Mayan Sojourn
Trip Start
Nov 15, 2006
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224
228
Trip End
Jul 15, 2008
Panajachel,
Western Highlands,
Guatemala
Monday, June 23, 2008
Panajachel, Guatemala
In the morning Tony and Lilly drove us to Lake Atitlan. They wanted to show us the beautiful spots of their country and this is one of the best. They had originally planned to take us first to Antigua, which would have been nice also, but we have been there before. We should tell you that Tony and Lilly do not speak English with us, although they know a few words. Arvid can speak a little Spanish; which he's been told is "suficiente" - faint praise. It was good practice and a challenge to communicate with them entirely in Spanish. Tony has lots of patience and for Tony it was probably like speaking to a child. Arvid would translate to Irina although she usually knew what was being said because it was all so elementary. Speaking with Lilly was a little more difficult because she did not use the simple words that Arvid knew
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. But we agreed with the old saying that communication is only 10% words, the rest is bodily language, voice infliction, context, etc. Bright eyes and a nice smile go along way, and Lilly had both. When we got to Panajachel Tony spent some time hunting around for the right hotel for the night and after several tries he found a place with casitas: cottages with two bedrooms, two baths, kitchen and living room. It's a nice place to set up housekeeping but with all the sight seeing we spent little time there. Tony has been paying for the meals and gas ($5/gal) so we pick up the hotel tab of $68 as we did for the room last night in the capital ($60). Lake Atitlan is beautiful - like something from a fantasy painting. A clear blue lake set amid volcanic peaks.
From Panajachel Tony drives south along the lake shore to the small town of Santa Catarina Palopo and on to slightly large San Antonio Palopo. On the way back to Panajachel we see a curious resort on the mountain side and decide to check it out. The Casa Palopo is so exclusive that you have to enter through a locked gate which a guard unlocks after questioning Tony. It would be a nice place to stay if you were on a honeymoon or had lots of money. It cost Tony plenty for the coffee and pastry we ordered
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. But the view over the lake was spectacular. June 24, 2008
Chichicastenango, Guatemala
Today Tony takes us to Chichicastenango, also called Santo Tomas, which oozes with Mayan mystery. The mixture of Catholicism and ancient worship is pervasive. You really don't have to hunt it out. When we arrived the Cofradia Brotherhood, dressed in black knee breeches, short jackets and colorful scarfs, were massed on the church steps amid swirling smoke of burning copal. We had read about the cofrades but we'd never seen them. After the ceremony on the church steps the cofrades went off to perform another ceremony at a rock in the hills which has been worshipped as a god long before Europeans arrived. It was fascinating.
