We just spent the past week in the lovely city of Quetzaltenango (Xela for short) and had a very lovely time. Last Sunday we went to the Fuentes Georginas, which are the most beautiful hot springs in Guatemala! They are truly stunning.

The water flows into natural stone pools, surrounded by high rock walls and lush foliage. Two years ago the area had an earthquake which opened up a new vent making the pools much hotter! There was one pool I couldn´t go in, and George could only go halfway into it before he boiled himself alive.

While there, we met a lovely girl from Texas named Mariah, who we are going to travel with to Lake Atitlan today.

On Wednesday I attended a Mayan Back-Strap Weaving class! That was wonderful. I got to spend the day with a couple of really funny Mayan ladies, and learn to weave and speak better Spanish! I took the five hour class, which was enough to make a cloth about a foot and a half long. I´m going to sew it into a purse. And I also bought a back-strap loom for only $12!!

Yesterday we got to see a very intersting parade. It was some special saint day here (there´s a lot of those in Central America) where they move the golden statue of the Virgin Mary from one side of the church to the other. Usually she sits to the left of the alter, but yesterday was the day where she gets taken out of the church, marched around the square in front of the church, and taken back inside where she is placed at the front of the altar. In one month they will reverse the process.

It was quite an experience. Of course the streets were crowded, and it was a little sunny so many people had umbrellas with them. And because they all come up to shoulder height on me, those umbrellas were very dangerous. It was quite a beautiful procession, though. It was lead by about 40 girls in white communion dresses, followed by groups of Mayans in their beautiful clothing, and the statue came after them. And as is far too common in Central America, about 50 different school marching bands followed the statue. The statue took about two hours to march around the square, and the marching bands continued on for about five hours after that. We didn´t stay to watch.

Like I said, today at 3PM we´re going to Lake Atitlan. We´ll probably spend tonight in Panajachel, and tomorrow we´ll take the beautiful $2 boat ride across the lake to stay in San Pedro. Although the lake is very touristed, everyone says we must go. The sunsets on the lake are supposed to be spectacular, although the lake is quite full of garbage for most of the year.

In San Pedro, George plans on taking a week-long spanish course that only costs $55 for the week. While he does that, I´m going to take a few more weaving classes (I need to figure out how to thread the thing) and maybe some beading classes as well! Those only cost $2 an hour. We can also rent kayaks for $1.50 an hour and go on volcano treks and bike from village to village around the lake.

Now I want to express some thoughts I´ve been thinking. I´m warning you that they may be a little uneducated, or very hippyish.

One thought is that Mayan culture is so strong and vivid! I have often heard people lament that they are losing their culture to the incredibly overpowering culture of the west. But that is far from true! Any traveller can tell you that.

For example, many people think they are losing their religion and becoming catholic. But remember the Mayan-Catholic church I told you about? They drink coke to appease the saints and sacrifice chickens to make life better. And yesterday I learned that many of the statues of saints that they parade around so often are actually hollow. Inside they have hidden small idols of the Maya religion.

So there you go! They have not lost their culture and they never will. It will only continue to change as all cultures do.

I have another thought which I am not finished thinking about, but maybe one of you can offer me some of your thoughts on the subject. Okay. I´ve been thinking about the ways that our culture does effect other cultures, mostly the poorer people, and how we should continue to effect them.

I believe that a lot of poverty in the world is a direct result of big business and western culture. Many large businesses make deals with developing countries, providing that the government promises the workers will not be allowed to organize. And other companies, like Monsanto, buy out all other companies and products so the poor farmers have only one choice of seed to buy.

The Zapatistas of Mexico tried to do something about it. They rose up in arms on January 1, 1994, which is the day that NAFTA went into effect. Their government had ignored them for so long that when this agreement was signed and changed the Mexican laws allowing the selling of any parcel of land to American business (namely the Mayan land) they decided to rebel. Peace talks have been made, and in 2006 some new laws were signed. But the most recent piece of news I´ve heard is that the new laws did not address the problems that the Zapatistas wanted and needed addressed. After 2006, people stopped writing about the issue. Although many of the Mexicans I met told me the government did not settle things properly with the Mayans and Zapatistas, and that most Mexicans actually want the government to do more.

I guess the thing I am wondering about is how we should go about helping them escape the poverty that we put them in. Should we come in with micro-loans and collective opportunities that help them organize? Should we provide them with charities? Or should we leave them alone to work things out for themselves? Am I overthinking things? Who are "we" and "them" anyways?

If anyone has any thoughts on the matter, or even some cold hard facts, I would really appreciate it. If you´d like, please start a forum discussion on the subject.

I´m sorry to anyone who has no interest in these things, but I´ve been seeing many things and talking to many people and learning about the world and these things are on my mind.