flooded and would not be possible today. As we entered Amatenango we began to worry that we had taken this trip only to see wares for tourists on display. The taxi driver suggested that we might be able to walk into the town and see some potters at work. We needed no further prompting. It took only a few steps to realize that we were the only foreigners in the village. Containing our glee was almost impossible. We walked along semi- paved roads in the company of sleeping dogs, nods from the men who sat at the town square, smiles from the women walking with their wares. It was not too long before we came across a woman potter. Once told that we wanted to observe a potter at work, she invited us into her yard. Without hesitation, she began to show us the process she uses to create her pottery. We could barely keep ourselves from jumping up and down. Really.

Carolina, our new friend, not only showed us her skills, but introduced us to her six children and husband. She allowed us to practice, and was kind enough not to laugh at our pathetic attempts. Most interesting was her kiln which was not an oven but an open fire! Although Carolina allowed us to take pictures, she told us many villagers did not like their pictures taken, a point we would later find to be accurate. We found ourselves talking about much more than pottery.

Carolina’s husband spoke to us about languages. He speaks a Maya language, Celtin, and Spanish. We talked about their water supply, it comes from the pipes that run through the village and the pressure is low and they need to boil all water before consuming it. We talked about school: all of her school-age children are learning Spanish. One child even read for us in Spanish. We talked about the places we have been so far and where we are heading. Through all of this Carolina kept working. When she was finished we took pictures of each other, viewed the pictures, laughed at the way we looked, and took more pictures. We promised to send a copy of the photos. We, of course, made a few purchases here. As we walked away we kept marveling at how lucky we were to meet such great people.

We spent a little more time wandering through the village. We came across another potter making large pots with calla lily decorations. She shared information about how many she makes in a day (12) and how long she has been a potter, but did not allow us to take pictures. On our way out we again saw Carolina who informed us that the potters sell their wares to set buyers. Apparently they provide large quantities to these buyers.

Later that day when we shared our experiences at La Revolucion (a local bar) and found that others had interesting adventures as well. Carol B. visited the Jade Museum and found it to be an art historian's dream; the chronology of jade was displayed with replicas. The original jades are spread out in museums worldwide.

And just think, this was our day off! Vamos a Tuxtla-Gutierrez! What´s up Brooklyn?Antoinette, Brooklyn.