Last Week

Does this image look a little busy to you? Well that is the way last week was. Busy. This week looks like it is going to be another full week as well.

Besides a fabulous cocktail party, a couple of trips to the campo to photograph and also be a librarian, meeting Kate, another blogger, I had the opportunity to join some serious and some professional foodies to cook rabbit.

The rabbits were cooked four different ways.....all of them delicious. I was on the cooking team of Ruth Alegria of Alegria in Mexico blog and Ben Wenske, a retired chef. They carried the load cooking Diana Kennedy's rabbit in a red chili sauce, but I was a good watcher and taster. The next day we all enjoyed pork in a chili verde sauce, fabulous, fabulous refried beans and rice, all cooked by Cristina Potter of Mexico Cooks. It was an international crowd that gathered in the Rancho Casa Luna kitchen to cook. Sitting down to eat was just as wonderful. Conversation ranged over lots of subjects although cooking and food probably topped the list.

Last week I also found lamb at a butcher shop in town. Seasonal meats - local spring lamb...what a concept. I bought a rack of lamb but it isn't trimmed up or frenched. I'm trying to decide whether to french it or not. I just have a feeling that the meat between those little ribs could be tasty.

If we were living in Houston, or anywhere in the USA, would we have had the same opportunities to be with so many interesting people from so many different countries and experiences? I don't think so. It seems to me that in most places in the USA as people grow older their horizons narrow down. Friends die or move away and it is harder to make new friends and have new experiences. Here in San Miguel, I feel like my horizons continue to expand everyday. Always something new just around the corner.

What does the image have to do with my busy week. Nothing except it is busy too. I made it on the steps of the church in Chichicastenango in Guatemala last August with the Holga camera.

Lake Atitlan

There are a lot of things I'm thinking about writing in my blog today but they are political comments or they are about the media coverage of Gustav. I'm riled up but rather than bore you with my rants, I'll just post this calm view of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.

We had rain again last night and our blue skies are once again replaced with clouds and misty fog out toward the mountains. It is probably a good day to turn off the TV and pick up a good book or get lost in processing more photographs from the Guatemala trip. Or maybe I'll download a trial version of a software for creating Black and White images from color digital files.......Nik Software: Silver Efex Pro. I've been looking at the tutorials and they look pretty interesting.

Flores, Guatemala

Colorful Flores in Guatemala is a little more than an hour from Tikal and it is an island in Lake Peten Itza that is connected by a causeway to the mainland. We were only in Flores for a short while but I was enchanted by the Carribean feeling in the colors of the buildings. I wish I would have had more time to take the Holga for a walk around town.

Guatemalan Textiles

I don't know how anyone could resist buying Guatemalan textiles. I wanted to show you some of the things I bought while we were there.

I bought two lengths of fabrics that were on bolts. These were not handmade textiles but the colors were so wonderful. This one will be a tablecloth and I think it will go great with the Gorky Gonzalez dishes.
I've needed something to cover this table for a long time but just had not found anything that I really, really wanted. No problem in Guatemala. I found this piece that I plan to use as a tablerunner from the dealer in old fabrics in Solola.This is a huipil from Santiago de Atitlan. I kept seeing and trying on these rose and bird embroidered huipiles. Finally I found this one. I've already worn it to a party with a black skirt. This is a cermonial robe/huipil. I bought it from the dealer of old textiles in Solola. I plan to use it more as a serape for the cool evenings here in San Miguel. I wonder how soon I can talk Ned into going back to Guatemala.

Old Antigua

Today Antigua, Guatemala is a city of 40,000 people but in its prime in 1773 there were 60,000 inhabitants, 30 churches, 18 convents and monasteries, 15 hermitages, 10 chapels, the University of San Carlos, five hospitals, an orphanage, fountains and parks, and municipal water and sewer systems. What happened? Earthquakes. First in 1717 but the residents rebuilt much of what was destroyed. But even more devastating earthquakes occurred in 1773 and the city was pretty much abandoned and the capital moved to Guatemala City.

The remains of the 1773 earthquake are still in the city. We looked at what was left of many of the destroyed churches. Just amazing that these three foot thick pillars collapsed. We also saw arches with huge cracks in them and wondered if they might finally fall as we stood looking at them.

It is amazing to me that more than 200 years later that the frescos on the arches that have been exposed to the weather still remain in tact.

Solola, Guatemala

The holga was hanging around my neck. I saw this beautiful woman approaching in her embroidered huipil. I tilted the camera without bringing it to my eye and pressed the shutter release. I didn't know at the time if I would have her in the frame or that the colors, shapes and forms in the background would work. See.....I keep saying that sometimes the holga angel can be on your shoulder.

Tianguis in Solola

From Panajachel we took a van to Solola because we wanted to connect with some people that Bill knew who handled old textiles. Not only was it the market day in the village but it was also a fair.

We left the van and walked through the tianguis, through a building and in the dim light of the back of that building we found the dealers hidden away. We never would have known or found them without our leader, Bill. They started pulling out one textile after another. It seemed like their supply was endless. Although we had a difficult time deciding what to buy, each of us walked away with a treasure or two or three.

Recent History - Tikal

The Ceiba tree is the national tree of Guatemala. The Ceiba was revered by the Mayans as the tree of life. This tree’s towering height led the Maya to believe that its branches supported the heavens, while its deep roots were the means of communication between the world of the living and the Underworld. To this day, the modern Maya still hold ceremonies at the base of these trees. In the Grand Plaza of the ruins there is a firepit that showed signs of being used in recent history. We were told that because Tikal is a special Mayan site that thousands of modern-day Maya are expected to gather in Tikal in 2012 which is the end of the long count Mayan calendar. An article in Wikipedia indicates, "The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar forms the basis for a New Age belief, first forecast by José Argüelles, that a cataclysm will take place on or about December 21, 2012, a forecast that mainstream Mayanist scholars consider a misinterpretation."

The Mayans who built Tikal are not gone. Our guide, Oliver, was very proud of his ancestory, very proud of his Mayan profile. As he talked about the Maya, we were left wondering where he stood on the line between the Maya religion to Catholicism.

Just as interesting was his view of the Guerrilla insurgency that began in 1960. It was all about "power" he told us. But it was not an abstract to him. To him there was no difference between the Guerrillas and the Government's soldiers. They both came into villages, killed or kidnapped people then demanded money for their return. With a shrug of his shoulders, Oliver told us that now some of the Guerrilla leaders are in the government in Guatemala City.

When he was a small child the insurgency was so threatening in the jungles around Tikal that his family escaped to Mexico. When they returned six years later, they could not find any of his uncles. They had "disappeared." Now he says, things are good but his heart is sad because he did not learn the Maya dialect of the region as a child. Many people have returned to his village and there are 3,000 people there. The villagers are making a living off of tourism. He and his brother work and his father farms. Together the family is doing okay. He has two children but doesn't want more. He wants to see his children get an education. The State education system is only through the seventh grade and then if he wants them to have more education he will have to send them away to school. It will cost a lot of money. He learned English, and it was very good English, by working with tourist. First as a little boy selling drinks to the tourists but he learned it well enough to earn his official authorization as an English speaking guide.

Oliver isn't worried about the world coming to an end in 2012. He said that he had consulted some of the elders and they seem to think that it would only mean the beginning of another long count calendar. He equated December 21, 2012 to the Millenium. Oliver, the modern Maya, was a great guide. If you go to Tikal, be sure to ask for him.

The Rest of the Story - Tikal

When the van pulled into the drive to the Jungle Lodge just outside the ruins at Tikal, we could see small orangey-red bungalows snuggled under the jungle canopy. It looked just like I thought it would, a little primative but a comfortable place to enjoy all that the ruins and the jungle have to offer. But when we stepped into the Lodge to check in, I started to feel uneasy. Between the van and the building we had broken out in a sheen of sweat. You could feel the oppression of the heat and humidity and stepping into the lodge did not afford any relief.

The sight that greeted us was even more depressing. There were piles of luggage everywhere and on every couch there were people looking wilted and like they were drugged.....a ragged look of just being beaten down. Resigned to their fate. At the desk there was a long line that wasn't moving. After a few minutes of trying to figure out what was going on, we could see that one person was trying to check out but the desk was covered with small green sheets of paper. The accounting system at the Jungle Lodge was that you signed tickets for food and drink and that was added to your bill at check out. I do mean AT checkout. Little expanding folders held one thing or another that had to be all pulled back together at check out. Nothing was automated. But even more astonishing was that no one did a daily tally so that when check out time came all that had to be added was the most recent tabs.

At 2 PM a bus pulled up and the wilted people lined up and got on the bus and sat in the heat of midday on the bus as their luggage was loaded. That convinced us that we would hire a van when we were ready to leave. We wanted to avoid the fate of the "wilted."

Okay.....so there is a problem checking out but it was also a problem checking in. You needed a credit card and a passport and you had to write the same information on several forms even though all the same information had been given when the reservations were made. Check in was slow, slow too. The sign said that we couldn't get keys to our bungalow until 4 PM. So after we check in we went to the dining room to get some lunch. We were tired, hungry, thirsty and hot. The dining room looked very nice with white tablecloths and the menu looked good.

The waitress came to take our orders.
Me: A limonada, por favor.
Waitress: No limonada.
Me: Coke cola.
Waitress: No Coke Cola.
Me: Okay, I'll take a cerveza.
Ned: What is the soup of the day?
Waitress: We don't have a soup of the day.
Ned: Okay, the Tortilla soup.
Waitress: We don't have the tortilla soup only the bean soup.
Ned: Okay, I'll have bean soup.
Me: I'll have the chicken sandwich.
Waitress: We don't have the chicken sandwich.
Me: I'll have the club sandwich.
Waitress: We don't have the club sandwich.
Me: Which sandwiches do you have.
Waitress: We don't have sandwiches.
Ned: Tell us what you do have that is on the menu.

Well you can see how things are going.....downhill. Eventually we were able to find something on the menu to order. The bean soup was thin. The tomato sauce on a pasta was thin. I guess they were being "stretched" because we found out that they were expecting delivery of supplies that should have been there the day before. The kitchen was in disarray and the service was spotty but before we left the restaurant someone told us that supplies had arrived. What a relief. Now we'd be able to have a nice dinner.

Dinner didn't work out too well either. There were still things on the menu that they didn't have. And the drinks were small and expensive. The glass was about 5 inches tall and about 2.5 inches across....maybe they had a 1/2 jigger of rum or gin in with the mixer. The bartender was very slow and then the server would take so long to bring the drink that most of the ice had melted. We thought we would just have wine but they only had white wine by the glass. But the next day the bartender didn't show up and so there were no drinks. Silly us, we should have been happy with the drinks the night before.

My suggestion is that if you want to eat in Tikal, don't go to the restaurant at the Lodge. Instead head down the road to the Comedor Tikal.....where they do have sandwiches and all the rest of the items that are on their menu. Where the kitchen is organized, the food comes out in a timely fashion and the prices are reasonable.

The Jungle Lodge is lovely. No problem that the electricity is on and off. We expected that in the jungle with solar power and a generator. The rooms and baths were clean, the windows had screens and there were mosquito nets above the beds. The pool was refreshing. But the disorganization of the administration and kitchen was an aggravation to say the least, especially at the prices that were being charged.

We left the Jungle Lodge looking forward to a nice hotel in Flores, Hotel Isla de Flores. We checked in only to discover that the hotel had air-conditioning but on that day did not have any water. We wanted water! The woman behind the desk didn't seem to know if the water would be fixed or not. By this time we were beginning to act like ugly Americans. Joe and I left Ned to deal with the situation. He speaks the best Spanish and he is always nice where I just get angrier and angrier. He talked to the main office in Guatemala City and somehow a plumber showed up who said it would be fixed in no time. No time meant about an hour later but the important thing was, we had water. And we had a wonderful, relaxing dinner at La Luna. It looked like a nice ending to our trip.

But wait, there is more.

The next morning the van to take us to the airport was to be there at 7 AM. The woman at the desk from the day before, hadn't made the reservation for us as we had asked. We did manage to get to the airport in time to make the airplane......

But now you know the rest of the story about Tikal.

Mundo Maya - Tikal

My facination with the Mundo Maya....the Mayan World began 25 years ago when we first went to Cancun. There are a few low ruins in Cancun that have survived 2000 years of tropical storms and the invasion of contruction and tourist in the last 30 years. When we traveled across the penisula to Merida, we went through many small towns where the church was perched on a mound above the town. I soon found out that the church had been built during the Spanish conquests by clearing the crests of the Mayan pyramids and using the stone to build the church. That is one way to get rid of the old religion. We always stopped in each little village to go into the church. I felt such a spiritual force in these churches that I soon began photographing them and that was the beginning of my photography project of the 16th century churches in Mexico. But I always felt that I wasn't just photographing a 16th century church but instead a place of continuous spiritual devotion for more than 2000 years. It was a powerful feeling for me.

I've read about the Mayan civilizations but I'm always left confused about times and periods and with the history of who was up and who was down at any one point. But I was inspired to visit as many Mayan sites as I could by John L. Stephens books (Vol One and Vol Two) Incidents of Travel in Yucatan written about 1850 that described his journey through the Yucatan in search of the Mayan pyramids hidden by vegetation or by hispanic construction.

Since then we have been to Tulum and Coba in Quintana Roo. To Chichen Itza, Izamal, Uxmal, Labna and many other small ruins in the Yucatan. To Palenque in Tabasco. To Yaxchilan and Bonampak in Chiapas, To Lamanai in Belize, and now to where I have long wanted to go, Tikal in Guatemala.
Tikal is one of the largest Mayan sites and it lies in the lowland rainforest in Nothern Guatemala. You can read about the site here. This image was taken from the top of Temple IV above the top of the jungle canopy and looking back at the Grand Plaza. The image at the top of this entry is Temple I in the Grand Central Plaza.

We bought tickets (about $20 USA) after 4 PM that were good for entry into the ruins from 4 to 6 on that afternoon as well as all of the next day. After a quick glance at the map we decided to take what looked like the shortest route to the Grand Plaza. What we didn't know was that this route was the most difficult. While most of the trail was under the canopy of the rain forest, it was also under the "cover" of heat and humidity. When the jungle opened up to the Grand Plaza it was worth the effort. Now all you see is the stone but to sit under a tree and think about how it must have looked 2,000 years ago when the surfaces were stucco and painted in many colors of reds, blues, yellows is just almost beyond belief. To think that these structures that rise as high as 65 meters were constructed without the use of wheels or pulleys.....just human manpower is mindboggling.

Having learned our lesson about the heat in the jungle, the next morning we were at the entrance to the site at 6 AM where we hired our guide. The route he took us on to the Grand Plaza was a much easier walk and in the cool morning air, the birds were singing, the small ground animals were still moving through the jungle and the spider monkeys were above our heads. And also important is that the bus loads of tourists had not arrived. Hiring an authorized guide is worth every penny. We learned so much about the flora and fauna, about the ancient civilization as well as about the recent history of the area.

Tikal is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I'm so fortunate to have seen it, but there is more to this story....tomorrow.

The Guatemala Story

We're back in San Miguel de Allende. Arrived home Thursday night but it has taken some time to sort through emails, wash clothes, buy groceries.....you know all those things that make up life. I took 15 rolls of film with the Holga. It is off being processed. I'll get it back on Monday evening. If the Holga angel was on my shoulder, I'll have a few pictures to go along with the blog.

The trip to Guatemala was great. We had a wonderful time but I'm not going to give you a day by day trip report but I would like to tell you some things about the trip so over the next week or so, I'll add additional entries.

The schedule for the trip was planned by Bill who has been to Guatemala many times over the last 30 years and he was the textile expert who traveled with us. We wanted to hit the market days in several places and so the trip was planned around them. Just in case anyone else might want to do the same, I thought I would share the plan with you.

Hotels – Guatemala
August 4-14, 2008

Monday and Tuesday
Aug. 4 & 5 Antigua – Casa Ovalle B & B
011 (502) 7832-3031
casaovalle@yahoo.com
Great B&B in the Centro

Wednesday
Aug. 6 Chichicastenango – Mayan Inn
011 (502) 7756-1176
info@mayaninn.com.gt
The huge Chichicastenango market is on Thursday. We left Thursday afternoon after the market.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday
Aug. 7,8, & 9 Panajachel – Hotel Dos Mundos
011 (502) 7762-2078
info@hoteldosmundos.com
Panajachel is on beautiful Lake Atitlan. It is very easy to rent a boat to take you to the villages that surround the lake. The Solola (about an hour away) market is on Friday

Sunday and Monday
Aug. 10 & 11 Antigua – Quinta de las Flores
011 (502) 7832-3721
contact@quintadelasflores.com
The Antigua market is on Monday

Tuesday
August 12 Tikal - Jungle Lodge
011 (502) 861-0446
reservaciones@junglelodgetikal.com
Visit Mayan ruins of Tikal Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning.

Wednesday
August 13 Flores - Hotel Isla de Flores
011 (501) 926-0614
reservaciones@junglelodgetikal.com
Out of the jungle and close to the airport for early morning flight back to Guatemala City on Thursday.

We used private shuttle vans for all the travel between towns. Provided by: Turansa
evadeguardia@turansa.com

Yes it is a lot of moving about but at the same time we covered places that we really wanted to see. We went down with only one suitcase each but with extra baggage which we managed to fill up with textiles as we traveled so by the time we were 3/4's of the way through the trip we looked like we had moved to Guatemala and getting from one place to another become more difficult. I kept saying that I really was only going to buy one or two things. Babs told me I would not be able to resist the textiles. She was right.

Okay, now you have the trip plan so if you like my stories about Guatemala, you can duplicate it.

Hasta Luego

We leave this morning for Guatemala. There are six of us meeting in Antigua tonight. One of us has traveled a lot in Guatemala and is an expert on their textiles. His knowledge should add a wonderful dimension to our travels.

I'm taking two holgas and lots of color film. I hope that I can get it hand checked at airport security. The plan is to use the holgas but chicken that I am I'm also taking the 5D with the BIG AND HEAVY 24-105 lens and the 24/2.8 lens. I love that lens. Although I'm getting advice pushing me to use the 5D, when I look back at what I consider my best work in the last 8 years, it is with the holga. I know, I know. I should go back and read my own blog entry, make the camera decision and let the right brain do it's thing.

It is hard to know what you need when you have never been to a place before. I looked through Flickr at Guatemala images. There are almost 400,000 images labeled Guatemala. While I didn't look at all of them, most are vacation images and some are very nice commercial quality travel photography. They are not what I want to do but then I really don't know what I'll find there. The real question is can I, can anyone, move beyond the tourist wall in a short time.

Taylor is a little nervous. He knows the drill with suitcases but over the years he has come to assume that he will be getting in the car too. Not this time. He is staying home with house sitters that he knows very well so I'm sure he will okay.

Today when I read through my regular blogs, I found that several of my favorite bloggers are taking some time off from blogging for vacations and such. Me too. I don't know if I will have the time or opportunity to post while I'm gone but I might. If I don't, hasta luego until the 15th.