Guatemala Diaries Part- II

The climb to Mount Pacaya was steep and I was sweating like hell, though this time it was not out of working my way up but because of the hot land of this volcanic mountain. The trek was hell black with volcanic rocks, where few months back the eruption destroyed seven hundred houses nearby. It was just 20minutes on the trek and one can already feel the heat around.This was my second visit to Guatemala after two years. Nothing was changed. For some reason I was remembering my dialogues with her two years back.

Your theory of natural abundance and connectivity makes sense, i said, but what if people donot have that abundance in them and they feel empty and seek for more or better?
She replied, well I would say, its a state of mind, a state of greed and ingratitude and not a natural reality, We humans are the children of the same god and the same energy is flowing through all of us. The first step to live a human experience is to forgo this sense of economizing that we feel in every thing now(thanks to capitalism) and start seeing abundance in all things around. Its around us, and its within us, we just need to feel it. And besides,wasn’t it what your patron poet Rumi who said that “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to
seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built
against it.”

I felt convinced as if some non-believer silences a non-believer by quoting a holy verse.
(link to diaries part-1 below)

Thinking of the abundance and seeing the grass coming out of this hot black land as well, I met a humble man along the way. An American of Guatemalan origin , interested in Mayan history and volunteering in the volcanic mountains. He asked me if I have read Carlos Barrios “the bookof destiny” and if not i should. He shared some information about Mayans. The Mayans were the true believers of nature. For them the trees were the link between the underworld and the heavens, the volcanoes were the temple of higher gods, the dragons, being the guardian serpents of those temples, the monkeys symbolizing abundance and frogs symbolizing fertility.And the concept of greater god was not idolized or have a symbol in any form, as it was so great, being present in every natural thing. Just knowing the concept was good enough for them.

He told me in the month of May , thousands of butterflies come out of nowhere to this mountain. For Mayans, the butterflies were seen as ancestors returning to earth for a visit to physicality, bringing all their wisdom and taking back all the new wisdom back to the heavens to keep harmony between both the worlds. Butterflies never leave me anywhere…
(Note to self: addition to bucket list. See the active red lava with my own eyes)

Baking Marshmallows on the way…

Antigua:
Next stop was the the colonial city of Antigua, (Note to self: Someday, to spend at least a month in this beautiful city in the middle of nowhere)

The guide was full of stories, of Mayan capture by Spaniards, of convents, of sainthood, of forced conversions of Mayans and betrayals and book burnings of the priests, of love of the Mayan princess Luisa giving birth to the first inter-racial child , of st James, and even the order of masons in this small town. Stories were everywhere in this small town of just thirty thousand people, waiting to be spoken out loud. Every street corner was a flashback in history, a lesson on human desires and a remembering of human goodness and humility. There was a combined laundry park in the middle of the city, where for centuries women of this town use to come, less to clean clothes,and more to gossip, and while the children were playing, the grown up kids getting their first thunder strikes from their first loves. Now with the age of tamed electricity and automatic washing machines, nobody comes to wash clothes anymore but one can still see happy couples lost in themselves and some gloomy singles in waiting.
We ended up the tour at a Franciscan church where Brother Peter is buried. Ten years ago Brother Peter was recognized as a saint by the pope John Paul. It will take me ages and pages and some more visits to this town again to write about Brother Peter, so I leave it for our imaginations on how Brother Peter changed people lives and became a legend in Fransisco catholic history, and how good man are found everywhere, and in every religion and corner of the world.

Link to Guatemala Diaries Part-1
http://absolutesalman.com/guatemala-diaries-part-1/

Some pictures down the memory lane….