Amatitlán, Chiapas, Mexico
Monday, June 25, 2007
Ever since Huixtla the road got progressively worse, and when we got to Las Maravillas, where I am now, we had to get on the dirt road with rocks, a very ugly road, with curves and ups and downs. But we did arrive safe and sound, well, I know the brakes had a workout. There´s a river that runs through Amatitlán and that´s where everybody goes to bathe. Very few people have showers here. They call it bathing, but it´s mostly what we call swimming. They might take some shampoo for their hair but that´s it. I met the doctor of the area, for like 5 or 6 pueblos around there. We went fishing in the river with a net, I just held the stick the put the fish on. The guy casting the net was pretty white, there are a lot of white people around here, well, mixed, with Spanish blood. The doctor told me it´s more mixed down by the coast. And also, like I wanted, I´ve had the opportunity to go to communities that speak indigenous languages, Just about everybody speaks Spanish though. I´ve run into Tzotzil and Tzeltal. I learned how to count to ten: hun, chip, oxip, chanip, um, wakin, ukum, waxakim, waluhem, lahunem...something like that. x is not ks, but sh like English fish. Ixim = corn. Gua = tortilla, ixingua = tortilla made with corn. chenek = beans.
