A Tale of Two Cities (and many volcanoes)

I'm now in San Pedro on Lake Atitlan. I left Antigua after my 2 weeks of Spanish school and numerous “cultural activities” which predominantly resulted in raucous laughter as we attempted (and failed) to gain skills that are part of everyday Mayan life. One Guatemalan cultural activity that I could have done without was the earthquake that woke me at 1:20am. Although small (4.7) it was plenty big enough to scare me!

The drive from Antigua to Panajachel was a windy road through mountain villages, maize fields with children, goats and chickens running through the corn with clouds clinging to the mountains. Rural life here is Guatemala at its' most beautiful with some villages being just a cluster of rooves barely visible above the surrounding maize. Unlike in Antigua, here there were stark reminders of the damage caused by cyclone Agatha only a month ago with many parts of the road still down to just one lane as mudslides are yet to be fully cleared and parts of the road have just washed away completely. One of the more haunting images was a school where half a basketball court sat comfortably intact whereas the other half was buried under mud and boulders, the only reminder that it was ever there being the basketball hoop sticking out of the rubble at a strange angle further down the slope.

Upon arriving in Panajachel I found it to be a town in motion – everyone is there to go somewhere else. It is the most easily accessible town of the lake and therefore acts as a port for the other settlements. I met a couple of English girls and travelled across to San Pedro, one of the other major lake settlements, with them.

San Pedro is a town of 2 parts stretched between 2 ports. At the top of the (very steep) hill is where daily life is conducted. You see very few tourists here and the restaurants exist to serve the locals. The buildings are a similar style to those in Antigua – low, stone and sturdy – with the streets all being cobbled. Unlike Antigua I have yet to see a single local woman wearing anything other than traditional Mayan dress. The men tend not to wear traditional dress because it's harder for them to find employment if they look like a 'yokel', but girls as young as 3 wear the tiniest traditional costumes you've seen!

The other life of San Pedro exists on the lake front where numerous cobbled alleyways and dirt paths run the gauntlet of laid back bars, cafes and hotels, all with hammocks out the front. And right beside the lake a dirt path winds its way through the trees and maize past the backs of the various cafes and bars and past a classroom in a shed, where I will be teaching English 3 days a week, a language school set in sculpted gardens, where I will be studying 5 days a week, and an art studio. At this art studio local artist Gaspar sells his traditional Mayan oil paintings. He also offers an option to get arty and paint your own masterpiece in just 4 hours. Of course this was an option that we could not refuse and after 4 hours of entertainment “I can't paint leaves!”, “how did I get paint there??”, “it so is a circle!”, and much laughter from our patient teacher (normally followed by “I fix” and a few deft strokes of his brush covering any of our sins against art), we had 3 reasonably convincing Mayan masterpieces, complete with our signatures. More expensive than buying? Possibly. More unique? Probably. More fun? Definitely!

Yesterday we travelled by bus along steep winding mountain roads, some where the road has been partially washed away, some still showing the remnants of landslides, both old and new, to a mountain-top village called Chichicastenango (or “Chichi” to people with a less flexible tongue). This village is the setting for Central Americas' biggest market which on Sundays spills out of the central square to encompass much of the town. It is also home to a large proportion of people still practising Mayan beliefs and rituals in combination with their official religion of catholicism. Nowhere is this more apparent than at the church along one side of the central square. The steps of this church are adorned with flower sellers and burning incense offerings. Inside the church are many candles burning alongside offerings down the central aisle and fabrics and flower petals strewn everywhere. Behind the alter a woman appeared to be doing some paperwork using the alter as you would an office desk!

Upon our return to San Pedro I went to my Spanish school and was introduced to my host family for the next two weeks – a lovely young family who own a restaurant and laundry on a cobbled laneway 5 minutes from the school. They have 2 small children: Theo, who's about 7 is shy now, but his father Mario assures me will very soon talk non-stop and ask continuous questions, and a baby that I have yet to meet. And so this is me for the next few weeks, I start Spanish lessons this afternoon and start my voluntary placement tomorrow morning!