Kate and I woke up feeling great the next day...it´s amazing what a little sleep will do for you. The ´groupo´ was eating breakfast together, but we elected to walk into town through the corn fields along the lake. We stopped for some caffeine and bread at a little 'tienda'. My Spanish is actually getting better, and I wasn´t laughed at which was nice. We met up with everyone for a tour of Santiago around 10am... which means 1030 or 1100 ...remember, we´re traveling twenty-five deep at this point and moving from one place to another without losing anyone is like 'herding cats'. Most everyone here is of Mayan decent, including the town elders who gave us the tour. 'Mayan decent' means that anyone in our group is at least a head taller, which helps a lot when trying to find your wife in a crowd.
We walked through the town, visited the peace park just outside of town (created to remember the people who were killed protesting the military occupation of this area in the early 90's) and also toured the backside of the volcano which nearly wiped Santiago off the map a few years back. Quick history lesson: Santiago is a very poor area populated almost entirely of Mayan people who live directly off the land. Throughout the late 70's, 80's and early 90's civil war took its toll on the people and land. None of the locals participated in the war, but the government and guerrilla army's occupied much of the area and at best only 'took advantage' of the people, and at worst killed them without reprecussion. Depending on who you talk to, some estimate that as many at 3000 locals were murdered during the war. Because the elders giving the tour only speak the local Mayan dialect of 'Kakchiquel' it took numerous translations before us 'gringos' understood everything we were hearing. Fortunately, our ears are starting to adjust and with some limited help from our friends, the language barrier is slowly getting smaller.
In the mid-90's a peace accord was signed by the Guatemalan government and the guerrillas. Both armies left the area and the locals were finally allowed to govern themselves. However, in 2005, Hurricane Stan crushed the Yucatan Peninsula. It rained here for six straight days and eventually the volcanic mountain over Santiago became saturated and a huge mud slid occurred at 4am. Over three hundred people were buried. To make matters worse, when aid came to help try to rescue the buried and exhume the dead, they had to deal with landmines from the war that had washed down the mountain. You can see the mud line on the side of the hospital. The hospital was pretty far back from the town and people there were lucky... The hardest part about walking in the villages is seeing the kids impacted by the poverty. Everywhere you go, they ask you for "una quetzal", which is the local currency (about 0.12 USD). The kids are so sweet and always smiling... pretty much breaks your heart. I traded Anna y Juana a few quetzales for their picture. On the good side, it was nice to speak with someone under the age of 10 because they think my Spanish is fantastic! I´ve decided to try and only speak with children from now on... and with no child labor laws here, that means I can get about anything I damn well please!
After an emotionally taxing morning, Kate and I left the group and took a 'launcha' back to Panajachel. We bounced around a lot, but it was a bunch of fun. Traveling with the group is great and its nice to have a translator near by if you need one... but its also nice to spend some time with just Kate and attempt to blend in... plus, you´re not approached as often to buy crap you don´t need! Speaking of 'crap you don´t need', if anyone does want something from here, let us know. Otherwise, we´re not going to load down on stuff you don´t really need or want... except maybe extra Guatemalan coffee... which freaking rules, by the way. We grabbed beers and pizza (of all things) for a late lunch and met us with the group a few hours later.
We stopped to watch a local soccer match at the elementary school here in town. That evening, we met up with all of our friends and watched the USA v Canada Gold Cup soccer match. Obviously, I´m a huge US futbol fan... but I´m pretty sure the US didn´t deserve that game... and the locals rooting against the US would surely agree with me! We moved bars and found a place that had '2 for 1' drinks... now two for one on its own sounds great, but when you do the monetary conversion, you realize that you´re paying about 0.25 USD per drink... its like they´re giving them away... which also explained my headache the next day. We also went dancing that night at a local 'discoteque'... it was a riot. We´re traveling with a lot of girls, so as soon as we walked into the club, the local boys arrived in droves... like sharks to blood in the water. I will give them credit though, they´re really only looking to dance and hang out. There´s no groping or any of the other crap you´d have to put us with back home. I only felt obligated to 'save' a few friends over the course of the evening. Needless to say, there were 'muchas senioritas borachas' on the walk home, but it was a hell of a day.
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