Marimba, Marimba!! Welcome to Xela (Quetzaltenango)yea xela is better, but just so you know, the quetzal is a muy bonita long tail bird (somewhat rare now), so the name means place of the quetzal. Anyway marimba (think xylophone, that spelling is not even close, with 3 guys playing it at once) so how do home- made marimba’s become a big thing? Must be a MAYAN thing!! This is what you say when you just don’t understand something about Guatemala. Must be a MAYAN thing! The people of Guatemala are the most concentrated indigenous group I’ve encountered with every area of the country (except guate) speaking a different Mayan language as its 1^st language, Spanish is second fiddle here, but all speak it. I hope the indigenous languages will not be lost on the next generations. Xela is the2nd largest city, but small by comparison. Yet this is where we met Sam’s familia de Guatemala, as it is not far to Sam’s village of Almolonga. We had dinner at the B4 mentioned Fried chicken joint (not the place to be with a queasy stomach). It was loud and crowded with marimba music flowing and they ONLY served fried pollo(chicken) Regardless it was wonderful to meet Jose y Maria y hija Elysa. It must have been a funny sight as we were the only gringos in the place and all 3 of us over a foot taller than any of them, but we had a grand time and it warmed our heart to see Sam so knit together with them. We were to spend more time with them in their home in Almolonga.

Sam of course fought all our battles for us. Bargaining hard for the best price, rejecting taxi’s who tried to take advantage of the gringos, protecting us in crowded markets, on buses, squeezing us into tuktuks, finding us wonderful hotels, helping us with menus (except as a vegan,(she wont like me calling her a vegan) she was lost when it came to cuts of meat. The poor waiter had to point to his body parts…oh you mean ribs?) The greatest joy for us was seeing her embraced by the communities where she lives and works. At 1^st Almolonga was hard for us. Dirty, smelly, congested. But then we started meeting all the people who knew sam. Warm smiles hugs kisses, excited conversation, excited to meet the parents of their Samantha. That’s right, they don’t plan to let her go. The children running by all greet sam, the girls give a hug. Away from the main street Almolonga settles down as it slopes down to the fields for which it is famous. Here there is a beauty and serenity that is hard to describe and you begin to understand, in a small way, what it is the people value. Down the road a ways is another village,Zunil, cleaner but only because they throw the garbage in the river, but a lovely place with lovely people who like all the rest work extremely hard through the course of their day. It was a sight as the women do their laundry by the river in the shadow of yet another volcan with the brightness of their faces reflected in the vibrant colors of the blankets spread out along the river bank. We had a short visit to a Almolongan church, and it is safe to say that the Hand of God is active here and His Church is alive.

Salsa, Salsa!!! Back to music. Sam surprised us with private samba lessons. OH yea we were surprised all right. Private meant one-on-one instruction in front of a room full of folks on exercise equipment. But what can you do? You roll with it!! GUATEMALA !!