Los Banditos

Hello all,

I thought i’d wade in with a blog as Lorna has written the last couple.

We’re in Flores at the moment in Guatemala, after a really long day getting from Palenque; 2 buses, 2 boats and a pickup truck (plus 4 hours sitting around waiting for said buses and boats). So that’s the end of Mexico.

It was pretty different to how Hollywood portrays it. There was no desert, Mexico City had no hassle or polution, the countryside was really beautiful and luscious, we only saw one set of bandits and none of them had droopy moustaches or bullet belts.

Our Spanish is faring rather badly. We can just about say what we want to in most cases but we’re struggling to understand the really fast replies.

Mexico has too many speed bumps. (and too many re-fried beans)

So to carry on from Lorna’s last post, we went on a tour from San Cristobal up into the hills nearby taking in a couple of Mayan villages. All Mayan women seem to wear the same outfit which is quite odd. Apparently the Spanish made them do it in the 16th century so they could herd them more effectively and they never got around to getting changed.

In the first village a lot of the local men were out of town as they were merchants (or Martians as our guide said) so everyone looked the same. Then to just to eliminate any aspect of individuality the remaining men were dressing up in sheepskin to celebrate one of the million saints. They’re sort of Catholics, but with extra smoke, candles and some remainder beliefs from the Mayan religions, and minus the priests. The ceremony they performed for this particular saint involved loads of bands all playing different music at the same time, quite a few fireworks and a big march all towards the church. Once inside they lit as many candles as they could (I think it was 10 per saint), smoked out the place with some extra smokey coals, killed a chicken by breaking its neck, buried the chicken, waved eggs over themselves, buried the eggs and drank Coca Cola. (I think any fizzy drink would do). This cured them of all illness apparently. There was also rum involved I think.

So after San Cristobal we got a bus through the hills to Palenque which is a little town in the jungle. Just outside the town there are some of the most amazing ruins of the old Mayan world, all set in the jungle. We spent around 4 hours climbing up the pyramids in the torrential rain and learning about the old empire that was controlled from there. The day before Lorna had taken (dragged) me to an interpretive dance version of the downfall of Palenque and the death of the king, so in theory I know all about what happened. Palenque certainly is quite an impressive place and i’d definitely recommend you go there.

I would write more on the nice temples and the two huge waterfalls we went swimming in afterwards, but we’re booked on a tour to Tikal starting at 3.30am tomorrow so I need some sleep.

Hope you’re all well.

See you soon

Chris (and Lorna)