Day 7 May 29
Sololá, Panajachel, and off to Quetzaltenango
The previous evening, we had the usual egg-bean-tortilla combo for dinner. The family-owned restaurant
in San Andres was already
closed, but we simply knocked, and, amazingly enough, they cheerfully fixed us a meal.
We visited Sololá, a predominantly indígena town. The indígenas of Lake Atitlán suffered much from the brutal Spanish conquest. Among them, there is still much mistrust of ladinos or outsiders. The men eyed us hostilely-- vexed, I suspect, by Roberto's strikingly Castillian features. We did not take any pictures. However, I did take another microbial bombardment of my digestive system in the form of a dubious lunch, and another episode in "Montezuma's revenge" against the hated foreigner was soon begun. At Panajachel, the busy tourist town, we passed by streets where expatriate gringo hippies were competing with local Maya vendors in selling tipica handicrafts. The merchandise ranged from colorful cloth pulseras (bracelets), trinkets, hats, shirts, and small souvenirs to more expensive pottery, hand-woven native cloth, bags and costumes, and elaborate woodcarvings. I quickly grew tired of the bric-a-brac shops, the crowds, and the commercialism. Yet there was nearby Atitlán appearing as magical as when I first saw it, a jewel obscuring the surrounding tawdriness. So turning my back to "Gringotenango", I snapped a parting shot of my favorite lake. (From left to right, the volcanos Atitlán, Tolimán, and Cerro de Oro appear above. A fourth, San Pedro, completes the list of neighboring volcanos.) |
From right to left: Mauricio, Madjid, and myself beside our sturdy Subaru. Madjid and I did not understand enough Spanish to die laughing at Mauricio's jokes. Apparently, they were either very funny, very green, or both. Nonetheless, with irrepressible laughter from Alvaro and Roberto, the jolly mood was highly infectious. Eventually, everyone joined in the fun, although I found Mauricio's outrageous gestures and intonation funnier than his comic masterpieces. |
Leaving the beauty of Lake Atitlán, we head for Quetzaltenango, Guatemala's second largest city.
Quetzaltenango is the Aztec word for "place of the quetzal". The beautiful iridescent quetzal is
the national bird, nowadays facing extinction due to the rapid destruction of the highland rainforests,
its natural habitat.
Although considerably large, Quetzaltenango is much smaller than Guatemala City, and so retains a friendliness and small-town charm that La Capital has mostly lost. Overlooking the city is the imposing Santa María volcano, which we planned to climb the next day. Here is a view of the volcano from afar. |
The Roman-style Parque Centro America in the heart of Quetzaltenango's business district. |
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