Down Time

Main street in Todo Santos

SATURDAY

In the days leading up to Saturday, we made plans to go on a five hour walk from the town of Todos Santos Cachumatán to a town called San Juan Atitán. As the best made plans go, so did this one. All of us were feeling fairly run down, both Bob and Melissa were feeling ill as well. So while Bob caught up on rest and was pampered by Abesaida, the rest of us set out around 7am to the bus terminal near downtown Huehuetenango. We shortly found out that a bus to Todos Santos wouldn't be leaving for about 3 hours, but we found a microbus that would take us 2/3 of the way and hoped to catch another bus from there.

Crossroads on the altiplano

The bus from Huehue, which sits at an elevation of 6,200 feet, climbs a 3,000 foot switchback road to a lookout called "el mirador" (the viewpoint), then upward through a region called the "altiplano" (high plain)  which sits at about 10K feet). We got off the bus at the crossroads which leads to Todos Santos and had an hour or so to appreciate the effects of high altitude.

Men in Todos Santos

We caught the bus and descended into Todos Santos which sits in a valley at 8,200 feet. Todos Santos is an amazing small town that celebrates its annual feast day on November first which is All Saints Day (Todos Santos). The local language is Mam, as in the village of Polajá. In most Mayan towns, the women's clothes stand out due to the brilliant colors of the hand woven fabric. In Todo Santos, it is the traje (uniform) of the men that stands out, with striped shirts that have hand woven collars, red pant, a panama style hat, and often black chaps.

Suzy and Santiago

After having a late lunch, we walked through the market into a cooperative textile shop where (surprise) Suzy knew the proprietor Santiaga from 20 years ago. She showed us around her shop while catching up with Suzy over kids and grandkids. Fortunately we were still inside the shop when a big thunderstorm struck and buckets of rain started coming down. We realized that we weren't going on a 5 hour hike and decided to sit down and have some coffee and made the best of it by meeting a new friend, Katia (in the picture) who was 8 years old and baby sitting the 1 year old grandchild of Santiaga. She taught us Mam words, like "Chonte" for thank you.

Suzy, Katia, and Melissa

We headed home on a 3 hour bus ride that was a true chicken bus experience, a true Blue Bird bus with boxes of baby chickens in the luggage rack. The three of us barely squeezed into the back door with the central aisle crammed with bodies. Most of the ride went smoothly until we were approached by a borracho (drunk) who had lost his manners.

SUNDAY

Mercado in Huehuetenango

Sunday we slept in until 9am! Our intent was to stick around town and take it easy. We took a 15 minute walk from Abesaida's house to the downtown market to explore. As with many marketplaces in developing countries, Huehue bustled with noise, cars, motorcycles, and lots of people. What stood out was that despite being in mid day it did not get too hot, and that we saw perhaps 2 or 3 other foreigners.

Suzy and don Samuel, Abesaida's dad

Later in the day, we had a grand lunch with all of Abesaida's children, Manuel, Evelyn, and Pati. As we have mentioned before, Abesaida is an incredible cook, and she outdid herself with todays lunch. The main dish was rice and chicken with a delicious sauce made from too many spices to name. Of course every meal is served with small thick corn tortillas. Along with lunch, there were several jokes told, including Bob's rendition of the priest, minister, and rabbi trying to convert the bear.

Ruins of Zaculeu

After lunch we visited Zaculeu (see link), a few kilometers outside of Huehue. Zaculeu was the capital of the Mam kingdom for several hundred years until it was taken over by the Ki'che' and ultimately fell to the Spanish in 1525 who besieged the city for months until the residents gave up instead of starving. United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) restored Zaculeu to its present condition in the 1940's before collaborating with the CiA in overthrowing Jacobo Árbenz in 1954.

Chillin in Chiantla with Pati

To wind up the day, we visited Nuestra Señora de Chiantla (our lady of Chiantla), a silver statue of Mary in the church of the nearby town of Chiantla. The visit included a trip to a store where they made "chocobananas" by dipping frozen bananas in chocolate. We came back to Huehue to plan for our two day trip to work with comadronas (midwives) in the surrounding towns of Santa Eulalia and Todos Santos.