I love Spanish school (yes I am just as shocked as you are that I would ever write that sentence), but I really do for 2 reasons. The first reason is Gladys. She is my teacher and is simply amazing. I am just as close to her as I am to anyone else down here if not closer because when we have our lessons it is just the 2 of us talking for 4 hours at a time. I have had 6 lessons so far, so we have spent 24 hours sitting together and talking since I've been here. The lessons are really more like having a coffee date with a friend than actual class. She teaches me words and then we practice them through questions and answers which just leads to us talking about our lives and me telling her about Texas and her teaching me about Guatemala. The thing I like most about Gladys is her sense of humor. She has a very similar one to mine which results in us spending most of the 4 hours a day laughing and joking around. It is becoming a beautiful friendship that I am blessed to have.
The second reason why I love going to Spanish school is that some afternoons they have activities for the students for great prices. I have been on a couple of the activities, and am always amazed at how cheap it is. Last week I visited 2 other villages, went to several churches, and visited a pottery factory all for $2.20. This afternoon we went to San Jorge to go on a hike and visit a Mayan ritual cave and it only cost me $2. Tomorrow we are going to a Nature Reserve (where they have monkeys!!!!!!!!) and it is only costing $5.80. I love that the school offers these trips because they are teaching me so much about the area of Guatemala that I'm living in. Not to mention all the beautiful photography opportunities I am most grateful for.
So after an hour of Spanish lessons Gladys, a few other students and their teachers, and I walked across town to catch a chicken bus (it's actually what it's called) to San Jorge which the village to the right of Pana on the lake. The chicken bus was crazy packed when we got on it, and I sat there amazed when about 40 other people got on after us. After about 15 minutes we got off and started our hike up the mountain. We hiked for about 25 minutes to get to the cave. The path we went on (if you can even call it that) was right on the cliff overlooking the lake. I basically hugged the mountain and prayed the entire hike. At one point one of the other students slipped a little and I freaked out. If you've ever spent more than 2 minutes with me you know how big of a klutz I am and how much I fall down. Thankfully we finally made it to the cave and it was well worth it.
It was impossible to get the entire opening of the cave into one picture, because the trail wasn't that far away from it, but you can sort of tell from these how big it was.
When we walked into the cave there was a Sacerdote (person who does the rituals) speaking in Kaqchikel (Mayan language for this village) and lighting candles. Gladys taught me what each candle meant and why it was important the order he lit them in.
The inside of the cave was beautiful. When you touched the ceiling of the cave sut would come off in your hand. I don't know if that is just what the layers on the ceiling is made of, or it there is just so much sut because of all the flames they have in the cave. At almost every ritual some kind of animal (usually a chicken/bird) is sacrificed. There were several different spots that were still smoking from the last sacrifice. When I was in Chichicastenago in August with the mission trip we walked through a cemetery and I saw a couple of chickens being sacrificed. Surprisingly enough I wasn't grossed out like I thought I would be, but rather I thought it was beautiful to watch the ritual. I got the same feeling today in the cave. I have always been fascinated by other religions, and loved being able to witness their sacred rituals first hand. However, of course I do wish the poor chickens could just be there to watch the ritual with me and not play the starring role.
After we hiked back up to the road we walked over to Gladys' house, so I could meet her sons. Gladys and her husband both work at the Spanish school in Pana, and their 2 boys are adorable. They came on the second part of the hike with us. I started to walk behind Gladys so I could wave and make the baby smile. From her house it took us about 20 minutes to get to the very top of the mountain. The paths were just as scary as before, so Gladys stayed behind with her sons and didn't go to the very top with us.
The last 5 minutes of the hike was just climbing up lots of boulders like this one. Yes I did start praying again and when it was time to come down I scooted down on my butt to you know keep from falling off the mountain. I tried to take a picture of the cliff below me, but it didn't come across as steep or terrifying as it looked while up there.
When I made it to the top I was a little disappointed by how foggy it was, so I couldn't see the volcanoes on the other side of the lake. I took several pictures of the view that are not really worth sharing, which is sad but I did get a picture of me standing on top of a VERY tall mountain! If you could zoom out in the picture below you would see on the right of me the boulders from the picture above and on the right a drop off of about 400 feet. The rock I was standing on was about 2 feet wide, so after I took my picture I then immediately sat down as to not fall off the mountain. :)
After we got back down the mountain to Gladys' house she ran inside to drop off the baby and I walked over to this little fruit stand these kids were having. I couldn't buy the fruit (because it would make me sick if I ate fruit here that I didn't disinfect), but I had enough conversation skills to talk to them. Also I took their picture and showed them on the camera. That is always a big crown pleaser with kids here.
Check back tomorrow for a blog all about monkeys. :)
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