Casa Na Bolom

Na Bolom was the home of archeologist Frans Blom and his wife, Gertrude Duby Blom, the documentary photographer, journalist, environmental pioneer, and jungle adverturer. It is in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico and today, Na Bolom operates as a hotel, museum, and research center run by Asociación Cultural Na Bolom, a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the Lacandon Maya and the preservation of the Chiapas rain forest.

A Danish archeologist who had taught at Tulane, Frans Blom was one of the first to excavate Palenque, a Mayan city about 150 km east of San Cristóbal de las Casas. It was in the jungle that Frans Blom met his wife, Gertrude Duby, a Swiss German journalist who had fought in the resistance of WWII and had come to Chiapas to begin a new life. Working on behalf of the Mexican government, Trudi Duby was photographing the legendary Lacandon Maya, the only Maya never conquered or converted by the Spanish. From then on, La Selva Lacandona rain forest was the common denominator in the professional and personal lives of Frans and Trudi Blom.

In 1950 with a small inheritance from Frans' mother, the Bloms purchased a monastery in ruin on the outskirts of San Cristóbal de las Casas. They rebuilt it around the original interior patio and named their new home Na Bolom, which means House of the Jaguar in a combination of Spanish and Mayan. From the beginning, Frans Blom's dream was that Na Bolom would function as a cultural, social, and academic center. His personal library with its exceptional collection of books on Mayan culture was open to the public. His Mayan artifacts were on display, as were the documentary photographs of Trudi Blom. In order to raise funds for their jungle expeditions, they took in guests who dined at the great long table of the Na Bolom dining room. These guests at breakfast and dinner included tourists, local residents, and archeologists working in the area, and Frans was proud that at any meal there was always conversation in at least three languages. Na Bolom evolved into a small hotel, attracting guests as notable as Henry Kissinger and Diego Rivera. However, free rooms were always kept open for Lacandon Maya who came to San Cristóbal for medical reasons.

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