Three Day Weekend

Three Day Weekend
Saturday was the start of a three day weekend over what we call Halloween and in Guatemala is All Saints Day on October 31st and Day of the Dead or Dia De Los Muertos on November 1st. It's actually a national holiday, somewhat like our Memorial Day. Families go to the cemetery on that day and decorate the graves of their relatives, similar to Mexico. It's much more festive than in the US with the people having picnics and visiting, and children fly kites from the high points.
On Saturday morning, Susan and I went to visit a coffee plantation within the city limits of Coban. which had been founded by a German family. Apparently many Germans settled here in the beginning of the 20th century, going into coffee farming and cattle ranching. During WWII many were Nazi sympathizers and the US government pressured the Guatemalan government to kick them out. This one lasted however and was very interesting to visit. It was sort of old fashioned in some ways with old buildings and creaky machinery, but produced very high quality specialty coffee which they ship world wide. They also raise cardamom, a favorite spice of Susan.
Another interesting thing we learned was that the fruit of the coffee tree is sweet, sort of like a cherry, it's the seed inside the fruit that they dry and roast. They grew other spices there too like allspice and another one that smells exactly like Old Spice deodorant. It was pleasant to walk through their fields and smell the different spices and talk about all the different varieties of coffee beans.
Stan Withee was back at the hotel working on his report so we went back there and he wanted to go to the local Mayan museum, which was also close. It's a small private museum with a variety of materials from throughout the Mayan region, including locally. They had a lot of pottery and small figures. We found out that the Mayans made intricate molds for their figures rather than carving them, and they had a number of the clay molds there. There were two identical figures which showed that they had come from the same mold. The museum had used some of the original Mayan molds to make some figures of kings with feathered head dresses which they had for sale for several hundred dollars. I thought they were really cool, but there was no way they would make it home safely in one piece as we have three more weeks of traveling.
Amalia, our coordinator from Food for Hungry, wanted to go home and visit her family for the weekend so we were on our own for meals and entertainment. Cobán is a small city with not a lot of places to visit or eat. It's safe enough and the people are very friendly but not much to do. The streets are rough and narrow and full of fast cars and buses. It's frightening to walk along there sometimes with cars and trucks whizzing past inches away, but everyone seems used to it. We walked to dinner at a nice restaurant that has a lot of exotic native orchids on display, and on our way home we were caught in another torrential downpour and got totally soaked as if we had fallen in a lake.
On Sunday morning we wanted to have an adventure and see something different so we decided to take a bus out to see one of the nature preserves in the area, called a biotope. This region is known for its rain forests and some have been preserved and developed for people to experience. There is quite a bit of deforestation going on here so it's important to preserve what they can. They are also trying to save forest corridors for animal migration and breeding.
Minibuses that leave every few minutes in all directions and are very inexpensive, but they pack in as many people as can fit, then stop and pick up more along the road. We made the mistake of sitting next to the door where everyone squeezes in rather than in the back where it is less crowded, and so were pretty squished. Again Guatemalan people are very friendly and considerate of each other and always tried to make room or assist one another, so it wasn't too bad. Susan held one ladies packages, while I shared my two person seat with three other people.
It took about an hour to get to the biotope and they dropped us off at the side of the road. They have a little entrance area with some informational posters and displays, and there was a man with a few words of English there to explain them. We had a choice of two different paths, “senderos”, to take both making a look up through the forest. We weren't sure about the trails, so chose the lower, shorter one. It turned out that they were both fine, well maintained, but the shorter one satisfied us anyway. It didn't rain while we walked, even though clouds threatened and they normally get over 100 inches every year.
We saw a lot of interesting plants, including a wild orchid growing beside the trail which Susan photographed. The forest is so dense that it's difficult to see very far but we did hear some birds, and saw one that we think was a Toucan with a large yellow beak. There were giant tree sized ferns, and leaves of plants several feet across.
It only took us about an hour to make the loop, we could easily have taken the longer one, but that was enough to get a nice flavor of the biotope. At the end they had a little display of plants and animals in the park, sponsored by USAID. There were a couple of stuffed Quetzales birds, but apparently to see a real one is quite rare as they are endangered. They did have a lot of other plants and a few birds and animals as well.
We went back down by the road then and flagged down a passing minibus heading the other way back to Cobán. We were lucky this time because the bus wasn't full and we were able to get seats toward the rear away from the door and arrived home in about an hour. Because it was a holiday there were lots of people out doing things and it was interesting to watch them as we went through the little towns.
Monday was Dia De Los Muertos, November 1st, and on that day people go to the cemetery to remember their relatives who have died, or as they say “fallen” in Spanish. It's a nice family day and people bring flowers and candles to decorate the graves. Like in Southern Mexico they use orange marigold petals and pine needles around the graves, supposedly a tradition left over from the Mayans. The graves are mostly above ground in cement tombs that have been brightly painted with pastel colors. The cemetery is on a hillside overlooking town so it is very pleasant to walk around and talk to the families and look out. Another tradition is that the children fly kites on this day so there were several kids on the top of the hill trying to get their kites in the air. One family was having a barbeque and there is a little chapel on top of the hill with several food vendors there selling local dishes.
We were walking with Amalia our hostess/coordinator, and she was telling us about the various traditions. Most people believe that the dead persons soul leaves their body after death, but can also return if invited. There was a woman with an incense burner waving the smoke of pine resin or “copal” to call the spirits of the dead relatives. Copal has a very distinct smell and was considered a sacred smoke by the Mayas. Susan and I have some at home and sometimes burn a little at Christmas because it smells like pine.
Down at the bottom of the hill outside the gates of the cemetery there was a sort of street fair with carnival type games and vendors. People seemed to really enjoy the simple chance games they had. there. We walked down the hill from there and caught the local bus back to our hotel. It was a really nice holiday I'm glad we got a chance to enjoy it.