Around town.

Thought I’d toss up a few more images of the city and surrounding area, seeing as how I already saved them to this computer at the Internet café. The street scene is of the Parque Centroamerica in the middle of town. The Municipal palace is the largest building and in the forefront you can see some greek-like columns and structures that are part of a building campaign funded by rich residents in the 20’s who travelled to Europe and decided that Xela needed to get some fancy architecture. The park is the center for just about everything. It´s surrounded by commerce (banks), restaurants and the other lively night-life venues, internet cafes, and a Mercado Central, where souvenirs, sundries, produce and various animal parts can be had. It was here I procured many of the ingredients of my Mom’s famous lasagne, meatballs and red sauce that were a big hit among my Guatemalan family and the international students at the language school.

Shoeshine boys are one of the omnipresent sights in the park and many other places. Xela has a lot of kids who work on the streets, shining shoes, selling things or acting as conductors on the van-shuttles that are an inexpensive cross between a bus and a taxi. These “niños de la calle” have a home to go to at night, but there are also homeless kids. Xela has a fairly active non-profit scene, working for social services, education, land reform, civil rights and on drug and domestic violence issues, doing much more than the government does.

There´s also a shot of the cathedral in Xela (white façade and bell tower on the left side of photo) which is also in the Parque Centroamerica. The façade on the left is just about all that´s left of the original colonial cathedral, which was largely destroyed in the 1976 earthquake. I felt one little tremor here, in the middle of the night. Of course I could find no one else who’d been awake that time to feel it, but matched it up with a 4.2 quake at the same time I found online, about 120km SW and 60 km underground. (God, I´m such a science geek.) To the left you can see the front of the new cathedral.

The more colourful church is in a nearby village and was build about 300 years ago with a façade much like the one on the cathedral, plain plaster and whitewash. Later on the Mayan parishioners in this indigenous village re-painted it in traditional colors. It´s the only one like it in Guatemala.

You also get a shot of a mountain town, where we saw a shrine to San Simon, a Syncretic* Catholic and indigenous Mayan belief. San Simon is an unofficial Saint who combines elements of a historic reputed miracle worker and a Mayan god.

Plus you get another market scene.

In two days, the whole family is reunited in Guatemala City, appropriately for the first Mother’s Day both Sarah and Mateo get to celebrate. Don’t tell Sarah, but Mateo got her something special.

And, Oh yeah, TODAY is Mother´s Day down here. People celebrate by serenading in the streets much like Christmas carollers - except at 5 in the morning, and with firecrackers as accompaniment.

*syn·cre·tism ((sngkr-tzm, sn-) n. Reconciliation or fusion of differing systems of belief, as in philosophy or religion, especially when success is partial or the result is heterogeneous.