As panic arose, intoxicating drinks began to be distributed
“Why are we turning back?” What happened?” passengers started asking after the plane suddenly turned around.
The cabin suddenly became cold, the pilot started scratching at one of the exits, and the flight attendants were silent. Although he was silent for a short time, it seemed like an eternity.
When it turned out that one of the plane’s engines had failed and we were returning from the Atlantic Ocean to Frankfurt Airport, it was not easy.
The panic among the passengers eased, perhaps because the flight attendants started offering alcoholic drinks more often.
The trouble started later when it became clear that we would not be flying to Houston that same day. We only got tickets for the next day and only to New York, which is further away from Guatemala.
Not to mention, airport security workers were preparing to go on strike starting at midnight. Therefore, if we go to the hotel to sleep, we will hardly make it to the airport the next day.
So we were left to live in the airport for a day and sleep on “soft” benches.
The youth are pushing towards civilization
After a day’s delay, we no longer saw the capital of Guatemala. After arriving at night, the tour guides took us for a long time on a winding road and we woke up in the morning at Lake Atitlán.
This is the deepest lake in Central America.
It is surrounded by three volcanic cones and is surrounded by small towns. They have colored houses and dark-skinned people.
Women wear national costumes every day – long frilly skirts, wide short blouses. The colors are bright and it doesn’t matter that they don’t go well with each other.
Men wear wide-brimmed hats.
Each region of the country has different national costumes.
The country stubbornly clings to ancient Mayan traditions.
Lina Kuliešiūtė, a Lithuanian journalist living in Guatemala, says that if tourists want to immerse themselves in authentic Guatemala, they must visit it now. Because young people are already accelerating – rushing towards globalization: they follow foreign fashions, they have phones, computers.
“What the Spanish colonization didn’t wipe out, globalization will wipe out very quickly.” Everyone wants Western pleasures more,” the Lithuanian claimed.
Shamans eat chickens
About sixty percent of the descendants of the Mayan civilization live in this area. They worship the god Mashymon and make sacrifices to him, but they don’t forget to make a profit. Those who wanted to photograph the rites of the dead or how a shaman blesses the betrothed by frying white eggs on a fire had to pay ten dollars.
People believe in shamans more than medicine, maybe because it is hard to come by. Some shamans worship light, others darkness, and still others heal people with medicinal herbs.
If a person wants to know his future, protect himself from calamities or pray for the dead, he brings a slaughtered chicken to the cemetery. The shaman makes a bonfire, performs specific rites, and takes the chicken as payment.
Cemetery monuments, like the towns by Lake Atitlan, are brightly colored.
Afraid of colored buses
Guatemala is one of the poorest countries in Central America.
While driving, you can see poor huts, there is a lot of garbage in the yards, children are playing among them, dogs are rolling around. Adults and children ride crammed in open truck bodies or ride in threes or fours on one motorcycle. Without helmets.
Motorcycles are family transport. The rules require helmets to be worn and the number of the motorcycle must be written on them. However, I have never seen one so tidy.
The colorful buses decorated with flashing lights are especially original. Guatemalans buy them from America, repaint them, add more seats to accommodate more people. A grill is installed on the top of the bus, where passengers place their luggage.
And he runs at great speed, with the door open, through which a person who has come out loudly invites those waiting on the road to ride.
Whether drivers exceed the speed limit is checked only in the capital, beyond it drive as you wish.
Other drivers are most afraid of these buses.
Corn patties and porridge
There is a lack of schools in the country, but the state pays parents an allowance so that only their children can go to school. Children are required to study from 7 to 13 years of age.
One teacher works with two classes with 30 to 50 children.
Parents send their grown-up children to coffee or cocoa plantations to pick beans, and they themselves also work for landowners. There is no other job. Like money to live on. Only from your small plot of land, if you have one. Maize and red beans are mostly grown there.
The most popular meal is corn fritters and bean porridge.
Such food was not tasty for us overfed Europeans, but the beef steaks in the restaurant for 7-9 euros spoiled the palate.
Grandparents are killed at home
In Guatemala, only 15 percent of the population pays taxes because 85 percent work illegally in agriculture.
Still others have small shops in the villages. People sell avocados, mangoes, and watermelons on the roadside.
Guatemala ranks 8th in the world in terms of coffee exports, but coffee is not cheap there, 250 grams costs about 10 euros. The coffee beans are ground very coarsely, which we don’t like.
Guatemalans work 6 days a week, with only one day off – Sunday.
According to Algis Mickūnas, a Lithuanian expatriate, philosopher and professor at the University of Ohio, who was invited to reform the education system in Guatemala, even teachers avoid paying taxes, because it is difficult to live on a salary of just one hundred dollars.
Instead, many emigrate to America, send money from there and help their relatives back home.
You don’t pay taxes, you don’t have social insurance, you don’t get a pension, and the ambulance only comes when the doctors make sure that the person is socially insured. If not, you have to pay.
Not all municipalities have ambulances.
Drug smuggling is flourishing in the country. The drug route through Guatemala runs from Colombia, Nicaragua, Peru and continues to Mexico and America.
We saw officers with dogs at the border.
A local guide told me that the authorities seize millions of tons of drugs every year, but whether this is true is difficult to find out when traveling.
However, there are also good examples in the country – there is only one children’s home in the capital, there are no old people’s homes at all, they are only cared for at home. Three generations live in one house – parents, children and grandchildren.
There is a family cult in the country.
The Mayans are not afraid of volcanoes at all
The Guatemalan city of Antigua is especially cozy. It is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List for its church architecture. Magnificence is provided by three nearby volcanoes, one of which is active.
The last time the Pakaja volcano erupted was in 2017. The temperature of the lava reached 800 degrees. Now it is dormant, and the Fuego volcano is pulsating.
Here is the most interesting thing, that Guatemalans are not at all afraid of the monsters that are blowing up next to them.
“Where should we go? Everything depends on God,” they say.
Everyone knows the elementary rules when a volcano erupts: to act calmly, to go outside.
Lina Kuliešiūtė also tamed the volcano. She says that she greets the towering mountain every morning on her terrace.
“Maybe that’s why the Mayan people don’t accumulate wealth and don’t worry about it at all, because they can lose everything at once. Maybe you won’t even be able to run out of the house or the erupting lava will swallow everything on the road, says Lina.
Residents have learned to use the escaping lava in agriculture and business. The volcanic land is fertile, especially for avocados and peaches.
Lava stones are used for massage, amulets are made from them.
Tourists are allowed to climb the Pacaja volcano for about 700 meters. You can do it with your feet, you can do it with a horse. This is how local residents earn money and help lazier tourists.
I included myself among them and sat on a small horse.
Five hundred more barrels are underground
The pride of Guatemala is the ancient Mayan civilization.
To this day, some Mayan descendants use the solar, lunar, star calendars they created.
According to the Lithuanian Lina, Mayan descendants are people with a special soul: sincere, simple, hardworking.
The ancient city of Tikal was discovered by an archaeologist in 1957. After starting to explore the jungle, he noticed the tops of two pyramids sticking out of it.
Only six Mayan structures have been excavated so far. Archaeological research has been stopped, not wanting to damage the authenticity of the area.
There are believed to be 500 different structures underground.
200 thousand people lived in Tikal located in the rainforest. To this day, no one can find out why the once prosperous metropolis was abandoned by all its inhabitants.
Scientists speculate that maybe a drought has set in, an epidemic has struck, or maybe a famine has begun.
The most mystical place – Tikal – is one of the most visited sites in Guatemala. It is visited by about one million tourists a year.
While walking around this mysterious city, we also got a strange feeling. Although the guide spoke energetically about the Mayans, clapping his hands to show the acoustics of this place, it became very quiet inside, as if we had returned home.
Zina Paškevičienė
This subjective opinion of the author does not necessarily coincide with the editor’s opinion: lrytas.lt is not responsible for the content of the reader.
Tags: Lithuanias journey land shamans started plane crash bigger troubles
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