In che che
We are now in Chechecastanago (sp*). it is a small town with suprisingly little to do but so far it has been quite exciting. We arived yesterday 7-7-06 and got a room as soon as we could. We took the chicken bus here instead of more expencive and more luxurious transportation. As before the chicken bus was an advennture and well worth the experence and low price. Today we checked out the market as they were setting up for tomarow. I already bought two things and can only expect that i will find more that i like tomarow. I am learning what salesmenship is all about. People will tell you whatever you want to hear. Sadly, there doesnt seem to be a moral code in honesty. Also prices are jacked up way too high for EVERYTHING for us gringos. today i was looking for pants, because i sadly forgot mine at home, yes papa the ones i bought with you at norstroms. I was shopping around not wanting to buy today but just wanting an idea of prices. In panahachel pants were going for an opening price of 100 qutsals; so that is anywhere from 20 to 70 qutsals as a final price. Here i gathered that it costs about 30 qetsals for similar pants. OK, so my story goes i went up to one lady and just asked how much a pair of her pants cost. she said 150 q. well not intrested in the first place i said no. she lowered to 100 and i started to leave, then the price when from 100 to 80 to 50 to 35 to 10 q. This was in the course of about one miniute as i was walking away.
On a differnt note we went to see a shamin´s ritual today. As kevin and i were buying something two woman asked us if we could take them up to the ritual. we said sure and went with them to the site. It was up a large hill and we were all a little tired when we got to the top, the woman much more then us. the ritual site was intesting. it had an amizing view, yes there are pictures, and there was a fire pit with many symbolic rocks around it. One Myan (sp*) lady told us what the rocks meant and so forth. The woman we were with payed the shamin to partisipate in the ceramony. they burned a stack of candles and the shamin said a few prayers for them. It has been a good day, but i am excited for towarow. we are going to get up early, hopefuly, and seen a prayer ceramony in frount of the church here. then we go into the market. on sundays and thursdays it is the biggest and they have been setting up all today! im excited.
On a differnt note we went to see a shamin´s ritual today. As kevin and i were buying something two woman asked us if we could take them up to the ritual. we said sure and went with them to the site. It was up a large hill and we were all a little tired when we got to the top, the woman much more then us. the ritual site was intesting. it had an amizing view, yes there are pictures, and there was a fire pit with many symbolic rocks around it. One Myan (sp*) lady told us what the rocks meant and so forth. The woman we were with payed the shamin to partisipate in the ceramony. they burned a stack of candles and the shamin said a few prayers for them. It has been a good day, but i am excited for towarow. we are going to get up early, hopefuly, and seen a prayer ceramony in frount of the church here. then we go into the market. on sundays and thursdays it is the biggest and they have been setting up all today! im excited.