Friday, December 19, 2008

Happy Girls....our last puffs....good-by to our Cuban cigars..
More last puffs.....mmmmm good...

Working girls in San Pedro de Atitlan..


Camera shy...in San Pedro.....



Girls play with dolls the world over....San Pedro..




A very heavy load....Chichi
Statues in Santiago de Atitlan church..

Loved these stripped pants....Santiago de Atitlan


Santiago pier.....



A dishpan of laundry en route to the Lake to wash...




Wash day in Lake Atitlan....Santiago
Chichi market...

Chichi market...


Selling machetes, shoes, etc at the Chichi market..



Beauty at the Chichi market...




Chichi market day..
Chichi market...

Chichi market...


Chichi market....



Fresh ground at the Chichi market...















Loading a bull the hard way....Chichicastenango
Our room with this view in Chichi..

Loaded down...Chichi


Want a ride...local bus to everywhere....



Sonya...and her beautiful weaving...




Young marimba players..in Antigua The love of la abuela..
Dressed up to celebrate dia la Virgen of Guadalupe


Just waiting.....Antigua



Volcano smokin'......Antigua






Thursday, December 18, 2008

December 18, 2008 Antigua, Guatemala
We are back in Antigua tonight after spending the past 5 days away around Lake Atitlan...about 2.5 hrs. west of here. ( so nice to return to a place we know..even though we were here for only two nights before). Tomorrow we leave here to go to Guatemala City and fly north to Flores..our gateway to seeing the Mayan temples at Tikal...
In the past 5 days we have been surrounded by people of Mayan decent...I felt soooo tall. We felt like we lived pretty large the past days...we stayed in Chichi at the Mayan Inn...a beautiful old lodge(we had a bedroom with a fireplace, a sitting room, and a large bathroom and we had Manuel assigned to us to wait on us in the dining room...and to build our fire. We both wanted Manuel to continue with us the rest of the trim. Plus Manuel dressed in the Mayan style..beautiful handwoven knee pants, shirt, sash, and a hat.. Chichi is the big market town for the area and Sunday was market day with vendor after vendor selling eveything from pig`s feet and turkeys to beautiful handwoven skirts, blouses, sashes...This little town was packed..
Sunday afternoon we took a van to Panajachel..on Lake Atitlan. Although we had been told by many to skip that town, we found it quite ok, especially since we were using it as the launching site for our trip across the Lake the next day to Santiago.
In all of these towns there are markets whether it is market day or not...the streets are lined with vendor stalls..and persuasive sellers. The kids can be the most persuasive...."buy ..from me...it is a present for your mother, your grandmother, your friend...or your enemy(a new phrase)...I can buy notebook for school if you buy this from me". Then in Panajachel a teenage girl used a new line on us "this is just business to business"...we both got a laugh out of that...and she made a sale.
On Monday we took the boat across Lake Atitlan to Santiago...the Lake is a volcano crater and is 12 miles across and about 60 miles around...beautiful with 2 volcanos rising above it..and 6-7 villages on the edge of the Lake. This is a corn, coffee, and avocado growing area. I don´t see how the farmers work these fields on the steep slope of these volcano mountains. Almost every other person you see has a load on their back...wood, coffee, corn, etc. ..and these are heavy loads! The women carry all matter of things on their head...balancing a dishpan of all kinds of stuff and most often they will have a small child on their back held there by colorful shawl. The tool of life is the machete...every man seems to carry one.
We stayed in Santiago for three days...took a boat across the Lake to another village one day, had a horseback ride another day to a mirador (lookout point) that if it had been clear we were told we would see the Pacific.
The religion in the Atitlan area is a mix of Mayan and Catholic (Protestant religions are now a greater part of the population than Catholic we were told). The Catholic church in Santiago is built over an old Mayan sacred site . And inside the church along the walls are statues of l8 people..we could not recognize them...they were dressed in a variety of clothing from pink and blud beauty shop smocks to housedresses to velvet robes and all had Hermes scarves around their neck. We were told that the clothing is changed every week. Then there is a kind of sacred guy called Masiman...this is a 5 ft statue..that is moved from house to house, has a cigar in his mouth, and a hat and is dressed in an unusual style with a scarf around his neck. Someone has to take you to see him..only the local people know where he is. There was too much mystery here for us to understand!
Behind this summary I have given of the past 5 days there are many stories....I will have to tell you those in person...
These people are beautiful and sweet and the hardship of their life, including the wars they have suffered over the past several years, really cannot be told.
We are looking forward to Tikal...and looking forward to seeing you very soon...
karen

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Trinidad "pepto bismol" casa particular...
another beauty....

Trinidad in its many colors...


Merry Christmas!!!!








Vinales is tobacco capital
tractor is for the field or for a taxi..

prized pair....


rolling cigars is a fine art...so is smoking them..








Vinales taxi....
thankful for peanut butter....


Che...Camilo....Castro

surveying from the steps of the Capitolo








Coco taxis in Havana--our first ride costs us 4 bucks for 5 blocks!
Interesting to see these tags..




..and this well waxed car!

Havana's Central Park





Wings for flying....what year was this?

Friday, December 12, 2008

December 12, 2008..Virgin of Guadalupe Day
Writing from Antigua, Guatemala where we arrived yesterday...and glad to be here where we can basically understand the Spanish.
That was not the case for the past 11 days while we were in Cuba.....we were never quite sure what was being said...they cut out syllables, change endings and rolls words around before they come out of their mouth. So about Cuba....it was interesting, fascinating, we learned alot, sweet people, unforgettable experiences, and beautiful countryside. It was expensive, everything seemed in short supply...including food and we had alot of meals of bread, peanut butter brought from Mexico, cheese(taken extra from our hotel breakfast buffet)--the food was pretty bad...even when we splurged with a dinner a Ambos Mundos..Hemingway`s hotel hangout. Everytime we did see a menu and request something from it..."sorry, we don`t have that"...or "the hurricanes ruined the vegetable crops, so we don´'t have vegetables" and we ate some things that definately were in the mystery food. Shortages were throughout....we stopped into some stores in Havana...within one store a great variety of things would be sold: tablecloths, paint, pants, frig, outdoor table, doorknobs, etc..yet they would have one or two of each..
They survive on a ration card issued yearly....combined with a few pesoes one can get cooking oil, rice, flour, beans, pasta, limited toilet rolls (tiny ones)...not included was soap, dish detergent, lotion, etc. So we were asked repeatedly for soap...just one of the several things we were asked for...
There are two currencies in Cuba....the peso which most of the local people live on and then there is the Cuba Convertible (CUC) that is what the tourist get when they change money. It makes for a very confusing system ...especially for travelers. Since we could not use our credit card or the ATM, we were daily counting our money. We were very surprised at the expense of things. An hour on the internet cost over $7, for comparison here in Antigua it is about 75cents for a hour. Everything costs....and because income is so low...$15-$20 per month, everyone is looking for how they can make a buck.
Seeing the l950's cars was a novelty for awhile, but the air is filled with exhaust...the car may look like a l956 Chevy, but under the hood something has happened and it spews dense exhaust. On the highway there are many, many, many people trying to get rides...buses are overcrowded and always late...maybe a couple of hours...lots of bike riders, motorbikes with sidecars, Russian made tractors, old trucks with 20 or so people hitching a ride in the bed of the truck. The tourist buses are Chinese made and were quite comfortable.
While outside Havana...in the far west: Vinales (tobacco growing country..those Cuban cigars...which I did get to roll) and in Trinidad (sugar cane area on the south coast) we stayed in homes...called "Casa Particulars" . That is the primary accommodation outside of Havana...and many in Havana also....The family rents out a room in their house for about 20-25 CUC per night, then will do you supper for 8CUC and breakfast for 4 CUC. (1 CUC =$1.20 US) They pay a license fee of $70 per month to the government to do this. There are not many restaurants in the smaller towns, so eating in the casa is almost the only choice. We had a variety of experiences with these meals!
Havana was once a beautiful city..with beautiful architecture..but much is crumbling. We met alot of European tourist there....and, according to a guide we had extended conversation with, the government will say that nickel and tobacco are biggest industries, but really it is tourism.
And just as in Mexico and here in Guatemala, tourism is also way down in Cuba...here in Antigua it is half of what it was last December....the world financial situation reaches all.
I am very glad for the eleven days we spent in Cuba....it was an important experience...but I left there feeling very sad .
Everywhere we have been the expression is the same "we have great hopes for your new President".
I hope to add some photos when I get to a better computer.
Looking forward to these next 10 days in Guatemala....
karen