Imagine a 35 meter pole, planted in the middle of a cobblestone square, surrounded by red-tile roofs of colonial houses, shrouded in the warm mist rolling down from the hills of subtropical mountains. On the top of the pole, a small platform... and five men in fantastic, colorful costumes. Suddenly, the man in the center of this tiny platform breaks the sacred silence with a longing tone of an ancient flute. As if mesmerized, the other four men plunge head first from the platform, spreading out feathered wings of their bird-like costumes. Slowly, they start to circle the pole, making precisely 13 revolutions, before descending to the flower covered pavement of the square. Thirteen revolutions, which signify 13 months of the Maya calendar, or 52 years of one complete cosmic cycle in the magical, preHispanic world of the Indians. And that is just the beginning of this incredibly colorful, lively fiesta, that is taking place in a small mountain town of Cuetzalan, year after year... since the times of the great culture of the Totonacas. In present days, it is called the "Fiesta of St. Francisco de Assisi", the patron of the town... but the ancient traditions are as much alive here now, as they were hundreds of years ago.