Out and about in Nebaj

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High up in the Western Highlands, in the Cuchumantes Mountains, sits Nebaj, the largest of the towns in the Ixil triangle. Home to the small group of Ixil Maya it is rich in culture,blessed with beautiful countryside and scarred with history.

As the civil war raged from the late 70´s until ´96, fifteen to twenty thousand people were killed and nearly all of the smaller villages destroyed. The peasant farmers here were merely unfortunate enough to be caught up in the bitter struggle between the army and the EGP (Geurilla Army of the Poor). The history of the Civil War is long, bloody and prone to discrepancy. Essentially, the EGP was making a violent stance against the 'regime' and the poverty traps enforced by wealthy landowners. Their war cry ´Long live the poor, death to the rich´. To achieve this they went around murdering local finca patrons and tried to round upcampesino support by denouncing the barbaric inequalities of life in the Ixil triangle. In retaliation, the armed forces began killing, kidnapping and torturing suspected guerillas and sympathisers. Many people turned to the Guerillas forprotection from the military. In 1982, the new president, General Rios Montt, changed tactics and gave the villagers rifles to protect themselves from the Guerillas influence. They also rounded up the refugees and placed them in the new 'model' villages od San Juan Cotzal and Chajul.

On a Sunday (market day) I took a bus toCotzal and attempted towalk to Chajul following the sparse directions in the Rough Guide. After switching back three times because of unchartered forks, I eventually reached the road at 3pm and it had started to rain. It was apparently another hour up a very steep hill from there, after 10 minutes I turned back out of fear of getting stranded with no return transport. A few minutes later I heard the honk-honk of a car horn and a Police pick-up pulls over,´What are you doing here in the rain? It's dangerous round here you know. Want a lift?´ Said the cops.
So,the nice policemen, Mario and Esteban, drove me back to Cotzal, then after picking up their clean laundry, all the way back to Nebaj! Negotiating a tight blind corner in the town, they came inches from a collision. The other driver refusedtobackup and didn't even offersomuch as an apology. ´That's typical of people round here´says Mario, ´No respect for the Police´.

My next walk to Cocop and Rio Azul was much prettier and less eventful. Up the steep dirt track I met the funkiest caterpillar ever and a little old lady walking with two sticks. Well, she started talking about her bad heart and her bad legs and she only had God to watch over her..so she ended up with a few Quetzales from the Harris´pocket...

The Sunday market was an assortment of stalls crammed down some narrow streets in the rain. As is normal, the far shorter and less patient locals push and shove their way round you whilst someone else will be heaving a large cart through the crowds and no one will step to the side to ease the crush. I found a meat stll with a whole sheep´s head plonked ont he table at the front. I took a photo and the Mum started laughing and turned his beady eye towards me whilse the kids bent their heads back and pretended to be headless too!

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Photos

Village life in Cocop
Hard to imgaine this as the scene for brutal massacres onmly 20 years before. The people of this area were caught between the combat of the military and the Guerilla Army of the Poor(EGP)

Comments

[Pippa]

caterpillar
soooooooooo similar to white one the beach in Thailand.. x