Ze Beach

   The beaches on the Pacific coast of Guatemala are incredible! Last weekend I went to a town on the beach called Monterrico with some friends from my group. We spent most of our time swimming in the ocean and lounging in the sun on the black sand. It was very hot out but the cool waters gave balance to the day.

Día de los Muertos in Gutemala. Barriletes.

   A special day in Guatemala is Día de los Muertos, November 1st. During this day, the traditions of the Maya and Mestizo peoples center around ancestor veneration. People spend much time before November 1st cleaning up the tombs or graves of their ancestors in the local cemetery and buying items to decorate them, such as flowers and candles. Then comes the big day in which families spend most of the morning and afternoon in the cemetery, eating, socializing, and remembering their ancestors in different ways.
   Another tradition that has been incorporated into the festivities of Día de los Muertos is the making and flying of barriletes in two certain towns here. Barriletes are kites that range in size from small to gigantic, really huge. The oral history concerning barriletes is that Maya people would use them to send messages to their ancestors. They would attach a small written message near the face of the kite and then fly it very high in the sky, closer to their ancestors, so that it could be read. This practice has evolved into what we saw when we went to Santiago de Sacatepéquez and another town called Sumpango:

-A medium sized barrilete trying to stay up in the air.
These are probably the largest sized ones that can actually fly.

-Tomb with flower and wreath decorations.
The tombs are usually painted with bright colors to correlate with the happiness of the celebration.

-A GIANT barrilete (see its size compared to the people?)
The large ones like this are vividly decorated with colors and many often
portray social themes of Guatemala.

And in Sumpango...

Another important cultural aspect of Guatemala's Día de los Muertos is the food prepared and eaten on this day. A typical drink that I tried in Santiago is called Ponche, a sweet hot drink made from different fruits with fruit pieces in it..so delicious that cold morning! The most notorious food eaten this day and only on this one day of the year, though, is called Fiambre, a mixture of up to maybe 50 ingredients including many meats and vegetables. It is kind of like a cold salad mixture of all of these ingredients with a bit of oil dressing. I was able to try 2 different Fiambres and both were very rich but delicious.

   All in all, our experience of Día de los Muertos in Gutemala was great with the participation in its culturally rich traditions and festivities!

*Updates*

Wow, things here in Guatemala have been so busy lately! New classes and learning material, numerous field trips, holidays, and festivities are filling up our days. Here is a brief photo overview of what has been going on lately:

-Members of our group very excited about visiting this archaeological site, Iximche.
Iximche is the site where the conquest of Guatemala first occured and was carried out.

Gabby and me on our way to her graduation ceremony. She graduated from primary school and will be continuing her studies in January!

-Excavated adobe architecture from the Maya site Kaminaljuyu in the middle of the urban sprawl
of Guatemala City. The face on the small circular stone was carved by the inhabitants of the site
many years ago.

-Me and Annie getting ready for dinner with friends

Maestra de Español

...This is a picture of my Spanish teacher, Marta Lidia, and me. I learn so much from her; my Spanish speaking and writing have improved tremendously! She is a sassy little lady.

Trip to Comalapa, classes ending, more fun events

     Last Friday as a group we went to a town an hour and a half away from Antigua called Comalapa for a cultural excursion. There we visited a Maya priest and participated in a Maya ritual ceremony. In the ceremony each of us lit candles and offered them to our ancestors in front of an altar in the priest's house. The ceremony was very interesting and had a profound effect on some people in the group. One guy was singled out because the candles he lit produced an unusual amount of wax which dripped to the floor; the priest interpreted this to be a sign that his ancestors were not pleased with him. The wax dripping down represented the "lagrimas," or tears of his ancestors.     
     In Comalapa, there are many murals painted along the walls of the main street that depict historical events of Guatemala. As many other visual mediums are here, some of the murals are very graphic but accurately represent the tragic events that have taken place. The mural's depictions begin with the Maya people before the conquest of the Spanish and continue until present day.

A portion of the mural representing pre-conquest Maya cosmovision and practice

Atrocities of the military during the Guatemalan civil war









     I really ejoyed our trip to Comalapa, minus the ride there and back. We rode in small (bouncy) vans, the driver wasn't the best at manual shifting, and the winding roads there all contributed to my motion sickness that lasted the rest of the day.

    

     This past week, our Religion in and History of Guatemala classes ended. Goodbye, Dr. Burnett! She was a very good professor who knows absolutely everything about Guatemala. Tomorrow will begin Archaeology of Mesoamerica and Maya Writing and Hieroglyphs taught be the Dr. David Stuart. I'm looking forward to the change! Yesterday was also the halfway point of our study abroad program; we have seven more weeks to live it up in Antigua or seven weeks to count down until we return home. I will be doing both.

     This past Sunday I went to another soccer game with my family and a couple girls who live in the dorm my host parents own. It was another exciting game, and it was fun to get to know the girls and what they're doing in Antigua.

Back: Me, Flor, and Mette (who lives in the same house as me, from Washington state). Front: Molly (from Wisconsin), then Marian (from England)



Projects Due!

In addition to all the excursions we have been taking, we also have been working hard on final projects for our History of Guatemala and Religion in Guatemala classes. It's hard to believe, but these classes are ending next week!

My map project entitled "Crops Historically Grown in Guatemala"
That knife is a machete.

The most beautiful lake

Last weekend, everyone in our group went to Lake Atitlan for a couple days. I had heard that it was an amazing place, and I confirmed this for myself while I was there. We went on a tour of 3 of the 12 (or more) towns surrounding the lake and also were able to spend a little time in the town we stayed in, Panajachel. The pictures speak for themselves.

This is one of the 3 volcanoes surrounding the lake

The lake is the result of a large crater between the volcanoes. The land steeply rises from the water on all sides.



Sunday morning I woke up around 6 am and swam in the lake; the waters were so calm and fresh. This experience has been my favorite one so far! Would anyone like to return to Lake Atitlan with me in the future?