It was a rainy Saturday morning as I took the microbus to Cotzal. The plan was to arrive in town, buy some food, and walk to Cajixay along a dirt road that climbs up into the mountains.
I went to Cajixay two weeks before, but did not have much time in the village. It is about a 10 kilometer walk from Cotzal to Cajixay. Along the way I met many people who were walking the other direction. I do not think the locals were to used to seeing Gringos walking the road. It was a very neat to walk because locals have to do it frequently. There is not much transportation along this road, only an occasional truck, and a bus that goes to and from the market on Saturdays. That is why I chose to go on this particular day, I was going to take the bus back that comes from the market.
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| men playfully line up to take bags from truck |
I walked through two little villages on the way. I met one guy from Nama walking who was the director of a small school in that village. He said a team from the United States was coming down next week to help with construction. I may go back to Nama to visit this school and perhaps meet this short term team. As I was almost to Cajixay, I ran into a very large group of people from Cajixay at their agricultural land called Tu Chok. A truck came with hundreds of 100 pound bags of dirt and the men were beginning to unload when I came across them.
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| Cajixay |
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| Tu Chok: planting lots of peas |
Benjamin's family was with that group. That is the family I visited for a very short time when I went to Cajixay two weeks before. After getting the bags from the truck, they were separated out by family. I helped a bit with this. The land up there is all together but different families own different parts of the land. Then they carried their bags to their land. I thought I would help and so I carried a 100 pound bag of dirt a couple hundred yards the way I saw the men carrying them. Either I carried it wrong, or they have very strong necks or upper back muscles, because after carrying one bag, I thought I had done permanent damage to my neck. It probably didnt help that I slipped in the mud and fell on my butt with a 100 pound bag balanced on my neck. I did not help anymore after that. I walked into Cajixay while the people stayed there and spread out their dirt. I snapped a few photos and walked back. All the people were at their corresponding land working. They are planting peas and this place is a site to behold with the amount of peas that are being planted! I walked around and talked with a few of them and then caught the bus as it headed back to Cotzal.
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| Sebastian works his land on slope of mountain |
It was a rainy Saturday morning as I took the microbus to Cotzal. The plan was to arrive in town, buy some food, and walk to Cajixay along a dirt road that climbs up into the mountains. I went to Cajixay two weeks before, but did not have much time in the village. It is about a 10 kilometer walk from Cotzal to Cajixay. Along the way I met many people who were walking the other direction. I do not think the locals were to used to seeing Gringos walking the road. It was a very neat to walk because locals have to do it frequently. There is not much transportation along this road, only an occasional truck, and a bus that goes to and from the market on Saturdays. That is why I chose to go on this particular day, I was going to take the bus back that comes from the market.
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