theres a different entry about my bday but here are some pix . theres my cake with the 28 matches to serve as candles and then my bday stogie wrapped in leaf and bought at the local market. dont worry mom, it made me wanna puke.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
birthday photies
theres a different entry about my bday but here are some pix . theres my cake with the 28 matches to serve as candles and then my bday stogie wrapped in leaf and bought at the local market. dont worry mom, it made me wanna puke.
a typical scene on our balcony
a typical scene on our balcony when we lived in Lake Atitlan included 5-7 friends, 2 pots of delicious veggie food and 2-4 guitars.
i know that indigenous lady looks pissed, but i promise she said yes when i asked if i could take her picture! she was fascinated that our buddy Justin could cook. thats womens work around those parts!
that stinks that leesas face got cut in that one....
women of the revolution
ladies of the zapatista movement embodied in homemade dolls- as well as some lovely skeletons and a strange scene of worship
Saturday, February 23, 2008
leap of faith
at the cliffs in San Marcos a village on lago de atitlan
ok so the back flip isnt Jared.
more environmental art
he called it the fluttertortosauras i think. the jump is from a bridge at semuc champey
chocolate before its chocolate
mmm... cocoa and the adorable kiddlins that sold us our first taste!
oh and also a completely smooshed cockroach and some berries that the mayans used to use for war paint.
the mayan antcestors
we are a little more than a little obsessed with the ants in guatemala. they were amazing and we always expected to come upon some giant ant pyramin constructed solely of leaves.
as i was in full wildlife photography mode laying in the dirt path trying to catch the emotional landscape of this.... i realized i was in fact lying in horse doo. sweet.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Bone Doctors of the Mayan Variety
that is sunrise on lago de atitlan...two steps out of my bedroom there
On my last day of Spanish class in San Pedro, Guatemala I had a really wonderful conversation with my teacher (en español of course!). it started out with me telling her that we were going to go on a hike the next day to a forest. she asked if it was the forest on the town limits. it wasnt but she described to me this place.
apparently for... thousands of years maybe, Mayan priests have been coming to this forest because it is a very sacred place. they hold various rituals there and ceremonies too. within the last ten years the christian church bought it and since then is trying their best to prevent the Mayans (which is a religion as well as a lifestyle) from performing these ancient rituals. The church has gone so far as to put a huge christian altar up in the forest and tells people to go pray there.... hmm... i mean i am ok with whatever religion you want to be but its when people prevent other people who are doing no harm from believing what they want to believe, thats when i get upset. the idea of buying or owning that land never even occured to the Mayans. Similar to the Native American in the U.S. way back when, that is not how they think.
I asked my teacher who told me like many other locals that she is very Christian (they are very proud of it and see it as being modern as well). I asked her what percentage of the people on Lake Atitlan practice the old religion. It was then that she got this funny little twinkle in her eye and said that a whole lot more than you would think. because although San Pedro is a beautiful village that shows strong undertones of the way life was for hundreds of years there are also a lot of signs of change too. more capitalism, less traditional dress, and many many new non-mayan churches.
apparently people either practice in secret or in her words they do it subconsciously. the mayan religion is so infused in who these people are and their lifestyle that there it is inherently a huge part of their lives but they dont even see it as that because they dont know any different type of life. she said that there are quite a few people who practice it when it is convenient for them as well. for example if they break a bone or come down with some serious illness.
there are 2 kinds of shamans that she told me about. depending on what day a mayan is born on there is a gift that is associated to this person. occasionally right away a midwife can tell a mother that this child is going to be a shaman.
one type of shaman is harder to explain she said. for example, lets say a person is picking fruit and suddenly they fall down. maybe they are ill for several days after this. the mayan people believe that when that person fell down that their soul escaped them. a ritual is then performed by a mayan priest in the middle of the night while the person is sleeping in their house. they would never do it in the daytime because it would scare the soul away.. the priest and his helper go to the tree and light candles and give some simple offerings and do this thing while hitting a stick on the ground that chases the spirit back into the person´s body. she said that you are able to see the sleeping person shudder in their sleep when the soul returns....
another kind of shaman is a bone shaman. this person has a special tool that is kept wrapped in cloth that they use for their entire life. they find this tool through their dreams and they say that it is impossible for them to lose it.
my teacher has seen this ritual performed twice where a person has a fractured bone. apparently the shaman does nothing other than lightly rub their special tool upon the fracture in this ritualistic fashion and the person within days is healed. sometimes faster and sometimes slower, my teacher said that she once saw it done and actually HEARD the bones snapping back together. the person had to be held down because they were in so much pain but the wrist was no longer broken!
i am not sure what to believe but there are so many cultures and rituals in this world that are being lost through globalism and capitalism and it was really relieving to me to hear that there is still a strong rhythm of ancient ways in this beautiful sacred place.
if you like this kind of thing, i HIGHLY reccomend: Martin Prechtel´s Secrets of the Talking Jaguar. it is about an american man who was called to lake atitlan through his dreams and once he arrived became a highly respected shaman.
evangelical songs in the night
so this happened a long time ago but i have been meaning to write about the night that we spent in another village on lake atitlan.
San Marcos is a place that is supposed to have even stronger healing power than other places on a lake that is indeed magical all over. Many foreigners have gravitated to this place and now it is a hot spot of sorts for healing retreats and meditation centers. its also just beautiful and more green and lush then the somewhat more bustling little town of san pedro where we stayed.
the reason that we went there was because we had heard that there was a course on lucid dreaming.... well i am going to skip the grumbling and complaing about how that did not in fact work out because of the some er.... miscommunications you might say. but it was a beautiful day spent there anyhow.
we met our friends from san pedro over on the cliffs that are just outside the village. i myself did not jump but jared and some other friends courageously leapt off a rock that was at least 30 meters high!!! definitely a record for red he said.
later that night we were sitting outside of our guesthouse room when a voice in the dark sang out loud and clear. it was a woman and we didnt know where but it was quite beautiful sounding as she sang really strongly out into the night sky. the song continued for some minutes when suddenly another woman started singing as well, only this woman was somewhere completely different, in a whole other direction! after a moment the first woman stopped singing and the second woman carried on and on until wouldnt you know another starts from somewhere else! it was really interesting, i couldnt tell if it was spanish or what- the owner of the guesthouse walked past then and i asked her what it was all about. she shrugged her shoulders as if she didnt really approve and said it was the evangelical church members.
i am not sure what that is all about but that kind of praying sing into the pitch black night sharing a song across a village sounds all right to me.
that is one amazing part of central america, there is live music EVERYWHERE all the time from late at night to super early in the morning! and a lot of it is church music but not the kind of church music that i ever heard--you´ve got drumming and horns and singing and all sorts of rowdyness. i love love love it.
San Marcos is a place that is supposed to have even stronger healing power than other places on a lake that is indeed magical all over. Many foreigners have gravitated to this place and now it is a hot spot of sorts for healing retreats and meditation centers. its also just beautiful and more green and lush then the somewhat more bustling little town of san pedro where we stayed.
the reason that we went there was because we had heard that there was a course on lucid dreaming.... well i am going to skip the grumbling and complaing about how that did not in fact work out because of the some er.... miscommunications you might say. but it was a beautiful day spent there anyhow.
we met our friends from san pedro over on the cliffs that are just outside the village. i myself did not jump but jared and some other friends courageously leapt off a rock that was at least 30 meters high!!! definitely a record for red he said.
later that night we were sitting outside of our guesthouse room when a voice in the dark sang out loud and clear. it was a woman and we didnt know where but it was quite beautiful sounding as she sang really strongly out into the night sky. the song continued for some minutes when suddenly another woman started singing as well, only this woman was somewhere completely different, in a whole other direction! after a moment the first woman stopped singing and the second woman carried on and on until wouldnt you know another starts from somewhere else! it was really interesting, i couldnt tell if it was spanish or what- the owner of the guesthouse walked past then and i asked her what it was all about. she shrugged her shoulders as if she didnt really approve and said it was the evangelical church members.
i am not sure what that is all about but that kind of praying sing into the pitch black night sharing a song across a village sounds all right to me.
that is one amazing part of central america, there is live music EVERYWHERE all the time from late at night to super early in the morning! and a lot of it is church music but not the kind of church music that i ever heard--you´ve got drumming and horns and singing and all sorts of rowdyness. i love love love it.
ay yi yi!
so i have ever so much to catch up on but whenever i get to a computer my mind goes hazy and the words leak out of my head not to return until some other time usually far less convenient.
right now we are in el salvador. its pretty dang interesting here with all kinds of different sides of it to see. it has the highest population density with the lowest percentage of indigenous people (owing to the horrific genocide of course). its also got the highest rate of deforrestation of all of central america and there are many parts of the country that simply look devastated.
for example we took a bus into san salvador which was the total pits. dirty and busy and evidently dangerous because every gas station, grocery store, and disco had a guy with a machine gun standing outside of it. a few police officers with gigantic guns got on a bus we were riding and i wasnt sure if i should feel greatful or scared. anyhow red and i smart little monkeys and so we only walked around in the daytime, paid far more than normal for a safe hostel, and got the hell out of dodge the next morning. it was a weird place with these huge shopping malls and movie theaters and tons of u.s. corporations and then a huge shantytown right outside of the city.
but then we caught this bus north to a little town called Suchitoto and it was really nothing short of sweet and lovely. cobblestone streets, friendly people, and a beautiful over look of this huge lake with dozens of different species of birds flying about in the canyon. we met a really odd but friendly salvadoran man who bought us a beer each and chatted our ears off about his girlfriend (a white cat with bright blue eyes) and how he can touch cement and see pictures of his former lives. not drunk, merely eccentric!
this morning we traveled on in el salvador still to another little village. up through windy jungly mountain sides where corn and coffee grow. its interesting to note the affects of the war in little things like there are no people wearing traditional costumes since anyone who even looked indian was murdered back then. but i was talking about the beauty of this place and yes there is a lot. the people are really friendly and helpful as well. this little place we are in now gets almost all of their income from these sweet little paintings which are everywhere and on everything. from little tiny seeds and key chains to all over the sides of buildings and lamp posts. the town is really quiet and peaceful.
tomorrow we head on to the mayan ruins of Copan in Honduras. very exciting.
hey DONT FORGET TO LEAVE US COMMENTS- its not toooo hard. we miss you!
right now we are in el salvador. its pretty dang interesting here with all kinds of different sides of it to see. it has the highest population density with the lowest percentage of indigenous people (owing to the horrific genocide of course). its also got the highest rate of deforrestation of all of central america and there are many parts of the country that simply look devastated.
for example we took a bus into san salvador which was the total pits. dirty and busy and evidently dangerous because every gas station, grocery store, and disco had a guy with a machine gun standing outside of it. a few police officers with gigantic guns got on a bus we were riding and i wasnt sure if i should feel greatful or scared. anyhow red and i smart little monkeys and so we only walked around in the daytime, paid far more than normal for a safe hostel, and got the hell out of dodge the next morning. it was a weird place with these huge shopping malls and movie theaters and tons of u.s. corporations and then a huge shantytown right outside of the city.
but then we caught this bus north to a little town called Suchitoto and it was really nothing short of sweet and lovely. cobblestone streets, friendly people, and a beautiful over look of this huge lake with dozens of different species of birds flying about in the canyon. we met a really odd but friendly salvadoran man who bought us a beer each and chatted our ears off about his girlfriend (a white cat with bright blue eyes) and how he can touch cement and see pictures of his former lives. not drunk, merely eccentric!
this morning we traveled on in el salvador still to another little village. up through windy jungly mountain sides where corn and coffee grow. its interesting to note the affects of the war in little things like there are no people wearing traditional costumes since anyone who even looked indian was murdered back then. but i was talking about the beauty of this place and yes there is a lot. the people are really friendly and helpful as well. this little place we are in now gets almost all of their income from these sweet little paintings which are everywhere and on everything. from little tiny seeds and key chains to all over the sides of buildings and lamp posts. the town is really quiet and peaceful.
tomorrow we head on to the mayan ruins of Copan in Honduras. very exciting.
hey DONT FORGET TO LEAVE US COMMENTS- its not toooo hard. we miss you!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
todos los dias son alegres
what can i say except exactly that. all of the days here are happy. i havent had a bad day or even a medium bad-ok day in a really long time. guatemala has treated us so well, but we are beginning to think about maybe starting to plan on moving on! maybe. ok. probably we will move on next week. there is one spot in guatemala that is a high possibility, but as we are pointed south i think we will be in El Salvador by next weekend. country #4!
my birthday was perfect! thanks to all of you whom sent me bday love. we spent the day relaxing on our wonderful balcony with the breathtaking view and then made a feast to share. lots of people came by and sand happy birthday to me in either 4 or 5 languages all at the same time which was sweet. i made it pretty clear that even though i am turning 28 and we are in guatemala i still needed birthday candles and red got creative as he is apt to do and made a piece that could sit on the cake with 28 matches on it to blow out! even better!
i got some great gifts including a local made scarf and ring from me love and then a bracelet and handmade zine and wallet too! those last two were from my friend lisa. we met her and her partner alex at the farm in palenque and have had a great reunion months later here! the wallet was homemade with a needle, thread, and former juice box from mexico-heck yeah just what i like!
spanish school was great this week and i am getting better and better at the past tense. red however is a straight drop out! eh thats ok, he still practices quite a bit each day and is definitely making progress.
as i said before all is well down south and i hope it is the same for you, dont forget to send us messages!!
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