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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…

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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.

Family photo after the Mass.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dnr6jN7q2Tg[/youtube]

Tita and Paco´s 50th Anniversary party

Tub of salad and barrel of rice...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lPEsItL-MQ[/youtube]

Dancing it up

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVOcECA2ILw[/youtube]

7 comments

23.02.2009

Suprise party

category: Fiestas
tags: cramped spaces, Dancing, Español, Food

So this Sunday Ana Lucia (the real one) invited me to her house because her family was having a suprise birthday party for her great aunt. Her aunt was turning 87.

Great aunt - bottom left

It was really cool, there were about 30+ people waiting, and when her aunt came through the front door we blasted music and started clapping and cheering. Her aunt started crying (in a good way).

After having tons of food and cake (de tres leches – incredible), I went for a ride with Ana Lucia to “get the mariachis”. I figured that we were going to pick them up and give them a ride.

¿Que?

These guys are the real deal - read the sign

So turns out we were headed to “La Plazuela de Mariachis” (Plaza of Mariachis). The entire side of the street was full of mariachis just hanging around waiting for a job… wow, only in Guatemala (and maybe Mexico).

After some heavy negotiating on Ana Lucia´s part, we returned to the house (followed by a van full of mariachis) to suprise Ana Lucia´s great aunt for a second time.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f3-1zV5pMQ[/youtube]

Her great aunt being lead into the party room. She was happy, she cried again…

And of course there was dancing...

Ana Lucia´s father dancing with the birthday girl

Rock n´roll mariachi

6 comments

09.02.2009

Weekend in Puerto

categories: Fiestas, Travel
tags: Dancing, Food, Gallo, hats, Landscapes

So Rodalfo and his friend Christian invited me to go to Puerto San Jose this past weekend.

Puerto is a small beach town. Everybody seems to know eachother. Christian took me around town on the back of his motorcycle and was waving to pretty much every other person…

There was alot of time spent on the beach (in the shade of course) and hanging around in Rodalfo’s family’s restaurant eating seafood. We also drove around a four wheeler for a bit on the beach which was really fun.

And unfortunately I somehow lost mi sombrero chilero…

Beach

View from the Restaurant

Fishing

We spent Saturday at Christian’s family’s restaraunt drinking, eating, and listening to mariachi. Mariachi is no joke here, people get really into it. Rodalfo enjoys singing (/yelling) along to the music and shouting out to friends that drive by (usually making fun of them).

Saturday night we went to a discoteca in town. There has been a marked improvement in my dance skills due to the constant need to practice on the weekends. I got a shoutout from the DJ as being a “buen honda from las estados unidos”. We stayed up late just talking and hanging out.

Christian and his family at their restaurant (Christian's cousin Erik wanted to be sure that the "Gallo" label on his beer was visible in this photo)

The weekend was great excercise for both my Spanish and my liver. Sunday was spent drinking and hanging out in Christian’s restaurant with his family. Since we all had slight hangovers, I was told that the best way to remedy the situation was to drink more beer (and we’re talking early… like 8:30am …when in Rome…) and to eat “levante el morio” (wake the dead). Levante el morio is a soup with tomatoes, eggs, and other spices… famous for curing hangovers.

Oh and my Spanish is getting better. Christian’s cousin had me *roughly* translate “November Rain” by Guns n’ Roses and various Bob Marely songs…

12 comments

26.01.2009

A Beard Trimming and Dance shoes

categories: Fiestas, Travel
tags: beard, Dancing, Gallo, Landscapes, Marti and Carlos

So I went back to Guatemala city (via comioneta/”chicken bus”) for the weekend. To my dismay, upon arriving, Marti informed me that I would be getting a haircut with her son Giovanni on Saturday. Rather than turning down the offer, I felt that it was maybe necessary to tame the twirlygigs that had begun to form at the base of my future mane. Although this has seriously set me back with my hopes of attaining the super beard of a beatnik vagabond, I feel it is sometimes necessary to take one step backward to go two steps forward…

Saturday came as a very busy day. It began with helping Giovanni and Tono assemble a complicated desk (without directions). This proved to be a good test for newly learned vocabulary (above, on top of, below, etc). After desk assembly, I drove around town with Marti and Carlos running some errands. While driving back, Marti and Carlos asked me if I would like to go to a fiesta. To this I replied, “Si… cuando?”. “Ahora” they said. Giovanni and his wife were basically ready to leave back at the house. They then asked me if I had nice clothes… Of course I did not. I ended up wearing Carlos´s. The shoes were a bigger problem since nobody in the entire country of Guatemala has a size 10 or 11. I ended up using Giovanni´s father in law´s. They were a ·tight· fit, but did the trick. Everything besides the shoes and sportcoat fit well (if I stretched my arms out in front of me, the cuffs of the shirt would pass the sleeve of the sportcoat by about 3 inches).

The fiesta turned out to be a wedding at one of the nicest Hotels in Guatemala. The driveway for the hotel alone snaked up a mountain next to Antigua for (literally) 2 kilometers. The road alone was beautiful and the view was accentuated by a guard with a shotgun.

The hotel was nice and the view of Antigua wasn´t too bad either

There ended up being alot of people at the party

There also ended up being alot of people Dancing and Dancing (click)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb1dYwisA9M[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBoUk2Re3Ps[/youtube]

Needless to say, my dance “skills” are pretty weak, even when aided by the powers of alcohol. The moment the music started, it became very apparent to me that I will need to work on the dance moves. Learning to dance has now become a priority that is 2nd only to learning spanish (and probably getting a job). I was also told that a pair of new (dance) shoes is a must since there are so many fiestas in Guatemala.

5 comments

17.01.2009

Searching for a Spanish school

categories: Fiestas, School, Travel
tags: Dancing, Español, Food, Gallo

Otto´s uncle Rodolfo and his friend Christian drove Otto and I to Antigua two nights in a row in order to scope out the different Spanish schools.

I think that looking for spanish schools seemed like a good excuse for Rodolfo and Christian to show us around Antigua. By this I mean eating massive amounts of food, spending most of the night in a bar, and then heading to a discoteca. This was basically how it went on both days. And of course, going to a discoteca isn´t any fun if there isn´t a street fight (about 8 people) to cap the night off. No need to worry, we were at a safe viewing distance…

All of the bars in Antigua need to close after 1:00, but its common that there is an “afterparty” after this certain discoteca closes. As soon as you walk out the door, people are handing out flyers. Rodalfo explained that everybody is in on the afterparty. Apparently this is true, because after driving for 5 minutes, we had to ask a random guard for directions and he knew exactly what we were talking about. 5 minutes later, we asked a kid who was probably 14, and he not only showed us where the party was, but helped us park…

Christian, Roldalfo, and a bucket of Gallo

Despite how they may sound, these two days were definitly productive. On the afternoon of the 2nd day, after looking at a few other schools, we found one that seemed to be the one. The school is called ¨Probigua¨ and is a non-profit spanish school. It includes activities (movies, salsa lessons, field trips, etc) and also offers the ability to volunteer in a small school that is close to Antigua.

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