Quetzeltenango (''Xela''), Guatemala

Hola amigos!

Having been away from Australia for just under 3 months, after leaving the MM orphanage we needed to do a quick 'Visa-run' over the border into Guatamala so that we could then re-enter Mexico to continue our travels there for the next little while (Australians can spend a maximium of 3 months on the free tourist Visa in 'North America', which by definition for the purposes of the Visa-powers-that-be, incorporates Canada, the US and Mexico). 

Bienvenidos a Guatamala!

Looking back at Ciudad Cuauhtémoc, the border town on the Mexican side.  As you can see from the background (and like most of Guatamala), this area is quite mountainous and were were somewhat elevated.  As such, the temperature here was a lot colder than anywhere we had been so far on our trip.  No more shorts, singlets and thongs for a while!

Mujeres Indigena (Indigenous women) on the Guatamalan side of the border, wearing traditional dress of huipiles (''we-pil-es'', or tunics) and cortes (skirts).  The garments they wear are mostly all still hand-woven.  Each pueblo (village) has its own distinctive huipile.

The border crossing was scary-as!  We had no idea what was going on, just passports being handed back and forth between all the immigration officers...Made you feel really nervous, as if you were going to be interrogated at any second! Yet 10 metre away outside the immigration office were Mexicans / Guatamalans freely walking back and forth across the border (we assume illegally - see photos above, in which the boom gate in the background is level with the actual border - but the boom gate was always up allowing foot traffic across unregulated!).  Some of these people were clearly carrying all their worldly belongings, preparing for a long illegal stay.  Our friend said she even saw one family carrying a couch!

After the 'excitement' of the border, we had to change buses, which ferried us another few hours towards our  destination.  At a totally random spot called Cuatro Caminos (four-ways), about half an hour away from where we were going,  our bus suddenly stopped and we were told we now change into a taxi for the last half an hour!  Thank god we met some friendly Canadians who spoke excellent Spanish, so that we knew we weren't being 'taken for a ride' literally!  Ahhh, central America, good old lack of organisation and any kind of order, gotta love it!  We are pretty good at going with the flow by this stage of our trip!

Lots of action at the Cuatro Caminos with cargo, animals and people being loaded on and off the 'chicken buses' (that's actually what the Guatamalans call them), which is the public transport of choice here.  They are all ex-US School Buses that have had a paint job or two.  Not sure whether the name chicken bus originated because of people using them for the transport of poultry (we also saw sheep, dogs and goats on top of them), or whether its just cos you're sandwhiched-in like chickens.  Since both these functions are performed continuously every day, its probably for the two reasons we think!

Although we only needed to do an over-nighter in Guatamala to renew our north american tourist visas, we decided to spend a full week there, in a city called Quetzeltenango, or Xela (''Shell-a'').   Lonely Planet described Xela as the perfect town for tourists - not so overrun with gringos to prevent you from experiencing the 'real' Guatamala, but with just enough ex-pats to support a good cafe / restaurant and entertainment scene.   It is also becoming more and more well known as being a destination of choice for learning Spanish (again because there's not too many Americanos there and thus hardly anyone speaks English).  And not to be disappointed, we found Xela to be all this and more....

So as you will have worked out, while we were here, we took the opportunity to take some formal Spanish classes in the mornings, which really consoldiated what we've learnt so far.  The school we chose also offered homestays with a local family, which we opted to do.  So with the stumbling (on our part) conversation around the meal table, and the unavoidable 5 hours of practice a day at school (with both family and teacher who didn't speak English) this week obviously improved our understanding and also confidence with spoken Español!  Steve is even forming the odd full-Spanish sentence now (and without English words thrown in to boot)!  And Petrina has been dreaming and sleep talking in Spanish.  This all bodes well for our skills!

Above: Outside Juan Sisay escuela de español.  The late Juan Sisay is a famous Guatamalan artist.  Below, left and right: Petrina with 'su Maestro Luis' (her teacher Lewis) and Steve with Maestro Mario, respectively.  Petrina's Maestro Luis said Pet is 'muy inteligente' and 'una estudiante dinámica y activa' (she is very inteligent, dynamic and energetic Student).  Steve's teachers wished him luck with the waves back in Mexico....(-;

Our homestay family's place.  They were a lovely -  and very wealthy by Guatamalan standards - family.  They even had a maid!  Needless to say, we ate, slept and lived in 5-star luxury compared to our basic backpackers hostel accomodation thus far on our trip!

The view to the mountains from the upstairs window of our homestay family's house.

Petrina with Grandma Estrelita.  Two well-known curiosities about Guatamalans are that they are even shorter than Mexicans (so that's short! Exhibit A, above - despite bending down, I am still a good head taller!), and they add 'ita' or 'ito' to the end of the usual names of things to indicate relative smallness (hence the name Estrelita perhaps?).  Also peculiar to Guatamalans is that they speak noticably slower than Mexicans.  Perhaps this is a result of being located geographically further away shields them a little more from the influence of the US 'hurry lifestyle'?  Whatever the reason, it was a plus for learners of the language! 

 

Left to right: Our Grandma, Mama y Papa for the week (otherwise known as Estrelita, Lili and Jovani)!

While in Xela, Petrina took the opportunity to explore on her daily runs.  But at an elevation of over 2000 metres above sea-level (on par with Mt Kosciusko, Australia's highest mountain), it was a little colder and there was a little less oxygen then she was prepared for!  Although she thinks she started to acclimatise to the thin air on the last day, she couldn't hold out on the purchase of extra layers of exercise clothes.  Mind you, there were leggings-abound at the local mercado (which required some hard bartering!), so getting her hands on these wasn't a problem.  We did wonder whether the leggings were still left over from when they were in fashion in the early 90s though, as, like Mexico, the fashion here is definately stuck in the Brittany Spears era!

Petrina after returning from a morning run, with newly purchased cold-weather gear (still too cold to remove gloves and beenie during the run)!  It got down to zero degrees overnight.  Who thought running in this cold at this elevation was a good idea again???  Not too mention the cobblestone roads (nearly sprained my ankles a dozen times), street dogs, and the traffic that definately doesn't give pedestrians right of way!

But the fashion wasn't the only thing stuck in the past here in Xela.  Like Mexico, the place is still full of little family owned tiendas on every block (corner stores).  Nestled between internet cafes and restaurants with wi-fi are clothing repair shops with latino men sitting behind old-fashioned Singer sewing machines, feverishly repairing clothes that westerners would count as past their use-by in a heartbeat.  Indigenous women still get around in traditional ropa (clothing), carrying produce and their wares se vende (for your purchase) in huge baskets on their heads around the streets, door to door (see photos immediately below).  On our bus into Xela, Indigenous families herded tethered sheep along the road, and donkeys stood, tied to fences, chewing cud.  This holding-fast to tradition, juxtiposed with all the modern comforts of modern life, made Xela a really interesting place to visit.

Top, left and right: Indigenous women on the streets of Xela.  Above, centre: At Xela's central park you can have you shoes shined while youu eat an healda  (icecream) from one of the many mobile vendors

Why, a bridge for pedestrians.............what a good idea! They have crossings that the cars dont stop for, people walk down the middle of the street as there are no footpaths in some areas, but for some reason many years ago someone thought a foot bridge would be gold in this one street.  Maybe it was a made as practice for trade-school apprentices back in the 1800s?...

The beautiful gothic / european-style buildings in Xela's central plaza (see photos immediately below also)

Every city centre we've been to so far in Mexico and Guatemala has a co-located church and a plaza / park.  Always lovely.

Petrina outside the municipal theatre

And again, with Steve this time

Coke has been embroiled in a number of legal battles with Indigenous communities in central america over disputes over water and wells.  Despite having a discrete wet-season every year, the large populations of Mexico and Guatamala mean they are, relatively speaking, water-challenged countries.

Out and about on the streets of Xela.  While it was achieved more through disrepair than conscious effort, once agin, we loved the old-school vibe of the place,

Cacahuates (peanuts), left, or Dulces (sweets, centre and right) for 1 Quetzale (the Guatamalan currency).  Guatamala - perhaps because it is so undeveloped and bitterly poor in comparison - was a lot cheaper to get around and live in than Mexico has been.

On our way back into Mexico, we came across this budget version of roadwork traffic control (see photo below), Guatamalan style.  You just throw a couple of rocks on the road to block one lane, then get a few of your amigos to wave a bit of material (or heck, an orange plastic bolsa will do for that matter) around attached to a stick, and Bob's your uncle, you're ready to do some roadwork!  Well apparently anyway... (see below)

Hambre numero uno (guy number 1, left) waves a pink scarf, while numero quatro, far right, does his thang with an orange bolsa on a stick.  Tidy work, boys (-;  But hey, we stopped, and didn't get hit by oncoming traffic, so who's to judge...

All jokes aside, although we would never previously have considered Guatamala as a travel destination, we were really impressed by it.  Its affordability, beauty and uniqueness are going to be pretty hard to top.  So pressure's on, Mexico...  In the next blogs we'll cover our upcoming time in San Cristobal and the Yucatan peninsular, including some of big the Mayan ruins which are amoungst the 7 wonders of the world.

Chao for now!

Petrina & Steve.