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Maximón's appearance varies greatly throughout Guatemala but in Santiago Atitlán, where we visited him, he wears colorful garlands and scarves.

Here they believe that Maximón was never a man, but a wooden figure created by shamans to defend the village from witches. Or, as is believed in some parts, he was hired by traveling fishermen to protect the virtue of their wives -- and instead, disguised himself and slept with all of them. Who knows?

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