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Published: December 24th 2006
As you cross into the Guatemalan border at El Carmen you immediately notice a difference in the surroundings. For one you stand at the feet of giant mountains, most of which are extinct volcanoes bold and mighty and are quite inspiring. Another difference is the transportation, long gone are the deluxe first class over air-conditioned behemoth Mercedes buses and are replaced with brightly painted, multi-coloured 50´s American school buses known here as "chicken buses" for multiple reasons including the fact that a lot of the local people like to buy live chickens a from the town market and take them home to eat for dinner. Another reason is they like stuff as many people in the bus you are breathing out of each others armpits like a factory chicken farm. There are several advantages and disadvantages getting on board one of these ancient relics is the fact they are extremely cheap as little as a couple of dollars for a trip taking several hours, another is that you don’t need to hire a removalist when moving house as they can strap everything but the grand piano to the roof of the bus. The problem comes half an hour into the
trip when all of your belongings fly off the back due to being incorrectly secured and you watch the "ayudante" or helper scramble back down the road to retrieve your precious belongings. Yet another bad aspect to these buses is the drivers on many of these buses have been known to take to the bottle and end up taking a wrong turn down a 100 metre cliff and a large number of the buses are unregistered therefore probably have a bad engine and/or brake problems and to top it all off all the drivers are training to be in the next rally car championships so be expected to be going around tight cliff top bends at 60 mph on the wrong side of the road. But do not be discouraged by these aspects as the chicken bus is a great icon of Guatemala and is an experience not to be missed.
About 4 hours from the border if you haven’t suffered a heart attack out of fear of you life on the bus you arrive at the interesting city of Quetzaltenango known more commonly by the old Mayan name of Xela. Don’t let the initial choking in car
pollution fool you, this city has a lot of character and a very good vibe besides being very cheap to live in. There are a lot of opportunities here to do volunteer work in almost any field you like and is a great way to meet and learn about the local people. It is easy to see how much influence the American government has had just by the fact that the imperial system of distance and weight is still used here and that all of the big chain supermarkets are owned by Wal-Mart and the fast food chains consisting of McDonalds, Pizza hut and Dominoes just to name a few. The spread of capitalist globalisation is very apparent here and definitely seems to be embraced by the majority of people in quite contrast to the general dislike to Americans "Gringos" and its products that I saw in Oaxaca Mexico.
One of the things the Guatemalans pride themselves on is their most popular local drop of beer named "Gallo" or Rooster. There is a large sector of the community who enjoy the nightlife and going out for a drink and even though it is not as pronounced and common
Yoga House
Baking a cakeas in the major parts of Europe it is definitely difficult to go out and avoid seeing Gallo billboards, Gallo girls dancing in the bars in skimpy outfits or the latest in great advertising ploys, the giant Gallo Christmas Tree across from the main bus terminal sporting the infamous gallo symbol perched up on the top sending an excellent message to all the children of the city throwing out their traditional wishes of toy trucks and dolls for a ice cold can of Gallo beer. All this might be all well and good if the beer tasted anything but half decent. Its is definitely interesting that such acceptance and encouragement exists, there is such a big alcoholism problem among a lot of the more indigenous people, it is quiet normal to see handfuls of guys passed out in the street when it hasn’t even hit 10am. In fact, there has been a lot of injuries and deaths from people falling and hitting their heads or worse drowning in the gutter during the wet season after a flash downpour of rain as the street become filled with water. There is also a lot of violence and deaths that occur from gun
violence since gun laws are very lax here as opposed to Mexico although most of the violence seems to be contained around Guatemala City where year alone has brought around 4000 deaths which is quite a great deal considering the population of the city stands at on 1 million! It just seems that control and protection of its people isn’t one of the governments’ priorities.
I have been living in Xela for around 5 months now and have to admit it has really grown on me. I started off doing volunteer work at a school for poor kids on the outskirts of town teaching English and guitar there. One of things you notice about most establishments here is the lack of organisation that exists. Starting time for example is a loose term which could mean anytime when people feel like coming ( if at all ), it can be very frustrating if you are not used to this so its best to go with the flow and live on "Guatemalan Time". Teaching the kids has been very rewarding as they are so friendly and a lot are really enthusiastic about learning.
After a little while, I decided to move into a place called the Yoga House right near the central park. Run by a couple of Americans, it provides cheap and decent housing along with free yoga classes. This was a great opportunity to broaden my horizons and try some yoga and I had no excuse not going to class as I just had to go next door to do it. The classes are great and have helped me a lot fixing my crooked back posture from years of computer work.
I have learnt a great deal about yoga, meditation as well as improving my Spanish immensely. Xela is a great place for opportunities you would never think about getting back home, for example some of my friends here have become University Professors, without any prior teaching experience, conducting the city orchestra or my case teaching yoga to Guatemalans entirely in Spanish and getting paid decently to do it. It is definitely a town where there has been a lot of modern infrastructure built in yet not enough skilled hands to run it effectively.
About 2 hours east of Xela lies the famous lake Atitlan, a beautiful lake formed in a gigantic volcanic crater. The lake is said to be 200 metres in depth at some sections and is surrounded by gorgeous scenic mountains. Lake Atitlan is a great place to go for welcome break from city life and there are little towns dotted all around the lake. The most popular for tourists being San Pedro known for its nightlife and party scene. Nearby San Marcos is known as the holistic centre of Central America including Yoga, meditation, massage and Reiki centres amidst a quiet and tranquil existence where times seems to slow down to a halt.
Ill be working in Xela until the end of January before heading off traveling again with more stories to come. I wish everyone a great Christmas and Happy New Year!
Spanish Translation:
Después se cruza la frontera de Guatemala al Carmen en México, puedes ver la diferencia de sus alrededores. Se puede mirar montañas gigantescas, la mayoría a de volcanes en extinción u da mucha inspiración. Otra diferencia es el transporte de lujo en los buses de México en Guatemala con buses pintados con colores brillantes, importados de estado unidos de los años 50´s. Se la llama Chicken bus porque transportan pollos, y personas. Llenan los buses a más de su capacidad. Un buena razón para utilizar los chicken buses qe el precio es muy barato, solo dos dollares para viaje de dos o tres horas. Otra razón es qe se puede poner todos sus cosas sobre de techo hasta con el problema de que se pueden qe dar extraviadas o pérdidas durante el viaje. Otro aspecto malo de los buses es que los chóferes toman bebidas alcohólicas provocando accidentes. Puesto que van altas velocidades en curvas peligrosas, crucandoce al otro lado del carril. A pesar de los malos inconvenientes es una buena experiencia.
Después cuatro horas desde de frontera, su llega de ciudad muy interesante de Quetzaltenango que también tiene el nombre de Xela. Hay, mucha contaminación con el smoke de los buses, aparte de lo contaminación la ciudad tiene un encanto a de mas es muy barato para vivir aqui. Hay muchas oportunidades para trabajar de voluntario. Es una forma de conocer a las personas de localidad.
Es muy facile ver la influenciar de Estados Unidos aqui porque utilizan un sistema de imperialismo ya que se utiliza las libras y yardas también. Todos de supermercados aqui esta propiedad de Walmart pero tiene un nombre diferente. El sector comercial tienen mucha influenciar de la globalización y las personas les gustan la cultura Estados Unidas. A diferencia de personas da México al no les gusta los productos y las personas de los Estados Unidos.
Una cosa que los Guatemaltecos les gustan es la cerveza la mas popular se llama "Gallo". Muchos guatemaltecos les gustan ir de fiestas y bares. Es muy fácil ver afuera anuncios de promociones de la cerveza Gallo. También, adentro de bares edecanes cerveza que se vistan muy de forma muy erótica. Ahora, para navidad hay un árbol gigantico u hasta la cima hay símbolo de gallo, que es un mensaje malo para los niños. Otro problema es que la cerveza no tiene buen sabor. Otro existe un problemas de alcoholismo. Hay mucho gente con lesiones y muertes porque hombres borrachos caen sobre de calle y se ahogan después de mucha lluvia. Hay, mucha violencia y muerte porque no hay mucho control de armas y esto provoca la mayoría de muertes dentro ciudad de Guatemala hay mas o menos 4000 muertes solo en este año.
Yo vivo en Xela hace lo 6 meses, ahora y me gusta aqui mucho. Al principio trabajaba de voluntario en una escuela para niños pobres. Enseñando Ingles y Guitarra. Mucha compañías y lugares aqui no tienen mucho organización muchas veces las personas llegan muy tarde, pero enseñando les a los niños es muy benéficos para mi y es para los niños muy interesante para aprender.
Después un mes yo decid mudadme a casa de yoga cerca a parque central. Tiene muy bien cuartos y muy barato y tiene clases de yoga gratis. Es una buena oportunidad da aprender yoga. Las Clases estaba muy bien y los maestros tiene mucho experiencia.
Yo aprendía mucho cosas aqui inclusivo yoga, meditación y mucho español también. Xela es buen lugar para oportunidades que no posible en mi país. Un ejemplo es mi amigo el tiene un trabajo de maestro en la universidad y no tiene experiencia. Para mí, soy un maestro de yoga y me pagan bien. Xela es un lugar moderna con mucho infrastructure pero no tiene mucho personas profesionales como por ejemplo profesionales de yoga, y también hay personas profesionales extranjeras en universidades.
2 horas al este de Xela esta al lago muy famoso llamado lago de atitlan, es un lago muy hermosa es sobre un cráter volcánico el lago tiene 200 metros de profundidad en algunas lugares y tiene bonita montañas al rededor. El lago es un buen lugar y tiene muchos pueblos para relajarse. San Pedro es el pueblo más popular con turistas. Cerca de San Pedro hay un pueblo llamado San Marcos es un lugar muy tranquilo y tiene clases de yoga, meditación, masaje y Reiki.
Soy trabajando en Xela hasta enero después viajare otro ves con mas historias. Feliz Navidad y un buen nuevo años para todos!
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Eva
non-member comment
all my love!!!
My Sweet!!! Miss you heaps and I am so happy you are doing well!! Have spent the holidays in Sweden but I am heading back to London tomorrow. Mixed feelings about that, but I guess all good things must come to an end.....or do they? I hope you stay happy and safe on the other side of the pond =). I will write more when I get the time! Love you and miss you heaps!! xxxxx Eva