Football and dancing

Trip Start Mar 22, 2005

Trip End Sep 09, 2005

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Flag of Guatemala Guatemala City, Guatemala
Sunday, March 27, 2005

On Saturday, I decide to take an airport shuttle to Guatemala city to meet Gloria and her family. She´s invited me to join them to watch the Guatemala-Trinidad football game (or soccer, whatever you prefer) and spend the night. I could take the bus to the city but decide to wimp out since I don´t know where I´m going and have effectively been brainwashed to think Guatemala city is one of the most dangerous places on earth. I arranged for this shuttle the day before and got cryptic instructions to wait "where the cobblestone ends" on the outskirts of Antigua. I get there to find a rather busy intersection where cars and buses and trucks stream in and out of Antigua. This does not seem to be the most ideal place for a gringa to be standing solo, particularly carrying a backpack and cute little box of candies I just bought (buying those was another entertaining experience in sign language and broken spanish. Its tough to buy candies when you don´t know what any of them are, have never tasted them, and have no idea of the preferences of the people you are buying them for

dancing

. I went with "mas popular" and direction from the woman behind the counter). Anyway.... after about 20 minutes of waiting, shouting "no gracias" after being waved on board by many a chicken bus driver and about a dozen airport-shuttle-like vehicles driving by, I´m getting nervous. I try to remember that this is not the US and 10 or 20 minutes late is really "on time" but that doesn´t help. Alas, about 35 minutes after the scheduled time, my shuttle finally does arrive, only to stop about 30 minutes later for gas (almost leaving a woman at the gas station) then stopping for abut 40 minutes to fix a wheel or something then finally arriving in Guatemala city.

Gloria and her cousin Fernando graciously pick me up from the airport and we take a tour through Guatemala City on the way to pick up Fernando´s girlfriend and her daughter. This does not look like the horrible place described in guidebooks and the news... There´s certainly a lot of poverty in the city and huge ravines filled with squatters and temporary houses, but the downtown central park area has beautiful old buildings and there are interesting views from nearly every part of the city.

Much of Gloria´s family lives in two homes that are ajoined by a school they run. The houses are old but rebuilt after the 1976 earthquake

Dancing after the game

. Homes here incorporate a lot of outdoor space in the interior, and this is no different. Part of the kitchen has an open skylight above and a large patio and terrace area fills the middle of the two houses. This is really a nice feature in houses, epecially now since the weather is so nice.

After spending a while talking with Gloria´s grandmother -- she speaking spanish, me understanding most of it but not being able to construct coherent replies -- we go join the rest of the family to watch the game. Everytime there is a goal (and there are 5 in this game), Gloria´s aunt and her mom jump up and start doing a chicken dance and soon everyone is on their feet yelling and dancing. Did I mention we were drinking mojitos? That may have something to do with the chicken dance. As soon as the game ends, the tv goes off and music goes on so quickly that later on we couldn´t really even remember the game ending. Soon, everyone is dancing a combination of salsa, swing and "night club" depending on the music. The age range was probably about 7 to 65 or so and everyone was dancing together. This literally does not stop until after midnight. I´m thinking, my family get togethers are never quite like this.

The next day, we get up late, have breakfast (basically bread and black beans), go to the market in the middle of the city and eventually make our way (about 8 or 9 of us) back to Antigua to swim and relax for the afternoon

fruit stand in Guatemala City

.

The long weekend with Gloria and her family was a better introduction to Guatemala than I could have imagined. They were all wonderful and at some point during my stay in the city, pretty much everyone offered their help at any time (not to mention lots of great ideas for places to venture to together in Guatemala). She has about half a dozen cousins who are around my age (plus or minus a few years). The guys are wonderful -- incredibly sweet and chivalrous and instinctively protective of us girls when we´re out and about. And, her younger cousin Amanda, who is in university has already taught me a lot about Guatemala (she speaks english very well). I know I´m so lucky to already know so many great people.