San Juan La Laguna

Zac at the helm of a speedboat to San Pedro
where we catch a ride to San Juan La Laguna

I befriended a delightful family from Calgary, Canada who are also staying at Los Encuentros until the end of the month. Kurt works as an accountant and Zoë home-schools their two sons: Nolan (8) and Zac (6). The family decided to take six months off and travel to Central America to learn Spanish and different Latin-American cultures while still home-schooling their children. They spent a month in El Salvador, two months in Nicaragua, and are now in Guatemala, and in February they will move on to Roatan, Honduras. Zoë and Kurt love Guatemala and are seriously considering returning there in September 2009 with their sons to spend a year. They are currently checking out rental places before they depart for Honduras.

Zoë and Kurt graciously invited me to tag along with them on an excursion to San Juan La Laguna, another charming village on Lake Atitlán. It has a population of 8,000 inhabitants who are exclusively indigenous. Richard Morgan, our B & B host, knows well-known Mayan artists who are based there. One artist is Felipe Ujpan whose works have been exhibited in the U.S. He belongs to a group of indigenous artists who have been characterized “Primitivist” oil painters. On our behalf, Richard called Felipe and told him we were coming to San Juan and asked if he could meet us at the drop-off area and take us to his studio. Felipe was most happy to comply.

We took a boat to San Pedro and from there took a picop to San Juan for 3 Quetzales (less than 50 cents).

On our way from San Pedro to San Juan

I called Felipe on my cell phone and he came to greet us and accompany us to his studio that is near town center. We were enamored with Felipe’s exquisite work which focused primarily on Mayan traditions. Felipe also showed us a few paintings from a protégé of his, Diego Luis. I bought one of Felipe’s paintings for a modest 130 dollars (he told me he had spent an entire month on it) and the Canadian couple bought an impressive painting from his protégé for 70 dollars. We all left the studio elated and excited. We felt we were now “collectors” of artwork that we would never be able to afford in our countries.

Felipe Ujpan in the doorway to his studio in San Juan

Felipe holding the painting I bought

I fell in love with the village of San Juan La Laguna. Its streets are clean and obviously well-maintained by its proud citizens. There is very little traffic. Aside from an advertised beach called Las Cristalinas, San Juan is mostly ignored in tourism books. There are many impressive grassroots cooperatives. One of them is COOP LEMA, a weaver’s cooperative whose members consist of only women from the village. They dye their wool with local natural plant materials and sell them directly to visitors. One can visit the weavers as they demonstrate their century-old craft.

Women from the COOP LEMA demonstrating their art

The children in Guatemala are so charming and endearing. They come up to you and ask you if you want to take a picture of them. As we strolled through the narrow streets of San Juan, these children called out to us.

Best friends

More beautiful children of San Juan

San Juan La Laguna teems of art: Here is one of the many street murals painted by a local artist. These murals can viewed at every street corner.

Boat Tour of Lake Atitlán

On Friday, January 9th, I wasn’t needed at the university, so I decided to take a tour of three villages on Lake Atitlán to get to know my environment better. There are thirteen villages around Lake Atitlán. Every village attests to the strength and diversity of Maya culture. The three villages on this particular boat tour were San Pedro La Laguna, Santiago Atitlán, and San Antonio Palopo. Santiago Atitlán and San Antonio Palopo are still intensely traditional. The indigenous inhabitants still wear beautiful trajes unique to their village.

San Pedro La Laguna, on the other hand, much like Panajachel, has been infiltrated by western bohemians. However, the indigenous people and the “stoners” appear to tolerate one another. One big attraction for westerners to flock to San Pedro La Laguna is the famous nearby volcano San Pedro which can be climbed by ambitious hikers in a day. The boat tour to the three villages costs only 90 Quetzales (around 11 dollars) and it lasts seven hours. It was a beautiful day, very sunny and in the low 80’s, typical weather for January. Here are some pictures taken in San Pedro La Laguna, our first stop.

San Pedro La Laguna: 98% of its 10,000 inhabitants are Tz'utujil

Girl selling fresh mango. The mango is crunchy
with a sprinkle of lime, salt, and hot spice.

Precious cargo- picops are a common means of public transportation

One of the many artesian shops in San Pedro

Cafe advertising Guatemalan coffee-producing areas

Una pedrana

Street hawker on tour boat

Santiago Atitlán is the largest of the communities around the lake with a population of over 32,000, 95% of which are indigenous Tz’utujils. Traditionally, it is fishing and farming town; it is also known for the manufacture of cayucos, wooden canoes. Directly from the dock, the main street leads visitors up to the main square where there is a vibrant, very lively market, both indoor and outdoor. Street hawkers swoop down on the gringos as they stroll by the weaving shops and art galleries.

Santiago Atitlán is also known for its brave stance against military forces in the 1980’s and later on in the 1990’s. Because of their refusal to adhere to military rule in the 1980’s, the government accused inhabitants of cooperating with ORPA guerrillas and began to terrorize them into submission. Consequently, 300 hundred villagers were murdered over an 11-year period and countless others arrested and tortured. There were other incidents in which the people of Santiago Atitlán courageously fought against violent, oppressive acts from police and military. In one incident, they refused to sell food to new police recruits or let them use public toilets for one month.

Here are some glimpes of Santiago Atitlán:

Santiago Atitlán

On Main Street in Santiago Atitlán

Friday Market

Man passing by

Una Atiteca

The famous cayucos of Santiago Atitlán

When you arrive at the port of Santiago Atitlán, young Atitecos will ask you if you want to go see Maximón. Maximón or San Simón is “a mischievous, evil saint, a powerful figure who can impregnate women, confront Christ, cure illnesses and bring all sorts of misfortune to his enemies. He is said to be combination of Judas Iscariot, the conquistador Pedro de Alvarado and various Maya deities” (Insight Guides to Guatemala, Belize, and the Yucatan 123). The pagan-Maya cult of Maximón is widespread through the highlands of Guatemala. One of his best known chapels is in Santiago Atitlán. The statue of Maximón actually moves from house to house except during Easter week (Semana Santa). Then he is placed on the steps leading up to a cross which stands in a square facing an imposing Catholic church. Since his whereabouts other times of the year are only known to the natives, we paid a young boy 10 quetzales ($1.25) to take us to his shrine to pay our respects. Maximón is my kind of deity. He is a total hedonist; he is a chain smoker and enjoys his aguardiente liquor. When we arrived to Maximón’s current domicile, we had to pay 2 quetzales to enter and another 10 to take photographs. While we were there, there was a villager with a glass of liquor in his hand, praying and chanting aloud very emotionally, as if in a trance, in front of Maximón. Maximón, decked out in a broad-rimmed hat and draped in scarves, sat between two men, smoking a cigarette. His keeper to the left would occasionally flick Maximón’s cigarette ash into an ashtray. Below is a photograph I took of this fascinating figure as well as the Catholic church which houses beautifully carved figures.

The Maximón Shrine in Santiago Atitlán

Catholic Church: The cross is where Maximón smokes during Easter.

Three worshipers coming out of the church

Beautifully carved wooden figures lined against the walls of the church

Close-up on another figure in the Catholic church in Santiago Atitlán

Lake Atitlán or Lago de Atitlán has been praised for centuries by travelers as a breathtaking natural wonder. Even Aldous Huxley called Atitlán the most beautiful lake in the world. According to his Beyond the Mexique Bay (1934), Huxley writes “…Atitlan is [Lake] Como [in Northern Italy] with the additional embellishments of several immense volcanoes. It is really too much a good thing.” The lake is about 12 miles long and 7 ½ miles wide but from an aerial view, it has an irregular shape due to the many bays and inlets. During the morning, the lake is generally calm but the xocomil (the north wind) picks up in the afternoon, making boat rides choppy. According to Mayan legend, the presence of the north wind indicates that the lake has discarded the body and claimed the soul of someone who has drowned. The health of the lake is constantly tested by recent population expansion (over 100,000 people live around the lake) as well as the sequential destruction of natural environment (such as the sea grass that acts as a natural cleanser). Here are some attempts to capture this lake's magnificence.

View of the lake from Santiago Atitlán

San Pedro, one of the three dormant volcanos

Toliman and Atitlán Volcanoes

Water reed called tul which detoxifies lake

It is the end of the boat tour and a perfect day.

University of Valle of Guatemala- Altiplano (Solola Campus)

Students arriving for their first day of class at the University of Valle of Guatemala

I was awarded the Fulbright scholarship to help train English teachers and generally lend support to the director of the developing English language program at the University of Valle of Guatemala at their Solala campus (http://www.altiplano.uvg.edu.gt/). When I arrived in Panajachel, I tried to get in touch with the director of the English department, Franziska Zenhaeusern, which whom I corresponded last fall. I soon learned that she had gone to the U.S. for Christmas vacation and would not be returning.

Karin Evertz, Interim Director, waiting to give me ride to the university

One of the teachers, Karin Evertz, an American who has lived all her life in Guatemala, agreed to serve as interim director (albeit no previous administrative experience), so Karin is undergoing a tremendous learning curve. During the week of orientation (January 5-8), Karin, the other two English teachers, and I underwent “virtual orientation activities” with Franziska through Skype. The third English teacher participated in the orientation through Skype from El Salvador where she was on vacation. A unique experience indeed! (By the way, I am a Skype convert. If you are abroad or you have a family member or friend abroad, you should download Skype as your means of communication. It’s completely free and very easy to maneuver).

My English-teaching colleagues: Helga from Germany and Josanne from Trinidad

The first day of class was January 12th which was mostly composed of campus orientation. In the morning, there was a general assembly where all of the professors assembled in front of the students and introduced themselves. I did so also. Speaking in my stumbling Spanish, I told them that I was happy to be there to teach them English for six months and that this was the first time I was in Guatemala.

UVG Professors introduce themselves to students during orientation.

Because of the unexpected shortage of teachers, I am currently teaching three classes until they hire a new teacher at the end of January. UVG-Antiplano’s English program mostly caters to high school students. My first class is an advanced level of Basicos aged 14; my second class is an advanced level of Segundo Bachillerato consisting of 16 year olds and my last class is the higher level of college bound students who are specializing in the tourism business.

On January 20th, the day of Obama’s inauguration, we took our students to the “aula virtual” to watch the ceremony. The middle school students had a hard time engaging with the program due to their limited English skills, but they applauded anyway at certain key moments.

Watching (or not watching) Obama's Inauguration

Lunch at the Universidad del Valle of Guatemala at their Antiplano campus is something to look forward to. It is always a warm meal and lunch includes a vegetable, meat or fish, and always mashed avocado and tortillas as well as a class of fresh pressed juice or chata. The head cook is an impressive woman. Her name is Doña Tina. She has a kind heart, no matter how besieged she and her crew are with lines of clamoring students and teachers begging for a meal before their very short lunch break is over. Lunch at the university is a deal! It only costs 13 Quetzales (less than two dollars).

Doña Tina, head cook at the UVG cafeteria
Chicken is today's almuerzo
Cafeteria women making fresh tortillas from scratch
Always smiling, head cashier and drink dispenser

Panajachel, my new home

View from the shore of Panajachel

Panajachel , or “Pana” as it is called by most of its inhabitants, is Kaquchikel for “place of the Matsanos.” The Matasona is a fruit tree native to Lake Atitlan, which is supposed to have healing powers for diarrhea, fever, burns, and even heart disease. The town has roughly 11,000 inhabitants. Panajachel is indeed a multicultural town. Matter-of-fact, it has been dubbed Gringotenango for the heavy tourist traffic and many restaurants and hotels run by Westerners. Indigenous, Ladinos (descendants of Spanish conquistadors), ex-pats who came here as early as the 1960’s, missionaries, and tourists who are mostly North American and European all live here and co-exist peacefully. In contrast to the many small towns around Lake Atitlan, Panajachel has a marked international flavor, but it is still in many ways a Maya community. It is not an architecturally aesthetic town, probably due to its rapid commercial development. But it is the launch pad for anyone eager to take a boat to the 13 indigenous villages located around the lake and it offers many modern conveniences in its hotels, such as hot water and internet.

I first stayed in a hotel called “El Chaparrel” located on Calle Santander, the main drag, for only 20 dollars a night with wireless internet access. I then thought I had found the place I could rent until the end of my stay June 17^th, but the packs of stray dogs that congregated in an open field to one side of the apartment and then commenced to give a midnight concert that lasted all night and the rooster that began crowing at 4:00 AM on the other side of apartment made my long-term rental impossible. I was out of there in two days, suffering from profound sleep deficit.

Calle Santander, the main drag in Pana. Notice the tuk-tuk in the middle of the road. These little moto-taxis are ubiquitous in Guatemala. They are actually produced in Thailand.
It only costs 5 Quetzales (75 cents) to take one to any location in town.

The main street in Panajachel.
They began digging it up with no end in sight which caused a street protest.

I moved into a bed and breakfast place called Los Encuentros which is run by renown author and Latin American researcher Richard Morgan Szybist. He has written three books, two of which are displayed in all bookstores in Guatemala: “The Lake Atitlan Reference Guide” and “Fables & Other Mayan Tales of Atitlan.” For more on Richard Morgan and his interesting work in Guatemala, please click on: http://www.adventurestudy.com/

Richard Morgan Szybist and I at Los Encuentros

Los Encuentros, my home for my first month in Panajachel

Here I will stay until I move into a house at the end of January. His bed and breakfast only consists of five rooms. However, he is in the process of building bigger accommodations. Los Encuentos is a delightful place to stay with an impressive herbal garden in its center. The biggest plus, however, is Richard who is happy to converse with his guests and tell them ANYTHING about Guatemala and his own extraordinary life adventures. Breakfast (Richard makes the best coffee in Pana) is included as well as a hot tub and sauna. The only setback is a dog that persistently barks close by the vicinity throughout the night. Dogs in Guatemala are a whole chapter in itself, which I will comment on in another entry.

German restaurant in Panajachel with German Consulate next to it

Panajachel boat landing

Enroute to Panajachel

Enroute to Panajachel, we stopped at Burger King to grab some “hamburguesas.” Helmuth apologetically asked if I didn’t mind grabbing lunch there. The alternative would be to dine in a local restaurant which could take a couple of hours and since we got a late start, we would save time through the drive-through at Burger King. Of course I didn’t object but I found it ironic that I would be eating at Burger King, a place I never go to in the States. Descending from the mountainous area down into Lake Attilan, we stopped at a scenic area. Here is a photograph of Panajachel from the top of mountain, my first glimpse of the town that would be my home for six months.

Panajachel is to the left.