On December 9, 2011, we were very surprised to find that it was already Friday. Perhaps the all-night flight on Tuesday threw us off. That morning, I went jogging with Linette to the central square, where I pulled money out of the ATM to pay part of our rent for the week, since the bed and breakfast didn't take credit cards(!). After shoving several hundred dollars worth of Quetzals into my pocket, we jogged home, hoping we'd be faster than any muggers on the way.
After showering, I found a nice spot in the upstairs courtyard of the bed and breakfast where I wrote in the little black journal that Stephanie Summers had given each of us. It was neat to write a little of what had gone on so far, and the morning and setting couldn't have been nicer.
The plan that day was to drive to Huehuetenango (weh-weh-teh-NAHNG-go) and see the nearby ruins. We wanted to drop by the mission office in Quetzaltenango to get directions and also to say hi to the missionaries.
When we got to where the mission office had been 20 years ago, it was no longer there. Fortunately, there was still a chapel, and there was a sign saying what the new address of the mission office is. Across the street we saw these ladies patting tortillas out by hand.
We drove around looking for the office but the second time we ended up at a car repair yard with the same address, we realized the office was in a different "zone" in the city, which was outside our little map.
So we went to the central square and pulled over to call the office so the missionaries could come show us the way to the office. While the others were inside making the call, I practiced my Spanish with this lady on the street, who was selling cool hand-made textiles. Linette was surprised to find me out there talking away. I had had Spanish in high school, and Linette and I sometimes spoke Spanish in front of the kids when we wanted to say something secret (although Kelsi is getting pretty good at understanding it). For a couple months before our trip, I also went through the excellent free video lessons on spanishdict.com, which was very helpful.
The missionaries showed up in their car and led us back to the mission office, where we said hi to the missionaries there. We asked if we could have some copies of the Book of Mormon (El Libro de Mormon), in case we had an opportunity to give any out, and they gave us five.
We took a quick side trip over to the mission home, where we had a brief chat with the mission president's wife.
When we went back to the mission office to get our car, we bumped into an Elder Westenskow from Riverton, Utah. It turns out that his family was in our ward a couple of years back, and had moved back to Riverton recently. Small world! We took a picture to show his parents when we got home.
We got directions to Huehuetenango, and we were on our way, with Stephanie Summers taking a turn driving that day. I continued taking pictures out the window so we wouldn't miss out if, say, we happened to see a lady walking along with a pot on her head.
Below is a picture of a "chicken bus". These are decommissioned American school buses that have been sold to Guatemala and fixed up and "pimped out". They are the most popular mode of transportation for most of the people, especially the poor people. You can put anything on these things, including chickens, big bundles for market, and an unlimited number of people. One of my goals for the trip was to ride a chicken bus at least once. (See an upcoming episode for more on that).
Here's one chicken bus that shows the all-out paint jobs they do on them.
Here are some ladies getting on one in the middle of nowhere, where they probably live.
And here's a good demonstration of how there is no limit to how many people or how much stuff can go in (or on) a single bus. They'll load stuff on top, too.
Well, ok, maybe they don't put everything on these busses...
One of my favorite parts of the day was just seeing all the stuff in the towns and along the highway. (This pictures shows a basket on the head, baby on the back, pink dresses, little kid with a practice bundle on her back.)
Here you can see corn being dried on the roof to make tortillas.
Young gal taking care of a younger one...
Especially heavy or awkward loads go on the back, with a strap around the forehead. This is also how boys and men almost always carry their loads.
Most of the indigenous people still cook over firewood that they gather from the jungles.
If you look close, there's a kid hanging out of the top left corner of this truck. We caught his eye as we drove behind this truck for a while. There is almost never a safe place to pass on the winding roads across the mountainous highlands.
Linette thought she would be able to read her book, but she's still on page 1 after two hours. Too much to see.
I was amazed to see this little kid on this scooter. Hold on!
Wide load.
When we reached the town of Huehuetenango, we got gas (and ice cream bars) and asked for directions. A customer at the gas station said he lived right by the ruins and would show us the way. Linette and Stephanie talked with him for a while, and found that he had relatives who were LDS (even a nephew on a mission). He didn't have a Book of Mormon, so Stephanie ran back to the car and got him one. Then we followed him and his family to their driveway, where he showed us that the ruins were just down the street. I was proud of our "sister missionaries".
The actual ruins were called "Zaculeu" (zah-koo-LEH-oo), and it cost 10 times as much for tourists as locals, but it was still pretty cheap to get in (50Q=$7).
These pyramids were still in active use when the Spanish arrived in the 1600s. After the conquistadors conquered the area in a siege lasting several months, the site was abandoned and the pyramids were taken over by the jungle and became ruins, until they were restored in the 1940s.
Here is me and Linette at the top of the largest pyramid.
You can see another pyramid from the top of this same one.
Here is Neal doing the old "Oh no! I'm falling off the pyramid!" picture.
Don't drop the baby! The stairs were really steep. I had fun getting that baby to smile when they were on the same pyramid as us.
More views from the top of the main pyramid. The mounds are additional structures that have not been excavated.
This tour guide was a former stake president that the missionaries told us we might bump into.
Here is me and Linette waving and taking a picture of Neal and Stephanie, while they're taking a picture of us.
And, right back at you.
It was a beautiful day. In the fields below, we saw families having picnics and little kids playing soccer.
While there, we saw a gal doing some hand weaving. As is typical, you can see that she has tied one end to something, and has the other end around her waist. She can then put tension by leaning back a little while she waves.
We wondered if some of these textiles were being mass-produced, but after watching them work, it was clear that they're really all being made by hand.
And, of course, we did a little shopping while we were there. Neal said, "I can shop with the best of them."
Everywhere we went we saw volcanoes. The clouds tended to form at their tips, making them look like they were erupting.
That night, back in Quetzaltenango, Yamilet invited us over for a traditional Xela dinner, consisting of chicken cooked with two types of chili, sesame and cinnamon. She also served a delicious warm drink with cinnamon, cloves and chunks of fruit, which was a lot like wassail.
At one point, Yamilet was serving dinner and said to her husband "Si, mi vida," which means "Yes, my life." Neal and I thought that was pretty good and elbowed Reyes a little bit, while he laughed. Since Yamilet was serving, Linette and Stephanie jumped up and served their husbands, too. Stephanie said "¿Como se dice, 'Don't get used to it'?", which I thought was the greatest comment of the whole evening. When I mentioned that comment the next day, Stephanie didn't even remember making it, but I thought it was classic that she prefaced it with "¿Como se dice...?" ("How do you say...?").
We had a wonderful dinner. We complimented Yamilet on the table runner (shown in the middle of the table above) that she had painted by hand. After dinner was over and we had talked for a while, her children, "Kevin Spencer" and "Kimberly" arrived, along with their young men leader. They had been at a practice for the cultural celebration the next night. Linette remembered that when they had been companions, Yamilet had said she wanted to have a boy named Kevin. Kevin Spencer was a fun, lively kid and used some expressions that Linette hadn't heard since her mission, like "¡Sa-ber!" (used to express "How would I know?"), and "¡Ala gran!" or "¡Puchica!" (POO-chee-kah) (both sort of meaning "wow!").
What a great family! As I mentioned, Yamilet is the stake relief society president, and was excited that she would soon be trained as a temple worker. Reyes had been a bishop (I'm not sure of his current calling). It was just so neat to see this powerful, spiritual family in this faraway corner of the world. It was because of families like this that the area was prepared to receive a new temple.
Tune in next time for Episode V, In Which Randy & Linette board a chicken bus on a quest for old friends in the nearby town of Cantel.
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