After the excitement that was tubing, I have certainly been taking things easy. Stayed for four nights in Antigua which used to be the capital and is a beautiful old colonial town. Had the chance to climb an active volcano but alas my bruises would not allow it. Hopefully will get the chance of more active volcanoes in the months to come. After Antigua we moved into the cold mountains to a little Indian town of Totonicopan. There we got to spend the night with a local family. I stayed with Miguel and Raquel and their two young boys. Miguel is a weaver and tried to teach us how to weave. The weavers of the world have nothing to worry about - I was that bad. It was a great evening and Raquel was the most wonderful cook. We taught Zak (the 10 year old boy) how to play snap and he then taught us a different version of poker! He was a card shark in the making. We could only stay the one night unfortunately, so we packed up and headed off. We moved to Lake Atitlan, which as you can see from the photo is an ugly place. Its surrounded by three volcanoes and takes close to two hours to cross by boat. We crossed the lake to visit Santiago and pay homage to MozzieMan. MozzieMan is a local diety who moves around the island staying one month at a time in a different home. He is a god of drinking, smoking and womanising which the locals really do pray to. When we arrived to make an offering a local couple were praying at his feet. He is a lifesize creation, dressed in local costume with a lit cigarrette in his mouth. The cigarette is not allowed to go out and a man attends to it continually, relacing the spent cigarette with a new one. What with the burning incense MozzieMan can only be descibed as a surreal sight. 15 of us made an offering and he was obviously listening as that evening we all went out, partook in a number of drinks and had a very good night. Whats more we were all able to get up the following morning! My time in Guatamala has now come to an end and tomorrow morning we head off to the border and Honduras.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Gods and Weavers
After the excitement that was tubing, I have certainly been taking things easy. Stayed for four nights in Antigua which used to be the capital and is a beautiful old colonial town. Had the chance to climb an active volcano but alas my bruises would not allow it. Hopefully will get the chance of more active volcanoes in the months to come. After Antigua we moved into the cold mountains to a little Indian town of Totonicopan. There we got to spend the night with a local family. I stayed with Miguel and Raquel and their two young boys. Miguel is a weaver and tried to teach us how to weave. The weavers of the world have nothing to worry about - I was that bad. It was a great evening and Raquel was the most wonderful cook. We taught Zak (the 10 year old boy) how to play snap and he then taught us a different version of poker! He was a card shark in the making. We could only stay the one night unfortunately, so we packed up and headed off. We moved to Lake Atitlan, which as you can see from the photo is an ugly place. Its surrounded by three volcanoes and takes close to two hours to cross by boat. We crossed the lake to visit Santiago and pay homage to MozzieMan. MozzieMan is a local diety who moves around the island staying one month at a time in a different home. He is a god of drinking, smoking and womanising which the locals really do pray to. When we arrived to make an offering a local couple were praying at his feet. He is a lifesize creation, dressed in local costume with a lit cigarrette in his mouth. The cigarette is not allowed to go out and a man attends to it continually, relacing the spent cigarette with a new one. What with the burning incense MozzieMan can only be descibed as a surreal sight. 15 of us made an offering and he was obviously listening as that evening we all went out, partook in a number of drinks and had a very good night. Whats more we were all able to get up the following morning! My time in Guatamala has now come to an end and tomorrow morning we head off to the border and Honduras.
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3 comments:
hey zoe loving the blog still- its not like you to be kneeling before men figures, well he does sound like the perfect man for you?? he he
your having a ball i read- maybe get some arnica for them bruises. In ecuador you'll have the opportunity for more tubing onthe Rio Napa- we had rapids too scarry stuff!!
any power showers in central america?
xx
to my lovely firstborn,withreference to the god of smoking and drinking I pray to the same god.ps. he lives next to the fish pond but only in summer.
xx
Hi Louie,
are you sure mozzie man isn,t Mick Wilby?? was he drinking coffee?...........
Adiós tener cuidado
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