of yoga and chocolate

Yesterday we started the day with a two and a half hour long yoga class, which also happened to be my first. This is what gringos do in San Marcos, and as I was doing a position I saw a Guatemalan maintenance guy taking care of the center walking by glancing at us. I wonder what the locals think of weird gringos with long hair and aladdin pants twisting in uncomfortable positions. It reminded me of the debate we had just had at breakfast with a british lady from our hostel. My grandmother went to Guatemala on an organized tour last March, and she told me their Guatemalan guide barely mentioned there was a 36 year long civil war in this country. I was shocked because to me, traveling is about really understanding the country to understand the world, and you can´t understand the present of the country without knowing what shaped it, which is history. The british lady maintained that, well if you´re not interested in history, why should you know about it? She´s been living in Guatemala for a year and a half almost, and just recently learned about the conflicto armado. I understand that people have different interests, and to some the environmental, geologic, geographic side of things is the most important and so that is what they will seek out while traveling, but I still can´t grasp how one can not be aware of the history of Guatemala while traveling and living here because it permeates all aspects of Guatemalan society. But maybe that´s just the way I want to travel, learning about everything...and I think that might be Dragons influence. People come to San Marcos and to Guatemala for spiritual reasons, to do New Age meditations and self-work, to do yoga and retreats and body and soul therapy. San Marcos is beautiful, with cute restaurants lining its narrow labyrinthian cobblestone passageways, there´s an energy to it with all its hippies and live music every night. That is one way to experience Guatemala, and it is a real way, a way just as legitimate and an experience just as authentic as my rugged traveling through the Ixcan meeting with ex guerilla fighters and delving deep into the history and current issues, because it is a part of Guatemala. I´m glad I got to experience this new side of things, and I feel in a way that I´ve 'paid my dues´ in Guatemala, as Adelaide puts it,  so I can allow myself yoga and curry this time around.
On Friday afternoon, we did a chocolate ceremony. Everytime we told people we were doing this, everyone said it was very intense and amazing, and we had no idea what to expect. We got to this man´s house with a beautiful garden, and met Keith, the chocolate guru, and Brenda, one of his student. Both are in their early 60s and definitely children of the 60s. Keith gave us a pure cacao brew (that we sweetened with alot of raw cane suger and some chile) that is supposed to make one more receptive to the different energies within nature, within oneself, and with each other. He guided our meditation in order for us to understand who we are better, and led us into a past life regression, which is basically a conscious journey into our subconscious. Our subconscious or high selves provides us with a story which we can understand through metaphors within our imagination to show and reveal something to our consciousness. That way we can know ourselves better and do what we need to do to live a more fulfilled happy life. The concepts of energies and meditation were very new to me so I was mostly an observer in that process, but I really enjoyed the past life regression. The entire ceremony lasted 6 hours, and we've already decided with the group to do another one with Keith in April.
Speaking of the group, today we established our course curriculum and schedules. I also know a bit more about my internship, which si going to be 9-10 weeks in total:
I´ll be working in the mornings for Entremundos and here I get to pretty much do what I want. I can write as many articles as I want on whichever topics I´m interested in related to development and human rights. My goal is to write at least 3 excellent, research-backed, articles during my time there. I´m also going to be translating articles on topics I´m interested in and translating my own. I´m going to go around Xela creating a photobank for Entremundos of the NGOs they have relations with and help with distribution of the magazine. I can choose to do more if there is a need as well.
In the afternoons, I´m not sure how many days a week, I´ll be working for the Oficina Municipal de las Mujeres, the Municipal Office of Women. First I´ll be doing office work to familiarize myself with what it is they do, and get to shadow people in the field, whether they´re giving workshops on public health, women´s rights, gender equality, women´s vocational training, life planning, or self-esteem. I don´t know which subject I´ll be working on ultimately, I think I´ll have to choose one and possibly get some training to assist in teaching workshops. Adelaide and I are meeting with the women next monday to figure out what I´ll be doing exactly.
I will also be taking salsa lessons and yoga class every week, and possibly take guitar classes. Our group will meet up every week for salsa nights and during weekends. We are planning weekend trips to Laguna Chicabal, the Lago Atitlan, hot springs...and lots of weekends filled with dinner parties at Adelaide´s apartment, smoothies and movies. We´ve also decided to take a two weeks and 4 days long expedition at the end of our trip during which we´ll go to Chiapas (Southern Mexico and home of the Zapatista), through Peten´s (North Guatemala) Lake Flores, to Belize, and then come back to Guatemala by the Rio Dulce on the Carribean coast.

This is another very long post, but as you can see alot has happened in 2 days. Right now we´re in San Pedro La Laguna, it´s gringotenango but very beautiful, and sunrise is supposed to spectacular.
I´ll try to post pictures soon, but it´s been taking hours to upload...
Hasta pronto!