PICTURED SITES ARE DESCRIBED IN THIS TEXT.

Elderhostel describes its program as "we learn about Mayan civilization as it once existed in the lands that now are Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize. During this in-depth exploration, we trace the history of a people whose sophistication in art, architecture, and science rivaled the ancient Egyptians and Greeks. We also assess the impact of European colonization as well as modern-day descendants of the Mayan people and gain insights into contemporary issues in each country. As a special highlight, we examine some of the extraordinary excavated Mayan sites at Copan, Tikal, and Xuantunich during the 14-night program."

An index of articles related to this trip can be seen at our home page: http://www.worldisround.com/home/jdtan/index.html

If you have any questions, email them to me at jdtanner@a5.com rather than including them in your remarks at the bottom of the photo page.

Lake Atitlan was formed by an immense volcanic explosion 85,000 years ago when volcanic pressure was released with devastating results. Comparing Mt. St. Helen’s explosion to Atitlan, the discharge of hot ash and rock was 90 times as much. An immense hole was left in the earth's crust leaving Atitlan as one of the world's deepest lakes and forming deep large fissures, out of which water flows draining into the Pacific ocean by underground seepage. Atitlan is a fresh water lake with no river outlet, and a depth of 1,000 feet in some areas has been charted.

Three volcanoes named Atitlan, Toliman and San Pedro which rise from the lake’s southern shore were reflected in the mirror-like lake as we crossed it by boat from Panajachel. Clouds cover the volcano cones as they disappear and reappear several times a day. The color of the water changes through the day from emerald green to turquoise to sky blue. Fishermen and boat operators working on the lake are well aware how fast a calm lake surface can become a danger as a storm rolls in, and they head for shore immediately.

Twelve Indian villages surround the lake, most accessible only by boat, and each with a distinctive personality and appeal. Santa Cruz is home to 2,000 Kaqchikel inhabitants, who climb 45 minutes up a winding cobblestone road to get to their homes from the dock. San Marcos has a meditation center that attracts international healers and spiritual seekers. San Pedro draws a youthful backpacking crowd and has a Spanish-language school. Santiago Atitlan is noted for its weaving and woodworking cooperatives.

The combination of Atitlan’s nearness to the equator and its height of 5100 feet above sea level makes for an ideal climate. It's never uncomfortably cold or hot. The rainy season lasts from May to October, but the sun does shine some almost every day.

Santiago is easily the most beautiful and fascinating village on the lake, as well as the largest, with a population of almost 15,000 people.

Throughout the country we compared the ladies’ huipiles to others we had seen. The earliest huipiles from Santiago were mainly white with a few widely spaced narrow red or purple stripes as well as red weft stripes. These were simple and undecorated except for embroidery around the neck hole and half-circle shaped yoke of red or magenta fabric in front and back. About 1915 the first embroidered decorations other than the sunrays on the neckline appeared which were crosshatched motifs along the shoulder and in the front and back and carefully stitched small figures. In the 1940´s the warp stripes, now entirely purple, began to become wider and more closely spaced, and the small geometric figures changed to bird designs. When colored threads became more readily available in the early 1950´s, definite changes came about in the weaving and the embroidery. Most unusual in Santiago are the headdresses that the local women wear which are called Tocoyal and consist of 40 feet of material strips wound in a circle while on the woman’s head.

The cathedral in Santiago was founded in 1542, damaged by earthquakes many times, badly ruined in 1773 and only partially rebuilt between 1780 and 1820. In the 16th and early 17th centuries, most churches had lavish baroque interiors. but many including the one in Santiago lost their richness during post-earthquake rebuilding. The cathedral is being restored, but residents say it will never regain its grandeur. In its beginning it denied the indigenous population their religion and customs, but during the 20th century it was defending the indigenous population from the military of the Guatemala government. More than 50 large wooden statues of saints line the interior walls, all of which are wrapped in colorful indigenous scarves and dressed in traditional clothing typical of the village. Some saints weep, hands outstretched, others bleed from painted wounds, while Mayan women kneel at the altar praying.

From the mid-1980’s until late 1990’s the people of Santiago suffered from violence caused by the 30-year civil war occurring in Guatemala from 1966 to 1998. The village was the site of a massacre on January 6, 1980, when ten men from the village working in their fields were attacked and killed by Guatemalan military forces about three miles from Santiago.

On July 28, 1981 Father Stanley Rother, Catholic pastor of the church, was assassinated in the parish rectory adjacent to this church. The people of Santiago asked that his head and blood remain in the village. The violence in Santiago continued through 1990 claiming a deacon and many other church members. On December 2, 1990 thirteen people were killed in front of a local army camp one mile from Santiago. They went to the local military camp to protest an attempted kidnapping earlier in the day. The people of Santiago organized peaceful protests after this massacre, and the army left Santiago before the end of December 1990.

We were told to expect to be taken to the residence of an ancient Mayan deity named Maximon. Worship of that deity has occasionally caused much trouble between the church and the indigenous population as he smokes and drinks and has the reputation as a trickster. He certainly cannot be considered a holy figure by the Catholic Church, but his exclusion from the church building during the Holy Week celebrations upset some of the indigenous population. The home where the deity he resides changes, but every young Santiago boy knows where he currently resides and offers to take tourists there. Apparently the deity had been quite active the day before our visit and was not making appearances during our visit.

We saw some damage from Hurricane Stan in October 2005 when we approached a river no longer spanned by a bridge. Our 23-passenger van was able to drive down toward the river and through the shallow water up the other side. Just a week or so after the hurricane, one newspaper story said at least 500 people had died and hundreds more remained missing and were feared dead in a wave of mudslides and heavy rains devastating parts of the country and leaving entire villages buried in mud. It was reported that between 1,200 and 1,400 people might have been killed in a single massive mudslide in the village of Panabaj, quite close to Santiago. A village official said no survivors were left after torrential rains dropped a suffocating wall of mud onto the hillside community of 250 houses.

Located five miles from Panajachel, the village of San Antonio Palopo with a population of 2650 can be reached by either boat or car. The inhabitants, of Cakchiquel origin, are mainly involved in agriculture and the production of mats and fiber goods which are woven from reeds harvested directly from the lake. Before the road we used was completed in 1980, access was only by boat or by footpaths.

We traveled on the Pan-American Highway, a network of roads nearly 29,800 miles in total length. Except for a gap of 60 miles in a rainforest, the road links the mainland nations of the Americas in a connected highway system. It is mostly complete and extends from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Quellon, Chile, in South America. No specific route is officially defined as part of the highway in Canada and the United States. The highway passes through many diverse climates and ecological types from dense jungles to cold mountain passes. The highway which passes through many countries is far from uniform. Some stretches of the highway are passable only during the dry season, and in many regions driving is occasionally hazardous.