Zaculeu - Mam Kingdom

After our trip to Todos Santos, Toby and I decided to take advantage of our time in Huehuetenangango and visit the ruins of Zaculeu, the former Mayan Mam stronghold, on our 1 year anniversary.


Zaculeu was established around 1200 AD, and eventually conquered by the Spaniards on October 27, 1525, after a 4 month siege, by Gonzalo de Alvarado. Their battles were pretty crazy, with people being killed and shoved into any old location. The on-site musuem even has a cut-out view of a clay pot with a human skeleton inside, showing one person's death, and also many other tools, pottery, and things found amongst the structures.


Oddly enough, the United Fruit Company did some very poor renovation of the structures around the seventies. Most temples and altars are covered with a thick layer of concrete/plaster so that the original stones are not showing. Nevertheless, the monuments are quite large and impressive, and the grounds are kept very clean and beautiful. It makes a great place for a picnic for locals and foreigners alike.

Todos Santos Drunken Festival

A few weeks back Toby and I had a few days off work to celebrate the holidays of Día de Los Santos (All Saint's Day) on November 1st and Día de Los Muertos (All Soul's Day or Day of the Dead) on November 2nd. We decided to take the opportunity to travel and experience more of the local culture by attending a town festival. All cities in Guatemala have a patron saint connected with their community and the basis of their week-long festivals. However, in the town of Todos Santos, they fittingly celebrate all saints during the week of Día de Los Santos, and particularly on the first.


We set out at 6am on the 1st to travel to Huehuetenango, from where we planned to catch a van to Todos Santos, way up in the Cuchumatán mountains. Little did we know that no transportation was running to the town that day due to the festival! After a few hours of waiting and deliberation we walked to one last location where we might find transportation, and luckily a pick-up truck driven by a friendly Guatemalan doctor picked us up with a load of Guatemalans. We were on our way...but uncertain how we would make it back or if there was a place to stay...but we were going!


Once in Todos Santos, it was a drunken muddy madness all over. The streets were crowded with locals swaying with their Gallo beer bottles, and many tourists following suit. All the indigenous in this small community wear their traje (typical clothing), including the men, which isn't really the case in most of Guatemala. So it's also a very colorful site of purples, blues, and cute woven hats. It's unbelievable how Guatemalans drink and pass out in the oddest positions laying in mud, rocks, losing their clothing, you name it. This even occurs in our neighborhood in Quiché, but not nearly to the extent of this festival. And, the drunken activities were just beginning...


The true excitement of the day was a drunken horse race that takes place on a mud road with hundreds of people crowding along the route to cheer and watch. Horse owners loan their animals to beer-brave riders for Q10 a lap in which they race madly down and back at the sound of whistles. This can get somewhat chaotic since the riders aren't really in their right state of mind, so falls and crashes are quite common. One accident cracked open a rider's head and left the horse down in the mud to be carried off by many men...and probably later killed. Toby was even offered a free ride in the event by a guy that befriended us, but after the disastrous accident and without medical insurance, there was no way he was going in there!

At around 4pm we decided to try our luck heading back to Huehuetenango, because we didn't want to get stuck in the town with a bunch of raging drunks in the streets. Fortunately, there was one bus heading out of town but only about halfway to where we needed to go, but took it anyway and tried our luck. Almost immediately we were disappointed with our decision when a group of drunk and muddy men started fighting and falling all over me on the bus. They could barely stand as we drove up the narrow mountainside road, only to be propped up by me avoiding getting crushed. The bus driver couldn't take anymore of it though and stopped the bus to kick some of them off, and I I took the opportunity to move farther back into the bus for safety. From then on it was a smoother ride with only one person vomiting out a window in the back and 3 guys breaking open their beer bottles. We were also very thankful to meet a lovely Guatemalan woman who was in the same predicament as us and needed some way back to Huehue. Thanks to God we were able to find a van to drive us back there and we arrived in one piece after a very adventurous day.

Thanksgiving Update: GO PACK GO!

Well as hard as it is being away from family, good food on Thanksgiving, and having to work, I had one thing to look forward to today: watching my beloved Packers kick the Lions butt during the traditional Thanksgiving Day game. However, to my dismay and horror, when I came home from work at lunch to watch the game, the same one that has been advertized on EPSN Latin America all week, it wasn't on. No it wasn't a scheduling error. We simply had no cable. Stupid, unreliable, good for nothing Guatemalan cable had to go out at the very time it could actually feel like Thanksgiving in Guatemala. So today I guess I should be thankful for the reliability of TV in the United States. Lets recap the day: No Turkey (or Tofurkey), no pumpkin pie, no good beer, and no Packers. Welcome to Guatemala!

At least the Packers won!

Happy Thanksgiving

A very Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family. Unfortunately, we have a very long day of work scheduled....as it's not a Guatemalan holiday. We will sneak home for a long lunch though, and try to catch some of the Thanksgiving Packer's game. We don't have any good feast planned since we don't have an oven to bake anything, nor can we find the majority of the cooking ingredients. Oh well! Please think of us, and have an extra helping in our honor.

We are so thankful to God to have all of you in our lives!

Small Town Folks Visit the Big City

In the beginning of the month we were sent on an all expenses paid trip to the big city, otherwise known as Guatemala City, to attend an English teacher's conference. The conference was sponsored by the Guatemalan-American Institute or IGA, a bi-national institution dedicated to promoting the exchange of culture and ideas between the United States of America and Guatemala. With help from funds given to the organization from the United States Embassy, we went to the conference and attended about ten different educational sessions during the two and a half day event. IGA brought in speakers from all over the world; including professionals from the United States, Ireland, Uruguay, Panama, and many more countries. We attended a variety of sessions with topics ranging from using games in the classroom to stimulate learning to how to effectively grade writing assignments of intermediate “English as a Foreign Language” learners.


Although fun and free, the conference didn't come without its share of frustration and typical Guatemalan characteristics. Right off the bat we were sent to about three different rooms to register for the event, although none of these turned out to be the correct location. Additionally and perhaps the most sickening was the lack of respect the Guatemalans showed the speakers at the conference. In numerous sessions we had people arriving very late, talking to their friends or on their cell phones and in general disrespecting the speakers and other participants. Most notable was in one lecture at which were about 500 participants. About 15 minutes before the end of one hour talk about 15 people lingered by the door and finally left quietly. I guess they had had enough. But, then it seems that that had been a signal for others to exit as well as about 100 people in a span of five minutes left the room while the speaker was still talking. Just more examples of the lack of respect within the Guatemalan culture.



Aside from the conference itself, we had a blast staying in a nice hotel with hot water, a bathtub, and a maid that cleaned the room everyday! Can you believe that?!?! The city also gave us a chance to have some good food which included stops at a good Italian joint, Subway, and even an elusive Quiznos we found during our last day in the city. We were like kids in a candy store, marvelling at the four storey malls we visited and having a delicious latte just about everyday from our favorite big city coffee joint "& Cafe". Our last day in town we checked off another location on our list of the 32 Best Places to Visit in Guatemala, checking out the National Archaeological Museum. It was pretty interesting and filled with Mayan artifacts from around the country. We were also surprised to see that our local ruins had been the supplier of the majority of gold pieces on display.


Overall it was a fun and eventful trip, but like always, we were happy to get home to little ole' Quiché.