Antigua to Chichi
Trip Start
Apr 10, 2006
1
9
65
Trip End
Ongoing
Chichicastenango, Guatemala
Sunday, May 7, 2006
www.rubyfunk.shutterfly.com
So my third week in Antigua was very chilled - no school and I had a serious case of the flu... didn't quite realize that perhaps I should rest a bit instead of still trying to do everything as normal so by the time the weekend of the dance procession ended (as mentioned in my last email) I was finitoed! So I spent a very chilled week in the city - very nice actually to not have a ton of things to do - school, activities, homework (I never was much good at that anyway!) - and just to be able to absorb the life and feeling of the town at a more sedate pace. Eventually I had to go down to the doctor - all that rest and maybe just a little red wine still hadn't fixed me by the end of the week but quick course of narcotics did the trick!
Just as well because on Saturday 6th May, Clare and I set off on a little joyride around Guatemala. We booked ourselves onto what we thought was a "Pullman" bus - one or two steps up from the chicken bus but not quite super luxury - us being budget backpackers and all... and arrived for departure in the morning, only to be herded onto something that looked remarkably like a chicken bus - minus the great colours... hmmm we thought, we did pay a little extra for a little comfort but lets wait and see... anyway as it turns out, the little pamphlet thingie that we based our booking on was absolute nonsense - we just paid triple the price than normal for a ride on a chicken bus! No such thing as direct to our final destination, we stopped all along the way and the bus driver crammed an astounding amount of people into the bus - clare eventually had a little girl sitting on her lap who just gazed in wonder at us for the rest of the trip! Of course it would have been useless and to say anything to the driver and we had long since left the travel agent / ticket seller / purveyor of nonsense pamphlets far behind so we just had to laugh it off ;-) a sense of humour is definitely the most essential item to bring when you are away from home!
We arrived after about 4 hours of winding roads through hills and farmlands, and general lack of brake usage by the driver (!) at our destination, the town of Panajachel, set next to Lago de Atitlan - amazingly beautiful but more about this later... and immediately decided to mission off to Chichicastenago instead of staying the night in Pana which was just super touristy. Clare went off to get something while I waited with our bags and got propositioned by a 15 year old Daddy Yankee wannabee...
"hey laydee, where ya fram?"
"south Africa"
"wow, dats cool... ya wan some weed? Ya smoke pot huh?"
"tempting but no, thanks."
"ah...ya sure? - I gat some good shiet"
"really?! Ooh, let me think, no I think I'm going to have to skip it, thanks"
"ah okay, bye Barbie.."
Barbie! That's a first I must say! I've had comparisons to Pamela Anderson (ha!) and Sunet from Egoli (!!) but never before to Barbie - clearly my image is changing! None of that skanky backpacker look for me!
Anyway, off we went to Chichicastengo which is famous for its markets, held on Sundays and Thursdays. We found ourselves a cheap little hotel and ventured out for a stroll around the streets, took some pics and were back early at the hotel early enough for a few beers with our Australian neighbours. Had such interesting convos with them - can't remember the guy's name now but he told us stories about his trips through Egypt, Ethiopia, Syria, iran and I can't remember where all else but in the middle eastern area - absolutely fascinating. He'd been stabbed in Ethiopia and chewed Khat leaves in Syria with the cops! I don't think I've ever met anyone that's done some serious traveling through those areas - got me thinking about trips to come....
Anyway, the next day dawned beautifully - clare was up at the first guatemalan sparrow's tweet to go take pics at the market - I followed at a slightly more leisurely pace - and we spent the morning wandering around, drinking in the astounding abundance of colours, crafts and arts. It was a bit strange though because, besides the vendors selling stuff aimed at the tourist market (which was certainly not the majority), we really felt an unfriendly vibe from a lot of the people - very different to what we had experienced elsewhere in Guatemala. Clare even had stuff thrown at her and was spat at! And not even when she was taking photos - really an unpleasant experience for her. Maybe they have had unpleasant experiences with foreigners but it was quite weird - and both of us like would like to think that we are sensitive and respectful to the people of the places we visit - being independent travelers, not part of huge tour groups, conscious about customs etc...? who knows. Anyway, besides that, it was amazing - I've uploaded pics onto my website so you can check those out! It is mainly a market for Guatemalans - they come from all over to buy and sell everything from fruit and veggies to their traditional clothing - which really is still worn by the majority of the population outside the cities. I had to restrain myself from buying tons but did buy two things that I really wanted - a beautiful wool coloured blanket and a hand-embroidered mayan calendar - not really shopping as such - more like contributions to the local economy... ;-) this is what i will continue to tell myself!
Once we were marketed out, we decided to take a little hike up a pine tree covered hill, very close to the town, on top of which is a Mayan religious site. We had heard that there were going to be religious ceremonies all day because it was the day of the Sun God. On the way, we peeked into a little art gallery, sponsored by the Guggenheim foundation, and met a sweetie of a guy, Juan, who works at the gallery / art project and who came with us to the ceremony and did some explaining about what was happening. It was really interesting to see - there is an altar and ceremonial area on the hilltop and, although we missed the main ceremony, there were still people there making their sacrifices and praying. It was in ways quite similar to the activities at the shrine of Maximon except that the priest, in jeans and cowboy hat, didn't slap the believers with rum-drenched herbs, he took a mouthful of rum and spat-sprayed it all over them in between taking hearty puffs of his cigar...
