This is a Mayan church
It was built as a Catholic Church, and the Maya still say they’re Catholic
But the Vatican says they’re not Catholic just because they sacrifice live chickens in the church
And the floor is covered with pine needles
And they think coca-cola is ceremonial.
We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, but it was mostly candles and statues. There’s no gaudy neon Mary like the approved Catholic church.
San Cristobal has a fancy carved sandstone church
With netting overtop to keep the birds…in…
They had a Christmas parade
The city is surrounded by mountains
There’s another church at the top of the hill
Yes, those are some classy neon lights at the front.
![image[20][1]](https://www.kerrimatt.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/image201.png "image[20][1]")
The door was decorated with a flower mosaic, which was pretty neat
And it had more colourful banners
But it was a long climb up from the city
The view from our hotel roof was nice.
We also went to Sumidero Canyon but can’t find the pictures for some reason. But we do have this picture of ferns growing over a waterfall which Matt thought was neat.
![image[2][1]](https://www.kerrimatt.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/image21.png "image[2][1]")
We drove past some rock art
And more cacti
To Tehuatepec where we watched fire flies
Which are hard to take pictures of
So it mostly looks like we took a lot of fuzzy pictures of grass
But there were some bugs in there
This is the cactus they usually use to make Mezcal
But the factory does grow some other ones
For expensive specialty bottles
First they chop off all the leaves
And then they take a truckfull of the cores, which they call pineapples
And dump them in a big fire
To roast
Then they crush it
Into this
And then they stick it in a barrel with a mat overtop
To get this
And then they distill it
These are agave worms
Which can be put in the Mezcal while it’s aging or eaten as a side dish
Yum
The Zapotec guy took the wool from the big basket and washed it
And then spun it into thread
And then dyed it all these colours
He used indigo
Which has to be boiled
And concentrated onto these rocks
To make all of these blues
He used flowers for yellow
And other flowers for orange
And moss for green
And dried pomegranate for brown
Nut shells were also brown
And so were these things
For the red, he takes the fuzz off of the cactus
Which has these little microscopic bugs in it
And smushes them
To make red
Matt’s was a different red because the pH of his hand is different
He added lemon juice to the background and drew a face with baking soda
Matt’s face was sad
After the dying is done, he weaves rugs
He pulls the thread in between the weft threads with a shuttle
Then slams it with the heavy piece of wood to keep it smooth
