xelaju

---

hello all.

life has been busy down here in central america.

we arrived to xela about three weeks ago. xela is pronounced shay-la....short for xelaju (shay-la-who), the mayan name for the city of quetzaltelango, which is almost never referred to as quetzaltelango, except when you are new to the country and trying to get there and nobody knows what you are talking about. it´s a big, hectic, smog-filled city. reminds me a lot of all the other big, hectic, smog-filled cities in the developing world that i´ve seen, but poco a poco i am learning to appreciate the unique charm of what is actually a very unique city.

xela was just named the capital of central america, but appartently this designation is without any consequence to anybody at all.

if you´re a foreigner in xela, chances are you are here to either study spanish or to hike. i´ve been doing a bit of both. ben knew very little spanish before getting here, so he signed up for a week of intensive language study. i decided i might as well take some classes too. my classes were mostly just five hours of conversation and cultural exchange. i am not sure i learned anything new in terms of the language, but i learned a lot about guatemala. in exchange, mi maestro found out a lot about the states, although he already seemed to know a bit. for example, somehow pennsylvania came up. he remarked "donde estan los quakers, verdad?" that cracked me up.

since being here i speak just enough english and just enough spanish that i don´t really speak either very well anymore.

the school organized daily activities for us. once we went to a little pueblo, walked through the market, watched some weaving, and of course visited the church. (someone said it´s the oldest church in central america...i´ll have to hire a fact checker.....wink wink ms. oshea-evans). i find it odd/sad/all sorts of things that in every village you go around here (and much of the world) you these grand churches, usually both the center and the pride of the place, while the sacred places of the people living there literally lie in ruins, destroyed by the same people who would later build these revered churches. i´ve never quite gotten my mind around that phenomenon, but i never fail to notice it.

also went to a volcanically fueled hot springs with the school. we took a chicken bus halfway there. the rest of the ride was arranged by finding a man with a pickup truck and paying him to let us ride in the back of it. the roads are crap, it was pouring rain, and we were driving a million miles (excuse me, kilometers) an hour up a volcano. it struck me at some point that i should have been miserable, but it was one of my happiest days here. probably just because the beauty of this country is unreal, the situation was absurd, and we were on our way to one of the most relaxing soaks of my life....the pools are nestled in the jungle, on the hillsides of guatemala´s volcanic range. there was a lot of thunder and a lot of white folks when we got there...we had more then a few laughs thinking about a fateful strike turning the pool into gringo soup. eventually they made us go into private tubs. it´s supposed to be a treat, but the private baths are holes in the ground in tiny pitch black rooms. plus the workers just randomly decide to give you more scalding hot water without any notice. rachel soup, even without the lightning. that said....dad, i think you would have absolutely loved this place!

being so close to volcanoes, i see a lot of old lava flows. i got to thinking about being a kid, walking around with the siblings looking for ¨lava rocks¨ and for the first time in my life i questioned how exactly we were coming by these in the middle of colorado.

also stayed with an amazing host family during our week at school. had a lot of fun with our new hermanos.

the weekend after school we took our first quetzaltrekkers trek to lake atitlan (said to be the most beautiful lake in the world, certainly the most beautiful i´ve seen). it was an incredible trek. the first day you start in the tiny village of xecam, walking through agriculture land until you begin ascending into the cloud forests (jungle, often enshrouded in clouds). you walk for about 2 hours uphill through very dense vegetation, and then very suddenlnly the forest gives way to rolling green hills. another small village lies at this transformation zone, so much of the hillsides are covered with endless patches of corn. it´s kind of like iowa, only at 10,000 feet. absolutely surreal. the rest of the day is spent walking through small villages, agricultural land, eery fields of corn. most memorable part of the second day is the two hours spent following a river as it weaves its way through the mountains. plus more beautiful scenery, villages, etc. third day we were up at 3:30, a short hike away from the mirador over lake atitlan, where we snuggled in sleeping bags and watched the sun come up over the lake and surrounding volcanoes. then more hiking, with views of lake atitlan surprising you every now and again. the trek ends at the longest zipline in central america (this was somebody´s peace corps project). i was terrified. they strap you in from you´re back, so you´re flying like superman high above the jungle. plus, the braking system is a man with a piece of a tire tied to a rope...a little unerving as you come screaming headfirst into the landing area. still, it was really fun, even for a coward like me.

next week worked in the office with quetzaltrekkers. it´s an entirely self managed volunteer program...no boss, nobody that sticks around for very long...it´s pretty amazing that it´s kept doing what it does for 13 years now. in case you want to know what it does....www.quetzaltrekkers.com. basically, there are tons of guide services in xela....this one was set up as a nonprofit....all proceeds go to escuela de la calle (school for underprivleged or street kids), hogar abierto (a home for kids that live in places without access to education, or kids found on the street) and primero pasos (a free or low cost clinic for these kids). so we go on treks, we fundraise, we go to spanish schools and talk students into coming on our treks, and we hang out with the kids...dinner on tuesday nights, futbol on wednesdays, cookie baking, homework helping, hiking, hanging, etc whenever it can be arranged.

next weekend was a different kind of trek. it was all saints day, so we organized a trip to todos santos (a town named for its celebrations on this day). the entire town is a big party this weekend. the main event is the horse races which aren´t excactly races. those that are able to afford it rent a horse to race. they party all night long. they keep partying in the morning. most are completly hammered when they finally get on the horse. the ¨race track¨is a narrow street...they run about 100 feet, then turn around and run back. for hours. originally there were roosters strung up on strings across the street, and teams were supposed to yank their heads off. this is no longer part of the event, but by the end of the day there were a few riders holding roosters by the neck and whipping their horses with them.

the event sounds a little weird, but the history is pretty cool. todos santos was one of the towns that suffered the most under the spaniards. the spanish that occupied the town for so long had horses, the maya were strictly forbidden from riding them as a way to keep them under control. thus, the horse event is symbolic....maya men proud upon horses, doing what there ancestors were told could not be done. the rooster heads were added as symbols of sacrifice.

this year was interesting because it was the first time a women was to ride. this of course caused sort of an outrage. she rode down the street, about 1000 people following her. but when she got to the track, a mob would not let her into the race. it was crazy for a while, and she eventually left without racing. it made me pretty sad. still, she made a point. men weren´t the only ones who suffered....it should be a day of celebaration for women too. we´ll see what happens next year.

day of the dead was cool to see. the entire town in the ornately decorated cemetary. ben and i just walked by, felt it might be offensive to have tourists wandering aimlessly through the burial ground of their ancestors.

all the men in todos santos wear a traditional traje...bright red striped pants, a light jacket with a really bright collar, and a hat with a blue ribbon. it´s quite the sight. the young boys all leave their jackets open, displaying heavy metal t-shirts as the only item distinguishing their outfit from that of hundreds of other people walking around. eventually i´ll get some pics up, make all of this much more interesting.

then back to the office. and now already preparing for another trek. originally i was going back to lago, and ben was going to lead a volcano climb. but we´ve got loads of new guides that need to be seen hiking, so ben and i might both be taken off our treks and go with one other girl to find the route up to another volcano (the most active in the country). we´ll see. regardless, busy day of preparations ahead.

---