Maximón and Santiago Atitlan

Hola amigos y familia, Still here in Lago Atitlan. My experiences here have been great. Spanish is a second language for most around these parts. The locals speak Tz'utujil first Spanish second. It makes things a little more confusing. I spent 3 days in San Pedro de la Laguna. It is a very pretty town with lots of good restaurants and bars, but the place is overtaken with Israelis and other tourists. If you want a cheap place to relax San Pedro is for you. There is a restaurant there that plays a different movie every night. I finally saw the Simpsons movie in English! I was hanging out with my Israeli friend Shirley. She is a bright Israeli Economist who thought my life is pretty weird. She left San Pedro yesterday and so did I, but to different directions. She went to Xela and I went to Santiago Atitlan.
In Santiago I was greated by this little man. He asked me if I wanted to see Maximon the local diety. I said, "sure." My guides name was Salvador. He was short and had one eye. He got me a hotel room and then took me on a tour of the village. In the main old church they have these big dolls of saints and they are all dressed up in different and strange outfits. Some of them wear ties and pink robes. You can see Tz'utujil carvings on the wood near the altar, and a very different looking statue of Jesus. After the church we went to go see Maximon. I came to the house of Maximon and saw the powerful diety all dressed up and with a cigar in his mouth. There were people sleeping on benches around him and candles and incense everywhere. Salvador gave a ceremony and talked to Maximon for me. It was actually very spiritual. Then all the guys in the room including Salvador and I drank Pepsi in reverence to Maximon. It was great. After the ceremony Salvador told me he was a shaman. I had him look at my wrist. He said he could cure it. He came back to my hotel room and went to work curing my wrist. Then he left. I awoke the next morning to Salvador knocking on my door and he did more work on my wrist and then left. I wandered around town trying to find cigarettes, but Santiago Atitlan is a very Christian community and no place sold cigarettes. I bought some cool shirts because they were insanely cheap. Now I am waiting for a collectivo to Antigua. I start work this weekend and I am a little scared, but I can do it. I love you all! Adios!

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