San Pedro II

The weekend went well. We toured three villages with Andres out capitan. Consumerism is the name of the game on these tours. It is an exercise in mutual exploitation. It is difficult for us foreigners as we do want to help but we cannot buy everything we see. Each village I s know for certain items. Hand woven cloth dyed with bright colors from plants found in the area. Comics from mud found locally. Wooden carvings. As a group I think we helped improve the local economies.

The lake is huge and the villages are all named for the apostles. In one we visited there is a "black saint" Maximo. He is tucked in a house tucked up in the hillside. People pour out liquor or leave cigars. It seems a mixture of Catholicism and maya practice, like voodoo. It is not accepted by all. As we were lost, we asked one gentleman for directions to Maximo and he told us to "f*** off".

The next day we arranged to climb San Pedro volcano leaving at 6:00 am. Dominic was our tour guide. The volcano is 9900 feet tall and took us three hours to climb up and two to descend. Every year they have a race up the mountain and Dominic has won it twice. His best time is an hour and a half. He only guides on weekends; his weekday job is in the fields. He showed us his still stabbed wounds from a recent poisonous snake bite while picking corn. They had to tie off his leg to staunch the circulation and they rushed him home. Someone cut out the skin around the bite and poured some mixture with milk on it to heal.
The hike was a bruise to the ego as I was the oldest by far. Dominic was 33. And I was the slowest. The climb was worth it as we had clear skies when we first arrived and could see most of the lake. However, the fog and clouds soon moved in.

Here a some photos of the journey so far.
https://www.facebook.com/gs.learners/photos_albums