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SAN JUAN CHAMULA is the closest of the villages to San Cristóbal and the most frequently visited. It's little more than a collection of civic and religious buildings with a few houses - most of its population actually lives on isolated farms or ejidos in the countryside. To get the most out of a visit you really need to go on one of the organized tours; questions are answered honestly and in full. Despite its size, the village is also commercialized - prices in the market are certainly no bargain, and local kids will pester you for "presents", chanting " regaleme ". The best way to deal with the situation is to select just one or two children and buy a couple of the painted clay animals or braided bracelets they're selling, then tell all the others you've bought all you're going to and hope they'll go to someone else.

Before you enter the church here be sure to obtain permission (and buy a ticket; US$0.65) from the "tourist office", in the Palacio Municipal to the right-hand side of the plaza as you face the church. The rituals practised inside - a mixture of Catholic and traditional Maya practice - are extraordinary, and the church itself is a glorious sight, both outside and in, where worshippers and tourists shuffle about in the flickering light of a thousand candles. Do not take photographs inside, or even write notes. Protestant converts among the villagers are driven out and only some of the Catholic sacraments are accepted. Your ticket also allows you to enter the interesting little Museo Etnografico , behind the Palacio. Thatched rooms with mud and straw walls display artefacts of village life, musical instruments and costumes from Chamula and other villages.

Several comedores around the plaza provide simple, filling meals and in the cantina you can buy posh , a wickedly strong cane alcohol used as an offering in the church and also simply to get celebrants blind drunk. There are fairly regular colectivo departures from San Cristóbal's market to Chamula, especially frequent for the Sunday market. If you take a bus up, the 10km back is an easy and delightful walk, almost all downhill.