Guatemala revisited
Trip Start
Mar 31, 2006
1
34
37
Trip End
Mar 31, 2007
Antigua,
Guatemala
Friday, March 9, 2007
If I hear the word INFRACCION again I think Ill scream (sheila speaking.......) - weve now had our 3rd or rather 4th one, but the first one was when I burst into tears and he waved us on and so we didn't have to pay anything!! The latest one occurred just prior to leaving Honduras when we got lost in San Pedro Sulla. We had the usual pantomime of confiscated licence, a fine of Q900 to be paid at a bank - quickly reduced to Q450, and then a request for a voluntary payment to be paid directly to him. At least this policeman was quite charming as he ripped us off and said he hoped we would return to Honduras!!
Before leaving the topic of Honduras - in the last BLOG Chris described the Caribbean coast as touristy but this gives the wrong impression as in fact we saw zero tourists whilst staying in our Garafuna (sp?) village. What he was trying to say (would I put words in his mouth????) is that there is no longer any real life in these villages - they consist of people originally from Jamaica et al living in shacks and houses surrounded by litter (their own) and their sole function seems to be to provide accommodation and food to tourists both at relatively high prices for somewhat grotty options. Many moons ago they were likely very active fishing villages.
So we crossed the border to Guatemela at Copan Ruinas and what a delight - couldn't have been easier and everyone so helpful - we were pathetically grateful for being treated so nicely in contrast to other crossings! We had to revisit Chiquimula (the scene of my first endoscopy on the way south) in order to get cash from an ATM and then stopped for the night at a place just off the main road.
1 Antigua Alfombre
The road to Guatemala City is ugly - full of trucks and buses and roadworks, and of course the lack of signs meant we ended up right in the middle of Guatemala city when we were trying to avoid it! After much help from incredible people who went out of their way to enable us to follow them to the right road, we eventually arrived in Antigua in the afternoon. As the book had described it is indeed picture-perfect - narrow cobbled streets, beautiful old buildings painted in ochre, rust reds, browns and whites and lots of ruined but still beautiful churches as a result of many earthquakes. Chris took an instant dislike cos he thought it was purely a tourist town but I must say he revised his opinion once we had begun to explore it. Antigua is flanked by 3 volcanoes on 3 of its 4 sides and 1 of them, Vulcan Fuego, puffs smoke intermittently and even spews out red lava, but Im yet to see the latter phenomenon. Guatemalas history is full of devastating earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and the evidence of the 1773 earthquake is very visible with so many buildings and churches with only part of their structure remaining.We found a local family who have just 4 rooms around a small patio which is the focus for all of their daily activities. So Chris flew off to Santiago and I settled in. With the help of my patron I registered in a Spanish school 1 minute from the house and so I am spending 20 hours immersed in Spanish. My understanding of Spanish is improving in leaps and bounds but my young tutor doesn't know how to listen and to make me talk and I can hardly get a word in edgeways and so my speaking is not improving...oh well!!
The first night after Chris left I was thrilled to hear the national juvenile symphony orchestra playing on the steps of the cathedral at one side of the central park.
2 Another Alfombre
It was wonderful - Bernstein, Mozart and Dvorjak under a full moon - doesn't get any better! Maybe Im imagining it but it seems as though everytime something really good happens its followed by a downer....and this occurred the following day when my bag was slit and my purse removed without me knowing a thing...grrrrr ...so angry with myself! It was at a major religious procession which was a very moving experience and I got carried away taking photos (normally Chriss domain) and was not as vigilant as I should have been. Families in the narrow cobbled streets get together and create beautiful pictures on the surface of the cobbles, out of flowers and greenery or out of coloured sawdust (all the primary colours plus green). Some of the pictures are as big as 3x10 metres and are only a few feet apart and the patterns are elaborate and beautiful. The procession - hundreds of men and boys dressed in purple cassocks with hoods accompanying 2 enormous shoulder-carried floats with Jesus on the cross on one of them and Mary on the other - winds its way on a prescribed route up and down the narrow streets (watching them turn corners was interesting as they have to sway back and forth as they shuffle around the corner) and this requires them to walk on the pictures, destroying them in the process. So much effort for such a short period! But watching the families out on their hands and knees creating the pictures, from baby to grandpa, all playing their role, brought tears to my eyes. It made me realize that we have definitely lost something in our first world countries in terms of family and community involvement.Have got up to speed on the local politics through my Spanish classes and unfortunately Guatemala is in hot water right now as 3 San Salvadoran representatives to the Latin American parliament were assassinated in Guatemala 2 weeks ago and then the 4 Guatemalan policemen put onto the case were also killed. San Salvador is clearly very unhappy and is talking of breaking off relations, world bodies have condemned the actions and the pressure on Guatemala to come up with what happened and why is very great. Bush arrives this weekend on a prearranged visit but the timing clearly is not good, and its also election year for the government ....ugly. Of course rumours abound and there is even talk of San Salvador declaring war...who knows.
Unfortunately I cant include some of the incredibly beautiful photos that we have on Antigua as Chris has the laptop with him and so we will have to add the photos once he is back, so don't forget to revisit the BLOG next week cos the photos should be good!
Comments
Yes, Great photos
Hi.. glad to hear from you as you trek your way back to the north. It's been wonderful following your great adventure. We now have spring and flowers and sunshine after too much rain and snow for too long. Love Kathleen