Chichicastenango
Yesterday we decided to give the challenging stuff a rest and spend a slow day at the market of Chichicastenango, about a two hour bus ride north of Xela. Chichi is, in fact, quite famous for its market, which has focused on textiles for a couple generations, but is also a good place to find whatever else you may need. The town also has a nice 16th century church where Maya traditions are stronger than Christian ones.
Santa Maria and the Santiaguito eruption
Well, we decided that we just could not leave Guatemala having climbed only two volcanoes, so we booked another guide yesterday to take a day trip to Santa Maria, just outside of Xela. Aside from being 3,770 meters (12,400 feet) tall with incredible views of the surrounding area, Santa Maria also overlooks the much shorter but very active volcano of Santiaguito.
Tajumulco: Venla’s birthday above the clouds
Venla had the good luck of having a weekend birthday this year, and we decided to celebrate it by going on an excursion. After doing a little looking and reading we decided to book a guide with Kakchiquel Tours to see the sunrise from Tajumulco, a dormant volcano that marks the highest point in Central America at 4,200 meters (13,846 feet).
Olintepeque
The other day we took an afternoon to head out to the small town of Olintepeque, (relatively) famous for being the site of decisive battles in the struggle between the Spanish conquistadors led by Pedro de Alvarado and the K'iche' Maya led by national hero Tecun Uman. We don't need to tell you who won...
Rest in Peace, Chumpipe
This is the tragic story of our friend, El Chumpipe. He was misunderstood but brave right to the end. May he rest in peace.
El Dia de los Reyes
It turns out that Guatemalans do not celebrate the Dia de los Reyes (the arrival of the 3 Kings) on January 6 the way the Spanish or the Mexicans (or Belgians) do, but have their own Catholic festival dedicated to the image of the Black Christ of Esquipulas.
Moctezuma, we surrender.
As we were looking back over the posts that we had put up over the last month, it occurred to us that we had not yet mentioned anything about Christmas Day or the week before New Years. Well, let us tell you, the days which followed Christmas 2009 will not be remembered by us as the most wonderful time of the year this time.
Trip to Almolonga
We took a little afternoon trip with the school to a suburb of Xela this week, to the town of Almolonga. Almolonga is known in Guatemala for its vegetables. This struck us as a bit weird at first, but when we got to the town and started to walk through the fields, we understood.
New Year’s Part 2: Tilapita
The next leg of our trip on Saturday was to the remote beach of Tilapita, a small island (really just a glorified sandbar) off the eastern Guatemalan coast near the Mexican border. The trip there was surprisingly quick: in just five hours, which included three buses, one pickup and one boat ride, we crossed half of Guatemala from Fuentes Georgina to Tilapita to arrive in the early afternoon. Remote as the beach is, however, New Year's Day is one of the few days that almost every Guatemalan has off, and so we were surprised to find that once we arrived, the only hotel in town was full.
New Year’s Part 1: Zunil and Fuentes Georginas
Well, we are back from our little New Year's trip, and it was a blast. As mentioned earlier, we went on a two part trip. Today, we are going to talk about the first part, our trip to the hot springs of Fuentes Georginas and the town of Zunil, and tomorrow we'll talk about the trip to the beach at Tilapita.
The Ruins of Takalik Abaj
Takalik Abaj (or Abaj Takalik, depending on who you ask), was a site occupied from the 9th century BCE until the Spanish invasion in the 16th century. It reached its zenith during the Maya's late preclassic period (from 300 BCE to 250 CE) and much of the art and architecture at the site dates from this period. The site is particularly interesting because it is does not really belong to any of the major cultures of Meso-america, but was in many ways a culture of its own.
Navidad
For those of you who always wanted to know what a Guatemalan Christmas is like, here is a brief description of our Christmas experience with our host family in Xela.
Los Acuerdos de Paz
Yesterday marked the 13th anniversary of the 1996 “Acuerdos de Paz”, which ended 36 years of armed conflict in Guatemala. While there have been some celebrations here and there, this seems to be mostly an occasion for people to remember that things have not improved all that much for the majority of the population in the last 13 years. But before we start on this, we should probably start with a little context to the few who for some strange reason might not be familiar with the history of Guatemala...
First Week in Xela
After so much vacationing around, we decided we needed a little rest and headed west to Quetzaltenango, aka Xela, Guatemala's second biggest city. The original idea was for Matt to take more Spanish classes while I did some volunteer work with kids during the week. Weekends were going to be spent hiking volcanoes and taking in all the sights in the mountains around. We haven't had much luck turning these plans into reality, but we've had an interesting time here so far...
Vacation in a Vacation: Lago de Atitlan
The last stop on our vacation within a vacation was Lago de Attitlan, often described by Guatemalans as the most beautiful lake in the world. As you will see in the photos, it is indeed very picturesque, a beautiful blue, surrounded by hills and volcanoes, with traditional (and/or touristy) villages perched on the cliffs.
Vacation in a Vacation: Livingston
After a couple of days using our jungle bungalow as a base to explore the region, we decided to head off to a new place. Tuesday started off with a refreshing swim, followed by a 2-hour boat ride to our next destination; the Garifuna enclave of Livingston on the Caribbean Coast.
Vacation in a Vacation: Ruins of Quirigua
On old piles of stones day 2 (Monday), we took on our third Maya ruin, on the impressive site of Quirigua. Quirigua was a Maya city founded around 200 CE and a dependency of the aforementioned Copan for centuries. In the course of time, however, it began to grow and contest the rule of Copan, and shortly before 738 CE, its ruler, K'ak' Tiliw Chan Yopaat, refused to pay his tribute to the King of Copan, 18 Rabbit. 18 Rabbit launched a military expedition to punish the impetuous administrator, but the army of Quirigua captured him. They executed the king in 738 and won their independence.
Vacation in a Vacation: the Castle of San Felipe
As enchanting as our jungle lodge was, Matt just could not stay away from the Old Piles of Stone. Sunday afternoon saw us heading for the Castillo de San Felipe, a 16th century Spanish fortress built to defend the area against... pirates of the Caribbean.
Vacation in a Vacation: Rio Dulce
After the 11 hours in a roasting bus that we talked about last time, it is fair to say that we were quite exhausted by the time we got to Rio Dulce. This time, however, the gods were merciful, and they sent us not a storm, but a shuttle to what turned out to be a particularly nice jungle bungalow on the lake shore.
Vacation in a Vaction: Eastern Guatemala
After four weeks of intensive Spanish classes in Antigua, we decided to take what is usually called a "well-deserved" vacation before heading west to our next destination, Quetzaltenango, aka Xela. After much looking and asking around, we figured that going east on the chicken buses, with a change in gigantic, scary Guatemala City, was a little more than we could handle, so on Friday we finally booked our ticket to Rio Dulce through a travel agency in town.