Dear Diary, Week Five...

Hola everyone! This week (January 1st to 7th) has been a rather slow one. Only 2 things happened this week that are worth mentioning...


Also I updated our "Where in the World" section. The map should be up to date on all the places we've been in Guatemala so far!


Wednesday January 4th... We have been staying with Luis' Mom's side of the family for the past month. And before we left to come here we arranged to stay one month with one side of the family and one month with the other. So on this day we moved to Luis' Dad's side of the family. I have to say it is very different! We go from a home that is a school and has three families living there, a total of 9 people, to a smaller home (not a school) with 2 people in it! Needless to say a lot of things have changed! We now share a bathroom (yes we were spoiled), we have a smaller room that seems very small because of all our luggage crammed inside it, and it is much quieter! 


Well, except the mornings... Luis's grandfather has a dog and a bird which usually wouldn't be a problem, except that EVERY morning around 7 or 8am we get woken up by that bird. Once this bird starts making noise it doesn't stop and did I mention that it was a parrot? It mimics the sounds it hears. And guess what sound it mimics the most? A car alarm going off. We wake up to the beautiful sound of a parrot mimicking a car alarm every morning. That then sets of the dog and he starts barking, then all the other dogs in the neighborhood join in and we have an orchestra of squawking and barking to usher in the morning. Isn't that how everyone wants to start off their day? 


Saturday January 7th... We went to another set of ruins. These ruins are considered the first town settled by the Spanish. They are called Iximche (icks-eem-cheh). Iximche is near the lake Atitlan, Panajachel (we went there back in December, if you want to read about that trip click here). 


We woke up, to our lovely music of birds and dogs, and headed to that area with Luis's Aunt's cousin.. Her name was Pati and she came with her daughter and her mother. We met up with Luis's cousin David Andre and his wife (the ones that got married a few weeks ago!), and his other cousin Velvet and her two kids. Most of Luis's extended family just get called Aunt or Uncle. They don't really bother with the real titles. I like that, family is family and the title doesn't really matter. If anything it is a sign of the love and respect they have for you. You are called Aunt or Uncle whether you are a cousin or 2nd cousin or 5 times removed! If they like you, you get a title :)...


We stopped at a restaurant to eat breakfast, a place that almost everyone here told us we needed to go to, and it was indeed delicious! We had panqueques (pancakes), huevos con chorizo(eggs with a Guatemalan sausage), frijoles voltiados (refried beans), and papaya and melon. 

The restaurant and vendors.. also the guard in the parking is carrying a shotgun!

After our delicious breakfast we stopped at one of the vendors around the restaurant and Luis bought a typical Guatemalan sweatshirt and I bought a chalina (scarf)! 

Me and Luis in our warm clothes with the kids of Velvet and Pati.

It was cold that day and we needed warm clothes! We were also up higher in the mountains than usual as well. And believe it or not, cold was 50 degrees! And that night it got even colder to 40 degrees. All of Luis's family was wearing scarves and winter coats and gloves! Luis was actually fine the whole time but I was a little cold. I know that New England and Utah are much colder but 4o degrees is still 40 degrees! Especially when you're used to 70 degrees. 


We finally get to the ruins so here comes your history lesson...

Luis did a free hand panoramic and stitched the photos together in Gimp.. Amazing!!! Iximche ruins.

As I mentioned before, Iximche was the first town settled by the Spanish. The conquistador's name who was leading the Spanish was Pedro de Alvarado. It was actually the first capital of the Kingdom Guatemala circa 1524. The Mayan people living in the town at the time called themselves Kaqchikel (Caw-chee-kell). They called it the Walled City, not because it had walls but because the town was surrounded on 3 sides by ravines. Anyone wanting to conquer the city had to climb and the people living in the city could see the would-be enemies very quickly. 

Luis conquered the hill!

I conquered the pyramid! ;)

 Most of the Kaqchikel people died from smallpox before the Spanish ever arrived. The rest of the population of Iximche actually helped the Spanish conquer other Mayan tribes for several years. After too many demands for some kind of tribute for the Spanish,  the Kaqchikel people eventually separated from them and deserted their town. Some spanish deserters later returned to Iximche and burned it down. These ruins do not have the grandeur that Tikal does but they are still beautiful in there own right. Thousands of people used to live in these ruins once and the history there is deep. 

I don't want to be a sacrifice!

The amazing part is that the people who call themselves Mayan today perform rituals there still. Every day you could see an ancient Mayan ritual, sacrificing animals included (usually once a week and only chickens). We missed the one that happened that day but you aren't allowed to take photos during it anyways. There was an area of the ruins that had candles burning and incense left over from the ritual. It was cool (understatement) to know that 2,000 years have past and amidst modern society the Natives have managed to preserve their culture. 

The tree behind us is growing on TOP of a pyramid! Amazing that it can grow on stone...

No subir a las estructuras (Do not climb the structures)... whoops. 

Luis taking a picture of a cow.. The cow wasn't tied up very well and it charged Luis a couple times! The sacrifices he makes to get a good picture :)

We climbed a pyramid! Granted it was very small and took 2 seconds.. but we climbed it!

After walking around the ruins for a couple hours we found ourselves hungry and made our way to our cars and drove to another restaurant. 


I have to put a plug in here to say again how amazing Luis's family is. They STILL do not allow us to pay for ourselves and although we sometimes (ok, every time) feel like we're taking advantage of them, it is again humbling to see their willingness to make us feel so welcome. 


The restaurant was called Tecpen (Teck-paan) something or other. I know you may not care too much about names of places but I love names. I love trying to pronounce them, butchering them, and eventually getting them right. Almost every Spanish name is beautiful and the way it rolls off the tongue of everyone here (except me) is fabulous. We sat down at a table that was right next to a woman making tortillas on a tortillera, basically a big pan with a real fire keeping it warm. More amazing food! 


The temperature was getting down to the 40's at this point and I was freezing! So sad I know but the restaurant has windows that doesn't close. Most houses have patios or certain parts of their homes open to the outside. Guatemalans are not used to cold weather! 


Another great week passes us by in Guatemala. We only have 3 weeks left before Chile!