Notes from Guatemala 1

5/17
We arrived in Guatemala City at 6:30AM and were met at the airport by some Fair Trade associates. The part of Guatemala City near the museums is very clean with a few armed private security guards standing in selective locations. The city is textured with brightly colored buildings and stone monuments. Moving away from Zone 1 and into Zone 12, the well maintained streets yield to a metal clad shanty town that is less inviting. Building boundary lines blur as entire blocks appear as an interconnection of dark door-less openings next to heavily protected doors pressed into the continuous concrete wall. Broken glass bottles are imbedded into the top of the concrete walls as an economical attempt to provide the residents some sense of security.

We received a tour of the school at the Fair Trade co-op - a school where the children are actively engaged and the mothers earn an income by making Fair Trade products - home decor, jewelry, purses, and fashion accessories. Liz helped to design several new pieces and placed an order for more. We took a video of the children dancing to our new song “No Borders”. I was particularly touched by the class of preschool children welcoming their newest classmate by taking turns embracing him as he stood in the middle of the circle of the other children sitting on the floor. Soon Liz was embraced by the warm sweetness of 25 3 – 4 year old Guatemalan children. She described them as the most loving, cuddly warm children with endless genuine love.

We arrived in Antigua at 12:30PM and immediately noticed the rough cobblestone streets bordered by a very old city. Long ancient concrete walls open to give glimpses of large structures that look like they were built by a proud people and have witnessed many elegant stories and trauma. This area reminds me of New Orleans with somewhat unappealing walled streets with arched doorways that open up to a tropical oasis complete with rooftop gardens and music wafting in from some unknown location.

Our hotel is structurally part of the beautiful Arch of Santa Catalina, an 80 ft tall arch over the street that leads to the La Merced Church, a magnificently ornate cathedral complete with a huge dome that makes it one of the tallest structures in the city.

Evening now, car traffic is being replaced with foot traffic as people walk the safe streets and visit the abundant restaurants and bars. The familiar sweet smell of the afternoon’s brief rain still lingers and the cobblestone streets reflect the night lights of this charming city.

5/18
We had a great group tour of the city that included a walking tour of a couple of churches complete with the long history of the strong willed Mayans being unfortunate to being discovered by the Spaniards at a time when there was discord between the two largest Mayan communities. The very small Spaniard contingent used their clever alliance to promote the last great war of the Mayans against Mayans. Exploitation by the Spaniards and forced adherence to Christian beliefs has reduced the Mayans to second class citizens in a country where they are in a majority.

Jade is a rare stone that ranges from a rare light green color to a deep black. The ancient Mayans used Jade as head and body adornments with the color of the stone and the abundance being worn indicating the status of the wearer.

After the group lunch, people continued their walk through the city. The many ruins, shops, and open patio restaurants made for interesting exploration.

All of us went out to dinner and had a great time with Janet signing along with the solo guitar player, Jane playing the conga, and dancing that included a living Conga chain of people moving through the restaurant – including through the kitchen where Wendy engaged one of the cooks to join the fun.

5/19
Several activities today as groups went to a coffee plantation, hike up an active volcano, and toured two active locations in the Mayan community and a location where a collection of Mayan fabrics were displayed.

The Bishops house and associated church stood in stark contrast to minimal lifestyle of the adjacent homes. The complex is now being managed by a group of compassionate nuns and we had the rare opportunity to go inside of this internationally protected site. The church has dark wood interior beams and a flat roof while the walls had few windows and abundance of mostly faded art on wood panels. In contrast, the bishop’s house, while surrounded by a tall wall had two large interior courtyards surrounded by spacious rooms all in white. Art work and a comfortable lifestyle of abundance was everywhere.

The village that we visited had a church and communal clothes washing area. The church was painted white with yellow and white wedding cake style of adornments. The central courtyard included a couple of statues and a rather large covered swimming pool type of structure that had clothes washing stations spaciously located around the perimeter of clean water pool. The women were chatting away while washing their clothes and didn’t seem to mind our presence.

We also visited a shop with a collection of various styles and quality of Guatemalan woven products. It was interesting to learn about the various weaving techniques and the amount of time required to product the various garments. The best of the weaving techniques involved intricate and seldom repeated patterns with no thread viewable on the supporting fabric. These products took many months to create. Other techniques included rather crude designs that were continuously repeated and had a lot of loose threads viewable on the back of the supporting fabric. These products took many weeks to produce.

5/20
On our way to Panajachel (Lake Atitlan), we stopped at the Mayan Ruins of IXIMCHE. The hill top ruins revealed a neatly organized city with a wonderful view of the valley. None of the structures were particularly tall or imposing but what was most noticeable was the lack of any oppressive or violent energy. Even when standing on the sacrificial altar, I only felt a sense of peacefulness.

As we continued our van ride toward Panajachel, each member of the group was actively engaged in some sort of conversation. Upon arrival at our hotel, most of us took the ten minute walk to the lake and then continued to explore the shops and sights on the main street. It reminds me of a beach town with the souvenir shops and street vendors.

The evening’s dinner was at La Teresa restaurant. The second floor open patio had a great view of the busy street as well as the lighting storm that entertained us through the evening. Karen, who with her Latin lover husband owns the restaurant, is from Holland and while visiting here five years ago fell in love with her Salsa instructor. We will be taking Salsa lessons from him on Saturday. He has that machismo Latin dangerous look that will likely have even the most flat footed women taking the lesson from him.