The day started out DREARY. Not a good way to begin six hours or so of boating and ceramic shopping.
A marked improvement about three hours later. See the volcano across the lake??
The weather didn't completely cooperate for overall photos of the lake, so here are a few shots from the internet, just to get you primed. Being ON the water, made these shots irrelevant, but they're good for context.
I'll admit to a slight infatuation with carved vegetables.
BREAKFAST!!
The hotel.
I'll also admit to a slight infatuation with the Bird of Paradise flower.
Perhaps not as much as Rafa's infatuation.
Conned Rafa into letting me buy a similar piece. You'll see it later.
Would be more appropriate as the dungeon-like entrance to the gym . . . but maybe more apropos, it's the entrance to the day care center!
Spent about $65.00 for a private boat and guide for the ENTIRE day. Visits to four villages on all sides of the lake and hints to find the best local artisans.
Departing the dock at Panajachel.
I promise that none of the photos in this section have been colorized. This is the real light and the real color in this amazing spot on the Earth.
If you MUST build a house on a lake, I recommend choosing THIS lake!
Or, better yet . . . a CLIFF overlooking this lake.
The first stop . . . shades of Gilligan's Island. We told our guide that we were upset that the local thermal spa was closed for cleaning. So, he suggested that we check out the natural hot water springs.
This is Rafa, wondering how long it's going to take me to punch him. Every fifteen seconds or so, a burp of sulfurous water belches from under a rock and warms the tepid water to just above freezing.
I'm exaggerating, of course . . . it's what I do . . . but this is NOT what I had in mind for a relaxing visit to the hot springs.
I'm not submerging anymore. Otherwise, there's no guarantee that I'll be warm enough to care for the cuts on the soles of my feet caused by the volcanic rocks that lead the way back to the safety of the boat.
The evil tour guide and boat captain, Virgilio.
Approaching Santa Catarina Palopó.
Santa Catarina Palopó is a municipality in the Sololá department of Guatemala with a population of a little over 5000 people.
The majority of the residents of the town are indigenous, descending from the Kaqchikel Maya. Kaqchikel is the most common language spoken in the village, though Spanish is widely understood.
Subsistence agriculture and fishing are the means of survival for most families within the community, however, a recently spurred tourist industry has created a market for souvenir style goods and services.
This girl was too young to be in school, but was ADAMANT about Connie buying some of her bracelets.
She was adorable, and DRIVEN. She would not leave.
Fishing boats at rest.
Ducks [patos] in the harbor.
Departing.
Looking back . . .
Volcano through the fog and clouds.
Looking ahead . . .
Approaching San Antonio Palopó
From the dock.
Boy and fat dog.
The ceramics trap. They saw my white skin approaching.
Stick and mud construction. No seismic concerns here!
The proverbial "bull in the ceramic shop."
Ceramic frogs waiting to be painted.
Years of volcanic eruptions and Guatemala’s geology have contributed to creating exposed channels of clay in the rivers: this clay is of very good quality and perfect for making high quality ceramics. Hundreds of years ago the ancient mayas made use of this clay. Starting in the Red Pottery period (AD 1200) mayans used the ceramics they created for utilitarian purposes and also for religious ceremonies, burials and as a means of telling stories.
The unique pottery at San Antonio Palopó has evolved from the ancient Maya pottery influenced by modern techniques. All of the pottery is hand painted and no two pieces are alike. We bought several pieces (some for the new house, some for family members.)
Hammock between the axles.
Back on the water, watching the fishermen.
Look closely and you can see the rivulets on the volcano.
Santiago Atitlán sits on the bay of Lago Atitlan between two volcanos. Volcan San Pedro rises to 9337 feet west of town and Volcan Toliman rises to 10,315 feet southeast of town. Volcan Atitlan, with a summit of 11,535 feet, is south-southeast of town.
The majority of Santiago Atitlan's residents are indigenous Mayans. It was the capital of the Tz'utujil people in pre-Columbian times and its name was Chuitinamit.
Traffic laws be damned! Make way for the tuk-tuks!
Santiago Atitlán is the home of the Cojolya Weaving Center and Museum, founded by the Cojolya Association of Maya Women Weavers. The museum shows the history, tradition, and process of backstrap-loom weaving, and the evolution of the traditional costume of the Tzutujil, the indigenous people of Santiago Atitlán.
Santiago Atitlán was the site of considerable state-sponsored violence during the country's civil war. Some of the most notable incidents that occurred during the war include the assassination of Roman Catholic Priest Stanley Rother by right-wing death squads on 28 July 1981, and the massacre of 14 people (and wounding of 21 others) when the Guatemalan Army opened fire on a crowd of unarmed civilians on 2 December 1990.
Our tour guide (and boat captain) took us to a shop with some of the most beautiful embroidery I've ever seen. Yes, I bought several pieces, some as gifts and a few for framing. It turned out that the matron of the shop, and creator of most of the work, is none other than Doña Concepción Ramírez Mendoza!
Doña Ramírez, was born in Santiago Atitlan on 8 March 1942 in the canton Tzanjuyú.
In 1959, a commission was appointed to go to Santiago Atitlan to search for and photograph the most beautiful indigenous women for inclusion in the numismatics of Guatemala. Ms. Ramírez, then 17 years old, was chosen by the Commission to appear on the 25 Centavos coin.
The back story is AMAZING. From For Every Indio Who Falls: A History of Maya Activism in Guatemala, 1960-1990 by Betsy Konefal:
When activist Mayas segment their history, certain markers are almost always singled out: the conquest, the 1870s Liberal coffee regime, the reformist October Revolution begun in 1944, and the CIA-sponsored coup that overthrew it in 1954. The military (and military-dominated) regimes of the post-1854 period are not seen as homogenous, and some stand out as more repressive and others less so. But even the more moderate tend to be viewed as part of a larger, repressive whole. A relatively open environment accompanied the election of Julio César Méndez Montenegro (1966-1970), for example, yet one activist described it as a time when you could stick your head up, so it could be cut off later.
Repression against Arbenz supporters following the 1954 coup was swift and extensive. By 1956, the first death squads operated in the country. In the 1960s and 1970s, state forces responded to unarmed reform movements with violent repression. Armed guerrilla groups emerged in the east in the 1960s and in the western highland in the 1970s. By 1978, counterinsurgency tactics against them included wholesale slaughter of civilians, as was done in Panzós. In the early 1980s, the armed forces carried out the methodical terror of scorched earth.
In that post-1954 era, there seem to be limitless example to illustrate the state’s absurd pairing of homages to Mayaness and disregard for the rights and needs of living Mayas. A case in point involved one of the most familiar Maya images for all Guatemalans, the woman who profile is featured on the 25 Centavo coin. Though she is unnamed on the coin, a press story in 2002 identified her as Concepción Ramírez Mendoza, a Tz'utujil Maya from Santiago Atitlan, Sololá.
In 1964 Ramírez Mendoza won a contest held by government officials seeking a new visage for the coin. In Santiago, Atitlan women wear a distinctive head wrap, which might explain the state’s choice of the community; Ramírez Mendoza's profile replaced that of another Maya from the same town, a woman featured on the first coin minted in 1948.
Santiago Atitlan was a site of nightmarish counterinsurgency violence, and the symbolic Concepción Ramírez Mendoza, like hundreds in the community, experienced the torment firsthand. Her father, an evangelical pastor named Pedro Ramírez, was torured and killed by the Guatemalan Army in January 1981, along with over twenty other in Satiago Atitlan’s first massacre at a coffee finca in nearby Chacayá.
She became a widow nine years later when her husband, Miguel Reanda, was murdered along with three other men by unidentified assailants. Not small irony, then, that in 1996 Concepción Ramírez Mendoza was recognized by the Guatemalan government as a "national symbol." At that point, the symbolic Ramirez Mendoza was a widow with six children. With her recognition came a small government pension.
One of Ramirez Mendoza's sons, having translated her Tz'utujil into Spanish, pointed out that names and information accompany all other figures on Guatemalan currency, but not on the coin featuring his mother. Ramirez Mendoza added that she had been anonymous through the entire process. Her father had arranged her participation in the contest and had received two Quetzales (approximately two dollars) when she was chosen. "A curious thing," she said, "is that they never asked me my name."
- Concepción Ramirez
PRETTY sure that this kid was a plant. I can hear his parents saying, "Go over there and charm the hell out of this gringo." We spent a LOT of money on art from their gallery.
Dogs and bikes . . .
. . . back on the water.
Back in Panajachel. NO complaints on THIS day.
A quick stop in the city square before heading back to Guatemala City.
Church of St. Francis of Assisi. Built in the 1500s built by the religious order of Franciscans during the Spanish conquest of Guatemala.
We were gone so long, even Peque came to greet us!
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