Wajxaklajunh

Temple Yol K'u - Inside the Sun - is an unrestored
temple just below the town. The altitude here is
8400 ft, and the name also means "inside the
warm place", a reflection of the proximity of this
high spot to the sun, in a place that honors the
source of energy it has depended upon, sun and corn.

It is still heavily used by the community, in a myriad of ways. People sit atop and watch the band gathering to play below. Mothers come to sell snacks for the kids, chip bags and freshly made tamales.

Brendan is perched just below the temple. He had seen young students draped all over the temple and stellae, studying, and wanted to come up and study too... A good reason to return.

My favorite one is of a local girl, up on the temple top studying with her dog. I think it is the perfect blend of old & new... as a young Mayan woman reaches for an education, reclining against the backdrop of the same setting her ancestors built hundreds of years ago.

Her first trip to the temple,Michelle was swept up by several girls who were thrilled to walk with her. It is a place of amazing vistas, along with the comings and goings of daily life, livestock mingles with the activities, including pigs. The ball court is still used for soccer... and grazing.

















Looking down from Yol K'u, you can see the band practicing in front of another structure (on which we later saw laundry spread out to dry) and the town rising behind.

The ball court is the rectangular depression to the right of the smaller structure. I watched turkey, pigs and dogs frolicking in the basin when there were no soccer players.

A trumpet player practices at the base of Yol K'u.

Las Puertas

I never had a chance to photograph the doors in San Mateo in 2004.  They are not all painted so gaily,  and I haven't had the chance to ask why some are painted and others not.   

They usually have a corn or squash blossom motif,  and come in many colors.  These are just a few of the ones I saw.

---

Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha!
Play Monopoly Here and Now (it's updated for today's economy) at Yahoo! Games.

Antigua

Antigua is known for this Arch, and it shows up in many of the woven goods as an angular repeated pattern. It is a good landmark to navigate by as well, and there are many festivals on this street.

My favorite meal here is a rich chicken/rice soup, or "caldo", which is accompanied by condiment bowls with slices of lime, cayenne pepper, oregeno and shallots... I like to include avocado as well. Mmmm.

La Merced is one of the most amazing churches, with a lovely facade. The Mayan workers wove a corn motif into the facade when they built it, and the monks at the time didn't realize that a pagan symbol was included until too late.

The doors and windows of Antigua are renown. I didn't have time to photograph the doors as I would have liked, but captured this window.

The other landmark in Antigua is volcan Agua, which can be seen from many cobbled streets.

---

Be a better Globetrotter. Get better travel answers from someone who knows.
Yahoo! Answers - Check it out.

Volcano Pacaya

Here are some photos from the Volcan Pacaya hike.   The hike was incredibly vertical.  Instead of switchbacks,  think erosional paths up the side of a steep hill,  and think of that on horseback!   This was not Michelle's favorite horseback ride.

The economy of Guatemala is in bad shape,  so there are many bandits around.  The park rangers are constantly patrolling the area, and you cannot hike alone safely.  The hike is in two parts,  and once you have ascended the soil-covered slope,  the last kilometer is over treacherous lava which is broken into sharp, irregular rocks which shift underfoot.   Only Brendan and I went up with a guide, while the rest stayed back with the park rangers.  

The higher we got, the hotter the air rising from under us became.   Below,  the rangers fed their cattle salt by sprinkling it all over the picnic tables...  one way to clean them off...   Michelle adored the two dogs which enjoyed her attention,  and interrupted her pets by leaping up and becoming as vicious as the Tasmanian Devil when any cow dared poke its nose out of their designated area...  then returning to bask in Michelle's attention...  bi-polar dogs!

We were so fortunate to be able to make this tour,  it was close and reasonable and closed last year due to an eruption.

---

Building a website is a piece of cake.
Yahoo! Small Business gives you all the tools to get online.

Taxis and Bears

The rest of this trip may be told in vignettes that are not exactly chronological...

First of all, Michelle went to her first camp-away, for a week, to the muscular dystrophy camp in our area. It was fun, but there were no activities that were geared to her abilities. She made a friend, but was bored much of the time. I get the feeling that many children do not come to camp until their disability is greater. She isn't sure she wants to go back right now, as she can manage in other camps at the moment.

She and her friend both get the same little teddy bear with a pink bow. This is the lovey she chooses to bring to Guatemala...

Fast forward to the trip from San Mateo to Antigua. I am traveling back with my two children, two women from San Mateo, and a 7 month old infant who weighs 12 lbs. I am convinced that he has some neurological problems, and I am taking him, the neighbor who adopted him when his mother died in childbirth, and a translator (since his adoptive mother only speaks Chuj) back to Antigua where there is a hospital which will see and treat him without charge. His mother asked me if I was a doctor, and could help him. I told her I could look at him with only the eyes of a mother, but I would try to help.

There are eight of us traveling back, Dave & Doris, a history teacher/developmental economist and potter couple from California, and my little troop of six. Doris is from Xela, and invites us to dinner at her family home. It will extend our day of travels, but put us closer to our destination.

My kids get to ride a chicken bus... a renovated Blue Bird school bus... with all its lack of shocks and flat hard seats.

As we draw about a 1/2 hour from Xela, I ask Doris if we can catch a minibus to the hotel from her house, remembering it was a cheap ride.. She tells me that taxis are bonded, and safe, but that the minivans that took in anyone they could cram in for little money, were not. A criminal element realized an opportunity, and began kidnappings and theft via that route. Her brother caught a bus after work one day, and was taken out to the country, robbed of his clothes and money and left tied up and naked in the woods, having to hobble to the nearest house to beg for clothes and a way back home.

I have been reading the local paper, and all of a sudden it becomes a little overwhelming, traveling with five people who are all depending on me to figure this out, in a third world country where I read that 60 assassinations have occurred on the political front this year alone. I am reminded of how alert I must be, it is so easy to be lulled into feeling secure since I am always in the company of people I am familiar with.

I know that all I can do is maintain my presence of mind, and personally my itchy foot is happy to be able to show my children one more new spot, one that I know,. and I have friends there which means a lot. We arrive in a state of exhaustion around 7:30pm that night, after leaving at 11am in the morning.. Although the trip is uncomfortable, the mood of the kids is positive since they know they are going to Antigua... Michelle has stated that she would prefer to stay longer, which I consider a grand triumph.

Doris's parents have hot chocolate and sweet breads from Xela Pan (Pan means bread in Spanish, and this is my favorite bakery in Guatemala)... and I see Doña Juana putting hot cocoa in the baby's bottle. Cringing, I realize she must not have had formula and didn't ask for help. We make arrangements for the hotel in Antigua while there, as well as the bus, and then retire to the hotel.

In the morning I go to Xela Pan and pick up bread for the road (I am so in love with this bread that I have a few of the stale anise sheka's in my freezer... cannot believe customs let it through) and come back to get my crew to catch the early bus. The bakery is the only store open this early. Guess what? My insider’s advice is wrong, and the buses are full until 1:30pm. I check our bags into the station, and catch yet another taxi back to the museum in the parque central, which I have been promised is open. Though it is not, there is usually much to be seen in any central park... and as we turn to look at the vendors and see if formula can be found on a Sunday, Michelle wails.

We have moved around too much, and she has left her precious tiny backpack with Mr. Bear and her homework book, in the taxi. I have no card, number, business name or any other identifying tidbit to locate this taxi in the second largest city in Guatemala. Michelle is ready to call in her chips and melt down. I know it was a new and tiny white car, really tiny... I begin collaring cabs on the street (yes, I also told her that such things happen on trips, tell her it will seem less overwhelming later, recount my own lost bag last time, but I try anyway)...

I call Doris to see if she minds calling cab companies just to see if we can find Mr. Bear. Hunting for a needle in a haystack... She is willing. We find formula, and settle down to wait on the museum steps.

Michelle asks me every other minute if I think there is a chance. Maria wants to explore a new town, Doña Juana wants to be back in her own kitchen, ordering her daughters to care for the baby and baking bread... not traveling or waiting... Brendan just wants to be in the same space as his ipod...

I find that there is going to be a concert in the park, send everyone off to get food and listen to marimba music, and call an old teacher while I am waiting in front of the museum. He comes to visit a little, and tell of his current attempt to become a "Bombero" firefighter... and reflects on how unlikely I am to find Mr. Bear, and as his story ends, the concert ends, and Maria comes to tell me that Doris called her and the cab is on its way...

Michelle gets her bear back, Doris is a heroine, Maria and Doña Juana are charmed, Brendan is truly amazed... Ludwig puts his teacher hat back on and tests my children's Spanish ... everyone is feeling positive and ready to move along, and I am just ready to collapse on the bus... we head back to the bus station and I decide that maybe we will survive this leg of the trip.
All in all, I am very grateful that in its second largest city, in an economically distraught country where people are growing desperate, a taxi driver will cross town to deliver a lost bear...

Photos - a few until Saturday

Here are some of my favorites, until I get to sit with the computer this weekend. Thanks for all the wonderful ideas. Karen, I would really like to talk about diagnosis and issues when I get back. Thank you for the offer.

The first photo is Michelle with traditional Mayan clothes on (minus the sneakers).

The second one is Doña Juana with Emmanuel, and his smile!

Love, K

---

Need a vacation? Get great deals to amazing places on Yahoo! Travel.

Chuj

Chuj is a Mayan dialect spoken by only two groups now, and almost exclusively here. Chuj is also a small concrete block building used as a sauna, and Wednesday night Michelle and I did the Chuj.

Inside is a low bench on one side, and a spigot by the entrance of the other side, with a firebox covered with large rocks on the far corner. A fire is built under the rocks, and a metal bucket full of water placed close to it to heat. A large bowl is next to that, and under the spigot, another bucket with cold water.

Upon entering the chuj you scoop warm water on the rocks producing enough steam to choke a horse. Herbs are placed inside the smoky building, to gently wave around or smack yourself with. Either way they are refreshing. Once you are hot enough, or if you are trying to preserve some heat for the next participant, you mix cold and hot water in the middle bucket to taste, and wash yourself. It is a very rustic experience, and you leave with a smoky flavor...

So we disrobe downstairs at the foundation, in the teacher's bathroom. Wrapped in towels we tiptoe through the cold water in the concrete courtyard, climb the stairs in front of most of San Mateo and round the corner to the chuj. Michelle is greeted by a joyous Clifford, the black puppy that lives there. I get in the Chuj where I put way more hot water on than I can breathe through, and Michelle plays with Clifford until it is breathable again. She comes inside and we huddle together, dropping towels and feeling deliciously warm in this cold place, and in a totally alien environment. We play with the water, she whacks me with the herbs. She is far more interested in washing my body than hers, self-conscious about the exposure. She wants to make steam, mix the water, explore all the variables.

We sit in quiet, she giggles a little once in a while. She wishes she could be in there with a friend to share the experience.

I decide that it doesn't matter that concrete blocks are not attractive, the heat most definitely overrides the aesthetic absence. It is a very good moment to share with my daughter.

---

Looking for a deal? Find great prices on flights and hotels with Yahoo! FareChase.

El Agua

So we are conducting a survey of the households, sampling their drinking water, and passing out water filters, to half the participants now, and half in May of '08, I am learning a lot about how we conduct ourselves as scientists.

I will say this. I conducted water sampling for e-coli in Virginia, and the peak time is summer... and there has not been a single family we have interviewed who has not had diarrhea (sp) this month... I think only one family has an indoor toilet, and no one has an outhouse... No women and few men in my generation or older have been to any school (not because Guatemala is so backwards, but because of the 36 yr old civil war that ended 11 years ago... not long enough for a real infrastructure to take place...)

Yet, many homes have cable TV, and most families that have a man old enough to go, is getting money from the US in remittances and building huge homes... the translation of money to action is personal, not public, and the money is not helping the community to develop at all, or helping the water.

Will they use the filters? I wish I could convince some large bottled water company that their days are numbered, the cost to this earth of the plastic production in our landfills is devastating, and so they need to invest in, and support and promote filtration systems. Perhaps they can convert their industry to utilize this technology somehow... I am not certain many of these people want a low-tech solution... it isn't prestigious and doesn't indicate they are on the way up in the social hierarchy...

In Chile the fog collectors I studied four years ago were not only abandoned by the community they were placed in, designed to capture water from a natural source, where there was no water supply, but the community sabotaged the technology because they felt slighted, and wanted the government to pipe water in to their community like others.... they felt as though they had the same rights as other communities... many communities feel this way... what small steps can we take that will work?

---

Park yourself in front of a world of choices in alternative vehicles.
Visit the Yahoo! Auto Green Center.

Flowers

So the riot of flowers spilling over courtyard walls into the streets of Antigua are not so repeated here. Here, flowers are crazily everywhere, but juxtaposed around bare earth, cinderblock houses and Chujs (more on those later) and sneaking their existence in around the streams that flow higglety pigglety around town. Brilliant colors of orange in some sort of wild lilly that has tiny flowers which make up for their size in their rich, dark and vibrant orangy red color... like stems of miniature gladiolas or maybe tiny orchids, they are everywhere and they calm the eye, startled by their color next to so much construction debris, raw earth and trash.

Fuschias grow as trees or small bushes here, not in pots. Very few hibiscus, many four-o'clocks and some sort of drooping blood-red flower that is a large bush with slender and lovely drooping elongated bells. There are more drooping angle trumpet flowers (Joan you know what I am talking about) in more colors, peachy, orange, purply pink, yellow and white... I have even seen a hydranga in one of the poorest homes I entered, it does a heart good to see flowers to brighten these homes.

---

Fussy? Opinionated? Impossible to please? Perfect. Join Yahoo!'s user panel and lay it on us.

The Temple

San Mateo Ixtatán wraps itself around temple #18, down the divide between two large creeks, and above and around numerous springs that flow from the mountain. In interviewing I have seen the loveliest little water falls flowing down roads, streams flowing under peoples homes in concreted sluices, under main roads through culverts, and through local pilars, for washing clothes. The loveliness is marred by an amazing amount of trash. I guess if you compare this place to the American West 200 years ago, we probably had animals defecating all over the place, muddy streets and trash thrown everywhere too. At some point in time cities would organize themselves to have someone to pick up the trash, but not yet here. A huge problem is that the civil war only ended 10 years ago, so frontier towns like this are struggling to develop infrastructure. There is a trash dump and pick-up, but in our history towns like this didn't have plastic trash that doesn't biodegrade or go away.

The temple is amazing. Grown over with grass, the rocky structure exposed here and there, looking over the ball court which is now used for gatherings, parades, and soccer for the local schools. I sat on top of the temple with some of the teachers in the school, listening to two bands practice, with drums, horns, marimbas and children swaying and stomping to the drumline beat. Magical. Michelle was invited yesterday to go to the temple with four or five girls, three of whom were called Catalina...

They linked arms with her and took off. I lagged behind and let them get out of site, and she had a blast... On top of the temple you can see the town and below (the temple is below the town already). Mothers sit with basket of goods they sell, pigs roam around the ball court, puppies play and a flock of someone's turkeys wanders about. There trash everywhere except the top of the temple. The incentive to clean up the trash you create, or even to pocket it and not throw it down where you make it, is not there. A National Geographic Photographer was here the year I came in 2004, and he complained about being so limited in his ability to take photos because he couldn't get away from the trash.

Yet this morning Brendan and I walked down, and sat on the temple to talk. He was cheery, and full of the video games coming out this fall, how advanced their technology was and which one/s he might want to buy. He looked over the flat top of the temple at the two students at the edge, studying diligently in the peace, and commented that it would be a really great place to study. I got a shot of the girl, laying on her tummy at the edge of the pyramid, with the mountains opening out for miles behind her to the Xela volcanic valley below. It is breathtaking, and everyone here asks me how I like it. It is, breathtaking, heartbreaking, astonishingly lovely and confusingly paradoxical.

As we walked down the temple, back to the school to join the surveyors for the day, we saw boys draped over ancient stellae, reading and writing their homework. Same culture, different time. A pig with ears cocked like Babe, was sitting on the side of another ancient structure, watching us go by, clouds drift through the town offering moments of what seems like fog, and on another ancient grassy building, laundry is set out to dry in the moments of sun the morning brings. These buildings are very different than Tikal, just as old, or older, smaller, unrestored, but still very much in use by the same people who built them.

The kids now are famous, Brendan is the Giganto (giant) and Michelle has a fan club (and the same girls coo and swoon over Brendan). Brendan has learned to greet people and now everyone just lights up when we walk by and he speaks to them... with his Texas/Virginia accent...

Such a mix of cultures and periods of time...

---

Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows.
Yahoo! Answers - Check it out.

Guatemala by Bus

Summer of 2004, I was trying to keep expenses down. I arrived in Guate (Guatemala City) at 11:30am, and was on a 2pm pullman bus for Xela that arrived at 9pm, in the darkness. It was my first time taking switchback roads by bus, and we passed a shuttle minivan that went over the cliff on the way. I saw chicken buses (school buses painted in wild colors and with all sorts of things like chickens tied on top)stopping and emptying their contents to relieve themselves on the hillside, dropping pantalones and lifting skirts communally, and was sure that I was going to drink sparingly every time I needed to travel.

On the chicken buses I rode after that I was usually in cramped conditions, sometimes having to stand for 5-7 hour bus rides, and usually chattering to the people around me.

This time we have taken a pullman bus each time, so that Michelle doesn't have to stand or the kids be smooshed. I have tried to make everything as comfortable as possible on the front end, so they could acclimate as gradually as is possible in such a different surrounding. The first bus we took to Hue hue (which means place of the little old man) was hot but not crowded, and the kids were oblivious to the views and instead wrestled and read and snacked on strange foods the whole way.

Funniest thing was stopping at the Esso station for gas and finding that, no, they didn't have the normal snacks the kids were used to, but they had wonderful muffins with some sort of vegetable, no telling what, not carrot but maybe squash? From Hue hue tenango (tenango means place in nahuatl, a mayan dialect - though there are 22 different mayan languages), we took a pullman and bought our ticket early so the kids got seats with leg room, and picked from the different baked goods and snacks for the trip. No stops on this one, but we continually picked up other passengers as we climbed steeply, ears popping almost right away.

Finally the bus was so full that one gent sat on Michelle's arm, and she was horrified that she had to share her seat. I would have switched with her, but she would have sat with a stranger (well, Victoria who was from barrillas and would have loved for Michelle to join her). I was so cramped my knees were against Brendan's seat back, at chin level!! I was so worried that my knees would be out of whack when walking around here, but no fears there. The door of the bus was flopping open, and someone was continually trying to put the block back to hold it shut... Michelle was directly across from it, but there were so many people on the bus I felt it safe until the last half hour when they all got off and the kids were so bored they wanted to wrestle. I could just see Michelle falling out of her seat, out the door and down the mountain back to Hue heu, the sides of the hills were so steep. Roads here are in excess of 45 degree angles... I have pictures but I am not sure they do justice...

We had met Beth, the director of our foundation, and she sat behind me, but slept. I was too excited to sleep, drinking in every minute as we climbed through two layers of clouds, arriving, finally, in the midst of a bank of clouds in foggy San Mateo.

We conducted interviews this morning, Brendan was a part of six, Michelle two... must go to finish now... This study, like most, has its challenges. No road maps of the town, and people live in such different places and no street numbers or house numbers so no one can really tell us where they live. We gave them pale blue ribbons to put on their doors, and some have, but no surveys have been done here, so the concept is so new, we shall see.

Later!!! K

---

Ready for the edge of your seat? Check out tonight's top picks on Yahoo! TV.

Wednesday

Today we interview and survey twelve families and hand out water filters to some. We are looking at the effects of the water filters over a year, getting a base line of family information and running water samples on the water in the households. Many types of households from modern (cinder block) with TV to brick & wattle with dirt floors and only running water in the pilar (if they have one) (a pilar is a concrete double sink for washing clothes etc.in the yard, with running water - cold only).

Yesterday Michelle had a little tummy bug, I am so thankful it only lasted the morning and she was fine by evening, though tired. We have been so careful about what we eat and drink, but she wants to pet every animal including the pigs... I have hand sanitizer but... at the comedor where we have eaten breakfast there are puppies and she and Brendan are the highlights of the morning as they romp with the puppies. They want to give her one, but she doesn't understand so I can say no without getting in trouble.

I am cooking for the teachers, a challenge as there is little for ingredients that I know.

Off to interview...

K

---

Sick sense of humor? Visit Yahoo! TV's Comedy with an Edge to see what's on, when.

Ixtatán land of sal negra, black salt.

A local legend explains the black salt mines thus;

Two sisters lived with and cared for their brother. One was salty, one was bitter. The salty sister cooked for her brother, and cooked so well the brother favored her. The bitter sister, in jealousy, told the brother that the salty sister blew her nose into the food. Angered by this apparent lack of respect, the brother kicked the salty sister out of his home. The salty sister, in despair, cried herself to death. Her tears became the salt water that flows from the mines that make San Mateo Ixtatán famous... Three springs are blessed by the indigenous elders each year.

---

Choose the right car based on your needs. Check out Yahoo! Autos new Car Finder tool.

Sunday

Hey,

I didn't get on all day today, until now, and I am cooking hashbrowns for all so I haven't much time, but the kids are doing great. We walked all over today looking for the ruins, M was fine and you wouldn't believe how steep the roads are, 45 degrees without any grading or switchbacks, sometimes we are afraid we will all slide down!!! The kids thought everyone was laughing at them, and they stand out but they have learned if they greet everyone they get smiles and lighted up faces.... This will just be a though stream of random impressions until I get pictures up... I try to listen to how the kids are seeing things, and translate it. I see the mountains, and hope in everyone's eyes here.

market day and michelle bought a belt for herself with wild colors, and we built the filter buckets for water filters. We begin handing them out and will survey everyone beginning tomorrow. I supposed to teach some classes, but not sure on what yet!!!

Chickens and more stray dogs than I have ever seen, pigs and turkeys running through the streets, on the roofs (turkeys) and pooping anywhere they want. The streets are half concrete, half dirt, we are living as though it were 100 years ago, muck everywhere when it rains... the kids are learning so much more than I ever thought...

You have to carry your own toilet paper to most places... Michelle and I washed at the local pilar, by hand today, she loved it!!! I sent our clothes out, but her coat got wet. She wants to dress like the locals, but it would be expensive, maybe when we get to Antigua... I think we will make it the whole time!

Michelle played scrabble in Spanish today, all the girls want to braid her hair, but they think it is nicer than theirs, I told them they have lovely hair too... all the girls are in love with Brendan, and as usual he is oblivious, or in this case, slightly terrified... they make swooning actions when he comes around... he ignores it ;

Got to run for dinner... might not be on until tomorrow night or the next...

More later, K

---

Sick sense of humor? Visit Yahoo! TV's Comedy with an Edge to see what's on, when.

San Mateo Ixtatan

Hola de los montañas! Hello from the Cuchamatana Mountains. We traveled on our first bus ride Wednesday, to Huehuetenango (Tenango means pueblo or city in Quiche, a Mayan tongue, one of 22). The kids chose the back seat, roomy but hot. The views were great but the kids experienced their first really difficult time without electronic devices to ease the boredom of the trip. It was good for them, but hard. The mountain views climbing out of the Quetzeltenango valley were spectacular, volcano rising in the distance through the clouds and the patches of corn and little pueblos on the astoundingly steep hills.

Hue huetenango is a bustling town, with streets so narrow I cannot fathom how the traffic manages, and sidewalks so narrow I can barely pass people without turning sideways... but there is a Dominoe's Pizza and other American joints along with tiendas selling plantain flavored bubble gum... and the hotel had modern conveniences like TV, so the kids are leaving their technology behind slowly... Best salsa picante I have ever eaten at dinner, and we picked up a few pastries en route. We met Beth and party at the bus terminal, we were early and got our pick of seats for the kids with leg room, but they were across from the door... more on that later. My seat was so small my knees were up around my chest against the kids seats in front of me... and when the bus hit the road, they didn't shut the door... flying around hairpin curves in mountainous streets with no guard rails and stunning steep ravines, while the door across from my daughter was open half the time...

We got in at dusk, and found San Mateo as I remembered it, incredibly steep roads and people who come up to my navel, looking up at my son as though we had beamed down from some planet of long-legged giants. Michelle's blue eyes are fascinating, but the kids feel rather stared at right now. Two days later and they are feeling comfy running back and forth to the market to get local food and stuff... more later,

K

---

Luggage? GPS? Comic books?
Check out fitting gifts for grads at Yahoo! Search.