October 12th:

The next day, it was out to the countryside! We visited an indigenous shrine of the modern variety, meaning that the temple was a pretty ho-hum concrete block building and the attendant priests dressed in western apparel, only recognizable as priests due to their red bandannas. Unbeknownst to many, while Mayan civilization disappeared at the hands of the Conquistadors its people retained many of its traditions, though to call the K'iche and Kachiqel the kindred of the Mayans is a bit of a stretch. The traditions of bloodletting and the more extreme human sacrifice have long been left by the wayside, but the less controversial aspects of Mayan culture still survive, including the significance of colors. Rather than making sacrifices, one wishing their prayers to be answered lights a candle of the appropriate color (the colors can mean anything as simple as good fortune and anything as precise as a successful housewarming party). Prayers can be carried away by smoke, such as from a cigar (never a cigarette!), or by a loud noise like that from a firecracker or an egg popping in a campfire. If there were any less tourist-friendly rituals, we weren't made privy to them.

After that little bit of enlightenment we traveled to a service project location, in this case a school called "Open Windows" where education is free and students are encouraged to participate with its flexible hours. Theoretically, a student can come to class at any time of day, provided they come every day. This way, children who have to work also have a chance to obtain a proper education. Much of the curriculum was of a primary school nature, but they also had vocational training, a computer lab, and a band! While this was my first visit, my friends told me that three years ago the school consisted of just a library and a courtyard, so it was encouraging to see tangible evidence that the donations the school depends upon put to good use. Ultimately, I ended up making a donation to the school.

That evening we returned to Antigua and ate at a little bistro right along the edge of the main plaza. While the experience was pleasant and the food excellent, we were starting to get spoiled by all of the good food at this point, so we were entertained by the very dapper waiters as they shooed away the stray dogs that kept wandering in and out of the establishment. I should make a note that there is quite a population of stray dogs everywhere you go in Guatemala, and of course their predominant concern is food. While one has to keep their eyes constantly peeled for dog shit, the dogs themselves are basically harmless. This is in contrast to some other cities in other nations facing stray dog problems where the canines have learned to band together and attack people.

October 13th:

Off to the countryside again, this time southward to the Pacific Coast. After about an hour the highlands gradually gave way to the rolling hills and tropical forests of the lowlands, and in contrast to to the Altiplano highlands it became apparent that the more easily tamed areas in the South were privy to better roads and bigger cities. The temperature also changed dramatically. The sweltering jungle heat I had been afraid of when flying into the country at last appeared, and while we didn't really suffer the transition was dramatic considering how short the trip was.

We visited an old sugar plantation called El Baul, an area that has mostly been cleared for sugarcane but has been the site of some archaeological excavations. While the highlands were dominated by the Maya, the southern coastal regions were home to the Olmec, who were arguably the predecessors of all Mesoamerican civilization as we know it. The relics were originally mistaken as Mayan, but with study it appears that El Baul, nestled in the foothills, sat along a long east-west trade route right at the border between the Olmec and the Maya. Among the statues were anthropomorphic deities, curious depictions of animals like coyotes, jaguars, and serpents, and a wonderfully intact relief depicting the outcome of a ball game. We wouldn't learn more about the relevance of the Mayan/Olmec relationship until that evening.

The plantation also had a less ancient, but no less fascinating museum of steam engines and machinery which were used on the vast sugarcane plantation a century or more ago. From tractors to rail locomotives to contraptions so bizarre that they took a lot of speculation just to comprehend, it was a total disconnect from ancient civilization and an often unseen look into the nation's more modern history. It pays to note that almost all of the machinery was manufactured in Germany before World War 1, and this was not a coincidence- apparently German emigres and statesmen alike adhered to the country, enough so that the city of Coban apparently has a distinct German flavor to it.

After El Baul we visited La Democracia, where we got a look at more peculiar stone carvings, this time big heads. This got kinda boring, since the exhibit at El Baul was in better condition and had more variety, but we made our own entertainment by striking into town and exploring its markets. Rather than the woven souvenirs of Antigua, this market had the true feel of a buzzing commercial venue, complete with turf floors, baskets and boxes of fruit, tortilla makers, abbatoirs, and all kinds of basic goods. Most of us picked up some fruit, in particular Rambutans, which we didn't expect to see in Guatemala let alone in season. Since most people don't know what a Rambutan is, my best description for it is that it is like a large lychee. One fruit fits neatly into the palm of your hand, the skin should be a uniform bright red in color with some flecks of white, and the most peculiar thing is that the skin is covered in long, soft, hair-like spines that make it look more like some splendid sea creature than a fruit. Like lychees, the fruit itself is milky white and opaque, with an inedible pit inside that you simply spit out.

We had lunch at a most peculiar highway-side restaurant. You know how on every interstate in the U.S. you'll find Shoney's, Cracker Barrel, Big Boy's, and so on? In Guatemala apparently the closest equivalent is called Sarita's. Sarita's is more commonly seen around the country as a chain of ice cream parlors, but their highway-side restaurants put just about all of the American chain dining establishments to shame with their quality and cleanliness. While I doubt very much that the restaurant was the kind of establishment that your average Central American trucker or family on the Pan American Highway would stop at for a bite to eat, it was still a bit of a shock. I've never been to a gourmet restaurant in the middle of nowhere on the side of a highway.

That evening our gang met up at the Cloister, another intimate and tasteful hotel similar to Casa Capuchinas where most of our group was staying. We sat in on an archaeology presentation, in particular a discussion about the links between the Maya and the Olmec and how this relatively new approach changes humanity's understanding of the cultures. I started the presentation with a glass of wine, then saw this innocent looking bottle of clear liquor come by, courtesy of George, one of our group mates. The stuff was called Aguardiente, and apparently this little glass flask with the picture of a colorfully dressed woman on the front is the source of many a moral ailment among the indigenous cultures. In a word, it was a barely legal form of fire water.

After a couple shots of the stuff I was somewhat dismayed to find myself quickly and profoundly drunk. We hadn't eaten at this point, so whatever alcohol was in the Aguardiente (it's not listed) went straight to my head. Then we had a problem with the projector, and sure enough I get volunteered to fix it. To my dismay, the projector was an Epson. I felt the familiar burn of pointless and endless button mashing coming on.

Miraculously, I somehow managed to figure out how to get the thing working again in spite of the fact that the instructions were in Spanish, in double, swirling around my head. I've never been able to get Epson products to work properly while sober, so now I know what I must do.

October 14th: Compared to the previous day the 14th was a kitten. This was good because I hadn't gotten very good sleep. We took a walking tour of Antigua in the morning, stopping by several locations that I had already visited and re-examining them in greater detail.

In the afternoon we visited a coffee finca, or plantation, that had given over a large parcel of land to horticultural greenhouses. We saw thousands of poinsettias, but the show stealers were the orchids. While flowers are kind of a dull topic to many, I've been dragged into the garden by my dad more often than I care to remember so I had to know this stuff.

In a rather anticlimactic way we ended the day by dining at the Casa De Los Suenos, where we learned about a nonprofit organization called Wings, which promotes family planning systems and education. To put it in perspective, we learned that Guatemala's population of about 15 million continues to grow rapidly. Even more disheartening is the fact that almost 50% of the country's population is under the age of 15, which means that without intervention the nation's population could explode. The single largest problem facing Guatemala from a social standpoint is overpopulation. Since the peace accord in 1996 the nation's economy has grown, but poverty has remained roughly the same since all of the economic gains have been swallowed up by a growing population.

Afterwards, one of our group mates who was living in country put on an additional, unscheduled, long, boring presentation about her service project. I honestly don't even remember what the project was at this point, since we were so saturated with information and needful pleas that a couple of us literally snuck out and went home. I sat through it, tried to stay awake, then shuffled back to the hotel and fell into bed. I needed the sleep since the next day's shuttle was going to pick us up at 7:00 AM. On the docket: The Mayan ruins of Iximche and the awesome, inspirational beauty of Lake Atitlan.

These will be discussed tomorrow, in part III!