A hasty review of my Semana Santa

Saturday I stayed home and went with my host younger brother (Selbil) and two host cousins (Marvin and “pescado”) to Las Islas, which is a natural pool in the river that flows through carchá. El pescado (fish)… as we said is not a very good pescado. He does not know how to swim. So we tried to teach him a little bit, but mostly he enjoyed standing in shallow parts and sliding down a slide where I would catch him before he went under water. It was a lot of fun and charming to have such fun with the pescado. I actually don´t know his real name. My host mom said that yestday, the day I returned, he kept asking about when I would get home.

So anyways, Sunday morning I left home early and passed by a Catholic procession on my way to the bus station. I got to Coban and ran to catch a microbus that was heading in the right direction. I got dropped off at a place called “mucbilha´” which is “hidden water” in Kekchi. It is a community run tourism thing. I got a tour through two huge caves and after lunch went back to one of them and had a lot of fun being on my own at the entrance to a huge cave with a stream coming out of it taking pictures and making noises or singing into the dark cavern. I visited the small community next door, 60 families strong, and hung out with a guy there looking at the tiny Catholic church. The have a large soccer field with horses and a bull grazing, and goals made of round wooden posts. You can´t reach the village by car and the area is protected so you are surrounded unmolested forest.

I left early in the morning, hitched a quick ride to a crossroads where I got on another microbus to Sayaché, crossed the river by boat, and got on another bus to Flores. Floresis the closest town to Tikal (ancient Mayan pyramids). Flores is an island in the center of a lake, a very cool tourists spot with lots of restaurants along the shore. It is also much cooler because of the lake (literally cooler I mean, Flores is in the Peten which is a terribly hot place, like Cambodia with its humidity). I ate at the side of the road in St Elena, the surrounding town, visited flores for just a bit and then hopped on a bus to Tikal. There I got into the park after being usuccessful at finding a place to stay (because of people with bad directions). There I walked about35 minutes to the tallest tower where there was a group gathered to watch the sun go down. Despite some annoying French girls, it was nice.

The pyramids are spectacular, so tall and steep. It is quite amazing.

I went back and found where I meant to stay, and rented a tent for the night. I bought an orange juice and then a watermelon juice and then 1.5 liters of water to try to satisfy my thirst. My main source of water earlier had been just a bag of mangos I had bought. I think these were the principal cause of the stomach problems I had this night. I made three trips to the bathroom before I took on of my magic pills I have had in my little green bag since I bought it. The next day, despite some weakness, I explored the Mayan ruins, at first very pleasantly on my own and then with a group of a German, an Englishman, an Israeli, and a Norweigen.

We left the park around luchtime as it was going to start to get hot (Though it was a fabulous day to visit, as a cold front had just come through). I ate a disappointing hamburger and booked a ticket to get back to Flores. I had planned to do more with the pyramids, but I wasn´t feeling great and just wanted to rest.

So I got back to Flores around 4:30 and found that the only hostal in Flores was full because of a HS group from Texas. I looked around a little bit and briefly toyed with going to a friend of a friend in Flores who I met once but instead went back and rented a hammock wich the hostal has in its social area.

For dinner I went to the place which is owned by the friend of a friend (friend of Galan and Phyllis who used to work either with MCC or with EMM and now lives there and runs a café bar by the lake). I ordered a cinnamon role and a coffee sat alone for a while before getting into a conversation with a hippish looking Guatemalan woman who sat at the table next to me. It was a good conversation and I later ordered a sandwich and fries which I had to take home partly in a doggie bag. As I was heading back to the hostal I crossed a couple with whom I had shared waves with before and they invited me to come watcha movie with them back where I had just been. I said yes. He was from Norway I think and she was from Italy and we all spoke good Spanish. It was fun and we enjoyed a depressing documentary about the Zapatistas in Mexico.

We also watched another catholic procession go by. The blaring horns are great.

I returned to the hostal to play jenga with some English, one of which was the same as I had hung out with earlierin Tikal. Three of them I shared a van with back to Coban the next day.

Over all it was avery fun trip. Though I have to report the disturbing loss of every singlie container of water that I either carried with me at the beginning or bought on the way.

I am now happy to be at home with my own bed.

The last couple days I enjoyed relaxation, reading, and trips to the river to swim with my host family

Much too hasty

Jordan