We have done a pretty good job of exploring San Pedro by now. There are definitely two sides to the town and they both have very different feels to them. On the Central side, that is where the Guatemalans live. It is a typical town with a central market area, churches, shops etc. You don’t see many tourists there but you do see tables with bowls full of dried fish, plucked chicken heads, and squishy avocados. Sunday was market day and the streets were packed with people and vendors.
All of the women in San Pedro wear the traditional Mayan clothes. Basically skirts that are a rectangle of woven, colorful, heavy material with a belt to hold them up and then a short sleeved shirt with a scoop neck. The shirts are beautiful with intricate designs and jewel colors. I love them and would like to wear them myself but I think they would just look wrong with my jeans. More often than not, the women are all wearing a beautiful apron as well. Again, colorful with designs. The girls all wear the same clothes, even the tiny ones. Often the women have a coiled cloth on top of their heads that they use to balance large baskets filled with whatever. Maybe it is bread, maybe it is corn, maybe it is cloth to sell. I am amazed at their ability to walk on these broken roads and sidewalks with these large, heavy loads on their heads.
Sorry guys, but the boys and men here wear shorts or pants or jeans with t-shirt or button down shirts. They don’t balance anything and they don’t seem to be around much during the day. I think they are off at the coffee plantations or they are one of the multitudes of tuc tuc drivers.
The “otra lado” (other side) of San Pedro is the touristy, hippie side. You won’t see tour busses pulling up here like we did in Antigua. The people are either young and on a long term tour of Central America or are long term hippies who have decided to stay for a while. (We were told today that there is a group of hippieish Americans with children that live in one of the cities across the lake that have formed a school for their kids and live here full time.) The otra lado side of the city has a lot of restaurants, bars, internet cafés, hemp jewelry vendors and dudes with dreads. It is a very interesting walk in that area.
We had our first day of classes today and we are all very happy with the school. Steve’s teacher is the director of the school. My teacher is Luis and we have the primo spot out on the point of the garden area overlooking the volcano and the lake. It is absolutely beautiful and I love studying there. For the first day I took two “tests” to figure out my placement and was happy with how I did on both of them. We are all really progressing and it is possible to have long conversations with our teachers and with the family at our house. We make a lot of mistakes, but we can really express ourselves and have some good back and forth conversation.
In the afternoon we walked to San Juan, the town on the other side of the valley from San Pedro. It took about 20 minutes up a big hill and then down the same hill. San Juan is very different. For one thing, it is smaller and very, very clean (for Central America) and there was practically nobody there. As we walked down to the lake, all of a sudden there was this brick paved street with designs in it and about every 50 feet, a sheltered bench seat with old style lamp lights and a wooden, clean, not-bashed-in trash can. We were in shock because it started nowhere and seemed to lead to nowhere. On both sides of the street were cabbage patches, which we found strange as well because we have seen a lot of cabbage being grown in Guatemala but have not eaten it once. Anyway, we followed the road to its end and there we saw some men working on a building and a nice park for young kids. Of course, our kids couldn’t pass up a park
The weather has turned cooler and it is very windy here. It will probably only last for a few days.
Wednesday
I was right about the weather. It is perfect here today. Clear blue skies and warm temperatures. Unfortunately I have to work for a while today. It’s not like we haven’t been outside though. All of the class tables at our new school are outside so we get to enjoy the fresh air and beautiful views all morning long. I love studying here. I also really like my teacher, Luis. He is 10 days older than me (because December is the best month to have a birthday) and we talk a lot about various different things. Talking, talking, talking is really the best way to learn Spanish.
So, our newest problem is how to get to the airport next Friday. We have to be there at noon for our 2pm flight. If you could see how close San Pedro is to Guatemala City and the airport you would think it would be an easy morning. That is what I thought when I planned this trip. Ha! It’s these dang volcanoes and mountains. From where we are it will take about four hours to get there. (In the US, it would be about an hour.) The problem is that the first shuttle from here leaves at 9am. Not enough time. It is possible to get a Chicken bus at 7am but we will have all of our stuff with us and I don’t feel very comfortable with that. Also, we would have to change to a taxi in Guatemala City. There are other options that we are looking at, but at this point it looks like it may cost us $100 to hire a van to get us there. Bummer.
This morning as we were getting ready for breakfast a group of about 10 guys came into the courtyard and starting looking at two large pine poles that have been lying here for a few days. They are about 15 to 20 feet long and remind me of telephone poles. The guys were all stepping on them, kicking them, turning them, basically sizing them up and it seemed like they were all talking at once. A few minutes later, the guys started putting large rocks on the poles and then pouring water on them and then they all left. I guess they are trying to keep them from curving. At lunch we asked Tina, the mom of the house, about it and she said they were for Semana Santa. Holy Week. I guess they are going to build something with them. It was comical to watch the whole thing. It reminded me of those skits on Sesame Street where a bunch of animated clay balls would find a clay square and wonder what to do with it.
All of the women in San Pedro wear the traditional Mayan clothes. Basically skirts that are a rectangle of woven, colorful, heavy material with a belt to hold them up and then a short sleeved shirt with a scoop neck. The shirts are beautiful with intricate designs and jewel colors. I love them and would like to wear them myself but I think they would just look wrong with my jeans. More often than not, the women are all wearing a beautiful apron as well. Again, colorful with designs. The girls all wear the same clothes, even the tiny ones. Often the women have a coiled cloth on top of their heads that they use to balance large baskets filled with whatever. Maybe it is bread, maybe it is corn, maybe it is cloth to sell. I am amazed at their ability to walk on these broken roads and sidewalks with these large, heavy loads on their heads.
Sorry guys, but the boys and men here wear shorts or pants or jeans with t-shirt or button down shirts. They don’t balance anything and they don’t seem to be around much during the day. I think they are off at the coffee plantations or they are one of the multitudes of tuc tuc drivers.
The “otra lado” (other side) of San Pedro is the touristy, hippie side. You won’t see tour busses pulling up here like we did in Antigua. The people are either young and on a long term tour of Central America or are long term hippies who have decided to stay for a while. (We were told today that there is a group of hippieish Americans with children that live in one of the cities across the lake that have formed a school for their kids and live here full time.) The otra lado side of the city has a lot of restaurants, bars, internet cafés, hemp jewelry vendors and dudes with dreads. It is a very interesting walk in that area.
We had our first day of classes today and we are all very happy with the school. Steve’s teacher is the director of the school. My teacher is Luis and we have the primo spot out on the point of the garden area overlooking the volcano and the lake. It is absolutely beautiful and I love studying there. For the first day I took two “tests” to figure out my placement and was happy with how I did on both of them. We are all really progressing and it is possible to have long conversations with our teachers and with the family at our house. We make a lot of mistakes, but we can really express ourselves and have some good back and forth conversation.
In the afternoon we walked to San Juan, the town on the other side of the valley from San Pedro. It took about 20 minutes up a big hill and then down the same hill. San Juan is very different. For one thing, it is smaller and very, very clean (for Central America) and there was practically nobody there. As we walked down to the lake, all of a sudden there was this brick paved street with designs in it and about every 50 feet, a sheltered bench seat with old style lamp lights and a wooden, clean, not-bashed-in trash can. We were in shock because it started nowhere and seemed to lead to nowhere. On both sides of the street were cabbage patches, which we found strange as well because we have seen a lot of cabbage being grown in Guatemala but have not eaten it once. Anyway, we followed the road to its end and there we saw some men working on a building and a nice park for young kids. Of course, our kids couldn’t pass up a park
The weather has turned cooler and it is very windy here. It will probably only last for a few days.
Wednesday
I was right about the weather. It is perfect here today. Clear blue skies and warm temperatures. Unfortunately I have to work for a while today. It’s not like we haven’t been outside though. All of the class tables at our new school are outside so we get to enjoy the fresh air and beautiful views all morning long. I love studying here. I also really like my teacher, Luis. He is 10 days older than me (because December is the best month to have a birthday) and we talk a lot about various different things. Talking, talking, talking is really the best way to learn Spanish.
So, our newest problem is how to get to the airport next Friday. We have to be there at noon for our 2pm flight. If you could see how close San Pedro is to Guatemala City and the airport you would think it would be an easy morning. That is what I thought when I planned this trip. Ha! It’s these dang volcanoes and mountains. From where we are it will take about four hours to get there. (In the US, it would be about an hour.) The problem is that the first shuttle from here leaves at 9am. Not enough time. It is possible to get a Chicken bus at 7am but we will have all of our stuff with us and I don’t feel very comfortable with that. Also, we would have to change to a taxi in Guatemala City. There are other options that we are looking at, but at this point it looks like it may cost us $100 to hire a van to get us there. Bummer.
This morning as we were getting ready for breakfast a group of about 10 guys came into the courtyard and starting looking at two large pine poles that have been lying here for a few days. They are about 15 to 20 feet long and remind me of telephone poles. The guys were all stepping on them, kicking them, turning them, basically sizing them up and it seemed like they were all talking at once. A few minutes later, the guys started putting large rocks on the poles and then pouring water on them and then they all left. I guess they are trying to keep them from curving. At lunch we asked Tina, the mom of the house, about it and she said they were for Semana Santa. Holy Week. I guess they are going to build something with them. It was comical to watch the whole thing. It reminded me of those skits on Sesame Street where a bunch of animated clay balls would find a clay square and wonder what to do with it.
Comments
Your travel back to Guatemala City sounds challenging. We used to stay in Guatemala City in a nice hotel with a pool or in Antigua the night before our flight just to make sure that we didn't miss it. There are just too many factors that could mess it all up...but sometimes everything works so smoothly without a hitch! That's Guatemala for you, and you never know how the journey will work out.
I look forward to reading your updates. Thanks for posting them!