OAT Guatemala: School & Home-Hosted Lunch

In San Luis Pueblo, we visited a school supported by OAT and today it was the 4-year olds' turn to host. Each of us was greeted by a student, taken by the hand and led to their classroom.  My hostess was Maria Jose. 

The teacher did a remarkable job getting the children to sing the Guatemalan national anthem (in Spanish, not Mayan), dance, and pose for a group picture.

After our visit, we were divided into 3 groups for a home-hosted lunch by mothers of some students.  Our hostess was later joined by her husband.  Using my rudimentary Spanish language skills and a dictionary, we were all able to communicate to our hosts what we did in our former lives and they were able to tell us a little about their current lives.

School visits, home-hosted lunches, and support of the local communities are ways OAT differentiates itself from other tour companies.

OAT Guatemala: Lake Atitlan to Antigua via Sololá

Enroute to Antigua from Lake Atitlan, we stopped in Sololá.  The colorful cemetaries were fascinating.  Some families have tombs for which they have paid in full and will always belong to them.  But many of the spaces are rented.  If a family stops paying rent (as they often do after a few years), the remains are disposed of somewhere else (after removing any valuables) and another family rents the space.

We went into town to learn about "chicken buses".  Old American school buses are shipped to Guatemala and purchased by entrepreneurs who repaint them colorfully, replace the seats with benches that will hold ( a lot ) more passengers, and choose their own routes.  This is often the only way villagers (and this looked like the whole village) can get into town.  They can really pack them in.

We reached Antigua and checked into our hotel.  This is actually a purpose-built new hotel designed to look old.  It was in a gated neighborhood outside but within walking distance of Antigua.

We got into Antigua in time to see another Holy Procession

Antigua at night can be breathtaking!

OAT Guatemala: Lake Atitlan

Our hotel in Panajachal on Lake Atitlan was lovely and much to my delight, we got to stay a few days.  Three volcanoes surround the lake:  San Pedro, Toliman and Atitlán.  The lake is 1000 feet deep (deepest in the western hemisphere), covers 130 square miles and is 5000 feet above sea level.

We took a ferry to San Antonio Palopa.

We were fortunate to see a woman weaving with a backstrap loom.  Unlike a foot loom, backstrap weaving limits the width.  That is why huipiles must be pieced together.  Ellen Riojas Clark wrote a moving essay noting that the powerful Lady Xoc of Chiapas, Mexico was shown wearing a huipil on a 725 AD limestone carving.  "To wear a huipil is to elegantly declare one's identity, history, and culture in the tumult of contemporary life."  Ivania said that today, many choose huipiles from other villages and it is no longer possible to positively identify a woman's village by the huipil she is wearing.  The most prized huipiles are from San Antonio Aguas Calientes.  They take 4-6 months to weave, the designs are colorful and complicated, and the outside and inside are identical.

 We took a ferry to Santiago to view Maximon and the Procession

Back in Panajachel, Ivania took us on a walking tour terminating in a pupuseria.  Kathy made pupusas while the rest of us just ate them.

Kathie's (not to be confused with pupusa-making Kathy) cousin met us for pupusas and invited us to his vacation home in San Pedro.  Off we went on another ferry ride to see his home, a bit of the town and his favorite coffee shop where he spends most of his morning hours.

OAT Guatemala: Ziplining on Steroids Above San Buenaventura Bioreserve

We climbed up 40 minutes through coffee plantations and across hanging bridges to reach the start of our zipline-on-steroids adventure high above the 247-acre San Buenaventura Bioreserve canopy.  We were clipped onto a cable strung from one mountain edge to another.  I read somewhere that the farthest we could fall was 600 feet but it looked like a few miles down at least. 

Our guides told us to keep one hand on top of another to stay relatively stable and not pivot during our initial rapid descent.  But about 2/3 way down we needed to reach back with our leather palmed glove and pull down on the cable to brake.  I could not see the end (some ziplines were 1000 feet long) and asked how I could tell when I was 2/3 down.  They claimed they would wave a red flag from the other side when it was time to brake.  They did this some of the times.  One time I started braking too soon and almost had to pull myself in.  Another time I braked too late and got stopped in time by the safety knot before ramming into the side of the mountain.

After the first zipline, I was literally trembling.  I had to hike a way to the start of the next one.  I only started enjoying the experience after the 3rd and was admiring the spectacular views by by the last and 8th zipline.  My "Cables Extremos" diploma was well-earned.  

OAT Guatemala: Santa Semana Holy Week Processions

We were fortunate to be in Guatemala during the Santa Semana Holy Week processions and we watched as many as we could.  In 1543, the first religious procession in Guatemala was modelled after the processions in Spain.  The Maya have incorporated their own beliefs, aspects of Catholicism, and other spiritual practices. The processions start and finish at a church.

Although smaller processions start on Ash Wednesday, the important processions follow this schedule during Holy Week (www.travelyucatan.com/maya/mayan_holy_week_2006.php)

Palm Sunday [Purple]: Day Jesus arrived in Jerusalem.

Holy Thursday [Purple]: Last Supper

Good Friday [Purple]: Jesus' crucifixion, performed in 14 stations

Holy Saturday [Black]: Loneliness of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Easter Sunday [Traditional Mayan]: Resurrection of the Christ.

We saw elaborate "carpets" (alfombras) being made from colored sawdust, flowers, fruits, vegetables, and pine needles.  Then, hundreds of people with expressions of suffering or rapture slowly carried a "float" (anda) that looks like a casket with holy figures on top.  A float literally weighs tons and it takes great coordination not to drop it.  As soon as the float passes, a cleanup crew rapidly sweeps up and carries away the remains of beautiful carpets.

Thu 04-01-10 Guatemala City

Ivania gets directions to the Processions

Even the dogs know to wear Purple

Fri 04-02-10 Procession outside Guatemala City

Sat 04-03-10 Creating Sawdust Alfombras in San Antonio Palopa on Lake Atitlan

Sat 04-03-10 Santiago on Lake Atitlan Procession

We waited 2 1/2 hours but others waited longer

The alfombras were amazing

The stairs were treacherous.  Time and again the float would appear but its carriers would then scurry back into the church.  Finally, they made it out of the church and safely down the stairs.

We would have liked to see the malevolent Mayan deity Maximon in procession but he wasn't scheduled until much, much later. 

Sun 04-04-10 Easter Sunday Procession in Antigua

More relaxed dress code