Day 2: Tour of Quetzaltenango

Monday, January 4 (happy birthday, Mom!)

After our first day of class and almuerzo we regrouped to walk around the city and learn about its history. As hard as I try to not feel like a tourist, it's impossible to be anything else when in a group of 30 norteamericanos with cameras locked and loaded. 

This city, the second largest and second most important in Guatemala, is known by three names. It was originally called Xelajú (pronounced "shay-la-hoo") by the Maya people and later by the Ki'che' people who conquered them. Xelaju' noj means "under 10 mountains." The city was (probably) already 300 years old when Spanish conquistadors took over in the 1520s. They called it by their Nahuatl allies name, "Quetzaltenango," which manes "place of the quetzal bird." Today Quetzaltenango is the official name, but many  people still use Xela (a shortened version of Xelajú) interchangeably. 

Here is a typical street in our part of the city. The houses and shops are in rows and painted bright colors, and everything is on a hill.

Most of the sidewalks are very narrow and uneven. You have to watch out for cars and dog poop, and also to not twist your ankle. Pedestrians do not have the right of way or crosswalks.

We crossed through the central park to see the Municipal Palace. It was built in 1812, once served as Quetzaltenango's first hospital, and survived the earthquake in 1902. Besides Spanish, 24 indigenous languages are spoken in Guatemala, K'iche' being the most common with 1 million speakers (11% of the population). All of the signs in the Municipal Palace are written in both Spanish and K'iche'.

The three flags pictured here (from left to right) are of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, and the Federal Republic of Central America. The Federal Republic of Central America lasted from 1821 to 1841 and consisted of the 5 states of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. In 1838 a sixth state was officially added, Los Altos, of which Quetzaltenango was the capital. After the Federal Republic fell apart, Los Altos became an independent nation... until the Guatemalan army forcibly reincorporated it in 1840. They declared independence from Guatemala a second time in 1848 and were once again reincorporated in 1849. The people here are very proud of the fact that their city was once the head of the sixth state.

This painting is a representation of Quetzaltenango. The banner is the flag of the sixth state, the volcano Santa Maria is framed in the background, along with a flying quetzal. The quetzal is the national bird of Guatemala, and the money here is named after it. It symbolizes freedom because if kept in a cage it cannot survive. There used to be a lot of quetzales but now they are rarely seen because they were hunted so much. The woman sitting has a bunch of food spread out on the ground, crops grown in the area, and in the bottom right corner there is a marimba. Marimbas are insanely popular in Guatemala; they're the national instrument. On the bus ride to Xela our driver talked about how he and his father, who is from Mexico, would get into arguments all the time about the origin place of the marimba, whether it was Guatemala or Mexico (it was Guatemala). 

And the Municipal Palace from outside. There's an ATM at the corner that charges me $4 USD for every transaction.

 

A cool painting of a quetzal! They're really pretty, I hope I get to see one. (After some research I am doubtful that is, in fact, a quetzal. It doesn't have a red belly, and also has a hummingbird beak. But the tail feathers? I am confused.) (Another update: Colibri means hummingbird. It's definitely a hummingbird. But guys I wanted it to be a quetzal so bad!!!)

Some of the buildings around the central park, and our fearless guide, Patricia. She's really cute and nice.

The theater! It's really old.

Santa Maria in the distance.

The view of the city from the top of our school. What a long first day.

I'm sure you can tell from the fact that my descriptions of each picture have gotten shorter, that I really tired. And I still have some homework left to do. Another blog post tomorrow, perhaps.