Feb 10

Today is our last day in San Cristóbal.  It has been so lovely that we’ve stayed for longer than planned.

We took a tour of 2 towns: San Juan Chamula and Zinacantan.  Each town was home to a different indigenous group, with somewhat different religious beliefs, different languages and costumes, but all descendents of the Mayans.  In the Chamula church, people lit hundreds of candles, sat on a pine needle covered floor, chanted and sacrificed chickens!!  Our guide gave us a tremendous insight into the people’s resistance to Catholic religion the Spaniards tried to force upon them.  At the same time, the traditions of the Mayan and Catholicism were merged into a single belief system with the Mayan beliefs predominating.

 
             The second village, Zinacantan was home to a far more affluent group.  These were the same people Art and I had visited with on our way from Tuxla.  We were served food from their hearth and pulpa (the local liquor).

  
            In San Cristobal we went to a paper-book making taller or workshop.  Thirty year ago, organized by an American woman, the Maya descendents were tonight to make paper, to print images with silk screen and woodblock to express their traditional beliefs and customs and to give voice to the women.  They are represented world wide and are producing a most beautiful book of Mayan women’s poems and art.  (www.tallerlenateros@yahoo.com). 

 
             There are other projects of this type in San Cristobal, begun by outsiders and by Mexicans themselves to help the indigenous people overcome the poverty, both physical and mental, that was placed upon them as slaves to the Spaniards and second class citizens to the Mexicans.  Many of these projects are working, but Chiapas is still the poorest state in Mexico.  The Zapatista movement is outgrowth of this discontent.

	Chemula church and market
Zinacantan - back strap weavers
Taller Lenateros - paper and printing workshop

Feb. 13

I (Art) am back on my feet again and feeling good. The last three days of riding have been wonderful.  Both the long ups and downs.  Last night we entered Guatemala.  Changed money at the border (65 quetzals for 100 Mexican pesos, about $10US)  and found a nice hotel for about $20US.  Got showers and crossed the one road town.  Both sides of the streets are wall to wall vendors all selling the usual stuff: pots & pans, shoes, and knock off brand name clothes. We can’t understand who buys all this stuff!  The road is busy with tuk-tuks – three wheeled scooters driven like kamakazees by twelve year olds.  This is mixed with large chicken buses filled to over-flowing rushing their passengers to the border.  Lot of activity and noise all up and down the steep climbing road!  We ran across another couple.  He was a retired Canadian professor and his girl friend was a Mexican TV journalist .  They joined us for dinner.  It was difference since they both spoke fluent Spanish and could work out our dinner orders.  They needed to catch an 11pm bus, so we took them back to our hotel where they could rest and relax in one of the hallway lounges at our hotel.

 
             Today we road up into the mountains and into a wildly magnificent river canyon.  Steep mountainsides closed in on us, the clouds clung to the tops of the peaks, the river roared over falls and the sidewall seeped with clear sparkling sheets of water.  As with Mexico, the roadsides were used as trash dumps in places, but it was not hard to lift your eyes above the mess to the mountains.  It was very cool and overcast until around 1pm when the sun and blue sky returned to warm us up.

 
             At about 1:30 we stopped for lunch at a roadside vendor: tamales and soft drinks hit the spot.  Judee said she was tired today and neither of us was ready to do another 40k so we explored a small hotel (Hotel Salome) and decided to crash, rest, read and do laundry.  Our Swiss friends, Joe and Vereni and a German couple rode by as we were settling in.  We hope to join them tomorrow in the next large town.

	Guatemala Border Town
	Chicken Bus and Tuk Tuks
	Road up into the mountains

Feb 15

Bright blue sky, tamales and coffee for breakfast and up, up, up we climb.  We have gained 3,000 ft since crossing the border: pant, pant and drip, drip!  We are greeted by children along the road calling out to us and cheering us on … young women-mothers sitting on their front steps-parches in the sun weaving with back strap looms.  We climb out of the steep river valley high up into a dry brown and green mountain landscape…gone are the fields planted almost vertically up the mountainside…gone are the tomatoes planted right up to the roadside – a narrow strip of ground between the road and drop off into the river below.  Every inch of land seems to be used for producing some sort of crop.  Coffee beans are spread out to dry in small patches next to houses….older women are sorting the beans one at a time as their grandchildren watch.  All the women are dressed in bright native costumes: long wrap skirts tied with a broad sash topped with a bight embroidered blouse and new to Guatemala they wear head wraps of multi-colors.  The men with few exceptions have given up their traditional dress for western clothes of straw cowboy hat or ball caps, shirt and jeans. This mostly because the men come to the US to work at least 6 months out of each year – if possible. 

 
             We came into our hotel to find Viereny and Joe plus the German couple to greet us!  All of us went to a Valentine’s buffet dinner.  Fun night shared with new friends who have invited us to visit their homes when we arrive in Europe.  Last night Judee can down with the “bug” again and I may have it also.  Our plans to take off with the others this morning was put on hold – we are laying over for at least one if not more days to recover – once again!!  At least this is a neat little posada, and inexpensive at about $10 US per night.

Children biking with us
women in native costumes - Pologua market
. Joe, Vierney, and German cycling friends

 
Feb. 16

Well, I have now also come down with the bug.  We can’t figure out why we keep getting sick, when other cyclists we have met are not or at least not four times in four months!  Oh well – we will make the best of our layover to learn more about Guatemala.  The people here are sure small – most of the indigenous people are less than five feet tall!  As we walk the park and markets, we tower over the crowds. One of the differences from Mexico is the number of motorcycles, motorbikes and scooters.  The latter are ridden by school age girls, wearing school uniforms and whizzing around.  In Huehuetenango, Judee noticed fewer traffic control lights and stop signs. People seem to know who has the right of way, but sometimes it all backs up or comes to a stop and horns start to speak.

We bought more meds this morning: local version of Cipro, which has no coating and leaves a horrible taste in your mouth….better to take it with food!  The box says that you should avoid direct sunlight.  How do we do this when we are on the bike for many hours per day in hot weather?

women on scooters

Feb 17

We are both still lagging and don’t have much of an appetite – especially Judee who has been sleeping a lot each day.  Maybe tomorrow we will get some food in each of us so we can take off on Sunday. 

Observation of Judee’s: people here of both sexes sure spit a lot.  They don’t chew, so where did all the spitting come from?  Even beautiful young girls spit!

The days are warm and sunny, blue sky and no clouds ….cool to cold with lots of stars at night.

Feb. 18 

Feeling better, so we took a chicken bus to visit the ruins of Zaculu, capital of the Mams, descents of the Mayans.  The ruins have been poorly restored, all plastered over but provide a good idea in white of what the Mayan temples looked like.  We were lucky to observe an indigenous ceremony.  Six men build a fire four feet around, starting with a design laid out in sugar, filled in with what looked like small pine cones, then covered with all colors of candles and special wood fragments – layer after layer.  Prayers were said by the shaman and the five men and one woman.  The men wore brightly colored sashes and head wraps with western shirts and jeans.  What a unique experience to sit upon the top of a pyramid and observe this ritual.  The view of the mountains from the ruins was wonderful, too.  These are the highest at over 12000 feet, forested with pines and some scrub oaks.

	Zaculeu
	Ceremony
	Zaculeu and mountains

2-23 

Antigua, Guatemala.  We spent three nights in Panajchel, on Lake Atitlan.  We had a lovely large room with a living room on a gorgeous garden.  To get to  Pana, we rode up hills for most of the day and about 3pm, tired, we thumbed a ride.  A Guatemala man picked us up, took us to meet his children and wife and then drove us 30-40 km.  After which he asked-demanded 300 quetzals, about $40 US.  We were angry, but paid!!  I don’t want to take a ride again!!

 
             Down we rode, the most extreme hill to the lake, all three brakes on full and squealing!  The town itself is a tourist trap: everyone has a hand out and bargaining is the game!  We enjoyed great food, a wonderful boat ride on the lake visiting three villages.  The descendants of the Mayan people have settled all around the highland of Guat and each pueblo has some district differences, the most obvious being the women’s clothing.  Much eye candy!

              The lake is also eye candy – over 300m deep, surrounded by three volcanoes – amazing place!!

Onto Panajchel
	Volcano and canoes
	Volcanoes - Lake Atitlan

              Our ride today began with a ride on a chicken bus up the hill out of the lake valley.  Then we rode 90km through beautiful mountains, local villages, and at the end, took a small secondary road into Antigua for a sublime finish to the day.  We secured a clean, plain room with a view of a volcano above the garden courtyard for about $20.  There is supposed to be a Swiss bicycle shop here and Bici needs some new cables.  We may stay a while and then determine our route.  I’ve been campaigning for a look at the Caribbean and to travel across Honduras versus El Salvador.  Art is weakening!

to Honduras

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