Surviving Semana Santa
Trip Start
Sep 13, 2004
1
23
25
Trip End
Apr 30, 2005
Coban,
Guatemala
Friday, April 1, 2005
About a week ago our heroes visited a beautiful spot in the hills outside of Antigua in the Guatemalan highlands where we stayed a couple days at a work in progress of a hostal started by an couple from Canada and the US. They have secured about 40 acres of hilly land suitable for little other than avocado farming and are turning it into what they've called the Earth Lodge. A few basic buildings have been constructed providing dorms and a kitchen where communal meals are prepared for guests and volunteers. We absolutely fell in love with the place, the people and the view and have decided to join in the project! The plan is to invest approximately US $15,000 between the two of us over the next two years which would buy us 25% ownership in the project and help to finance the growth of infrastructure (plumbing, electricity and an irrigation system for the avocado trees)
Out on a Limb
. We would also commit to being part-time managers of the place spending two to four months a year there helping run the place, cooking for guests, planting trees and helping with construction! Obviously this part is still a little up in the air as we haven't planned anything past our flights home. It's a bit of a rash move but we love the place so much and think it's both a good investment opportunity and a great way for us to commit to further travel and exploration in the area. We're really excited about this opportunity and how we can make it fit into our future lives.Oh yeah, what's the date again?.... Hope we at least had a few of you dropping your jaws! Now that we've had our fun let's go back and start where we left off... (No more b.s., we promise.)
After putting the dream that was Roatan behind us we headed for the town of Copan (not to be confused with Coban, our current location), a small town in western Honduras very near the Guatemalan border famous for the nearby Copan ruins, the remains of an early Mayan settlement. The town itself was quaint and charming and clearly a planned city dreamed up by the Honduran Government to net gringos and the accompanying greenback; but although Copan was lacking the authenticity of say Cuzco or Cartagena, we enjoyed our time there
Processions
. The runis themselves were cool but certainly not breathtaking and there were some well preserved examples of rock carving. All of this was made more impressive when you consider that the Maya (like the Inca) were without the basic technology of the wheel or hard metals.From Copan we went straight to Antigua, Guatemala by tourist shuttle (minibus). Antigua is the biggest tourist town north of Costa Rica and south of Cancun because of its colonial architecture and picturesque setting. It is also home to world famous Semana Santa (Easter Week) celebrations. During this week the town is flooded with visitors and hotel prices triple (if you can find a room) as tourists and locals alike flock to see the processions. The processions themselves (one or two of which we were privy to before fleeing) were certainly extravagant. From the city's cathedral large groups of townspeople adorned in purple robes and supporting very large glitzy models of christ on the cross parade around town on streets lined with huge carpets. While it is certainly quite a sight we found it to be a little much. As we have witnessed in the many churches we've visited in Latin America, the local catholic contingent takes Christ's suffering pretty seriously and the prince of peace is looking worse for it. The life-size (or larger) plastic or fiberglass Christ-on-the-cross is pretty gruesome and there's little left the imagination as the fake blood sits in pools atop the massive gold-painted platform
Semana Santa Preparations
. It's not for the faint of heart. The celebrations were in interesting contrast to those of our prodestant/atheist corner of the world where easter (as we recall, and I should point out that Julie was kickout out of Sunday school for hair pulling) is more about the celebration of Christ's resurrection with the focus on life, ribirth and most importantly, chocolate.Anyways, we fled the scene and headed for the hills to the afforementioned Earth Lodge (yes, it really does exist and is very much as described but without, of course, our involvement). We really did enjoy our time around the communal dinning table, using the rope swing, the stone sauna or just relaxing and enjoying the vistas. After a couple of nights we were on the road again to Lago Atitlan. Sitting in the Guatemalan highlands at 1500m above sea level this lake (18km across and 8 km wide) is acutally a crater lake, the result of a huge eruption some 90,000 years back. These days it's home to 5 or 6 tourist towns, a few meditation centres and a lot of backpackers-turned-burnouts (you get three chances to guess the local cash crop). The lake itself was nice and we spend a few days checking out two local towns, swimming in the cool blue waters and we even went scuba diving in the lake to some volcanic hot spots and interesting rock formations.
After Lago Atitlan we headed west to Quetzaltenango with a brief stop at a local market town to do a little good natured haggling over textiles. The plan in Quetzaltenango (hearafter Xela, the Mayan name most toungue tied gringos use to refer to the town) was to do a trek to a nearby active volcano. Unfortunately a bad taco eaten somewhere in the not-too-distant past had other ideas. We both started the two day trek feeling a little rocky and after a couple of hours in the oppressive heat Julie had thrown in the towel and turned back while Pete (hubris getting the better of him) pressed on and while the ugly details will be spared suffice to say he would not be comfortable for him. The volcano was actually pretty cool, from our lookout a few kilometers away we watched as erruptions sent snakes of glowing lava down the side of the cone until it cooled and turned black. Roasting marshmallows over the campfire was another highlight.
The next few days are best summarized as reruns of subtitled Beverly Hills 90210 episodes, ritz crackers and Tang (where would we be without the good people at Kraft Foods?) A trip to the local hospital in Xela later confirmed parasites (ameobas to be specific). A couple of days of meds worked wonders and we finally got out of bed and took to the road on Wednesday (no tears were shed in saying goodbye to Brandon, Steve and the gang).
After a hellish few bus rides over two days that saw two highway traffic accidents (including one 4 hours stint in gridlock) and one daypack moistened courtesy of some little kid's vomit we arrived last night in Coban, the jump-off point for the next week that we will spend exploring the northern part of the country before we cross into Mexico for the home stretch.
Happy April Fool's day to one and all,
Julie and Pete
