Last Sunday I enjoyed my first Christmas in Guatemala. I did not, however, celebrate in true Guatemalan style. There were fireworks, which filled the streets with smoke and loud, gunfire-like sounds but not too many bright colors. It seems as though sound is valued over bright colors popping in the sky, which is my preference, but no one asked me. Guatemalans traditionally eat tamales at midnight on the 24th, which are cornmeal and meat boiled in a banana leaf (the christmas ones are special because they put dried fruit in them as well). The other thing that is served at christmas is ponche, a warm fruit punch served with lots of fruit still in it. I didn't have either of those on Christmas because Penni and I were at the beach. Seafood is pretty much impossible to come by here in Quiche (unless you want to figure out how to cook the tiny dried shrimp that sit next to other equally questionable dried animal bits)so we had seafood on the 24th. I really enjoyed the typical Garifuna dish, tapado, which has plantain, coconut milk, fish, shrimp, and crab. It was my first time on the Carribean coast of Guatemala, and although the beaches weren't as nice as I hoped there was still a lot of fun to be had.
We didn't stay long in Rio Dulce but the boat ride between there and Livingston was really pretty. There is a colonial era castle, lots of cranes, cormorants and pelicans and gorgeous tropical foilage. In Livingston we hiked the Siete Altares (seven altars) which is a series of waterfalls that are a short boat ride or an hour and a half hike from the main part of town. We hiked on the way there and then took a taxi for the second half of the way back because rainy season isn't over in that part of the country and we kept getting rained on. We also went Canoeing and had a pelican land in the water less than a foot from the Canoe! It was not scared of us at all and actually seemed like it wanted something. Maybe it is used to tourists throwing bits of food, but we didn't have anything and he eventually went away.
The weekend before Christmas Penni arrived and we hung out in Antigua. Saturday morning we hiked Pacaya, which is an active volcano and we got to roast marshmellows and warm up in a steam vent. It was a much easier hike than Santa Maria in Xela but still had great views of the other surrounding volcanoes. We also had a really fun tour guide who was wearing a leopard print scarf without a trace of irony. This is not terribly uncommon however (men wearing women's fashions unknowingly) because clothes arrive from the states in big bales and then are separated by newness, quality, etc but not by the gender for which they were originally intended. From Antigua we headed back to Cunen so that Penni could get to know my site. We hiked to the waterfall, went to a few of the communities I work in and she met my coworkers and host family.
The first picture is of decorating the Christmas tree my host sister and Melissa's host brother helped me find and the second is from the English class Christmas party. We had baked chicken instead of Turkey but there was stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans and we made brownies for dessert.
It was, unsurprisingly not a very successful month for work, with several meetings cancelled at the last minute by the community members. I hope to get some good work done in January before people are carried away with preparing for the town fair which is January 30th-February 3rd.
