Cantel, Las Fuentes Georginas, Zunil Guatemala, el catorce de deciembre, 2016

Rather than sit in a classroom today, Magdalena and I went touring.  Our first stop was in the pueblo of Cantel where we had hoped to see glass blowing at Copavic.  Unfortunately the workers are on holidays so we just got to see some of the product-

And the ovens-

There were piles of colored glass waiting to be turned into something new.  Tomorrow a huge shipment goes to Austria.  I'm pretty sure I've seen some of this in Canada.  I was very disappointed that they weren't working today.

After getting off our second chicken bus of the morning, we were in Zunil-

 

And needed a ride the 8 km all uphill to the Hotsprings.  There are beautiful fields along the way-

And workers planting-

And others harvesting onions-

They plant and harvest 4 times/year!

As we moved along-

It got foggy-

The hot springs were lovely-

There are four different pools but this was the most popular.  Luckily it wasn't too busy.  

After las fuentes, we tried hitching a ride back down the hill but eventually had to hire a tuk-tuk.  Foreigners would pay $17 but we got away with $5 because we were Guatemalicas!  

Zunil is well known for its church-

which has great wooden doors inside-

Across the street was a funeral party, complete with a band-

San Simon, or Maximón is also here but we found out too late that he's up by the hot springs and we weren't going back.

Some streets are pretty rough-

New and very non Guatemalica construction-

This is more like it-

Women wear a cloth ring on their heads and then carry baskets on top of that.  Not sure how they do it-

Our tuk-tuk wasn't anything like this one-

Chicken bus drivers are maniacs. A very old woman got on and was only on the first step when the driver sped off.  She just about fell on top of me but managed to sit down.  It was then I noticed-

This used to be typical but with the introduction of glass, it is no longer a good idea.

On our way back to Xela-

It was a great day!  Looking forward to a museum visit tomorrow!  School life is tough!