Visit to San Andrés Xecúl

Yesterday ICA had an excursion to a local pueblo (small town) called San Andrés Xecúl. We rode a camioneta (bus) to get there. The gringos (white foreigners) all refer to camionetas as chicken buses because in the smaller towns it's not unheard of for a woman headed to the market to get on the bus and bring her chickens with her. Guatemalans never ever call the camionetas chicken buses. Anyway, it was our first chicken bus ride ever (I didn't ride one last year), so it was fairly exciting. At times the buses can fill up so much that there are three or more people in each seat. Sometimes people ride on the top! We were luckily to only have two to a seat.
ICA has done some work with the people of this pueblo in the past, including helping them to get safe drinking water. The mountains around the pueblo have suffered from deforestation, which caused the natural spring water to become impure.
The pueblo has a Catholic church that is famous because of it's bright colors. The church was built in the mid-1700's.
We also visited the home where San Simón is housed. San Simón is a saint that is not officially accepted by the Catholic church, but is generally accepted by Catholics in Central America, especially those in Guatemala. They have a statue of him in San Andrés Xecúl. (Statue isn't really the word. It's like a mix between a statue and when people stuff clothes with leaves around Halloween. I don't mean that in a disrespectful way; I just don't know how else to describe it!) Here is a photo of the home that currently houses San Simón. He moves every year.
I could have paid Q10 (a little over $1) to take a photo of San Simón himself, but I chose not to. :) Some say that San Simón is the reincarnation of Judas. Guatemalans travel from all over the country travel to visit San Simón and ask him for various things, for example safe travels or healing. They bring him gifts, including alcohol, cigarettes, and clothing. San Simón changes his appearance regularly because people have brought him new things to wear. And he has a special depository in his stomach for when people pour alcohol into his mouth. :)

We walked up a steep hill to a look out point. (Those of you who went on the Mexico trip: San Andrés Xecúl reminded me a lot of Buena Vista. It was built on the side of a mountain and the streets were very much up or down.)
The view was incredible! Here's a video, but believe me, it doesn't do it justice.



One observation I've made in Guatemala is the drastic contrast between beautiful and ugly, and the fact that you see both at almost every moment. For example, if I looked straight ahead from the lookout point, I saw this:
But if I looked down, I saw this trash:
There is trash all over the ground in Guatemala, especially in the rural areas. They don't have the facilities and public systems like we do in the U.S. to handle all the trash, especially now that everything is made from plastic and then packaged and wrapped in plastic.

We also got to watch some of the kids play fútbol (soccer) in the street. Here's a short video. They were definitely showing off for us. :)



The Gallo beer truck drove up in the middle of the game and parked right where they were playing. They complained about it so much that the truck finally moved so they could finish the game. :)

Here's some comments from Dave:
Ok as megan already told you we rode our first chicken bus today. It wasnt that bad. On the way back from San Andres Xecul our chicken bus was pimped out with a flip down screen playing music videos. they had rope lights in front a big amplifire and had some woofers hidden somewhere. it sounded pretty decent for a bus. Megan described the pueblo so i wont repeat anything. I did have fun visiting it though.