Guatemala : Chichicastenango and Lake Atitlan

Just to change from what you usually see on this blog, a few pictures of the cemetery in Chichicastenango, pure Maya style.



Saaaaaanto Dios, how crowded is the market ! Thousands of tourists and Indians who are here to buy food, souvenirs, and anything else that a human being might need... On the stairs of the church, Maya rituals are mixed with the Christian prayers.





On the way home once the shopping is done...



I am pretty sure that you were wondering if I was getting bored with squirrels. Answer below ;)



Last churches of Guatemala (and may be of the year...)



Below, a few buses at their station in Solola (remember, a few days ago, in
Tikal, the Gatemalan tourists, they were from Solola).



One more Maya cemetery, also in Solola.



In Santiago de Atitlan, the colour and the shape of the clothes is completely different than in Chichicastenango :





And a few kilometers away from there, in San Pedro de Atitlan, other colours once more (and a lot fewer tourists, believe me...)



Now we are back in Antigua, and in a few hours the plane will take us back to Madrid and Paris, time to say good bye, even if I don't wanna go home...



Adios amigos, y que se vayan bien !

Guatemala : Antigua

Antigua is a good summary of this trip : a colonial town, rounded by volcanoes, with gardens full of tropical flowers and streets full of coloured buses and Indian people.



As today is Saturday, it was a good day to see weddings all around the town, in the churches, but also in the restaurants after the church. And as the wet season has just ended, there were lots of weddings today... One of them, in the Merced church, gave us the opportunity to listen to music played with traditional instruments (marimbas), good practice after the museum this morning (coffee in the 1st part of the buildings, instruments in the 2nd one).



It's been a long time since the last series of churches in this blog, I am pretty sure you miss this ;)
But, honestly, have you ever seen a horse parking lot in front of the cathedral ?
The 4th picture below is the rear part of the cathedral, with was destroyed by one of the earthquakes, as usual... The monuments are partially destroyed by a severe earthquake every 50 years as an average, and the last big one was in 1964. The next one might be pretty soon.



Just for a change, here is a new category of pictures : the doors. There are dozens of beautiful ones all around the town...

Guatemala : Tikal

Tikal is one of the largest and most impressive Maya pyramid sites in Central America. Here you can see lots of pyramids spread across a large Maya city in the jungle. 200,000 inhabitants used to live there. The investigations have only been performed on 16 out of the 120 square kilometers, which means that there are still hundreds of temples hidden under the vegetation.

We had the incredible luck to be almost alone on the site, with a group of 85 people from Solola, a small town near Atitlan Lake, who were visiting the site with their families, all of them wearing the traditional clothes.

You can get easily get lost in the jungle between 2 temples (yes, I know what I am talking about, here...), but it is a nice opportunity to see lots of animals (plenty of amazing birds, monkeys....). And I want a coati for Christmas, it is sooooooooo cute ! Ok, it is also one of the most aggressive animals I've ever seen, but this tiny furry thing looked so much like a teddy bear...