Once Upon a Time in Mexico.....

Buenas Dias!

Well this past week has been spent on a much need vacation to a little pueblo in Mexico called San Cristobal de Las Casas.  San Cristobal is a very charming spanish influenced town that has a lot of amazing food and touristy stores.  It reminded me a lot of Antigua, except that the streets aren't cobble stone and easier to walk down, but it was a lot cleaner and the locals were a lot more respectful to the tourist.  It took us about 7 hours to get there from my friend's site in HueHuetenango (pronounced WAY-WAYtenango) and immediately we went for Mexican beer and tacos! the tortillas instead of being corn were made of flour and were delicious! We thought we would be lucky and get to drink cheap Coronas the entire time, but they must be made closer to the American Border, so we settled for XX, which in my opinion is actually better!

After exploring the town a little bit, we decided to do a day exercusion to the ruins in Palenque, little did we know this 12 hour outing would turn into an almost 24 hour outing! We left bright and early at 6 am and headed to a river called aguas azules, normally the water is suppose to be the color of Samuc Chempay, a turquoise blue that people can swim in, but because of recent flooding the river along with all the walk ways was covered with brown, extremely fast flowing water! It was wild to see! the water fall looked gigantic!  It was amazing to me how much damage water can do, it definitely seemed like it had a mind of its own.  There were a lot of little restaurants and taco stands that normally would be on the river bank, but the floors were covered by the water. It was wild! The next stop we had was at another waterfall, this one was a lot more tame and just fell like most waterfalls do, they had made a path behind the waterfall though which was really really neat, but you came out completely soaked! And finally our last stop with the ruins at Palenque.  Palenque was also a Mayan city, used more for the burial of kinds and worship of the different Gods. They, like Copan, Honduras, had the court where the Mayan men had to knock a ball off their hips and elbows into these basket-like things, kind of a mix between soccer and basketball.  The temples were amazing, we were able to climb up some of them which was really neat and walk around inside of them.  The stairs at the temples are really skinny and high so that you have to look down when you are walking up them.  The Mayan's purposefully did this because they wanted anyone approaching either the Mayan king or temple with a bowed head. Which I thought was really neat.  They were not as artistic as the Mayans in Copan, Honduras, but had some carvings to depict different stories.  There was one of the Snake god dancing and smoking cigars, which I thought was funny! It was definitely the best part of the tour for me!

So we all climb back into the micro (but we all had our own seats and it was airconditioned...BIG STEP UP from Guatemala!) and start the 4 hour trip home.  About an hour and a half in we come to what looks like a traffic jam.  The driver tells us its a protest and we might have to sit tight for a little bit.  The other passengers all of which are Mexican start to look really worried and ask if there is no other way to go (which there isn't) but the 5 of us are cool- Guatemalans block roads all the time, but always (it literally never fails) they will pack up around 7 pm and go home for dinner.  Being that it was 6:30 pm at this point we figured we would be sitting max. 30- 1 hour. WRONG! our driver informs us that it should end around 8 pm.  8 pm comes and goes, now the end time is 11 pm.  At this point we are all getting a little ansy and a little grumpy.  11 pm comes and goes, and the driver informs us the earliest we will get through the blockade is 6 am but more than likely it will not be until 8:30 am.  Non of us are happy at this point; we had already bought and paid for another tour of a canyon for the morning and it looked at that point we would miss it, and if we didn't miss it be waaaayyy too tired to enjoy it.  so we all try to fall asleep and stay positive that maybe we can get through earlier.  Around 1:30 am the driver starts up the engine because the protesters have agreed to open the highway for an hour.  They meant business.  When we were passing through I saw at least 25 dump trucks that had been moved off the road, that were used for blocking ( in Guatemala, the most people do is put rocks in the way and then stand on the rocks).    We ended up getting home around 4 am and did not make our next tour, instead we spent the day doing some shopping and resting.  I am so glad we got through when we did because the negotiators were not able to reach an agreement until 9 am the next morning!

A couple of things that I noticed to be different between Guatemala and Mexico.  For one it is obvious that the country of Mexico has more money.  The highways were clean, paved roads and even the public transportation had a schedule in which you needed to buy a ticket in order to use. The towns all seemed to have actual trash systems and there was no trace of trash being burnt because you could not smell it (like you can on pretty much any day in Guatemala).  There was military throughout the state we were in because it was a border state and they all had nicer and newer guns than the Guatemalan Military.  However it does seem that the wealth, although apparent by these small even unnoticable things to some,  has a horrible trickle down effect and it seems to stop right before the poorest of the people in Mexico.  Many of the towns we passed on the way to Palenque were much like what you would find anywhere in Guatemala and there was a lot of street kids that were made to sell items such as gum, cigarettes, and other candy.  Most were not more than 5 to 7 years old.  They actually reminded me a lot of the begger children in slum dog millionaire- it seemed to have some sort of system for them to beg. This absolutely broke my heart.  While waiting for the other girls one night myself and Lauren (another PCV) bought two little boys hot dogs at a gas station like store.  They were 9 and 11 years old and even though they have an entire system for this kind of thing, the fact that they have to work at 9 and 11 was more than i could take.  Its sometimes really hard for me because I know that I am only experiencing a glimpse of what it is like to live in poverty and I can pack my bags and go home whenever I want, but it seems so embedded in their system that I don't know why a solution can be......


We made the long 12 hour trip home the following day, stopping back in HueHue and finally making it home to Tecpan yesterday.  I was glad to be home.  This trip was definitely the trip i needed to jump start me back for the next couple of months until school starts back but it definitely wasn't relaxing! haha.  This next week I am headed to the office in Santa Lucia for some spanish classes and then we have our first meeting with Hug it Forward (the bottle-school project)  to hopefully start the process to build a classroom out of plastic bottles for one of our schools! I am also starting some secondary projects that I am hoping to help integrate me more into the community for my last full year here! I cannot believe that this time next weekend we will be starting Oct! man how the times fly down here!

Anywho until next time....
Kata

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY....(or in Guatemala) WEEK!

Hello Everyone!

Well besides the first of two elections coming and going this past weekend, things have been pretty tranquilo here in Tecpan.  Peace Corps put us on a 3 day standfast for the weekend of the elections, this meant that we are not allowed to leave where we are- in most cases (unless you are on vacation) this means you cannot travel outside of your site.  I took up residence at my sitemates apartment, where we baked, watched movies, made falafel, sweet potato black bean burritos, sandwiches (which sounds ordinary but are a commodity here in Guate!), and Barret's baked potato salad. Needless to say I gained about 3 pounds in the 3 day standfast! I guess I am just practicing for when I come home in November!

The election, at least in Tecpan, was pretty calm- besides the church that was trying to raise money through a loud speaker and bando music, overall it was pretty quiet! Most people came out to vote in their nicest clothes and brought the whole family along, it was very different from in the USA where you squeeze voting into your 30 min lunch break, people come from the villages outside of Tecpan to vote and want to feel proud to do so.  We do have a new mayor in town, which I feel is what the majority wanted because there hasn't been any burning  buildings or cars and the general feel of the town is a good one.  I was talking with my host mom last night and she told me that their previous mayor had promised a lot but had done very little and was glad to see him go. The country still does not know the president.  There will be a run off race between Perez and Baldizon on Nov. 6, the person who receives the highest percentage will be the new president.  This is very controversal election because if elected (and it looks like this will happen) Perez wants to fight crime in the country with "mano dura"  or firm hand.  This was briefly tried in the early 2000s in El Salvador to fight the drug cartels and gangs, but ultimately failed and caused more human rights abuses than anything else.  So the international community is a little worried about Perez being elected not only because of that but also because he was a high level military official during the internal conflict that lasted close to 36 years in Guatemala and many have blamed him for some of the biggest massacres against the mayan people during that time.  Unfortunately it seems that it Guatemala will be stuck in its present situation a while longer.  But this is a democracy and the people will choose who they think can represent their needs the quickest and most efficient and they seem to believe that mano dura is the way to do this. 

So the next election will be Nov. 6th.  Peace Corps is already predicting another standfast for this so it should be another fun weekend with my sitemates! But this week is also an exciting week because it is Guatemala's independence from Spain! Which means on every street corner in Tecpan there are taco stands, people are selling Guatemalan flags for insanely low prices, fireworks are being lit in every street, and people in general are feeling a sense of community! But unlike the USA the celebrations go on for about a week and a half which means no school and no work for healthy school volunteers, but we are finding other things to fill our time.  I have started to dog-sit for a woman that owns an NGO that I am trying to also work with.  There are huge celebrations all over the country, the biggest are in Xela, so my sitemates and I are going there for the weekend to see the huge ferris wheel and catch up with some other volunteers and then next week we are headed to MEXICO! for a much needed vacation!

well that is about all that is going on here, watch out for next week- hopefully i will have some humorous story about mexico!