San Cristóbal Verapaz

After a few days of speaking Spanish, I was beginning to improve and words were starting to come back to me. I felt incredibly proud of my progress until I arrived in San Cristóbal, where everyone speaks Pokomchí. I'm now back to square one as far as not understanding anything that's going on! I'm not sure what Navajo is like, but Pokomchí is probably as difficult and as foreign. Lots of glottal stops and letters I can't pronounce. For example, to say "how are you?" instead of a simplified ¿Cómo estás?, in Pokomchí, it takes about 5 minutes to spit out "nic wach, sukna ac'ux?"  Luckily, though many people here communicate in Pokomchí, most of them do also speak Spanish so at least I can communicate.

 Cathedral in the Central Park

 Flower vendors on market day

 Gazebo in the Central park

During my first weekend in San Cristóbal, I was lucky enough to experience the Rixk'un Kak Koj (or "Queen of the Hill") parade and competition, which is sort of like a "Miss America" for indigenous women in San Cristóbal. I was invited to a traditional lunch, where the various "queens" from all parts of Guatemala were invited to take part in the competition. The contestants were judged based on their ability to prepare traditional food (apparently judged beforehand), their mastery of the Pokomchí language, their dancing, and their ability to answer impromptu questions. Fortunately, there was no swimsuit portion of the pageant.

Eating traditional chicken soup and tamales.

Here you can see the queens to my right.

Here the queens and "nietas" (there was also a Little Miss Sunshine sort of competition for girls under 10) from around the country participate in the Son de Marimba dance.

The Baile del Venado, or "deer dance" was performed by a group of young men from Suchitepequez, in the southwest of Guatemala. Like many of the musicians and dancers, they were invited to perform in San Cristóbal for this pageant.

Here, one of the contestants leads the group in her interpretation of the Son de Arpa dance

 

The queen is chosen after three hours of competition and shows. Here she is crowned by last year's queen, and they then proceed to dance together down the stage.

This week I've been busy volunteering for the community center and trying to find musical contacts. Preparations for the fair keep building, and I'll see what is in store for me next weekend! I've now survived both a cold and food poisoning, and I'm hoping that does it as far as getting sick for the trip.