Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

After getting yet another new tire put on this morning, we headed towards the Mexican border and the town of Ciudad Hidalgo. We missed the closing time of the first border station by literally five minutes, so we had to go to another one further into the center of town. After following signs that started taking us down questionable alleyways and side streets we finally arrived at the border station just as we started getting a little sketched out. Overall the crossing took about an hour, but was generally painless. Just lots of paperwork to fill out with the van. We had heard that they fumigate the interior of the vehicle with a nasty goo, but it turned out that they only sprayed the outside with some type of chemical.

Once we entered Guatemala, the feel immediately changed. It was quite bizarre how the people even looked and dressed differently as soon as we crossed. The Guatemalan people are much friendlier than what we experienced in Mexico, so it was a nice relief. Our destination for the day was Quetzaltenango, Guatemala's second largest city of 100,000. What the guidebook didn't tell us was we would be climbing from sea level to over 7000 feet to get there! We went from being hot, to having to put on jackets as we climbed into the fog of the high alpine jungle. We literally went up and up around countless switchbacks for over an hour. Some were so steep that I was questioning if the van would make it up! To our surprise the transmission and cooling system held up, unfortunately our suspension didn't. As we were climbing, I suddenly noticed that our speedometer and odometer stopped working. We pulled over and started to investigate. After going through the underside of the vehicle, Noah turned up the cause. Somehow we managed to snap the sway bar on the front of the van, probably on one of the hundreds of Topes (speed bumps) that we have encountered so far. Unfortunately the speedometer cable goes from the front tire right where the break was, and it got pinched in the break. Hopefully the sway bar can be welded. Since it's Saturday, we'll spend Sunday exploring the town, and see what we can find on Monday.

After getting into town late we head out into the Centro to check out the fiesta that was happening in honor of a statue of the virgin mary that had been carried down from a high mountain pass and delivered to the church on the Centro. Music was playing and fireworks were going off constantly. At one point I was thinking to myself how there was no rope around the area where the fireworks were going off and kids were just nonchalantly playing near the mini-explosions that were launching the charges into the sky. About five minutes after that the entire Centro was rocked by a huge explosion. It appeared that one of the charges didn't go off right, exploded, and ignited everything near it as well. Noah and I were about 50 yards away and still felt the shock wave and paper shrapnel. People immediately began running over and soon ambulances arrived. People were so crowded around gawking at the carnage that we couldn't tell how many people had been hurt, but from the considerable size of the explosion it had to be a few. Hopefully everyone was ok. The music continued to play and people just went back to dancing as if this was a common occurrence!

We eventually ended up at El Portal De La Quinta bar, where we were surprised to be greeted in perfect enlish by the owner Antonio. He lived in Seattle for a bit, so was a great person to meet to help us get the lay of the land of Quetzaltenango. Soon we ran into a couple of women from Germany and had a couple of drinks with them, excited to have someone we could carry a conversation with in english! Maria and Yvonne are teaching english in a town outside of Xela and come into the city often on the weekends. They graciously gave us the 411 on the city, and invited us to join them at the futbol game tomorrow. It will be our first time! Should be interesting!

Today we grabbed a bite to eat for breakfast and made it back to the Centro just in time to catch a traditional processional that was part of the fiesta that is about to begin in the city. It was incredible seeing all of the indigenous people in their traditional outfits. Endless colors of woven material could be seen everywhere. After a large mass they all lined up and marched around the Centro, carrying a statue, some type of coffin, and burned incense along the way. It was very different from anything I've seen.

Soon we met Maria and Yvonne in the Centro and jumped on a bus up the hill to the stadium to catch our first Futbol game. Quite an experience! It reminded me a lot of a Saturday college football game, only rowdier! We were sitting in the equivalent of the student section, where the big drums were being beaten and cheers being led during the whole game. It was a fun experience, and we can't thank Maria and Yvonne enough for graciously inviting us to come with! Muchas Gracias! Xela even pulled off the win!

Just received an email from Maria with a link to an online edition of the local newspaper. Since Maria and Yvonne were all decked out in the colors of Xela, they made it. That's my arm just to the left of Maria!
<a href='http://digital.nuestrodiario.com/Olive/ODE/NuestroDiario/Default.aspx?href=GND%2F2009%2F09%2F28&pageno=1&view=document'>Link to Paper</a>
Once it opens go to page 34. Good stuff!