Livingston

 

 Leaving Honduras we amazingle made it all the way to Livingston in Guatemala in one day. Livingston is one of only two towns on Guatemala small Caribean coast. It is only reachable by boat, which is awesome, and is home to the only black commuity, the Garifuina, in the country.  It is not paradise but the scruffy town full of people willing to sell you most anything has a certain charm. Also, I drank out of a cocanut there. I also fell in love with the local Garifuina specialty tepado:

 

Tepado is a soup with a soup with a whole grilled fish, shrimp, and maybe crab and maybe conch, and definetly sweet and savory plantains in a cocanut milk broth. It´s excersise to finish a gigantic bowl and is more beautiful than the white sand beaches Livingston does not have.

Leaving livingston we took a jungle cruise down the rio dulce where we saw tons of birds and generally had a good time.

On to Tikal...

Copan and the Bay Islands

Ok this is the final post in my lightning real catch up round.

Following Antigua we crossed the border into Honnduras. We were waiting to meet our friend, Kiyomi from Xela who is joining us on part of our trip. It turns out the town of Copan Ruianas is not the best place to wait as we were with out power for a day and a half and the market was rather pathetic and the laundry more exspensive than NYC drop off service. However we stayed at a very clean hostel and when we finally got going we had a great time at the ruins.

The ruins at Copan are home to the best preserved examples of carving from the Maya classic period, Most engravings at the site were from 700c.e. to 800c.e.

On from Copan we spent a night in la Ceiba, a town on the northern coast of Honduras, which we barely saw before getting on a boat to Utila in the Bay Islands off the coast. Only reachable by boat or plane the Bay Islands are three Islands amid the second largest barrier reef in the world. Despite planning on only snorkling we immediatly became tempted by the ubiquitous diving oppurtunities on the island. Enchanted by the opputunity I was ready to sign up when I discovered following a questioaire and quick trip to Dr. John the half shirted doctor that I am not fit for diving due to possible excercise induced asthma. So that sucked a lot but I have had a lovely time snorkling and exploring this strange place where caribbean english is the prevelent language, As you can see it is not the worst place to be stuck with little to do.

Tomorrow we move on, returning to Guatemala and soon I will treat you to salavating descriptions of Tikal the grandest mayan ruins, and some other places. Only little more than two weeks left but there is still plenty more I am excited to see.

Also as I am reminded of the brevity of my time here, I just want everyone to know I am read and able for any spring-summer employment. ANY...

Semana Santa in Antigua

Semana Santa, Holy Week, is the week of easter, starting on Palma Sunday and ending on Easter. In Guatemala the main event is Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified. The main events of the week our large processions. Diffrent Chuches in and around Antigua organize the processions where hundreds of men and woman carry floats depicting Jesus and Mary. The processions last 8 to ten hours and people switch off carring the floats which weigh several tons. On firday morning, like 2am to 4am roman soliders parade the town and the first procession starts at 4am. For the goof friday processions and after people make elaborate carpets of colored saw dust, pines, flowers, and sometimes household objects which are promptly destroyed by the procession. Holy Week is a major tourist event for Antigua, a tourist city, and by friday the streets were packed. It was quite fun and something special to see, but I have to admit after the 4th procession I was ready for something new.

More spectacular is the fact that I ran into my supervising attorney from my days as a paralegal just a few doors down from my hostel. 

Many travellers I have met have a low opinion of Antigua because it is very touristy and its colonial facades lack the scruffy authenticness of some other towns. I can not share their sentiment. It may be a little bit make belive but it is a very relaxing place to pass a couple of days. And as inauthentic as some aspects of the city may be other places share and celebrate the feelings and culture that make Guatemala a wonderful place to visit. The market in Antigua is my favorite. The prices are anything but touristy, and it is massive for the size of the city.

Ok, On to Honduras...

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.

More on Xela

I must start this post with a discussion of the most important instituition in Xela, XelaPan. Xela Pan is a chain bakery that sells super awesome baked goods at top rate prices. The preferred bakery of the spanish school set is the bake shop, a menonite owned place open only twice a week, but fyi the bake shop sucks and xelapan is super awesome.  we had many great things usualy involving bread or pastery stuffed with pudding, and the tres leches cake is quite good, but the all time best xelapan is pictured above. the bottem is kind of like a cookie but kind of like pie crust, the top is simple milk chocalye and the filling is real whip cream and a touch of pudding. it is intensly good.

The next thing we must discuss is bajo de la luna,

our favorite bar in xela, we went every week. It is  a wine and cheese bar with awesome ambiance, it it dark and kind of like being in a wine cellar, and while I am far from an expert we quite enjoyed the wine. The place is run by the two of the sons of the owners of  a cafe above the bar, la luna, which specializes in hot choclate made from the family factory. The brothers love to have a good time and introduced me to an great new drink. I am not sure of the name but it is beer with a twist of lime topped off with clamato served in a salted glass. The brothers also pointed us towards the best cevicheria in Xela, inbetween a park dedicated to the UN and a park with a japanese motiff. The ceviche came in a thich limey sauce and it was seriously good. Ceviche is seafood cured with lime juice and is not cooked with heat. It is super tasty.

I ate that pig, and it was awesome. The closest thing to a taco I have had, and way better than the common tres por diez tacos.

Molly and I are now also super fanaticos por los super chivos. We are super fans of the Xela Super Goats. We took in a couple games. Aparently futbol can end in a tie, lame. However the real super fanaticos are awesome and bring ample fire works. Based on the referring I think other teams must have a lot more money for the officials who probably actually needed their escort of riot police.

We took in some other sights in Xela and made some good friends at my spanish school. other activities included: building a stove in a village (or at least moving some bricks around before the guy from the village did in five minutes what we had done in an hour). Visiting the municiapal museum where you can see a six legged goat, picutres of several winners of Mrs. Indiginous Woman of the year, antique office equipment and a cell phone, and a picture of  the world record holder in doing a marathon while skipping. We also visited a hot spring, saw the movie valentines day, which i have to admit was fun, and collected some textitles at wonderful markets in nearby San Francisco and San Juan.

We really enjoyed out time in Xela and it is probably the nicest place to live of anywhere we have visited thus far, but we were definitly ready to kick it into high gear for the more travel intensive final third of the trip.

Let´s Play Catch UP

Turns out finding an internet cafe that is both fast enouph to upload pictures and has a port for Molly´s camera is a serious challange. But I have found a spot so now you can enjoy a nice lenghty post to distract you from the  doldrum that is your lives.

Oh and because of the camera cards, let´s do this in reverse chrological order. Last night we had a bit of a treat. Molly has been voulenteering the last few weeks here in Xela (ofically Quetzaltenengo) at a women´s weaving cooperative. They sell Guatemala´s famous textilles from all around the region at fair trade prices. Moly works with three woman in their office and store on a number of projects. More importantly last night we stayed past offcie hours for dinner. Marta made a wonderful stewed chicken dish featuring a salsa of cilantro, parsley, mini tomatillos (called miltomates here) and something else. Tasty or Que Rico (how rich).

I finished or eneded my Spanish classes a week ago and have taken on a new interest. Comida Tipica de Guatemala, Typical Guatemalan cooking. Molly and I bought a Cook Book which in addition to hundreds of recipes also features a thank you letter to the author from the Biltmore Hotel in Guatemala city. The letter was written more than twenty years before the book, like many things I see here, I don´t really understand. But with the help of my dictionary and a bit of common sense I did make some spactacular Huevos a la Ranchera pictured above. Fried eggs, topped with a simple salsa of tomatoes and red peppers and possibly cooked in lard. It´s not in the recipe but I thought chorizo would be a nice touch as well.

You may also notice the OJ, that´s fesh squuzed. It pains me to my core to admit this, but the oranges here are simply the best I have ever had.

Well the computer stopped cooperating but stay tuned next time for exciting tales of Xela featuring Super Goats, a pig, and chickens (And none of them are cooked!)

You want it you got: a note on los judios en Guatemala

There are a fair number of Israelis that tour Guatemala and we saw plenty in Antigua and espically  around the lake. I have not seen a ton of Israelis in Xela. Interestingly I have met a fair number of Dutch and Scandanavian travellers.

As far as Jewsish Guatemalans go I have not met many or any; however, they do exist. I know there is a synagouge in Guatemala City. I had dinner with Aaron Schulman and he has met a couple including an eccentricly dressed guy on a flight who was the whitest person he had ever met, and were of European decent.

My former host family told me there are several Jewish families in Xela and I get the impression the Jewish community here is very ladino (European decent) and muy rico (very rich)

More interstingly there are many Jewish symbols in Xela, notably the star of David which I have seen in a park, as well as a decoration on vehicles and in fencs. I also have seen menorahs as well as many businesses with jerusmalem in the name. I have heard two explanations of this. One, the star is used by Jewish owned businesses. The other explination is that these symbols are widely used by evangelical groups (Guatemala has the largest non-Catholic population in Central America.)

My favorite example of this motif is Restaurante Shalom where Gringas ( quesedillas) are 3 x 20 quetzales.