Pre-Party

Tomorrow we celebrate Fernando's 3rd birthday. Birthdays are always a big event here...a special lunch with family and close friends then a church service at the house followed by a piñata as pay-off for the kids for sitting through a church service. 

Cata and Oscar, Fernando's parents are never ones to skimp on a party. They bought three turkeys. This afternoon the whole family was there to help kill and prepare tomorrow's lunch.

They even built a temporary shelter to house the temporary outdoor kitchen.

The birthday boy himself with his mom, Cata.

Once the turkeys had bled they were put in the giant pot of boiling water for just a minute to soften the skin for de-feathering. Once that turkey was out of the water it was a frenzy of hands and feathers.

After the feathers are removed just the feet are dipped in the boiling water. This helps the rough skin on the feet to just peel off. Yes, this is me just peeling off turkey feet skin. I'm gonna be honest here, I didn't think I could do it. What I did not do that every other woman there did do was snap the toe nails off the birds.

More feather plucking.

After all the birds had been par-boiled Isabel scoops water out of the giant pot so we can lift it off the fire.

Cata and Ana work hard to get all the feathers off the naked birds.

After all the feathers are gone the bird is passed over flame to singe any that we may have missed.

All the while the kids are running around causing trouble. Ela gave Elkin strawberries to keep him busy but we looked over in time just to see him smashing the berries through the mesh wire cage of his pet rabbit, Flash because Ela told Elkin to share.

(A side story: Here, when kids start to get whiney or cry parents always try to distract them by pointing something else out; "Look at the truck!", "Look at the cat!", "Look at your friend, she's not crying!" are examples. Today, I heard a new one; "Look at the turkey blood!")

Finally, Ela cut all three birds. Just in case you can't fully see, she is using a machete to butcher the turkey. 

Check back soon for photos of the birthday party. 

Creative Space

Hendrick's classes were cancelled today, which is not an uncommon occurrence here. Generally on days when his classes are cancelled Hendrick can be found planted in front of the T.V., sometimes making an appearance outside to kick the ball around for a minute. 

When I came back from my run mid-morning he was set up on the terrace, set up with desk, chair and supplies and looking much like a little artist in his work space.

I didn't think he'd be there long but sure enough, he spent all day there. I decided to pay him a visit with my camera in tow.

Generally making faces for the camera or hiding his face, he invited me to take as many photos as I liked and to stay as long as I liked while he worked away.

We chatted cordially a while as he discussed the 'beautiful view from his terrace' and the projects he'd been working on.

He showed me a painting he completed this morning. 

As I prepared to leave he welcomed me back any time, for as long as I'd like and went right back to his work. 

Tires, Tires...

The work continues with this project of growing potatoes in tires and continues to provide me with wonderful photographic opportunities. 

Team work: Mixing dirt with ash and mulch to make soil to fill in the second tires of each stack.

A sweet little guy, rapidly becoming my new favorite, although I haven't learned his name yet. He doesn't speak Spanish and I don't speak K'iche. Ela translated for him today; he asked me, "When we are going to plant more potatoes?" When little Elkin was mindlessly ripping at the potato leaves, this little one ran to me, tugging at my pants, pointing to alert me.

Yup, everything looks good here.

Filling the edges on the tires first.

It's always a scene....

Don Juan happily waters his newly planted garden at dusk.

A view of Chirijox. In the middle is visible the dirt central plaza and the church with the rusted roof to the right. I live just behind and below the big yellow building on the left edge of the plaza. 

Just Another Day...

I am pleased that at this point in my community I can whip out a camera in confidence. The women I work with all know me by know and know that my camera is never far. People around town have seen me enough to know that I can be trusted to take their portrait from time to time. Today as I left my house I put my camera in my bag and set to snapping. Here then, is the chronological, photographic story of my day today.

Tires. Potatoes. I never would have guessed that this project would take off the way it has. I had a hard time keeping the women interested in nearly any of my ideas before this one. What started originally as around 30 active families has now exploded to around 70. As such, Ela and I are scrambling to keep up with these fast-growing papas. All the families have their first tire planted, now we are on to placing and filling the second. Here, Dominga piles dirt into the tire while her daughter, Emma, holds the plants back. 

Before.

After.

Doña Francisca has been a consistent and active part of the group from the beginning. She is a tiny old woman who doesn't speak a word of Spanish. We had to loosen soil from packed ground and carry it about 10 feet to the tire. She took tiny little swipes at the soil while I shuttled the small buckets. I asked her if I could help her, if we could switch, and she would have none of it. This is not because she is a prideful woman, I believe, but because of her desire to do things herself, to show that she is not taking advantage of my support and that she is serious about the project.

In the end we filled both the second and third tires. Afterward, doña Francisca sat me in a dim room with overly sugared coffee and moldy bread. She sat with me, her wrinkled face turned toward the light. She had a one-sided conversation with me in K'iche while I smiled and agreed.

The dry season is construction season. Most of the houses in Chirijox are made from adobe and from November to May one can find at least one work site that looks like this at all times. These men mix straw and water with the ground beneath their feet to form large blocks that dry after a few days in the hot sun.

This man was particularly nice and offered to help Isabel fill her nearby tire.

Last time I saw Santa she was big and round under her traditional skirt. This time I was introduced to Melvyn Martin, now some 40 days old. Here, when a child is born, instead of clothes and toys (I suppose there are enough of those laying around from previous kids and neighbors) household items like soap, sugar and eggs are given to the family. I brought Santa a half dozen.

I finished my tour of tires with Ana after nearly 6 hours of visiting women. Ana is one of my favorites. She lives nearby and is active in the group, has an adorable little daughter and has a wonderful sense of humor and demeanor.

Once home I updated Ela on our progress. We needed at least 40 more tires to have each women complete their stack to a height of three tires. As we debated the best way to get more tires (as we have depleted Chirijox) I mentioned that I had seen some in the next town over. Ela suggested we go right then to look for them. Tired, sunburnt and hungry I agreed. Hendrick joined us on our journey and provided entertainment in the truck ride there. We didn't find any tires. 

Flores, El Mirador and Easter in Antigua

Get ready, this will be a long one, but it will cover ten days of travels, adventures and holidays. 

On Friday Nic and I traveled into Guatemala City to catch our bus across the country to Flores. Upon arrival we found that the company did not have our reservations (after making them two weeks in advance and confirming them two days earlier. This is so typical of Guatemala) and all the buses to Flores that night were full. The woman at the desk was nice enough to call another company who did have space, however. We boarded that bus at 11 p.m. and after traveling through the night, ran out of gas at 5:30 a.m. Mind you, this is a professional bussing company, similar to Alamo. Fortunately for us we were in a city and were able to get gas and be back on the road in about a half hour's time. 

Flores is a charming little town located on a small island (it takes about 20 minutes to walk across) in the middle of Lake Peten Itza.

It doesn't feel as much like Guatemala as a mix of Caribbean and Colonial design. 

Lots of bright colors.

The weekend we were there was Palm Sunday and the start of Semana Santa, Holy Week, a huge event in Central America.

Sunset over the lake.

Leaving Flores on Sunday we traveled three hours on a dirt road North to the town of Carmelita. This is the kick off point to hike El Mirador. Even though two out of those three hours we were on a "protected" bio-reserve, we saw extensive logging along with slashing and burning to make room for cattle grazing.

Carmelita is exactly what one might think of when one thinks of a jungle village.

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We set off hiking on Monday morning and after covering 6 miles arrived at Tintal, one of the many ruins in the area. The camp is well established as it's a working archeological area.

Carlos, our trusty guide who is from Carmelita and has worked in/around El Mirador for more than 20 years. He even claims to have discovered another set of ruins called Nakbe that were another day's walk from El Mirador.

From left: Jim, Sara, Nic, Alana, Charlotte, Anne and Emily.

We hiked to the larger pyramid at Tintal for sunset.

The lump is the other pyramid at this site. The view was incredible...a blanket of green in all directions as far as one can see. Carlos pointed out small bumps barely visible on the horizon; one was El Mirador and the others were more pyramids in Mexico. They looked so far away.

The next morning we rose early to beat the heat. After 9 miles we arrived at the ancient city of El Mirador. As soon as we entered the site, it was as if there were treasures to be found down every path. This is a "mascaron", a big mask, about the same height as me, in front of a smaller temple. The designs to the right have been restored, but the original red paint is still visible through the light plaster.

Atop another pyramid for susnet. El Tigre is the second largest pyramid at El Mirador. The Pyramids were named for their size in correlation to the size of jungle animals; the largest is "la danta", the tapir, then "el tigre" and lastly "los monos", the monkeys.

La Danta.

Sunset.

Another "mascaron" at another building. There are some 24 mascarons at El Mirador.

This was my favorite part of the whole park. A large relief depicting the Mayan creation myth.

A smiling face.

A mythical creature.

The creation myth involves a set of twins who had to travel to the underworld and who eventually are placed in heaven as the moon and sun. This is one of the twins.

Amazing trees everywhere.

A beautiful moss.

Designer roots.

I just couldn't see a vine and not swing on it. 

The info plaque at the base of the La Danta Complex. The base of this complex is the size of 17 football fields.

The top of La Danta, some 72 meters (nearly 250 feet). La Danta is not only the tallest pyramid the Maya ever constructed, it is estimated to have more mass the largest pyramid in Egypt, technically making it the largest in the world. It was constructed in 300 b.c. 

A side temple.

Our guide informed us that the stones were cut using obsidian, but the nearest volcanoes are on the other side of the country.

The steep steps up and the side temple.

And the sprawling view from the top. The bump is the pyramid "El Tigre". Just in front of El Tigre there is a small pink flowering tree. This tree's bark is boiled into a tea and used to treat malaria.

Impressive.

Along with lots of ruins we also encountered lots of wildlife. Monkey were abundant. In the day we saw spider monkeys. They would crash through the trees all around us, drop sticks or unripened fruit on us from above. The best is when they brace themselves between two branches and shake vigorously in an unsuccessful attempt to intimidate us. One morning Nic barely escaped being urinated on by one. At night, however the howler monkeys ruled the jungle. Their cries are incredible; laying in my tent in the warm night listening to their calls made me feel like I could have been camping in Jurassic Park listening to dinosaur calls. One night they were very near our camp and the volume of the calls drowned all other sounds. It was one of my favorite experiences on the trip.

Along with monkeys the park is home to these amazingly painted jungle turkeys. Also on the trail we saw a few jungle fox, a jungle squirrel and Anne nearly stepped on the most poisoness snake in the jungle, "barba amarilla", yellow beard.

Walking up the smallest of the major temples, "Los Monos" for our last sunset in the park. This is what all the temples looked like, completely unexcavated.

Sunset and La Danta.

"La Muerta", The Dead Woman, are the last ruins as you leave the park.

Yes, one can crawl inside. And yes, I did.

After entering the first chamber, hook a left through this crawl space into a larger chamber that was tall and narrow and home to a few jungle bats. We all made it out of the jungle without a hang up and even without too many bug bites. 

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After a rightly deserved shower and dinner we watched processions pass through the streets on Flores. It was now Good Friday and the processions were solemn. The photo is blurry, but the men who lead the procession swinging incense wear black robes with skulls on the dunce hats. I asked a local what the skull represented but he didn't know.

Mother Mary is at the feet of Jesus after they have taken him down from the cross.

The people are silent and the music is gloomy and dramatic.

Another beautiful sunset over lake Peten Itza. Our bus back to Guatemala City left at 4 a.m. on Saturday. I had stated to feel stomach pain ever so slightly on Thursday afternoon but by Saturday, I was full-on sick. Thanks to Nic I had a window seat (and the window even opened!) which helped, but I knew it would be a difficult ride. By 8 I was pleading for Pepto or Imodium for survival. My stomach went in and out of cramping on the 10 hours as we crossed the country through the heat of the day. It seemed the bus driver stopped to pick up every person by the side of the road, even though it was a charter bus and even when we thought no one else would fit in the aisles. I had to stick my head out the window when the ladies came on selling fried chicken because the smell nauseated me so severely. The Imodium held for just the right amount of time. I can honestly say it was the worse bus ride of my life. But once in Antigua and in our hotel room I was able to relax and keep near a bathroom.

Easter Sunday morning was quiet. Nic and I got up and dressed, preparing for mass. When we walked around town the churches were still shut. We heard from folks who were in Antigua last year that Easter is actually the most quite day of Semana Santa. We carried on and had a nice breakfast with friends. Later that afternoon, however, the processions started. Except these ones were different. In front were men, women and children dressed as Hebrews, singing and dancing, playing tambourines, flutes and horns, laughing. Everyone walking with the procession waved yellow and white flags, said to represent the glory of Christ's resurrection.

Here Jesus is alive and blessing a priest.

The music was happy, almost carnival like. And, keeping with the carnival theme, vendors selling cheap toys bring up the rear of the procession.