San Fransico el alto by Chicken bus -- was a whole other kind of experience. On the trip up once we were loaded onto the bus we sat close together so Don and his teacher Juan worked on verb conjugation. I took in the sights as we went up the mountain. Everything is up a mountain! We got off of the bus at the market and the first thing that jumps out at you is a ton of people and all kinds of colors. The native outfit here is worn by women and consists of a skirt usually in a particular pattern for her village or town and a huipil or blouse (which is fancy on top and sewn to the bottom is white fabric that serves as a slip) in all the colors of the rainbow. It matters not to them if the colors go together (skirt and blouse). Generally you will see a fancy and different color apron over the top of the whole outfit. The women and girls always look dressed up. The fabric is rather heavy which is great for a climate that matches California -- sorta warm during the day and by early evening cooling off to the point that a sweater or jacket is nice to have, then you top that off with rain every afternoon and the women are dressed just right.
I can hardly imagine something that I could not have bought at the market. If you need a new outfit, a belt, hat, dried skunk, a bunch of baby pigs, a scrawny cow you are able to buy them here. There were shoes and boots and food stalls (but gringos don´t eat here!), scarves, blouses, capes, ponchos, or backpacks, jeans,and quilts all are there for your shopping pleasure.
There were sections that did not smell so very great but you could buy fish if you wanted it. There was a man outside a church giving a talk about the snake he was giving a drink of water too! Remember it rains here? Well the venders just take that in stride and put up big umbrellas and plastic tarps and any purchase you make will be put into a plastic bags. There is no grass in most areas except the park, streets and pathways are rock and cobblestone. After a rain you will have some standing water but not a great deal of mud although parts are muddy. We did not purchase anything mainly because Don forgot to put on the money belt and we had just enough money to buy a coke and pay for our round trip on the chicken bus.
The return trip has a different tale. Juan located the correct bus to get us back and Don and I boarded. Juan ran across to a tienda (store) to buy a phone card so he ended up seated 4 or 5 seats behind us. I was seated next to the window so Don hands me the camera to take pictures of the country side. That soon had us interacting with the people around us. Two Mayan women behind us started asking questions and answering our questions. At one point I gave Don a quick kiss which must have tickled the women because they wanted to take out picture ´kissing´. It took three attempts to get the picture they wanted! By this time we are three to a seat with one large grandmother with grandson perched on the outside edge of the seat. I took pictures of the people around us stuffed into this bus like sardines. We always make sure to ask permission before taking pictures of people near us. We were very entertaining to those riding with us.
For any sane people our morning would have been enough. We stopped at the house to drop off stuff, took our umbrellas and sailed off to explore Xela on foot! We ate lunch at a restaurant called Cubatenago. The meal was a Guatemalan meal Tipico. It was barbecue chicken, rice, vegetables, two small potato patties & tortillas. They had to send an employee out to buy a coke light (a.k.a. diet coke) and Don had the sweetened lemonade. After lunch we set off on foot for the big mall that Patty and I had gone to--Hyper Piaz. We actually did it! We walked the whole way. I was pleased to have provided the general directions needed to catch a smaller chicken bus (Don calls them micro busses). We boarded one after checking out the mall and headed back to Parque Central. We spent $27.00 for water, 2 lap desks (an attempt to ease neck and shoulder pain and before the table was added to our room), a coloring book for Marianna, and a small pocket dictionary. We were truly tuckered out.
We were invited Friday to a Mayan ceremony with our host family through Marlo to be sure we understood the whole thing. We agreed to attend.
