Guatemala Douglas

Guatemala

Sent en route to Zihuatenejo, Feb-25

February-16-2002

Hello all back there,
We are in Guatemala, in Puerto Quetzal, the Pacific Naval Base of Guatemala. We just got back to the boat today after a 10-day trip into the highlands of Guatemala.

Before I go any further, I should acquaint you all with Guatemalan transportation. The most popular mode of transportation in this country are the ‘chicken buses.’ These are ex-school buses from the US that have been painted garish colours. The windshield is covered on the inside with ‘Dios nos acompanie,’ or ‘Dios guarda sus viajes’ (‘God is with us’ and ‘God guards your travels’). People pile in the bus, herded by the conductor, who yells the destination. If the bus is bound for Guatemala City the conductor will yell out “GuateGuateGuateGuatemala….” The principle that the buses work on is that they leave when they are full. The conductor is paid by how many he can cram in, so his interpretation of ‘full’ largely determines the size of his paycheck. By the end of it there were three or four large people to a school bus seat, the rest of the people either standing or kneeling on the floor. For the really long trip to Tikal (9 hours) we took a Pullman bus. This was more like what you people back home are used to, except that in the middle of the night men with automatic rifles came aboard and told all male passengers to get off, presumably so the passengers could be searched for weapons and given a good looking-over. Their relief of the victims when they boarded the bus again was obvious.

Our first stop was Antigua, which was the capital of Spanish-colonial Guatemala, until earthquakes made it impractical. Many buildings were knocked down the very year they were built, they were then rebuilt and knocked down again; this went on for quite some time. Some buildings have been knocked down four or more times. Because of this, many of the old buildings (some of which date back to the early 1500s) are reconstructed. The main themes here for architecture are the gaudy Baroque and Spanish-colonial styles, neither of them my particular favorites. There is an inordinate amount of cathedrals in the city, most of them very large, with impressive interiors. Practically all of the ordinary buildings are painted pastel colours, especially yellow. The roofs are tiled and the trim is white; there are lots of wrought iron window-guards. We were walking around town, when we found that one building just like the rest actually housed Dominoes Pizza! There was no large, plastic sign, only an engraved bronze plaque. From the outside the restaurant blended in perfectly. Apparently this is because of the Mayor’s strict regulations, not because of some kind consideration on the part of the fast-food joint.

From Antigua we caught a bus to Chichicastenango. At least we thought we did. The conductor herded us aboard, yelling “Chichi Chichi Chichicastenango” before our scam warning lights were on, we were inside the bus. An hour and a half later, he told us that we had missed the stop where we were expected to catch another bus to Chichi. From then on, we only got aboard once we had ascertained that the bus was “Directo.” Chichicastenango is an old town that is home to (despite its out-of-the-way location) the best market in Central America, according to our guide book. The market is only open two days of the week, Thursday and Sunday. On market day, people come from all over to set up stalls constructed from wooden poles and tarpaulins. In the touristy sections (generally the outside) the stalls sell hand-embroidered or woven textiles, wool blankets, jade carvings and other traditional items. In the inside of the market, stalls sell everything needed by the local population: hand-dipped candles, fruit and vegetables, dried corn and rice, old pieces of electronic circuitry, knives, coffee etc. We are all seasoned bargainers (not least of us is Emma, who is tough as nails on the poor vendors) and it is a sort of game. They judge you as you walk up, and offer a price which you have to laugh at no matter what it is. You make a counter offer (15-30%) and watch them laugh. The prices slowly converge until you feel that they won’t go lower, and then you walk away. As you turn to go, the real “ultimo precio” comes out. I say ‘real’ because they have probably already given you two or three ultimate prices. There are a few traps to fall into, such as giving a counter offer out of turn, which they encourage by focusing on your price, not theirs. Most of the time the real price is about one third to one half what they originally ask. You can also count on what they say regarding the item to be richly embellished. I bought a large ‘newly made’ indigenous textile, hand embroidered with ‘silk’ that took three months of work, for 100 Quetzales (12$US). What I really got was a stained and obviously used item that, if it is made of silk, must be very low grade silk (good silk costs 110$/pound). I also bought a set of incremental brass weights that fit inside each other like a Russian doll, from an old man that couldn’t talk. The price was communicated by him waving his ten fingers back and forward four times slowly, then four times rapidly. It took a bit of trial and error to determine that this meant 40 Quetzales. The buy was half out of charity so I didn’t bargain.

Our next stop was in Panajachel, which is also known as Gringotenango. The town didn’t offer much for us, but we spent three nights there because we were all sick. We did make a trip out to Sta. Cruz for a night, and stayed in a hotel with no electricity. They offered oil lanterns at night, but none during the day, which was dark in the 3.5$/day room that I was in. Mum, Bronwen and I took a day trip to Santiago Atitlan. It was the first day of Lent, so there was a very important church service going on in town. The church is actually quite important to Guatemala’s history, because it sheltered the local population from the ‘anti-insurgency’ killings of the 1980s. During that period, 15,000 civilians were killed (many tortured as well) by the US supported government. In 1981 the locally beloved priest was actually murdered inside the church.

From Pana we caught a bus to Guate, and then an overnight to the ancient ruins of Tikal. Tikal was among the greatest of the ancient Mayan cities (pop. Est. 100,000 in 553 AD), and was probably first settled about 700 BC. The Maya of Tikal adopted a brilliant new (to them) form of tactical warfare: throwing spears. They surrounded their enemies, and then killed slowly from afar with spears. What their enemies were doing while they were slowly slaughtered is unclear – perhaps experimenting with the hallucinatory mushrooms. In addition to mushrooms, the great kings of Tikal drained their blood to the point of unconsciousness and hallucination in order to converse with the gods. Tikal is a complex of pyramids, temples and palaces that spreads over 16 km2. Mayan temples and pyramids are similar in shape, both made of between 3 and 9 stepped layers, rather like a rectangular wedding-cake with sloped edges, or a geometrical pyramid cut into layers and every other layer taken out, then collapsed into a jagged-edged solid. There are extremely steep stone stairs on one side. The temples have large structures about 50-100 feet high on top, whereas the pyramids are flat-topped and simpler. Apparently the temples were used by the kings to address the public and the pyramids were used for astronomy (this was important to the Maya, who believed that one became a star in the next life). Only 15% of Tikal has been excavated so far, the rest of it is completely covered in jungle. From the base of an un-excavated temple, you see a large, steep and mysterious hill in front of you, completely covered in earth, bushes, immense trees and vines. The only parts of unexcavated temples not covered are the top structures. It was these structures that betrayed what was hidden inside the ‘hills’. There are many temples still unexcavated, indeed the largest of all is still as it was to the early explorers. The South Acropolis is merely an area of jungle on a low hill that the archaeologists have determined covers a large ancient complex. We spent 15 hours on the site, and three or four hours walking to and from. The most memorable thing that we did there was climbing Temple II before dawn, and watching the sky lighten to the loud jungle sounds while Temple I slowly came out of the early morning mist.

We are back on the boat now, preparing for the infamous Golfo do Tehuantepec, a 200-mile long stretch of uninterrupted beach over which high winds blow on a regular basis, after that, we will be in Mexico, the first of the repeat countries. We will be able to officially pronounce ourselves circumnavigators upon arrival in Zihuatenejo. I am rather saddened by the thought of this trip ending, and apprehensive of the abrupt change in our very-nice-thank-you-very-much lifestyle, but the longer we stay out the harder it is to go home.

Please write us, we enjoy your emails very much.

Douglas Stanford of S/V Margarita

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