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by liza shelestun

(Source: pienoy)

Café No Se adventure - No se (part 2)

Another adventure from No Se came on an unexpected, innocent walk to the piña on dîa de los santos. I walked past a closed No Se (holiday hours folks) only to hear the most entrancing piano music. I stopped for a short bit engulfed by the music leaking from beneath the door. I need to continue on my pursuit of caffeine and the piña so I continued on my journey. At the piña I met Mario who had also stopped for some caffeine (a necessary sustenance after the previous evening of celebrations).  I told him about the music coming from No Se so he offered for us to head over and listen. What I found was and will be probably one of my most favorite memories from Guatemala. Inside, classical concert pianist Seth, was practicing to an empty dark room his pieces for dîa de los muertos. Coffees in hand, Mario and I sat in the corner and began to listen as Seth fingers danced the Totentaz over the keys.  From the barred cracked window came the only source of light casting beams upon our pianist. We sat, entranced by the dance, and overcome by the emotion of the song. Lintz wrote this piece during the black plague – while bodies were being stacked daily outside his apartment. It is a song carrying such heavy emotion and such haunting beauty. Continually captivated, we were bathed in Chopin’s Funeral March till our single source of light died with the setting sun.

Lago Atitlan.

Weekend trip to Lake Atitlan. We spent a total of 26 hours there. Could have spent much more time. It’s a gorgeous place  - often no swimming because of pollution. Much of the time was dedicated to shopping for friends/family , so that was a bit of a bummer. Really, Id rather be exploring the nearby villages and mountain hikes, however, Lago Atitlan is known for it’s artisan market so we had to take advantage as there isn’t much time left in our precious last couple weeks for adventuring!

Adventures at Café No Se (part no se.)

My friend Kira plays a mean ukulele and accompanied by her beautiful voice she could turn any guatemaltecan cobenllaro into amor-enferma chucho. This is why a wonderful friend from the piña asked her to play one afternoon at the café. This lead ot the owner then coming to listen and asking her to play at No-Se another evening which brings us to our number one No-Se adventure. The bar gathered up as owner (and Mezcla smuggler) John shut the doors down for a mini-concierto de ukulele. Shutting the doors means something special if you know John… he shuts the doors for one man… that man is international concert pianist Seth. The room is silenced as Kira strums away on her ukelele and lulls the people to a magical land of what can only be No Se nostalgia. A good night – a good adventure.

Halloween

Kira and I dressed as volcanoes. I was fuego (fire), she was agua (water) - these are also the names of two volcanoes that surround Antigua. This made for another great adventure at Café No Se – guatemaltecans and x-pats all in proper Halloween form, live gypsy jazz by Jueves (yes his name is Thursday…) and soul-full rock by Mike. Halloween done right. Thanks Guatlandia and the No Se.

Dia de los Santos/Muertes

Nov. 1^st marks a major holiday in much of Central America – Día de los Santos. As much of Central America is historically Catholic (many times with an indigenous twist) Nov 1^st is a day celebrating the great saints whom have passed on. With Spanish classes cancelled we grabbed a shuttle to nearby Santiago to participate in a massive world-renown kite festival held in a large cemetery.  We walked through crowded cobblestone streets full of street vendors, blue tortillas, mobs of Guatemaltecans and tourists alike and eventually found the cemetery marked by, colorful kites flying high above. In a lower part of the cemetery stood five massive, beautiful, intricately decorated wheel kites all dedicated to the dead. Differing in themes, one was dedicated to the elderly, the earth, youth, the saints, and the indigenous. The size and beauty of these kites would put anyone in awe with the diameter of about 50 feet. We spent the better part of the morning walking through cemetery watching the locals launch their giant kites. I decided I wanted more of an adventure so I climbed atop one of the mausoleums with the help of a local Senor to join some guys trying to launch one of the medium/large kites (and by medium large I mean a diameter about twice the size of myself…) we waited for a strong wind and all-hands-all pushed the kite up towards the sky!

Now I have to take a quick pause here to explain this kite flying process a little further… you have to understand, these kites are quite big! Launching them is quite the process! In order to launch these buggers you’ve got to be pretty high up as to catch a big gust! The way it works is that you have a group who are the launchers – they stand atop some large museleums or statues grabbing the wooden support beams of the kite and pushing up when just the right gust comes. Another group are the runners. The runners hang onto kite string/rope and wait for the kite to launched towards the sky. On countdown the runners then start sprinting across the cemetery as to help the massive kite get some lift! If and when the kite gets som life it is then their duty to let out more and more rope to let the kite fly higher and higher! Some of the kite launchers chose to stand atop some extra tall moseleums at the beginning of the cemetery- this seemed like an area for prime wind catching. We chose a mosuleum a bit in the middle of the cemetery – a little less run room, but right in the middle of all the excitement! Alright, back to the story…

The kite was looking strong lifting up towards the sky – our runners running fast and hard towards the other end of the cemetery. Then, all of the sudden, the kite  took a turn for the worse- losing it’s gust it came barreling down right onto an innocent lady! Said lady battled the kite on the ground a bit- rolling off one of the graves. She was able to gain her bearrings and stood dusting the dirt off her shirt. As she stood, she was greeted by applause and cheering from across the cemetery. We were all glad to see her escape with not too many a battle wound. Merely grave dirt!

Who knew kite flying could be such a battlefield – sure enough, right and left people had to duck and cover if a kite lost a gust of wind and started barreling straight for the ground. Some of these kites had large flags on the top making for a rather large and dangerous flagged spear. These ones required extra caution – no one wanted to end up being stuck to the grave… literally… * After more attempts at kite launching we were finally able to get the kite to take flight for a little over 50 meters - and no innocent bystanders taken out!

*(apologies for the distasteful pun!)

Language School y mas.

Language school is officially over. It’s been a good run. Un ‘bueno corriendo’ if-you-will. My teacher was fabulous and patient as I continued to struggle over irregular conjugations and subjunctive tenses. Thank you Nancy! I would recommend the Institute of Maya language school to anyone looking to study Spanish in Antigua! If you do happen to find yourself in Antigua, you should also try to scamper yourself on over to a wonderful bar called Café No Se. It’s unique hole in the wall with a ‘mezcla’ of expats, guatemaltecans, vagabonds, and semi-oddball typical tourists all combined with amazing music, great food/drink, “confused staff” and an owner who has started more-or-less a miniature-cult(ure) following.  This same owner is  also roomered to have smuggled illegal mescal into Guatemala and has many-an-interesting story to tell about these shenanigans. Rule of thumb… if you hear a wild and crazy tale about he and his smuggling adventures… it’s most likely true.

Intrigued?
Want to know more?
Visit Antigua and head first thing to Café No Se.

The chicken bus. If traveling through Guatemala, this is an experience that must not be missed. Crowded, crazy, super fast chicken bus. There may have been a few times I thought I would die riding the chicken bus… however, I am still here… gracias a Dios.

one adventure upon return from the Guat please!

(via awelltraveledwoman)

pictures from SI Guatemala. Thank you Guatemala + SI for new experiences…