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Published: August 23rd 2007
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Las Fuentes Georginas - Taking The Plunge
The waters are steaming hot and full of goodness.. Hola, Hola, Hola....
Long time since I've done this.... Hope everyone is good and well and enjoying the summer as much as I am. You might be wondering what I've been upto over the past month and a half - so I'm gonna break it down into two parts. We left the beautiful Flores & Lake Peten and headed down south towards the mountainous regions of the country and stayed at Quetzaltenango or Xela - pronounced Shayla (as its locally known) for about 6 days before we journeyed a couple of hours drive away to the famous Lake Atitlan where we chilled for the next 5 weeks or so. I could write it all in one big blog as the places are so close together - but then on reflection the places do actually deserve their own entries.... so here goes..
Quetzaltenango (Xela for short)
Xela is an expansive city (2nd largest behind Guatemala City) and is unofficially known as the Guatemalan Mayan Capital. It's an industrial city and as such lacks some of the colonial town planning of other towns we have visited - but never the less has a very safe feel when walking the streets
Santa Maria Volcanoe - From Afar
Viewed during our trip to the hot springs... big eh! and has a beautiful central square with some ornate buildings scattered about which all adds upto charm in my book. Being nestled in the bossom of the surrounding mountainous countryside gives you an elevated feeling when walking the streets with glimpses of the rocky panorama peeking over the buildings and at the end of the streets. As with everywhere else in Guatemala the locals are extemely friendly and accomodating and we soon found ourselves enjoying the local hospitality - we even found a place that was like a typical english pub - wooohoo! We stayed at a fabulous guest house called Casa San Bartolome - which was about 7-8 blocks away from the central square - for the grand sum of $20 USD p/night (£10) we had a massive room with kingside bed, fresh crisp white cotton sheets, cable TV, stunning views of the surrounding mountain range, pretty courtyard gardens, terrace area, free internet access via LAN, even a sumptuous breakfast was included in that sum! - all in all we were very impressed. So what to do when you are in this neck of the woods..... we signed up for a couple of excursions as follows:
Las Fuentes
Maximon - Blessed By The hand
Locals place San Simons hand upon their heads for blessing - note lit cigar... is it just me or is this a bit bizarre? Georginas - Hot springs high up in the surrounding mountainside - due to the vulcanism around this part of the world (still active volcanoes) this magical place set in gorgeous sub-tropical green foliage has piping hot sulphur and calcium enriched pools of steaming water for you to luxuriate in. We would recommend journeying up in the morning as the clouds tend to cover over in the afternoons (due to steam rising from many fissures in the rocks on the mountainside - a covering of candy floss like clouds covers the mountains as the day goes on) gives you the feeling of being ontop of the world! - Driving upto the mountains takes you through a patchwork quilt of farmed lands with locals planting, picking & nuturing their crops of maize, onions, carrots, squash, beans and other veg on near vertical inclines.. a spectacle and wonder in itself...
The tour we opted for also took us in to a local glass manufacturing factory where glass is crushed down, recylced and then hand blown by the local craftsmen with open furnace fires being stoked - wine glasses, tumblers, bowls - basically all manner of tablewares and decorative items skillfully crafted into incredibly
uniform pieces of varying designs and colours - they even allowed me to blow my own wobbly mass of molten glass into a failed shape - yay!
Full Moon Traverse Up Volcán Santa Maria - This semi active volcanoe is the major prominatory in the surrounding mountainscape at a whopping 12,256 feet above sea level its a mighty impressive beast - Claire & I signed up (foolhardily) for this epic 5 hour climb up in near darkness with only the full moon and hand torches to light the way. Setting off at midnight from the end of the local road at the foot of the volcanoe it beagn to dawn on us what we had actually signed up for - with the mountain top looming large in the moonlit night we had definately a long night ahead of us. I must admit if you are not too fit this is definately not for you - Claire found it real hard going from the start and the group of 4 young americans and the tour guide with his dog soon left us behind as they got a bit fed up waiting about - to be honest I don't blame them.
Santa Maria Volcanoe - Its A Dew Dawn
Its a new day, its a new life for me.... And It feels good So we found our own pace and inched slowly up the mountain with the path getting gradually more and more craggy, rocky, muddy and slippery (it had been raining all day upto about 8pm in the evening). After many tears and lots of sweat Claire & I made it to just below the summit as the glory of the new day began to wash the surrounding mountainside in a magic I cannot describe. It was hard to find a clearing amongst the densly forrested mountainside where we could actually witness the sun rising - but eventually we found a suitable ledge and started the cameras snapping - as we were above the clouds, they appeared like a cotton wool sea lapping up against the mountains to the effect that the lower mountain peaks looked like islands poking up out of the sea - what with the sun creeping up over the horizon and the kaelidescope of warm shades penetrating the night air - it was truly spectacular and a moment to truly treasure - it made all the nights endeavours pale away.
Zunil & San Simon (Maximon) - Well this is something that truly rates up there with the
most bizarre. Zunil is a pretty little town with a picturesque white church at its centre (nothing strange about that I hear you say), well the main attraction in these parts is San Simon or Maximon a pagan effigy who is revered with rituals and offerings to sort out all of lifes woes and to bless or curse this venture or that love. Every year Maximon is hosted by a new family (this honour has a waiting list of upto 20 years) and it is truly a spectacle for us westerners, leaving images that are hard to shake from your mind. Maximon himself is a life sized (what looks like a ventriloquists doll), suited and booted with black rimmed reading glasses, black hat complete with lit cigar in one hand, pocket watch on chain, sat upon a carved wooden throne. In a grubby looking backyard setting under a roof there was a small crowd of locals - lighting candles and praying, offering lit cigars for him to smoke, placing his gloved plastic hand on their heads for blessings, even tipping him back and pouring rum down his thoat all the while a holy man would be burning something waving and
Maximon - Locals Giving Prayer
Coloured candles are lit for differing purposes... White for purity, Black for ill will, red for love, green for prosperity etc... chanting. There was a seperate room with a full on bonfire buring at its centre away from where Maximon was sited that suggested ocult or wicker work was going on..... I found it decidedly creepy and could not understand how one could find answers in this sinister looking doll - but hey look at us with JC - you gotta believe in something or you will fall for anything - right? For a few Quetzales Claire was allowed to snap the ongoing show - she also had her tarrot read by one of the attending spiritual folk with our tour guide interpretting the Q & A - all of which made for an unforgetable day out.
So thats about it for Xela.... We ceratinly enjoyed ourselves... next stop Lago Atitlan... I will be posting the second installment very shortly so until then Adios.. 😊
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