And This Is How It Went

On Wednesday I left Antigua and got on a bus heading towards a little town called Joyabaj. After speaking to several women I figured out that I got on the longggg bus route to Joyabaj.  Learning that this would be a much longer ride than I intended I decided to get off and spend sometime at the Chichistenango Market tour book highlight.  However, once I tried to get off at Chichistenango 4 Mayan ladies started speaking to me rapidly, standing up and waving their arms in different directions. I finally figured out that  they were very concerned that I would be loosing money since I paid to go alllll the way to Joyabaj.  I sat back down as I felt, somehow, that it would be rude to do otherwise as the women were trying to keep my best interests in mind.  Thus, I decided to go straight to Nebaj. After 3 buses I arrived in what appeared to be a drizzly dank pueblo.  Granted it was night and all and every time I asked a tuktuk driver if he knew where a variety of hotels were they would simply shake their heads and speed off.  This continued until I finally found a blue tuktuk who knew where I was going. 

Church Steps

Waking the next day I decided to explore what seemed like a mystery the night before.  Many Guatemalan cities and towns have a Parque Central with a usually beautiful baroque style church in the center. Venturing into the Parque Central I began taking some photos of the Iglesia (church) standing majestically in the center.  Suddenly an elderly woman in beautifully colored clothes was standing very close to me and started scolding me.  I was taken so off guard that I forgot most of the Spanish I learned and I swear she was speaking to me in more than one language.  Which, given that Ixil is the primary language in Nebaj, would not be surprising.  Based on her tone and death glares towards my camera I figured she was angry about me taking pictures of the church.  The Spanish I had left in my head said ¨La Iglesia es muy bonita¨  (the church is very pretty).  At this moment she started laughing and then scolding me again.  Believing that she could attack me with a stick or smash my camera at anytime I said ¨lo siento, no mas¨ (I¨m sorry, no more) as I slipped my camera back into my bag.  This seemed to satisfy her as she walked away with a distinct glare in her eye.

The Church

After this confrontation, I began to realize that there were about 4

or 5 little girls standing around me and just staring at me, side

glancing at each other and then staring at me, side glance, staring,

side glance, staring....  I started having images of Lord of the Flies, even though surviving the scolding of someones great grandmother was more likely the reason for their bewilderment.