Hotel Chalet Chichicastenango

... Friday was our last day on the lake so we decided to treat ourselves to massages. San Marcus, another small town across the lake, is known for it´s holistic culture and numerous massage spas. We decided on a massage that included 4 different types of therapies including energy work, Swedish, reflexology and chiropractic. Our masseuse was Helmut, a second-generation German- Guatemalan. We agreed on the price for one hour which worked out to be about 20 US dollars ...

... or maybe the bubonic plague. The ghetto bug spray that I bought in<br>Nebaj has actually attracted more mosquitoes than it repelled. I´m<br>pretty sure they were trying to trick me when they sold it to me.<br>Anyways, I have about a billion bites and look very disturbing, while<br>Teddy has very few. I maintain this is because I am so much sweeter<br>than he is, but he´s not buying it. <br><br>We woke up veryyyy early this morning (4 am!) and took a 1.5 hour<br ...

... doesn't save<br>them; it's happened three times over the past few years), answered all<br>of our questions for about half an hour. We started to make our way<br>over to explore the caves, but we were hot and it was expensive. So, we<br>went back and just went swimming in the turquoise pools, which was very<br>refreshing. This is one situation where we actually wish we had taken<br>the package tour, as it would've been ...

... we were on our way in a few minutes.<br>We<br>also reached a new high (or should I say low) in terms of the number of<br>people that can fit in a 15 passenger van. 25! Unbelievable. Why those<br>other people take those little Gringomobiles is beyond me. The ride was<br>actually pretty, though, and the landscape here is so different than<br>where we've been. Instead of deep vallies, there are rolling hills, and<br>instead of freezing ...

... of the ceremonies here. Coming down from the hill I was stopped by a young, portly Mayan woman. <br> She introduced herself and asked if I was interested in a tour of either the hill or one of the churches. At first I was amazed that she was speaking English. I hadn't met any Mayan woman who spoke English. There were lots of questions I wanted to ask, but none were related to the two tourist sites and my bus was leaving soon. I ...

Thursday<br><br>Although we´re in San Marcos for the entire week, I arranged my Spanish lessons to take Thursday off. This way, I was able to actually use my spanish instead, at the Chichi market. The market in Chichicastenango is (relatively) famous for it´s size, and it´s selecton of Guatemalan handicrafts ...

... scenery everywhere around us and sometimes frightened by the hairpin turns that our shuttle had to make on very steep grades, making the Rocky Mountain roads look like the plains of Kansas. For some time we were riding behind a chicken bus (a old American school bus that has been converted into a public bus and is very brightly colored. Called a chicken bus because people sometimes bring their animals on for a ride) which was emitting a terrible smelling black ...

... boats. <br><br>One of the things that have made more impression on me in this trip (and i saw plenty on the way to chichi) have been seeing those men and women walking uphill on the huge slopes carrying tons of firewoods on their backs and their babies on the front; or the small kids carrying different products at early ages.... it makes you think how different life could be in some places. <br><br>Chichi's market ...