Holidays in Guatemala

Originally published on Project Nuevo Mundo (projectnuevomundo.blogspot.com) on 21 January 2011. Recovered from web archives in October 2026; the text is unchanged.

We have been busy at work on our new project site, all the while enjoying a temescal ceremony, a Christmas afternoon with the local village, showers in the waterfall, and even a trance set courtesy a DJ from the capital. At this point, large helpings of lettuce are being harvested on a daily basis from the garden, and production is increasing. The new lettuce crop is grown from seed harvested on site in Tzununa. We are working on engineering new recipes to keep up with the thousands of avocados that demand continuous consumption. Said Guatemalan DJ came up with a brilliant avocado ice cream formula that was savored with shredded coconuts and raw cane sugar. Meanwhile, hundreds of pounds of coffee are being harvested, taken off the farm to be shipped to many destinations unknown to us.

A rotating cast of international chefs continue to grace our kitchen with their presence, as a software programmer develops our new interface for our ecovillage/volunteer social network, modeled loosely after Couchsurfing and WWOOF. New garden beds have been opened and a small fruit orchard has been initiated, planted with papaya, fig, lime, orange, mandarin, macadamia, three classes of mango, and three varieties of banana. Recent arrivals from the Rainbow Gathering in Palenque, Chiapas built a temascal sweat lodge and a sacred fire in a single day, while draping our porch with colorful hammocks. Travelers from Poland, Italy, the United States, Austria, Switzerland, France, South Africa, Canada, Australia, and Portugal have all shared this space together during the past month, taxing our capacity with fifteen bodies sleeping under the same roof.

The holiday season in Guatemala is notorious for copious amounts of ‘cuetes’ (fireworks) of all sizes, colors, and sounds being deployed for days (and nights) leading up to Christmas and continuing through to the new year, whence it climaxes at the strike of midnight. Upon first arrival in Guatemala four years ago, I had the impression that there was a guerilla war in the mountains around me.

For the winter solstice and total lunar eclipse, which coincided for the first time in hundreds of years and completed a 52-year Mayan calendar cycle, five of us traveled to the ancient Mayan city of Tikal, to pay our respects to the spirits who dwell there and ask them for guidance and protection. The bus trip from Lake Atitlan revealed breathtaking landscapes through Quiche and Alta Verapaz, including one huge gouge in the earth from years of landslides. I felt like I would be swallowed up as well. Passing through Coban, we found out that martial law had been declared that day due to drug-trafficking activity in the nearby jungle, and the military and police were present in force. Passing through Peten, we saw hours of rainforest converted into cattle-grazing pasture, the result of increasing meat consumption in Guatemala and worldwide.

Finally arriving to Tikal, I fell to my knees at the site of the first ceiba tree I had seen thus far (the national tree of Guatemala and the sacred tree of the Maya). The primary ceremony took place in the central plaza, between four regal temples. Tourists were snapping photographs despite the wishes of the Mayan priests. The sacred fire burned powerfully, fueled by copal, myrrh, and other traditional incense. Liquid cacao was handed out to all those around the circle, cold and sugarless, as is the ceremonial method of consumption. About sixty Mayan priests were in attendance, hailing from all parts of Guatemala.

In the afternoon we discovered a separate ceremony, presided over by priests from Lake Atitlan, with the help of their apprentices of primarily foreign origin. Many familiar faces from San Marcos la Laguna and San Pedro la Laguna appeared during the five-hour ceremony, which capped a six-day series of ceremonies in holy sites throughout the Peten jungle. The lunar eclipse the night before was pure magic deep orange, spectral and luminescent.

Back at the Lake by Christmas, we shared the afternoon with the village, imbibing in tamales, hot chocolate, pan dulce, and a projection of the Planet Earth series, jungle episode. The locals derived great merriment from images of the faces of baboons and other primates. Afterwards, they asked if I had any videos of ‘puro animales’.

New year’s eve into the dawn, we celebrated Universal Dance Guatemala, where 150 of us gathered in cosmic convergence to dance into the sunrise on the beachside near Santiago Atitlan. Many blessings were received, an outpouring of thanks, and many participants saying that there hadn’t been an event in five years with the energy that we manifested that night. It was a magical journey to the sunrise.

A flock of birds landed on the shimmering lakefront on the start of the first day of the new year, in the backdrop an indigenous fisherman out for an early catch, and two volcanoes looming on the far side of Santiago.

I felt that everything is as it should be, with a bottomless depth of gratitude for the opportunity to be here sharing this experience with so many beautiful people.

This week we are supporting a local NGO, Amigos de Santa Cruz, to construct a nutritional center and organic garden for woman and children from the village.