Advertisement
Published: October 30th 2005
Edit Blog Post
Guate My single day in Guate (abr. Of Guatemala city) was enough for realizing, that it justly gained its bad reputation as a fucking dangerous city: All the groceries are closed by iron doors, and the owner serves you via a little window with SORAGIM; stores, which sell valuables, have private gunman standing at the entrance; and by night you here explosions and alarm.
As I knew all of that in advance, I chose an hotel just near the airport, and tried not to wander around too much. And thus, ironically, after being used to wake up by the voice of the birds in my brother’s place in New-York, now I had to wake up from the noise of a Boeing 747, taking off just 10 meters above my head.
Orchid The guidebook tells about a garden in this town, which is “a must to all the orchid-lovers”. Well, I had (and still don’t have) any idea what is orchid, but, from the context I understood that this is a kind of flower. Being a totally ignorant in flowers’ names, I understood that there is no idea in trying to look in the dictionary for that word. So, I
just came to that place, to see what are these orchids anyway.
Well, this place was really a little heaven (though I would have preferred my heaven to have a bit less steep uphills). U should have seen my bike covered by orchids all around.
orchid is sachlav
And in heaven there are 72 virgins
Guy
HOW IS ERETZ ISRAEL BOUGHT? During my first 2 days in Guatemala I rode some 160 kms in Alta Verapaz, and found also the time for walking a little in 2 beautiful national parks. It showed me Guatemala just as I dreamed of - steep hills, covered by very thick green vegetation. The roads were quite, and thus the whole area is really a paradise for cyclists - well, at least for those whose legs are strong enough for negotiating with these fucking mountains. My legs aren´t, and thus this paradise was for me a bit like ERETZ Israel - i.e., Nikneh Beyisurim.
BINARY THINKING Many taps in Guate have 2 modes: hot or cold. Not anything in the middle, not any ability to ¨tune¨ the water. Well, as a fan of logic design I could really appreciate
Utatlan ruins
See entry "Hadvora Maya" this binary way of thinking. But there is only one problem: as you could probably guess, the REAL choose is between cold water, and even-colder water. just the opposite of YIRTZU - YOCHLU, LO YIRTZU - LO YOCHLU (he who doesn´t know this old joke, plz mail my mum).
DIE HARD Old habbits die hard: The buses (most of them are minibuses, actually) from Santa Elena, a 50,000 ppl town, used to town from the city´s crowded market. Imagine yourself buses wait in the middle of Machne Yehuda st.
A year ago the municipality built a new large terminal. It looks a bit like Tel-Aviv OLD central station - i.e. much MORE clean and friendly than the local standards.
But, as I said, old habbits die hard: now the buses leave the new terminal - and immediately enter the crowded market. The minibus stands there for about 20 minutes for collecting more passangers, and meanwhile, all the markets´ sellers enter the minibus, shouting and demonstrating their goods - while the driver himself shouts the desstination of the bus, as if a bus ticket were something you buy just because of the good price or due to a
momentary passion, such as tomato or sweets.
But the Guatemalans are still smarter than the Albanian (not such a hard task, BTW): there I took a picture within a toilet - of a new clean ASLA - and just next to it an old-fationed Turkeysh (BUL-PGIֱH) toiltes, for those who can´t leave behind (TARTEY MASHMA BEHIND...) their old habbits.
HADVORA MAYA
The ruins of Utatlan are said to be sacred and a location of active worshipping for the Mayans until nowadays, and indeed, the guard in the entrance asked not to enter the place by my bike (in my opinion, entering a place by bike only shows of giving more respect to it, but let´s give it away for now).
It seems that the cruel tough Mayans, who used to donate their gods human sacrifices, became really ASHKENAZIM, as the only remains of sacrifices I found there was an empty can of fruit compot and a few burnt candles, as if theirs gods were Rabin or so. And well, I encountered there a local couple, making love between the ruines. I can recall a few girls called Maya, with whom I would have been happy to
do THIS kind of cult.
Maya (part II) ¨Momos is also noted for its adherence to the ancient Mayan calendar and for its observance of traditional rites. Hills in the town are the scene of ceremonies enacted on the important days of the calendar round. Visit on (…) the start of the Mayan solar year (February 24) (…) can be particularly powerful and rewarding. But few Mayan ceremonies are open to outsiders, so don´t assume showing up means you´ll be able to participate. Should you be so fortunate as to observe a ceremony, be sure to treat altars and participants with the utmost respect.¨
Fortunately, there are many tourist who pay for organized tours with touristy show-off of authentic-Alek ceremonies, and very few tourists who bother to read carefully the guidebook and interview the locals on their way about the right places to go to. Thus I found myself on a hill, looking at a few dozens of Mayans doing their warship - burning candles and woods, talking to their gods by their Indian language, reading from old books. I sat alone next to them. And no, I didn´t take pictures, and of course I didn´t ask
to participate. The first cult action in which I have taken an active part was my Bar-Mitzva (well, and the Rocky Horror Picture Show, but that's an entire different kind of cult), and I don´t really miss it.
TV Watching BBC news while in the airplane on my way back home, I realized, that it's great that I travel: as no TV at my place, this is my only chance to watch some.
BIKE The guy from the MINHAGIM (yaanu, customs, meches) asked me to show him my bike (which were in a cartoon). I started to lough: "when U C how how they look like, U will believe me that it's not smuggled". And this is what happened. After 6 years, close to 15,000 kms (I ride also on my other bike, which are even more deffect) and plenty of fails, my bike really not worth much.
P.S. father-peace cold (AV-SHALOM KOR) question: Bike in English - singular or plural? Travel date: Mar-2005 Old Kato
Advertisement
Tot: 0.158s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 19; qc: 72; dbt: 0.0716s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
alfredo
non-member comment
whats up