Chalma, about an hour and a half by car from Cuernavaca, is a rather grubby little town, which few foreigners visit. Yet on weekends and holy days, the place is packed with pilgrims, who come to worship the Dark Lord on the cross. Drawn by its magical spirit, they come by bus, car, bicycle and by foot, as their ancestors have for more than 600 years.

Chalma is the now the second most visited pilgrimage site in Mexico and just as the adherents to Our Lady of Guadalupe are called Guadalupanas, the devotees of the cult of Our Lord of Chalma proudly call themselves Chalmeros. The tradition of the pilgrimage passes from generation to generation.

When the Augustinian friars came through this area in the mid 1530's, they learned that the local Indians made pilgrimages to a place which sounded like Chalma. The pilgrims walked for days, wearing flowers in their hair and carrying incense burners of copal and other offerings to Ozteotl: the Dark Lord of the Cave. They bathed in the river fed by a sacred spring and drank holy water before entering the cave.

Eventually, when the friars were taken to the cave to see the stone idol, they found flowers and other gifts, as well as blood - evidence of sacrifice. In 1539, Fray Nicholás de Perea gave a sermon to the Indians, preaching the evils of idol worship and blood sacrifice. When they returned to the cave three days later, it had been cleaned and whitewashed.

You can get to Chalma from Mexico City or Cuernavaca via Toluca. There are no first class buses, and you can expect crowds on weekends. Hotels in Chalma are very basic, better accommodation is available in Malinalco, a picturesque small town nestled into the mountainside with a well-preserved Aztec ceremonial site. The town is developing into a small artist community.