Salama

After all the bad stories I blogged I now publish some nice pictures from Salama. The last weekend from Friday to Monday I have spent a lot of time in a pickup traveling throughout Guatemala. I have seen many nice places here sofar and have to say Guatemala is a very beautiful country.

Mixco Viejo



Salama

Miguel Angel Asturias


San Jeronimo


Raul, Luis and Luis our hosts in Salama

An old sugar fabric from around 1845



cheers

Mexico II

Oh and then I had to go to the frontier to renew my visa... or as you do it here to buy a new stamp which allows me to stay in Guatemala for 90 days. This time we went by car and went to the frontier of Tecun Uman (Guatemala) and Hidalgo (Mexico). At the frontier the official explained to me that I could not return on the same day that this was against Guatemalan law and that I had to leave the country for 72 hours... well then he added :) but if I wanted to pay a 200 Quetzales fine, I would be able to get the stamp and return to Guatemala. So there are laws but when you pay a fine you get what you want...
Anyways we spent some time in Hidalgo to buy some tequila for the fonda, which turned out to be more expensive than in Guatemala, but we had a blast and bought a lot of funnies and golosinas.

So I have updated you on the last week, now I owe you some pictures of my trip to Salama on the last weekend and we are up to date.
ff

Live Saviors

The other Saturday we were able to save a French woman from being raped and killed. I know this sounds dramatic, but well it was. I tell you the whole story, not for you to worry but for you to see how save I am with the people who take care of me, because they would never alow me to be out on the streets alone after 8pm.
As I said before, on Saturday night we were in the Fonda, a bit longer than normal as some clients just would not leave. It was about 00.45am when we heard some shouting, strange noises. At first we thought that this was just the normal drunkards. But fortunately Erick was curious enough to open the door and so we all had a look outside... and what we saw was shocking: there was a man on top of a woman, trying to open her pants. They were fighting and he had his elbow on her neck to make sure she could not shout anymore. Well we all started runnig toward them and as we were shouting the man let go of the woman and started running away. Emilio, Erick and Heovani started to follow him whereas Carlos and I went to see what had happened to the woman. As I found out she is French and it was her first night in Xela.... Imagine, what a welcome!! How afull. As she told me later, when she had recovered from the shock she was on her way home from a nearby disco and the guy followed her the whole way up to the Fonda where he attacked her after telling her that he wanted to make love to her. The bad thing is that her friends who were in the disco with her, did not tell her to take a taxi, but told her that as she lives close she could walk ALONE!! something no Guatemalan person would do at one o'clock in the morning... Well fortunately she was just in shock and had some scratches from fighting the man off. He did not suceed in opening her pants, as we found out the pants open on the side and he did not get this... so this was the reason why nothing more had happened to her.
After about 20 min, we were in the Fonda, Erick, Emilio and Heovani came back with the police, they had actually chased the bastard down and were able to hand him over to the police. They told us that when they finally caught the guy with the help of some more people the crowd wanted to kill the guy some even said let's burn him alive... But fortunately my friends are a bit more educated and would not listen to them and called the police.
On Monday we went to the police to give our testimonials, but this should turn out to be more complicated as we thought. Guatemala is as burocratic as any other underdeveloped country and so we were sent to some more offices. We actually spent almost the whole day of Tuesday running from the police, to the court to the municipal offices and giving testimonials to everyone and anyone. On Wednesday morning I accompanied the French girl to the forensic doctor so he could see all her bruises and scratches. He also wanted to examine her genitals but as the deliquent did not manage to open her pants and therefore could not violate her we inisisted that this was not necessary. The doctor called to his boss in Guatemala to check if this was possible... but well we insisted.
Anyways the bad news is that on Thursday the guy got out of jail, yes you hear right. As his crime was just intentional they could not keep him locked away. So for the next 6 months the police will make their investigation and then the case will go to court.. Now you understand why so many Guatemalans just kill deliquents... They know that their juridical system sucks (excuxe my french). The guy is only 20 years old and did not have any criminal record, so we hope he won't try any bad things anymore, but well...

Anyways as I said I did not want to scare you by telling this story but just let you know that I am never alone in the streets after 8 pm. I know a lot of taxidrives here and fortunately do not have any business out on the streets at night. Oh yes and now I have a new friend from France!
mtfbwy

Amebas VI

Well the second thing that happened was that I got ameba again! Yes for about the sixth time... it was painful and stressful and well exhausting. How did I get it? Before I got on the bus I was a little bit hungry and decided to buy some mango from the street... seems that this was a bad decision. The busride was ok, but Saturday during the night I got a nausea ... well I would say extreme nausea... and then it started and I did not leave the bano (WC) for the whole day. Fortunately I got the medicine I needed quickly so in the evening of Saturday, empty as I was, the vomiting stopped. The whole Sunday I felt like hit by a bus but I recovered well and on Monday I was up and runing again. Hope that I got all the beasts out of my system up to now it seems so... :)
take care

viaje al lago

Wow, I wanted to write you earlier, but since I've blogged last time many things have happened... Well but first things first!
I don't know if I told you that I met Traci. She's from the US and spent 7 weeks in Xela whereof she spent every other night in the Fonda. Well and one night we found out that she herself is a singer and songwriter and so she ended up performing at the Fonda on Tuesday nights (check out www.fondadelche.blogsource.com). Well this Traci had the good idea that I travel with her to the Lago de Atitla, where she was to spend her last week here in Guatemala. And as I thought this was a grat idea, I did.
Have a look at some amazing pictures of the lake and the volcanoes. It was so relaxing to be in San Marcos de la laguna, I can only recommend this place to you guys.
This is the wonderful view of the lake from Hotel Jinava, where Traci and I stayed for one night. A very recommendable, very quite spot. The right thing if you want to relax or are on a honeymoon.

View on the volcano San Pedro

Traci at breakfast in a wonderful place in San Marcos. In all these towns around the lake there are a lot of tourists and therefore you get all this great food, well not that Guatemalan food is not good but as a change some European or US specialities are just delicous.

Francine at the lake in Panahajel after one day of shopping for artesanias.

Evening view on the volcano.

So what do you think, wouldn't you want to travel to this wonderful place. Well would be great to have one of you visiting some time!
cheers

1st of August

1st of August is national holiday of Switzerland and my dear family has sent me decorations for the Fonda. So as a good daughter and sister I did put up all the swissy stuff I got, have a look yourself:



Leonel and me "prosit"!

Heovix and Emilio dressed according to the event, just that we did not have "Laendler" but some Andine Music

Traci worshipping the beauty of our decoration

This night the fonda was actually pretty full and so we had to explain now and again why we did have all this swiss stuff lying aroung :)

mtfbwy

some pictures

I told you that I have spent a lot of time with Ana in the last few weeks, she has been quite stable and therefor we could take her out a bit and have fun.
Unfortunately yesterday her condition got worse and she needed more medication. Now we have to see if she needs to see her doctor in Guatemala City again or what has to be done.
But well, here some pictures of Ana having fun.






Here you see Ana with her brother



So this was the Ana section, but I have also promised you to publish a picture of the Isabels kitchen where I am being trained to be a Guatemalan chef:

quick hello

I know I know, I am repeating myself, I am bad at writing at the moment... well I don't really have an excuse for this, I just did not go to the internet very much lately. Also we have not done anything which would be interesting to talk about. Or so I guess. In the last few weeks we had some more people at the fonda, which is good and means more work, this also means less sleep which might lead to less internet time.
I have also spent a lot of time with Ana Virginia, she is a bit better now, but only because she uses stronger medication... which I am not sure if it is better or not. They say that with the medication she gets you could make a horse sleep for a week.

Ok, now I know what to tell you about, unfortunately I did not take any pictues, but I am learning how to make tortilla, tamales and well all this yummy food with Isabel. Guess I should take my camera with me next time I "help" her and show you what the traditional Guatemalan kitchen looks like.
So well, when I am back you have to insist that I cook for you I suppose.
Hermanito in case you are reading this I promise you not to fry any platanes if you ever come visit me again. what has happened to you?

Mtfbwy

upcoming elections

As you may or may not know in September this year Guatemala will vote for her new president. Maybe Berger was not a good presidet but I think everyone agrees that he was not as bad as Portillo... But this is no excuse for all the things he promised and did not keep, the help he did not provide to his compatriots during the catastrophy caused by hurrican Stan in 2005 and many other things in which he and his gouvernment did fail. I don't know how much you guys read about Guatemala in the internacional press, well I guess not much more than that the IOC was here last week, but what is really alerting is that at the moment more people die from fire arms than during the civil war and up to today 274 women were killed this year (Guatemala has the second highest femicide rate in the world according to statistics that have been published in the Prensa Libre beginning of 2007). So Guatemala has a big security problem and there are more and more gangs who make the country an unsafe place to be (especially for Guatemalans with a business, bus drives and everyone else who these gangs or sould I say organized crime can get money from).
Like every 4 years just before the elections, crime rate is much higher than normal and more bus pilots got killed than ever in this first half of 2007. Is this just a coinsicence? Why does this happen? is what everyone is aking at the moment? And this violence and insecurity problem is the biggest topic for the presidents to be, everyone makes promises that they will solve the it. One party wants to solve it with "mano dura" the other one with better education... well whatever it is up to time to show what is coming next for Guatemala. The same big parties UNE, PP, GANA (presidencial party at the moment), FRG (Rios Montt, yes he is still alive and free, can you belive it) and now also ENCUENTRO (with Rigoberta Menchu as candidate) are going for the presidency. According to Prensa Libre the biggest chances are for UNE with Alvaro Colom or PP (Partido Patriota) with Otto Molina, ex general of the army. Here are some pictures from how the different parties make promotion for their own cause...


On Saturday we were in San Francisco el Alto and had to notice that Alvaro Colom was there too... What the politicans do is they go to all the places where the indigenous population is very high and then they make a big fiesta with music and free drinks and food and other gifts. As most of the people don't have the education to know what the whole elections are about or if they have they don't care because they resignated a long time ago, the parties are buying the votes with gifts. The party that gives away more gifts and has more posters throughout the whole country usually wins.

So the parties are not only putting up large posters ...

they also paint every stone and tree they can get hold of in their colors...




Unfortunately most people here don't belive that a new gouvernment can change anything and well, who know maybe they are right.
mtfbwy

Ana Virginia 3

Dear friends, I just wanted to thank everyone who has sent some money for Ana. Ana was sick the other week, she had a bad flu which developed into a sinusitis and therefore needed to see a doctor. She needed medicine which is not only hard to find but also very expensive as she can not just take any kind of antibiotics and therefore the money you sent was really helping us. We had to spend a bit more than 800 quetzales in doctor visit and medicine which is a lot of money here (average monthly income 1200 - 2000 quetzales). So I send you not only my "thank you" but also the ones of Anas parents and of Ana herself.

mtfbwy

Xetulul

This is where I have been. An amusement parc where they have built Venecia, Siena, Paris, Rome and many other European cities... So mainly I have been to something like disney land. This exists as well and if you are not a "trabajador de Guatemala" the entrance fee costs a weeks salary. So I guess we were the only persons paying the full entrance fee, but with this we had unlimited access to all rides.
E.g.


Here in Xela things are going a bit better, we did have some more customers last week and hope that this week will be a good week too. We do have a new act on Wednesday, a group that plays andine music and we do hope to attract some more tourists.
So this is the news for now, I have not done much more than wash my clothes and clean the kitchen and stuff, so no more stories about my travels.
mtfbwy