North & Central America Trip – Experiencing Real Guatemala Culture
Hi everybody,
It’s been another action packed couple of weeks, and we’re glad to be alive and well in the backpacker mecca of San Pedro, on lake Atitlan.
We’re loving having a soft bed and hot shower, after the last week.
We’ve discovered the ‘real’ Guatamala. We had our heart set on going to Todos Santos, a remote mountain village. We wanted to take the direct route, which we’re told is impossible and off-limits to foreigners.
Well, seven buses later, through steep dirt ‘roads’ sheer drop offs, and markets we arrived!
Was it worth it? Yes, because we got a taste of what Guatamalan life is really like.
We did a home stay with one of the wealthier families in the village, they even had a functioning wood stove and running water! We were also lucky enough to have pasta in cold chicken broth for breakfast. Delicious!
Todos Santos has a strong culture, including traditional clothes that over 80% of the people wear.
Claire is glad she was not born indiginous Guatamalan, because it took her two whole backbreaking days to weave a headband that she would sell in a market for less than NZ $1. I reckon it looks pretty cool though.
Despite the conditions, the people love it in Todos Santos.
I studied a bit more Spanish, and I’ve been able to ask people about their lives, and the history of the region.
Whenever I asked someone ‘where is your favourite place in Guatamala?’ they all reply ‘here!!’. This includes people who have lived and worked in the United States.
Remittances from illegals in the US is the number one income source for the rural highlands.
However my Spanish isn’t always reliable. I thought we were ordering French Toast and we ended up with some stale French bread. Nearly as good as the chicken broth pasta!
Beforehand, we visited Samuk Champey, which is a series of freshwater pools. We took another crazy bus into the area, filled with sick-inducing bends. Literally. A child next to me vomited on himself, and the bus driver just sped up. (Sorry, no photos of this).
As it’s low season, we haven’t seen many tourists, so we expected the middle of nowhere to be completely dead. However our riverside hostel had about 50 gringos staying there, enjoying the water, caves, and tubing down the river just like us. We got a great little hut nestled right by the stream.
We’d already had out fill of caves, as we went to the Actun Tunichil Muknal caves in Belize.
Everyone just calls them the ATM caves, probably because they cost an unbelievable US $75 to visit!
However it was worth it to check out the pots and humans sacrificied to the gods, and get the full comentary.
Claire particulay liked the five minute walk without lamps in pitch darkness through freezezing water. However it was a great trip for her because she got to see a cocoa plant in the wild!
We’ve also gone to Tikal, which are a bunch of Maya temples within the jungle. The temples were pretty cool, but what really made it great was the wildlife. We saw howler monkees fighting for territory, and their roar is straight out of a horror movie.
We also had cheeky spider monkeys throw seeds at us (we counted ourselves lucky they didn’t deficate on our heads, as they’re known to do).
We also saw a bird which was 100% blood red and a leafcutter ant colony. 4cm ants partrol the colony, a guide was so keen to show me how tough they are, he picked one up. It proceed to bite his finger and blood poured out of him. Ants are cool!
Think that’s it for now!!!
Claire and Joseph
