I was a Mayan Barbie Doll.

Best blog fodder ever today!

Because we are entertaining multiple visitors while we stay in Panajachel, Chris and I knew there would be some things we did twice during our stay here. Although the two of us had already visited Santa Catarina, San Antonio and Santiago on our own, we thought they were great towns that Katy & Jessica would enjoy visiting, as well, and we decided to join them for a second visit.

We chartered a private boat to take us to all three towns and the hot springs outside of Santa Catarina and the boat picked us up at the dock of our hotel this morning at 9 a.m. None of our travel accommodations have been terribly uncomfortable but this was a luxurious way to travel because the four of us had the boat to ourselves and we weren't on a time line: the captain waited for us at each of our destinations until we were done.

We had been told to bring our swimsuits for the trip to the hot springs and each of us did as instructed. This was our first stop outside of Pana, but it was not exactly what we expected. The hot springs are used by the Mayans for prayer ceremonies, so the area, which is very small, was full of women in traditional dress, in the water, laying hands on a rock and chanting. It seemed disrespectful of their tradition for us to jump into the water to play while they were practicing worship. I mean, we thought it disrespectful: the boat captain didn't see any problem with it. Because we aren't jerks, we opted to just observe.

The first town we visited was Santa Catarina, which was as lovely as on our first visit. It is a small town and we saw the women working their hand looms in the streets and visited the church and a crafts co-op where we found some gifts for people we love (who knows, you might be one of them!), and Chris fell hard for some of the little girls selling trinkets he didn't want or need but we now own. Who knows, maybe we'll give some of those trinkets to you! Katy, I think, was pleased to buy some textiles for her Spanish classroom.

The second place we visited was San Antonio and taking the boat there today drove home to me how long the walk was between the two towns that we did last time we visited them. I'm glad we walked it once.

We weren't in San Antonio 10 minutes before we stumbled upon a woman who was sitting at her foot loom in the broad doorway of her shop. None of us had said a word when she said it was fine for us to take photos of her at work. I was a little confused because she then got up from her loom and disappeared into the bowels of the shop. Katy moved in and for reasons that aren't clear to me I believed Katy was going to sit at the loom, but that wasn't the case: she also moved into the shop. If Katy was seeing something, I wanted to see it, too, so I followed her in and fingered a scarf while she and the woman negotiated a price for one of her textiles. There was no foreshadowing and there were no transitions. One minute I'm idly looking at scarves and the next moment these two small Mayan women in full indigenous dress are pulling a huipile over my head. In the time it took for them to throw the huipile over my head and then for my eyes to emerge from the neck hole, Chris and Jessica had joined Katy and me and the two Mayan women in this tiny shop. A second after that, the women were lifting a skirt over my head to wrap around me, over the huipile and then they were tying it all together with a belt and tucking and pulling and primping and priming. By this time, Katy has explained to me that said they would dress me up like a Mayan for picture. The huipile, skirt and belt wasn't enough and they pulled a stunning hand embroidered apron off the wall and wrap that around me and you might think that was the full outfit but then I'm suddenly sitting on a tiny wooden chair close to the ground and one of the women is weaving the traditional headdress into my hair and *** wah-lah *** I am a Mayan Barbie doll! They dressed me up, over my own clothes, in minutes and then promptly tried to sell me the outfit. A blink, and they dress Katy completely in a similar and equally gorgeous dress. I'm not entirely sure how Jessica made it through the experience untouched, but it likely saved her money. Katy and I both agreed that we had been interested in the pieces when we were just looking at them on the wall but once we were wearing the whole she-bang we wanted to bring every thread home with us... and Katy did! She got each piece: the two pieces of headdress, the huipile, the skirt, belt and apron. It will be such an excellent teaching tool in her Spanish class and was a special purchase. I couldn't justify buying the whole thing for myself, knowing I would never wear the skirt again, but I did keep the headdress and the huipile. I think part of the reason I am so tired this evening is because I laughed so hard the entire time we were in the women's shop today.

In Santiago, we stopped for lunch at a place recommended by the Rough Guide and our sandwiches weren't particularly good but we had the most excellent macadamia nut and blackberry mango pies that made it well worth the stop. We visited the church where there were additional statues draped in Mayan robes and adorned with scarves and ribbons and ties in celebration of the Feast of Saint James so the setting was all the more festive than even when Chris and I were there a week ago. Katy and Jessica decided to visit a shrine to Maximon, the evil saint, while Chris and I shopped for a particular style of huipile with quetzal birds we had decided we would like to bring home with us and our experience was better than theirs, I think. The shrine was about 10 minutes outside of town and the towns themselves are relatively desolate and poor by our standards and so heading outside of town is intense. Further, the shrine--like the hot springs--is a place where people go to practice worship and so it is awkward to visit as a tourist. Finally, according to Katy and Jessica there were dozens of drunk children outside the shrine and the atmosphere was grotesque in the literary sense. The creeps descended and they came back to town as quickly as possible.

The boat ride back to our dock was relaxing and it was refreshing to be on the cool water after spending hours wandering in the hot sun. We spent a bit of time at the pool and then I did some writing and Chris did some reading while Katy and Jessica spent some time in the tuj--a Mayan sauna on the property here.

We went into town for dinner and to arrange for Katy and Jessica's trip to Chichicastanengo tomorrow and when we got back, everyone else was just about ready for bed and, now, I guess I am, too!