Pausing Here and There

So, I left the states at midnight to arrive in Guatemala in the early morning. My mission was simple: get to Antigua and meet my sister by the fountain. She expected me around 9 since this would allow a reasonable amount of time for travel between the capitol of Guatemala city and the tourist town of Antigua. I stepped out of the airport run over with that similar attack on the senses I got when I arrived in Dheli in 03 and Yaounde in January of this year. After asking several taxis, I found that no one was willing to leave the city. I don’t blame them. It was christmas day after all. So I looked for another option. This too failed as the shuttles to Antigua wouldn’t leave for several hours. Little did I know, they would have gotten me there before my delayed arrival at 1pm.
What did I do during all that time you might ask. Well, I got me a ride…
I walked back into the airport finding two familiar faces of some gentelman that were on my flight. I asked where they were headed, and was pleased to hear Antigua. Naturally, I asked if I could hitch a ride. They accepted without revealing that there was some other buisiness along the way. About an hour into the trip I asked, ¨how far is it from here?¨ The response. ¨Oh man, Antigua? that´s the other direction. We have to go see our mother first. Then we will take you.¨ We went up into the highlands passed rolling green hills and small subsistence farms. We wrrived at the house, where I was greeted with hugs and ¨feliz Navidad¨ The family was very excited that I had come to join them and upon my arrival brought me beans rice and tortillas.
We only stayed a short while, as there was much to be done on this christmas day. Riding in the back of the pickup´s cab, I gazed out the window excited to be in a new country, anxious to see my sister. We made on more stop before going to Antigua. It was a little sketchy, but who was I to contest. My driver, wearing a shirt with Carmen from south park, went into a buisness building with one duffel, and came out with another. The switch was quick and to most unnoticed. Don´t ask me, because I don´t know. But my theory is the Guatemalan Mafia gave me a ride.
We got to the fountain, where I was encouraged not to get out. My new friends wanted me to join them for the festivities at the track. Drinking and horses were the only promises. So, I gracefully turned them down, and left them there to find Elizabeth.
Jacob

I´m sitting outside of my bedroom in my host family´s courtyard. (Okay, well not really, I´m actually in the school´s computer lab, but I wrote this on Sunday and am sharing so you all can get a picture of my life here).

Their dog is harassing me a bit, making sure that I know that this is his territory…and, he just pissed on the fig tree. Good job perro. The electricity is out, apparently in the whole city so I know I should be using these remaining few hours of daylight to study as I haven´t all weekend. I hear a baby´s cry from the next courtyard, buses, birds, the dog chewing on a nasty bone, firecrackers (someone´s birthday?) Its overcase, and was raining a bit in Zunil, the town I was in for a bit earlier today. Today is kind of the antithesis of yesterday. Saturday, I woke up, put my music on and by the magic of ipod shuffle happened on an excellent New Pornographer´s song. That put me in a better mood because I was itchy the night before (fleas, bedbugs, no sé). I was also awoken on Saturday very early by the damn birds and the early morning breakfast eaters.

A group of us got together the night before to drink mango mojito after mango mojito in a cafe which was grand as I hadn´t really gone out in Xela before that.

Saturday morning another group converged (there were seven of us) to take a bus to Zunil (a town about half an hour outside of Xela) and then a pick up to Georgenas Fuentas. The bus to Zunil was especially clean, new luggage racks and such. All the people on the bus that morning were women and children, okay, well mostly. The women were mostly wearing indigena clothing, including the brightly colored hair wrap that is common in the Xela highlands. The fog hadn´t come in yet and the sun was soooo pretty on the hills: patchworks of agriculture, spots here and there of flowers, purple and magenta all in a neat little square.

When we arrived in Georginas, it was amazing too. We had taken the pickup, and saw more gorgeous farmland, a volcan, and then we passed into the fog. Geoginas was misty, jungle ferns, huge plants, hot springs steaming out of the rocks. We stayed in a bungalow there, and spent the afternoon soaking up the calming waters of the hot springs…we read, became pruny, talked, floated, felt the varying temperatures of water, and when we became too warm, played uno till dinner. An evening swim was, of course, compulsary as well. Then we experienced the lovely box spring only no mattress bed for the evening. Yippee.

We walked back down the hill the next day to zunil, about two hours, killing the time by chatting, and not noticing that our calves were becoming incredibly sore. That we noticed later. I took lots of wildflower pictures. At one point, passing over a bridge, we saw a river of callallillies (sp.) As we grew closer to town, there were less people in their fields cleaning carrots, mounds of white white onions, bagging huge hills of beets, blood purple. There was more trash and the road turned to cobblestone.

We went and saw San Simon in Zunil, a local God? Actually, I don´t know too much about him so I shouldn´t say much. However, he is a figure and the figure looked like a doll dressed up in a suit with a cowboy hat and a scarf. People would take his hat or his cane and touch themselves with it or wear it, or feed him aguar diente (alcohol) or light candles, or offer money to ask questions. I don´t know any more than that, really that is not an assumption. I intend to find out more soon.

On our way back I noticed the loads of trash people threw into the river by zunil, the cabbages growing right next to it, and the ominous, giant black vultures watching the trash (to see if anything good is coming?)

We spent Sunday evening eating and pretending to study. And then, the next week began…