Off Again! This Time to Chichicastenango

This was the one place that I was insistent on going, because Chichicastenango (pronounced Chee-chee-casta-nan-go) is about two and a half hours from Antigua, and is the shopping capitol of Guatemala. It's basically the supermall of artisans markets. Market days are the days to do it, and so we hit the less busy Thursday market.

Imagine stalls and stalls for blocks and blocks (probably the size of a small shopping mall) with anything you could ever want to buy in any color including flowers, fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, and fish, clothing, artisans crafts, textiles, shoes, artwork, music and decorative items for the home. Everything but furniture seemed to be sold there.

Imagine the vivid smells of it all- the sweet smell of roses mixed with the sweet bloody smell of the meat mixing with the charcoal smoke from the cooking food and the incense from the church, a couple of steps later all you can smell is citrus from the orange vendor, then musky smell of wet wool and cloth.

Mix the smells with the sounds of this massive place- the vendors calling you in English and Spanish "Very cheap, what do you like? Muy barato, que le gustas amigas?" and the clanging of pots, the chatter of tourists of every language not to mention the chatter of the locals in Spanish and the various dialects from the area, the squeals of children and pigs as mothers drag them along, the ringing of bells from both churches in the area, the applause like clapping of the ladies making masa into fresh tortillas, and the thump thump thump of the music stalls.

As we squeezed through the narrow passageways past the stalls, it was hard to decide which things I would buy. I mean did I want the pretty tablecloth back there, or the equally beautiful one down there? Do I want this red placemat with green in it, or this other red one with blue? Do I want that gorgeous wall hanging, or that bedspread? It was a beautiful thing to be able to afford some of the things I wanted!

Mom really liked these candles

and I loved all the colors!

As you walk through the market on the East and West sides are two churches. The bigger one, the Iglesia de Santo Tomas, is as much a part of the market as any stall. Vendors set up their things on it's steep steps and wait. This woman was sitting on the steps, selling her flowers and was initially very hesitant to let me photograph her. I gave her money and also promised not to photograph her face. This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip and she approved of the result.

The other church is the Capilla del Calvario. It's smaller but almost as impressive because of the Lent decorations.

We only spent a couple of hours in Chichi, but I managed to buy 4 sets of placemats, one tablecloth, one tablerunner, a day of the dead skull, gifts for my coworkers, and two curtain tiebacks. Mom bought her share too, including three shirts, a tablerunner, and more placemats!

After that is was on to Lake Atitlan.

Nasty Mattress and Rain

So on this day we spent our remaining hours on the beach. It was a little hard to leave, but after two days in the heat, and really not sleeping well because of it and the mosquito devils, it was time. We got some last swims, last looks, and some last grains of sand lodged in our nether regions.

Upon return to our hotel to check out, we noticed that the housekeeping was changing out our linens. Oh my god, it looked like a crime scene. Our foam mattresses were totally black! I'm not sure if it was mold (eck!), body fluids of some kind (ugh!), or just (and this is what stopped me from bathing in bleach) the black sand having settled into the foam spaces, but it was pretty bad. My mom, who has a tolerance for grime that borders on the insane, even said it would have deterred her from staying there. Ahh travel, ain't it sexy?

So we get on the bus back to Monterrico, where we met up again with two students from Western WU!, and on our way back into Antigua it started to rain. Normally this is a not a particularly noteworthy occurance, but this rain, after having been baking slowly in the hot, was a welcome sight. it was so nice to have the cool breeze and cool droplets.

This rain, ironically, also provided an opportunity to take the only picture of the top of Agua Volcano I had (normally the top is covered by clouds, so figure that out).

Breakfast and other pleasures of Monterrico

So Mom and I quickly figured out that one of our great loves was a good Guatemalan breakfast! This first morning in Monterrico solidified it for us. Breakfast was coffee, two fried eggs, refried black beans, toast, salsa, fried plantains with a cream sauce, a wedge of cheese and a little piece of chorizo. Heaven is breakfast and it exists in Monterrico. Here is Mom.

So this day we went to an animal preserve, Arcas, specifically protecting sea turtles, iguanas, and crocodiles. This place also hatches baby sea turtles for release in the ocean.

So after getting eaten alive by mosquitos, err, I mean wandering around the reserve, we hung out on the beach and later found a hotel with hammocks in the shade and really good chips and dip. What more does one really need? That evening we returned to the preserve.

Everyone congregates on the beach at 5:30pm and watches the preserve workers release the baby sea turtles in to the ocean. We sponsored two turtles and named them. One after my dad, Bob, and one after my adopted grandmother/family friend, Sister. There was something so touching about naming new little lives after wonderful people. I hope it gives them an advantage in life, because they say that only 1 in 100 sea turtles lives to adulthood. Hopefully these two do...

Here are ours with their littermates.

The Beach at Monterrico

So, since we both love the beach, Mom and I decided to head off to the sun and black sand beaches of Monterrico, Guatamala's only nice Pacific side beach. Just two hours from Antigua, Monterrico was hot but wonderful! The town was very small and since we were there not only in the off season but also during the week, there were not very many people around.

The above pictures are from our hotel's restraunt/lounge.

So, I think all we did our first day (and pretty much everyday after that too) was sit on the beach, decide we were hot, go swimming in the ocean (the water was not warm, but since the temperature was in the 90s it was very cool and refreshing), lay on the beach more or go park in the hammocks in the right hand picture. Sprinkle in having a drink or two, taking a nap and reading all day long and you pretty much had our Monterrico life!

Lent Processions

Semana Santa (Holy Week) is a big deal in Catholic countries. Unfortuately February is not the right time of year to catch the Semana Santa festivities. However, I think we got second best, which is the Lent processions that happen around Antigua. The processions happen every Sunday during the Lent season, which culminate with Semana Santa. The major surrounding churches have processions (parades) that go all through Antigua. Two things make these processions unlike anything you will see in the U.S.

First, the floats are CARRIED(!) by about 20 men throughout the streets, although we think they switch off. The carriers are the guys dressed in the purple robes (don't ask about the oddly KKK look to them, I have no idea).

Here is the main float, which was about 15 feet long. The men seemed to be struggling to keep it going and were grimacing. Every 20 feet or so they would stop walking and sway the float back and forth a couple of times. I'm not sure but the grimacing and swaying might have been to replicate JC's experience.

The air is not smoky, it's incense.

Not to be outdone, the ladies also had their own float (although smaller). They did the grimacing and rocking as well.

The parade was also joined by a band.

The other things that you will never see in an U.S. parade were the alfombras (al-foam-bras) which is translated as rugs. So, when my mom kept telling me that they lay these rugs down, I literally pictured the streets lined with wool rugs! Not quite the case, but the reality was cooler then a bunch of rugs. Alfombras in this case are pine needles in the shape of a rug, that are decorated with flowers, fruit, vegetables, and other organic materials which are decorating the procession route. Apparently the people who live on the route do the decorations. The sad thing is that the decorations are destroyed when the parade goes by.

People

Come on, I'm a social worker, of course I'm looking at the people. The people were super nice! All of them were so gracious about letting us use Spanish (and not automatically converting to English) and patient with trying to understand us!

Guatemalan women seem to be very much connected to their traditional dress. The men not so much. The traditional outfit is a hupil (who-peel) which is the shirt made of multicolored fabrics and then embroidered around the neck. This embroidery work is stunning and is often flowers, but I also saw birds, people, and geometric designs. The skirts are one long piece of fabric and then tied with a sash that is also beautifully embroidered. Everything is very brightly colored and patterned. Shoes were usually sandals of some kind.

One tricky thing about the people is that they either don't want their picture taken or they want to be paid for it. The going rate seemed to be 5 quetzals (about $0.75). Usually I would include it in my barganing when I bought something from someone. This lady sold me my camera case, and I paid more than she asked for the privelidge. Not only is this a careful negotiation, you also have to know when to ask. A lot of Guatamalans frown on Americans taking pictures of their children This is apparently born out of concern that Americans only want to steal or adopt the children and taking pictures is seen as scouting. I have to say that this doesn't seem altogether paranoid to me, we saw a lot of white parents with latino looking babies!

And who wouldn't want to take their pictures, the childen were super cute! These pictures were taken at a market in Antigua and the mother was very friendly and gracious when I asked. The girls were playing on their own in the first picture and then posed for me in the second, I'm not sure which one is my favorite.

These kids were pusing thier cart along the cobblestone streets of Antigua one morning. They were cute and clearly responsible, I couldn't resist! They seemed amused by the tourists.

The Campey Family- our wonderful hosts

My mom found these people through a friend and they were wonderful additions to our trip. They rented our room to us and fed us for about $15 a week! The mother, Libia, was a wonderful conversationalist and was very easy to understand! The father, Carlos, was very welcoming and always had time to answer our questions. They also had two girls living with them who were students, Shalom and Crisitina. They lived in Antigua during the day and were doing practicum work in teaching in one of the nearby towns. They were sweet girls who left us little notes of well wishes! (Left to Right below: Cristina, Shirley (another American guest), Libia, Mom, Shalom, and me)

Interstingly the family had three biological children and then adopted 9 children who were orphaned by Guatamala's 36 year civil war which killed 200,000 people and displaced more than 1 million people! This is a very touchy subject for most people and the wounds are still fresh. Carlos was our one Guatamalan who would talk about it, which was better than any textbook or newspaper.

The star of the household is their parrot, Bartolo. He was quite a character and would talk, mostly saying his own name!

Here is a picture of their house and mom in our bedroom!