Guatemala

Antigua...

It feels more like south america here. There's a large number of indigenous here, nearly the majority of the population and it's so cool to see them and talk with them. today we were selling our jewelry in antigua's main market alongside all the indigenous girls and women walking around with huge baskets of fruit and veggies balanced on their heads. they pass us and look at our jewelry and give me the look i've become quite accustom to now, the: "awe, look at the little gringa sitting on the ground selling her little jewelry." they wear beautiful long skirts with embroidered belts with many colors and fancy blouses and dangly earrings. Most have a colorful piece of woven fabric slung over their shoulders holding potatos or jewelry to sell or a little baby, wrapped completely out of sight. and some of these mothers are so young. maybe 15 some of them. an old woman of 50 walks around with 2 or 3 generations of daughters next to her.

Panajachel ladies

Fish drying

Marcelito and I at my house in Panajachel. We met in Colombia and have been running into each other ever since. I cut my hair.

The hammock bridge crossing the river to our house. Panajachel.

Church in Antigua.

Parchando in Panajachel. Passing Tuc tuc taxi.

A bus on a boat going to Monterrico, Guatemala.

Parchando in Panajachel.

The little lady standing is Juanita. 98 years old. She passed us every day offering little handmade bags for one Quetzal. We bought at least 2 every day. Now, we have a whole bunch. But she was awesome.

I'm in panajachel now, in lago atitlan. wonderful. really cheap, everything. we're renting a room for 100 Quetzales a week, we have a stove and everything. i went the other day to san marcos with a chilean friend, josé. she's awesome. we met in nicaragua and travelled to el salvador together and then i met up again with her here. we hitchhiked to san marcos just the two of us and that was really fun. you can take the boat in 30 minutes, but we decided to go by land for free, hitchhiking and seeing the beautiful scenary of the mountains. it took about 5 hours because we got a ride to another city, also named san marcos and we had to backtrack a whole lot. but everyone that picked us up were really nice religious folk. we stayed in san marcos in a house where a friend of josé's is renting up in the mountain. everyone in san marcos is really spiritual and meditating and yoga and i had some really good conversations with people....politics, aliens, religion....you know. it was good to spend some days away from ruben with a group of good girls. i miss my good girl friends. it's not so easy to connect with the girl artisaños. there's a ton of argentiños here and the majority of them, especially the girls, are stuck up and clique and not friendly and i'm sick of being around them and their Porteño accents.

Maria José. El Salvador

A little look at my work right now...

A necklace with a sloth´s claw and tiger´s eye stone above.

Playing around with coconut. My initials for earrings.

Necklace with the main stone, obsidiana and white jade above it.

Peacock feather enclosed in macrame.