Todos Santos

View of the Altiplano

Saturday! We got up this morning and had a wonderful breakfast of eggs, beans, and tortillas from Abesaida before packing up our things and walking to the bus station. Next week we are scheduled to spend Monday and Tuesday in Santa Eulalia (ay-oo-la-lee-uh), a town which is along the same road as San Juan Ixcoy (up and over the altiplano). We had decided to spend the weekend in Todos Santos Cuchumatán, then travel from there to Santa Eulalia.

Todos Santos from Above

Anyone who has traveled in Central America that taking a bus from A to B is never as simple as Uber. You go to the “terminal” which is a largish area with many buses and drivers and vendors going all which ways, then you ask at least 5 people where is the bus to the place you are going, and cross fingers that it didn’t just leave or is more than a few hours wait. Today we got lucky and got on board the mini-bus to Todos Santos, an amazing community nestled in a valley coming from the Altiplano.

Men of Todos Santos surveying the town square

Todos Santos Cuchumatán (the Cuchumatánes is the mountain range of the altiplano) is a community with a very strong self identity and bond that not all cities in Guatemala share. All of the men wear a very specific outfit with red pants, striped coat, a straw hat, and sometimes black chaps. The women have an outfit that often includes the hat, along with the traditional huipil (wee-peel, which is the top), the corte (a length of fabric which forms the skirt), and the cinta (seen-ta) belt. Mam is the predominant language, although most people speak a mix of Spanish and Mam.

Cemetery in Todos Santos

The real goal of the weekend was to get out of the city and come to a town and do some hiking. We managed to take a very long hike above and around the city, traveling though old Mayan ruins and stopping at a cemetery. Everyone we met along the way wished us a good afternoon, often in a sing-songy “buenas taaaardes”. Finally, we had dinner at our small hotel and met with our guide Rigoberto for our intended hike tomorrow.

We also met a few women weaving traditional Mayan cloth who were super nice and let us take a picture.