Guatemala - Our Final Country: Todos Santos and Xela

30/10/09-08/11/09

With not much time to go before the Day of the Dead celebrations on the 1st November, we set off from Honduras hoping to be able to reach the small village of Todos Santos, located in the western highlands of Guatemala. We had a long journey ahead of us and we reluctantly made a stop-over in the capital, Guatemala City. I say reluctantly because, similar to Managua in Nicaragua, Guatemala City is renowned for its high levels of crime and violence. The one night we spent there didn't end up being too bad though....the hotel was nice and when we did venture outside to find a cash point and go for dinner, although we didn't feel 100% comfortable walking around, it was whole lot better than the Nicaraguan capital. Early the next morning we took a bus to Huehuetenango (more commonly referred to as Huehue, pronounced wayway), from where we had to take just one more bus (along a narrow, steep and winding mountain road) in order to reach Todos Santos. This small Mayan village is 100% indigenous and the locals still wear traditional dress and speak their own Mayan language, Mam, although the majority can also speak Spanish. The mens' clothes (as modelled by the cute little boy in the photo above) are the most striking: striped trousers of red and white, white shirts with blue stripes complete with beautifully embroidered collars and cuffs and a straw hat with a blue band. The women also wear a traditional top and long skirt, mainly blue in colour, but they do not stand out quite as much as the men do, which makes a nice change, as usually the men of Mayan communities do not tend to dress in the traditional way. One thing I noticed about the women here, however, was that in spite of the rain, and hence muddy roads, an overwhelming number of them were wearing really pretty and dainty shoes or sandals with stiletto heels....not at all suitable footwear for that kind of weather if you ask me :) From village to village, the designs of the womens' outfits appear to remain fairly standard, but the colours vary widely from dark blues, through greens to pinks and even reds, giving each Mayan community its own unique feel and identity and making Guatemala itself one of the most colourful countries I´ve ever seen.

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Albeit a very colourful village, Todos Santos, at an altitude of over 3,000m, is a lot cooler than most of the places we have thus far been to, and was absolutely freezing while we were there. The sudden drop in temperature came as a huge shock to the system having been living in a pretty much constant heatwave for the past five months. It also rained constantly during the two days we spent there, so we were cold and wet and the roads were muddy and slippery. Still we layered on the clothes and went to watch the Day of the Dead celebrations, the biggest attraction of all being the horse race at one end of the town. Hundreds of people, both locals and tourists gathered along the sides of the sandy track and on the rooves of the surrounding houses to watch the spectacle. There must have been about 15 riders in total, and the idea is to race backwards and forwards from one point to another, with brief pauses in between. In earlier times the participants used to drink a swig/shot of alcohol in between each lap, and the winner would be the rider who managed to stay on his horse for the longest amount of time. According to a few locals we spoke to, it is no longer compulsory to drink, although I think a fair few of them still do, as the riders didn't look in great shape, and we witnessed a couple of falls and saw one apparently unconscious man being carried off the race track and another being led away with blood running down his face. The story behind the tradition is that during the Spanish conquest, the local people so admired the Spanish conquistadors riding on horse back, looking noble and majestic in their fine clothes and hats that they wanted to imitate them, and so was born this ancient custom. Obviously, the riders all wear their traditional Mayan dress but they add a few feathers to their hats for that extra bit of glamour during the race :) It goes on for the entire day (from about 8am until 4pm) or I suppose until there is just one rider left. The drinking and partying seems to go on for a good few days before and after the 1st November, and the main square has a small funfair and numerous food stalls, creating a chaotic yet exciting atmosphere. I thinkI would have enjoyed the experience a lot more if the weather had been better, as the rain, the cold and the mud made it much more inviting to simply stay indoors, but we were glad to have seen such a unique celebration. The food was also not that great here and so we were quite happy to get away after a couple of nights there for some proper food. Actually, the first day we spent in the next town of Quetzaltenango, I had to spend in bed because I had an upset stomach from something I had eaten in Todos Santos. It wasn't pleasant, but I suppose I should be grateful that it has not happened more often. We have both been really lucky in that respect.

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Quetzaltenango or Xela as it is more commonly known (in Maya) is one of Guatemala's largest cities and home to several ex-pats who have fallen under its spell. It is one of many places in Guatemala with a name ending -tenango, which means 'place of' and so, logically, Quetzaltenango means 'place of the Quetzal' (Quetzal being the national bird of Guatemala, the sacred bird of the Mayas and the name of the Guatemalan currency). I still haven't spotted a quetzal yet, but they certainly didn't appear to be any more present here, in spite of the city's name :) We spent a good few days in Xela, not really doing very much, but simply enjoying the relaxed city atmosphere and, of course, the great food in the numerous restaurants and cafes. We quickly found a favourite place to eat in a cosy Italian restaurant, with wine bottles, maps of Italy and posters of Italian towns covering the walls. The pizzas were fantastic, and just what I needed after feeling poorly. We spent lazy afternoons wandering the cobbled streets, taking in the few sights and trying to figure out where to go next. We were seeing daily reports in the papers of public buses being held up by robbers, and some people had even been killed, so we were not keen to take any buses, as you can imagine. I suppose if we hadn't read the papers we wouldn't have known any better - ignorance is bliss and all that - but knowing that it was happening, we decided to stick to private shuttles for the rest of the trip just to be on the safe side. There goes the budget out of the window :) From Xela we headed south east to the small town of Panajachel on the edge of Lake Atitlan. The scenery is incredible here and I hope my photos will do it justice. More about Atitlan in my next post.