Hi world! We are in Guatemala! It´s really quite exciting to have yet another new country to explore. (: We said goodbye to Camaronal, Costa Rica and our precious sea turtle hatchery. We took a nice bus about 5 hours to Alajuela (just outside of San Jose and the airport) and stayed in a backpackers hostel for the night. We found our new European style home exceeding our expectations. Rustic orange walls, simple white sheets and pillows (for a change!), tiled bath tubs, HOT showers, windows that opened to the center stairs, and a cute pizza parlor next door- the smell of freshly baked pizza wafting in through our rooms. The next morning was our travel day from San Jose to Guatemala city! A simple two hour plane ride and we were in busy, dirty, beautiful Guatemala city.
We stayed with G-22, an organization that focuses on environmental knowledge and forming eco-values. The first morning in the clean and simple G-22 building we were awoken by the soft sunshine peeking through the sheer curtains and the smell of freshly baked sweet rolls and pasteries, accompanied by marmalade, fruit, and hot coffee.
Our mission of the day was to make it to the big market in the center of Guatemala City and learn about the history and culture on the way. We walked, under the clouds and pushed by the cool wind, a few blocks from G-22 to the bus station. It was raised about 4 feet off the ground and one had to pay 1 Quetzal to enter the station, in order to reduce crime rates on this specific public bus line. There were police men and women both at the station and on the bus, which gave me a sense of security (maybe directed more at the fact that they weren´t carrying giant shotguns than at their presence). A ten minute bus ride later, the life of the city burst through the doors, inviting us to explore its richness. So many people- short, tall, dark, light, old, young- were strolling around the wide streets with street art chatting and smiling at us as we passed. Alfredo and Mindy, the talented and kind leaders of G-22, led us down what seemed like a main street, lined with shops and small restaurants serving anything from fried chicken & french fries to frozen yogurt to traditional Guatemalan food.
When we arrived at the main plaza we found an expansive fountain, pigeons roaming and suddenly forming big flocks in the sky above us, a government building in the background, and small carts where old ladies and young men sold artisan crafts & fabric, jewelry, and sweet fruit.
After soaking in our surroundings and taking photos, we continued to the three story maze-like market of Guatemala city. We lowered down a flight of stairs lined with stands of bracelets and crafts to the market. This first level was busy, so I thought, with hundreds of stands that were like small rooms. People sold jewelry, handmade clothing and colorful Mayan fabric covering journals and formed into scarves. It was overwhelming. Every stand was so similar, so cramped together, and so many that one could not navegate the market logically. We had split up once we entered the market, and some of us found a set of steep stairs down to the second floor, their edges again packed with veneors even more than the previous stairs. They led to a large warehouse-like room containing a fresh produce market. Filled with stands of nuts, spices, rice & beans, ready-to-eat cut mango with lime juice and salt, and towering piles of fruits and vegetables. I had never seen so much fresh food in my life. Piles of giant carrots, yellow pineapple, strangely formed and colored papayas, and foods I had never before encountered lay before my eyes. After roaming between the piles of produce lifting their sellers up like kings, I found yet another set of stairs going further down into the market. As soon as I neared them, the smell hit me in a wave. Raw. Grotesque. Flesh. I entered the bottom floor and found raw meat hanging all around me. Rugged men enthusiastic about their bloody work stood laboring behind their crop. I asked one man if I could take a photo, and proud of his harvest, covered in flies, accepted. Once I got the evidence that I had encountered this bloody feast, I almost started to panic as I held my breath searching for another set of stairs leading up to fresh air. At every shop I passed someone would eagerly say, ¨Pase adelante, que buscas, algo especial?¨ which became overwhelming as I didn´t know the appropriate response. Reaching another level I inhaled deeply, releasing my body of the stress accumulated from the sensory overload and frantic energy of the market. I found my group standing in the sunlight at the top of the stairs, proud of my simple purchase of Guatemalan coin earrings. Sharing stories about our individual experience of the market, we started back towards G-22 to rest our tired bodies from the busy afternoon.
Hasta pronto! (: -Kenzie