Day 4

For most of us, our day began bright and early at 4:30 am with the pleasant sounds of the local policia sirens that circled our hotel several times.  For the rest of us, the day began at 8 am with breakfast, which consisted of panqueques and fresh fruit.  Afterwards, we went back to the hotel for a second before we got back on the bus. We left for the hospital in Toto at around 9:30am, where we met a few of the hospital workers who listened to a presentation by Dr. Rust.  Victor, the Director of the Tulan Institute, also gave us a brief introduction to the work he is doing in Guatemala. We are hoping to learn more about this during the lecture he will be giving us tomorrow morning. After the presentation we left the hospital in Toto and headed to the town of San Andres Xecul to learn some history about the Catholic church there.  We learned that the church was a mixture of the Mayan and Spanish cultures, and we also heard about the significance of the symbolism represented in the architecture of the building, including the colors used in the artwork.

The yellow of the church symbolizes the spirituality of the Mayan community and is the color of corn, which is their main crop.  The green of the church represents nature, which is a very large part of the Mayan culture.  Finally, the red of the church represents the blood of the Guatemalan people that was shed during the Civil Wars.  After taking several photos of the church and the surrounding areas, we went down the mountain to the largest cemetery in Xela. The cemetery was quite different than anything you would see in the States. As seen in the photo below, there are walls which contain numerous coffins cemented into these structures. The cemetery went on for what seemed like forever. The walls ended and a set of stairs led us up a hill to a more familiar cemetery with a beautiful view of the mountains. On the way out of the cemetery, we passed by a funeral procession. Jose, one of our translators, informed us that it was for a taxi driver and there were many taxis and cars beeping their horns in honor of the deceased.

We then ventured off to the market for another round of bargaining. All the girls absolutely loved this one store that consisted of jewelry and purses. The guys did not leave empty handed though; they ended up buying slippers. As we were walking around the main square in Xela, we took part in the celebratory activities for the 490^th anniversary of the city, which consisted of street venders and live entertainment featuring a Spanish band that covered Kings of Leon. For dinner we unanimously decided we wanted helado (ice cream) – an obvious favorite for everyone. Shelby got dinamita (chocolate brownie) and I got chocomenta (mint chocolate chip) which both of us thoroughly enjoyed.

Afterwards, we walked through the arcade. At first, we thought it was going to have games and prizes, but apparently it is a covering between the outside of two buildings that looks like an arch (go figure). Now we are all getting ready to go out for late night snacks and fun in the arcade.

 

 Buenas Noches

 
-Shelby and Emily