Tuesday night, streets of Xela. The festivities were in full swing for Guatemala’s Independence Day on Wednesday the 15th. Bands were in the streets most of the night.
Tuesday night, Parque Central. The festivities continue. People were everywhere. I left around 1:30 am, being the old guy I am. Reports say the streets didn’t start clearing until 4 am.
I like my name, but I didn’t buy any.
There was a pretty good fireworks show at midnight.
The spirit of my boyfriend was here too.
Wednesday afternoon. No classes and most places were closed, so we cooked out and hung out on the roof of the school all day.
Tuesday afternoon. People are lining up for the parade. They love love love parades here. There were about five of them leading up to Independence Day. They also love beauty pageants and Maria de Xela spent hours watching them on TV.
Thursday night. Finally, the fair! It was miles of vendors selling everything under the sun, cheap games, and tons of food, of course. The rides were pretty much the same as any fair. They didn’t have any livestock or biggest pumpkin contests, but that stuff’s not hard to find.
I still like my name, but I didn’t play.
The Ferris Wheel of Death. Usually, ferris wheels aren’t thrill rides. This is a picture of the ferris wheel in motion. The lack of focus isn’t my camera’s fault this time. Powered by a car engine, this is the fastest ferris wheel I’ve ever seen. It goes forwards and backwards at a ridiculous speed. Of course I had to ride it.
Kristyn and I after riding the ferris wheel. Wary, but grateful to be alive.
Naked pictures of women advertising the ride. Gotta love Guatemala.
Friday til Sunday. Lago Atitlan, one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. It’s a lake at an altitude of 5,000 feet, surrounded by mountains over 10,000 feet. We stayed at this awesome place, Mikaso Hotel, owned by some young French-Canadiens. If you visit Guatemala, go there.
You can sorta see the rainbow in the middle of this picture.
Another view from the terrace of the hotel.
Annie and I rented motorcycles Friday afternoon and drove for 2.5 hours around the lake to the hotel instead of taking the 30 minute boat shuttle. We drove through mountains and had to deal with impending darkness, fog with light rain, and horrible roads. We made it safely there. Unfortunately, on the way back, I had some trouble with a road made of loose rocks and laid my bike down. I was fine and the bike was mostly fine, except a big dent in the gas tank that would cost me $350. That supersucked, but it was still worth it.
So, as I mentioned, the roads are awful. Here’s a mudslide we had to traverse. Traffic was stopped and I thought we weren’t going to be allowed through. I forgot that this is Guatemala and everything is at-your-own-risk. Only motorcycles and four-wheel drive trucks were making it through.
That’s my week. It was crazy and fun and awful, all at the same time. I’m feeling quite poor now, so the adventures will have to come cheaply. But that shouldn’t be a problem here.
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