Sharing the Dream

12 July 2006

Last weekend I went with Angelica, Daniel and Cap (another guy from their class) to Tikal. It took a lot of traveling but we made it. Friday, I met them in Panajachel, then we caught a shuttle to Guatemala City where we spent the night. The next day we took a plane to Flores, then a shuttle to Tikal. We signed up for the Spanish tour and I’m really glad we did, even if I didn’t understand everything. The English tour had about 30 people, over twice our group. The ruins, of course, were fascinating. It’s amazing to walk up the stairs and look out over the jungle while listening to howler monkeys off in the distance. There are still some unexcavated temples that they know of and it just makes me wonder how big the city really was. If you think about it, the temples are only for the very elite. How many lower class people must there have been?

Daniel, Angelica, Me, Cap at Tikal

We had lunch back at our hotel and that took a while because the waiters thought we were part of a group of annoying American high school kids. Granted, the others were lacking sleep because they’ve been working on their projects for class, but we all decided that big groups of Americans are annoying. Of course, we’re different. We’re no longer tourists so we’re okay. After lunch, I went for a walk and stalked a wild turkey and saw a tarantula. I got within a foot of it and I have pictures to prove it. Then we took a dip in the pool, ate and played dominos into the night. Eventually we played by flashlight because they turned off the electricity at 10:20.

Next day, we got up and went to the park early around 7:30 and stayed until 12:30 just wandering around and taking pictures. It was really cool to see it with few tourists about. It was extremely hot though…think Houston-in-August-hot-and-humid. Then shuttle back to Flores at 2, plane to Guatemala City where Angelica and I left Daniel and Cap, shuttle back to Panajachel for the night. We found a pizzeria where they had good pizza and even better chocolate shakes. At 8 the next morning, I took a lancha back to Santiago, promptly dropped my stuff off at the house and found my way to school all by myself. I’ve still been meeting Armando and Rosinda in the mornings but it’s not too hard, you simply have to ask if there’s a pickup going to Chacaya.

the Grand Jaguar, one of the main temples in Tikal

It was a lot of traveling in just a few days but the rest of this week is pretty uneventful until Saturday when I head back to Antigua. We finished up the painting at the school and it looks great. It really brightens it up. This afternoon, I borrowed a corte from Chonita and a huipil from Lolita and put on traditional traje. It’s pretty interesting. The faja (belt) is pulled really tight and is right at the natural waist. The huipil is pretty heavy because of all the fabric and thread that goes into it and the corte is pretty hot because it’s a double layer of fabric wrapped around the body a couple times.

I was told my journals are too long so I’ll cut it off here (not much more to say anyway).

Theresa

go to July 16