Superman

Jack at Bike City.  A great place for Superman.

Winding Down

Today was filled many goodbyes, and tomorrow morning we will say a few more before we catch the boat to Pana and then the shuttle to La Cuidad.

I look like a mess .... be kind.  Maria is only four years older than Phil.

This is Maria.  She and I had a lovely 45 minute conversation in Spanish (since she doesn´t speak English).  I think I understood everything important.  We went to Santiago via launcha for the festival of their saint.  It was packed and we decided only to stay for an hour before heading back.  We spent two hours altogether on the boat rides.  You can not be in a hurry here, that is for sure.

One of the families we helped through the cooperativa.

 This women is a widow and has eight children.  This is her working in her kitchen.  She doesn´t speak spanish, only Mayan, so Rueben translated.  It takes her three days to make one of these clothes.  She can only get around $4.00 for her work.  Then the tienda will make it into sirivetes and sell them for $7.00 a piece.  I think you can get about four in each one.  So we help with food.  The next two pictures are bedrooms for her and her children.  In large families, only a few children can go to school, so the cooperativa trys to help at least one child go to school in each family that isn´t able to.

 This is another family I visited today.  The father is blind due to an accident in the moutains 8 years ago.  He has a wife and five children.  They live altogether in one room.  Below is the kitchen area of the house.  Notice the walls are bamboo.  The garbage can hold the water for drinking.  They cook with wood.  They have a bathroom space out in the open with people that live next door.  Flies were very heavy, and it is winter here.  I can only imagine in the summer what it is like.

My instructor Ruben.  He insisted I take the pictures and video because people to know of the work of the cooperativa.  It is something very dear to his heart.

I am going to try to upload the video of the Mayan woman working.  I did go out and buy some sirvettes, just in her honor.  If she would of had one completed, I would of bought directly from her just so she would have more money in her pocket, but she didn´t.

I don´t think the video is working, I will try to upload when we get home.

Market Day in ChiChi

We traveled to Chichi market on a chicken bus and believe it or not...there were chickens!  There was almost a little pig, but it didn't make it on.  The bus gets so full that everyone is in everyone else's lap.  Little awkward, especially for Phil since his legs are so long, he didn't really fit in the bus seats.  We went with a man from Arkansas who is living here full time now.  His name is Mike.  He is renting the apartment from our host family and lives right above us......small world!

Then we took a shuttle and, wonder of wonders, we were able to fit 41 people into a 12 passenger van  - including a mother who was nursing.  I am loving it here!

I love the traditional Mayan dress.  All of the women wear it, for the most part.  They have pants, but I never see them on the women, only sometimes the school children.

Very few men wear the traditional Mayan clothes, mostly just the older men.  However when we were driving through Solola, the county seat, all of the men seemed to be wearing them.

The market is full of original art .... it is all handmade.

It is a very busy place.

All of men here carry these bags.  All of them, it is very interesting.  The women do not use these types of bags.

Children are always out...with or without parents.

Every part of the country has its own distinct Mayan language and Mayan type of dress.

Welcome to the Chicken Bus

It is necessary to change busses

When we got back we went out for some texas barbeque, courtesty of a texan who lives here full time, he cooks a real barbeque only once week.  It was a nice change from our usual diet.  Phil was craving real meat.

This is a view of a volcano from San Marcos.  San Marcos is a very small village that caters to New Age foreigners who want meditation, tarot cards, and other things like that.  It is a very quiet and clean village, but definately different than San Pedro.