The Thomasons Go Mayan

Today we had the opportunity to go with our Spanish school to a Mayan ceremonial cave after classes. I probably mentioned this in another post, but there is a very large Maya population here(long after the Catholics tried to purge them out). There main deity´s name is Maximon and this group of indigenous people still offer sacrifices (often burnt) to him. This is the cave where the local Maya come to offer sacrifices. You can tell from the top that they use it alot, because it is black from the ashes.

This is a view of Panajachel and Lago Atitlan on the road up to Solala. In the afternoons, it usually becomes overcast, and we got up there before the deluge, luckily!

This offering was still smoking...our maestro said that they usually offer sacrifices on Wednesday afternoon. We would have seen them there, if it wasn´t for anticipation of the rain...they came this morning. Apparently, they occasionally offer animal sacrifices. Their choice of animal? The chicken, which they call ¨pollo negro¨ because by the end, they burn the whollllllle thing up. In fact, our maestro could tell it was chicken just by the smell left over. Yeah, its a bit Old Testament.

On the way down, we walked past this gorgeous waterfall along the main road, and of course, stopped for pictures!