Markets, churches and smiles in Xela

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Lots of photos with this blog - please check them out!
Our next few days were spent in the second largest city in Guatemala - Quetzaltenango or Xela for short. Six hours and two shuttles after leaving San Pedro we arrived at our hotel which was in a lovely historical building close to the main square. The city suffered mass destruction in 1902 when dual disasters, a volcano and an earthquake, hit the city and almost destroyed. We were woken our first morning by an earth tremor - quite a large one we were later told - our first, and not an experience I wish to repeat. It was a disconcerting and weird feeling to feel the earth shake.
Everybody thought we were mad to visit Xela but we loved it. It is at an elevation of 2335 metres and is a small city when compared to Guatemala City. As we drove into the mountains it became noticeably cooler, and at one stage we passed men selling illegally the same green parrots that we had seen at the bird rehabilitation centre in Copan Ruinas.
The heart of Xela is the large central square, shaded with large trees and surrounded by all the city’s important buildings. On one side is the cathedral - the facade of which had been rebuilt in the last decade. All the churches here seem to have very fancy facades with the more simple church set behind it. The plaza was beautiful if a little strange. It was full of Roman style columns, with a circular neo classical open pavilion in the centre. Not particularly Guatemalan!
We explored the central city area that afternoon - it was all cobbled, all narrow one way streets (with bad traffic congestion, particularly around the circumference of the plaza) and hilly in places. There seemed to be very few modern buildings - again the streets were lined with lowest buildings in all shades of ochre, yellow and blue. The footpaths were very narrow so you spent most of your time dodging cars on the narrow streets. The people in the city were lovely - very friendly and open. Many women were wearing traditional dress, gathered skirts in shades of navy or black, colourful blouses and aprons which were a riot on gathers, bows and frills. The older women wore their hair in two long plaits through which were threaded satin scarves. The younger women all had babies tied in brilliantly coloured squares of cloth, on their backs. The city is a very popular place to learn Spanish and on dusk we saw a lot of foreigners on the streets leaving the many Spanish schools. Again the city was dominated by a large volcano, and there was another very active volcano behind that one, which we didn’t see whilst we were there.
Next morning after being woken by the earth tremor we left on a tour around some of the surrounding small villages.
We first visited Cantel which is renowned for it’s glass blowing factories. We spent a long time there watching the men blowing the glass. We’ve seen it before but this was quite a different experience as we were right in the midst of them. No work and safety practices here! We were surrounded by molten glass, sparks, hot metal poles and open furnaces. The men worked so quickly it was hard to keep up with them. And all they earned was 500 Quetzals ($75) a week! I bought a few small pieces of blue glass from them to add to my collection - hopefully it will make it back to Australia without breaking.
Next stop was the charming little village of Zunil. We first visited a weaving factory where I got dressed up in the local costume. A tubular skirt - 6 metres around - was wrapped around my body and tied with a wide heavy woven band which was wound tightly around the waist. All this was worn aver a heavy square shaped blouse which again was thickly embroidered. Around my head was wound another long strip of colourful webbing, woven with Mayan patterns in primary colours and finished with big pom poms. It wa surprisingly comfortable, though heavy to wear. I bought one of the hair bands - it is around 2 metres long. The couple who ran the weaving co operative showed us how it was done - the lady was weaving one of the belts - she had it attached from a piece of wood around her waist to the machine and there were thousands of strands of fine cotton thread. How she managed to do it without getting them tangled was an achievement in itself! Next we visited Zunil market - small but very traditional. As we arrived in the main plaza half a dozen Toyota pickup trucks drove in - their trays were full of women from an outlying village. Out guide told us they had come to the village to attend a funeral. It was all very colourful and the people were happy to see us - all smiles and waves. The women’s dresses were a riot of colour as were the fruit and vegetables which were the main items for sale. Behind the main market were rows of shops selling all manner of meat, hung up on hooks, and with the usual assortment of flies attached.
We went into the big white church around which the market was set. It was full of people worshipping, hung with purple banners and all the icons were surrounded with flowers and candles. There is no problem taking photos in the churches - all the locals do it - the only thing that seems to be banned is mobile phones. Many of the villagers even eat food in the churches - I guess they’re cooler and cleaner than outside. This church, like many in Guatemala, is used by people who worship as Mayans and as Catholics.
However from the church we were taken to a private house to visit San Simon (Maximon) who is worshipped by people who only believe in the Mayan religion. Every year he goes to live in a new house - the family who get allocated him have to find alternate accommodation for the twelve month period. There are only five villages that worship San Simon in Guatemala - each saint comes in a different body. This one was set on a throne surrounded by neon lights. He wore a cowboy hat and boots, had sideburns and sunglasses (looked a bit like Elvis Presley!). They all accept payment in cash, alcohol and cigarettes. The whole procedure was taken very seriously. Whilst we were there we saw his throne dipped back and a bottle of alcohol was literally poured down his open mouth into presumably a container within his body. Candles were then placed in front of him - the candle colour shows what they were wishing for - eg. blue for good luck, black for success in business etc. It was all very bizarre….
The last village we visited was Almolonga, the centre of a very productive vegetable growing region. The surrounding hills were all terraced and still brown, though it appears that the yearly corn crop had just been planted so within a few weeks they would be green again. We visited the large vegetable market there - and watched as the vegetables were sorted and loaded onto trucks bound for El Salvador. Another 400 year old church, once again full of local people. We had a great morning out with a very informative guide. Upon arriving back in Xela we booked another tour with the company to visit some more of the churches and the largest outdoor market in Guatemala at San Francisco en Alto on Friday. The next day we planned on returning to Zunil by chicken bus to visit the cemetery there. We had seen it high on a hill, with multi colour gravestones, overlooking Zunil. We spent the evening enjoying a glass of wine in a restaurant which overlooked the main square and church.
The hardest part of catching the chicken bus to Zunil the next day was actually finding the bus stop! However we stumbled upon the bus - it nearly ran us over - whilst we were still wandering around looking fore the bus stop. The one advantage of buses in developing countries is they always stop when you wave at them - even if your literally 10 steps from the bus stop! The driver had a death wish - we had been warned about their speed and baldy tyres. Both were correct! This driver went fastest when he was driving through villages - he seemed to slow down in the open countryside. It was fun, certainly very cheap, but I think we’ll continue to use the more expensive shuttles for long distance travel. The buses were however very clean - which after Indian buses was a pleasant surprise.
We arrived in Zunil safely and spent some time revisiting the market before climbing up through the cobbled streets of the village towards the cemetery. The cemetery was really large, the graves were crammed together, all freshly painted in white, green or blue and many were covered in many bunches of fresh flowers. Upon arriving we realised that another burial was to take place. At one end of the cemetery groups of women and children were streaming in - from the opposite end came groups of men. They met in the middle, but the groups didn’t mix at all. Some of the women were carrying the earthenware roof tiles on their heads - these tiles are used to surround the grave after burial. It was a fascinating experience, nobody minded us being there at all, though we didn’t stay for the actual burial. What amused us was the picnic atmosphere - as fast as the people arrived ice cream, fruit and drink stalls were set up amidst the graves and the party began. From the cemetery we had a great view of the surrounding village, countryside and the two volcanoes in the distance. Another brightly coloured chicken bus, with a slightly less crazy driver, took us back to Xela. That afternoon we walked to the new town where we explored the commercial market and I visited the rather sad textile museum. Like many museums in developing countries they had a wonderful display of indigenous costumes from all around the country, but sadly it was dusty and very poorly displayed. Many of the items were old and unfortunately were rapidly deteriorating. Later that evening we discovered a French restaurant near our hotel where we ate a delicious and beautifully presented meal, with wine, two courses each for under $25.
It rained that evening but we woke to a sunny day. Our driver arrive early and it was off to the markets at San Francisco en Alto, about half an hour from Xela. The markets were absolutely huge and very, very crowded. After warnings to watch our pockets as we pushed our way through the crowds, it was heads down and off! The markets sold everything, from new and second hand modern clothes, tools, cosmetics, food of all description, traditional clothes and weavings and live animals! It really was a matter of pushing through the people, stepping over kids, trying to keep your balance as we climbed up stairs to the top of the village and occasionally just to stay upright was a challenge.
Every street in the village was packed with stall holders and villagers - you couldn’t see most of the buildings for the stock that was piled against them. The soccer field at the top of the town was were the animals were sold - mainly pigs, sheep and cows. It was all very chaotic and noisy but a lot of fun! Because of the crowds though it was hard to take photos.
We spent a couple of hours there - the time passed very quickly as there was just so much to see. Our next stop was in the village of San Andres Xecul. This village is famed for it’s brightly coloured church - it’s on the cover of the latest Lonely Planet Guatemala. Bright (very bright) yellow in colour it’s covered in all manner of angels, jaguars and flowers. What an amazing sight it was…. Again fronted by the town square - this square however had a very tall wooden pole at the edge of it - every November a festival is held in front of the church and three men climb to the top of the pole before throwing them selves off (attached to ropes) to swing around and round the pole. That would be fun to watch! Our guide then took us to the opposite end of the village to another much smaller yellow church. This tiny building was solely for Mayan worship, though it had a statue of Jesus on the cross inside it. Beside it was a Mayan ceremonial area where two Mayan priests, one male, one female, were performing cleansing rituals. We spent half an hour watching them and listening to the strange Mayan chanting. Our guide told us the ceremonies are expensive, at least 500 Quetzals each. The priestess had lit a fire, adding lemon juice, sugar and alcohol to it before praying over it. Whilst we were there coloured candles were placed in it, eggs were added and as a final touch four tins of chilli paste were dropped into the flames. The priestess then started chanting even more loudly. We waited and watched as three of the four tins of chilli paste exploded with loud bangs in the flames. Our guide said that the noise of the explosion combined with the burning paste is meant to frighten away the bad spirits. The man who paid for the ritual was obviously unhappy that only three of the cans had exploded… As we left the altar another family loaded down with offerings was arrival to undergo a similar ritual. Fascinating!
Our last stop that day was a small church, the oldest in Central America, built in 1750 in the village of Salcaja. It was covered in stucco pineapples and bunches of bananas. The caretaker had locked the church and gone home for siesta ten minutes before we arrived. The church had a high fence around it to stop the village boys kicking footballs at it in the hope of preserving it. Whilst in Salcaja we also visited another weaving co-op (the process used is very similar to the pre-dying then weaving process we saw in Cambodia). It takes 10 hours to weave the six meter length required for a woman’s skirts. The weaver makes 250 Quetzels for each skirt length. The hand looms are set up to weave 150 metre lengths of fabric. I had a go - it’s a skill to throw the shuttle from one side of the fabric to the other before pulling the warp thread down - one I didn’t have! Later that afternoon another shuttle collected us for the four hour drive back to Casa Christina in Antigua where we were to spend out last two nights in Guatemala before flying to San Jose in Costa Ricca.

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Photos

waiting to cross the street in Xela - it was a long wait as the bus had a lot of difficulty turning the corner
Streets are very narrow in Xela - so narrow the whole city works on a one way system

My favourite sign in Xela
Comida (place to eat) Taiwanesa - the local Chinese restaurant

Praying at San Simon's feet in Zunil
Mazimon (San Simon) is a Mayan saint, only found in five villages in Guatemala. His payment is alcohol and cigarettes - whilst we were there his chair was tipped backwards and a bottle of alcohol was poured down his throat (literally!)

Comments

[Nancy Weiss]

photo of San Simon
Is it possible for me to buy this photo of San Simon, oir are you willing to share it with me? Thank you!