Last day in Panajachel (Pana)
Friday morning in the city of Solola is the big market day and is considered one of the best markets around. Say no more, Heidi and I pay the 33 cents for the chicken bus ride to Solola.
We see someone squeezing fresh orange juice. We can’t pass that up…..
The chicken bus was just over half full. It’s all up hill to Solola and steep with constant switchbacks. We couldn’t believe how the driver would just whip the steering wheel around those turns. I say “He’s going faster then we do on the bike!” Heidi says “Yeah, he’s a young kid and cranking American rap music” I say “For sure” “I wonder what the ride back down the hill will be like!”
We made it. Heidi and I wait while people start unloading their stuff from the overheads. A women about 4 foot zero was trying to grab a large round bucket sitting over us. I attempted to move it more forward, closer to her but it wouldn’t budge. I said to myself ‘Holy crap!’ and jumped up to help her. I barely lift the thing over the rack and she grabs it and rests it on top of her head. It had to be at least 50 pounds. She thanks me and marches off the bus balancing the bucket on her head.
There is a lot of activity around the Solola market.
The crowd looks impenetrable. Heidi finally finds an open path directly to the center square of the park. I’m thinking ‘maybe we don’t want to go to the center’ We’ve heard stories of the huge crowds and pick-pocketing here. I stay quiet.
The central park square was crowded but manageable. I could feel our eyes bug way out as we walked up onto the square, dozens and dozens of traditionally dressed indigenous Guatemaltecos, all very distinct and proud looking. We look so ‘way different’ than everyone else here, but we’ve been in these kind of situations often enough. We cruise straight through acting as natural as possible to the other side and straight to the heart of the market (I wish I could have gotten a photo but we felt it would have showed disrespect here). Wow, this is not for the faint of heart. Getting pinned in with people pushing you from all corners, trying to move out of the way of woman carrying large buckets on their heads or some guy carrying a large sack of something on his back. This is not what we want.
Stopping to look at something was a big deal. A woman was cutting up papaya and we wanted some but it was in the densest traffic area. We tried to stop but soon gave up, it was just too brutal.
Heidi did get a chance to look at some pretty earrings. She looked at several, the guy showed her several and I could tell she was ready to walk away. I bend over and ask the guy how much “cuanto” 65 cents. I immediately tell Heidi that the blue ones would look beautiful on her (big spender, wink). That brought back her interest, she walks away a happy girl with new 65 cents earrings.
Before we walked away an older guy at the counter warned Heidi to not put them in her pocket, instead carry them in a bag. He said there are robbers here, while motioning pick-pocketing.
Yesterday while closing my tool bag the strap that holds it onto the bike broke. I see this guy with tons of small belts. I test one that looks like an exact replacement but stronger. NICE! $1.30 and I have a new tool bag strap.
Ohh, this is where all the color in peoples cloths come from……
Chickens, geese, turkeys and who knows what. This is how some of them ride on the bus.
We feel battered and bruised! We made it out to the other side.
Time to take a little walking tour around the village. We pass a small church with its doors open. I walk up front to the counter where some candles are burning. I do a ‘sign of the cross’ over my chest and deposit a couple coins in the donation box. On the way out Heidi was waiting at the door, we whisper a few words (I don’t know why we were whispering) and I look over and see this. I say to Heidi “These are chicken pews!” I’ve never heard of or read about ‘chicken pews’ but that’s what these have to be. They are loaded with chicken poop and feathers. I want to know more……….
A lot of the people selling stuff in Guatemala have these balance scales made out of a stick, some rope and two equally sized buckets. I always thought a known sized weight must get placed in one bucket but here I saw grain in both buckets while a woman was measuring out a sale. ??
Getting on a bus back to Pana is easy. Just go to the bus area and get on the one where the guy is yelling out “Pana!, Pana!”
Wow, if you are into amusement park roller coasters, don’t miss the chicken bus ride from Solola to Panajachel. Ya know, when you are racing down a super steep run and you say to yourself “we can’t possibly make this turn!” but then you make it. The whole ride is like that.
The woman in the photo wasn’t standing for very long…….
Of course when we get home I noticed that I got pick-pocketed, my reading glasses and case got snatched from my front thigh pocket. And I thought I was immune because of the precautions I take.
