Amatenango del Valle

The town of the potters, named in their tongue Tzo’ontajal, is located on a small elevation that looks onto a fertile valley, covered with agricultural produce, 37 kilometers from San Cristobal de las Casas. The colonial church oversees the traditional houses and the orchards of this Tzeltal town, known for its pottery pieces, which the artisans model by hand and then cook them with firewood on open skies, by all means, a prehispanic technique. Pots, waterjugs, tubs, flower pots, and animal figures are the products of this ancient tradition of mixing dirt and water, model the clay, dry it and cook it; the first act in the creation of the Maya universal vision.
From Amatenago, the Pan-American highway continues toward Comitan, but a branch off takes us to Aquacatenango, also a Tzeltal community, on the banks of a temporary lagoon, in a valley that, as its neighbor, was inhabited by the first people of Chiapas. Here they have found stone instruments from 7000 B.C. The church has a XVII century reed-mace. The town maintains much of its original character of Dominican urbanism; the streets, which look more like pathways, leave from the plaza, partly walled by the fence of the portico of the church.
After Aquacatenango the road descends to the central plateau. It goes through Pinola, Villa Las Rosas, and later, accompanied by a stream of transparent waters, it goes down to the cane fields and reaches the trace of the ancient Royal Road, towards San Bartolome de los Llanos and Copanaquastla.