The Mayan ceremony

Wednesday 13.03

We were expecting this day since we first arrived in Rio Negro  The story of the massacre is described before from Nere here. The short version is that 20 years ago, bastard millitars massacred 177 women and children.
In a commemoration day for the lost people, like every year there is a kid of festivity on the very same place of the massacre. A school from the closest city as well as numerous other families which relocated after the massacre, visited in order to pay the respects. Our little village was full of new faces and a loot of voices.
The way to Pakoxom (the place of the massacre) was like a pilgrimage, that will end up in a Mayan ceremony (and a Catholic as well, but we don´t care!) lasting around 6 hours.

Our expectations were bigger than the actual thing that happened but still it was something really sacred and deep, at least for us and for few more people. The majority however, was tired from the long walking, the unusual for them overnight ceremony or more interested in the subsequent Catholic ceremony.

The place were the festivity took place (Pakoxom)

The ceremony was consisting briefly of offerings to the lost ancestors and to the Gods (I suppose from the actions of the Mayan priest).

After placing all the offerings in the altar, and the expected sacred smoking, the altar is set on fire. And the ceremony begins!

Big devoutness and a huge respect for the  indigenous people, who are still victims in an ongoing genocide...

Back to "civilization" and reflections about Rio Negro

The fieldwork in Rio Negro went quite good. Although, as Dimitris said in the previous post, the women were less open than men, so it took me a while to gain the respect and friendship of them (which was essential to interview them and get some information!). Therefore, I spent the first week cooking with them, trying to make tortillas (not an easy job) and trying to get some words of them, their live, how they make their crafts (they make beautiful textiles - bags, clothes, etc...), ... and I even tried to saw something (way simpler) in order to get closer to them. Well, it wasn't easy, they were talking in their language (Achí) all the time, and were answering me nearly with monosyllables... I was a little bit frustrated because I tried with all my heart to be closer to them and they were quite rude :( But, little by little I started gaining them, and after that week they decided in assembly that we were welcomed to  do our research with them! :D

An aggresive bitch!!

After that we spent the days walking from one side to the other to talk with people, which was not always easy, some people were living couple of km away from our hut and the heat was unbearable, and finally when we were getting there, the person had left for some days... oh shit!
But we finally did it! We even went to the school to interview those little rascals, it was the first time I was standing in from of a classroom to explain something and get something out of them. Just big smiles, lollipops and it went very smoothly :)

For the last day of our staying in Rio Negro we arranged a forest walk with our key informant to collect some plants. That morning we woke up and waited for him... we wait and wait and he doesn't come to us... oh nooo. At midday the chief of the village (who had to arrange our boat and pickup to get out of there the next morning) appears in our hut completely drunk!!! he almost could stay standing! It seems that we won't get out from here... We go to see our key informant at his place and we find him laying down on the floor... he was also completely wasted... we wake him up and with a smile he says, "ahhh, someone invited me.... "
Later that day we found out that the two of them had been drinking since the previous night until midday next day! No bad thoughts, we just postponed our forest walk one day and we got to our meeting in the university later.

Both of us, while emptying a cactus for making aour specimen collection . And it was not easy! We ended up with few spikes in our hands!! 

Finally, we can say that we spent a marvellous time over there, we really got to love the people and the kids... oh the kids were lovely! It was very peaceful to be in the middle of nowhere, without electricity, clock or phones. It was great to have the time to reflect, and we brought all the people we love in mind, childhood friends, teenage friends, netherlands friends, Copenahgen friends and family... and a lot, a lot of stories! And it also makes you realize that in the end the modern world also has it's good parts: music, information access, being able to speak with family and friends...

With my Achi grilfriends!! :P

Family coming back from their fieldwork

Margarita making tortillas!!

A tribute to Rufi...!

He was sad (and horny) for our leaving!!

Finally we hit the water!!

So now here we are, after one month of fieldwork we have arrived to Guatemala city. The city has, in my opinion, an unexpected charm. I heard that is an ugly dangerous place, and that it doesn't deserve even to get in... Maybe it's the lack of expectations and the fact that is quite different to the rest of Guatemala that makes me like it.
We have taken a cheap room at Pension Meza, where the majestic Che Guevara slept once, yes, at our bed :p
We are eating gorgeous vegetarian food, japanese food, italian food... yes, I know we are in Guate and it's time to eat local food, but we have been overloaded of  the invariable diet of rio negro, which included frijoles (beans) and tortillas (maize thing) for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We missed veggies and fruits, a lot! :)

So now we are trying to find out where to go next, relax and work peacefully! And next days we will post some new photos!! (Remember that you can click on them to make them bigger :p)

Lots of love to you all!!

Rio Negro

Saturday 02.03

Human without electricity = fish without bicycle!

Around two weeks ago we first arrived in Rio Negro. The scenery is majestic: 2 big mountain lines with a river in the middle. An overfloaded river, due to the stupid dam, which we had to travel for around 45 mins by boat in order to arrive to the "aldea" of Rio Negro. A community completely built in a couple hillsides of the mountains. You can take a look here:

However is the summer period, the hot is unbearable for 3-4 hours per day, and thus the mountains quite dry. This dissapoints us a little bit, in terms of our research but also in terms of the jungle that we expected to live in. Every obstacle for good. Let´s see. Life here seems easy.

Around 17 families with 90-100 people in total (yes families are overpopulated!) live here. The men sustain families with agricultural ativities and fishing while women cook and kneat beautiful and colourful guipils, bags, belts and other things that they can sell in close markets tha once in a while visit.
As you can understand electricity exists sparsely (for any turist group activity, or any celebration through generator), internet is an unknown word and mobile signal only for selective mobiles in one spot of the village. Our living spot is the "house of adobe" in the educative center of the village. A beautiful "cob" style hut mostly built out of mud , containing few beds and a table.

When we are not working with villagers, we pass most of our time in our verada, on a table which we use to study, make interviwes, eat and play cards. And these are the stuff we do when we are not around the village.
Just under our house is located a "kitchen" where different women of the village cook for us 3 times/day.

Our food is really simple and repetitive. We eat beans with pasta for breakfast, fish with rice for lunch and beans with eggs for dinner. Always with big amount of tortillas. that´s all. Every day. Every week. Yes we got bored already and we miss cooking and eating what we want and the times that we want. But is a minor problem.
The people of the village are different. The men are quite open and willing to share the knowledge, the women more closed, and we feel that we have to "gain them" somehow in order to interview them. The young people lost between religion and the wannabe westernalised and for the kids we are the "weirdos": they look at us, they inspect us and they play around us.We are something completely new and different for them, and we also enjoy it when we play with them!!

Actually we enjoy a lot the tranquil life in the silent village. here you can get plenty of time to think, to read, to have beautiful conversation, to reflect. There is no big light apart from the moon, so you can take the advantage and see millions of stars every night. Here I encountered the most star-full sky of my life and the most free time to spent looking at them. And something that we have misses: The most time to spend with each other under them!! And is wonderful!
And take some photos till next time:

This is our friend Patty or Pulgi!!! :D

This foto is dedicated to my friend Ilias who was ensuring me that I can find plenty of tobacco, filters and  rolling papers in such a country!! This is my rolling paper! Is baking paper which I had to buy from a bookstore!!!! Yes I lick a lot, and it is not always working!!! 

People we miss you all, and we send you lots of kisses and hugs!!

Semuc Champey!!!

Saturday 17.02


Action day:We have booked a tour to the beautiful pools of Semuc Champey. We pack our stuff, we eat a rich breakfast and we depart from our hostel together with 20 more people. Again the role of the bus plays a track, with a lot of people on the back standing. The feeling is like going for a safari... of wonderful moments!
Unexpectedly the first visit is inside the caves of the area. We enter only with our swimming suits and a candle in our hands.. Tzoum, tzoum, tzoum, tzouuumm! Underground water is evident from the first moment, and specifically cold underground water. As we enter in a row with our candles, it looks like a strange ritual. And it is a kind of ritual. We try to swim and keep the candle out of the water at the same time. The beginning is easy but, some "stable" ladders follow, a rope climbing against a small waterfall, huge rooms work as swimming pools and for the end a wonderful dark 3 meter dive in the last room. The dim light of only 3-4 candles makes the scenery unbelievable unique. On our way back, a slight change in our route involves a small slide through a hole in order to pass to the pool of the next room. This is one of the last things before we seriously start to getting really cold. Facing again the light of the exit, as we are going out of the caves, and putting out our candles means the end to a ritualistic tour. And everything worked perfect: the colours of the nature are much more vivid and
intense and our little group, much more bonded than before. And the fun just started!

In order to enter to Semuc Champey we have to pass from a bridge standing over than 10 meters from the river. People take advantage and jump from it, in the river. We seriously think about it but no.. In the end we back off... PUSSIES..!

Normally you have to pay for the entrance to the place, but (un)fortunately not for us. The story common more or less: Government wants to take over the local peoples´ land and take all the income from that place. They were supposed to give a 70% of the earnings, to the 4 local communities around Semuc for the past years. Surprisingly, you (that you know read this post) received the same amount of money with the communities: Nothing at all. And if I remember well they want to reduce this  percentage to 7%. This is a huge reason for strike. Around 60-70 people are gathered and demonstrating for that reason. However they don´t allow as to take photos of them. We respect and we continue.

The uphill hike to the viewpoint just started. Quite tiring but the view pays off back.. And after every uphill, a huge downhill follows, leading us to a dive in the pools. A majestic scenery of turquoise waters, so clean that you can see every detail in the basin of the pools. Watery (it!!) slides, dives and a lot of fun in order to pass from one pool to the other. This is happiness! A bit cold happiness but sooooo big one!! And it is evident in every face, if you look around.

Back to our beautiful hostel we continue the fun with the nice people! A nice dinner, few beers and a beautiful campfire..!  The end of a majestic day is close, and our bodies completely tired!

Heading to Utopia!

Friday 16.02

As we have one week free, we decided to find a place where you can relaaaax and at teh same time have a loot of things to see around. During our stay in Antigua, we have seen a beatiful poster of a hostel called Utopia, and we trusted the name and the beautiful description...!
So yesterday we got on several buses, full buses, extremely full buses, with people hanging out of the door, behind, on top etc.. And try to reach the place were it is supposed to be located the 8th miracle of the world: Semuc Champey..And always, the way to paradise it´s hard!

As we arrived late at night we couldn´t really assess the landscape around as. But we could understand everything in the morning... Pure paradise: In the middle of the "jungle" next to the banks of the river Cahabon a huuge wooden "tipi" works as our hostel. We are staying in dorms and private rooms which are all open to the fresh air and sometyimes the refreshing rain, with around 30 people with a super friendly staff ready to make every wish of us truth (always for the right price!!!) Our relaxing week just started...

This is what I saw from my bed when I woke up....                               

El Rabinal y Río Negro

Wednesday 13.02

On Wednesday we headed to El Rabinal, one of the three cities of Baja Verapaz Department. Here we were hosted by an organization who works in rescuing native seeds and distributing them among communities. One of its members is original from a community called Río Negro, settled in the river Chixoy.
Río Negro has suffered a very sad story... back in the 80, in the middle of Guatemala's civil war, the government and the electrification company of Guate wanted to build a dam in the Chixoy river. 33 communities would be affected by this plan, and were supposed to be relocated to another smaller and less fertile land...The inhabitants of Río Negro refused to leave their beloved and fertile land. As a result, the military committed terrible massacres accusing them as guerrilleros (you can read more detailed information of internet, just google Rio Negro Massacre ).
From 800 people, around 177 people were assassinated and many disappeared. The same day of the last massacre, the dam got approved. The people that survived run to the mountains, to feed themselves out of leaves, fruits, roots and whatever they could find. Some people stayed up to 5 years in the mountains. Finally, they accepted the relocation to the settlement created by the military to control guerrilleros in Pacux.
In 1994, some families went back to start up their community again. Nowadays, 16 families live in the new Rio Negro. Although the most fertile lands remain under water and the community is almost isolated they are back in their land and claim justice for the lost relatives.

If you are asking yourself, why do we want to go there to do our study? Well, the answer is that the people that lived in the mountains developed a knowledge about edible wild plants out of "trial and error" method and following the advise of their grandparents. Nowadays, it is preferred to cultivate food plants or just purchasing them in the market, rather than walking in the mountain to gather them. No one is blamed for that, but this pattern changes are worth to study and to document a knowledge before it is completely lost.
And how can the community benefit from the study? Well, I want to believe that the information we will gather about what they can find in their surroundings is valuable and they can use it sometime. From the other side, their story spreads a little bit more as now you know about it, so it doesn't sink into oblivion. Plus, having two guests living with them generated some good revenue.

As it is quite difficult to arrive to the community and we have to wait for a permit to get there. We have to wait one  week to depart... so we have decided to explore new places in this spare week... ;)

The Pacific!

Saturday 09.02

Today we decided to celebrate Nere´s birthday on the beach! We woke up and we took some buses with direction to Puerto San Jose, being the one closes to our city.
The sea was wild and the beach nothing wonderful. Even if we have been told that this was a really turistic spot, the turists in whole the beach were less thatn ten!! Most likely kids with clothes, and young people taking their bath.

The interesting fact of the day was that, there were a lloooot of biiiig fishes in really low prices! So we decided to eat fgish for once!
Here´s a picture of the birthday girl!!