Disclaimer We have been told that Guatemalans are very sensitive about having photos taken of them - especially of their kids. So any photos we have of just normal Guatemalans were taken either very discreetly, or with their express permission. In the case of the kids we were looking after later, they were MORE than happy to be photographed ad nauseum...and to take photos themselves...
The Elections
These elections are where they decide which wannabe dictator will run for president in November out of 14 candidates...though really, this was just a charade - everyone knew who the main finalists would be, but this didn't stop the other patries from splurging on noisy and prevalent campaign vehicles such as this one for the DIA party (no idea of their political affiliation):
These vehicles spew out not ony diesel smoke, but political propaganda in the form of banal slogans and excruciating jingles. Yes, even with our limited Spanish we knew it wasn't exactly the Gettysburg address.
Even when we first flew into Guatemala and were being driven to Antigua, we could not help but notice the multitude of political posters on almost every available bit of space on the roadsides. Later, when we were travelling through the countryside on our trip to Semuc Champey, in between praying for our lives, we noticed that pretty much every available rock and tree was painted with the logos and slogans of political parties:
We also passed through two political rallies where the people impassivley stood/sat through what we imagine were rousing
Gloria and Rodolfo's place, where we stayed in Antigua, was right next door to one the headquarters of the most popular party in Antigua, GANA, who were third overall in the popularity stakes in Guatemala, although the discrepany between it and the top two was enoromous - UNE and Patriota are the top two with about 33% of the popular vote apiece, and GANA had about 12%. Yeah, they didn't have a hope. Still, it didn't stop them them from putting on a huge party/concert in Central Park in Antigua on the Thursday night before the weekend of the elections, with the local MP hopeful strutting on stage and stage with his pornstar moustache gleaming in the light (you can just make out his spooky cardboard cutout to the left of the stage):
To add to that, if the roosters didn't wake us up every morning, the GANA political pickup certainly did - starting off at about 6.30 in the morning with the catchy song and the voiceover.
As you might have gleaned from the pictures above, the leadup to the elections here are much more entertaining and festive than your typical Australian election campaign. However, the day before the elections, it all stopped. All further active campaigning was prohibited, which, to be honest, was a bit of a relief, though quite a shock. All of a sudden, the streets of Antigua were more silent...to add to that, all serving of alcohol was also prohibited from the Friday to the Monday morning. Yes, even for gringos. To say that Shayne was not impressed is a bit of an understatement. We actually got to Xela on the night before the elections, and, contrary to extreme warnings from the Aussie government, tensions weren't widespread, and they went off largely without a hitch. Given the traumatic history of Guatemala, this was actually a bit of a surprise.
So in the end, to no one's suprise, the two finalists are UNE, a self-described leftist group whose logo is two hands joined together to symbolise a peace dove, and the far-right group Partida Patriota whose leader, Otto Molina, is an ex-general, and whose slogan is:
"Mano Dura" literally means "Hard Hand." Bit of a contrast...though to be fair, we've heard bad things about both sides.
If we thought the lead-up to the elections was festive, that was nothing compared to the week-long celebration of:
Independence Day
The Cenral American day of independence from the Spanish (15 September 1821) is inscribed on Guatemala's flag, which also consists of a couple of crossed rifles and cutlasses, a wreath, and a quetzal, which is Guatemala's national bird.
We think that for such an interesting country with such a rich heritage, the flag is severely lacking. For a start, there's nothing signifying the Mayan people, who make up over half of the population, and have a fascinating history and a multitide of different cultures. Of course, it's really no different from the Australian flag's distinct lack of recognition of the Aboriginal peoples.
Anyway, celebrations for Independence Day began whike we were in Xela on Wed 12th with the first of many "desfiles" - or parades. One thing we learned over the following days is that Guatemalans love their marching bands:
..complete with baton-twirling girls of varying ages and skills:
...and beauty queens (again, of varying ages and interest in what they were doing):
For us, this picture also captures what is a common presence in Guatemalan streets in general - a guy with a big gun. Even though this one was overseeing the parade, guards with pump-action shotguns are posted outside pretty much every bank and store which carries expensive merchandise, and even in the mall, parking attendants carry pistols. Quite disconcerting at first, and even now though we´re generally used to the sight, seeing the guys casually rest their fingers inside the trigger guard of huge firearms is a tad frightening. Anyway, back to the desfile...
There were also random sights in your average desfile, such as this:
...On a different day, on 4a Calle just outside the our Xela Spanish school, another desfile came through. This one was mainly younger kids. We had chicos who just couldn't wait to grow facial hair:
and others who got stuck dressed up as Guatemala's national symbols - no, the kid on the far right is not wearing a table, as Shayne at first thought and reported to Eva, upon which she and her teacher mocked him mercilessly (the reason being that it was, in fact, a merimba, Guatemala's national instrument):
There were several concerts that went on in Xela for the week of celebrations, but the biggest was in Zone 2 of Xela on Independence Eve. We went with a fellow student from Spanish school (more about school later!), Human, from Holland, seen here with a litre of that local swill, Gallo:
As soon as we got there, it started bucketing down rain. Not uncommon for Xela, actually. We managed to find shelter underneath a crowded canopy outside a local food store selling fresh tortillas and meat, and met some very nice locals. From here we drank and watched the other locals get blind. Shayne is of the opinion that Guatemalans cannot hold their alcohol.
After a good hour or so after the rain had eased, we ventured closer to one of the stages, and saw Guatemala's answer to the BackStreet Boys:
complete with drag queens in the background. Well, ok, they weren't really drag queens...we think...the fireworks distracted Shayne momentarily from the horrors being performed on the stage:
...which were spectacular but worryingly close to the crowd - at one stage we saw embers float down past the front of the stage into the crowd! Thank god it had been raining. As with many things things in this country, the locals seemed oblivious to or unconcerned by the potential dangers. Ah well, when in Rome...
The next act, just before the stroke of midnight, was...well, strange. We had a wannabe diva who couldn't hold a note, dressed as a cowgirl, complete with boot-scootin' back-up dancers, of whom the guy was the only one who really seemed to know the routine. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying it all a little bit too much.
After many numbers (similar songs with exactly the same bloody dance routine), three hapless blokes were pulled out of the crowd to perform in that degrading ritual, the dance competition. As usual, the fat guy won.
All week, just outside Xela, there was the "Feria" - the fair, which, as far as we're aware, is the only one of its kind in Xela. It used to involve such brilliant games as "catch the greased pig," but is now a more western-style affair with rides and stalls and sideshow alleys. Unfortunately, the only day we could go was on Independence Day itself, and it really seemed like the entire population of Xela (and then some) had turned up. It was a stinking hot day (one of Xela's few in the rainy season), and to actually get to the fairgrounds after being dropped off by the camioneta (chicken bus - more about those later as well!) we had to walk for about 15 minutes through a teeming mass of fairgoers and roadside vendors:
When we actually got to the fair, it was even worse - trying to get anywhere without losing each other was a real challenge. And forget about even trying to go on any of the rides: we realised after watching the Dodgem Cars and seeing people run from all directions at the start of a new round that Guatemalans don't really have any odea of the concept of "queueing", or have not adopted it. Actually, Eva found that out earlier when she had to use a porta-loo. To be honest, we didn`t stay there for very long; if we had been in the mood, it probably would have been brilliant.
So, now that we`ve talked about the two special Guatemalan occasions we were present during, we return to some more everyday Guatemalan subjects - religion and culture, if we can generalise as such.
When we were still in Antigua, on our last day of school we were taken to a small town, whose name we can`t remember (it was probably San-something-or-other...) to see what we thought would be a "traditional Mayan ceremony." What we actually saw was something infinitely more spooky.
Syncretism and Maximòn
Syncretism came about when the Mayans were prohibited to observe their traditional beliefs and rituals under the Spanish, who tried to convert them to Catholicism. However, they still practised some of these rituals in secret, which resulted in a mixing of Catholic and Mayan practices, and Catolic icons, saints and martyrs simply took the place of Mayan gods. One of the most prevalent of these "gods", who is worshipped throughout the highlands in places such as Santiago Atitlàn and around Xela and Antigua, is Maximòn, or San Simon. He appears in diiferent guises in different places, but we have seen him as a bearded dummy in a suit and bowler hat, usually with a cigar in his mouth. This is a picture of him watching over the patrons of Xela`s oldest bar, Salon Tecùn:
San Simon is an anti-saint/-god, who is revered for his love of drinking, smoking, and "taking care" of women. In the town where we encountered him for the first time, we were first taken into a tienda (store) which sold many different coloured candles, each colour signifying a different purpose - eg. white for protection of children, red for love and friendship, black for dealing with enemies, etc. Then, we were taken into a compound, where, in the courtyard, there were a couple of blazing rings of fire in which these candles were being burned, overseen by chanting Mayans.
As you can see in the picture, the Catholic cross and chalice also made it into the ritual. Later they put some sort of pink die into the chalice...not really sure of the significance of that...in contrast to the solemn chanting and atmospheric smoke in the place, these three minstrels were playing upbeat ladino tunes nearby:
We`re not really sure if this was part of the ceremonies or simply for the benefit of us tourists.
Next to the courtyard was a temple, and inside we saw...well, we`ll let the picture speak for itself...
Ok, no we won`t. You can see San Simon on the altar, wrapped in plastic to protect him the rites the "priest" performed. What rites? Well, a worshipper would stand in front of San Simon, often giving gifts of cigars and rum, only to have the rum imbibed and spat out onto them by the priest. This was followed by a ritual thrashing (well, brushing) of the worshipper with a bunch of leafy twigs. After this, the worshipper was led down closer to the door, where the priest would "bless" him by sticking a couple of unlit cigars into his mouth.
In the background of this picture, you can see plaques laid into the wall commemmorating births, deaths, and expressing gratitude to good San Simon.
After this very odd experience, for good measure, our Christian Spanish teachers took us to a Catholic church nearby. Helen, Shayne`s teacher, pointed out this notice posted near the entrance, which basically forbids Maximòn worshippers from entrance, also proclaiming that he is neither a god nor a saint. Ooh, the tension.
Another town that is known to observe traditional Mayan rites and even follows the Mayan calendar is:
Momostenango
We didn't actually see any of these Mayan rites when we went there, however. Instead, we went on Sunday to see the market, which is not the most busy or biggest market in the Guatemalan highlands by any means - that's reserved for the town Chichicastenango, whose market has become a real tourist attraction. This was a more a place where locals did their shopping and socialising. The trip was organised through our Xela Spanish school the day after Independence Day, and we (plus a couple of other students) were taken there and back by camioneta. Our guide was Ludwig (yeah, it doesn't sound very Guatemalan to us, either) who was somewhat knackered from having worked at the Feria until the early hours the night before. Thus he miraculously snoozed on the way back (why micarulously? You'll see...). Here he is below in the hat, with our fellow students Joke and Aaron (Belgian), taking a rest after we'd walked through the centre of town and into its outskirts:
We walked for quite a while down the road, until there were fewer and fewer dwellings. At one point we were accompanied by an old Mayan woman in traditional clothing, on her way back from the market. On her head was a cardboard rack of 36 eggs (yes, Eva counted them). This is a fairly common way of carrying things here, but what amazed us is that she was walking on a bumpy dirt track at a normal pace, casually talking to us, and did not once need to steady her load with her hand. In fact, she seemed almost unaware of the eggs. Eventually we said farewell to her and headed back into the centre of town, as the road seemed to go on forever.
Closer to centre of town we passed these geological formations called Los Riscos:
which are common to this area. Ludwig informed us that no one really knew how they were formed, but Ye Olde Lonely Planet says that they are of eroded pumice. Not being geologists, we wouldn't have a clue, but they're impressive. Kinda reminiscent of huge termite mounds.
Back at the market, he insisted on getting a drink which is also common to the area and which he'd been going on about since we got there. It's made of pulverized corn, is sweet, thick and very rich, and is served warm. In short, nothing you'd want to drink on a warm day after a long walk! Eva had a sip, but that was enough for her. He slammed down two glasses of it rapidly and was amazed that we declined.
We walked around the market for a while and Shayne got his fortune told by a bird. It had been trained to carefully pick out a piece of paper from a wheel of folded up fortunes. Shayne's prophesised something about him having many women but needing to find a good wife. Eva was less than impressed.
Before leaving Shayne engaged in that timeless activity of trade - haggling. It was all in fun, with both Shayne and the vender good-naturedly arguing about the price, finally coming to a price that was agreeable. Eva would like to point out that the vender was actually a good friend of Ludwig's, or else Shayne might not have been so confident.
So, this brings us back to the return journey by camioneta, or as tourists call them, "chicken buses". As we said before, these vehicles are old U.S. school buses, but have been lovingly painted in bright colours and obviously well taken care of in between being driven recklessly at breakneck speed by their insane drivers, usually with the conductor standing in the open doorway.
As we were about return to Xela, Ludwig steered us away from one bus in particular, saying that "the drivers of this company are muy loco!" If that meant that the drivers we've been subjected to are sane, we can't imagine just how crazy the one we avoided was! As a rule, camionetas are crammed as full of people, goods etc as humanly (and sometimes inhumanely) possible. We ended up standing in the aisle, holding on for dear life while this vehicle careened around corners and sheer cliff faces at least 20km/h over the speed limit. These drivers as a rule are also mighty impatient. For example, at one stop the driver sped off with the conductor still clinging on to the outside of the old emergeny exit (which is now used as another door!), and the poor old bugger who'd been trying to exit the bus in the first place was still trying to offload his cargo, which Eva was madly trying to un-wedge from the tiny overhead rack. We had to bang on the roof and yell at the imbecile to stop so we could retrieve the hapless conductor, who did not look impressed in the slightest. And yes, Ludwig slept through the entire trip. A normal, everyday public transport occurrence in Guatemala...That brings us to the subjct of:
Getting around
We've only really had a few chicken bus experiences, but here in Xela, they have a different way of cramming people into a moving vehicle. They're called micros, and they're just minivans or minibuses which operate on the same principle as chicken buses - cram 'em in. Ye Olde Lonely Planet refers to these vehicles as "a lovely fleet of quiet, smooth, comfortable, modern minibuses." Yeah, well done, Lonely Planet...the only true thing about that sentence is "modern," and having been used like packhorses, the modern sheen sure is rubbing off a tad. We take several of these everyday and have become quite accustomed to 4 people squeezing into a space meant for 2 - or sometimes sitting where there is no seat, or standing bent over double and looking around wildly for anything to hang on to. All the while with the conductor hanging out of the open sliding door, yelling out "parque parque parque!", or whatever the destination is, as if there´s plenty of room left. The upside to this mode of transportation (apart from the "fun" aspect) is that it's dirt cheap. The 50 km round trip to Momostenango via camioneta was 10 quetzals each (about $AUD1.50), and to travel around Xela in a micro is 1 Quetzal a trip. Crazy driving around Xela means being a pedestrian is even more dangerous - imagine trying to cross an intersection where no one indicates...or sometimes they indicate dyslexically. Sometimes they indicate when they're going straight. Again, no one seems to have heard of a speed limit, rules in general appear to be treated as mere guidelines...and red lights sometimes appear to be optional.
So, that's a glimpse of Guatemalan life in general. We´re sure you´re all dying to hear about our daily doings since we arrived in Xela! (yes, this post is going to get even longer...)
Our daily doings in Xela.
Xela is Guatemala´s second biggest city, and most of its inhabitants identify as Mayan. There are a lot less foreigners than in Antigua, and there seems more like a "real" city where people aren´t putting on a show for the tourists. It has a lot of colonial heritage , especially in the centre (Zone 1), as you can see by this photo of Parque Central:
Like Antigua, it´s surrounded by a couple of volcanoes, the active one, Santiaguito, being quite far to the north, whereas the dormant Santa Maria is visible from the rooftop of the place we're staying in:
Near where we're living, there´s a big edifice called Templo de Minerva, one of several commissioned by Estrada Carebra, one of Guatemala´s notorious dictators who fancied himself as responsible for bringing a higher standard of education and enlightenment to Guatemala. Truth be told, he was a right bastard. But this structure is quite beautiful, and was built in honour of the Roman goddess of education.
In fact, the whole area we´re living in seems to have references to Minerva, including the Spanish school we attended for a week, Escuela Minerva. Here is a rather bad photo of us and our teachers, Astrid (Shayne´s teacher) and Carmen (Eva´s teacher). They´re much better looking in real life!
Although we weren´t with the school for very long, thanks to them our first week in Xela was packed with interesting experiences. Apart from several outings to see the desfiles and the excursion to Momostenango, one afternoon we were taken to Fuentas Georginas, which are natural sulphur hot springs high in the mountains, made up of three pools of varying levels of heat (from lukewarm to OH MY GOD!), and depth. After the showers we've been putting up with in Xela, this was such a welcome relief (more on that later...). This view is from the middle sized and second hottest pool. As you can see, it was particularly misty that day, making the whole experience more atmospheric, while the frigid temperature outside the pools made us appreciate the heat of the pools all the more:
We say "mist", but actually we were in the middle of a cloud!
After reluctantly leaving the relaxing heat of the pools, we enjoyed the food and beer all the more!
After our week of Spanish school (although our Spanish was still horribly inadequate), we did two weeks of volunteering, which we actually just finished two days ago (28 September). We worked with a Dutch-run after-school care program called Cares Alegres (Happy Faces) for children who live in one of the poorer areas of Xela. Eva, of course, has had a lot of experience with children. Shayne, not so much. Yes, this was mostly Eva´s idea. Shayne was at first absolutely terrified of dealing with...GULP...children....!. However, he´s now very glad he did it, and has to admit that not all children inspire terror in him...(tongue firmly placed in cheek!). As you can see, the feeling was mutual - most of the kids really took to Shayne:
As is the problem with a lot of Guatemalan families, particularly the poorer ones, many children have very few older male influences, and the ones they do have aren´t always positive ones. This was especially apparent in the behaviour of some of the older boys. Shayne and another guy called Lenny were the only blokes (apart from Marcel, one of the coordinators, who was away sick a lot of the time), and they did their best to be positive male influences. As you can see:
Meanwhile, Eva got stuck on the end of a skipping rope much of the time:
But she did get much practise counting in Spanish...at least to ten, anyway!
In the end, we both feel that it was one of the most rewarding things we´ve done. We know that us being there for only a short while couldn´t make much of a difference to these kids in the long term, and feel a bit guilty about coming and going out of their lives so quickly. On the other hand, the program was particularly short of people for the two weeks we were there, and these kids, understandably, seemed to need/want more attention than most kids Eva´s worked with in the past. We´ll miss them. Even the troublemakers!
And we´ll miss our fellow volunteers, some of whom we meet up with again in Europe:
L-R: Elise, Miriam, Marcel and Judith (coordinators), some scary black guy, Lenny, Lies, and Ilse (mostly obscured by Eva). We were the only non-Dutch speakers among them! So, alot of the time we had no idea what they were talking about until they apologised and spoke in English...they are a fun and friendly bunch.
(We´re on the home stretch now! We promise!)
The whole time we´ve been in Xela we´ve stayed with a family assigned to us by Escuela Minerva. Here´s a terrible photo of us with all but one member of the household (Julio, the father, who we don´t see very much as he works a lot):
The two boys are José and Pablo, and the mother is Annamaria. They´re all very friendly and patient with us and our abysmal Spanish, and Annamaria in particular goes out of her way to speak to us while we´re eating, even though the family doesn´t eat with us - we´ve had many interesting, if somewhat halting, conversations with her from anything from police corruption to Australians eating kangaroos. We will miss the family a lot, especially Annamaria. We´ll also miss our neighbour, who we have very imaginatively nicknamed Perro (look it up):
He´s a little ball of indignant rage, who barks at us furiously whenever we are on the roof near our room, then runs out of sight, only to reappear from the opposite direction, staring at us incredulously before doing another lap, giving us one more chance to go away. This can go on for quite some time, until sometimes he changes tack and engages you in a staring competition. We mostly win. Yes, it has become a matter of pride between us and this ridiculous little dog. Yes, we are very boring people...
One thing we will not miss about where we´re living, however, are the showers. In particular, THIS one:
As you can see, it is heated by an electical element. This is pretty standard in Guatemala, however, this showerhead is particularly ineffectual, and dangerous. At best, we get lukewarm water that cuts out periodically. Xela is actually quite a cold place, so you can imagine that this really does go down a treat. Moreover, there´s always that unsettling combination of water and open electrical wiring. In fact, this morning, Shayne saw that every time the heating element came on, little sparks and smoke were emanating from the top of the shower head. We have decided, therefore, not to take a shower tomorrow morning, our last day in Xela.
One other little trap that we face in this house are the stairs. This is the top of two flights that we ascend and descend several times daily:
Sometimes we´ve had to navigate these stairs in the absolute pitch dark, once after Shayne had consumed a fair amount of alcohol. And we shudder to think how we´re going to get our luggage down them tomorrow morning (getting them UP them was bad enough...)
Would you just listen to us whingers! The minor annoyances pale into comparison next to the awesome experiences we´re having, and make for good stories.
We think that we´ve left you with enough (if you´re actually still with us!). We hope our subsequent posts won´t be as long! Stay tuned for our final trips where we visit more of Guatemala´s amazing sites (think of us as your cultural informers...)
1 comment:
Hey guys, absolutely awesome descriptions of your travels. Safe travelling.
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