Archive for the Xela category
May 15th, 2008
Okay, well maybe two. I’ve been back in Xela now about a week-and-a-half, and am enjoying my time here again. I’ve got some great friends here, and really do enjoy where I live and what I do. Including what happened last weekend.
A Guatemalan friend of mine who has a lot of interest in the religion of the Mayans brought his spiritual guide, Tata Pedro, to Xela for a two day event. Day one was a class on the Mayan Calendar, including its use of twenty Nahuales, which make up the twenty days of the calendar, which repeat in a cycle of 13 months. Each Nahual contains certain characteristics, holding importance both to people born on the individual day, as well as to any activities that might take place on that day. I found the information interesting, but a little much to take in, given the immense amount of information, plus the fact that it was all in Spanish. (I found I could translate the words but had trouble uniting them in any meaningful way). There’s great information about the Mayan Calendar on Wikipedia, and also on the Tzolk’in, or calendar used in Guatemala . There’s also a nice presentation of the nahuales on the web page of a local magazine, Xelawho, prepared by my friend Pedro who organized the event.
The second day of the event, and the “day” mentioned in the title of this post, involved a trip up a mountain above Xela, called La Muella, or the Molar. La Muella was and is a sacred place for the indigenous religion of the region, with its mix of beautiful views, abundant plantlife, volcanic rock outcroppings and steam vents converted into saunas. The group who attended reunited Sunday morning, and after some time gathering materials, stuffed into taxis and cars to get to the trailhead for the hike up La Muella. The hike consists of first a short, easy walk up a trail to a soccer field used by locals of the neighborhood, which this day had a lone horse tied up and awaiting its owner as well. After the field, the trail arrives at a lower-down sacred point, marked by a large rock outcropping and a small shack constructed to allow volcanic steam to be used for saunas. The Tata entered to meditate and use the sauna; we stayed outside, with me doing a little of my own meditation. After this point, the trail heads up a rocky hill, requiring a fair bit of scrambling to reach the peak of the day’s journey, literally and figuratively.
The top of La muella is a small space, surrounded on all sides by rocks and with an amazing view of the valley which gives the 200,000+ residents of Xela their home. In this space we built a fire ring, which was then filled with wood, incense, garlic, sacred seeds and LOTS of colored candles. The candles represent various parts of life on earth, with for example, red representing the sun and black representing the sunset. I found the ritual significance of all the items and their variations to be beautiful. The ceremony went for about an hour and a half, consisting, to my ears anyway, of much giving thanks for the world around us, for our thoughts, for the lives that we live. All this being led by a man who has lived his whole life on Guatemala’s beautiful Lake Atitlan, in a small village named San Pedro. He is 65, never attended school, knows very little of reading or writing, speaks Spanish as a second language (the indigenous Tzu’tuhil as his first). And yet he obviously knows SO much about the world. I’ve been to another ceremony, or banquete espiritual of his in the past, and more than anything they just cause me to feel. Pure emotion. Something about his leading of the ceremony, as well as his spirit, really brings an amazing feeling to me, and also obviously to those around me.
Other parts of the ceremony include a ritual spiritual washing with branches and flowered natural perfume, and the ritual smoking of a cigar. At the end of the ceremony I felt very united with those around me, and unspeakably lucky to be where I am living the life that I am living. Afterwards we shared a traditional Guatemalan meal of Tamalitos de Chipilin (corn tamales with a green herb mixed in), refried black beans and fresh avocados. We walked down the hill, grabbed a taxi, and continued to spend the next hour or so enjoying what a Sunday in a public park can be - friends walking in and out and chatting, just enjoying a nice day in the sun.
Afterwards, met up with a new friend who I have been showing around Xela. I had hoped that we could go off adventuring somewhere, but given the lateness of the day that seemed impossible. However, after doing some walking and exploring we ran into another new friend of mine, who arranged for us to get a ride up another of Xela’s beautiful hills to talk and watch over the beautiful night lights of the city from a covered gazebo.
And so went one of the better days I have had in this town. Through the specialness of the banquete, the powerful feeling of friendship and the spontaneous adventure. Sorry for the long post, if anyone is still reading I hope to hear from people and be in touch. For those that I saw in California, it was great, for those that I didn’t I’m sorry and hope to see you all soon!
josh
March 29th, 2008
I’m sitting here having just bought a ticket home to visit for two weeks thinking a lot about Guatemala and the United States. The reason I’m visiting so soon is that I have some sick family members in both L.A. and the Bay Area, so will be taking some time to visit with both of them. Its hard to have been away this long, and still be away, and be missing my family and feeling the emotions of not being with them, however little time I may have spent with them when I DID live at home.
And though it will be a hard visit, I’m also excited to set my feet on American soil for a variety of reasons. First, the easy ones. I miss my friends and family. I miss hot showers. I miss burritos, Fatburgers, Thai Food, Indian Food, Taco trucks and a montón of other foods I’ve been living without for the past five months. I miss good amber ales and good scotch. And I miss the vibrant nightlife (and daylife) of a big city. Beyond that, I’m curious to see what its like to be in the U.S. after these five months gone. Guatemala and the U.S. really are quite different.
How are they different? I’m not even quite sure yet. Physically, well, living in a Central American historical city center provides its differences. Old houses, peeling paint, crumbling twisty cobblestone roads. Looking up at a volcano all the time. Living for the first time in my life in a city which in which I don’t need a car, and everything is walkable. And the difference in cost of living that allows me to live more-or-less as I like for about $300 a month.
Beyond these differences though are the socio-cultural differences. One huge one is time. Guatemalan Spanish is full of very-often-used words which provide for a vague definition of time. Ahorita (a derivative of ahora, or now) means sometime between now and an hour or two. Un Rato which more or less means A While, is used a lot in situations where a more precise definition of time would be wanted by myself and most people I know at home. City buses run without a schedule; just walk to a street they run on, raise your hand and they stop for you. The world I’m a part of here in Xela places such a smaller relevance on time than the worlds I’m used to at home. I’m still trying to decide how much I like this, though it is definitely a good way to encourage myself to chill out
Thinking about time in Guatemala has alshown me how a different language or use of language can reflect societal concepts. There’s a vagueness that can be heard in other descriptions as well, say when you ask for directions, that points to a less precise cataloging and control of the world then I’m used to. Ask someone where a business or house is, and rather than a street or address, you get allá abajo or allá arriba or recto, recto, recto!”(while pointing in a non-descript direction). After a while, I realized they were just saying “down there”or “up there”or “straight, straight, straight” more or less - frustrating for a new visitor to a ciy. This led me to realize that people from Xela don’t really use addresses, they just know what is near what and get around that way.
More subversive is fear. Before coming to Guatemala, I read lots and lots on the interweb about how dangerous Guatemala could be, but also how beautiful and safe. For me, I can still say I’ve gotten by without even a threatening glance from anybody. But I hear constantly about people who have been robbed, or people-who-know-people who have been robbed. Sometimes I get very sick of hearing these stories, and having to think about them when I walk home.
Other things. Its interesting to live in a culture based around bargaining, where I feel like a chump if I DON’T bargain hard for the things that I buy, whether they be mangoes or socks or computer parts. Its fun being able to buy ice cream in the park for $0.15, even if it is unrefrigerated. Its not so fun to have to worry about the sanitary value of every meal I eat, though I’ve gotten pretty ballsy these days, and as most of you know I love street food so I can’t think too much about that 
And to finish, two things I’ve mentioned before. One being showers. The experience of every shower I’ve had the pleasure of having in a residence of mine for the past five months, is well, an interesting one. First hot, then cold, then warm, then hot, then warm, then cold, then warm, then…. You can never really settle in and enjoy a temperature because it changes so fast. Not to mention the light electrical shock I sometimes get when I turn it up or down.Though it is a pleasure when I find a shower that works well, or when mine works well for a day.
And the second is transportation. Whether it be cheap or luxury, bus or van or car, transportation in this country sucks. Chicken buses are an experience for a short while and dirt cheap, but not comfortable nor particularly safe. And everything else is still made hard by the construction on the roads, which leaves you driving through dust/cloud storms sometimes, or waiting an hour in a cola or line of cars stopped at a construction site.
And all this not saying that I don’t love this country. If you actually made it through all this and have any comments let me know. Or come visit and I’ll show you around.
February 22nd, 2008
As the title says, my setlist from Feb. 22nd at El Cuartito in Xela. Had a lot of fun tonight and figured I’d post the songs. If you have any questions, get at me.
Shuggie Otis / Sweet Thang / Inspiration Information
Bonobo / Walk in the Sky (f/Bajka) / Days to Come / Ninja Tune
GB / Just a Little Lovin / Atlantiquity
Etienne de Champfleury / Mon Oranger / Be a Bird in the Basement EP
Beatconductor / Marrakech / 12″ / Gamm
Rube / Another Gone Record / Another Gone Record 12″ / Jazz & Milk
Diesler / Summer Dream / Tru Thoughts
Mr. Scruff / Get a Move on / Trouser Jazz
Buari / Advice from Father / African Disco
Mark Ronson f/Phantom Planet / Just / BBE/Rapster
Ben Westbeech / Feel So Good (Acoustic Version) / Brownswood
Shuggie Otis / Strawberry Letter 23 / Inspiration Information
Kinny & Horne / Sacred Life / 12″
Handsome Boy Modeling School f/ Moloko & J. Live / The Truth / So… How’s Your Girl
Zero 7 (Hefner’s Destiny Chill RMX) / Destiny / The Remixes
Portishead / Glory Box / Live at Roseland Ballroom
Al Green / Love & Happiness (Shoes Re-Edit) / White Label / Shoes
Aloe Blacc / Ordinary People / Shine Through / Stones Throw
JST*R (Jstar) / (Still) Passing Me By / 12″ / Most Wanted
The Dynamics / 7 Nation Army / Version Excursions
The Luniz / I Got 5 on It / 12″
Darondo / Didn’t I / Let My People Go / Ubiquity
February 17th, 2008
Well, I’m sitting in my bedroom in my new apartment in Guatemala, a fact I still can’t quite wrap my head around. At this point I don’t really know long I’ll be here; whether I’ll pay a month of rent and be ready to go or whether I will settle in for a bit and continue working on the Partners in Solidarity project and DJing. I’m living on the third story of one of the taller buildings in Xela, with a view over the green mountains surrounding the city and the buildings below. It is surprisingly one of the nicest places I’ve lived in in years. My roommates are two and 1/2 Guatemalans; a good friend of mine named Sylvia, Luis, and occasionally Sylvia’s ridiculously cute baby Maya Sofia. I just today got my room setup the way I like it and am truly enjoying the space, as well as my life and routine here in Xela.
I continue to work with Partners in Solidarity, which includes some teaching, some technical supervision, some random technical tasks and traveling. Monday I will go to a school 1.5 hours outside of Xela to setup up a computer laboratory for them. Apparently its somewhat out a dirt road and pretty far out into the sticks - I’m relishing the opportunity to be able to provide them with some computers and education that they can share with their kids. These are computers that to most of the world are considered trash, that are restored first by Next Step Recycling in Oregon, then more by us and some Guatemalan technicians that we work with. You can see on the Next Step page that the founder recently won the Vovlo for Life award, and has made People Magazine and CBS, all things which could bring good publicity for us as well.
I’ve also been DJing far more than I’m used to, with a weekly lounge gig here in Xela, and almost weekly invitations to play at parties. I played an all Soul-song Valentine’s Day set on Thursday that reminded me of doing radio back in Santa Cruz - lots of fun. There’s mainly one other Gringo DJ, DJ Payne and one other Guatemalan, Kokopeli, that I DJ with, both of whom are becoming good friends. We were invited out to San Pedro la Laguna in Lake Atitlan last week to DJ a party at a hotel for some friends, including bascially all of our costs. Its great to have time to practice my two main arts, being DJing and Photography, and even making some money at it in the mean time. I can definitely say I miss having more clubs to go, musicians and DJs to hear, but the community here is quite nice and great to be a part of.
I’m finding myself really enjoying the opportunity to settle into and explore a new and foreign town. Enjoying things like walking downstais in the morning to buy two eggs and some delicious, thick, fresh corn tortillas from the tienda for $0.50. Enjoying walking by the parties pumping marimba music all afternoon with indigenous families dancing inside. Watching the school kids on their lunch break hanging out in the plaza in front of my house from my balcony. Walking to the market and buying Passion Fruit, Mangoes, Zapotes (some kind of avocado-mixed-with-sweet-potato-thing) and others all arrayed on the street around a giant indoor market, with lots of things for sale including strange things like Goat heads. As well as enjoying more traditional activities like traveling, making friends and just relaxing in my room on a Saturday night.
Two weeks ago I also spent some time in a minuscule beach town near the Mexican border called Tilapita with one hotel that hosted the one restaurant. I went alone, savoring the opportunity to do some traveling alone for a bit. Just spent a night and loved the aspect of seeing a town so far removed from the life I’m used to; basically just some small houses arranged on a grid pattern on the sand, a few tiendas and some churches. The hotel was a bit weird, with damp rooms and grumpy management, but quite cheap and an experience for sure.
These last couple shots are from a town called San Andres Xecul, just outside of Xela. The yellow church is quite a sight.
I hope all is well and look forward to being in touch and maybe seeing some of you down here.
‘nice’
February 1st, 2008
After the last blog post I wrote, which had me in Xela for new years, I met my friend Sara in Antigua and we traveled around Guatemala for 8 days, after which we returned to Guatemala City for her to deliver a lovely concert of her Jazz singing at the Instituto Guatemalteco Americano, or I.G.A. Our trip took us through Antigua, the ruins at Tikal, Guatemala City, and two lakeside villages called Panajachel and San Marcos La Laguna. It was a whirlwind tour, and a nice way to see some places I have not had the chance to see yet.
Though I´d already been in Antigua, it was spectacular to see snow on the peaks of the volcanoes, an apparently very rare occurrence owing to a storm which had come the day before and wiped out power in most of the country. We also saw some neat ruins and spent some time walking around the town.
Being at Tikal, the most excavated (and most visited) of Guatemala´s Mayan ruins, is most interesting to me in relation to modern times. The site is in heavy jungle, and when found each ruin was just a mound covered in dirt and trees; the jungle had taken the city back over. Its truly incredible to view the remains of such a developed civilization that, which, due to circumstances beyond their control, they were forced to abandon. Walking through the city, its hard not to think about what our own cities would look like covered in earth and then excavated.
Sara and I chose to watch the sunrise there, a beautiful if difficult proposition due to the 3 AM alarm clock required to make it there on time. After a comical mid-drive encounter consisting of a flat tire, one broken lug nut and some broken tire hardware, we made our way to Tikal where we hiked for an hour through the jungle in the dark where we climbed Tikal´s Templo IV in relative silence. Aside form the view of the sunrise, which was rather subdued due to clouds, the best part about the sunrise tour is the sounds of the jungle waking up, including the growl of howler monkeys. We spent the first half of the day walking around Tikal, then returned to Flores, a tourist town on a lake which provides services to Tikal visitors. The highlight of that afternoon was probably Sara´s lunch, which was on the menu under carnes exoticos and consisted of grilled armadillo. yuck. After lunch, we spent some time at our hotel with a funny old lady who lived next door and hung out in the lobby. We talked to her, and she had spent her honeymoon (luna de miel, or moon of honey) years ago in Xela. She sang us the traditional song about Xela “Under the moon of Xelajú” then sent us on our way to the airport, where we flew back to Guatemala City. In the next post I talk about our experiences in Guatemala City, then will go on to describe the rest of our trip.
January 20th, 2008
Here in Xela looking at the date today, its hard to belive its already halfway through January 2008. Its been a while since I wrote and I won´t try to describe everything I´ve done as its been a lot, but would like to highlight some things.
Just after Christmas I took a trip to San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mexico. Its a beautiful highland town, sorrounded by wooded mountains and populated with buildings of well preserved colonial style architecture. San Cristobal is in the Mexican state of Chiapas and was the site of a Zapatista takeover in 1994, though now feels much more like a tranquil tourist town than the site of a violent uprising. I spent a few days there in a nice French-owned hostel called Los Camellos. Mostly I explored, enjoyed being in a peaceful town, and ate lots of tacos.
I had two highlights there. The first was a visit to San Juan Chamula, an indigenous town about 20 minutes away from San Cristobal. I visited on Sunday, which is both market day and worship day. The market there is in the plaza directly in front of the church, thus the entire area is quite crowded. The worship in Chamula is a mix of ¨pre-conquest Maya customs, Spanish Catholic traditions, and subsequent innovations,¨ says Wikipedia. Essentially, there are no pews in the church, but instead a mass of people pushing forward or sorrounding candles on the floor sorrounded by wooden saints on the wall. Wikipedia has a good description well worth reading. It was intense being inside the church, literally trapped among thousands of people, breathing the incense.
The other highlight was a visit to a museum called Na Bolom which documentes the history of the indidenous Maya peoples of the La Selva jungle in Chiapas. Its a great museum with incredible photography and lovely grounds sorrounding it. Definitely worth the visit.
Though San Cristobal has a lot to offer, I found myself feeling somewhat disconnected from the place and from the hostel I stayed at. I decided to to take a bus back to Xela to spend new years eve at the hostel where I´ve been living, feeling like it was better to be with the friends that I have here than in a city by myself where I was starting to feel a tad bit lonely. So I took the 10 hour ride, along which I was very aware of the 1st world to 3rd world transition I made crossing the border back into Guatemala. The roads are in worse shape, the busses older and less comfortable, the houses poorer. I was reminded of the Manu Chao song Welcome to Tijuana, which has always reminded me of crossing the border from San Diego down into Tijuana, though this border corssing is a whole different type of transition. You can watch the video at youtube here : click. Manu Chao is espescially interesting as being the new Bob Marley of traveling, as I hear him in literally every hostel and every traveler oriented bar I go to (along with an uncanny amount of Guns and Roses).
New Years in Xela was nice, saw a live cuban band in a French restaurant and hung out at the hostel. No public celebration here, but tons of fireworks, including those we set off ourself in the street. It was cool looking around up at the hills above Xela and seeing the fireworks that people were setting off at their houses. I was glad to have spent the holiday back here in the town that feels more and more like home.
I think I´ll stop this post here and leave the next post to descrbe my travels around Guatemala with Sara Leib, my oldest friend and a great Jazz singer. Since that trip I´ve also seen some interesting developments in my volunteer work with Partners in Solidarity. Its quite interesting the what can happen when one chooses to travel without plans, more or less trying out what comes your way. I feel sometimes like I´m so at home here, and other times miss the states immensely and can´t quite figure out what I´m doing here. It really has been quite the learning experience though, learning a new language and figuring out how to get along in a new culture.
So for now, all done rambling and posting. I hope to be in touch with those that get these posts and hear about things back in your respective homes.
Cheers and with Love
Josh
January 7th, 2008
Greetings from Lake Atitlan, where I currently am staying in a lovely and small village called San Marcos. I´ll fill in some travel blanks soon, but for the meantime wanted to post the recipe for Pepian, a food I´ve mentioned a few times on the blog, and pictured in the photo album below.
(Recipe as recorded by my friend James)
You need:
- a cup or so of sesame seeds
- a cup or so of pepitorias; these look like greenish pumpkin seeds,but my Guatemalan friends assure me that they are not pumpkin seeds. However, according to a brief Google search, they are in fact pumpkin seeds. So I have no idea what they really are but pumpkin seeds wouldprobably work fine.
- a cup and a half of miltomates aka tomatillos
- a pound of green beans, de-stemmed
- a couple of big carrots, peeled
- a couple of small pieces of cinnamon (something like three or four pieces, each roughly 1 cm by 3 cm)
- two kinds of dried chile: chile pasa, a black chile that looks like a raisin (thus the name) and chile guaque. You need a small piece of each type of chile, something like a 3 cm slice of each.
- some kind of broth; we did it with chicken broth on one night and beef broth on another night, but it would also work with vegetarian broth.
Cooking Instructions
- Toast the sesame seeds until they’re golden
- Toast the pepitorias until they’re golden
- Toast the entire loaf of bread.
- In a dry saucepan, heat the tomatillos until they’re somewhat soft and blackened, but not so much that they lose their shape.
- In a dry saucepan, heat two of the plum tomatoes, the cinnamon, and the chiles. You should cut the chiles and the cinnamon up into smaller pieces so they cook better. This step takes a long time and you will think you’re burning the chiles, as they’ll give off a toxic smoke. Don’t worry; they’ll be done when they’re completely blackened and look like they’re charcoal. The cinnamon should be somewhat blackened and the tomatoes somewhat blackened (but, again, it shouldn’t lose its shape).
- Mix all of the above except the bread, plus the black pepper and cumin. Blend a cup at a time in a blender, adding water or broth as needed to help it blend. After blending each batch, strain it into a pot using a sieve. Use extra water or broth to extract more of the sauce from the stuff in the sieve. You’ll need to scrape the sieve with a spoon to make sure all the sauce gets through. When it’s all strained, you should have a sort of sandy mush in the sieve and asmooth, nutty sauce in the pot. Discard the sandy mush part.
- Mash the toasted loaf of bread with enough broth to make it into mush, but not a liquidy mush. Blend the bread mush, put it in the pot, and stir it well. This is the pepian sauce. Let it simmer for a while, stirring occasionally.
- (This can be done in parallel.) Chop the green beans, carrots, and the remaining tomatoes. Put them in a large pot with some oil and heat over a high flame. When they’re cooked, throw in the rice (yes, that’s dry rice) and stir constantly. After several minutes the rice should become golden brown. Add an appropriate quantity of water and a good amount of salt, cover the pot and allow it to simmer until the rice has absorbed all the water.
- I served it with an additional salsa of chiles, garlic, onion, lime, cilantro, and salt; I think it adds a welcome kick.
December 26th, 2007
Writing now with yet another holiday post, after a nice two days spent celebrating Christmas in different ways. I started out in a pueblo called Pasac Segundo, in a municipality called Cantel which is just outside of Xela. Its more or less the countryside, populated by indigenous people, mostly Quiche. I went out there to spend Noche Buena, or Christmas Eve, with a family that works with the volunteer organization I work with. Quite a different experience than Im used to in so many ways. There are kids everywhere, and the family working on preparing a typical dinner. We made a traditional item called Pache, which on Christmas consists of a Rice Flour concoction, chicken or steak in a tomato sauce, and a raisin, all wrapped in a banana leaf and baked. Yum.
We also had a fresh turkey, which my friend Mateo helped to kill and pluck. Ive never seen an animal killed before, let alone eaten it the same day. It was really good, and we ate it in a sauce called Pepian which i mentioned earlier on this blog. The family was incredibly welcoming to us, and I had various conversations about all types of things with the family and their various kids and grandkids. At midnight, the tradition is to light fireworks, or bombas, and this was crazy. Lots of young kids, running around without supervision, lighting fireworks. Beautiful, also quite scary. And so different from something that most people in the States would allow. At one point, the two year old girl in the picture below was pointing a sparkler directly at me…
Christmas day I spent with some friends I have made locally, on the roof of a building, eating, listening to music and enjoying the sunshine. They are good folks, teachers, djs, an internet cafe owner. Its good to know people in a town who are the same types of people I would know at home. They made me feel very welcome as well. Afterwards, I was the Bee Movie, overdubbed in Spanish, sans subtitles or the voice of Jerry Seinfeld. Not quite the same as home, but a nice Christmas Day Activity.
Otherwise, life continues in Xela. I made a great Pepian with the people at my hostel and a local woman that works there, have been speaking Spanish a lot and continuing to work on my projects. Ive been on some nice hikes, heard some nice Cuban Son music, shared lots of music and had some fun nights out. Guatemala continues to feel quite comfortable, though tomorrow I leave to Chiapas, Mexico to explore a bit, spend NewYears Eve, and, of course, eat some tacos.
I sincerely wish everybody happy holidays of the various types, and of course Happy New Years. As always, please keep in touch, it warms my heart to hear from my friends and famly back home.
Adios y que se vaya bien!
Josue.
December 16th, 2007
A quick post today to report a couple of things. First off, I´m finally feeling better after a long week or so of dealing with a stomach illness caused by the ingestion of Amoebic Cysts, generally found on improperly washed vegetables. Now I know that Amoebas cause more than just the death of record stores. In my case, I´m guessing they came from some cabbage that I ate with some tacos last Thursday. Even though common sense dicatates otherwise, its hard to stay away from the street food, and somtimes this results in problems. As of now though, I´ve finished the Antibiotics course and all seems to be well.
Last Saturday I helped teach the computer class I mentioned in my previous post, and regardless of my illness had a good time demonstrating all the various computer parts in Spanish in a classroom setting. We also spent some time trying to explain a computer´s BIOS menu, which unfortunately is alwaws in English and quite hard to explain to a classroom of Spanish speakers. Teaching the class was great though and I look forward to others. The enthusiastic “students” (actually teachers from local schools) are really great to work with, and I like the thought that they are able to go back to their communities with their new knowledge and use it to provide computer access to their students. One student even invited us to a local wedding, which I attended yesterday, but more on that later.
After some rest on Saturday, I went with a friend on Sunday to San Pedro La Laguna, on Lake Atitlan, for what turned out to be…more rest and a reoccurence of stomach illness. No, it was a beautiful, if slightly difficult, trip. San Pedro is an interesting place, mixing indigenous living & culture with a sort of modern day hippie enclave. Its intersting coming from Santa Cruz, being quite used to the hippie culture, and reading about San Pedro on the net. Lots about dreadlocks, drums, pot smoking etc. Which really is all true, and is true about Santa Cruz to some extent, but San Pedro is a more intense version of these stereotypes. There is a certain lack of law there, at least in side of town frequented by travelers, and poeple seem to do as they please more or less. Pot smoking in restaurants and on the streets, lots of people showing the obvious effects of heavier drugs as well, with many of the town´s establishments set up to serve this crowd as well.
The businesses set up around lake are pretty much exclusively to serve Gringos, which serves as a stark contrsast to the locals walking past with heavy loads and crops, which they must carry up the hill to the indigenous areas. And all this, setup against the simply stunning, gorgeous backdrop of mountains, volcanoes and the lake itself. Peaceful and quiet, with indigenous fisherman in wooden canoes. Beautiful sunsets. The lake truly is beautiful, and even an ideal place to be sick, if one must choose one. I reccomend Hotel Almanecer to anyone looking for a nice, private room on the lake. Nice owner and nice gardens, with an amazing view.
After returning from the lake, antibiotics in tow, I spent the week in Xela, doing some volunteer work and seeing some friends, while doing far too much resting to try to cure the Amoebas. This time was broken by attending a Posada, which is a processing which takes place in the days before Christmas, where Joseph and Mary statues are carried between local houses, where they are given shelter for the night. The procession was in a town called Cantel, the house it took place in was the same place where Partners in Solidarity stores their computers. Interesting to see such a large group of locals, who gave a small service and a teenager spoke of some of the problems experienced by people his age. The family is great, espescially the kids, and we helped them serve 200 hundred hamburgers and cups of “coffee” (watered down nescafe with LOTS of sugar) to everybody.
Finally, yesterday attended the wedding in a town called Salcaja, a small place where many of the fabrics worn by indigenous women are made. The overpowering sense of the wedding was the noise, caused by 4 huge sets of peavey speakers placed side by side, right next to my head more or less. The wedding was quite Western/American in style, with champagne and modern dancing. I wished it was quieter so we could have talked and gotten to know people better, but the food was incredible and it was great to see a wedding here. I had a funny conversation with a guy who couldn´t understand 1) that I didn´t believe in Jesus and 2) that I wasn´t interested in sports. He figured nubmer 2 had to do with number one, asking me if sports were prohibited in my religion.
I´m loving my hostel/home in Xela right now, Hostal Don Diego, but am pondering how I will spend the holidays, with some traveling possibly to the lake and possible to San Cristobal in Mexico, before returning here for some more work in January.
Much love to all and please be in touch.
