After spending a few weeks hanging out and working on Malakii, I took the bus from Rio Dulce to Guatemala City to meet my girl friend, Dona Boggs. She had a few weeks vacation and we wanted to do some overland travels and some sailing. As I walked from the bus station to my hotel, I was delighted to hear music playing. In front of the ministry of health a bunch of guys were whaling away on some oversized xylaphones, officially known as marimbas. I thought this was pretty cool. I've always felt that being happy is good for your health, and it looked like the Guatemalan ministry of health was doing its part to make everyone happier and healthier by playing happy music. The marimbas appeared to be made especially for the Ministry of Health -- it was carved into the front of them.
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| Marimba Band |
The next morning I met Dona at the airport. The taxi driver who took me to the airport was great. The plane was late, so he came back every half hour for two hours until it arrived. Dona was tired from overnight traveling, so the first order of business was a nap. We spent the rest of the day exploring the city and doing errands. We bought her some extra film, as she had mistakenly let her supply go through the airport x-ray, and we didn't know if it was any good or not. I needed a new head for my miniature banjo, so we checked out a few music stores to no avail. But then, as we were wandering around, I saw a shop with some drums in it. I went in and discovered they had drum heads that seemed to be the right diameter, and they were only $3. At that price, I could gamble, so I bought one. We packed it away for later -- my banjo was back on the boat. In the evening we wandered around the central square, and discovered another marimba band. This one was set up in front of the Supreme Court, and they were the official court marimbas. Something was going on here... We sat down with a big crowd to listen to the performance, and an announcer appeared. It turns out the day I arrived was some sort of national celebration of the marimba day. As I understood the announcer (My Spanish is pretty pathetic), the mariachi band is the national instrument of Mexico, and the Guatemalans claim the marimba. We never did learn if the players were judges or lawyers or full time court marimba players.
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| Street vendor cart |
After a good night's sleep, we hopped a bus and headed up to Lake Atitlan.
This page last updated on 2013-10-23.
