Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Serenades and Ceremonies

Excerpt from my journal, 9:30 a.m.:

The town of Santa Cruz del Quiché did not want us to sleep in this morning. For the last several hours we have been serenaded (if that can possibly describe the experience) by a cacophany of drums, marimbas and trumpets that sound as if they´re just outside our hotel, each apparently playing along to its own beat. It reminds me of the Hogwarts school anthem, which Dumbledore directed everybody to sing to whatever tune they liked best. We´re going out to investigate shortly.

Unfortunately, the music stopped by the time we made it outside, so we never found out what it was. But we set off on a walk to find the ruins and caves of Utatlán, which turned out to be a beautiful walk along winding roads through the country. We couldn´t actually wander around the ruins much because there were some Mayan ceremonies going on, so we did our best to stay respectfully unobtrusive. We were kind of bummed that we didn´t get to explore the caves or get close to the temples, but at the same time we both thought it was a much more unique experience to be able to witness a bit of true Mayan culture. It is amazing and wonderful that they are still using these old sites for traditional rituals and ceremonies.

2 comments:

Tandava said...

So is that where quiche comes from?

Lacey said...

Umm... no, I don´t think so. :P We did have a very interesting two-course breakfast, though - the first course was some sort of warm milky cinnamony porridgey broth, which came with dry cornflakes. It seems to be a Guatemalan thing. The second course was beans and rice and eggs with mini hot dogs cut up into it, which also seems to be a Guatemalan thing. The food here is always interesting. :)