Colonial church emerges from receding reservoir in Mexico

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
By Associated Press

Photo: David Von Blohn, Associated Press

MEXICO — Leonel Mendoza fishes every day in a reservoir surrounded by forest and mountains in the southern Mexico state of Chiapas. But in recent days, he also has been ferrying curious passengers out to see the remains of a colonial-era church that has emerged from the receding waters. A drought this year has hit the watershed of the Grijalva river, dropping the water level in the Nezahualcoyotl reservoir by 82 feet. It is the second time a drop in the reservoir has revealed the church since it was flooded when the dam was completed in 1966. The church in the Quechula locality was built by a group of monks headed by Friar Bartolome de la Casas, who arrived in the region inhabited by the Zoque people in the mid-16th century.  [link]