7/6 -- Explore Guatemala City

We started off driving down the Avenue of the Americas, which is a boulevard with a lovely park between the lanes of traffic. Each block featured one or two nations in the western hemisphere. The people in the rest of the Americas sometimes take issue with us calling our selves Americans because actually the inhabitants of the two continents are all Americans. Most of the countries represented themselves with a statue of a famous person, but the USA had a most unusual presentation -- it was three large sculptures: A ball, a square archway, and a pyramid in what looked like light gray granite.

Along the way, we stopped at Berlin Plaza, where three sections of the Berlin wall were on display, one of which was tipped over.

Three Berlin Wall segments, one intentionally sideways.

Our main visit for the morning was a group called Camino Seguro (Safe Passage) a non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of children and their parents who make their living scavenging at Guatemala City's huge central dump. It was founded by a young woman, Hanley Demming, who came here to learn Spanish in 1997 and a friend took her to the city dump in 1999 where she saw thousands of people, including little kids, scavenging to try to make a living. She asked her parents to sell her car and computer and raised $5000 to start a program to improve their  lives. She was wildly successful. although she didn't live to see how far her idea progressed as she was killed in a car accident in early 2007.

The program currently supplements public education for 600 children from age 1.5 to 6th grade with scholarships to support them through high school. They also created  programs, initially for the mothers, but now fathers are also taking advantage of them, to give them a basic education and to help them become more self-sufficient so that they don't have to work at the dump.

The jars holding materials come from the dump to demonstrate
the value of reuse/recycling.

The program is Montessori like and this girl was practicing
washing things. Activities are self-selected and sharing is
emphasized by limiting the number of students who can do
something at the same time.

This girl was filling used water bottles with
sand and then letting it run out the spout.

This is a class of the youngest students, who start at 1.5 years.

One of the programs to do this is called Creamos (Create). It was originally part of Camino Seguro, but broke off because its efforts to help the women make and sell handicrafts would have more flexibility as a separate entity. The two  programs work together, as the participants have to attend the educational program for 6 months to get the basic reading and math skills to create a business. Another focus is to find ways to make materials from the dump into handicrafts. There were interesting beads made of paper and several hanging flower pots made from horizontal plastic bottles.

After lunch, we headed down Reforma Avenue to the oldest section of the city, known as Zone 1. This boulevard park and different zoo animal sculptures along the way to highlight the nearby zoo. We also stopped to look at an amazing church.

A man promised to build the most elaborate
church in Guatemala City and here it is.

We mounted a plaza by the main road with a good view of a Spanish aqueduct built on top of the  previous Mayan aqueduct, a large banking company (mortgage rates start at 16%), the equivalent of our Federal Bank, a court, and a peace fountain erected at the end of the civil war.

Old Spanish aqueduct

This shows two left hands (closer to the  heart) holding a dove.

The central plaza featured the Metropolitan Cathedral which had a wonderful marble altar piece that was moved from the previous Metropolitan Cathedral in Antigua, a former capitol abandoned  in the 1776 due to repeated earthquakes and their destruction. We also walked in the central plaza and looked at the National Palace before heading back to our  hotel and dinner.

The front of the Metropolitan Cathedral is interesting because
the side bell towers are short. Typically, they are much taller,
but builders discovered they were hazardous in earthquakes.

This marble arch over the altar table moved
from Antigua.

The National Palace is built of greenish stone The tower on
the left has been destroyed and rebuilt twice.

7/5 -- Drive to Guatemala City

Today was mostly driving to cross into Guatemala and arrive at Guatemala City. The border crossing was much faster because we had been there before so Luis only needed to give them a list of our names and passport numbers which he prepared in advance. We again passed many trucks waiting to cross.

We stopped for gas at a town with a huge Sunday market and got a typical 'taxi' ride there -- the back of a pickup. An enterprising young man borrowed money to buy the truck and now helps support the family with taxi work. We shared the road with beasts and tuk-tuks (3-wheel taxis) too.

Boarding our taxi

Competition for the road space....

We started inside a very basic Catholic church that had a black Jesus on the cross. A similar sculpture was commissioned to try to show the indiginous people that Jesus was like every one. However, the Mayans interpreted this as meaning the white one protected them during the day and the black one was for the night.

Outside the church, we met a lady in traditional dress who talked to us and let us take her picture. Most locals do not want to be photographed so we mostly captured the available wares.

This market is aimed at locals because this is not a tourist town. You could buy anything here! We were the oddity and people seemed to enjoy our entertainment value.

Fresh food

Chicken feet and other parts

Stuffed chicken

Utensils and dnnerware

Cookware --  I was kind of tempted by the lovely color, but
had not been able to acquire local currency yet.

We also visited a family famous for their Sunday tomales sales and went to the kitchen to see them at work. They make 400 tamales each Sunday, and if they all sell, the profit is $45.  It is very labor intensive. The worst job is stirring the corn meal mix until it is the right consistency -- about 2 hours for each of 2 batches. Guatemalan tamales are wrapped in banana leaves, not corn husks like back home.

Stirring the corn meal. We asked why they didn't
use a lower stove -- because this is the way it
has always been done.

Pork chunks are soaked in the sauce, then  put on the corn meal
on the banana leaf.

Tying the wrapped tamal with a split reed
before steaming.

We stopped at a mall with a ton of ATMs and local banks -- all open on Sunday-- so that we would have the proper currency. Honduras and Belize are much more accepting of US dollars than Guatemala. We  used the ATM but had brought the wrong ATM card, so the fees were outrageous. At least we had one with cash available.... We wandered around the mall while others got their cash and came to the conclusion that it was aimed at the working class. The best shoes, for example, did not seem as good as what you can get at Payless in the  US.

After lunch we continued our drive. When we got to Guatemala City we mostly worked at catching  up on computer stuff (like this blog) and laundry.

7/4 -- Copan

We started our day at Copan. The site runs through the whole valley, and probably supported  40,000 people in its heyday. The official park is only a small piece of the city and relatively little has been excavated. There are lots of rock mounds everywhere and a our guide, Fito, showed us how to determine when a mound is more than just a pile of rocks. If you see a few rocks stacked like a wall or several rocks whose bases look like they are lined up, that identifies a the edge of a building.

Look for the neat rows that indicate this pile of rock used to be more.

The first discovery of Copan came in 1898, and the city of Copan Ruins grew up around the original diggings. Now the site of the revealed ruins is located a couple miles away. The site was occupied through 16 kings, the last of whom was coronated in 768. We saw a large coronation site, an amphitheater, and the main plaza which sports stone stairs  with about 2000 Mayan hieroglyphs, the most of any Mayan site. Copan is not the largest Mayan community, nor are the temples the most impressive. What makes it special is the art, which is the best in the Mayan world.

Like Ta Prohm in Cambodia, the trees are
trying to take over.

A crocodile at the coronation site.

The 16th king's coronation. It was a time of
unrest apparently, as he had 3 coronations.

A block from his 3rd coronation showing his justification for
the role. He is on the right middle, his father is behind him and
around the rest of the block, each predecessor is shown in order
til the 1st king, middle left, who hands him the scepter of rule.

These steps have about 2000 hieroglyphs on them,
the most in the Mayan world.

We climbed up a couple pyramids. This one was challenging
to come down -- steep, narrow steps,

Partial view of the grand plaza

After lunch in the village, we had some time to explore and we stopped in a souvenir shop in the main square where I found a necklace that exactly matched the color and design of a bracelet I had bought in Mendocino several years ago. I had thought it was done by a local artisan there, but if so they are now marketing their wares in Honduras!! Of course I bought  it.

Back at the hotel, and before our horseback ride, Luis led us up a hill across from our hotel to another site from the same city, which is being excavated now. Unfortunately, they built at least 2 structures on unstable ground and they could  only be restored if they were moved elsewhere. Apparently, one member of the household was a pretender to the 16th crown, so some things were pretty elaborate. However, he does not seem to have had time to finish his stone portrait.Back at the hotel, and before our horseback ride, Luis led us up a hill across from our hotel to another site from the same city, which is being excavated now. Unfortunately, they built at least 2 structures on unstable ground and they could  only be restored if they were moved elsewhere. Apparently, one member of the household was a pretender to the 16th crown, so some things were pretty elaborate. However, he does not seem to have had time to finish his stone portrait.

Collapsed building built on top of a fault

Luis telling us about the ruined temple

Description of what the rubble would have looked like and
what happened to it.

Apparent pretender to the throne -- replica of
detail from collapsed temple.  The original
was never completed

Several of us chose to go on horseback to a typical village at the top of a nearby hill. My horse was determined to be first (not my idea) and worked at passing everybody in front of me. Then he would slow down until another rider came close and our speed would pick up. The same thing happened on the way back down. Fortunately, I can be ok  in a solitary mode. I could sort of hear several conversations between other riders going on behind me, but on Speedy Gonzales, there was no reasonable way to participate. I tried to take a few photos as we went, but that was definitely a challenge,

At the village, we met two of the 6 local kids who have gotten scholarships to a wonderful nearby school that they can attend through high school. Their day is pretty  long though. They get up a 4 am and leave at 5am to walk 4km to a bridge where a car meets them to take them to school. They reverse the process in the afternoon, getting  home at 4:30pm where they have time for homework and friends before an early bedtime. The rest of the village children attend a one-room school for grades 1 to 6, which is as far as most of them go. Early marriage and pregnancy is common here. Although education through 6th grade is mandatory in Honduras, there are villages without schools, so the mandate is not well enforced.

Milton, one of the scholarship students

We met two families: the first had many challenges and the second is doing much better. In the first, the matriarch's husband died 37 years ago and most of her many children have died too, including a daughter who left a now 2 year old daughter last year whom the matriarch is now responsible for. Her mud brick house next door to this one collapsed last year due to seasonal rain  impacts  on the brick so she now lives with her son, his wife, and  kids. There is a running water outside, and an outhouse. Kitchens are separate and wood fired, which  leads to shortened lives for many women, who inhale the smoke. An effort was made to provide better ovens to some groups, but after learning how to use them, people went back to the old ways because it was more familiar.

Collapsed former home. Over the edge in back is water
faucet and outhouse. This is only steps from the son's home.

Matriarch, approximately 72, with 2 grandkids in the background.

Kitchen of more well-to-do family. Instead of one connected
house, each different use has a separate location.

Dinner tonight was at a grilled kebab place with a unique take on food delivery -- waitresses carried it in on their heads, 

7/3 -- Joya de Ceren, Drive to Honduras

We left  San Salvador  at 8am, our luggage packed on a rack on top of our small bus.

The bus for our group of 14 with all our stuff packed on top.

On the way to our first stop, Luis shared more of El Salvador's history. As we passed the American Embassy, he told us it used to be the second biggest in the world, and is still the largest in Latin America. Since El Salvador is so small, this seems surprising, but it is based on the close relationship of our two countries. According to Luis, El Salvador at one time petitioned to become a US state and had a flag very similar to ours.

Our first stop of the day was Joya de Ceren (Jewel of Ceren -- the farmer on whose land this was discovered). This is an ancient site that was buried for centuries under many feet of volcanic ash and only discovered by accident. The area was being excavated to build grain storage silos and a bulldozer driver started plowing through what he recognized as a clay wall structure and immediately stopped. Originally, it was thought that the building only dated 200 years back, but proved to be from 600 AD, following the eruption of a local volcano.

The sort of diagonal cut at the front of this building is from the
bulldozer. It amazes me that the driver had the presence of
mind to realize this might be important.

We started in a small museum with a number of photos and a few artifacts from the excavation. Fortunately, many displays had English translations.  This was a farming village, which is unusual since most excavations are stone buildings for the elite. Clay buildings do not withstand the elements, so the ash is responsible for the state of the preservation. All the excavated areas now have metal roofs to limit further degradation.

Bowl in the museum

The archeologistshave been very clever: when regular holes were found in the clay, they were filled with plaster and revealed the location of internal 'rebar' in walls and things like fence posts.  A sweat lodge with a domed ceiling has a huge dent in it that also collapsed the ceiling, the result of a volcanic rock that landed on it. The sweat lodge has been recreated in a nearby area to better show what the buildings looked like.

Storage shed

Kitchen

Living area

Damaged sweat lodge

Recreated lodge with thatched roof missing from original

From there, we continued our trip to Honduras, by way of Guatemala (the most direct route). Before lunch, we took a quick side trip to a lake in a collapsed crater called  Lake Coatepeque, which was truly beautiful.

After  lunch, we crossed into Guatemala, passing dozens of trucks waiting to cross the border. Ships that are too big for the Panama canal or too cheap to pay the $300,000 crossing fee offload their cargo and have it shipped across a  narrow part of Central America, requiring a couple border crossings. The owners of the cargo, not the drivers, are responsible for submitting the proper paperwork, so sometimes there is a lot of waiting involved.

As a Guatemalan, Luis was more than happy to fill us with information about his country and the challenges it has faced and is still facing,

We arrived at our hotel near the Copan ruins earlier than expected, which gave us a chance to walk a lovely nature path before dinner. After a day of riding on a bus, this felt great. Many of the trees and shrubs were labeled with their names and uses too (unfortunately, not including the beauty below!).

7/2 -- San Salvador

We arrived last evening in San Salvador, and were greeted  with hot humid weather at the airport, which is near the ocean. Fortunately, San Salvador itself is inland and in the hills, so it was a bit more pleasant, however, it is way hotter than we are used to at home where 70 seems like an adequately warm day.

We started at 8am with an introduction to our guide and other trip members. Then we  headed out to look at the caldera of a volcano that last erupted 100 years ago, El Boqueron. Before we hiked up to the  crater rim, we got a look at at twin-peaked volcano in the distance with a lake in front of it from a blasted - out caldera. The view was pretty smoggy, but still interesting.

Our guide gave us a short course on El Salvador's history, including the impact of focusing on coffee growing and how having the US as primary market backfired in the 1930s when the great depression hit. An uprising by the displaced and desperate workers led to a military leadership that miraculously managed to win every election for 70 years. From the point of view of the wealthy landowners (all European descendants), the starving peasants were not only thieves and miscreants but communists. The peasants, on the other hand, saw the laws change to allow the landowners to acquire their lands too, and found the communists willing to help them win justice.  The military killed off 10,000 to 30,000 indigenous people and the eventual 1982 civil war seriously impacted the population. Boys grew up in the army without an education and were only suited to carry guns. 

As a result of the fear people developed, and the number of young men who only knew how to carry a gun, the security guard business is on steroids here. The locals see the presence of guards as ensuring their safety while tourists like us find it scary that people want/need so many guards.

We visited the Museum of the Word and Image which tells the story of the conflict from the oppressed point of view and heard the  story of a man who lost his mother and 3 brothers to the conflict. He now works at the museum and although he knows who killed  his mother,  he refuses to take revenge because his father taught him not to get blood on his hands. At the end, he played a lovely song on his guitar.

After lunch, we went to the Metropolitan Cathedral of the  Holy Savior where a priest who championed the oppressed was interred after his assassination in 1980. In addition to having the priest's bloody shirt on display, it also has a suspended ring over the center of the altar featuring baby angels, representing the children who died at Herod's hands.

From there, we walked thru a depressing collection of markets lining the streets to the Holy Church of the Rosary, which sported a most interesting design. From the outside, it was not immediately recognizable as a church, but the inside was stunning in a spartan kind of way. The roof is stepped in a half circle, and each step 'riser' has randomly shaped chunks of stained glass that change from red shades to blue as you move toward the ceiling.  It was difficult in photos to really capture the wonder of it. It also had the 12 stations of the cross in a very modernistic format.

Outside of the church

Stained glass from the inside

One of the stations of the cross

Our last stop of the day was a military museum to see a  huge relief  map of El Salvador. It gave us a very good idea of the location of the city, the volcanos we saw and visited as well as our route to Honduras tomorrow, I suspect that the altitudes and distances were not in the same scale because of the apparent  height and slope of the mountains. Inside, in addition to photos and examples of war hardware (from the military point of view where the massacre was seen as useful), there was also a 'popemobile', used twice for Pope John Paul II.

We're Off

On our way to an OAT trip called Route of the Maya - exploring Mayan culture and ruins in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize. In Dallas now awaiting the plane to take us south.

Watch this space for updates!!!