chichi

sorry, i don't have many pictures for this awesome adventure. i completely forgot about my camera as i was engrossed with the sheer bargain madness, salesmanship, and variety of goods that were being exchanged. chichicastenango is the largest open market in central america. acres of tightly cramped boothes that are loosely covered with bamboo and tarps that are filled with some of the most beautiful crafts, clothing, jewelry, foods and various other crapula that people can't get enough of. sunday morning, the 29th, i left antigua on a pretty nice bus with two of my australian roommates around 7am, switched onto a 30 (over) occupancy astrovan a little bit past halfway, got to chichi by 10, breakfasted, and hit the market by 10:30. a wonderful interchange occurs when a vendor pleads with you to check out their stuff, and 1} you continue walking 2} you check it out and then walk on or 3} you begin the process. THE PROCESS: i would say, and i'm sure there are different schools of thought on this, when i find something i want, i set the price in my head {it's also helpful to get exactly that amount into your pocket for a quick exchange, cash only} then find out what they want for it. they start with something insane that you immediately blow off and start walking away. without fail, the vendor will grab you and say 'no hay problema, yo te daré un buen precio, amigo' {no prob buddy, i'll give you a great price} at this point, you got'em, just say that price that you had in your head and add 'final!' yes, you can bounce back and forth and pay for the fun of negotiating, but really what you´re counting on is the desperation factor which is prevalent in this whole area. you feel bad at first, but then you realize they absolutely will not sell something to you for a loss. so, consequently, there are some things that the price in your head will not buy so you have to give a bit...but then you realize that you're still paying fractions of store prices, even in guatemala. por ejemplo, my fair roommate charlotte scored some authentic jade jewelry for the equivalent of $30, and my boy avi was the toughest of us all as we worked a mean 2 man game when it came to walking away from deals. on the other hand, the joke is probably still on us, because the folks would still sell that stuff for half of that price, but in this case...it's a win-win. i highly recommend hitting up an impoverished or developing nation's largest open market because they love foreigners {money} and you'll never get worked harder for a friendship bracelet in your life. plus, the most impressive part was these kids...4 or 5 years old persuading the hell out of people. when i was 5 i was getting praise for writing my whole name out, even with backwards 'e's, and who said street smarts aren't all you need in this world. in this pic, you can see i put myself in a central american blender, and set to mince. todo hecho de mano.

poltergeist de basquet

a warm, dusty saturday morning in antigua...the air rich with incense, the burnt clutch smell of the chicken buses, and a slight lingering hangover from the recently departed night past. i had been recruited to ball some boys up and consequently, i had not been recruited in vain. the shame i had once felt on a similar cancha {court} playing futbol had now been vindicated. i toyed with the idea of omitting that most of the guys on the court would have probably done better if the object was to kick the ball into the basket...but nevertheless, international glory is something to be beheld. i got a couple of snapshots of the court as it was almost cinematically affixed within an open market, an ancient church which was busling, and a series of ruins that made for a beautiful backdrop amongst the surrounding mountains. one of my teammates insisted that i 'throw one down' for a shot and what you see is the primitive makings of my first trading card, but i jest. later that day, i slept like the cure for handsome was in slumber, as i hadn't physically run in about a month...sorry for the overly self-indulgent post, but it was one of the few times where spanish, competition, and pure g-hood so perfectly coalesced for the young student zanman. up next... domingo! domingo! domingo! chichicastenango.

santa catarina

wednesday, what began as a cloudy-soon to be ruined by rain and pneumonia kind of day metamorped into a beautiful, sunny, pooly educational funfest. we loaded up in a chicken bus around 9am {i'll get some photos soon of those bad boys} and headed for santa catarina de sumpin or rather. and i know i should pay more attention to detail, but i really didn't want to force anyone to write the name of the place all the way out. it is a beautiful area situated in the mountains, with lush vegetation everywhere and a veritable shantytown archipelago in the surrounding valley below. we studied our daily lessons near the pool for about 2 hours and by about 10:30, tons of local kids were littering the pool and slide and frolicking like tadpoles in a glass of sunny d. {i imagine the acid would precipitate more frolicking} anyway, i had to show these lameOs how it's done and hit the pool first with what must be one of the top 5 best cannonballs i've ever made. people are still trying to dry off from that one. i played 'throw the ball around in the pool' with a whole bunch of kiddos for about 30 minutes. i think i was mvp because i was the only one that could get the ball in the deep end. everyone else from the school just lounged around and started sippin mega cola cuba libres, and i soon did likewise. {i included a pic of the teachers pouring a partial cola into a mostly full cola because i loved the frugality of it and the fact that they truly cherished every drop of that cola} we barbecued carne asada. i helped chop a lot of veggies for the fresh salad, and i just soaked up tons of great conversational spanish that really only comes out when you get together a whole bunch of half to fully drunk guatamaltecos. my friend andrew threw the owner of the school into the pool only to find out that he couldn't swim. that caused a minor and temporary panic but moreover a stir of laughter that led me to realize these people not only cherish cola, but brushes with death too. lot's o' fun! a few of us were getting ancy to return to antigua so we just chartered a guy with a pickup to drive us and we stood in the back of an '87 nissan single cab that negotiated a windy, hilly, cobblestone riddled backroad route at a constant 35mph. hey! that felt a lot faster than it sounds. summary: study, natural pool, barbecue, cubas, gallos, near drowning, sun, fun, cola.

we built this city on coca col

 

I think it's safe to say 'they' own everything. this is the base of a lightpost in antigua. and no wonder i can't find a diet sunkist anywhere. i wrote this the same week i arrived and saved it for a day that i didn´t have anything to say. ¡Ese día es hoy!

¡pitala buey!

 

 

sunday morning my aussie roommates and i hit up the stadium in antigua for a pretty good futbol match. Antigua GFC vs. Xinobajul. It was a draw 3-3, but even more exciting because antigua scored in the 88th minute to tie it up. also, in our section i got to hear more spanish expletives than castro's secretary after accidently giving him a dominican cigar. at the half, i also encountered this kid who just so happened to be wearing a t-shirt from my high school. we figured a lot of clothes from the states made it down after a series of mudslides a few years ago, but still... what are the chances?

stuff they got too, vs don't got

 

being the consummate student of world culture and human development, it's only fitting to conduct a little comparison study from time to time. here's a list of things i've discovered in common with ol' america and things that haven't made their way down.

stuff they got too!

1. haircuts (men's unicut, i just sat down and she didn't stop until all my hair was gone)
2. the ford sport trac (seating for 25 in these parts)
3. reebok (this is where it all goes when it doesn't sell in the u.s.)
4. sarcasm (apparently it translates)
5. drivebys (they're done mostly via motor scooter)

stuff they don't got (yet)

1. air conditioning (80 in the shade is fine by me)
2. evidence of cosmetic surgery (every body´s natural)
3. evidence of any surgery (pray for good health)
4. disabled access (if you really wanted to come in, you'd walk)
5. safety (nothing really funny about this one)

monte rico

 

right near da beach! sunday took a day trip with some folks from the school to the black sands of monte rico. 2 hours there, 3 hours back (uphill) and 5 and a half hours of sun, waves, food and brahva. the waves were a bit small for real-deal surfing, but perfect for body surfing and not fully risking death. because the surf is so strong the beach drops down about 20 feet and the waves climb up about 10 or 15. i was showing these local kids how to get in front of the wave and let it propel you rather than just wait for it to crash into them like lameOs. i hope no one died as a result of my instruction. anyway, it was a blazing hot day, i ordered a caldo marisco at a local beach cantina that was jammin some hot latin hits. locals there were getting blitzed and subsequently dehydrated in the heat, and loving it. we later retired to a hotel swimming pool to hang out and the others got food, drinks and some hammock time. i ate again too and had a fairly forgettable pasta plate where the word aldente was somehow lost in translation. nevertheless, it was a nice retreat that was once again easy on the coin purse. in total, i spent about $30 including 2 meals, 2 beers, and roundtrip transpo. i also saw lot of poorly erected huts for homes that while unfortunate for those living there, were actually much more aesthetically pleasing than 20 story condos littering the beachfront. students here are pretty much traveling every weekend to relatively close destinations like these. there are travel agencies on every street in antigua. i think i'm going to take it easy with these whirlwind adventures, but certainly squeeze a few more in before i head back.