Full of It...

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Yes, I know, always been full of it...but now full of espanol...hey, this is an ordinary keyboard...@ is where it should be but no n with the bizzo!...so greetings from Antigua, the city in Guatemalam not the other one...where were we?..Lake Atitlan the huge caldera of the old volcano..320 m deep, stayed at Panajachel on the shores...lots of touristas, shop/stalls all the color of the Mayan textiles, carvings, bags, bits and bobs,,you know...
Early in the morning watching a older gringo guy sipping his morning coffee, lips pursing in expectation even before his cup left the saucer...eyes sort of glazed over, gazing blankly out at the street scene...wondering what to do with another day in Panajachel....
Don't fret gentle blogfollowers if you can't find some of these destinations....we also have difficulty finding them sometimes!...just get a bigger scale map or search the net..
Left Pana and took to the road...luckily a short day as I'd picked up a bad oyster at the Uraguayan restaurant the night prior and was squirting something shocking..sorry if you're having breakfast but this is all part of the blog, and I'm sure it will pass...boom boom..so, a gentle ride up to the main road, off to Chichicastenango...famous for the market!...just when I think I've seen it all, more extreme curves and switchbacks, soo steep, don't know if it was aided by the stomach bug but coming into some really steep right handers going up, suddenly facing a wall of bitumen, the brain can't comprehend how the bike is going to get around, like which way is up?...back to 1st, point and steer, up she goes, flicking over, straightens up and onward again......Of course we are riding on the right side of the road for those of you trying to picture some of the ride scenes that flash thru my tiny...
So, Chichi, the mojo has definitile moved on from here, sort of depressing little town and sort of typical of the depression of much of Guatemala...still enormous social problems but lots of signs that things are slowly changing.....theres a huge market here on Thurs and Sundays so we've come up Wed to be prepared, I'm still a bit crook, couldn't even face a beer so it must be serious...
Morning to the market, the little beavers have been at work all night I think, putting up their stands and stalls, its almost too much colour and pattern and texture, I'm getting authentic-culture-burn-out, crowded alleyways between the stalls like all markets, food areas, clothes and everything imaginable....and everywhere the sound of clapping, its the women making the tortillas, picking up a little wad of dough then a splash of water, then slapping them between their hands, quite a strange soundtrack and keeps the energy of the place going, clap, clap, clap, usually several of them around each cooking plate, woodfire fueled, clapping in and out of unison...on the steps of the cathedral, old women flower sellers, the abundance and fresh beauty of gladdies, roses and other flowers of home, their richness juxtaposed against the dirt and poverty of many of the people, smoke from an incense fire on the steps and a couple of guys swinging incense burners has smoke wafting across the scene, all very photo-op perfect and El Ted is snapping away like crazy...and getting some fantastic shots...his site should have something now...www.tedgrambeau.com.....have a look!
Moving slowly but surely thru the crowds are the carriers, when not working they hang around, distinguishable by the loops of rope about the size of sash cords and pads...they are employed to carry shopkeepers loads from the busses and trucks to and from the market, and Man, do these guys work!..the loads are probably 3 or 4 hundred kilos, its staggering, they're fcuking staggering, we're staggering, they usually have someone help them to get it up, the load, idiot!, then they wobble off....all along the road we see people with enormous loads of firewood...firewood rules up here....locals ring up and order a quarter ton of split red box, next thing there's a 100 year old peasant with it on his back, not even panting!...and gets paid a few quetzals and unfortunately many of them shoot it straight down the laughing gear with some local brew (just too crook to chase it up!) and end up sprawled on the street...not a good look and reminiscent of other indigenous peoples battle with western liquid 'culture'
OK, off again, through rich vegetation, intensive cultivation, rich volcanic soil, water and sunm heym what more do you need?..families out in groups harvesting spuds, tomatoes corn (everywhere corn, every skerrick of dirt has a corn plant) and overloading it all onto donkeys, bikes, backs, trucks, whatever will get it to town....then down to beautiful Antigua, a veritable bubble of international coolness, an oasis in this country, more ubercool than Quetzaltenango...but , from the start....
Riding closer to the town our little road gets more and more closed in by the usual dusty shops, tiendas, restaurantes (altho' that name is used to describe any little eating place, don't go thinking of your fave flash noshery!), auto places etc etc...then we get to Antigua, the old capital of Guat, set between 3 , yes, count them, 3 volcanoes...relax, only 1 is active, and even then just puffs a bit from time to time...the big eruptions are in January usually!..at the moment its eruptus interuptus,,,sorry,...the town is set out in an orderly grid over about a square km well the main part, so 8 or 9 parallel, identical, rarely signed, narrow footpathed, rough cobbled (so your teeth rattle and the bike shudders), some one way (yes) streets...all the buildings are massive, thickwalled and built right to the pavement, huge mediavel doorways with enormous wooden doors, metal inlayed and reinforsed with a smaller, person sized door set in and liitle iron barred peepholes, the windows are set high and external to the wall, barred with often exquisite wrought iron grills and lovelt tiled sills...however they stick out about a foot from the wall and about shoulder height so serious dislocations seem inevit......and many have lovely window boxes of geraniums, yes, I kid you not...in fact, no I'll get to that later.
At night when all the doors are shut every street looks the same and with a gutful of tequila the road home can be along and winding one, true!. Yes the continuing search for the true latino beverage is back on course, guts rumbling a bit but the nipping gear is working again...then founf the Sky Bar, up on the roofm very cool and a great view, next door the Bar No Se (dunno bar)...and some serious tequila drinking, but that was Friday...
So, during the day many of the doors open up and you can look into the gloom of little corner shops, the one just up from here has a liitle old woman sitting behind an inpenetrable steel cage with her goods, many are like this, a product, like all the security stuff, of years of battles throughout Guat over many years...old habits die hard...at our fabulous little posada , sorta hotel, enter thru the little door in the huge wooden door, theres a passageway, tunnel like, 3 metres high, 3 wide runs for 6 metres then a prison type metal barrier with a small doorway as well...locked and chained...the guy comes and opens up, (this metal barrier is always locked, if I go out for 5 mins I have to get him to unlock and let me out ...then the same procedure when I come back),,,makes me feel very secure tho' so I no complain...and/but when you pass thru and walk in side...boom shanka!...desigener perfect, straight out of Home&Garden mag, walled courtyard with manicured lawn, bordered by fabulous flowers and plants and criss crossed by Aztec patterned stone pathways...the walls are partly daubed in yellow and white trim, inlet shelves with religious and heathen figurines, some of the walls are scraped back to reveal the brick and stone of the original Mayan construction...or is it?...closer inspection raises the thought that maybe this is actually mock authentic, faux Mayan...unbelievable...however, its soo bloody good that you just can't tell!...and all over town, once you get out and walk around, what seemed like a town under seige (and its certainly ready for the next seige, I mean these places are all bomb proof!) now reveals itself and as you peek inside the partly opened doors these fantastic interiors are revealed, its a hidden treasure, some are restaurants, and here I mean restaurants, world class, from fahn dahning, silber serbice, chinese, thai, local, everyfcuking thing, its like Brunswick street, Lygon street sort of cafes and bars, exquisite and subtle little glazed tile signs to announce the business....the whole town is heritage listed so all signage has to be ultra small and cool, fantastic decision...there are more bars and restaurantes than you could count, and book shops, and all the other city store stuff...like fashion, jwellery etc, real boutiquey but the buildings, decors, and everything its all soo perfecto...as the Lonely Planet says "who did they get in to do all this?"...it really is like some amazing movie set...
There seem to be about 4000 language schools here and the town!! well lots, and given the place was already pretty cool, altho fortified, and only an hour or so from Guat City, the big foreigner presence, and associated expenditure, made it the place to set up all this...and around the town are the magnificent ruinas, an earthquake in 1773 or there abouts wrecked a whole lot of the big churches and the ruinshave been cleaned up but left as thet were..just magic...and the bells, the bells...more memories of Mexico, the fcuking bells are in the hands of the local asylum!, starting at 6am, roughly!..they bang on one big bell in a sort of wild frenzy for a couple of minutes then one or 2 or 3 solitary bongs! (yes and maybe thats the cause...boom boom)..and no rhyme or reason, sometimes every quarter hourm then nothing for several hours...on Sunday morning the big one went off on his wild thing and the apprentice chimed in with a smaller number but equally random...did anyone get to church that day?
Religion...theres the obvious ongoing christian influence and also the traditional intertwining that I found so fascinating in Chiapas, Max. ...and/but now theres an increasing evangelical presbyterian movement which I'm not sure about...they say its popular with the women as the men who join up tend to stay off the piss better so maybe thats good...however, won't get into those sorts of issues here....
Did the oft-postponed-oft-dreaded trip to Guat Cty to get the El Salvador visas, took a minibus rather than the bikes as its said to be a horror story...and glad we did as the guy knew where he was going, dodged thru the side streets etc...get ther and find we don't need a visa, just fromt the frontier!...oh weel , at least we can say we were in G City...big billboards out on the roads, everything from Paris bloody Hilton to Pollo Feliz, ads for magnetic resonance imaging!! whaat!....too bizarre...all sorts of businesses...and you don't go to the Ferrertia to get ferrets!..and the hornos shops...hornos are ovens!...so what do you call an oven bag?....yes Kath?...yes Kim?...all youse at Lefty's will have to ask El Crocodilo.
Woke the other morning to the red glow of dawn seeping thru the shutters ...all soo fabulous, then I realised it was the outside light reflecting thru the red underdaks I'd hung on the window frame to dry!...still the middle of the night...rolled over, but not totally disappointed...who cares at the subsatnce of dreams and illusions if it feels good, do it!
Back to our little donga, several rooms, 2 storeys, are on 3 sides of the property with the courtyard/garden and ancient concrete cast wash ing trough bizzo, its a large reservoir and in one corner a separate lttle trough, sloping and corrugated, on the side a circular hole that takes the circular clothes soap...so cute...the mama bashes a few things in there in the morning but right behind is the new, you-beaut machine...and a drying machins that runs all day with sheets and towells !!...aarrrggghhhh!
but its all nice....
Now I'm getting hungry again...maybe the Bagel Barn omg, yes theres a lovely little place met Nicole the owner the other night at No Se, I ate there the other day...fresh toasted bagel with tomato, mozarella, basil...this is getting a bit too unauthentic...justified tho' coz later today we're off to the coast, roughing it in plapas and shacks, then to more privation in El Sal..so we can justify a few days of lux here.
I did 4 hours of espanol; Friday and 4 more Sat morning...not enough of course but great boost to my gradually extending linguality...so where did that come from?
Out for a bit of a fang yesterday while El Ted climbed the mountain, he went on an overnighter up the volcano...faarck, huge hike and I'm not at all fazed that I passed up on that op......anyway, coming back I saw this topiarist at work,,,riding a pretty substantial horse, big spanish saddle, he had the horse walking right up against the hedgerow, and he was slashing it with an industrial sized machete! carving great swathes, and moving along pretty quick, horse obviously knowing when not to swish his tail or turn the head!..and cutting this foliage back to an abso straight wall...just could't stop and get a pic as it was...crikey, I don't know but there's often a problema with stopping when the right scene is there...like my head is full of snaps and scenes, a million images of fantastic things, I just wish I could do more justice to all the amazing things I've seen....then again, you'd all be cancelling your subscriptions to my blog!
Now I'll try and get some photos up...the reason you can't always big them is that they're jpegged as I have a file size, time and blog capacity limits!..sorry, but you'll just have to buy the book hehehe.
Welcome to the gang at Lefty's..as I said you'll have to get El Croc to translate...where HE can understand!...
Amd there was something about these military strength fireworks...fcuking rockets that explode at about 40 metres up and blow the eardrums...and last night, staggering home from No Se ..a couple of kids very surreptiously crouched behind a parked car...hmmmm, just what are they up to..then...ker BANG,BANG, BANG...a string of little (hardly!) crackers, you know the ones, in the red paper, original chinese death-crackers...faarrccckkk...just what you need on the way home...subsequently got disorioed and walked about 30 kms around in circles before finding the donga...did I tell you how hard it is to get around at night?..everything looks the same!..oh man..anyway, pix time...hasta luego
Thanks for all the feedbacks, keep 'em coming....

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Photos

Church steps - Chichicastenango
Market day in Chichi

Chichicastenango market
Market day in Chichi

Grant and Chris
Grant and Chris Columbus' statue in Guatemala City

Bikes in the Courtyard -Antigua
Bikes in our lttle donga in Antigua

Our yard -Antigua
Outside our room, ferns down to the ground....

Our yard -Antigua
Streletzias even

Our yard -Antigua
Looking in from the street

Paranoid, who, me?
Classic anti-burgular proofing

Ruins-Antigua
One of the old churches ruinas

Window-Antigua
Typical window with bars and flowers

Frida's restaurant - Antigua
Nice sign, don't know when Frida was here?

Shopping
one poofteenth of the display in one BIG store