2019: Guatemala

Jan 15, 2019.  Hotel Girón, Chichicastenango, Guatemala 

• Tough time finding the road, so took a Chicken bus to Chajul, along a surprisingly good road.  Magical entry on foot into the town center, amongst mainly local women in gorgeous outfits, especially head coverings.  Walking between two rows of these women, selling mostly corn, it felt like a scene from The Wizard of Oz, with Dorothy amongst the Munchkins.  Everybody smiling and nodding to me.  A lovely, special moment in time.

• The ride back to Nebaj was something else: crammed into the bus, sitting on a very hot thin metal shelf, my knees jammed into the crotch of a young women next to me, the bus stopping at irregular intervals to stuff even more people aboard.  So glad  when the ride was over.  

• Then a nice long drive to Chichicastenango, which I had visited on a Celas Maya tour many months ago.  But this time it was not a market day, so no tourists.  I liked it better.  Dinner in the market: tostadas, chicken enchilada, some sort of hot drink with milk, all really good. 

Jan 16, 2019.  Hotel Quetzalroo, Guatemala City, Guatemala 

• With a stop to visit the ruins of Iximché, the pre-conquest capital of the Kaqchikel, not much left, but a lovely location.  

• President George Bush visited  Kaqchike in 2007; after he left, Maya elders held a ceremony to purify the site and get rid of any residual “bad energy”.  

• Then a stop at a very popular roadside restaurant for various sausages and other meats, potatoes, chicken soup, garlic toast - impossible to finish it all.  Now back at good old Hotel Quetzalroo, with a ride to the airport promised for tomorrow.