Return from Guatemala, part 2

(posted by Sid)

The view from our hotel balcony in Chajul, across the street.  Chickens tied up on the rooftop.  Also, a good look at what happens when there are no electrical codes.

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Same picture as above, but zoomed in on the chicken . . .

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Locals in the street in front of the hotel.  In the mornings, it was always little girls and very young boys.  The older boys were either in school, or up on the mountain getting firewood, working the crops, or some other industry.  At night, the boys came home, and every street had a soccer game going, dodging between donkeys and motorcycles.  This was during the World Cup, so the village was a bit crazy about soccer at the time.

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The smoky Chajul skyline.  The bright white building is the original Spanish Catholic mission, somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 years old.  Every morning and evening, the fires started inside the houses, everyone cooking.  They had no chimneys… the smoke just permeated through the houses.  The dense smoke burned our eyes.  I can’t even wonder how bad it must have been inside the houses where the smoke had no place to go.

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The villagers made use of all the available land in town.  Some of these folks had to go through others’ houses to get to their own.  See the cornfield in the void space, and there are 2 horses in this picture also.  Each house shared a wall with up to 3 or even 4 other houses.