ode to the man in the window

although i have already touched upon this subject. we´ve decided that the man in the window here in san pedro deserves at the very least his own dedication.

the small windy path up the hill to the outdoor fruit and vegetable market is lined with various tiendas and restaurants mostly for locals up in this part of town. the buildings are old and cement and crumbly in places. up this steep path on the left side is the small window with the white scarf hung across it where the infamous face of guatemala does his work.

its hard to tell how old this man really is. red and i are guessing somewhere between 85 and 112 yrs old. he is one of the older Tzutujil (the tribe of mayans around here) men that still don the tradition clothes. this consists of a light button up shirt, a brimmed hat and incredibly intricately embroidered white pants. the pants were fashioned when life was based around standing in canoes and so only come down to mid-calf they are also held up by a long woven scarf of bright colors.

perhaps in your life you have come across a person that has a self appointed job that is of utmost importance if only in their eyes. this is the case with the old man in the window. from very early in the morning to late afternoon, the old man hangs out side of his window which is just higher than my head on the wall. all you can see is his head and two arms that kind of dangle. really the best description for this guy is Muppet-like. dont get me wrong i dont mean that in a bad way, i love muppets. this guy just kind of moves and speaks as though there are invisible marionette strings suspended mid air.

and his job is a worthy one. his job is to greet the world. it would be an interesting experiment to hide somewhere and actually count how many times this guy says ¨buenos dias, buenos tardes¨ and ¨hola¨ in a day. its hard to describe how happy this makes me. he not only says it though, he REALLY means it too! for hours on end. another beautiful thing about it is that he is completely indiscriminate to whom he greets. Tourists get just as hearty of a good morning as his family members. A group of lollygagging school kids will get an Hola just as soon as the guy with 500 lbs of rocks in a bag on his back. we have even seen him greet Tuk Tuks which are the tiny motorized taxi vehicles, despite the fact that they whiz by without even looking in his direction.

the restaurant where we eat our 3 veggie tacos for $1 every day is right above his perch so sometimes we sneakily spy down. its just so cool to see how happy he makes people as he surprises them from his window. and even better yet we have met more than one visitor who was here in san pedro up to 5 years ago and witnessed this same thing back then too. one guy´s girlfriend was lucky or sneaky enough to get a photo of the old man 3 years ago. evidently the picture hangs in the bathroom back in colorado. he said everyday when he goes pee he looks at this old man. he´s actually something of a legend!

as i mentioned before, it has been proven that the man actually speaks no other spanish, similarly to most older Tzutujil people here speaking their native tongue. there was one day that red and i were walking past that we thought he may have even stumbled on the little spanish he knew. it went like this:
us: ¨Hola Senor!!¨
him: ¨Buenos....Buenos..Buenos Tardes, Buenos Tardes!¨
as we walked past we wondered, did he actually forget his favorite thing to say? the answer was clear then we looked at our watch. the time was 12:02. it wasnt that he forgot, he was simply waiting for the change in phrase! is it morning, is it afternoon?