From San Pascual altar just outside of Chichicastenango. You have to walk through the woods and up a small hill to reach the site. Mayan leaders often perform ceremonies (based on Christian and Mayan beliefs) here.

Tajumulco is the highest point in Central America. The summit is about 13,800 feet. That's probably the highest place I've been by 2,000 feet. It was grueling trek through mud, rain, hail, and lightning. I can't write much more because I'm working on the article. But I can tell each of you in person when I get back.

But in the meantime, I've got some video. So, 7 of us were stuck in a tent from about 3:00pm to 3:30am. Ehud (the Israeli) was asleep when I made this. He is a really cool guy who spent 4 years in the IDF. But everyone else was awake. So, just a short, simple introduction of my fellow trekkers.

La Mordida...A Cat and Mouse story

La mordida is a Spanish word for ¨bite¨ (like what a dog might do). It also means something else--paying off the police.

Last night I was at a bar that stays open after the official close of business. Bars of this sort hire workers to hide outside and watch for local police. When the guard spots the police, he immediately alerts the bar mananger. Everything in the bar stops. The lights go out. The music stops. People stop talking.

Then the knocking starts.

The police know which bars stay open late. They need only to catch a bar in the act of operating and then extort a given amount of cash. SO, the police started knocking on the bar door and ringing the door bell. Their knocking and ringing, of course, is met with silence.

Sometimes the subterfuge works, and the police move on to the next bar. Last night it didn´t. The bar had to hand over 300 quetzales (about $40.00) No one gets arrested; there are no ¨official¨fines to pay for staying open late. One local I asked told me that each week a given bar has to pay up. It is simply the cost of doing business in Guatemala.

I made the video several days ago and just haven´t been able to upload it. No script makes for bad dialogue. But hopefully this give you more of an idea of the house in which I´m living.

(The dog is named Thor.)

Hola from Xela

I made it to Xela (pronounced: shay-luh) on Sunday. And I've been trying to get a feel for the city. I have a couple of videos to post, but I need to find a faster internet connection. I will say that the city is not immediately what I expected. It's definitely a big city (300,000 people compared to Antigua's 35,000).

I promise to post more as soon as I can! Please check back soon.

Swine Flu Redux?

I thought the "swine flu" had run its course. But I guess I was wrong. At the airport when I flew in I had to fill out a health form asking me a bunch of questions such as "Do I feel ill? Have a fever? etc." I then handed the form to a masked agent who briefly read it over and put it in a pile. I though that was the last of it.

Earlier this week, schools across Guatemala were shut down. I have heard 2 versions of this story. The first version is that the shutdown is part of a nationwide strategy to curb any resergence in the disease. The other story is that the schools were slated to close anyway for a brief recess in the normal schedule.

I can't say what the real story is. But according to the AP story linked above 11 people in the last 24 hours have become infected.

When is a Streetcorner Dangerous?

Earlier this week my Spanish teacher told me a story about what happened to her nephew in the early 1980s. During the worst years of the war in Guatemala, Antigua was relatively safe. Most of the guerilla activity was in the mountains surrounding the town rather than in the town itself. Antigua wasn't safe enough.


Her nephew was waiting for his girlfriend one evening at the street corner (above) when he was approached by what amounted to secret police. He was held in a jail in Guatemala city for 2 weeks and tortured. Later, they released him. Sometime after his release, her nephew saw the man who had tortured him. But he could not bring himself to say the man's name much less press charges or seek any sort of legal remedy.