Viviendo la Vida En Lago de Atitlan

Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

As I look back on my first two weeks in Guatemala that go from the horribly negative - food poisoning from a milkshake in Chichicastenango to the amazingly sublime - translating the lyrics to "No, Woman, No Cry" into Spanish and teaching it Ninos Del Lago - I realize I'm in for an even better six weeks to come.

After arriving two weeks ago to Guatemala City from a 2 1/2 hour delayed flight, I passed out at my B&B shortly after my 1am arrival. I woke up the next morning to a fruit spread of native Guatemalan fruits before Ramon (Director of San Pedro Spanish School) and Felipe (Director of Ninos Del Lago). We head straight to the music shop to go over our purchases that we would return to make later that day before heading back to San Pedro.

Ramon then had a meeting, Felipe had to run to his grad school class, leaving me with my personal driver around Guatemala City! Unfortunately, not much to see here (Lonely Planet actually advises against spending any time here as it's ridiculously unsafe and dangerous. In fact, every shop was manned by a guy with an AK-47...), but I did mangage to catch this woman in the city center with funky native garb:

Guatemalan woman selling native garb

We then pick up Ramon and sit down to a nice lunch with typical Guate fare. Afterward, we head to the bank to exchange my dolares into quetzales. We ended up with: 4 tambourines, 1 child's acoustic guitars, 1 acoustic-electric guitar, 3 congo drums, 1 microphone, 1 amplifier, 4 sets of maracas, and a ton of other percussion instruments. Around 4pm, the rain began to pour out of nowhere (as I learned it would do 95% of the days) but there was a clear and present mutual excitement as we watched the birth of the music project.

After a four-hour drive to San Pedro, I arrived at my homestay to Rosalia and Juan, the sweetest family I could have asked for in a 2-week homestay. I then hit the sack as I had a 7am alarm clock going off for my 8am Spanish lesson!

Estela, my primero maestra de Espanol

After meeting my teacher, we soon took an introductory walk around the school compounds (an absolute must upon arrival, I mean...look at how gorgeous this place is...)

View from my Tiki Hut/classroom

Canoe/Kayak Rentals: $1.25/hour!

My first two full days in San Pedro were spent chatting with my host family over authentic Guatemalan meals, learning the layout of this charming little village of San Pedro, and remembering why I love traveling to places like this so much: it is not until we escape the comfortable confines of our living rooms and venture off into the unknown that we can begin to grasp a true sense of self and our pre-supposed limitations.

San Pedro elder in native garb

Friday was a big day as, at 2pm, the parents of Ninos Del Lago would be taking a day off from their jobs (an involuntary rarity) to come to the school and watch the instrument donation ceremony. Felipe and I each spoke about the project, our gameplan, and felt a great sense of enthusiasm fill the room. We then made the donations of the musical instruments, the two laptops from Wyse Technology, and dozens of books and games that I collected from the US:

Felipe addressing the parents

Ninos opening & playing with the instruments

It was a wonderful sight to watch and made me all the more excited to begin music classes the following week. My first weekend was spent making friends amongst the other students at the Spanish school, discovering my favorite local spot (The Buddha Bar), kayaking to San Marcos and cliff diving on Saturday (no pictures due to potential water hazard) and THEN...Sunday, definitely one of the best/luckiest days of travel I've ever had...

We took the 9:15am boat over to Santiago, another village on the other side of Lake Atitlan, a 1/2 hour ride.

Boat ride from San Pedro to Santiago

Santiago's claim to fame is that they house the iconic body of MAXIMON, a god that is worshiped by people throughout the surrounding villages. Now, the location of MAXIMON changes exactly 12 times a year when the villagers move the body on a monthly cycle from one place to another to redistribute the balance of power in the village. Hence, the very second you jump off the boat, a hoard of locals approach you, offering to take you to the "secret location" of MAXIMON (for a nice fee, of course).

But, we decide that we have all day and are in no rush to see MAXIMON. In fact, we create the challenge of finding MAXIMON ourselves without the help of locals. We find a nice place for brunch and then venture around the town for a few hours, mind you with 3 new locals offering to show us MAXIMON every minute.

Suddenyl, we hop a corner and stumble upon a huge crowd of local villagers, with loud music playing, all waiting eagerly for...something to happen. We get right up front to see this very estranged religious symbol that we could only assume to be a black Jesus:

Black Jesus

We then realize that we are the only 5 gringos amongst a crowd of Santiago villagers who are clearly holding some sort of very sacred ceremony. We're looking at each other thinking that it may be a funeral procession, perhaps a group prayer. They then light two huge fireworks. BANG! BANG! Marimba music begins to roar. The villagers cheers get louder and louder. And then, out of nowhere... behind a small wall emerges...MAXIMON!

Body of MAXIMON

IS THIS FOR REAL!? Are we actually in Santiago on the 1 day out of 30 that they relocate the MAXIMON's body!?! YES!! We then proceed to join this crowd of roughly 600 local villagers who walked through the streets of Santiago playing music while the other residents cheered and looked on from their rooftops:

Procesion de MAXIMON!

I felt like I was in a National Geographic special like "Living with the Kombai"!! It was surreal.

Santiago villagers carrying MAXIMON by Lake Atitlan

We caught a 3:30pm boat back to San Pedro as the rain set in, elated from this spectacle we were lucky enough to catch. As if it couldn't get any better, the rain cleared up for just in time to reveal the most spectacular rainbow I've ever seen with these two eyes.

Boatride back from Santiago to San Pedro

A truly perfect day of travel.

Since then, I have to admit that the last week has had its ups and downs. I decided to move from my homestay as my family lived right across the street from a pentecoastal church that played horrendously loud (like, 180 decibels loud) music. Try and imagine the Chicken Dance song played with an accordian, cowbell, tambourine and harmonica...really loud...ALL THE TIME...3 hours every morning, and 4 hours every night. It quickly became my own personal hell. I also caught some nasty food poisoning from a day trip to Chichicastenango last Sunday. However, all's better now as Ramon, the school's director has offered me his second home, a 3-BR apt. just next door to the school! So, now my days are 1000X more convenient (12-min walk to/from school previously), plus I have my own apt. with private bathroom and Internet!

I also decided to change my class schedule to afternoons so that I could take better advantage of the gorgeous weather in the mornings. A typical day now goes something like:

8:30am - 11:00am: Wake up, morning run, get a work-out in, usually by rock/tree climbing next to the lake.

My "Gym" In San Pedro

11:00am-1:00pm: Run errands, finish homework for Spanish class, prepare music lesson for Ninos del Lago, grab a bite to eat, or just stroll around town in general, digging on the local scene.

San Juan, a 30-minute walk from San Pedro

1:00pm-5:00pm: Spanish class.

Maria, mi maestra

5:15pm - 7:30pm: "Conversation Club" when the students get together and converse/play games/tell jokes in Spanish, followed by an activity that changes nightly (special guest presentations, movie nights on Mayan history, salsa nights, etc.).
7:30 onward: Wind down with a beer or mojito at one of our happy hour spots, grab dinner and then either head to Buddha Bar for some live music, Allegre Pub for Movie Night (saw Gran Torino on Monday...wow.), or take it easy with some hot chocolate and a stroll around town.

[8:00-10:00 am on Fridays & 3:00-5:00pm Mondays]: Teach music to Ninos Del Lago. After a few initial lessons on beatbox, drums, and basic concepts in rhythm, I am now working with them on Parte Uno del Proyecto: I've translated the lyrics to Bob Marley's "No, Woman, No Cry" into Spanish (No, Mujer, No Llores) and am putting together a performance where some students play their instruments while others sing in unison. Needless to say, it's phenomenal to watch come together (Video uploads in progress...stay tuned).

It's getting to be around 2am which is rather late by San Pedro standards for a Tuesday night. Till' next time...

Saludos de Lake Atitlan!