PatchesWeaver | www.patchesweaver.com

27.04.2009

category: Travel
tags: Confusion, Dancing, Español, Food, Marti and Carlos, Mujeres

I went with Marty and Carlos to Escipulas this weekend for a tour. Escipulas is in the South-East corner of Guatemala and is a pilgrimage site for most of Central America. There is a statue of Christ called “Cristo Negro” (Black Christ) that is said to have miraculous healing powers for people of faith. This is taken very seriously. Though I did not see it, there are people that enter into the church on their knees, make their way up to Christo Negro to pray, and then exit on their sore bloody knees.

The group. Its hard to see in this photo, but there were 52 of us.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtqvDn8hYhU[/youtube]

Año Santo. 250th Anniversary of the church. This main entry door is never completely opened. For this year alone it has been opened completely. Pope Benedict has said that to walk through this door is a very holy act.

We had just been to Escipulas two weeks ago during Semana Santa when my mother was here (had decided last minute to go there instead of Chemuc Shampey because of whether conditions). It was good to go again to see it in a different way. We went to a handful of services. One was in a small chapel that is usually never open to the public, and another was during the main service in an elevated area that is very close to the Cristo Negro.

Escipulas

People outside. This photo doesn´t do justice to the amount of people that are are actually there on a daily basis. It is packed.

I will load more pics of Escipulas once I have them available…

The town that the church is in is completely dependent on the existance of the church. Without the church, I´m pretty sure there´d be no town. Everybody is selling religious paraphanilia along with everything else that usually makes up a Guatlemalan mercado. We were walking around and met this guy:

Master of the fortune telling paraquets

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdZxfNKvq6g[/youtube]start

So the paraquet decided to pick three papelitos of advice for me, out of which I chose the yellow one. I have to admit, I still do not exactly understand the elaborate prophecy that has been fortold. Marty helped me clear it up a bit though and it is something along the lines of the fact that I will soon be recieving news that will not be good. Fortunately, it also said that the news will not be bad either… just news.

So while climbing up the windy stretch of highway on the way home, the bus driver started to slow down and then pull over to the side of the road.

Hmm

Luckily, the bus driver was basically a mechanic too. After about 15 minutes or so, he was able to fix the bus and we continued on. We then drove for about 5 – 10 minutes more and pulled over again. Repeat. Then drove a bit more and then broke down again. After the 3rd breakdown, people decided that we´d better get another bus. We ended up getting many “microbuses” to drive us to the hotel we were eating at for lunch.

Breakdown

Filing into the microbus

Because it was a spur of the moment thing, our microbus driver didn´t have his transit papers. We were then given a “free tour” through Chikimulas to retrieve the papers before going to the hotel.

We then ate lunch and then hung out next to the pool for about 1.5 hours. When the bus arrived, the bus driver was completely covered in grease but said that the bus was ready to go. We then continued back to Guatemala city breakdown-free. Luckily, this had not been at night, that would have been a completely different situation…

add a comment

26.04.2009

Erick

categories: Travel, Visitors
tags:

So Otto´s brother Erick came to visit for the weekend. I hung out with him Friday night before I left for Escipulas with Marty and Carlos Saturday morning.

I don´t have any photos of this night. We basically just hung out, smoked cubans, and drank Johnny Walker black label. Good times. Went to bed at 2am and got up at 5am to make the bus to Escipulas…

1 comment

21.04.2009

Corriendo

categories: Getting in Shape, Uncategorized
tags:

After some serious eating during my time traveling around, I`ve decided to get back into ejercisio. It took me a while, but I`ve finally come to the conclusion that it was not my pants that were changing size over the past year or so. It`s been too long since I`ve seriously exercised, so I`m starting up again.

I`ve started running every afternoon. I start in Antigua, run through San Philipe, and to the center of Jocotanango… and then turn around and run back. I`m guessing its about a 2 – 3 mile run. This is now a daily routine. The first week has been difficult between the bus fumes and multiple mild heart attacks, but there`s already been signs of progress.

2 comments

16.04.2009

Cruz Roja and Centro Medico Militar

category: Travel
tags:

Otto`s great aunt Rosita and her husbuand Marco Tulio drove us around Guatemala city the day before my mother left. They took us to quite a few places, including the Red Cross and a Military Hospital. Rosita also made us an amazing lunch at her house.

Rosita and Marco Tulio are 83 and 85 respectively and yet somehow manage to volunteer everyday at what are basically nursing homes. One place they work is in a department of the Centro Medico Militar, one of Guatemala`s miliary hospitals.

Marco Tulio, Rosita, my Mom, and Eugenia

Eugenia, the director, gave us a very comprehensive tour of the facilities. The facility holds 32 seniors and we met the majority of them. Eugenia enjoyed showing us around the hospital and was interested to hear my mother`s opinion about the services they had to offer. My mom suggested the use of therapy dogs and also mentioned the service the the Red Cross provides to military personnel. She was very interested to hear this news.

We then went to the Red Cross in Zone 1 of Guatemala City. We came after hours and turned out to be really lucky because we caught the director right between meetings. He turned out to be not only be the Director of that branch, but the National Director of the Red Cross of Guatemala. We had a chance to speak with him for about 20 minutes. He was in a bit of a rush, so he spoke very quickly, making it a bit difficult for the official diplomatic translator (me) to keep up… but we managed.

Cruz Roja

He was very nice and we left with bags and pins as gifts from the Guatemalan Red Cross.

add a comment

15.04.2009

Family life update

category: Family Life
tags:

We left Stella`s on Monday morning to go back to Guatemala City.

Mom and the fam

We had alot of fun with Stella and fam. We did alot of the Semana Santa activities together. This was very helpful because Stella had the lowdown on exactly what was happening and where. Stella was very good about calling us and saying, “Brian, where are you, you need to come and see the blah blah blah procession, it`ll be passing in front of the house in about 5 – 10 mins!” We would then run halfway across Antigua to get back to the house just in time to miss it. It wasn`t a big deal though because we would then run a few blocks down the street and catch up with it.

Shaved Huesito with a bone that is almost as big as he is. It was a gift from Jaime for his birthday.

And just for kicks, here`s a pic of shaved Huesito with a bone that is almost as big as he is. A gift from Jaime for his birthday.

After eating breakfast at a restaurant in Antigua, I made my way to the bathroom. At some point while I was in there (couldn`t have been more than 2 minutes) my mother had a revelation. When I came out, she told me that she had made up her mind and was going to begin learning Spanish. She said that this would be very beneficial for her work, and also, since I`m never coming back to the US, it`ll be helpful for her to know it whenever she comes to visit.

add a comment

15.04.2009

Under Construction

category: Blog Maintenance
tags:

bear with me, I have alot to upload. Things may be moving around a bit over the next few days…

add a comment

12.04.2009

Magic Cream

category: Problemas
tags: Confusion, Español

Magic Cream

After doing some intense Semana Santa walking (/running to keep up with my mom) in the sun (with [tight] jeans). I seemed to have developed slight jock itch.

I was not sure how to remedy the situation because my Spanish vocab does not include hygenic terminology that includes something of this specificity. This being said, I felt that I could whether the storm and try to live with it.

After a day or two, I finally decided that something needed to be done. After walking by several pharmacies, I finally found an empty one with only guys behind the counter. Having no other vocabulary at hand, I politely, and in the classiest way I could, tried to present my situation. I said (with a smirk) to one of the pharmicists, “So I`m not sure how to say it in Spanish, but do you have any medicine for when your balls itch?”. All 5 of the guys behind the counter then proceeded to attempt keeping a straight face. The majority of them then “went to look for the medicine” (while laughing) and came back with a little box in hand.

I then proceeded to read the box. Shampoo. The box also included pictures of green cartoonish bugs. “¿Este es si tu tienes animalitos? (This is if you have little animals/bugs?). Everybody then started laughing again. “Haha, no no no, glad I don`t have that problem… No, cream, do you have any cream?”. (Meanwhile, the guy doing the inventory on the computer was loving this).

One of the guys returned with a box labeled “Magic Cream”. “This will fix it”.

We (my mom was there to witness this whole thing) then left with cream in hand and everybody laughing.

Semana Santa…

5 comments

11.04.2009

Semana Santa in Antigua

categories: Fiestas, Travel, Visitors
tags:

So I am going to update the “Semana Santa” page after Semana Santa is over. There is so much that needs to be uploaded. Things are so crazy here that we haven`t found the time to sit down and update the blog.

Check the “photo” page to see other recent photos..

Adding to the cloud of incense that has filled the streets of Antigua during the entire week.

It aint easy making an alfombra. Since there are so many activities/processions during this week, these people are running on zero sleep. Some people make 4 or 5 over 2 or so days.

Niño Alfombra

"So who made this?". "Me and my little cousin". This kid is a friggin`pro Alfombra maker...

"So who made this?" I ask. "Me and my little cousin"... This kid is a friggin`pro Alfombra maker...

Procession alfombra. Coke bottles and eggs. If you look closely they all have penciled in faces.

Cucuruchus. These are the carriers of the floats. This one had over 100... All volunteers. If they are not carrying they are walking with the procession. Try walking for 18 hours straight.

So if walking for 18 hours isn`t enough, try doing it in high heels (on cobblestone streets). The women see this as a form of penance.

Cervesa and tortillas after some serious walking.

Here it is Otto, do you remember this lady? Pupuseria... magical hole in the wall restaurant. Pupusas are fat tortillas filled with cheese and whatever else (mushrooms, frijoles, whatever kind of meat, etc). 4 small pupusas, 1 large (14"), 2 bowls of chiles (which we finished), and 2 cervesas... all for about $6 each.

Here it is Otto, do you remember this lady? Pupuseria... magical hole in the wall restaurant. Pupusas are basically fat tortillas filled with cheese and whatever else (mushrooms, frijoles, whatever kind of meat, etc). 4 small pupusas, 1 large pupusa (14"), 2 bowls of chiles (which we finished), and 2 cervesas... all for about $6 each.

Random old couple photo.

T-shirt

check back for updates to this post…

7 comments

05.04.2009

Lago Atitlan, Xela, una Misa, Bailando, y una Procesión

categories: Fiestas, Travel, Visitors
tags: Dancing, Español, Food, Landscapes, Marti and Carlos

So you´ll have to bear with me here, didn´t have time to explain. Check back for updates…

Arriving to Lago Atitlan

God

We chartered a boat ($12 a head) to see some of the pueblos that surround Lago Atitlan. There are 12 pueblos, and each one of them is named after one of the 12 apostles.

It was actually not the best day to go to the lake, it was cloudy and the water was choppy. However, Pedro was not at all phased by the conditions and we flew across the lake (faster than Marty would have liked).

Picture with Captain Pedro

Suiting up to head to Santiago Atitlan

Marty, Mom, and Carlos in Front of Iglesia Parroquial Santiago Apostal (built in 1547)

We got a tuc tuc (tiny toy-like taxi) and went to the center of Santiago. After some persuasion by the tuc tuc driver we then decided to do one of the tours that he was offering. We chose to go around town and to visit Maximon, a god/saint that some of the indigineous people of the area worship.

Visit to Maximón, indiginous god. Liquor and cigars...

Fitting in

After the lake we headed to Xela, Guatemala´s second largest city. It is about a two hour drive from the lake on roads that are undergoing serious construction. We were told that it is generally considered “The Athens of Central America”.

Pueblo on the outskirts of Xela

Muchos pollos

Mercado - look at the niña

Radishes

Rock n´ Roll electric altar

Centro de Xela

Xela´s Cathedral´s Double Facade. Original church in front, new church in back.

Local Mariachi´s

Flute

Our tour bus waiting in front of the cathedral

Xela

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFOD-1ojol8[/youtube]

Ridiculous end to our tour. Couldn´t have been more perfect.

After the tour we went into the Cathedral. Just so happened to be a wedding in progress...

Red light district. In Xela, red lights on Saturdays means Paches.

Paches

Leaving Xela

Sunday morning we went to a mass for Tita (Marty´s sister) and Paco. They have been married for 50 years. Otto´s family took up about the back quarter of a decent sized church. Not everybody made it into this photo.