Adventures

Well, it’s Friday again. I have now been here for seven weeks (wow!) and am continuing to have fun and learn from so many experiences. While I have plenty more to tell you about this week, I’ll stick to covering last weekend’s adventures in this entry.

After taking a weekend off to rest, I was ready to get out of town again. After all – when else in my life will I have three day weekends and no responsibilities to hold me back? “A brief interlude of sensational experience,” indeed. My housemate Tamara and I both wanted to head north to Cobán and a couple places nearby, so we booked a 4am van for Friday. The driver took us to the city (meaning Guatemala City) to catch a 6am bus to Cobán. It was refreshing not to be surrounded by tourists for once, since we used more typical Guatemalan transport (buses, vans, and pickups). The bus ride was about five hours through the mountains and countryside. Tamara is from Colorado, and we both remarked how much it felt like being out west – winding roads along mountains, pine trees, little farms and fields on hillsides, and open space.

We arrived in Cobán a little before eleven and after getting pretty turned around (don’t trust the Lonely Planet guide’s map of Cobán) we found a travel agency, and made friends Victor, who walked us to the bus stop for Lanquín, a town to the northeast. We knew it would be an exciting ride when someone handed a (live) chicken in a plastic bag to the woman seated next to Tamara. It got even more exciting as we squeezed a whole lot of chavos (guys) into the van on the last leg of the journey. Upon arriving in Lanquín, we took a pickup to Semuc Champey, which is made up of a couple rustic hostels, houses and farms (corn, bananas, etc), and a national monument –

beautiful natural pools and waterfalls that enter underground caves. After getting a room at one of the hostels, we dumped our bags, put on bathing suits and hiking gear, and walked a bit to the park entrance. We took a pretty intense half-hour (I think it was supposed to be an hour) hike up to the Mirador (viewpoint) and saw the pools. We then proceeded to hike down, and since it was a hot day, we decided to take a dip in the pools. Amazing. How often do you get to relax in natural turquoise-colored water while enjoying the late afternoon sun? After a while we decided to head back and shower before dinner. Neither of us lasted much past nine that night.

On Saturday we again got up early for a 5:15am shuttle back to Cobán. The shuttle came at five and the electricity wasn’t on yet so we scramble to gather up our belongings and head out. About fifteen minutes into the trek back up the mountain (the roads to Lanquín and Semuc Champey were even more mountainous than the road from Guate to Cobán), our van broke down. We got to enjoy a few hours by the side of the road as a new van came. After an exhausting ride (they really pack people into those vans!!) we got back to Cobán by late morning, grabbed some tacos for lunch, and caught a van for Chisec – another town farther north. From Chisec, we took another van to the Cuevas de Candelaria. Tamara and I, already pretty exhausted from traveling, donned our bathing suits to go tubing through the underground caves with our guide Sebastian. The area is incredibly beautiful – it was easy to imagine this as the setting for an adventure movie, especially as we arrived at the mouth of the cave. Perhaps my favorite moment was floating by a rock outcropping in the caves, where light from outdoors shone in to penetrate the darkness. I almost expected to see some treasure displayed where the beam of sunlight hit the rock (think Isla de Muerta in Pirates of the Caribbean). After tubing, we toured the Cúpula de Murcielago (Dome of Bats) with Sebastian. By various means of transport (that either involved sharing space with a mountain of coconuts or of guatemaltecos) we made it back to Cobán by early evening, got a room at a hostel, grabbed some dinner (I opted for some wonderful tex-mex fajitas), and passed out early again.

Sunday we slept in until 6:45am (I know!) and headed out to see the Templo El Calvario and a couple other churches. The temple was fascinating: according to legend, an indigenous man saw two jaguars at the spot one day, but did not kill them. He went back again and saw a vision of Jesus in their place, so they built a church on the spot. It is at the top of a long staircase (120 steps or so). Since it was Sunday, the church was full of people. It struck me just how different the atmosphere was. Maya women in their cortas (skirts) and güipiles (shirts), lighting candles as offerings. One of the statues of Mary was on a carpet of pine needles and flowers (you will read more about such carpets during Semana Santa). The whole place smelled of wax and the dark, shadowy building had an air of, perhaps, holy mystery.

On the way back to the center of town, we got caught in a rainstorm (this is typical for Cobán) and ducked into another church. Tamara had a poncho but I waited out the rain a bit before enjoying a traditional breakfast (scrambled eggs, black beans, a little tomato sauce, served with corn tortillas and coffee). Probably sounds gross to many of you, but huevos y frijoles is one of my new favorite foods. Before heading out, I picked up a few “souvenirs”. Don’t worry, Smiths and Buchanans, I made sure to bargain. I’m getting better at it. It was a long ride back, mostly in the rain, before arriving back to sunny Antigua around 5pm. The whole city was crazy, because there are celebrations every Sunday during Cuaresma (Lent). Think: Fourth of July plus Homecoming parade (floats and all), only the floats are of the Holy Family and other saints and angels. I never thought Jesus and cotton candy would go together. Life is full of surprises.

Tomorrow I am headed to the ciudad (again) to my first Guatemalan archaeological site, Kaminaljuyu (fondly known as ‘KJ’ to the alumnos of Dr. Liebmann’s Mesoamerican Arch. class). It’s a Preclassic Maya site, but also flourished for a period that shows the influence of Teotihuacán (talud-tablero architecture!). I might head over to the anthropology museum as well. In a few days I’ll write about the beginning of Lenten celebrations, our trip to the city and Landivar University on Wednesday, as well as my adventures this weekend.