Sunday, August 19, 2007
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Thoughts on Guatemala
I had thought that as soon as we got home I would write up a summary of my thoughts on Guatemala. But then, as often happens, life interfered with my plans.
We were home for a few days, spent a little time with a few of our friends in Costa Rica, and then took off for Florida, where one of our favorite people, Gene’s Uncle Nello, was having spinal surgery. As it turned out, he didn’t need us. A young 93 years old, he was up and about the day after surgery, planning the projects he’s going to do around the house with the new power tools he bought before the surgery. Anyhow, it was a good excuse to visit with him and the Fabulous Aunt Kay – not that we need one! They are our favorite people. By the time we got home again and started settling in, I had lost my momentum. So now I’m trying to remember everything that I desperately wanted to say about Guatemala at the end of our trip.Where to begin? We both fell in love with so many things about Guatemala! We plan to go back again next year for Semana Santa. We hope to visit many of our new friends again. People, and making new friends, are after all the best part of traveling and discovering new places. See my separate write up about people below.The country is indescribably beautiful. From the majesty of beautiful Lake Atitlan surrounded by volcanoes to the architectural wonders of the old colonial capital of Antigua, we seemed always to be in the midst of fabulous things to see. During our first days there, I decided that I want to live in Antigua. By the time we left, I was saying that perhaps I would like to live at Lake Atitlan. But alongside that beauty is grinding poverty. Little children selling trinkets in the street at night and asking for the leftovers off your plate in the restaurants. Barefoot old ladies selling rice drinks in the park. Poverty that can make you feel damned guilty for eating more than tortillas and beans. The injustice of it all is always there. Always in your face.I've never lived anywhere with such obvious police presence. The first thing we saw the night we arrived in the country was a large group of very military looking police at the airport. I don't know what they were looking for, but they certainly made an impression. Everywhere we went, there were police. There were the army guys in olive green, the national civil police dressed in black, security guys dressed in various uniforms, and then there were the tourist police, dressed in grey, who, I was told, were supposed to make me feel safe as a tourist in their country. I used to joke about trying to figure out which ones were dangerous, and wanting to take photos of every type of police, there was nothing funny about it. It is well known that the army was responsible for most of the 200,000 deaths during and after the recent 40 year war. These guys strike terror in the hearts of most people who lived through it.In a country where over half of the children suffer from chronic malnutrition, they have some fabulous highways, and even the roads in the towns are generally very good, way better than any roads we've seen in comparatively wealthy Costa Rica. I was told that in a country where tourism is the number 2 source of income (remittances from residents in the US are number 1), good roads must be a priority. OK, I understand the concept, but it's still hard to see how the money can exist for those beautiful new roads while children are starving.The existence of over 20 languages in one small country is part of the fascination of the country. The varying cultures from village to village are quickly obvious and are a huge part of the mystique for the visitor. One soon learns that there is no such thing as a "Mayan culture." The culture changes, not just from language to language but from village to village. 35% of the population speak no Spanish. How then can the poorest of the people, illiterate and unable to communicate with each other or with the government, fight for basic human rights? My teacher tells me that culture is on a village and family level and that it is unlikely that the indigenous people will ever be able to work together because of this.There are vast numbers of volunteers from many different countries. There are projects to provide clean water to remote villages where the only source of water is unsafe. A major source of illness, if not the major source, is contaminated water. There are groups helping to build "safe stoves" thus lengthening women's lives by reducing the amount of fumes they breath on a daily basis. There is a great group helping to provide family planning services and cervical cancer screening to women. There is an incredible group of people in Guatemala City providing schooling and other services for the children of the people who live and work in the massive city dump. It seems like for every need, there are groups of people trying to help. But the need is so great that no matter how much is done, the problems still seem to be insurmountable.So yes, we will go back. We love the country and the people. But the awesome beauty of the country and the graciousness of the people only make the overwhelming problems of this country even more obvious.Following are a few last articles on Guatemala. For those of you who can’t read Spanish, I apologize. I promised my teachers that all of my writing would not be in English. For those of you who can read Spanish, I apologize for my limited Spanish writing skills and beg your forgiveness for my mistakes. Some of the articles were things that I wrote for my classes and thus have been looked over by my teachers, resulting in, I hope, better grammar. I’ve also included below a list of books that I believe are worth reading. There are many more. I’ll never get through all of them. The statistics section is from notes I had made along the way from various sources. The statistics are startling. The reality of everyday life up close is much more so.
Statistics & Information
Almost 80% of the population live in poverty (less than $2 per day); 60% of those are in extreme poverty.
67% of indigenous children suffer from chronic malnutrition (Unicef)
Of a population of over 12,000,000 people, 45% are indigenous.
50% of the people are Catholic. 40% are evangelicals.
71% of the population are literate.
GDP: $2,200 per capita (2005 est) - but it's really much worse because of the grossly uneven distribution.
50% of the Mayan children, even today, receive no schooling. Less than 30% complete primary school (6th grade).
In Latin America, Guatemala has the lowest life expectancy and the highest infant mortality rate.
A woman is 15 times more likely to die in childbirth in Guatemala than in the U.S. The average woman has 4 to 5 children, and 42% of the population is under 15. Only 43% of women use any form of birth control, including "natural" methods. This falls to 21% among indigenous women. Nearly a third of women report an unmet desire for family planning. Cervical cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths among women of reproductive age.
There were 80,000 new high school graduates last year. There were only 5,000 new jobs.
200,000 people were killed during the 36 year long civil war. Although the peace accords were signed in 1996, violence is still widespread. The murder rate of women has increased dramatically. From the beginning of 2001 to April 2007, 2,300 women and girls were murdered. 70% of these murders are not investigated and no arrests have been made in 97% of the cases, which involve incredible brutality, mutilation, dismemberment, sexual violence. The murder rate overall has doubled since 2000 and is 6 times the rate of the U.S.
Cuentos de Guatemala-La Madre y Su Bebe Asesinado
Unas historias de Guatemala, no quiero recordar. Pero nunca las olvidaré. Esta historia me fue dicho por una mujer de veinte años y pico. Le fue dicho a ella por su padre, quien lo vio con sus propios ojos.
Tres hombres caminaban en la carretera. Un camión los pasó. El camión llevó quizás una docena hombres y una mujer. Fue una escena horrible porque fue obvio que todos habían sido golpeados. En ese tiempo, ser sospechoso de ayudar los guerrilleros fue motivo suficiente para ser asesinado. Pero lo peor fue que la mujer agarraba al bebe a su pecho, tratando de proteger al niño. Mas adelante en la carretera, los tres hombres llegaron momentos después los soldados han matado todos de los hombres y la mujer. Cuando uno de los soldados vio que el bebe estaba vivo y amamantando, él levantó a la madre y le disparó al niño.
Quisiera creer que tales cosas no ocurrían en realidad. Pero yo se que, desafortunadamente, tal cosa fue común durante la guerra.
Cuentos de Guatemala-La Maestra
Hay otra historia sobre una mujer que desafortunadamente no recuerdo bien. Es la historia de una mujer quien quería que los niños de su aldea tuvieran la oportunidad de aprender a leer y a escribir.
Ella enseñaba los niños en la biblioteca de la aldea. Porque el ejercito no quería que ella enseñara a los niños, ella fue acusada de ayudar a las guerrillas.
Finalmente su vida estuvo en riesgo – y ella huyo a la selva. Varias personas de la aldea le trajeron comida en secreto.
Más adelante, por supuesto, ella se unió con las guerrillas, quien la han protegido del ejército.
Posteriormente (pero no se cuantos años después) ella fue torturada y asesinada. Aunque todos en la aldea sabían que ella había muerto, nadie le decía a su padre porque no quería que el supiera como ella murió.
Cuentos de Guatemala-El Hombre en un Hoyo
Durante la guerra, cuando el ejército necesitaba más soldados, reclutaron a unos hombres de una aldea.
Un hombre quien les dijo que no quería estar en el ejército fue convencido en 3 días.
Él fue forzado a estar en un hoyo por 3 días – con muchos cuerpos de hombres muertos.
Después él cambió de opinión.
Babies, Health Care & Traditions
Mi maestro decía que especialmente in el pasado, los Mayas no confiaban en los médicos y en los hospitales públicos. Para dar a luz, las mujeres preferían las comadronas para atender. Si sus hijos estuvieran enfermos, ellas los llevaban al sacerdote maya en vez de un doctor.
Ella me contaba la historia de su hermana mayor, quien se enfermo cuando era niña. Después ella ha tenido diarrea y vomitando por varios días, sus padres tenían miedo. Llevaron a la niña al sacerdote en su aldea y el les dijo que la madre era la causa de la enfermedad de su hija. El les dijo que era porque la madre no respetaba su esposo (quien, a este tiempo, tenia 16 anos) que su hijo estaba enferma. Les dijo que se arrodillaran y él dio a la madre 25 latigazos. El padre, él dio 10 latigazos. No entiendo si las palizas tenían la intención de castigar a los padres o de curar la niña. Como quiera que sea, el doctor les dijo que la niña iba a mejorar el próximo día. 5 días después, los padres temerosos llevaron la niña al doctor. Ella estaba mucho peor. El doctor estaba enojado porque los padres no han llevado a la niña antes. El dijo que era demasiado tarde para hacer algo para la niña y que su madre, de edad de 20 anos, debió haber sabido mejor. El próximo día, la niña murió. Los padres sufrían mucho y no creen en los sacerdotes ahora. Es una de las mas triste historias he oído, pero desafortunadamente creo que ocurría mucho en el pasado y posiblemente todavía ocurre frecuentemente.
Cuentos de Guatemala - Vendedores en Panajachel
Cuando yo llegue en Panajachel, me entristecía ver niños muy jovenes vendiendo tejidos y baratijas en las calles. Entonces vi las ancianas caminando en las calles llevando cargas pesadas de tejidos. Unas de ellas no llevaban zapatos. Yo creía "Esa puede ser mi abuela. Pobrecita!" Pensé que tal vez debo comprar algo de ellas porque fue obvio que necesitaban el dinero.
Unos dias despues, mi actitud cambió. Aprendí que es muy incomido tratar comer la cena en un restaurante cuando constantamente hay varias personas por la mesa, tratando vender algo. Unas me empujan en el brazo para obtener mi atencion!
Mas tarde pensaba que uno no debe comprar de las niñas porque quisas si ellas tienen éxito con sus ventas, nunca irán a la escuela. Creo que es muy triste que la mayoría de ellas nunca asistan escuela. Mejor a comprar de sus abuelas, pienso. Todavía tengo sentimientos mixtos en este tema. A veces quiero comprarles comida. A veces estoy muy frustrada y solo espero que ellas se vayan.
Como muchas cosas en Guatemala, parece que no hay respuestas claras. Solo hay mas preguntas.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Books about Guatemala
The War for the Heart & Soul of a Highland Maya Town, Robert S. Carlsen
Unfinished Conquest, Victor Perera
Buried Secrets: Truth and Human Rights in Guatemala, Victoria Sanford
Eternal Spring-Eternal Tyranny, Jean-Marie Simon
Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Central America, Walter Lafeber
Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala, Stephen Schlesinger et al
Hombres de Maiz, Miguel Angel Asturias **
A Beauty that Hurts: Life and Death in Guatemala, George Lovell
Guatemala: Never Again!, Archdiocese of Guatemala
I, Rigoberta Menchú, Rigoberta Menchú *
Crossing Borders, Rigoberta Menchú *
Rigoberta Menchú and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans, David Stoll
* Winner of Nobel Peace Prize
** Winner of Nobel Prize in Literature
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Guatemala City Airport
Apparently they opened the new terminal in the Guatemala airport sometime during the last 3 months. Actually we're wondering if they just opened it this morning.
We finally found a little concrete corner where we could buy coffee. We watched as massive steam came from the cappuccino machine. No one seemed to know how to unplug it. The gates were already numbered which was helpful, but there was no sound system as yet, so the gate agent was making announcements through a megaphone. No one could hear anything that he said. With all the confusion, we boarded a bit late. By that time, many people were looking for bathrooms prior to boarding. Alas! The bathrooms had not been opened yet. There was one that appeared to be open but the plumbing had not yet been hooked up. We wondered if the 50 or so people that kept doing some sort of bucket brigade up and down the terminal had something to do with this problem. The only thing that seemed to be operational in the new terminal were the "Duty Free" shops. We liked the old terminal. Wonder why they were in such a rush to open the new one.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Last Night Screw Up
Rather than take a 4 am van from Antigua to the airport in Guatemala City, we figured we would go the the city the day before and stay at a hotel near the airport. Made a reservation at a place recommended by our Antigua innkeeper. When we arrived to check in at the Casa Blanca, the owner asked me something that could not possibly be heard above the construction noise. As I started gasping from the sheet rock laden air,
Gene took over and determined that there were no restaurants in the area because it was a "residential area." (So how the hell do they operate a hotel there?) Unfortunately, by that time the van had left and we didn't know where else to go, so we left our backpacks there and started walking around. There was absolutely nothing around, except for one little store, from which I figured if nothing else we could live on cookies, candy bars and sodas for the rest of the day. We had not eaten in Antigua, figuring to have a good meal in the big city, so I was not happy about all of this. We finally gave in and went back to the hotel, where they told us that the construction activity would be over at 5 and that they could call us a taxi to take us to a restaurant.To be totally fair to them, they also offered to prepare us some lunch. Sheetrock dust in my lunch with sledgehammers pounding in the background wasn't what I had in mind, so we opted for the taxi and went to a Spanish restaurant.
Fortunately sangria with an order of Spanish ham and queso manchego can help to improve one's mood. Follow that up with a huge platter of seafood can almost make you forget construction noise and sheet rock dust!
Time to Say Goodbye!
It's a sad day. We've said goodbye to everyone and are packed and ready to leave.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Wandering La Antigua with Saira
Casa Popenoe - restored colonial mansion. Built in 1634. What a fun afternoon wandering around La Antigua with our friend (and Gene´s teacher) Saira!
Good Bye, Antigua
The volcano has never been this clear before. I think it came out today just to say Good Bye to us!
Saturday, June 23, 2007
San Antonio Aguas Caliente
We took the chicken bus out to the town of San Antonio Aguas Caliente this afternoon to visit the weaving museum. Fascinating place where you can watch the women weaving. Unfortunately I had already made all my purchases so didn't buy anything!
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007
Xela!
We´re in Xela (officially Quetzaltenango). It is cold and wet (8000´or so). We´re going back to the lake and Panajachel. There are some really cool villages and markets in this area, especially San Francisco el Alto, known as the largest market in the country. We will see them next trip! But the bus ride here was incredible - along the edge of the cliffs the whole way!
Monday, June 11, 2007
Surrounded by Volcanos!
Can you see all 3 of them? The lake is surrounded by volcanos, but my favorite view is of these 3 - one in front of the other!
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Gene's Girls!
Gene with Chiqui and Sara - our teachersLast Day of School in Antigua
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Friday, June 8, 2007
Last Day of School - Again
Our last day of school in Panajachel was sad. We've only been here a month, but have had a great time - and hopefully have learned a little! If we haven't, it's certainly not the fault of our teachers! Both Gene's teacher, Veronica and my teacher, Zoila, are just great. We will miss them.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Saturday, June 2, 2007
The Lake is Surrounded by Volcanoes!
The sun came out after the storm and we finally got to see that famous view! Lago Atitlan really is totally surrounded by volcanoes. Absolutely breathtaking! We spent the afternoon looking at it, taking pictures, drinking Gallo (the local beer) and eating nachos!
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Lazy in Panajachel
It's true that I haven't been posting lately. We are still in Panajachel on Lake Atitlan. We are in our third week of school here, and so have been busy studying. Two days ago the rains finally came. Fortunately for us, it generally doesn't start until afternoon, so we usually make it back to the hotel to study - or check email - before the rains start. Just like Costa Rica! We know some other people who have classes in the afternoon - and have to get back to their homestays by pickup truck (a common mode of travel in the smaller villages). Life hasn't been as easy for them the last few days.We have also visited a couple of the wonderfully colorful market days in different villages. I could people-watch all day at these things! We haven't heard from any of our friends and family lately and are hoping that all is going well back home and that we will soon get some news. We have great teachers here and, little by little, our Spanish improves.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Friday, May 25, 2007
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Monday, May 14, 2007
Solola-First Day of School
We like our new school. Gene's teacher is Veronica and mine is Zoila - another law student! She's very interesting and, like my teacher in Antigua, has many of the same interests as I have - politics, culture, history, women's rights and such. She wears traditional dress (traje) and is beautiful. I think we are going to have some interesting classes.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Home Sweet Home - For Now
We moved to a bigger room in the back of the patio. We have more space - and also a nice little table outside our room for studying. Well, ok, it's also a good place for playing cards and drinking wine!
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Back to School
So we registered for school again - to start on Monday. Hard to know anything about a school until you've tried it, but we both had a better "feel" about this school than the other one here in Panajachel. After our brief visit to San Pedro on Thursday, we decided to stay here in Pana instead of spending time over there. This town, which seemed big at first, is pretty nice. Nice waterfront, lots of good restaurants, a great hotel, and it's very clean. We liked the two people we talked to at the school. More later. Will try to remember to take some pictures, too.
Another New Friend
I wouldn't buy any of her plastic "jewelry" for 5 quetzales, but told her I'd give her 5 quetzales if she'd let me take her picture. She's looking a bit impatient here after my flash refused to work the first 2 times!
Friday, May 11, 2007
Trip Around the Lake
Washing Clothes at the LakeYesterday we took a boat trip around the lake. We visited 3 villages, San Pedro La Laguna, Santiago Atitlan, and San Antonio Palopó. It was a very fun day but we still haven't had a clear view of the lake and the surrounding volcanoes. We've seen such awesome photos that we figured it always looked like that, with the volcanes rising from the land all around the lake. Alas! The lake and the volcanoes have been shrouded in fog since we arrived at the lake.
Our traveling companions were 2 fun young women from England who had just completed year long internships in New York, one with a law firm and the other with an investment banker. They are doing a Central America trip before returning to England and back to school. Our other companions were 3 delightful guys from the U.S. Two of them are young doctors from Buffalo, NY, and the other is a lawyer (from Philadelphia I think) who was a school friend of one of the docs. We had some good conversations. The doctors have promised us they will try to change the US medical system, but readily admit that they see the traps that lie in wait for all doctors who want to make changes. Neat guys.
All of the villages are much bigger than we had expected. I think the word village throws us off. Plus we have a hard time truly envisioning the result of rampant poverty and lack of birth control.
San Pedro was much bigger and more congested than we expected. The entire town is built on very steep hills up the side of the mountain. Envision, if you can, the road up to our house in Costa Rica. Then make it 2 or 3 times as steep, and you’ve got the roads in San Pedro. After walking up the first street, we quickly decided that a Tuk Tuk would be a good idea. We hired one to take us on a quick tour of the town and to show us where the Spanish schools were. There was a strong smell of garbage everywhere we went. A rather scrubby and dirty town, it struck us as not particularly interesting. It is a very poor town – poorer than we probably could have envisioned prior to our trip to Guatemala. We are getting over our gringo preconceptions of “charm.” We passed the requisite Catholic church and the diminutive market and found neither to be interesting. San Pedro these days is known as the bohemian center of Guatemala, catering to a young, mainly European counterculture. It is also reputed to have some of the cheapest accommodations in Latin America, as well as inexpensive language schools. We did indeed see a couple of very nice hotels for amazingly low prices ($9 to 13 US) – with lake views, no less. We have had several people along the way tell us what a great little town it is. We don’t get it.
The next village, Santiago, had a substantial market area near the docks with some incredibly beautiful woven things with patterns we had not seen elsewhere. I would like to return another day to do some shopping (yeah, I know, where would I put it in the backpack?) and to take some photos of the amazingly colorful traditional traje, worn by both men and women. This town also was very hilly, but not as steep as San Pedro. Nevertheless, we wisely elected to hire a Tuk Tuk again to take us to the home of Maximón, the evil saint (more on him later when I have time to write more). In verification of one of my rules of travel regarding not taking many fluids, I decided I didn’t really have to use the bathroom after checking out the public facility. You’ll be grateful, I know that I am not going to discuss that particular issue further. But don’t drink too much, always carry toilet paper, wet wipes and antibacterial hand rub with you. I know you’re all saying that advice doesn’t sound like Laurie, and you are right. That’s exactly the point. I wouldn’t give that sort of advice unless it were really needed. So then I decided to try one of my favorite things, a tamal, from a vendor on the foot path. It was my own stupid fault. I could see that the banana leaf was too green and that this stuff had not been cooked. I could also see that it was cold. I also knew that when I asked the woman if it was a tamal, she sort of said yes, but she also gave me one of those paragraphs of explanation. Well, anyhow, it’s biodegradable, we said as we threw it overboard. I really do not know what it was, but it looked like some sort of very dead red meat with a cup of blood poured over it. I hope I didn’t kill any fish.
Our last village was San Antonio. There really was absolutely nothing here that would interest a traveler, in my opinion. All the houses were perched precariously on the side of the mountain. Of course they are built of concrete block and any other material that can be found. To describe them as concrete block really isn’t right. They are shacks that people in other countries would not use to house farm animals. Very ugly. I am being blunt here to make my point. The level of existence of most of the indigenous Maya people is hard to fathom.
We had 45 minutes to see the “town” so we stopped at the “café” for a bite to eat. But they didn’t have any food to offer. So we ordered liquados. I didn’t realize when I asked for a banano liquado that they would run down the street to get some bananas to make it with. So the rest of the group sat at the table waiting for a chance to place an order. San Antonio apparently is the green onion capital. There were whole groups of women and children on the side of the road sorting and bunching the onions, which presumably were to be shipped off to market somewhere. Picturesque? I guess so, but not a job many of us would want. Jeff, one of the doctors, is one of those great guys you meet in life who cannot say No. He also speaks absolutely NO Spanish. He wandered off from the café and when it was time to get back to the boat, we realized he had disappeared. When he Women Sorting Onions didn’t show up in a few minutes we all became worried that he had got lost in the maize of the village and couldn’t ask directions to get out! After 10 minutes or so, he showed up, his arms full of fabrics, saying “I didn’t really want to buy anything!” Turned out that he had asked some woman where he could find a bathroom. She said he could use the bathroom in her home if he would buy the bundle of weavings from her for 200 quetzales ($26 or so). The toilet, he said, was a hole in the floor of the dirt floor of the house, but it had toilet paper, and that was all that he asked! “Anyhow,” he said, “I told my mom I’d bring her some fabrics!”
On the way back on the boat, we noticed how many mansion sized houses there are along the waterfront, not in the Maya villages, of course, but out in their own isolated paradises. There’s the 3rd world and then there’s the rest…
Our traveling companions were 2 fun young women from England who had just completed year long internships in New York, one with a law firm and the other with an investment banker. They are doing a Central America trip before returning to England and back to school. Our other companions were 3 delightful guys from the U.S. Two of them are young doctors from Buffalo, NY, and the other is a lawyer (from Philadelphia I think) who was a school friend of one of the docs. We had some good conversations. The doctors have promised us they will try to change the US medical system, but readily admit that they see the traps that lie in wait for all doctors who want to make changes. Neat guys.
All of the villages are much bigger than we had expected. I think the word village throws us off. Plus we have a hard time truly envisioning the result of rampant poverty and lack of birth control.
San Pedro was much bigger and more congested than we expected. The entire town is built on very steep hills up the side of the mountain. Envision, if you can, the road up to our house in Costa Rica. Then make it 2 or 3 times as steep, and you’ve got the roads in San Pedro. After walking up the first street, we quickly decided that a Tuk Tuk would be a good idea. We hired one to take us on a quick tour of the town and to show us where the Spanish schools were. There was a strong smell of garbage everywhere we went. A rather scrubby and dirty town, it struck us as not particularly interesting. It is a very poor town – poorer than we probably could have envisioned prior to our trip to Guatemala. We are getting over our gringo preconceptions of “charm.” We passed the requisite Catholic church and the diminutive market and found neither to be interesting. San Pedro these days is known as the bohemian center of Guatemala, catering to a young, mainly European counterculture. It is also reputed to have some of the cheapest accommodations in Latin America, as well as inexpensive language schools. We did indeed see a couple of very nice hotels for amazingly low prices ($9 to 13 US) – with lake views, no less. We have had several people along the way tell us what a great little town it is. We don’t get it.
The next village, Santiago, had a substantial market area near the docks with some incredibly beautiful woven things with patterns we had not seen elsewhere. I would like to return another day to do some shopping (yeah, I know, where would I put it in the backpack?) and to take some photos of the amazingly colorful traditional traje, worn by both men and women. This town also was very hilly, but not as steep as San Pedro. Nevertheless, we wisely elected to hire a Tuk Tuk again to take us to the home of Maximón, the evil saint (more on him later when I have time to write more). In verification of one of my rules of travel regarding not taking many fluids, I decided I didn’t really have to use the bathroom after checking out the public facility. You’ll be grateful, I know that I am not going to discuss that particular issue further. But don’t drink too much, always carry toilet paper, wet wipes and antibacterial hand rub with you. I know you’re all saying that advice doesn’t sound like Laurie, and you are right. That’s exactly the point. I wouldn’t give that sort of advice unless it were really needed. So then I decided to try one of my favorite things, a tamal, from a vendor on the foot path. It was my own stupid fault. I could see that the banana leaf was too green and that this stuff had not been cooked. I could also see that it was cold. I also knew that when I asked the woman if it was a tamal, she sort of said yes, but she also gave me one of those paragraphs of explanation. Well, anyhow, it’s biodegradable, we said as we threw it overboard. I really do not know what it was, but it looked like some sort of very dead red meat with a cup of blood poured over it. I hope I didn’t kill any fish.
Our last village was San Antonio. There really was absolutely nothing here that would interest a traveler, in my opinion. All the houses were perched precariously on the side of the mountain. Of course they are built of concrete block and any other material that can be found. To describe them as concrete block really isn’t right. They are shacks that people in other countries would not use to house farm animals. Very ugly. I am being blunt here to make my point. The level of existence of most of the indigenous Maya people is hard to fathom.
We had 45 minutes to see the “town” so we stopped at the “café” for a bite to eat. But they didn’t have any food to offer. So we ordered liquados. I didn’t realize when I asked for a banano liquado that they would run down the street to get some bananas to make it with. So the rest of the group sat at the table waiting for a chance to place an order. San Antonio apparently is the green onion capital. There were whole groups of women and children on the side of the road sorting and bunching the onions, which presumably were to be shipped off to market somewhere. Picturesque? I guess so, but not a job many of us would want. Jeff, one of the doctors, is one of those great guys you meet in life who cannot say No. He also speaks absolutely NO Spanish. He wandered off from the café and when it was time to get back to the boat, we realized he had disappeared. When he Women Sorting Onions didn’t show up in a few minutes we all became worried that he had got lost in the maize of the village and couldn’t ask directions to get out! After 10 minutes or so, he showed up, his arms full of fabrics, saying “I didn’t really want to buy anything!” Turned out that he had asked some woman where he could find a bathroom. She said he could use the bathroom in her home if he would buy the bundle of weavings from her for 200 quetzales ($26 or so). The toilet, he said, was a hole in the floor of the dirt floor of the house, but it had toilet paper, and that was all that he asked! “Anyhow,” he said, “I told my mom I’d bring her some fabrics!”
On the way back on the boat, we noticed how many mansion sized houses there are along the waterfront, not in the Maya villages, of course, but out in their own isolated paradises. There’s the 3rd world and then there’s the rest…
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Monday, May 7, 2007
Our New Home - for Now
Mario's Rooms
For $17 it's a cute place with free internet, free coffee, and cable T.V. Not the cheapest place in town, but feels like a good deal to us! Has hot water in the shower, too!
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Next - to Lago Atitlán
We had originally planned that after Tikal, we would travel to Copan, Honduras, where there are also some amazing Mayan ruins.. But then when we started realizing how hot both places were going to be, we decided we would possibly leave Copan for the next trip. Tikal was indeed hot, although not really unbearable. Someone who just came from Copan told us that it was even hotter than Tikal. So we're back in Antigua, and will leave for Lago (Lake) Atitlán tomorrow morning. Everything that we read about Atitlán sounds beautiful and fascinating. The lake is surrounded by interesting Mayan villages.
Aldous Huxley said of Atitlán:
"Lake Como, it seems to me, touches the limit of the permissibly picturesque; but Atitlán is Como with the additional embellishments os several immense volcanoes. It is really too much of a good thing.
So at 8 tomorrow morning we will be picked up by a shuttle (large van, I think) for the 2 1/2 hour trip to Panajachel, one of the major lakeside towns. Will be checking in again as soon as we get a chance to get to an internet cafe. Will let you know how our reaction compares with Huxley's! I found some great photos of Atitlan at Eve Andersson´s blog.
Meanwhile, today, we're off to see another procession (we have no idea what it is for) from the Catedral, after which we'll proably do some more sightseeing. Or maybe we'll just spend the afternoon enjoying brunch at some beautiful relaxing restored hacienda. Whatever we decide to do, it will be fun, and we'll be thinking of you!
Friday, May 4, 2007
Tikal-Ancient Mayan World
Suddenly, arising from the midst of the jungle, there stands an impossibly enormous Mayan temple. More than 60 meters tall, it is shockingly just there.
I've read a lot about these ruins. The guidebook has told me that Tikal is the most magnificent of the Mayan sites. Nevertheless, I am unprepared for the size of this structure. I am unprepared for the incongruity of its surroundings. There are hundreds, if not thousands of structures here. Some of them were constructed as long ago as 250 B.C. Most are still buried in tons of dirt, trees and roots. Only in recent times has Tikal been "rediscovered," and serious work to excavate and restore began only in 1956.
The people who created these masterpieces seem to have disappeared around 900 AD. It appears that severe climate changes, including extended draught, may have scattered the remains of the group, but no one knows for sure what happened to these fascinating people.
It is not possible to describe this place so I'm not going to try. Here are a few of the pictures we took. It may be true that a picture is worth a thousand words, but there is no way you can get a sense of this place from the photos. If you ever get a chance to visit Tikal, jump on it. It is truly indescribable. 
Monday, April 30, 2007
Saturday, April 28, 2007
TechNOOOOOOOOOOOOOlogy
Somebody asked how all this stuff gets posted - given that I decided not to carry the additional weight and bulk of my tiny laptop.
This leads me to fear that eventually I'm going to have to talk about my love/hate relationship with technology. But for now maybe I'll just describe how this works - theoretically - when nothing goes wrong, which of course is never.
I'm so smart that I don't bring my tiny laptop. Why carry one more thing unless it's absolutely necessary? Don't want to have to worry all the time about it getting lost or stolen. Don't want to add another 2 1/2 pounds to my 12 pound backpack. So here I am traveling for 3 months with just my little PDA in one pocket, my digital camera in another, a bunch of memory cards, and a collapsible keyboard and a memory card reader stuck somewhere else in my garments. (Remind me to tell you later about my discovery of cargo pants – those wonderful traveling pants with so many zippered and velcroed pockets that purses and day packs have become obsolete!)
So whenever I get a chance – and the urge – I unfold the keyboard, plug it into the little handheld and write away. It´s pretty cool. I save what I write to a memory card and then later on when I get to an internet café, plug the memory card into the card reader, plug it into the computer and upload to my blog. Then I put the memory card from the camera into the card reader and upload some photos to go with the blog entries. Pretty cool, huh? When I see someone else whip out their laptop at one of the many places where they have wireless internet available, I wish that I had brought my laptop with me. But only for a minute. And then I proceed to feel oh, so superior for being able to do all of this without one.
Now this all sounds so totally cool and together that I´ve decided I really don´t want to tell you about:
Two days ago when I was being ever so efficient and editing all of my photos directly on the camera and accidentally managed to hit the ¨format¨button. Amazing how fast you can delete 939 photos of all the incredible things seen in 5 weeks in Antigua.
Earlier this month when my memory card reader died and I couldn´t upload anything without it. Anyhow, I was only moaning and groaning about that for a week or so until Gene went out and found me a new one.
Last year when I spent a ridiculous amount of time on our North American trip searching for the particular type of battery used by my digital camera; by the time I found one, the trip was nearly over anyhow.
The year before in Spain when the Palm decided not to see the keyboard. Just gave up on writing altogether.
And the year before that, in Florence, when I dropped the PDA down on the bed and it sort of deleted all of its data. Seems like that was before I started doing regular backups to memory cards.
So those are the things I´m not going to tell you about, because I want you to think I am incredibly cool and with it when it comes to utilizing current technology. Any more questions?
Museo del Libro Antiguo
Home of the first printing press in Central America - 1660. Interesting small museum - and another beautiful spot in the center of Antigua
Smells Like Coffee
On Thursday, we had made a reservation at Hotel Nazareno, so we´d have a place to stay our last few days here before leaving for Tikal to see the great Mayan ruins. It´s a pretty cool place, only a dozen rooms or so, with a beautiful courtyard and sitting areas in the center. Our room is upstairs with a beautiful window overlooking the cobblestoned road below. A big benefit we hadn´t noticed: We are next door to our favorite breakfast place, Fernando´s, where they roast their own coffee. Waking up in the morning is oh, so nice!
Friday, April 27, 2007
Last Day of School...
well, for a while anyhow. School was never this fun in the old days. 
We were late getting around to breakfast again so we took our teachers out for donuts and coffee at the donut shop. Had some great conversation over coffees and decided to go tour La Iglesia y Convento de Las Capuchinas. This is a fascinating place, which I will try to tell you more about later on. The 4 of us spent over an hour touring Las Capuchinas and then decided we needed a refreshment break.
We walked down the street to our favorite Pupuso place and spent an hour or two in uproarious laughter over my Spanish, Chiqui's English, and everything else we could think of. It was just one of those days when everything was funny. I got Saira to teach me how to do that crossing yourself thing that all Catholics do all the time. I've always been intrigued by the people who cross themselves when passing a church or a cemetary, before and after eating, and on any other occasion which might seem like a good time for it. But I've never been able to quite catch how it all works. Saira is a devout Catholic and crosses herself all the time, so I knew she could teach me the technique, but I was afraid she would be offended by the whole thing. NOT! She was practically rolling on the floor as I practiced trying to get it straight, whether to cross to the left or right breast first (it's the left) and how close to the navel to come for the bottom part. The man at the next table was watching and listening in and I was afraid he might not like it that we were having so much fun. Saira had explained about saying "en el nombre del Padre, el Hijo y el Espirito Santo." When I asked her what happened to la Madre Maria, I thought the poor man was going to wet his pants! And when we discussed that Maria must be the most important part of the thing because every single Catholic girl gets Maria as part of her names, he was laughing so hard that I feared for his health. He left shortly thereafter, still laughing, so hopefully he wasn't too offended.
I think I got a great picture of Gene, Saira and Chiqui sharing a banana licuado (that's refresco for you folks in C.R; smoothie for you guys in the U.S.)! If it turns out any good, I will post the photo with this.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
A Recycled Life
El Sitio was showing the film "A Recycled Life," and we knew we had to see it. It was nominated for best short documentary of the year and is about the 1700 or so people (babies, kids, mothers, old people) who live and work in the enormous landfill in Guatemala City. It is also about a young American woman (from Maine) who came to Antigua to study Spanish, saw the dump and the people who live there, and never left, working continuously to help these people. It is an absolutely incredible story. I will not tell you more, because it is really important that you SEE this film, even if you think the subject is not something you want to think about. I will be taking a survey (or why don't I just watch for comments here) to see who has seen it and to hear your reactions. I believe you can read more about it at www.safepassage.org. It´s available on DVD, along with the additional footage added after the Academy Awards.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Still Crazy ... After All This Time
Still having a great time. Just uploaded a bunch more pictures. Hope you all enjoy them. I keep finding something else I want to tell you about!
But for now, see all the stuff I´ve added below!
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Another Week Over Already
It's hard to believe that we've been in Antigua for almost 4 weeks already - and have been studying for 3 weeks already. Seems like I should be a fluent speaker of the Spanish language by now, right? Not!
We've spent a lot of time studying this week. I think that Gene is making some real progress. He says that he is still waiting for the "light bulb to go on in his brain," but I see things sinking in that just didn't stick with him before. As for me, I am starting to get familiar enough with certain words, phrases and concepts that they are becoming natural to me now. But I still seem to have a huge "CRS disease" (can't remember shit) problem. I rarely understand everything that is said to me and I always speak haltingly while trying to put ny thoughts together. I get more frustrated than Gene does, I think. Chiqui and I do a lot of just plain talkiing. I am determined to improve my conversation skills, but there are times when I think I was able to speak more 4 years ago than I can now. Good thing I am a very patient person, huh?
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Guidebooks - Don´t Trust Them!
After a leisurely walk and an appallingly bad breakfast at a "recommended" eating establishment, we had a lovely day being tourists!
One of the important lessons to learn when traveling is to never trust guidebooks. Of course I could add never trust other travelers, never trust tourist offices, never trust travel agencies, and a host of other important things not to trust, but the subject for the day is guidebooks. Never trust guidebooks. Not that I'm a non-believer in guidebooks. I love the damned things. I buy at least 2 of them for every place that we go. Reading about places I'm going to visit, or that I might visit, or that I'm thinking about visiting, or that I dream of visiting, is one of my favorite passtimes. Guidebooks are a great place to start all this. But once there, they are inherently untrustworthy.
Assume for a moment that every single word written in a given guidebook is the God's honest truth when it is written. If there is one thing that I can promise you is always going to happen no matter where you travel, it is change. So if you have this year's edition of the guidebook, some of that material is going to be almost a year old - right? Wrong! Most of it is going to be years old! It may be that guidebook publishers like to say that their books are completely updated every year, but think about it. Is that even possible? Sure, a lot of it is updated, but most of it is just there, year after year after ... One instance in particular that we always remember is the time in Costa Rica when we walked and walked trying to find the cute-sounding bed and breakfast in Santa Ana. We finally stopped at a bar that we were familiar with, since it happened to be in the area. Over a beer, we asked the owner where this mysterious B & B that we couldn't find was. Laughing uproareously (and I am sure that is NOT a word in any language), he said, "You're in it!" It turned out that years before, his very bar had been a B & B. "Some owner before me, years and years ago..." he said. Since then, I take my guidebooks lightly.
Speakiing of taking guidebooks lightly, please do not ever carry around a whole guidebook if you do not need it. First off, when you first get a guidebook (assuming that you own it and didn't borrow it from a friend or the library), immediately tear out any pages with bullshit like advertising for travel agencies and resorts. You paid good money for this book. You certainly do not need to be bombarded with paid advertising! Tear it out, throw it away - immediately. Thank you. Now, you may read every chapter and every word, if you so desire, but before leaving on your grand adventure, tear out and take with you only those pages which will be useful to you on your trip. So, for example, if you have purchased a book about Spain, but are definitely going only to Madrid and Seville, tear out those pages to take with you and leave the rest of the book at home. How you handle the loose pages depends on your personality, but don't get all hung up on that thing your mom told you about not defacing or destroying books. Trust me on this. You paid for the damned thing. It's yours to do with as you please. And when you trip lightly up the stairs in the metro station, comfortable with your little 12 pound backpack, you will thank me for this. You have permission to laugh at those serious travelers who carry those huge honkin' 50 pound packs around. (We won't even talk about the volkswagon sized suitcases on wheels here). So tear the pages out, staple them together in sections (one for each town perhaps; or one section for sights to see and another for places to eat or whatever), or leave them loose, but carry them in baggies, or whatever works for you. Repeat after me: "Paper is heavy."
OK. Where were we? Oh, yes, I take my guidebooks lightly. Unfortunately, at times, I still take them. And I still need to try places that are made to sound really interesting in said books. So this place, being near the bus station and the market (always a good bet for good local food at low prices in places with genuine character), sounded like a good bet. Here's a tip: If it takes more than 5 minutes to get your first cup of coffee in a restaurant that supposedly caters to breakfast traffic, it's gonna get worse. Get the hell out of there. Another tip: If the coffee finally comes, but the milk takes another 10 minutes to appear, get the hell out. But oh, no! We've gotta check this out. After all, the guidebook said ... So we finally got the cold rubbery eggs with the bowl of room temperature purreed black beans (NOT what I expect when I order refried beans). Lovely that the little basket of cold tortillas arrived at the same time as the cold eggs. The saving grace was the golden platanos. If only they'd been warm.
We've had so many great meals here. And so many totally adequate meals here. I guess you have to expect a bad one once in a while. So I don't expect guidebooks to be perfect, and I know that places change and are not always consistent, but I still plan to write to the Rough Guide to Guatemala and tell them that they need to delete the Comedor Tipico Anigüeño from their next edition.
After breakfast, I took Gene to see the weaving museum that I had seen a couple weeks ago with Chiqui. I was even more impressed this time than on my first visit.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Santa Teresa & How to Tip
We were just walking up the street after having a nice little lunch near the park. Suddenly there was another awesome ruined church. I was taking photos through the iron gate and wishing I could get inside to see more when the caretaker arrived. He invited us in, said it was ok to take pictures and told us about the history of the church.This convent and church were built from 1677 to 1687. Originally housing 3 nuns from Lima, Peru, the convent ultimately grew to 18. The 2-story building was badly damaged in the earthquakes of 1717. Some 20 years later the convent was restored. Then in the earthquake of 1773, it sustained extensive damage again. The impressive façade of the convent survived all the earthquakes, including 1976. The northern section of the building still stands and now houses the city jail for men!
I asked our friendly guide if he had been in Antigua and remembered the earthquake of 1976. Yes, he said, it was horrible. Actually the first one, on February 4, happened at 2 o'clock in the morning.
The second one occurred on February 6, during the day, and was terrifying. When you see the enormous pieces of buildings which are now lying around on the ground, you get a feel for just how terrifying it must have been. The 1976 earthquakes left 23,000 dead and a million homeless.I often marvel at how the people here seem so proud of the ruins, and want to tell the stories to outsiders. I am embarrassed to call a ruined building " beautiful," although of course they are. I'm not sure exactly how this works, but my feeling is that they are proud that they survived, and that their city is still one of the most impressive and beautiful cities in the world.
As we started to leave, our informal "guide" told me that it was "customary" to give a small "propina," or tip as a thanks for the information. This seemed totally reasonable to me, but I was embarrassed that I had no idea what to give. We gave him 10 quetzales and he seemed satisfied with the amount. Chiqui later told me that while it certainly is not required to tip such "informal guides," if one wishes to do so, 5 or 10 quetzales is considered adequate.
So I think next time I will try to have the cash in my hand, ready to give when shaking hands good bye and thanks.So many things to learn.
Cultural differences are fascinating but bewildering. I have a tendency to not want to embarrass someone by offering money inapproprately. I guess it's better to offer it, but to do so in such a gracious way that it won't be considered an affront if offered at the wrong time to the wrong person. Much easier to do if fluent in the recipient's language. Another reason to keep studying!Wednesday, April 18, 2007
He´d Give You the Pants off His ...
His name is Morgan. He is one of the owners of a really cool little cafe/bar half a block from our apartment. We were the only customers in Kafka tonight when we stopped by for a late night bite to eat. This seemed to be good luck for us, since we caught Morgan in a talkative mood. It was obviously not good news for Morgan, who would probably have preferred to have a full house tonight.
We originally met Morgan the day that Gene sat down and ripped one entire leg out of his pants. Later that day, we dropped by his bar for lunch and asked where a 6' 2" guy might buy a pair of pants in Antigua! "I might have some jeans that would fit you!" said Morgan. Whenever he sees pants in the market that look like they might be long enough for him, he buys them. So he had a pair that were a bit short for him, but turned out to fit Gene almost perfectly. So I don't know if Morgan would give you the shirt off his back, but he did give Gene the pants off his ... What a guy!
Still in his 20's, originally from Alaska, in Guatemala for a year and a half after traveling to various other places, Morgan turns out to be a friendly guy who loves Antigua but seems a little uncertain about what he wants to do with the rest of his life. He tells me that $400 a month is a good deal for our funky little 2 room apartment in this town. I had assumed that we were overpaying dramatically to get a short-term rental. After all, I thought, for $425 a month in Costa Rica, we have a really nice 3 bedroom 2 bath, 2 story house! And Costa Rica is known to be the most expensive country in Central America. Nevertheless, says Morgan, this may be a poor country, but Antigua is the most expensive city in Central america. Interesting perspective, given how much less expensive it is to eat in restaurants here than at home. So, it seems, housing here is expensive, but food is very reasonable. Does this all make sense? Beats the hell out of me.
I have noticed also that while there are something like 80 language schools in this town, and a couple of travel agencies on every block, I have not seen one real estate office. Now I know that there are 3 or 4 such offices, although I don't know where. But I'm remembering that everywhere else that I've ever gone, there have been multitudes of real estate offices.
Eventually someone is going to explain all this to me. But meanwhile, as I may have mentioned before, I could live here!
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Women´s Health & Other Problems in Guatemala
It was 6 years ago when Sue Patterson received a call from a nurse friend asking for her help. The friend was working with 7 women who wanted to have their tubes tied. Each of them had at least 8 children. When Sue learned that $35 would pay for a tubal ligation for one of the women, she said that yes, she would pay for one of them. And furthermore she would email some of her friends, who might help some of the other women. The next thing she knew, says Sue, her friends had emailed their friends, and people were sending money to her. Shortly she had $4,000 in her bank account and says, "it occurred to me that this was not my daughter's money if something should happen to me!" Thus WINGS was created to help poor women in Guatemala to obtain reproductive health services.
Sue spoke this evening at the Rainbow Cafe. The Rainbow is kind of an all-purpose hangout for foreigners. It includes a cafe with pretty good food (but terrible coffee!), a bar, a used book store / exchange, a travel agency, and a bulletin board with announcements about local events, rentals available, etc. They host musical performances on most nights, and their best feature, they regularly host speakers on significant current events and conditions in Guatemala.
WINGS now has 15 employees as well as many volunteers. They have a $500,000 budget and focus on 3 main programs: (1) Family planning education and referrals in rural villages, (2) Youth Wings - 140 young people have been trained to provide talks to their peers and others, and (3) Cervical cancer screening.
Here are some of the sad statistics which Sue discussed:
· 60% of the population of Guatemala lives below the poverty line.
· Only 43% of women use any form of birth control, including "natural" methods. This falls to 21% among indigenous women.
· The average woman has 4 - 5 children.
· Cervical cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths among women of reproductive age.
· A woman is 15 times more likely to die in childbirth in Guatemala than in the U.S.
As she discussed the numerous problems facing the country today, it was clear that Ms Patterson found the situation to be discouraging. It was equally obvious that she intends to continuing to help as many women as she can to have the resources to take control of their own reproductive health.
Other statistics:
· $50 protects 4 women from unwanted pregnancy for 1 year using Depo Provera every 3 months.
· $100 pays for 7 women or men to undergo voluntary sterilization.
· $250 pays for 20 women to receive cervical cancer screening and necessary follow-up treatment.
I am very impressed by this organization. You can find more information about them at the Wings Website.
Monday, April 16, 2007
The Macademia Farm
So we were getting the impression that perhaps we were being thought of as unsociable or something, because we hadn't gone on any of the school sponsored trips. There wasn't any particular reason for this. It was just that we forgot to go over to the school to check the weekly bulletin board, or there was nothing that particularly interested us that week, or we had other things we wanted to do.
Anyhow, we decided it might be interesting to see the macademia finca. And it would be an opportunity to be sociable with other students, none of whom have we met, since we are still having our classes in our apartment!
So off we went to the school to meet the rest of the group. Five minutes later, a young woman who apparently works there gets up and says "Vamanos!" So off we went: Gene, myself, and the teacher, who never introduced herself and who spoke to me maybe 4 times during the afternoon trip! Bear in mind that this was a trip that we could easily have taken ourselves; we went by bus and it's right on the bus line! Anyhow, the farm itself was mildly interesting. And it was an opportunity to buy not just a bag of delicious macademias, but also a bag of chocolate-covered macademias! Heaven! Oh, and did I mention that I had a free facial with macademia oil!
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Dinner at Chiqui´s House
Hard to know where to begin. Pepián is the specialty in Guatemala. Chiqui had told me that her mom's pepián is the best anywhere. I'm sure she is right. This was an awesome meal. I am going to post the recipe for anyone adventurous enough to try it! Chiqui met us at our apartment and accompanied us to her town, San Antonio Aquas Caliente, which is only 15 or 20 minutes from Antigua. It was our first experience on the famous "chicken busses," which we learned are basically the same busses that we have for many of the local routes in Costa Rica, the old refurbished "Blue Bird" busses. The difference is that here all the busses are painted in bright colors and patterns, whereas in Costa Rica, they are plain blue or green or whatever. 
As we came around a bend and down into a valley, the town of San Antonio spread out before us, nestled into the hills. A beautiful sight! I've gotta tell you that Gene was really laughing at me this morning because I was so nervous about meeting Chiqui's mom! Anyhow, Chiqui's mom, Johanna, is a really sweet, friendly person. And she's beautiful. And besides that, she's a fabulous cook! So the deal was that we could accompany her to the tiendas (stores) to purchase the ingredients. We ended up going to at least 4 different stores, all within a block of their home, to get the right stuff. Johanna had already bought the carne because she wanted to start simmering it before we got there - and because she wanted to get the best beef before it was gone. 
At the first store that we went to, we bought a chicken, 3 carrots, 2 chiles dulces (sweet red peppers) and green beans. They didn't have any culantro, so we went to another store for that. They had tomatoes, but not the kind that Chiqui's mom likes, so we stopped at a 3rd store for the tomatoes. Then we stopped at a little store near the house for a small bag of harina de pan (flour) for thickening. Chiqui and I later went out to a 4th store for beer. And at one point Chiqui left and came back with a melon (cantelope) for liquados (refrescos), so that may have been a 5th store.
Back at the house, there were pots bubbling, vegetables getting chopped, other vegetables getting grilled, tortillas staying warmed (That's right - that must have been at least a 6th store - Chiqui went out and bought fresh, hot tortillas somewhere), things getting liquified in the blenders, and lots of laughing and "spanglish" conversation. And definitely some of the best food I've ever tasted! It was a lot of work (see recipe). Apparently Pepián is normally prepared for special occasions like a wedding. 
Chiqui's parents were wonderful - so friendly and willing to put up with our lousy Spanish, too! What an honor to be invited to their home. What a fabulous day!
Seems like I didn´t get many photos. I´m hoping that Gene´s camera has some more that I can add to this later.
Friday, April 13, 2007
I Could Live Here!
Why would you do that? This is the question of our waiter in one of our favorite neighborhood cafes. We have stopped in for an afternoon beer (Gallo, a local brand) to celebrate getting through another week of Spanish studies. Our waiter is from Holland. He's traveling for a year or so - or maybe more, he says. He spent a couple of months in Antigua and then continued on, traveling through Central America and then to South America. He says he got as far as Bolivia when he remembered how much he loved Antigua and decided to come back here for a while! Meanwhile, he says, he spent some time in Costa Rica and was amazed at how expensive it was. And Antigua is such a fabulous city, he says. Why would you live in Costa Rica when you could live in Antigua?, he asks. Good question.
An Invitation
¡We have an invitation to Sunday dinner! But first let me back up to yesterday's excitement!
Chiqui and I have spent quite a bit of time talking about the traditional Maya clothing, which is totally fascinating to me. A woman can spend months creating one article of clothing. Of course they are works of art and if they're sold, they can sell for hundreds of dollars. So yesterday Chiqui showed up for my class carrying a garbage bag. "A surprise!" she said when I asked her what was in the bag! She had borrowed from her mother an entire outfit of her traditional clothing to not just show me, but to allow me to try on! Yes, we took photos! Chiqui and Gene's teacher, Saira, both helped to wrap me in the traditional "corte," or skirt, which is actually a long (maybe 5 meters) piece of cloth. The cortes are woven on a foot loom. They have no buttons, zippers or velcro, and are held up by a beautiful woven sash, which I think also has a special name, but I don't remember it. The sash is also very long and is wrapped tightly (!) many times around the waist. It is this tightly wrapped belt which Chiqui says is too uncomfortable. Although her mother wears traditional dress, Chiqui prefers her jeans and t-shirts. Next I was adorned with the ultimate piece of Maya dress, the Güipil. This loose fitting blouse, woven on a back-strap loom, is the part of the costume which indicates what area, or village, the woman is from. The designs are incredibly intricate. They are actually made in 2 pieces and sewn together. This is the part of the costume which can cost several hundreds of dollars, depending on its detail. I was nervous just pulling it over my head! The grand finale was the addition of the headdress, which in this case was a square piece of cloth which was folded up to a size that I could carry on my head. It seems to me that its purpose is to cushion the head when carrying large loads on the head, as is frequently done, but the purpose was not really explained to me. The women also weave shawls and "tzutes," used to carry babies, food or other loads.
Dressing up as a Maya woman was an awesome experience. I cannot imagine how so many women can have the talent to create these works of art. I can't envision working on a blouse for 3 months. I watch these women walking down the street in their beautiful outfits and I am in awe of them. I wish I could take pictures of some of these beautiful women, but this is not possible without permission, so for now you'll have to settle for this picture of me in Chiqui's mom's clothes!
Oh! So the Sunday dinner! I got so excited telling you about the dress up day that I almost forgot. Chiqui's mom has invited us to their home for Sunday dinner! Obviously you'll hear more about that later!
So far now, back to the books!
Chiqui and I have spent quite a bit of time talking about the traditional Maya clothing, which is totally fascinating to me. A woman can spend months creating one article of clothing. Of course they are works of art and if they're sold, they can sell for hundreds of dollars. So yesterday Chiqui showed up for my class carrying a garbage bag. "A surprise!" she said when I asked her what was in the bag! She had borrowed from her mother an entire outfit of her traditional clothing to not just show me, but to allow me to try on! Yes, we took photos! Chiqui and Gene's teacher, Saira, both helped to wrap me in the traditional "corte," or skirt, which is actually a long (maybe 5 meters) piece of cloth. The cortes are woven on a foot loom. They have no buttons, zippers or velcro, and are held up by a beautiful woven sash, which I think also has a special name, but I don't remember it. The sash is also very long and is wrapped tightly (!) many times around the waist. It is this tightly wrapped belt which Chiqui says is too uncomfortable. Although her mother wears traditional dress, Chiqui prefers her jeans and t-shirts. Next I was adorned with the ultimate piece of Maya dress, the Güipil. This loose fitting blouse, woven on a back-strap loom, is the part of the costume which indicates what area, or village, the woman is from. The designs are incredibly intricate. They are actually made in 2 pieces and sewn together. This is the part of the costume which can cost several hundreds of dollars, depending on its detail. I was nervous just pulling it over my head! The grand finale was the addition of the headdress, which in this case was a square piece of cloth which was folded up to a size that I could carry on my head. It seems to me that its purpose is to cushion the head when carrying large loads on the head, as is frequently done, but the purpose was not really explained to me. The women also weave shawls and "tzutes," used to carry babies, food or other loads.
Dressing up as a Maya woman was an awesome experience. I cannot imagine how so many women can have the talent to create these works of art. I can't envision working on a blouse for 3 months. I watch these women walking down the street in their beautiful outfits and I am in awe of them. I wish I could take pictures of some of these beautiful women, but this is not possible without permission, so for now you'll have to settle for this picture of me in Chiqui's mom's clothes!
Oh! So the Sunday dinner! I got so excited telling you about the dress up day that I almost forgot. Chiqui's mom has invited us to their home for Sunday dinner! Obviously you'll hear more about that later!
So far now, back to the books!
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Discussions with Chiqui
It's been a quiet few days after all the excitement of Holy Week. On Monday when Gene didn't feel like going out to lunch, I found a really cool little restaurant (we would call it a soda in Costa Rica) that serves tipico food. I had the "Adobado Antigüeño," which was a big slab of nicely flavored beef with a baked potato (naked), guacamol, chirmol and tortillas. Chirmol is a tiny bowl of salsa which my teacher tells me is puréed tomato, onion and salt (and maybe with some culantro). Anyhow, it was good. It was served on a wooden "plate." The entire meal cost me 25 Quetzales ($3.20 or so). The delicious licuado de melon (read refresco de melon in Costa Rica or cantaloupe smoothie in the US) cost another $1 or so. I liked the place so well that I took Gene there yesterday for lunch.
Other than the excitement of discovering a new place to eat (OK so you all know how I rate a place), the week so far has been about studying Spanish. We still have our morning classes. We had planned to switch to afternoon classes, but Saira, Gene's teacher, is only available in the mornings and he didn't want to change teachers, so we're still doing classes from 9 to 1 or so. Then we do a lot of studying the rest of the day.
The really cool thing about having a one-on-one learning situation like they do here is that we get to decide what we want to do. If we want to take a break and go for a walk to some historical site, the teachers are happy to do so. Or we can spend the entire morning doing some activity or trip, talking Spanish as we go. It's pretty much up to us. Most of the time, we feel that we get more practice studying at the apartment.
Today my teacher (Chiqui) and I decided we would go to the mercado (market). We got side-tracked when I told her I had read about a museum near where we were walking. We ended up touring the "Casa del Tejido Antiguo," a museum dedicated to the traditional Maya clothing and weaving. It is a large place with many rooms displaying the traditional syles from many villages (which are still being worn today). We also got to watch a woman doing some weaving. It is amazingly meticulous work, incredibly time-consuming. The bright colors used are beautiful, the intricate designs are incredible. For a donation of 5 Quetzales (Q7.5 = $1.00), we were given a private tour with a guide who explained the different styles from the different villages. The receptionist asked if I wanted English or Spanish and my teacher told her Spanish before I had a chance to "vote," but I was able to understand most of the explanations. It is an awesome place and I want to go back again and take Gene.
In Chiqui I feel like I have a teacher, guide, and cultural expert all rolled into one. Although we spend some time everyday going over grammer and vocabulary, we spend a lot of time discussing Guatemala, it's history and culture, it's problems today, what it needs to do in order to improve the lives of its people. It is a country of diverse culture and many languages. There are 28 indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala today - and there are many villages where few people speak Spanish. It is an election year here. Although it appears that there have been many improvements under the current administration, the prior president, Alfonso Portillo, left for Mexico the day his parliamentary immunity from prosecution ended after leaving the country virtually bankrupt, with allegations that hundreds of millions of dollars were transferred from the social security fund into Panamanian bank accounts. Apparently no one knows where he is now. It's not surprising that the people do not tend to trust governmental officials. The current president, Óscar Berger, was an enthusiastic supporter of CAFTA, which was ratified in 2005 in spite of massive opposition from the people.
Chiqui is studying to be a lawyer. She is an incredibly intelligent, strong-willed woman. I fully expect to read about her in the national news someday. For now I just feel lucky to have her as my teacher.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Easter Sunday
Rest, study, rest, study. Streets are quiet today. Mid-afternoon decide to walk around and find someplace to eat. Want to try Don Martin on the other side of the church. Sounds like it might have some good simple tipico food. It's not open today, so we stop on the corner and eat at Capit án tortuga. Food was not all that great and the prices were high, but we ran into Suzy, who we had talked to while in the line at the bank the other day. We ended up having a great conversation and hearing about all her fascinating travels from her single days. Another one of those adventurous women, now in her 60's, who traveled in her 20's to places where women didn't travel by themselves back then - Africa, Afghanistan... would love to hear more of her stories.
Saw today's only procession, San Pedro - a little tiny one to wind up the week!
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Recovery Day
After sleeping in til mid-morning, we walk to the Rainbow Cafe for big breakfasts, pick up a few necessities from the grocery store, and walk back home. Still feeling a bit wiped out from lack of sleep on Thursday night. Gene walks to the deli for cheese and olives for "dinner."
Study, write journals, read, rest.
Viernes Santo - Good Friday
After a brief couple of hours of very uncomfortable "sleep," we awoke with a start at 3 in the morning, just before the Roman Soldiers paraded down our street, elaborately costumed and on horseback. What a show as they were announced by trumpet and stopped at each corner to read the sentencing of Jesus. The electricity had come on and the neighborhoods were alive with alfombra makers. We agreed that we were "awake." Half a pot of coffee later, we were ready to go out into the dark streets again to watch as the alfombras grew on every street around us.
I said that the "informal" alfombras in the streets on Palm Sunday were works of art and that is true. Today's street art was worthy of one of the world's great art museums! Every street was alive with neighbors working on their alfombras.
Each was totally different. At each site there were buckets of materials: supplies of sawdust or sand in various colors, multi-colored chrysanthemum buds, all sorts of flowers, and other items as needed. 
The street is first sprayed with water to keep the sawdust from blowing around. A base of sawdust (or sand) is laid to create a flat surface on the cobblestones. Then the formas (stensils) are used to meticulously create these beautiful multi-colored masterpieces.
What an amazing experience to wander through the streets for the remainder of the night, watching these creations come to life! By about five in the morning, the alformbras closest to the church had been completed in time to welcome the procession. The atmosphere that exists in Antigua as the entire town is involved throughout the night and then all day is indescribable. 
Some of the active participants in the procession are Roman centurions, trumpeters, and cohorts, drums and flutes, Pontius Pilot, the thieves, banners with the Sentencing, incense carriers, children processioners, bands playing funeral marches and numerous floats carrying images including the Prayer at the Garden, the Seizure of Christ, Saint Peter, Christ at the Column, Christ Falling, María Magdalena, San Juan, Marta, María Solomé, María Cleofás, and the large floats with the sculpture of Jesús Nazareno, the sculpture of the Virgin of Dolores.
After a couple hours of watching the procession pass through our area, we wandered around the town through the streets that were still workiing on their alfombras in preparation for when the procession would get to their street later in the day. 
At some point, we stopped long enough to have a good breakfast at our neighborhood cafe, and then continued walking and admiring the art work until noon, when it was time to walk to the Cathedral in the middle of town to observe the Crucifixion Ceremony
. No, they didn't crucify real people, although I had observed that particular custom many years ago in the Philippines. 
There were 3 more processions which started out around 3 o'clock from various churches (about the time that the one that had started at 5 am returned to Iglesia La Merced and ended). Thus throughout the day and night these amazing events wound through this unbelievable town, eliminating all that beautiful art work as they went! Sometime between midnight and 2 am we went back into the street to watch one of them make its way through our neighborhood.
I heard one passing through the area around 4 am, but decided not to get up and go back into the street to see it again. Earlier in the evening (believe me this all runs together after the fact!) we had come out of a restaurant on the corner and stupidly started to make our way to our apartment through the crowd. We eventually figured out that something had gone wrong with one of the processions and two of them had come together at the same time, from opposite directions, at our corner.
There was total gridlock for a couple of hours as neither could move through the intersection until the other did so - and there were thousands of people in the streets who couldn't move either. There was a man directly behind me with a huge basket of something on his head who kept saying "Permiso por favor!" I finally turned around to him, which was vertually impossible, and told him I could not move! He told me that yes, I could; that I just had to keep saying "Permiso!" and pushing my way through! Amazingly, we eventually made it down the half a block to our apartment and stood outside for another couple of hours with our landlords watching the processions as the gridlock somehow eventually got untangled. 
This is a day that I will remember the rest of my life, in spite of the fact that it is all running together in my mind already. This week is something that I will return to Antigua for every year that I get the chance. It is totally amazing and trying to describe it is futile.
By the way, have I mentioned lately that I could live here?
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Will the Lights Come On?
There is a definite atmosphere of waiting for something to happen today. Tonight will be the final preparations for the Good Friday processions. For most people, it will be a sleepless night. After our class, we walk down the street to Kafka's, a really cool tiny courtyard cafe where you can relax in a hammock with your drink or enjoy it from a table on the veranda. Selecting a table, we have pulled pork sandwiches with fries and beer. After a bit of a walk, we plan to study a while and then take naps in preparation for the busy night to follow. Alas! As usual at such times, I am too wired to take a nap, but do some reading and studying. In the evening I sleep for nearly an hour and when I awake, we hear a loud bang and the electricity goes off in the entire neighborhood. We walk in the strange darkness up to the plaza, along with a lot of other people. We think we will go to Kafka's because we know Kevin is going to grill "pinchos" (kabobs) on the charcoal grill. But he's decided it's too much trouble to cook in the dark and is giving up by the time we get there. Across the street, many of the vendors have generators, so we wander around enjoying the crowd for a while and have some fried chicken. I can't help thinking of all those plastic gloved people in fast food restaurants who are not allowed to touch (dirty) money as the woman picks up a chicken leg and hands it to me, accepting my quetzales with the same bare hand! When did we start requiring food handlers to wear plastic gloves, I wonder. Certainly no one wore them when I was growing up. And somehow I lived. Anyhow after the chicken, we buy some churros and make our way home to make hot chocolate in the dark to go with them. Late at night we take a chance and lie down for a while. We keep all our clothes on so that we will be uncomfortable enough to not fall into a deep sleep because we can sleep no more than 2 hours or we will miss all the excitement of the night.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
More Procesiones & Preparations
Today was the Procesion Infantil, from the church on the corner by our apartment - La Merced. There were thousands of people in the streets to watch. The floats are enormous - and the carriers are all children. 
We learned that the carriers for each procession are organized into groups according to height in order to balance the load properly. So the first group to carry a float out of a church will consist of the tallest carriers. At the first change-off, the next group will be a bit shorter, etc until the last group, who will all be short people! The organization involved in these processions is incredible, but the changes of the carriers and other things that happen along the way are done so smoothly that an observer will probably never be aware unless watching for it very closely. 
Some of the floats weigh several thousand pounds and require as many as 80 people to carry them. The processions last for as long as 12 hours or more, continuing into the darkness of night or even into the early hours of the next day. The images that they carry may be as much as 400 years old in some cases, and their history is a history of La Antigua itself. There are stories of where statues were moved to be protected and restored after they survived the destructive force of various earthquakes. There are stories of where they were hidden to protect them from being moved when the government was moved from Antigua to Guatemala City after the earthquake of 1776. And stories of images which miraculously moved themselves to different locations in the middle of the night. These images (imágenes in Spanish) are more than just sculptures. Many believe them to have miraculous powers. We hear them referred to as "the Jesus," or "el Seniór," clearly indicating that they are considered to be of significance much greater than merely a representation. The Virgin Mary is usually called "la Virgen" (the Virgin). The activities of lent and holy week are an integral part of the history and culture of La Antigua. Indeed, without the processions, vigils, alfombras and sacred images, it would simply not be Antigua.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
La Iglesia de San Francisco
We did our class all day today because we're going to take Friday off because of all the festivities. We took our teachers to lunch around the corner at Fernando's. Then in the afternoon we all took a break and walked down to la Iglesia de San Francisco.
The original San Francisco church was badly damaged in the 1565 earthquake. Work on the current location comenced in 1579, and it became a cultural and learning center for the region. The school taught theology, canonical law, philosophy, physics and mathematics. Ultimately there was a library, music and art rooms, and a printing press as well as a beautiful chapel. The massive 3 story hospital was damaged in the 1689 earthquake. Reconstruction began immediately and the complex ultimately covered 4 city blocks. In 1717, another earthquake hit. This time the complex sustained massive damage. All of the church arches were cracked, the bell tower was partially destroyed. Engineering mistakes made in the reconstruction this time resulted in even more destruction in the 1773 earthquake. Most of the church lay in ruins until the 1960's when another renovation project was undertaken. Walking through the ruins, it is hard to take in just how massive this place originally was. It is said that the current church is very simple compared to what it used to be. It still appears very beautiful and elaborate to me. It receives massive numbers of visitors each year, many of them to pray to Hermano Pedro de San José de Bethancourt, whose remains lie here, and who is credited with miraculous powers of healing. 
The church also houses the remains of Fray Augusto Ramírez, who was declared a martyr by Pope John Paul II during his visit to Guatemala in 1992 for his efforts and death at the hands of the national police in 1983.
In many ways this beautiful church seems to represent so much of the history of this amazing country. Earthquakes and rebuilding and earthquakes again. Prayers for miracles. Martyrs at the hands of the police. But always beauty and an attitude of endurance.
After a really busy day, we spent some time studying and then went up to the church plaza for some munchies. We had some surprisingly good pizza and then brought some churros home with us to eat with hot chocolate. We're in heaven. They actually make churros like the ones we loved in Spain. If I eat these as often as I want to, I will gain another 20 pounds.
Monday, April 2, 2007
1st Day of Class
We started our classes today. My teacher is Chiqui. Gene's is Saira. Both seem pretty good, but it's hard to say after only 1 day. Our classes are from 9 to 1 this week so we'll have time for all the holy week activities in the afternoons. Since the school is really crowded this week, Julio asked if we would like to have our classes in our apartment, where we'd have a much quieter place to study. He brought us over an extra table and 2 more chairs. Gene has set up his classroom in the living/dining/kitchen room. Mine is in the "patio," entrance, which is really just the pila. So far, it works great, and we're both happy to not be in the noisy environment of the school, which or course is right next door if we need anything.During a break we walked up the la Iglesia de Merced on the corner to see the alfombra with our teachers. These things are amazingly beautiful. We found out that they create a new one each week during lent.
One day while we were wandering around, we came across a little shop where 2 men make the "formas," or stensils, for the alfombras.
They are very intricate designs and made of heavy cardboard. Every one of the hundreds of alfombras that are made in the churches and in the streets for Good Friday is different from all the others. And every one is a brand new design each year. 
The artists invited us in and let us watch for a while. We were fascinated by the intricate designs and their creative abilities. It's even more fascinating when you see what the people create using these formas and many colors of sawdust and other materials.Sunday, April 1, 2007
Palm Sunday
We're just having our coffee at about 6 am when Benjamin informs us they are making alfombras in the street in front of our apartment. This is a very exciting surprise for us, but let me back up a bit and tell you what we had been expecting.We knew that today there was to be a huge procession from the church on the corner, La Merced.
There would be 4000 carriers of the main float, the one which carrys the wooden Christ sculpted by Alfonso de la Paz in 1650. This wooden float weighs about 7,000 pounds and is carried by 80 men. [***] By 10:30 at night when the sculptures are returned to the church, the entire city has welcomed the procession, with some streets being honored more than once as it travels about.The part that we had not known about was the alfombras (carpets).
We knew that the streets would be decorated with alfombras on Viernes Santo (Good Friday), but today was a surprise. On every street the neighbors gathered in the early hours to create magnificent designs in the streets, using pine needles (now we know what they were for!), flowers, branches and corozos (the inside of a huge pod which is popular for this decorative use). 
Many of them also use the palm bouquets that we had seen being created in the plaza last night. We were told that today's alfombras would be simple affairs. The really fancy ones will be done on Good Friday. If these works of art were simple, I am truly anxious to see the fancy ones. 
These were amazingly beautiful. By 8 o'clock when the procession began at the church, the alfombras were finished and ready. The procession itself was incredible, with its 4000 carriers for the main float
, carriers for the other floats, the bands, and various other participants. But all in all I think we were more impressed by the alfombras. Our street was the first street the procession traveled, and of course once the procession went through, these magnificent art pieces were gone forever! 
*** [By my calculations then, each man is carrying 88 pounds on his shoulder. And since there are 4,000 carriers involved, 80 at a time, there must be something like 50 shifts over the 14.5 hours of the procession. So each team of 50 must carry this huge load for about half an hour.]
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Sábado de Ramos
Bfast @ Fernando's. Walking back toward our apartment afterwards we noticed many people heading to the church with huge bundles of pine needles on their backs or balanced on their heads. We're wondering if they are to be part of the alfombras or if they're for something else. Hopefully we'll find out eventually.
After breakfast we walked to San Felipe to visit the impressive gothic church & see their amazingly detailed alfombra, which runs the length of the church and is surrounded by gorgeous fresh fruits & vegetables. Don Benjamin, our landlord, had encouraged us to visit this one & when we saw him there, he took us outside the church & told us the story of the history of the church in this town where he grew up.
It seems that the wooden sculpture of Jesús was originally in the church in San Lucas Cotzumalguapa, the home of many poor people. When their area was overwhelmed by bats, the people moved to San Felipe. Some time later, the Jesus appeared in the church in San Felipe. It was returned several times to its original home but always reappeared by miracle in the new town. The people from the two towns fought over the sculpture but it was 
eventually decided that it would stay in its new home, since clearly the miracle indicated that was where it belonged.
Written records tell the story a bit differently, indicating that the neighbors brought the statue to Antigua (then called Santiago) and that the priest subsequently had a church built for it. I prefer Don Benjamin's version, with the sculpture miraculously appearing in the middle of the night. At any rate, apparently the faithful have been praying to the Jesus sculpture since 1620.
After seeing the church and it's amazing alfombra, we talked to woman from Tennessee over cokes at a table in the market. She's here for 3 wks to study Spanish to renew her teacher certificate.
We walked back to Antigua and were walking from the grocery store to our apartment by a very indirect route when we came across a wonderful place called El Sitio. It seems to be an art museum/gallery, theater, exhibition hall and cafe. We had a wonderful lunch in the little cafe and spent some time viewing a big roomful of photography by Jeffrey Foxx, a wonderful artist who has specialized for many years in Maya people, culture and villages. Awesome stuff. We plan to go back again for lunch and to find out what events might be planned while we're here.
In the evening we wandered around the church plaza on the corner. Throughout this time of the year the plaza is filled with vendors supplying the crowds with food and drink.
I love "street food" wherever we go. A great opportunity usually for a good supply of grease at cheap prices, and sometimes a learning experience, trying local foods. We had some sort of meat in sauce thing, served on a tortilla and topped with a choice of avocado, cabbage, tomato sauce, etc. As always, I asked the vendor for the name of the dish. And as is usual, I immediately forgot it. Anyhow, it was good! Other things offered are fried chicken, empanadas (but all fruit filled rather than meat or veggies), potato chips, french fries, chicharones (fried pork), sausage, pizza, pupusas (delicious flat things filled with meat, beans and/or cheese - a specialty from El Salvador), chiles rellenos (stuffed peppers), and tons of candy/sweet things.
While wandering around, we ended up talking to a family from the US who come to Antigua every year for Semana Santa. It's easy to see why people would want to return year after year. I think we will. 
While at the plaza, I bought one of the palm bouquets. There is one big section of the plaza, directly in front of the entrance to the church, where the sellers of the palm arrangements sit and make the arrangements. It is a beautiful sight, as the women are all dressed in their colorful traditional indigenous outfits.
There must be over a hundred people making and selling the bouquets, which are made of special palm leaves brought in from a specific area of the country, along with various other colorful flowers. Some different from the dinky little bow made of a piece of palm leaf that I recall from Palm Sunday in Florida! I was planning to wait until Sunday morning to buy one of these beautiful arrangements, but someone reminded me that the plaza would be so crowded tomorrow morning that I wouldn't be able to get there. So I asked what the price was. I was shocked to learn that these beautiful things sell for 5 quetzales (about 65 US cents), so I "splurged" on one.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Procesión de Los Niños
Breakfast around the corner at Fernando's again. Walked to la Catedral de San Jose on Parque Central to watch the Procesión de los Niños. While waiting for the procession to begin, we watched the creation of one of the beautiful alfombras (made of colored sawdust and sand) on one section of the floor of the church. Fascinating to watch this piece of art come together as stencil after stencil was used to apply different colors. We came across a freelance guide, Don Oscar, who showed us through the churches & ruins at Catedral San Jose as well as Iglesia San Francisco. Both left a huge impression on us, realizing the destructive force of the earthquakes which, along with other disasters, both "natural" and man-made, have left such huge scars on this country. We plan to return to spend more time at these sites. 
After our guided tour, we returned to the Catedral as the niños (young people) prepared to lift the huge floats (with their statues) onto their shoulders to carry them out of the church and through the streets of the town. You're going to hear a lot more about these processions, how they are done, how many people participate, etc as I learn more about it over the next week. For now let me say that the girls
were so fun to watch. While the boys wore traditional purple robes and head coverings, the girls were dressed in black skirts and white blouses. They wore head coverings and white gloves. It was clear that they took their jobs seriously and some were quite nervous. The boys' float, carrying the sculpture of Jesús Nazareno del Desamparo (made by the Guatemalan artist Salvador Posadas in 1913) is carried on the shoulders of 40 young boys. The float with the sculpture of the Virgin de Dolores is carried by 24 young girls. We watched the procession depart the Catedral through the huge front doors. Followed by the bands and hundreds of onlookers, they descended the massive stone steps and continued down the steet, swaying to the music under the weight of their heavy loads. None of my schedules and books told me how long this procesión was, but it passed our apartment 2 1/2 hours later, so it had to be at least 4 hours total.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Getting to Know Antigua
Discoveries of the Day: The shower works great, they have donuts in Antigua, parque central is beautiful, el mercado (market) is huge, crowded, colorful and fun, and one can have a very tasty lunch of chicken or ribs with side dishes for 10 Quetzales ($1.30 or so) in the market. Lots of walking around again, looked at a lot of woven things in the shops, bought 2 books about Antigua.
La Antigua
We Could Live Here!
It's love at first site with the unique colonial city with its cobblestone streets and friendly people. Its citizens have set an example for the world, I think, having laws forbidding any signs extending outward from the buildings. It makes it tough to find places but helps to preserve the colonial charm of the city and saves it from the threat of the ugly urban blight of so many cities of the world.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Don Benjamin
Don Benjamin
"That's a good question." It's our first conversation with Don Benjamin, our neighbor and landlord and, we hope, new friend. He has stopped us on the street to chat. He wants us to know how wonderful his town is. He wants us to ask him anytime that we have questions about Antigua. He has lived here his entire life, he says, and he's now 83. It's our first day in Guatemala and when I ask him what kind of work he did before retiring, he tells me "That's a good question." Expecting to learn that he was something exotic like a freedom fighter, I am unprepared for the obvious. He worked for the city of Antigua - in the tourist office. It seems we have found our own private encyclopedia of all knowlege about this incredible city! And someone to practice our Spanish with, too, although he dances back and forth between Spanish and English at a dizzying rate.
On Saturday, our new mentor tells us, we must walk to La Iglesia de San Felipe de Jesús. The alfombra (carpet) that the faithful prepare there is one of the most incredible, he says, and the vigil held there is a wonderful experience. But the most important thing, he says, is "la gente," the people. We definitely agree. The people here are incredible.
We Made It!
Getting here last night was fun but weird. First off the thing about getting fed on an airplane was cool. Thank you Lacsa. I'd forgotten what that was like. Then when we'd hardly finished our little snack, we were landing. I think within an hour and a half of take off, we were on the ground in Guatemala City. By the time we got through immigration, which took a half hour or so, picked up our backpacks, and went through customs, which involved a friendly person accepting our customs declaration form and welcoming us to Guatemala, I guess it was 8:30 or so. Then we exited the airport to a mob much larger than the one that normally awaits arriving flights at the San Jose airport - and much more colorful, too, with many women dressed in traditional Mayan attire. It definitely made an impression, as did the soldiers with their huge guns.
We quickly spotted Roberto, holding a sign with our names. While driving us to Antigua, he told us a bit about Guatemala, the city and Antigua, and gave us a little Spanish practice. In Antigua we were met by the friendly Julio, the owner/director of our school. He introduced us to his mother and she showed us our apartment, which is off her patio - and next door to the school. This arrangement should work well. Dona Maria Linda, Julio's mama showed us that we had a gas stove, a bathroom and a lot of other handy items in the apartment. 
After the introductions, we walked a block or so and had some nachos and beer before returning to our little apartment and a good night's sleep.
The town looked beautiful last night, but it was dark and we really couldn't tell much. Today it's been confirmed. This town is fabulous! After breakfast at an adorable place around the corner from our apartment, Kaffee Fernando's, where they grind their own cafe (Cappuccino 9 Dbl 11 Tipico Desayuno 12 w Onion y tomate 14; cafe 45 a pound..), we went to the bank to get some quetzales, did the grocery store thing to get supplies for the apartment, paid our tuition for next week, walked some more, rested, then had dinner at a neighborhood Salvadoran restaurant. Life is good. I could live here.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Time To Go!
It's 6:15 pm and we're taking off, after pulling away from the gate at exactly 6:05. This wouldn't seem totally inapproprate but for the fact that our scheduled departure time was 6:05. Does this really happen?
What promised to be our first rainy season shower greeted us just as we exited the house to wait for our taxi. It was mild however and by the time we were halfway to the airport it was over and our beautiful sunny day had returned.
Lacsa actually served lovely little pastry things with nicely flavored chicken or something. Tasted good. No charge. Cool!
Oh, my God! We're landing already. Seems like we just got in the air! Hasta Luego!
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
We're Ready!
One week from today is the departure date for our Guatemala trip! We are excited. I've wanted to see Guatemala for many years, and now that we've lived in Central America for 5 years, we've decided it's time to see some of our neighboring countries. We will be arriving the week before Semana Santa (holy week), and will spend the first month in Antigua, which I hear has the most impressive Semana Santa processionals in all of the Americas. We will be staying right in the heart of Antigua for the first month, and will be right there where the holy week processions will be taking place.
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