After a night of broken sleep I rose early, prompted by the noise of roosters crowing, dogs barking and vehicles honking at the bend below the house. Mauricio was up and about and we discussed the level of poverty in the village. He pointed out that for many, the entire day is virtually taken up by preparing food. So, if a guest provides a tin of beans for a present the result is that they give their hosts more free time but they have no way to make use of that time! From my vantage point on the terrace I observed a procession of Toyota flatbed trucks (utes for my Australian readers!) making their way up the hill. All carried an improbable number of passengers, with some hanging on the back if the vehicle was particularly full.
This was the very local link to the chicken bus system. After a breakfast of fried eggs, refried beans, chillies, tortillas and more of the sweet coffee we left to meet the others on the square. The rest of the group set out to tour the lake and surrounding villages whilst I’d decided to stay behind and explore closer to home.
Climbing the hill out of the village I met several men carrying large bundles of firewood secured by a strap which came over their shoulders and across their foreheads. This is how the Mayans of old carried the blocks of stone that went into the pyramids! 
This was the very local link to the chicken bus system. After a breakfast of fried eggs, refried beans, chillies, tortillas and more of the sweet coffee we left to meet the others on the square. The rest of the group set out to tour the lake and surrounding villages whilst I’d decided to stay behind and explore closer to home.
Later I saw a young man using the same system to carry concrete blocks up a steep street in the village. On returning they were still in action so this was clearly a day’s toil for them. I soon reached the previous day’s vantage point and decided to keep going to the next town, Solalà. Below the road the hillside was cut into terraces that grew a range of vegetable crops.
I left the road to examine things more closely and a man appeared to ask me what I was doing there. He seemed pleased when I complimented him on his garden. Arriving in the town I found out where all the people leaving San Jorge had been going. The central square was packed with the most highly populated local market I have ever seen.
This was not for the tourists; indeed I was the only non-local I saw in the place until I found a group of Americans on the outer fringes of the place. Not only were the women in traditional Mayan costume but a goodly number of the men were as well.
All the textiles on sale, whilst still colourful were clearly of a different design to the wares on show yesterday at Chichi. Eventually I found a café where the coffee only cost 3 Quetzales, a third of what it costs anywhere else. Unfortunately, this was also almost too sweet to drink. Returning to the village I needed a rest and must have slept for a while before setting out to explore San Jorge. Must be the effect of altitude again!
If it were not for the obvious benefit of electricity it would be easy to think this village was still in the early C20. Bizarrely, many homes have fridges but most don’t contain food and plenty are not even switched on. The streets were steep, narrow, dusty and stony in places so provided further exercise for me.
I found the school but, as the children are currently on holiday there was nobody there. The classrooms were distinctly basic and contained lots of chairs so numbers must be very high. One class even had a whiteboard – I wonder where the pens for it come from! There was also a communal washing area with several women busy scrubbing their laundry. Clearly there is money in the town as one house had a giant satellite dish outside it whilst elsewhere there is building work going on. Ever since Mexico I have pondered about the number of buildings with structural steel poking out of the roofs. When I ask about this I am usually told that the custom is to build upwards as the family and/or income grows. Here, for the first time, I saw evidence that this is actually the case.
Given the amount of rubbish on the streets I had also begun to wonder about the Intrepid initiative in the village to encourage recycling. After a while I found the rubbish dump where this was actually happening and once I sat still on the steps of the church, I could see a constant procession of children carrying bags of sorted materials to the place.
From this vantage point the life of the village passed in front of me. Girls seemed to be in constant motion on various errands, often with younger children in tow. 
I found the school but, as the children are currently on holiday there was nobody there. The classrooms were distinctly basic and contained lots of chairs so numbers must be very high. One class even had a whiteboard – I wonder where the pens for it come from! There was also a communal washing area with several women busy scrubbing their laundry. Clearly there is money in the town as one house had a giant satellite dish outside it whilst elsewhere there is building work going on. Ever since Mexico I have pondered about the number of buildings with structural steel poking out of the roofs. When I ask about this I am usually told that the custom is to build upwards as the family and/or income grows. Here, for the first time, I saw evidence that this is actually the case.
Given the amount of rubbish on the streets I had also begun to wonder about the Intrepid initiative in the village to encourage recycling. After a while I found the rubbish dump where this was actually happening and once I sat still on the steps of the church, I could see a constant procession of children carrying bags of sorted materials to the place.
The boys were mainly involved in a fluid football match which seemed to be two different matches going on simultaneously.
Occasionally, a taxi or vehicle arrived but the game carried on. A motorbike with a very attractive girl on the back came and went – same thing the whole world over!
Despite some serious contact, the football match continued with no fighting or aggressive reaction to challenge in the whole time I was there. All of a sudden a group of older youths arrived with another ball and as their numbers rose another game began to take place, replacing the youngest group. However, there were still two simultaneous matches!
The rest of the group returned late from their adventure on the Lake and the evening was given over to a communal meal where all the families and guests got together. The food had been prepared on a basic wood burning stove and consisted of a thick chicken broth with a bit of bird in it. There were also tamales, a maize dough, boiled in a wrapping of sweetcorn leaves. This was broken into pieces and put into the soup. There was also a vegetable which I didn’t recognise. I found this to be perfectly palatable if somewhat bland but it clearly wasn’t to the taste of some of the group. The entertainment was provided by a Guatemalan Marimba band, a group of three musicians playing a giant xylophone type instrument.
The girls were all dressed up in traditional costume but we were told it would have been too expensive to kit the men out in similar fashion although some of the group wore things they had bought at the local markets. The meal over, most of us entertained the children for a while before taking to our beds. Although the home stay was not to everybody’s liking I think it is an important initiative and Intrepid should be applauded for it as it provides travellers with something that is definitely not a fleeting experience.
The girls were all dressed up in traditional costume but we were told it would have been too expensive to kit the men out in similar fashion although some of the group wore things they had bought at the local markets. The meal over, most of us entertained the children for a while before taking to our beds. Although the home stay was not to everybody’s liking I think it is an important initiative and Intrepid should be applauded for it as it provides travellers with something that is definitely not a fleeting experience.
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