Blogs from Quetzaltenango, Western Highlands, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean

I rose at 4.30am on Viernes Santo to see the 5am Viacruces. I was almost in doubt as to whether it would happen, as my leaflet of cultural events has proved ridiculously unreliable, but as I advanced towards the Parque Central gradually more and more people appeared. When this was just one person walking behind me in the dark, it was slightly disconcerting, but by the time I reached the Iglesia there were around fifty people there, some adding the finishing touches to the flower displays on the alfombras, some lighting candles off each other. I was expecting to observe the procession heading off down 4a Calle and the return to bed, but I found myself absorbed into one of the files of walkers in the procession. I was even asked to take a turn in ... read more

Easter (or Semana Santa) is no small thing here and this week has been a lively one. After various events for Cuarismo (Lent), the Semana Santa celebrations began last Thursday with a small children's parade which I saw in passing in the Parque Central. Things got more lively on Thursday with the Huelga de Dolores. This 115-year-old event is organised by the politically minded students at San Carlos, Guatemala's public university, which has an arm in Quetzaltenango. During the many years of conflict, the students adopted full body masks to avoid repercussions (though the death toll on university students was still high), although now in Xela at least things are taken less seriously. However, the politics was not completely forgotten, as they were dancing and skipping around floats bearing megaphones and posters with many slogans, such ... read more

One of the activities at my Spanish scool (El Mundo en Español) is chocolate making in the traditional Guatemalan style, run by Cyndi who has her own small chocolate company. But Guatemalan chocolate is very different to what you buy in bars in England, and has only two ingredients. So here's how to make your genuine Guatemalan chocolate: 1. Sort the whole cocoa beans by size and toast them on tortilla griddles until they are dark in colour and making occasional crackly noises. 2. Cocoa beans are about the size of a Brazil nut and encased in a papery brown skin. When the beans have cooled a little, this skin can be crumbled off, leaving behind the bean, which is internally divided into irregular nibs which come apart with a little pressure. 3. Drop the dry ... read more

Having been in Quetzaltenango over three weeks without managing to get to a museum, I eventually spared an afternoon to pay a visit to the Casa de la Cultura which sits at one end of the Parque Central. This now ranks amongst my Bizarrest Museum Experiences Ever (Right up there with the Lake District Pencil Museum). The first room I entered featured details on industrial uses of various chemical elements beside a display of old money, a fossil of something called a Gliptodonte and information on how to make chewing gum. The next room, the Natural History room, was both lined and filled with stuffed animals, with a few painted sea shells and human fetuses thrown in for good measure. Just when I thought I'd seen everything, I noticed that above my head, balanced precariously atop ... read more

On Saturday, I walked up Quetzaltenango's little mountain, Baúl, with Cindy from the language school. While it's unwise to climb Baúl alone, particularly in the afternoons, in the mornings it's a very popular walk for city dwellers. The path up passes under fragrant eucalyptus and pine trees, tranquil except for the subdued noise of traffic from the city below. From the wooded top, you can see almost all of Xela filling a large valley, which looks even more relaxed from above than it does from the streets, with low buildings and neighbourhoods broken up by parks and fields. Cindy pointed out a few landmarks like the Parque Centro America, the cemetary and the football stadium. Baúl gets its name from an old story connected with the place. It is said that the people who use to ... read more

Yesterday was an exciting day. Yesterday I was reunited with my bag. Guatemala City airport sent it swaddled in cling film, covered in a variety of red stickers, directly to the door of my room. The important thing about my bag arriving was, of course, that it was full of lots of lovely donations for the Nuevos Horizontes shelter. And as yesterday was my first visit, I think that's perfect timing on the part of the airport. I met Allison, the volunteer co-ordinator, and the two other new volunteers outside El Cuartito cafe and we walked to La Democracia (where the main market is) to get the bus. The shelter is spacious, purpose-built house set in an almost Mediterranean landscape. At the moment, it's overflowing with small children, mostly boys, who were very excited to see ... read more

Having now spent a full day getting thoroughly lost in Quetzaltenango, I feel I am qualified to call it Xela and write opinions of it. In St Petersburg, the guide book said that all locals affectionately called the city Peter, but I got the feeling that calling it that as a visitor would be looked on a lot like being introduced to the Queen and calling her Lizzy. Not so with Xela. Xela comes from the Maya name Xelajú, meaning under the ten, refering to the surrounding mountains. I´m not sure if there are actually ten of these - there seem to be many more, encircling the city in a hazy, wooded cuddle. I like it here. The town is quite quiet - on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is Cairo and 10 ... read more

Directly up 15a Avenida from the Hostal (and not at all in the place given by Rough Guide), La Dispensa Familiar sits hidden behind the busy market of La Democracia. Since I gather Steve is interested, I thought I´d give a little description. There are two guards and a row of lockers just inside the wide door, but inside things are much like a normal small supermarket, except a lot dirtier and more chaotic. I was somewhat surprised to see a man´s full torso sticking out from one of the top shelves - turns out he had climbed up to do the stacking. There´s not much fruit and veg inside, as why would you buy it from a supermarket when you could barter for it in the market? (This is something I´ve not quite had the ... read more

Left Hotel Dos Lunas at 6am to catch the bus to Quetzaltenango. In the Guide, this is marked as leaving town at 6am, in the leaflet for Linea Dorado it says it leaves at 8am, but it actually left at 7am, which I will take as a warning to call the bus station before any long distance journey. Victor, the driver from Hotel Dos Lunas, took me to the bus station via McDonalds which is the breakfast provided in the Hotel Dos Lunas Xela package, meaning that my first meal in Guatemala was a McMuffin. I enjoyed the bus journey, as once again I got to sit by the window. Guatemala is by no means a flat country, and when the view wasn´t blocked by the dusty side of a valley, think trees or crowded houses, ... read more