Healed by a Curandero – a Mayan Traditional Healer

Guest blog post by Kristine Ellingson, an excerpt from her book:

Tales from the Yucatan Jungle:
Life in a Mayan Village
by Kristine Ellingson

Chapter Fifteen
Curanderos

The next time I am to come up against something I cannot explain it is a shamanic experience, a curandero.

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I burn my left hand with grease splatters while cooking. Being distracted by the girls, I have not paid attention. I have four large burn blisters on the back of my fingers and thumb. I put

Stories about Life

Kristine Ellingson tells her stories about life in Tales from the Yucatan Jungle. She describes how she needs to get away after a devastating marriage breakup, but she doesn’t lose heart.

Cooking in a Mayan House

Kristine Ellingson learned cooking in a Mayan house during her marriage to a Mayan man and living in a Mayan village for over 20 years. In the video below, Kristine describes the traditional cooking hut used by her Mayan mother-in-law, Carmen, also explaining Carmen’s method of cooking in a Mayan house. 

Life in a Mayan Village Video

The video above gives a glimpse into the story of Tales from the Yucatan Jungle: Life in a Mayan Village. It’s a book that brings two worlds together and shares glimpses into a sacred, rich Mayan way of life.

Tales from the Yucatan Jungle Book Trailer

Tales from the Yucatan Jungle describes an American woman’s experiences when she leaves everything to live in a Mayan village. The book trailer, above, shows Kristine Ellingson’s transformation from a high-end jewelry designer in the U.S. to the wife of a Mayan man in Yucatan. She leaves everything for love.

Yucatan Peninsula EXPAT MEMOIR

Do Yucatan Peninsula expats enjoy living out of the U.S.? How do Americans living in Yucatan fare? Kristine Ellingson describes 21 delightful and challenging years in a Mayan village married to a Mayan man in her Yucatan Peninsula expat memoir, Tales from the Yucatan Jungle. In this video, she explains some of what she’s learned about the Mayan people from personal experience.

Safety in Yucatan Peninsula for Women

Twenty-one years living in Yucatan has given Kristine Ellingson a different opinion of safety in Yucatan Peninsula for women than the U.S. media leads us to believe. In this video excerpt of a interview with Kristine, she gives safety tips for women traveling alone in Yucatan.

Safety in Yucatan Peninsula Compared with U.S.

Having lived in Yucatan for 21 years, Kristine Ellingson understands safety in Yucatan Peninsula compared with the U.S. In this video, she describes her Mayan husband Santiago’s experiences while guest lecturer at the University of North Carolina (UNC) in the United States. Then, she compares his experiences with the life they know in Yucatan. You’ll be surprised at her conclusions.

Safety in Yucatan

One of the first questions people ask before they go to Yucatan is, “Is it safe to travel in Yucatan?” In this video, Yucatan resident Kristine Ellingson describes her experiences with safety in Yucatan. She includes what she calls, “Checkpoint Charlie,” the Yucatan Military Checkpoints, as well as rifle-toting Mayan farmers, and the general paranoia most Americans feel about safety in Yucatan.