Athkolá! (Hola in Tzutujil, the local Mayan tongue in Santiago, Guatemala)

It was a long trip to get from Flores to Santiago! As follows....

• Flores --> Guatemala City (9pm-4:30am bus)
• Guat. City --> "the mountains" (2.5 hours bus)
• "The mountains" -->Sololá (Hitchhiked! ...Oops!)
• Sololá -->Panahachel (20 mins bus)
• Panahachel -->Santiago (30 min boat across Lake Atitlán)

For the bus ride from Guatemala City to somewhere in the mountains, we took the local bus, also known as the "chicken bus," most likely because people are stuffed into these vehicles like chickens in a coop. In a row of 2 seats, it¨s likely to have 6 people squished against each other; as this was our case.  While Nina took a nap, I made friends with the guy sitting next to me. His name was Jasuan, a military lieutenant working with narcotic trafficking and kidnapping. He said he sat down next to us for our security from robbers that are common on these local buses. He told me he even had a gun on him, which kept hitting into my side (kinda scary, kinda hot...puaha just kidding). He told me his dream is to go to grad school to study international relations and later to work in the government again for his country. He has two small daughters that he only gets to see 8 days a month because of his work schedule, and  the day I met him was the day he was going back home to them. He was nice; without him we wouldn¨t have known to get off at a random stop in the middle of the mountains.

Santiago is a very small traditional Mayan village nestled in between big green mountains. It feels almost like Peru ! (I only say that because I¨ve always wanted to go.) Most of the women and the elders wear traditional clothing and they are so pretty. Their blouses are colorful, intricate, and patterned uniquely with flowers embroidered around their collars. The men wear sombreros and striped shorts with patterned wrap-around belts. These beautiful blues, purples, reds, and hints of gold thread are contrasted by the luscious curvature of the green mountains overhead who also sport a string of soft white clouds around their necks like ornaments, too. This is the scenery that I experienced when I first got off the boat. It still rings true, but if you go deeper into the village, it¨s very dusty with pollution, poverty, and the rest of it. But still everything is brightened by nature and the people.

Right now we are staying at a school associated with Guatemala¨s Peace Embassy. Unfortunately our planned service project fell through again because the goverment closed down all the schools this week to help recover from the recent torrential downpour. Entonces, we¨ve been doing some gardening, helping to clear out the damages done on 2 of their 4 gardens.

There are also 7 European volunteers staying here as well who are part of a 2 month program, helping out in local schools and medical centers. They are friendly and from a few different parts of Europe. You should see our dinner table. It¨s filled with conversations in French, Czech, Spanish, English, and Estonian. Nina and I try to contribute with some Japanese.

Today is Day 10 out of 30. I feel like we¨ve been traveling for weeks now. Everyday is full and different. Tomorrow we are parting Santiaguito and moving on to Antigua for 2 days to wrap up Guatemala. Even though we are usually dead tired by 10pm, I feel so alive! There is so much to take in and give back.

There is nothing like waking up to the drill like sounds of a corn machine making tortillas at 6am outside your street. Really, really.

& Love, love.

PS. Photos from Tikal:

Our guide through Tikal, Nixon ! The best.

We climbed 2 of these ! Hell yeah.