Even though this was my fifth year leading a small group to Sumpango to experience the story behind the Giant Kites, the wonder, devotion and larger than life creations are always fresh.    Every year the kites are different.  Some of them are Gigantic, as high as a six story building.  Others of them are simply Giant, from 4 to 6 meters  -- taller than a person and requiring a team to fly them.  Regardless of size each and every one of them is made from Chinese tissue paper and glue, an effort directly involving over 700 members of this Kachiquel Maya town, who work every night for months to make kites for this day, the Day of the Dead. Every kite has a theme of life, death and transformation. 

For five years I have had the pleasure of working with master kitemaker and good friend, Julio Asturias and his family to develop and co-lead this tour.    Julio began making giant kites over thirty years ago and continues to work cutting and gluing the mosaic that becomes the Gigantic kite as well as teaching traditional kitemaking throughout Guatemala and exhibiting giant kites internationally as well as working as a school teacher.  Julio's enthusiasm for art, kites and people makes this tour a truly below the surface, welcoming and unique experience. 

Oct. 31 2015 For the last several years we have been fortunate to stay with Betty and her family.  The family has cleaned and prepared their rooms on the second level of their house for our exclusive two-night use.  The covered balcony and terrace become our common rooms for dining and sharing.  Besides the comfortable accomodation,   the house is close to the cemetary and kite festival grounds. We stashed our things in our rooms, which are really the family's rooms, cleaned and prepared for our two night stay, each room with its own key.  Betty's family will take to the couches in their living room and no one will mind, it is all a part of this special time.  Our group hurried to the terrace which overlooks the Kachiquel Maya pueblo of Sumpango, Sacatepequez and the mountains which frame it.  Betty's son, Victor served us lunch -- Guatemala's famous pepión with hot tortillias and treated us to some close up kite flying with his cousins. 

October 31st is a busy time in Sumpango.  People are cleaning the cemetary and decorating the graves with flowers, pine needles, white lime, and wreaths for the celebration of dia de los muertos, the Day of the Dead.  We visited the special market where townspeople buy these things and also the special foods they will prepare to eat in the cemetery on Nov. 2nd.
The Giant Kite festival on November 1st attracts thousands of visitors to Sumpango.  The people of  Sumpango are not only busy making giant kites, but are preparing for the biggest tourist event of their year.  It is estimated that 25% of the yearly income comes from sales associated with the festival.  In a country where the average wage is $2.00 a day, this is an important opportunity to gather enough money for school supplies and maintaining the home. At the same time, the festival itself is free and the kitemakers themselves pay for the construction of their kites, a significant expenditure of limited funds.  Learning the cost of constructing these kites made me determined to channel the money from this tour directly into the hands of the kitemakers and to the people of Sumpango. 
More immediately, grand entreprenuerial ventures were unfolding on the main floor of our homestay. Betty and her sisters, mother, mother-in-law and a couple of neighbors were chopping a mountain of carrots in the dining room surrounded by large plastic bowls where corn was softening before being ground for tortillas.  When they finished the carrots they began mincing pyramids of onions. The six women  talked and joked with each other as they worked the onions, dry eyed, while we began to tear up and opened the door for more air.   They were making food for 300 plates to sell festival goers the next day. 
In the next room, Victor, his uncle and cousins affixed bridles to the traditional eight-sided Guatemalan kites which they would offer for sale not only for the festival, but throughout the kite flying months of November and December. 

From the Day of the Dead market we headed to the cemetery to attend a Mayan shamanic ceremony which blesses the Giant Kites and calls on the ancestors for their guidance. This is also a time when the outstanding young women in the pueblo are honored and blessed for their leadership and intelligence.  We were welcomed, as foreigners, into this special ceremony and given candles to feed the fire and receive a blessing.  It seemed appropriate that Volcan Fuego released a plume just as the ceremony was beginning.

While we were buying flowers and throwing our candles into the fire, the barrileteros or kitemakers, were still cutting Chinese tissue paper into mosaic pieces and patiently applying glue with small paintbrushes to put their unique puzzles together.  Although the deadline was the next day and there was clearly a lot of cutting to be completed, they worked steadily but without haste, somehow assured that all would be well even though they would not sleep another night.  Besides meeting the kitemakers and understanding more of their art, it's much easier to get a good photo of an 18 meter kite when it's on the floor instead of towering overhead.  The large kite on the right has been in design and patient persistent construction for one year.

While some of the kitemakers are cutting and gluing, others are in the field above the cemetary.  The night is misty giving it a surreal air as the barrileteros dig two meter deep holes, literally digging with a post hole digger until it is the depth of their wrists.  Then hoisting the fantastic lengths of bamboo which will secure the Gigantic kites.  Firecrackers celebrate the successful planting of poles while vendors provide grilled meat and cold beer. 

Nov. 1  We were up early and ready to walk to the kite festival after breakfast.  We are lucky because Betty's house is very near the cemetary and the festival grounds.  The weather was gorgeous --  the sky clear and totally blue.  Some of the kites were already in place and we had a good view as the crowds were several hours away from arriving.  Kites over 6 meters -- what I call the Gigantic kites -- are posted for exhibition and not flown.  For these multi-story high intricate creations, mounting them and making them sturdy enough to survive the day's weather is the main challenge. 

The kites six meters and under 20 feet in diameter  in the traditional eight-sided Guatemalan design are also exhibited before they are flown in exciting contests throughout the day.  Most of them display the intricate designs mixing Mayan cosmovision with contemporary issues for which these kites are known. 

It was late afternoon when we walked back to Betty's for dinner.  The tourist shuttles had all left hours before to battle hours of traffic.  We spent our evening sharing pictures and stories over tea with whiskey.
Nov. 2 In the morning after our breakfast of scrambled eggs, fresh cheese, frijoles, fresh salsa, steaming tortillas and coffee, we gathered with Julio to make our own kites, images of the giants from yesterday fresh in our minds.  And once again, after making many Guatemalan kites, I am confronted with the art of applying white glue to fragile pieces of Chinese tissue paper without causing distortions.  It is no wonder that it is applied with fine paint brushes.  Still the creativity of the group is always a delightful surprise!
From there we wandered up to the cemetery where it is traditional to fly kites to the ancestors, while scaring away the evil spirits with the fluttering of the flejas, the strips of paper on the sides of the kite.     Vilma, and her neighbor brought us a feast of chicken and pasta salad,as we ate among the brightly painted tombs under the warm cloudless sky. 

I can hardly wait to see next year's kites.  Maybe you'll join us for an experience which never ceases to amaze and inspire me.

          The pre-hispanic Mayans made carpets of flowers and pine needles for their sacred processions.  In the 1500s, the Spanish Catholic church, in addition to vigorously converting the Maya, introduced the Spanish use of colored sawdust for creating street carpets especially for holy week, over which the statues of Jesus, Mary and the town’s saint would be paraded.

            These elaborate temporary carpets or alfombras, continuously line the route that the procession will take.  In Guatemala these are called  Aserrin de Alfombra, or “carpet of sawdust” or simply alfombras, to include the traditional alfombra which uses seeds, plants, and carefully separated parts from trees and flowers to create designs.  These are constructed on Thursday or Friday of holy week and will pave the way for the processions.  Though the lifespan of an alfombra is a matter of hours, they are the culmination of weeks and even months of creating new designs, carving stencils from cardboard, hand-dying sawdust to achieve the colors, collecting natural materials for alfombras and hours of communal labor before the procession. Each group pays for its own supplies and most begin collecting quetzals in February to cover the cost.  The collaborators are family, neighbors, friends, or organizations, together focused on creating a work of art worthy of the divine. 

The alfombras draw on imagery from Maya cosmology, the natural world and Christianity.  Although Semana Santa is a Catholic tradition, many evangelical community members also join with groups in making the alfombras. Traditionally women are responsible for dying the sawdust, a time-consuming task begun weeks before, while men primarily assemble the design.  The designs are frequently watered to keep them fresh and also to keep them from blowing away in the breeze.  It is also an important event for community vendors who often make a large share of their income during this festival. 

Antigua receives most of the fame for it’s Holy Week, boasting the most popular celebration in Latin America and displaying the largest alfombras (setting a world record and surpassing Spain in 2014) as well as thousands of faithful who dress in purple and then black robes, participate in processions where they carry impressive statues (andas) weighing as much as three tons, (see my post from 2012 in Antigua), and receive the most Holy Week visitors in Latin America.  It was also the only time in Latin America that I feared asphyxiation by copal incense while standing on the street.

            Outside of Antigua, alfombras are created throughout Guatemala at this time and smaller andas are paraded by Catholic men and women over the beautifully arranged carpets of flowers, vegetables and fruit or of colored sawdust.  As a resident of Lake Atitlán I had the honor of watching both my own pueblo, San Pedro La Laguna and the neighboring pueblo of San Juan La Laguna assemble their alfombras.  For me the difference between the celebrations in Antigua and the ones I saw here were theatre and art.  In Antigua much attention is given to the actual procession, where the passion story is depicted i detail each day due to it's extensive collection of andas which tell the story of Jesus's life in a collection of exquisitely crafted scenes telling Jesus's last week.     Here at the lake, the celebration was the making of art,  a creative offering, a collective undertaking, an offering and a celebration of creativity, community, and the joy and of making something divine with one another which would then again disappear in the way of the sacred cycle of life.

Visitors to Tikal will notice a hand-lettered sign for Uaxactún pointing to a narrow, unpaved road which disappears into the canopy of trees, vines, and oversized leaves of the park. Twenty-three kilometers north of the Tikal, this Mayan site was populated from the earliest period of Mayan history and was once a powerful rival to Tikal. Until the 1970s, when a rough road was built through Tikal, Uaxactún was accessible only by foot, horse, and small aircraft. The airstrip, built in 1929 by the chewing-gum manufacturer William Wrigley Jr. Company to collect chicle, has since been abandoned. In 1984, the road to this remote site was improved and is now usually passable by private vehicles and a daily local bus.The former airstrip is a reminder that Petén’s chicle, the sap bled from the sapodilla tree, once played an important part in Guatemala’s economy. The Maya had chewed chicle for thousands of years, but in the 1890s, American entrepreneur William Wrigley, Jr. added sugar and spearmint or fruit flavoring to the chewy concoction. To promote his product, Wrigley mailed a packet of gum to each household in the United States phone book. Chewing gum became a sensation and by the time of his death, Wrigley was among the richest entrepreneurs in the United States. Chicle, found only in Central America, gave the gum its ability to sustain repeated chewing without dissolving; so long-lasting was Wrigley’s chewing gum that it could be attached to the bottom of a school desk and chewed again hours, or even days, later. 

But harvesting chicle was a treacherous and poorly paid task. Solitary chicleros spent months navigating Petén’s jungle, confronting poisonous snakes, insects and aggressive animals, climbing and cutting the sapodilla tree and risking falls, fatal wounds, disease and dangerous missteps. They were paid by the weight of their collected chicle and had a reputation for wild partying when they finally hit camp at Uaxactún.

The chicleros were invaluable to the early archeologists who began exploring Uaxactún in 1916, helping them locate ruins hidden beneath the ferocious cover of plant growth and guiding them through the perils of the jungle. Based on discoveries from these early explorations, the Carnegie Institute funded the first extensive excavation of a Mayan site in Petén at Uaxactún between 1931 and 1938.

One of their most significant discoveries, known as Group E, is a Mayan observatory, still believed to be among the oldest in the Mayan world. The observatory, known as the Temple of Masks, faces three smaller temples that exactly frame the first light of the sun on the annual equinoxes and solstices. Over the course of a year, the angles of light form a triangle, the apex of which illuminates the same singular point on the Temple of Masks.*

On the spring equinox, Mayan shamans from around Guatemala perform traditional ceremonies at the ancient observatory. Visitors are welcome to attend, and many come in hopes of the sun defeating the jungle mist to rise over Temple IV. In past years, the spring equinox celebration at Uaxactún has included a dramatization of ancient Maya royalty, regional folkloric dance, a demonstration of the Mayan ballgame in the ancient ball court, a demonstration of chicle collection and a tour of Uaxactún’s sustainable xate, allspice, and hardwood industries.

The Carnegie excavation itself proved to be a landmark in Mayan archeology. A method for identifying and grouping ancient Mayan structures – still used today – was developed there. Uaxactún is believed to have experienced one of the longest continuous periods of habitation of any ancient Mayan city and boosts the earliest evidence of the use of the zero among the Maya. Much was learned about the Pre-classic and Classic Maya owing to the detailed reports of the archeological team. The early Carnegie excavation at Uaxactún also defined the developmental succession of Mayan ceramics, which remains the basis for identifying Pre-classic and Classic Mayan pottery.

A collection of over 500 pieces of this pottery is exhibited in an enchanting private museum at Campamento El Chiclero. Admittance to this intimate collection of Pre-classic and Classic ceramics is free. The unique pieces in this collection contain fine examples of the delicate art of the early Maya, many still bearing the original paint that once colored the ancient Mayan world. Created and maintained by Uaxactún resident Nería Herrera, the museum houses some pieces which were acquired by convincing early artifact thieves to part with these pieces in exchange for beer. While visiting the collection, it is possible to sense the daily lives of the Maya without a wall of glass separating the visitor from these ancient pieces.

The grassy strip of the former airfield, which bisects the village, now hosts afternoon soccer games, grazing horses and wandering chickens. The major ruin complexes are only a short uphill walk on either side of town and are well signed.

I found myself returning and staying for several days at a time in the basic but comfortable Campamento El Chiclero, drawn by the sense of antiquity, the unparalleled freedom to wander among the ruins, and the opportunity to explore this subsistence village where many of the homes are still built from local stones and thatch. On clear nights, the lack of electricity in Uaxactún allows a clear vista of the stars that the Maya tracked. In the early mornings, an easy climb to the top of the Temple of Masks provides a peaceful location for meditating on the enduring knowledge of the Maya while birds call out from nearby treetops and horses seem to materialize from the mist below. The palace complexes A, B & C offer hours of discovery and also display some of the more recent archeological discoveries. Indeed, some Mayan shaman and archeologists claim that this site, known as Sian K’aan, or “Born in Heaven,” was an important intellectual center for the ancient Maya.

Today the community of Uaxactún is a leader in the successful conservation of the Mayan biosphere. Because of this, the ruins are situated in a beautiful forest of arching hardwood trees, boasting a welcome breeze and fewer mosquitoes than Tikal – making it a touch of heaven indeed for travelers seeking a deeper connection with the ancient Maya.

• The local bus to Uaxactún leaves from Santa Elena daily at 2 PM and from Uaxactún daily at 6 AM. Trip time: 2½ hours.

• Private vehicles must register at the Tikal administration center.

• Admission: Q50, paid at Tikal National Park.

• Spanish-speaking guides are available for hire at Campamento El Chiclero. English-speaking guides need to be hired from Flores or El Remate.

Written and photos by: Louise Wisechild, Ph.D.

Louise Wisechild, Ph.D., is a writer and community-based tourism facilitator who blogs about Guatemala at www.brightfutureglobaltours.com/blog.html.

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Tags: adventure in guatemala, discover destinations in guatemala, louise wisechild, mayan ruins in guatemala, mayan world, sightseeing in guatemala, tikal guatemala

Over a year ago now, December 2012, marked  the change of the Maya epoch.  I attended Maya ceremonies  and celebrated the new era by visiting my good friends at Hostel Akumal in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico.  I was fortunate to witness the 10,000 Maya Zapatistas who marched into San Cristobal and stood in affirmation of a new age of indigenous visibility, participation and acknowledgement on Dec. 21, 2012.  And at hostel Akumal, I experienced the most beautiful guitar music I had ever heard, gracias a Ivan Renedez and John Masters.  I felt as if the angels themselves were singing in a new era and to celebrate gastronomically we created an international Christmas feast. 

This year, 2013, I traveled to Belize and Nicaragua but spent most of my time in Guatemala. Although there are wonderful aspects to both of these countries, I missed Guatemala when I was away and was happy to return.  It has been a year of deepening and expanding my connections with friends and feeling daily gratitude for the beauty of Lake Atitlan and for the Maya culture that surrounds me.   Every day I am so happy that I am here, in San Pedro, and that here I feel at home.  And so it was right that this year I stayed closer to home and celebrated the holidays of December with the families and communities who most deeply touch my life here in Guatemala.  

 December began with the 4th birthday of my friend, Jacqueline, who is the daughter of my dear friend, kitemaker Julio Asturias. Over the years I have had many meals at Julio's house in Sumpango and been honored to know the other members of his extended family who  live together with Julio's family in a traditional Guatemalan family compound. Still I hadn't met many of Wilma's family as they do not live in Sumpango.    "We would like you to come," Julio had written.  "Our whole family will be there."  "How many people is that?" inquired.   "Oh about 50," he said.  I tried to imagine that many people in their courtyard as they also have 5 duchsands, 2 large dogs and a variable number of rabbits.

When I got to Julio's house after  a scenic and comfortably seated 3 hours on the chicken bus, several family members were steadily  blowing up balloons.  Eventually there were over a hundred balloons surrounding us and which afterwards would provide the main toy for the kids.  Periodically a balloon would pop, but in  this land of intermittent firecrackers and bombas, the sudden explosions startled no one.  Personally I was delighted this birthday was being celebrated with popping balloons and not with the traditional exploding gun powder.

Between 5 to 8 women worked in the kitchen.  Though tamales are the traditional birthday food, Jacqueline had requested pepión instead, a traditional sauce which resembles mole  surrounding succulent parts of chicken.  This simmered in a large aluminum washtub seated on a piece of metal over the fire by three rocks.  The other wood fire was cooking the rice.  There was an all inclusive, pineapple, papaya, watermellon and cantelope fresh fruit salad with an opportunity to help.  There is nothing like pitching in to feel more a part of thngs.   

Meeting Wilma's mother and her family it was easy to see the roots of Wilma's competence and easy authority.  The food was delicious, we were each given a packet of five warm tortillas to soak up our pepion, there was herbed rice, fruit salad and then cake.  And a styrofoam cup of Coke.    

Jacqueline had a large pile of nicely wrapped presents, which surprised me both with their abundance and their wrapping as Julio's family is poor.  But then I remembered  there were at least 50 family members of her immediate family and also that I had witnessed the clerk at the variety tiendas neatly wrapping gifts.    Needless to say my presents-- a coloring book of cats and colored pencils, a necklace of died corn from chiapas, and a little book on ancient cultures of the world, were wrapped in reused wrapping paper and tied together with a piece of colored string.  But that wasn't the only difference.  Every other present with the exception of one other toy was modern clothing, which is significantly cheaper and shorter lived than the traditional clothing which the Maya girls also wear. 

Jacqueline and also her mom Wilma,oohed over each item.  I could only remember how I hated getting clothes as a child and wanted only books, office supplies and toys.   Jacqueline unwrapped Tshirts of the Lion King, Barbie and Angry Birds.  Two good warm winter coats and socks, some new and others from PACA.  PACA is the pickup trucks of good quality used and even new clothes brought to Guatemala by the container, selling for as little as 65 cents and the patience to sift through the dizzying mound of clothes in the back of a pickup truck.  But whether dressed in traditional clothing, traje, or in western wear, the Maya women value cleanliness and beauty and are never unadorned.

A piñata was also a part of the festivities.  Each of the children was blindfolded and given a turn whacking the big bird.  There was a rewarding trickle of candy when a foot was dislodged, but still the pinata was relatively whole after the kids.  Who would be next I wondered and then Julio was beside me with the blindfold.  Wow, those piñatas are tough to crack and I gave it some good whacks too.  After all that effort there was the cake!  One of the beautiful white cakes decorated with fruit that beckon from Guatemala's many pastelerias.  Expertly cut into equally sized pieces.

I had been invited to stay overnight at Julio's.  It was the first time I had stayed there rather than at Sara's western style house.   It was a wonderful experience to be there after the party and have time just to be with the family.  Of course there were a lot of balloons to play with!  When the sun went down it was cold but I was toasty sitting next to the cooking fire, drinking coffee and eating tortillas as we all gathered in the semi-enclosed kitchen for the evening.  And so fun to wake up and play with the last surviving balloons.  Getting back to San Pedro was another matter as for some reason it's easy to get a bus from San Pedro all the way there, but getting back to San Pedro inevitably involves 2 buses and 1 minivan and the back of a pickup.  Go figure.  

It wasn't hard to say goodbye to Julio and his family because Julio, Wilma, Jacqueline and Sebastian were going to come to my house in San Pedro and stay the next weekend.  So stay tuned and in my next blog I'll share some photos and talk about what we did!