On Sunday, we drove to a nearby and fairly recently discovered ruin, called Takalik Abaj. It’s still in the process of being excavated, and I’m not sure it’s ever going to be completed. The land belongs to a few different people, and some of them won’t let anybody go onto their properties to uncover these historical gems that illustrate the transition period between Olmec and Mayan cultures. The ruins themselves aren’t too spectacular after seeing Tikal, which is epic, but there are some neat hieroglyphs and sculptures...that I didn't take pictures of. Sorry about that one.
What was fun was that we rode to the ruin on horseback! It was Silver’s first time riding a horse, and we had a good time. I enjoy horseback riding, and the road there was lovely!
After the ruin, we rode back to the coffee plantation/lodge where we’d started out, and ate at their restaurant, where a peacock was walking around and begging for food like a puppy.
Here in La Maquina, school is back in session.
We spent this week just observing. I have been given free reign in regards to determining what I want to do here, so it’s important that I get a feel for the place before making any decisions.
It’s very informal, for all that this is a private school. We just sort of walked around, with everybody turning and staring intently at me as we intruded on each class. Most of the teachers didn’t acknowledge us, except for Silver’s aunt and uncle. The curriculum seems to be pretty specific and doesn't leave room for interference as far as I can tell, so I’ve been having a hard time figuring out where I’m going to fit in. It’s looking more and more like I'm going to focus on the younger kids, who seem to overwhelm their teachers as they do in the US. I also feel like the younger kids will just be generally more receptive to me. The older ones…I’m going to say with a fair amount of confidence that it wouldn’t work out, and leave it at that. This school has thus far made me feel like a fish in an aquarium—everybody is staring intently, but nobody tries to interact with me. I have never felt so blatantly “Other."
I confess that I’ve been really overwhelmed and frustrated, which lead to my first-ever bout of homesickness in my entire life. I’ve been gone for weeks at a time without even having any contact with home, and never experienced even a twinge of homesickness until now. Yesterday—Thursday—Silver drove me up to Mazatenango to get McDonald’s for lunch. I felt better after having some fries and an Oreo McFlurry. Afterwards, we cruised down to Tulate and spent the rest of the afternoon on the black sand beach, playing in the rough surf of the Pacific coastline. I found sand dollars! I admittedly haven’t spent much time on ocean beaches, but this was the first time I’d ever found them in real life, so that was exciting! We got a huge coconut as we left the little beach town, and contently sipped on it on the hour drive back to La Maquina.
Re-reading that paragraph, it's pretty obvious what effect this little outing had on me. I feel better now.
Another fun little nugget from this week: Wednesday we drove up with the soccer team to Retalhuleu, shortened to Reu because even the locals can't pronounce it. There's a sign welcoming you to the town, which has distinguished itself as --I kid you not--The Capitol of The World. En serio. That's not why we were there though. The soccer team went because there was a ceremony where they were being acknowledged as the second place Sub-15 (15 as in age) team in their region in the Coca Cola tournament. The top team was the one actually being acknowledged, because not only did they win the regional Copa Coca Cola, but they went on to win Guatemala's Sub-15 championship, and represented the country in the tournament in South Africa!! Very cool, and very fortunate for this team. They presented all the boys with medals, gave the team it's trophies, fed us and gave us lots of bottles of Coke products, and then there was a performance by the Coca Cola girls. Basically, three girls in Coca Hoe-la gear stood in a spotlight and shook their booties for all these 15-year-old boys. For a good long while. And then they screened the Espana-Germany game for us all to watch. Cultural differences abound. It felt very educational and authentic, despite the fact that Cocoa Cola was being shoved down my protesting throat.
But today is Friday, and apparently the older kids don’t have class on Friday. It’s like an entire day devoted to sports. Nobody is in uniform; everyone is enthralled by the highly organized and competitive games of soccer being played in the large court/courtyard in the center of the school.
Meanwhile, Silver and I are planning our next trip. We leave tomorrow at 3:30am for Panajachel, aka “Gringotenango.” A lot of Guatemalan towns use the suffix “-tenango,” which is like “-burg” or “-ville,” making this fairly derogatory moniker for this town—Gringoville, essentially. Yet I couldn’t be happier about it. For the first time in my life, I am consciously identifying as white. I’ve been feeling so intensely alien—and this exclusively due to my whiteness, as I speak more than sufficient Spanish—that the prospect of being around other white people, being in a place where people won’t stare at me just because I’m fair-skinned and medium-brown-haired and green-eyed, is SUPER-appealing.
Panajachel is one of the towns situated along the coast of Lake Atitlan. Google it. Supposedly the most beautiful lake in the world, beating out Italy’s Lake Como hands-down. When I visited in 2007 it was foggy and overcast, so I’m excited to have the opportunity to make up for that disappointment.
Don't worry about my homesickness or sadness though. I'm pretty much over it already, but that's why I didn't post this week. I didn't want anybody worrying about me.
For now, a nice video clip of a road close by here, where an overflowing and super-intense river overtook the street.
