Day 17: Antigua, Guatemala (again)

So the Mayan ceremony was very nice, and I learned quite a lot about Mayan culture, both from the experience itself, and from German's in depth explanations. It was a very long ceremony, though, longer than we expected. I was hoping to spend a little more time actually talking with German, but duty called and we had to go.

We went to speak with a representative of ODHAG, the human rights of arm of the Guatemalan Catholic Church. It was quite informative to hear about the church's history of work with the indigenous people, and some of the divisions within the church regarding how these people should be treated.

Afterwards, we decided it was time to deal with a "situation" that's been causing a little stress. Around a week ago, when we left Antigua for Guatemala City, Susanna realized that she left a CD with a bunch of her only copies of several photos in a computer at the internet cafe in the hotel in Antigua (Hotel Posada Angelina--very nice people). She realized this while we were in the shuttle bus to the city. Since we figured the shuttle bus driver probably makes the same trip several times a day, we asked him if he would be so kind as to grab the CD and bring it back on his next trip to Guatemala City. He said he'd be happy to, but suffice it to say, this never happened. He did grab the CD, but he never delivered it to us, thus creating the worst possible scenario. If he had simply left it, things would be much easier, but now we had to track him down somehow.

Last night we came to Antigua to find him. Apparently, we just missed him, and by the time we gave up, there were no more buses to Guatemala City. We decided to spend the night in Antigua rather than paying for a taxi all the way there. This morning, we went to have breakfast at the place next to the travel agency that the driver works with, and in he walks, with disc in hand. We were glad we missed the last bus to Guatemala City, or we never would have gotten the disc back. Another tragedy averted!

By the way, I met some more Norweigans girls last night. What is it with Norweigan girls and Central America? They're everywhere! I thought there were a lot in Minnesota, but this is ridiculous.

We will find out soon whether or not we can meet Rigoberta Menchu. If so, we stay another day, if not, we will be in El Salvador by this evening.

By the way, there are some more Guatemala City pictures up at http://picasaweb.google.com/ogoldberg