As our last week rapidly approached we decided it would be best to go ahead and turn our trip into a more traditional vacation. So I chose to stop working in San Pablo and we made arrangements to move to San Pedro. Michelle found a great little apartment that has two floors and rents for about $85 a month. It is very basic, one large room, small combo bath, and an upstairs patio the same size as the main floor with a metal roof and open on two sides. We get a great view of the city (we can even barely see our old home in San Pablo) and more time in our day together.
It is so basic in fact, we don’t have a stove. I was challenged today to find ways to make good no-cook meals. Our favorite mainstay has been tortillas and avocados for lunches. With the market so close (5 minute walk) I was able to gather fresh tortillas, avocados, carrots, basil, sweet onions, garlic, tomatoes, cucumber, mini bananas, strawberries, and parmesan cheese for a little less than $7. Does anyone else want to move down here yet too? I made a cucumber/tomato/onion/garlic salad with olive oil and balsamic dressing.
Participating in the markets here is an experience I will always cherish. Such a different experience from Olympia. The market there is prim and proper, and quiet aside from the regularly scheduled musical performance. Here it's scattered, spread out on the ground, dirty and wonderful. There’s people shouting out prices left and right trying to get your attention. Not something I necessarily like, but it makes for a level of energy that is very unique. There’s smoke from fires and from cooking permeating everything along with the occasional rotten and foul. If there is ever a place that would make a person want to turn vegetarian (aside from our factory farms) it would have to be the meat sections of these markets. There is not a single thing that entices my appetite in the meat section!
This past weekend we decided to go to Iximche (ee-shim-chay)… that’s the best I can do; a small and close ancient Mayan city (Mayan ruins). It was recommended to us by Michelle’s teacher Luis who was born in the near by city of Tecpan.
Saturday morning we grabbed our weekend bags (the language school held our other bags) and caught a local bus comically referred to as chicken busses by gringos, but known by locals as the camioneta… These are old retired school busses outfitted with large diesel motors that make them very powerful. They are then painted up with all the colors of a peacock and sent into the frantic life of public bus-hood. Up until this point all we have known of them is that they drive very fast and emit lots of smoke. Michelle has been run off the road on her bike by one tearing around a corner at top speed, blasting its horn as a warning.
The particular camioneta we boarded was headed for Guatemala City and as it had already left San Pedro was VERY full by the time it arrived in San Pablo. So with my 20 lb. bursting backpack, travel guitar, umbrella and flip flops in hands I boarded the bus with Michelle behind me. I should have let her go first. The west coast in me said, “When you see six people in a seated position forming one continuous line across the bus the bus is full; stay where you are.” Ehhh. Wrong. The correct answer was, say “Perdon” repeatedly and push through to the single person space in between two 6 person lines. No matter your backpack and rump greeting complete strangers in the face. Good to meet you too! Oh, and you thought the bus would not be moving during this whole time? Wrong again. It barely missed a beat. The bus only stopped rolling for us to board because we were Gringos. But once our feet were on the deck and the driver’s assistant (the ayundante) had swung back in and we were off.
The young ayudante would ride with half of his body out of the always open door pulling the horn string for every person to be seen on the road asking if they wanted a ride. He would hop out, let them in, and if needed haul their wares in baskets up the ladder to the roof whistling as he started up, to let the driver know he could floor it. He would climb back down from the roof as we would swerve around switchback corners and climb in through the back door to squeeze through everyone and collect the new comer´s money.
I don’t know which was more scary, the roller coaster curves coming out of the mountains, or the 90 mph-high-way-car-dodging-and-then-slamming-on-the-brakes even to pick up one person who waved, then back on the road up to 90 passing the same cars. Wow! Luckily, but the time we had made it to the highway enough people had left for us to get our own seat and rearrange our stuff closer to us.
Two hours later… we reached the main crossroad to Tecpan and got off. We took a chance and refused the Tuc-tuc and pickup offers and started walking. We reached the town within a few minutes and soon found a hotel near the center of the city near a giant plaza and Catholic church with a market bustling all around. Before heading out to the ruins we quickly stopped in the market and found some fresh blue corn tortillas, avocados and strawberries along with some iodine from a pharmacy to sanitize them.
We had been told the walk from Tecpan to the ruins would be 15-20 minutes, this turned out to be an hour, but was beautiful and welcome exercise none the less. As soon as we reached the park we sat down on a little bluff and ate our simple lunch. It started to sprinkle so we put on our rain gear and before touring through the park.
Most of the signage was in Spanish so I left Michelle to read as I went around taking pictures. We wound our way through the old hand carved/placed/and sunken foundations and temples feeling a sense of awe.
There were administrative buildings, elite dwellings, temples, and a ball court. The temples and ball court were the most interesting to look at as all others were mostly stone foundations with the actual wooden structures long gone.
I had read about the their ball game, similar to basketball except they could not use their hands, only forearms and the such. They played for honor, with the winners or losers sacrificed for the gods, sometimes wars were decided this way. The court was much smaller than I had imagined.
Aside from that it was a very simple visit. Exciting in a serene type of way. It makes you feel very humble to be around something so old. I had read a book our host had prior to the visit “The Complete Idiots Guide to 2012” which was a good basic primer to Mayan civilization, but was more focused on the prophecy side. It was good to read before hand as I knew their temples were situated along energy lines to keep in balance the earth´s energy. They are theorized to be descendants from Atlantis (as are the Egyptians) and were rumored to be able to control the earths energy (light and sound vibrations) to move the massive rocks they used to build their pyramids. They even have temples at other sites where certain celestial alignments during the year make the sun light ascend/decend stairs in certain places marking certain events. All in all a great book and an even greater civilization, one which this paragraph can’t come close to doing justice. Read it!
We took a rest on another grassy spot, finished walking around the 10ish acre area and after a few hours walked out as it started to rain harder. We were fortunate enough to catch a Tuc-tuc back, turning it into a 15 minute return trip. We cleaned up in our well deserved HOT SHOWER (rare in these parts) upon return to the hotel and even indulged in a little TV.
The next morning we made the snap decision to walk around the market a little more before catching the bus back. This turned out to be a great choice as the market grew the more we walked. It was about 10x the size of the Chi Chi market if you can remember us writing about that. And much more native. The food selection was massive, and needless to say we loaded up. Always on the lookout I found a new fruit! Chico? It looks like a potato, skin similar to a kiwi without fur, and the consistency… of a Chermoya.. if you know what that is! It was slightly sweet, a little grainy and a hint of oily, I called it mayonisey, but I have an intense distaste for mayo and I liked this. Michelle did not like this characterization. Cool looking insides and like all the fruit was found, we kept the seeds!
As crazy as the ride to Tecpan was, the ride back was even better. The Sunday busses were few and far between so we caught one to another city and rode it to where we thought was going to be the ”cross roads” a giant hub of intersections, but it ended up taking us most of the way back to San Pedro. We then transferred to a smaller metro bus, then a pickup bed (20 people with 10 spots to spare!), then a tuc-tuc!
We got situated in our new apartment and had another wonderful Tin Tin dinner this time with an Argentinean Malbec
*A note about the people here. We had heard many a horror story before coming about the potential evils, though this area was one of the safer from bodily harm. We just wanted to share that it has been our experience that people have been very kind and helpful, even when they did not have to be. There were several situations this weekend where much could have been stolen from us and was not. I am very thankful and believe expectations and beliefs form reality and while I may not always be able to control mine I will endeavor to trust in the goodness of people first, no matter what. Ultimately , the reality is the danger in Guatemala is comparable to that of any US city, and with our wits and some trust, we have never felt unsafe.
We look forward to next weekend, we have one last pretty exciting trip in the works! Thanks for reading our adventures! A storms rollin’ in, gotta batton down the hatches!
