Exploring Mayan Culture
- jill
- Jun 28, 2021
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 4, 2021
June 16, 2021
Had to get up REALLY early today--430am. Charlie left her ball outside my door last night (**tears**). I hope I get to spend some time with her tonight, since I am leaving too early tomorrow for me to see her.
Met Candy again outside, and like yesterday, rode in a van to a meeting point (where I saw women using the outdoor stone laundry area at the church where I am waiting), then got into ANOTHER van (here we go again...) that took me to Lake Atitlan, about 3 hours or so away. I'm already concerned that there will be no English speaking guide again. The van driver gets us (me and a couple) to the town of Panajachel right next to the lake. I have no idea where I am, and it is an hour before the tour starts.
He asks us if we want breakfast (which I understood would be included), and says, "well, you can eat here" and points to the restaurant we are stopped in front of--Valentino's. The couple didn't want to eat, so I had breakfast alone (that I had to pay for), just praying that I'm in the right place.
At 9, I walk outside and spot the couple on my tour talking to a woman...she is Elena, our tour guide. She is bi-lingual, but the couple only speaks Spanish, so she has to keep switching back and forth. We walk from there down to the water, and board our boat to take us across the lake to San Juan de Lagoon. there are 12 villages around the lake, all named after Biblical characters.
The villages are all built into the hills, so once you get off the boat, you have to walk up a BIG hill to get to the heart of each village. First stop here: Xocolatl, a chocolate store. They showed us how chocolate is made (I had my own person who spoke English and the couple had a Spanish speaker), and I got to use a heavy round rock to smoosh the cacao beans down to butter/powder. She tells me that women can't get married until they know how to do this. Guess I'm ready now. Elena took video of me doing it...but didn't send it to me. Of course, like most tours, the purpose is to sell stuff. I buy the cheapest thing they have--lip balm made from cacao.
We keep walking up the hill, and get to a textiles store, where we see how they harvest cotton, dye it with flowers/vegetables, and then weave it into clothing and other items. It was interesting, and I wound up buying some pants and a water bottle holder.
Finally, we reach a bee farm. I discover that most of the bees they work with don't have stingers. Some are also very small, and everywhere. Again, I get the English speaking guide, and the couple get the Spanish one. I also tried black honey and white honey...and also got the hard sell on all their products. This time I don't buy anything.
I learn that Elena is from Santa Cruz, another village we won't be seeing today. But I notice her outfit. It is beautifully colored, and features birds. She tells me it is representative of her village.
We head back down the hill to our boat, and over to our next village: Santa Pedro. All we did here was walk up a large hill and look at a church. I wish we had gone to Elena's village, or something more interesting.
Finally, we head to Santiago Atitlan and have some lunch. This is the first time I have any conversation with the couple on my tour. They speak about as much English as I speak Spanish, and I have some delicious chicken nachos. We are there for awhile, and as we start to leave, Elena tells me that she is passing me off for a bit to Nicolas, a tour guide with better English who will take me to see Maximon.
As we begin walking, he tells me about "synchronized" churches. When the Spanish arrived and started trying to convert the Mayans to Catholicism, because the Mayans believed in multigods, they were cool with one more. The Spanish started building churches, and the Mayans would sneak in things that followed their beliefs without letting on to the Spanish. The Mayan base is 20 (whereas Europe was 10) because their calendar had 20 months, each with 18 days...so you see a Catholic church at the top of two sets of stairs: one set of 20 and one set of 18. The Mayan cross is also very similar, but all four sides are equal length.
We stop at an art store to look at some of the things he is talking about. Three paintings: one of corn (their major crop) painted in four important colors. Then a scene from above (bird's eye view) and from below (insect's eye view). Interesting stuff.
Then we meet a woman with a famous Guatemalan hat (featured on the 25cent piece. It is a long ribbon (20 feet long) rolled into a hat. I bought a beaded hummingbird from her (I liked it better than the green quetzel she was also selling), and she held hers up and we "cheers'd" them and said "salud!"
Finally, after walking down a couple of very narrow alleyways, we reach the place where Maximon is currently being housed. He is hosted by a different family every year, beginning in May. When I asked Nicolas, he said the families are chosen based on their offering--their child becomes a doctor or some other important job and it is considered a gift from the gods--they are "chosen." They receive nothing for hosting, and must sit with Maximon and the shaman all day, every day, for a year.
You give an offering of liquor or cigarettes (which they have Maximon drink and smoke while you are there), then you give a monetary offering (20Q) and you can take all the pictures you want. You are supposed to at that point tell the shaman what your wish is, and he tells Maximon. I like a god that drinks and smokes.
We meet back up with Elena and the couple and Nicolas takes off. We head back to our boat and back toward Panajachel. In 1938, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of the beloved children’s book, The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince), crashed his plane in Guatemala. During his recuperation, he spent some time on Lake Atitlan. The legend goes that he saw the Cerro de Oro, “hill of gold,” and that inspired a drawing and scene in The Little Prince, published in 1943. The hill, sitting at the edge of the lake, does resemble an elephant with a boa constrictor trailing off at its head and tail as if the elephant is being consumed.
We have to wait a few minutes for our van, so I go back to Valentino's and have a beer while I wait. When the van arrives, we get on, but then the couple I've been touring with suddenly get off and when I ask, they tell me they are going back to Antigua in a different van. I get concerned. As we drive along, we start picking up other folks until it is full of Gen-Zers who aren't wearing masks and talk about stuff you'd expect them to. I try to nap a bit. I ask the driver to drop me off at Parque Central since I don't want to go alone back to the church where I started.
Luckily, I make it there, and immediately call for an Uber. I eat a snack and play with Charlie for the final time--not gonna lie, I started to cry. I thought I'd try and keep her with me overnight...but they started calling for her and she finally went back downstairs...but not before laying with me in bed for awhile and saying goodbye. I checked in for my flight tomorrow to Flores, and plan on taking it easy--just get there, find a COVID test, and do some laundry. I need to recoup after all this walking and climbing!
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