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Locals in San Cristobal de las Casas.
Photo By Ignacio
Urquiza.
Just about everyone these days who travels with me on trips to Mexico brings along a digital camera. All want to bring back a record to show others and to remind themselves of their adventures. It may be a score of colorfully dressed native women squatting in the market in front of a carefully arranged pile of brilliant red tomatoes, or a an older woman carrying two surprisingly complacent turkeys by their feet, or maybe just a simple time-scarred door on the side of a street, but they are all memories that are important to record.
To assist those of you who would like to take better digital photographs of your journeys in Mexico and as well as in other parts of the world, I have asked one of Mexico’s leading food and travel photographers, Ignacio (Nacho) Urquiza Ignacio (Nacho) Urquiza, to join us on a 6-day trip to the dreamland world of Chiapas. If you have seen my books, Mexico the Beautiful and Savoring Mexico you can see that Nacho is an expert at obtaining the emotion behind a simple shot, whether working with natural or artificial light and he is a very patient teacher, no matter your level of expertise.
For many years, it was a dream of mine to introduce the food and culture of the little known state of Chiapas to those from other parts of the world. When in 1994, the Zapatista’s rebelled against the lack of social justice for the indigenous people of the highlands, travel was curtailed, and it is only now that I am comfortable in bringing groups to this unusual state. Chiapas, the southern most state of Mexico, was a part of Guatamala until 1824 and this whole region was controlled for many centuries by the Mayas.
This trip will start in the capital, Tuxtla Guttierez, where we will spend one morning photographing the native animals including ocelots, jaguars, pumas, crocodiles and monkeys, and then on to San Cristóbal de las Casas, located in a mountainous valley so high that the red-tile roofs of the city are often blanketed by clouds.
Photo By Marilyn Tausend.
While in this region we will explore several remote indigenous villages known for their exquisite colors and the embroidery of their daily and celebratory clothes. While in one, Zincantán, we will share a traditional meal in the home of a family who creates their vivid pink and purple weaving on back strap looms, a perfect location for photographing villagers in action. In Chamula, we are working to get permission to photograph an outdoor trial, judged by colorfully dressed village elders.
While the emphasis on this trip will be on improving each participant’s ability to take memorable photographs of food, people and scenery, this is still a trip about the regional foods of Chiapas. There will be hands-on classes on making tamales and of course, photographing all of the steps along the way.
A lesson on how to make a tamal in San Cristóbal.
Photo By Ignacio
Urquiza.
Every night, after a packed schedule of photographing markets, village streets or perhaps a woman grinding chiles on a metate, weaving on a backstrap loom, or a flock of sheep on a steep hillside, the results will be shown and reviewed and the next day's emphasis suggested.
Our lodging will be in the fascinating Casa Na-Balom in San Cristóbal, now a museum but once the headquarters of Swiss anthropologist Trudy Blom and her Danish archeologist husband, Franz Blom, who spent years studying and photographing the nearly extinct Mayan Lacandon people. Every room is filled with her photos.
This trip starts and ends in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas
The cost is $2,900, exclusive of transportation to Tuxtla Gutierrez
Minimum of 8 participants, maximum of 12
Single supplement is $300
For those that have not visited the fascinating Maya archeological sites of Palenque, Bonampak, and Yaxchilan, a special trip can be arranged to one or all of these sites. The cost will depend on the number of days and the itinerary. One of the most knowledgeable guides I know, Gaby Gudino, will be available to lead you, if interested.
Please email to cul_adv_inc@attglobal.net for more information.
all material copyright 2001 by
Marilyn
Tausend.
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