Tuesday was spent traveling. We left Panjachel after breakfast, returning to Antigua. We took more photos along the way as the weather was much clearer than the day we drove into Panjachel. After returning the car and realizing there are no pawn shops in Antigua to check out for a ‘good used stolen camera’, we spent time walking around, having lunch and watching ‘life pass’ in the city square. We quickly realized Antigua is ‘very western’ in comparison to the villages we have visited the pass several days. At we met the car and driver who took us to a B & B in G’mala City. We were glad we did not have to negotiate the city traffic. We would highly recommend this B & B which is located very near the airport.
Sunrise over Lake Atitlan, Panajachel
Cemetary over looking Terraced Fields
Cultivated Valley
Early evening found us at the large ‘Oakland Mall’ in downtown G’mala City. We were looking for a new camera, but we did not find what we wanted.
This (Wednesday) morning we were up at for a taxis ride to the airport. By (ended up being ) we were on a flight to Flores, G’mala. This is a city in northern G’mala near to where ancient Tikal ruins (Mayan ruins) are located. We are staying at the Tikal Inn located within the National Park. From10:30 to we had our first tour of the ruins. We followed paths through the rain forest from one ceremonial temple to another, one plaza to another. It is simply amazing what they built in the time period it was done, how it has all been uncovered, and all they have discovered.
Grand Plaza
Temple I
It rained (actually a heavy mist) today as we were walking. I guess it added to the ambiance – rain in the rain forest! It was hot and humid, so the mist felt great however everything is damp feeling in our room tonight. The temperature tonight is very comfortable. Tomorrow morning we are to be in the lobby at to hike into one of the temples, climb to the top and watch the sunrise. I hope this is worth it, as getting up that early is not my thing!! I think it will be or I would not be interested in doing it.
Tomorrow afternoon we fly back to G’mala City for another night there before flying to San Jose, Costa Rico.
Cherie our daughter emailed a note and sent photos of the 3
inches of snow in Iowa!! It is so beautiful, weather wise, in G’mala -
we are sitting on the patio with short sleeves writing the blog and when we are
in our room the patio doors are open to the gardens.
Yesterday the whole area was hazy. All the photos of the volcanoes across the
lake from Pana are hazy, but overnight it was very windy. By morning the area was crystal clear.
Sunday afternoon Haze
Clear Monday Morning
This morning by 9:00
we met our personal guide who took us around LakeAtitlan in his own boat, to 3
villages. First, to San Pedro La Laguna,
second Santiago Atitlan, and finally to a more isolated village
of San Antonio Palopo. In all of
these villages, as you disembark the boat, hawkers are there! We walk up the steep streets (we could take
a tuk tuk – but we walked) to the church and market areas. In San Antonio Palopo there was a funeral at
the church. By the time we arrived, they
were in procession formation with the casket, to walk to the cemetery on the
very edge of town.
It was an extremely interesting day. The lake was not smooth, so it was a rough
ride at times. We saw beautiful villas
along the south coast of the Lake. Getting to these
homes is NOT easy – as the roads are so steep and winding. Often they get to them by boat, and in one situation
we saw a helicopter sitting on a pad, plus another helicopter flew overhead.
By evening it is hazy again – we were fortunate to have the
weather we had today.
Below are some photos of the day.
Vegetable Vendors Along the Street
More Vegetable Vendors
Church in San Pedro
Interior of Church Decorated for Lent in San Pedro
Gentlemen in Traditional Costume in the Park
Steep Street in San Pedro La Laguna
Booth Selling Hammocks
Ladies Discussing their Sales
Ladies Discussing the Events of the Day
Mother and Daughter Shopping
Elderly Lady on the Street
Lady Doing Traditional Weaving
Funeral in San Antonio Palopo
Funeral Procession to Cemetery in San Antonio Palopo
We left Iowa on Feb 23 for Guatemala and spent 9 days with Iowa MOST – the cleft lip and cleft palate surgical repair team. If you have not done so, go to www.iowamost.blogspot.com to read about that experience. On Friday (March 2) morning we left the city (Xela) in which we had the MOST mission and drove on a bus to Antigua. After an afternoon, evening and morning in Antigua, Cal and I picked up our rental car and we started out on our own!
Our Hotel in Antigua
An unusual Flower at our Hotel
However I must first tell you about our morning! Cal wanted to download our photos unto our exterior hard drive to empty our digital camera cards, when he realized the plug-in into the hard drive was not functioning the way it should. The USB plug-in inside the hard drive has broken away from the Motherboard! OH NO!!!!! We cannot access the hard drive at this point. We are hoping that some one at home will be able to retrieve our documents off this exterior hard drive, but time will tell.
That was our first bad luck of the day!!
However, on a positive note, one of our team members had an extra16 gig-a-bite thumb drive with him that he insisted we take, so we will be able to store photos on it. We are not going to worry about the hard drive until we return and get to Iowa City. The main issue ‘at stake’ is the photos. We still had our own photos on the computer, but Cal had lots of photos from other team members, and they are gone, if they cannot be retrieved.
So life goes on! We had a lovely morning walking around Antigua, snapping photos of markets, people, buildings and activities. By we returned to our hotel to meet the in-country coordinator of the MOST team, Paco. Paco took us and our luggage to the car rental location. We unloaded our luggage, etc, processed the car and also at another desk in the same office we processed the shuttle vehicle we will take to Guatemala City on March 6. This was all within feet of each other. When we were finished with paper work, Cal went with the rental attendant to get the car. I was looking at our stuff when I realized Cal’s camera case was wide open and no camera was in the case!!!! OH NO!!!!
Did Cal have it with him, NO!! It was nowhere!! We returned to the hotel lobby, just to double check, but we are sure we had the camera in the case with us. We do not leave the case open as it was when I found it.
Two women had entered the car rental office, asked the attendant a question and left. Within that minute the one had opened the camera case and off they went!! Quick money!! It was all within a matter of one minute. No one else was in and out of the office except these two women. The office attendants were shocked when they saw the empty camera case and realized what had happened. We were sick!! We have a second camera but this was the better one even if it is old. We are still sick about it, but life goes on and we must look at the positive. At least it was not credit cards and other documents. Plus we are thankful Cal transferred all the photos off the cards this morning, so we just lost the photos we took walking around Antigua. We really think these gals watched us unload the car and saw the camera was not around someone’s neck. Cal ALWAYS carries it around his neck, in fact, we had just discussed what he could do so he wouldn’t look so much like a tourist! Well they took care of that issue!!
Central American Highway #1 - Notice the deep cut into the Mountain
View of Agriculture along the Highway
After this, we had an amazing day. We drove 3 1/2 hours to Chichicastenanga, a village in the mountains. We drove west on CA 1(Central America Hwy #1) for 2 1/2 hours and then drove north on a secondary road for 16 km. 16k is right at 10 miles. No sweat – this isn’t very far!! Well it took an hour! There were 35 speed bumps, for which you had to stop, or you would rub the bottom of the car, which we did on a couple of occasions. Plus the road was steep and winding both up and down the mountain sides. At times we were on the backbone of the ridge - it was so narrow we could see down both sides, then we would go down into the valley and up to the top of the next ridge or around the next mountain. We had sharp hairpin curves and steep grades. We were not sure we were going to make it unless we had it in first gear! (thank good Cal was not riding a bike!) There were trucks on the road, going ever so slow, several were broke down, and the chicken buses were just FLYING! It was an interesting and beautiful drive. We drove directly to our hotel reservation (no problem), checked in and walked to the plaza to a recommended restaurant.
A Secondary Highway to Chichi
More Highway Photos
Saturday Evening Restaurant - Casa de San Juan
Casa de San Juan during Market - Sunday
I guess maybe I should tell you our reason for coming to Chichi (as the locals call it). Chichi is known for its colorful Thurs & Sunday markets, plus the Sunday Mass in the church on the Plaza dating back to 1540. The service has Christian and Mayan traditions intermingled – actually they say more Mayan than Christian. This is town of deep traditions.
As we walked to the restaurant we saw many carrying bundles of poles that will be used to hold the canopies, over what will be their booths tomorrow, along the streets. Some were already erecting them, while others were just arriving. We continued onto the plaza where lots of booths were already selling item. It was a maze of booths, and tomorrow it will be a mass of people. We were glad we were able to walk around tonight we ease. The fruits and veggies are sooo beautiful. The women are dressed in such beautiful traditional colors and styles. They usually do not want their photo taken, but the little girls love seeing photos of themselves.
Tonight and most definitely tomorrow, on market day, we will be carrying nothing or have anything in our pockets, except our small camera in our hand. We have been warned of pick pockets on market day with people bumping from all sides. The market opens at so you know these market people are sleeping right there in their booth/stall. We plan to get up at , walk to the market and be at mass by , after which we will eat.
Women in Traditional Dress
Indoor Market
Indoor Market
More Indoor Market
Man in Traditional Costume at Market
Sunday Market Crowd
Outdoor Fruit Stand
Sunday Street Scene at the Market
Women Discussing their Chicken
One of the Many Stands with Colorful Fabrics
Flowers on the steps of the Church
Chichi in the distance with the road we drove in the foreground
Farmers working in the fields making ridges to plant their crops
It is already Monday evening. We have been having internet difficulties. First the hospital does not wireless and then the wireless at the hotel is SLOW before 10:00 pm.
We are trying to enter a blog each day on the Iowa MOST blog site,
http://iowamost.blogspot.com so please go to that blog site to follow what the team is doing until March 3, when you can come back to this site to follow the rest of our trip.
Thanks for following our blog.
Rachel & Cal
On February 23
we will be leaving for Guatemala. This will be our second year helping on a
Rotary Medical Mission to repair cleft palates and cleft lips. We are solely
support – non-medical and non-Spanish speaking support! Last year we went to
the city of Huehuetenango (locals call it Huehue), and this year we will be
going to Quetzaltenango (locals call it Xala).
The Medical Mission is called Iowa MOST (Miles of
Smiles Team). Go to the team blog spot http://iowamost.blogspot.com to look at the Blog
Archives of the past missions. By reading these past blogs you will have a
better understanding of what the mission hopes to accomplish.
I am going to personally blog, as well as
probably copy some of the ‘team blog’ into our own blog.
So stay tuned!
Right now we are getting things in order around
here to be gone, plus packing lightly, but taking what we need
