Nebaj

So moving on from Xela Molly and I spend the better part of a week in Nebaj. Nebaj is a small city in the tallest mountain range in Guatemala and an excellent place to do some hikes. It is also the part of the country that experienced some of the worst violence in the civil war. We did a day trip and then a two day hike. The two day hike was amazing, we seemed to pass through several micrp climates as the mountains changed from dusty to pines to tropical to bamboo forests and on and on. We were guided by Nicholas a quiet man who enjoys sleeping quite a bit. We also stopped for some amazing bread from a brick oven that would put camp tavor to shame. We also spent the night in the guest house of a really creepy family who threw a bean at Molly and stared at us way too much, but we still managed to have an amazing time.

In Nebaj we enjoyed the fantastic licuados, fruit drinks, at the local tourist cafe and got some amazing textiles. We also met the woman who is on the first page of the rough guide, she also says she did not know she was going to be in the book, she also sold us some awesome stuff. 

We also tried boxboles (pronounced boshboweles) a specialty of the Ixil region, the samll area including nebaj where the Izil is spoken. Bozboles are leaves of wiskil or i think achote is mexico, a starch gourd, wrapped around tamale filling and topped with peanut sauce and hot sauce. they were ok, the leaves have a hint of artichoke taste, and the sauce is nice. I think the at home version might be a bit better than our plate was. 

From Nebaj we stopped in the tourist market town of Chichicastenango for a night before making our way to Antigua for its famed Semana Santa celebration.