Antigua - Villages and Volcanos

We visited a women's collective this morning for a demonstration of weaving (cloth and reeds), coffee and corn grinding, tortilla making, and were served a traditional meal for lunch - gallo en chicha!

It was interesting to learn the story of their village and how they have been in debt to the same coffee plantation owner for more than 200 year. Because of the interest, they will never be able to pay it back, so the men have been working for him 2 months a year for the last 200 years for free. The money that the women raise selling their handicrafts they use to buy books and supplies so they can send the village children to school.

After returning to Antigua, most of us met up with another guide (who spoke no English, unfortunately) and group of tourists to climb Pacaya Volcano. The climb up was hot, dusty and tiring - and every time someone stops for a break, a guy with a scrawny, sad looking horse would appear beside them saying "Taxi? Taxi?"

The "taxi" guys only went part way up the volcano, quitting when we got to the hardened lava (from an eruption in 2004 or 2006, I can't remember which). It was a different experience walking on the lava - it had the same rolls as a pile of cow manure, with lots of loose and jagged rocks. Walking over the lava tubes, I could hear the hollowness as my walking stick knocked the rock, and feel the heat rising out of the cracks I had to step over.

I had heard and scene pictures of the top of the volcano where we could stand right beside flowing rivers of lava, but for some reason the day we were there, there wasn't any lava! There were a few glowing red vent, so were were able to roast some marshmallows which got a nasty sulpher flavour.

It had rained on us a bit as we hiked up, but we dried within seconds from the heat, but hiking down the hill a massive thunderstorm rolled in. The hike down was not fun at all - it was pitch black, pouring rain, the dusty trail had turned to mud, and the horse manure had turned a lot of it into a river of poo. Yuck!

We got back to our hotel late, only having time to quickly change before meeting up for our final group dinner.

(That evening D told us that a few days before we did our hike, a tourist fell through one of the lava tubes and lost their leg, and less than 2 months after our hike, the volcano erupted, killing at least 3 people)

Lake Atitlan

The group chartered a boat to tour around Lake Atitlan this morning. Our first stop was a beautiful bed and breakfast for breakfast. The food was awesome, as was the view of the surrounding volcanos and the gardens. We spent close to an hour just relaxing and taking it all in.

The second stop was to visit Maximon, the fabled effigy said to be a combination of Mayan and Spanish deities. He's revered and cared for by the traditional Mayan villages, with people leaving donations of rum and cigarettes (and helping the wooden statue to smoke them) for good blessing. We then went to the church in the same town, where behind the alter is a stone carving depicting people honouring Maximon (meaning that he's been around for a few hundred years), though the people who attend this church don't visit him.

Our final stop was a village where our guide D's extended family still lives and owns a bakery. The family was very inviting, giving us free fresh bread (delicious!) and letting us in their house so that D could show us some pictures of his grandfather.

The lake got rougher as the day wore on, so it was a bumpy and slightly wet ride back to Panajachel where we got on a van and left for Antigua. Antigua served as Guatemala's capital city for more than 200 years until it was destroyed by an earthquake in 1772. Today, it's a peaceful, partially restored colonial city. After settling into our rooms, D gave us an orientation tour through the quiet cobblestone streets, then we enjoyed a restaurant serving traditional Guatemalan foods - I had gallo en chica, a rooster cooked in a tomato, onion, and spice sauce, served on a banana leaf.

Chichicastenango

This morning we braved the Guatemalan chichen buses, taking 3 to the Sunday morning market in Chichicastenango. The chicken buses are old north American school buses, that are given standard transmissions, roof-racks, and a crazy paint job! Three people sit on each bench and the centre aisle gets crammed full of people. We weren't able to take any pictures of the full bus - the one below is from BEFORE it got crowded!

We survived the chicken bus (all thankful that we had paid for the upgrade the day before!) and got off just outside the market. We had breakfast at an upstairs restaurant overlooking the market, then went out to practise our bargaining. I realized pretty quickly that I suck at bartering! I didn't buy much, just 2 sets of placemats and napkins - one for me and the other for my parents who were taking care of my house while I was gone.

We headed back to Panajachel in the early afternoon - to the sound of G throwing up a couple times. (Our group seems to have caught some nasty bug). I wondered around town a bit, then went back to the asian restaurant where we wrote up a pre-nup agreement for K and G... in crayon, of course.

Crossing into Guatemala

To avoid taking the Guatemalan chicken buses with all our packs (and to shorten the length of our trip), we upgraded to our own private van. We left San Cristobal early in the morning, eating breakfast as we drove. It was an "interesting" trip. Our first snag was a road block, causing us to have to turn back and find a route around the protest, adding about 20 minutes to our trip. 3 km from the border, we stopped at the Mexican immigration building where D took our passports to be stamped. I'm not sure why they didn't need to see us, but noone was complaining!

We drove the last few kilometers to the border, unloaded our bags, and walked through the open gate surrounded by market stalls into Guatemala. D still had our passports, and after we had changed a bit of money into Quetzals to pay for our tourist cards, D stood in line again and did all the paperwork for us. Unfortunately the computer system was down so it took about 30 minutes to get it all sorted out, but we beat the other large group of tourists who were all standing in line individually. It was definately not your normal border crossing - no one ever compared my to my passport ... and people were walking back and forth across the border the whole time we were there with nobody stopping them or checking who they were.

We got a new van in Guatemala ... one with a driver who had a hard time finding gears (lots of grinding) and road the brakes going down hills (stinky!). We got to the look out over Lake Atitlan just after sunset and stood admiring the hazy view for a few minutes, then continued down towards the lake. We didn't get far before we had to stop again - this time waiting over an hour for an accident that was blocking the road to be cleared (it would have taken 4 hours to drive around). We managed to entertain ourselves pretty well though, singing along to songs off of Mm's iPod! The people behind us must have wondered what was going on as our van rocked from side to side :P

We finally made it to our hotel in Panajachel, and went to a great asian restaurant for supper.

San Cristobal de las Casas

Since I was feeling a lot better, I decided to do a tour of two of the Mayan villages that surround San Cristobal. The first community was definitely the most unique. The town and market surrounding the church were just like most other towns in the area, but inside the church is where things got weird.

In this town, Christianity has been mixed with traditional Mayan beliefs. The church is officially catholic, but it isn't like any other catholic church I've ever been too. There are no pews, the floor is covered in pine needles (to ward off evil spirits, I think) and burning candles (the reason so many of these churches have burnt down). Along the walls are statues of the saints, covered in layers of clothes and mirrors hanging around their necks (so evil spirits will see their ugly reflection and stay away from them). There aren't many images of Jesus, but since it was the church of St. John the Baptist, there were lots of pictures of him. We also got to see a healing ceremony take place in the middle of the church. The person who was there to be healed was sitting on the floor holding a chicken, while the healer, also sitting on the floor, lit candles and chanted. When he was done, he took the chicken, waved it over the person to "absorb" the evil or sickness, then broke the chicken's neck. The chicken was then returned to the person to be buried. Not your normal, everyday church activity!

The second town was a bit less Mayan (no killing of chickens), but still had the pine needles and candles - but they were on stands, not the floor. In this town, we also stopped in at a family's house where they quickly pulled out all their weaving and embroidering to demonstrate how it was made and to sell it too us. We were also given a demonstration on how they made tortillas using a press.

We got back to San Cristobal early in the afternoon, so there was plenty of time to wander the city streets, find a post office, send an email home, and do a bit of laundry.

Waterfalls and Speed bumps

It was another long day of travelling, but this time we paid a bit extra and booked our own van and driver for the trip so we could stop at some waterfalls along the way. I was up a few times during the night, so loaded up on medication in the morning to help clear up whatever was bothering me - it must have worked because I was feeling a bit better that evening, and back to normal the next day! Our guide D was also having problems that morning - he got stung by a scorpion (which he didn't tell us until later) and whacked his elbow in a failed attempt to get away from it. The first waterfall stop was at Misol-Ha. It's a 35 m high waterfall set in the middle of lush jungle with a path that goes behind it. There is a spot to swim, but it was early and still relatively cool, so no one from our group went in. The second waterfall was Agua Azul. The waterfall isn't very high, but is a series of naturally formed, turquoise pools. I had lunch in one of the small restaurant stalls, then walked to the top with W. After a few pictures, we walked to the bottom, had a quick dip in the surprisingly cold water, then waited in the shade for the others. The rest of the drive wasn't too exciting, except for the almost 400 speed bumps (speed up, slow down, bump, bump, repeat) and K on my left and G on my right arguing about something ... for about 5 hours! We were given a quick orientation walk around San Cristobal, had supper at a really nice (and cheap!) restaurant, then I headed off to bed while the others went out for drinks.

Palenque

I started getting sick today :( I already was getting a sore throat, but this morning my digestive system started acting up, too. Luckily it waited until we had finished visiting the ruins to really go crazy.

We had, or in some cases, tried to have breakfast at the hotel. (Service sucks and some people never got the food they ordered) We were picked up by van and driven the short distance to the entrance to the ruins where we met our guide. The ruins here were awesome! Half covered by jungle, not many tourists, and we were able to climb them! Of course, it comes with a few risks though - as we were getting to the first courtyard, an ambulance was coming out from behind the temple, probably carrying someone who slipped and fell.

The main temples and buildings have been uncovered and restored, but there are many other buildings still covered by jungle, and it was neat to check them out after the tour ended. I was with Mf and I, and we all felt like we were in an Indiana Jones movie ... or maybe Lara Croft since we are all girls :P I even almost got hit in the head by a stick a monkey threw at me!

After we got our fill of ruins, we had a quick look at the museum, then walked back to the hotel for lunch and a relaxing afternoon beside the pool.