Central America 2005

I hear that the weather back in Ottawa is moderating and temperatures are even above zero. I think we stayed in Ottawa long enough to experience the very worst of Canadian cold, for the first time in five years. Guatemala has provided us with warm, sunny day's and cool nights. In fact with temperatures hovering around 12 C in our bedroom in the morning in Xela, we miss our warm central heating. Thank goodness we had enough covers.

That said we are doing very well, despite the usual minor incidents. I am certainly glad we had insisted on a minimum of two hours between flights when we flew to Guatemala on January 20. All three flights were delayed. Ottawa and Chicago were in the midst of freezing temperatures and the planes had to be de-iced. The Miami to Guatemala City plane was delayed while luggage was removed from the plane and our luggage put on. I assume that was because all other flights had been delayed. It was amazing that we arrived only one hour late in Guatemala City. Our prearranged driver was waiting to take us to our first Hostal and we unpacked and settled in for the night. I ripped the flight tickets off our bags and had a second look at Ray's. It was a rerouting tag that indicated his original tags had been lost before reaching Chicago. American Airlines, despite being a no-frills airline, had come through for us. The bag had been carefully routed via Miami on another flight and probably because of the delay in Miami, made our flight to Guatemala. We were taking a shuttle bus first thing the next morning for Antigua so we had not planned on staying around Guatemala waiting for lost baggage. A minor disaster was averted.

Antigua is a pleasant town of 40,000 with World Heritage status because of its Colonial architecture. It reminds me of our favourite South American towns of Cuenca, Ecuador and Arequipa, Peru, but before any restoration has taken place. Antigua is in a valley surrounded by volcanoes. The city was almost destroyed by an earthquake in 1736 and was never fully rebuilt. On top of that Guatemala experienced civil unrest and wars from 1960 to 1996 when peace treaties were finally signed. That means they have not had very much time and little money for restorations of their heritage buildings. The streets are quaint, bumpy cobblestones, the buildings are in need of paint and several large churches are shells waiting to be rebuilt. Nevertheless the people are friendly, the basics are there and eventually Antigua will be even more filled with tourists than it is now.

It is very popular now with students coming to take Spanish lessons in one of the many schools. Most students stay with families who provide inexpensive room and board, but there are lots of hostal choices and good restaurants to choose from. Our first time here we had a nice, basic room with a bathroom next door, set around a nice inner patio. The Spanish adopted the Moorish style of undistinguished exteriors and lovely, cool inner courtyards and continued this style in Central and South America. You would never guess how pleasant the houses are by their blank walls facing the street. Antigua has a pleasant central plaza with a fountain famous for its circle of topless women conveniently spouting water from their breasts; Mother Earth providing the essentials of life.

The active Volcan Pacaya is just outside town. We took advantage of a popular guided hike to its summit. We started out Saturday afternoon in a bus with 28 others for an hour and a half ride to the base. We had just started up a steep incline outside Antigua when the bus groaned and grinded gears and stopped dead. The bus driver got out, looked under the hood and announced that another bus would be coming to pick us up. Like most other Guatemaltecos, he had a cell phone for communication. We all piled out of the bus and lay around in the sun until our replacement bus appeared.

We were rather late starting our hike, but once at Pacaya, the group hustled up the steep path. We had been warned that we might not be able to make it all the way to the top as the volcano had b een very active lately. There are police wardens at the volcano site who monitor activity and have the final say as to whether it is safe to summit. We had heard that others had not been able to summit the previous day so we were not surprised when we wer e told we could go no further than half way up. It did not really matter. It was still a pleasant, somewhat challenging, walk of over an hour and the volcanic cone above us was spectacular. The volcano last erupted violently in 2000 and a vast river of blac k rock was right below where we stood. The last section of the climb was over loose black volcanic dust, not an easy climb. We walked around the olcano getting other views, then followed our guide slaloming down the soft dust about 100 M. He led us up a g rassy slope for an excellent view of a spectacular sunset over the mountains. We waited as the sky grew dark and watched in wonder as Pacaya sent plumes of flame into the sky. It was a great fireworks display, but we were assured there was no danger of a full eruption. Our guide had a hard time getting everyone to leave when the police wardens had called an end to the day. We walked down in the dark, thankful for a well marked trail and our flashlights, and returned to town.

The next day we took the chicken bus to Quetzaltenango (Xela - pronounced Shayla - in the local dialect). Retired Blue Bird school buses find new life as public transportation in Central America. They are designed for two or three children to a seat and here accommodate the same number of adult bottoms plus extra children sitting on laps and people standing in the narrow aisle. Luggage, bags of produce and live chickens or pigs are strapped to the roof. The driver careens up the steep winding roads while his assistant squeezes through t he bus collecting fares from the passengers. We survived several such trips, sharing smiles and conversations with fellow passengers.

We loved seeing the colourful clothing of the mostly indigenous people. Each community has its own style. Nearly all the women and young girls wear a wrap skirt of colourful stripes, or black with appliqued stripes, tied with a beautifully embroidered belt. Their huipil, a blouse of variously coloured hand woven cotton, is often entirely covered with additional embroidery. The younger men and young boys wear western garb, with a straw sombrero, but the older hill tribe men prefer the traditional garb. Some wore cropped pants of red, multi stripes, with a western or an embroidered shirt. Around their waist they secured a black and white polka-dotted blanket that fell just below their knees. In other areas the men favoured white cropped pants with narrow black stripes held up with the same kind of wrap belt the women used around their skirts. Some of these pants had been colour fully embroidered as well. I would have loved to take pictures of all of them but they do not pose willingly.

Seasoned travelers that we are, we still have to learn to be more cautious in underdeveloped countries. For many people, we are the rich tourists and we learned the consequences on our trip to Xela. The bus stopped for a driver lunch break at a crossroads and a stream of vendors got on the bus selling food to the passengers. Ray got off to find a toilet and I didn't pay enough attention to what was going on. Ray returned and looked at his daypack stored in the upper rack. A zipper was open, his wallet was missing and the vendors were long gone. When we reached Xela, we notified Visa that our credit card had been stolen. They were not surprised as over$1000 CDN had already been charged for cell phones and other goods. We had to find the local police and formally report the loss. They dutifully typed up a report on an ancient typewriter and gave us a copy. Thankfully our loss was limited to $100 CDN Ray had in the wallet and his driver's license and health card. We have learned to be extra careful of bags left on racks and we always make sure all zippers are well out of temptations reach.

I chose Xela for my Spanish lessons on the recommendation of my niece Nadia. She attended six weeks of lessons in Xela, at a different school, about three years ago. Most students spend one to three months at these schools. Nadia recommended Xela over Antigua because of the predominance of indigenous people and the l ack of tourists. I had arranged to take Spanish lessons for one week in Xela at Escuela Minerva. The school arranged a homestay with familia Velarde. Guillermo (70) and Alma Lily (71) brought up three daughters and two sons in this multi-roomed house. The rooms are set around a courtyard that is mainly used as a houseplant and laundry center. Their oldest daughter Liliana, a teacher at a local school, and her daughter Michelle (20) live with them. While we were there we met another daughter Evelina, who was visiting from Cologne, Germany where she has been working for several years. We had meals prepared by Alma Lily in a tiny kitchen next to their large dining room. We ate the main meal of the day with the family as soon as I returned from school at 1 PM. As we were warned, the meals were heavy on carbs and beans, light on veggies, but always included fresh fruit. Breakfast was our choice of 'mush' , which is oatmeal, with milk and fresh fruit. A light supper was often eggs and fresh, mild cheese and some refried beans. The family spoke Spanish to us, slowly and clearly, and were always patiently willing to correct my atrocious grammar and teach us new phrases. We learned that Buen Proveche is the Spanish for 'enjoy your meal'.

I attended school Monday to Friday from 8 AM to 1 PM while Ray tooled around town. Xela is a commercial city of 100,000 set amongst volcanic mountains at an elevation of 2335 M. The downtown is centered on a plaza in the midst of reconstruction with the main commercial buildings around the plaza waitin g their turn for restoration. It was an easy 15 minute walk from our place to downtown and the city was well served by chicken buses going wherever you wished. Ray seemed quite happy doing his own thing without my helpful suggestions. I could have stayed a nother week consolidating my knowledge, but Xela's charms only extended to one week for Ray.

Flor, a young lady of about 30, was my excellent teacher for the week. She and I shared a tiny room with a table and two chairs, while another 11 students each shared similar quarters with their teachers. We had a half hour break at 10:30 when we all piled outside for chats in halting Spanish, more frequently reverting to familiar English. Most of the students were 20-somethings preparing for long travels in Spanish speaking countries. One of the few middle aged students was was Jane Gittens, who lives in Victoria. She was at a higher level of Spanish than me after taking several extension courses in Spanish at Bishop's University when she lived in Tomofobia, near the Vermont border. Despite the intensive one-on-one teaching method, it was a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

The first few days were good review for me as they covered much of the grammar I supposedly already knew and covered the present tense. Next we tackled the past and future tenses and I had to work hard to commit all this new knowled ge to memory, let alone dredge it up while speaking. At the end of the week, all departing students, about half of us, were presented with diplomas indicating our successful completion of whatever level we had attained. I got a Basic level diploma, one up from Beginner. I was pleased with my progress and I am trying to continue doing a little homework each day as well as speaking Spanish frequently.

In addition to our daily lessons, the school, like most of the others, introduced us to the local culture wi th small lectures and trips to points of interest in the surrounding countryside. Tuesday afternoon, Julio, the director of the school, gave us a short lecture on the political and economic situation of Guatemala. Ray attended with me and was easily able to understand all the bad news Julio gave us concerning his country. The main industry, at 60% of the GNP, is agriculture, but 80 % of the land is controlled by large corporations that still treat their employees as indentured workers. The service industries, including tourism is next at 25% and Industry provides just 15% of GNP. With 40% unemployment, and an unstable government providing almost no social benefits, Guatemala is still a poverty stricken country.

We visited two hot spring areas outside Xela. One day we took the local bus to Almolonga 6 km out of town. A highlight was the ride through the hills to this market garden town. Small allotment plots, watered by the underground springs, cover a narrow valley beside the town and provide most of the fresh vegetables for the area. We discreetly admired the colourful clothing of the local women as they got on and off the bus with their babies tied in slings on their backs.

The Thermal baths we attended in Los Banos, outside Almolonga consisted of 20 small r ooms in a low concrete building. For Q15 ($2 CDN), a maximum of four people rent a room for up to an hour. Each room is furnished with a wooden bench and hooks for your clothes and four concrete steps leading to a two part sunken bath area. You fill the larger of the sections with hot natural mineral waters, adding cold to your liking. The water overflows into the second, smaller section where you are supposed to soap and rinse yourself before the final hot soak in the large section. The hot water is relaxing and the minerals are supposed to do wonders for your skin.

We arranged a second trip to Fuentes Georgina, an outdoor thermal bath area beyond Almolonga. This time we chartered a mini bus to take 10 of us to the springs. We stopped in the mountain town of Zunil on the way to admire their pretty church and visit the Women's cooperative selling articles of clothing and other hand woven textiles. Like areas all over Guatemala, the handwork is excellent and the prices are low, so we couldn't resist buying some of their products.

Fuentes Georgina was farther up in the hills with several natural pools set amongst a restaurant and cottages where you can spend the night. We had left directly from our classes without lunch so we all headed first to the restaurant. Here we got a first hand view of workers rebuilding the largest of several outdoor pools. A major mudslide a few years ago has finally forced the reconstruction of all but one of the pools. There was only one open that we did get to swim in later. It wasn't very hot except for a small area where steaming waters trickled over rocks into the pool. It was fun anyway.

Our guide book talked about a hiking trail to a viewpoint on top of a hill so before our swim, most of us headed up a steep narrow trail. It was steeper and rougher than we anticipated and as we had limited time, Ray and I decided we would be better off not killing ourselves and turned around. As it turned out, only one person managed to reach the top. He said there were flowering orchids and lots of birds around, so he considered it worthwhile. I liked the swim.

Our last day in Xela, a group of us were led by a young local boy on the local bus to a spot outside town for a walk up to a good viewpoint. The first part was up a steep paved road past an ambitious start for an expensive housing project. So far it appears most of the money has been spent on high walls and a gate house to keep out the riffraff. We turned off at signs pointing to a rather remote soccer football field and our destination, the Chicua, which means a spot sacred to the local Mayas. The last section was a scramble over steep rocks to a lookout. The tranquility of the location was spoiled by very loud lamentations in Spanish. It was a meld of North American Evangelical religion and a celebration of a special day according to the Maya calendar. Our guide said they chose this spot because it is high and therefore closer to God. It was an interesting ceremony with a flower festooned altar and women in local dress with lace manti llas on their heads. Some of the Maya group continued even farther up the hill to continue their ceremonies. We didn't follow.

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