Mayan Inn Chichicastenango

... so alive with tradition, not to mention tradition that is so different from what I´m used to at home. Another side note: they call the people that live in this area ¨green bellies¨because they eat and grow so many avocados, but they export the rest because you can´t buy one to save your life! And if you do find one to buy, they´re expensive! It doésn´t make sense...but apparently they do the same thing with their coffee, they grow excellent coffee in this region ...

... dump water in the toilet to make it flush. Not sure if that's sanitary<br>or not, but we used soap, so it's gotta be ok, right? Then we went to a<br>lecture at our school about the Guatemalan<br>education system. Though it was entirely in Spanish, we did discern<br>that the system changed about 15 (?) years ago to allow indigenous<br>languages to be taught in schools. Almost 60% of the population of<br>Guatemala is indigenas, and up until then, they weren't allowed to<br>teach or ...

... were the fishermen and a few odd ladies washing their clothes at the lake edge. We arrived at a beach about an hour later and spent a while having a swim in the refreshing water. We had gotten so used to swimming in 25 degree plus water that the first dive under was quite a shock, the lake was a lot cooler than we had anticipated, but it seemed to clear any hangovers very quickly and the row back to the boathouse was a lot quicker for Jules and Lyn!<br><br ...

... I would have liked to go back to Comi...<br><br>HOWEVER<br>when I went to get some money out of the ATM today, I was declined for insufficient funds. Wierd, because Sunday I had over five hundered dollars...I got online to check my statement to find out that I am -$500 USD in the hole. Over the course of last week, every day, someone has gone into my bank account and helped themseves to $250. They have taken over $1,000 out of my bank account. <br><br ...

... every time it went around these steep inclines. We were told that this was typical because the brakes of the bus were burning from the pressure of having to make the turns slowly. <br><br>When we finally arrived we were surrounded by a market that was larger than any of the New Jersey or New York malls we have ever been in. There were tons of people walking through a thin maze of stalls that went in all directions. The majority of the people were indigenous Kaqchiquel ...

... was also a lot of jewellery and several men tried to sell me machete&#8217;s (which I rather swiftly declined!). Needless to say over 4 hours we managed to buy rather more than we&#8217;d bargained for! (I ended up with a shawl and an embroidered table runner thing at the end of the day because as I got more tired my abilities to say no convincingly were failing and the women seemed to sense this!!!!) We also bought a lot of ...

... the better the celebration or ceremony. The church inside actually reminds me to the one in Santiago Atitlan. <br><br>The market is a great place to get more in touch with the guatamalan culture specially the one apart from the big attractions as antigua or atitlan. It is very colorful and alive, with cultural activities and music all over the place. To bargain is a common habit not only here but in all gutemala ...

... Maya of the surrounding region, but vendors from much further afield. They represent many of Guatemala's linguistic groups such as Mam, Ixil, Kaqchikel and others. The most photographed spot in town had to be Iglesia Santo Tomas, the town&#8217;s small church. On its steps were many indigenous people at prayer with their candles lit. Inside the church were hundreds more candles alight on its floors with dozens more people praying. <br ...