No tenga pena

And suddenly I started hearing this phrase a lot. "No tenga pena". It is supposed to be a phrase you hear all over guatemala, but I had never noticed hearing it as clearly as after visiting the archeological site of Iximché. I ordered a chocofruta, and after having talked a bit with the lady about what I am doing here, she refused me paying for it (1 euro probably) : "no tenga pena, no tenga pena". Basically, hamna shida, no worries.

After having left the lake Atitlán behind me, and having climbed the first 500 meter to the next small village, the world had changed noticeably again: zero tourism. I went to views of the thousands of holiday homes built into the hills embracing the lake, to small villages with no tourist in sight. My legs were painful from the hiking though, which didnt help with climbing the steep hills I had to take. I actually didn't manage to find anything decent to eat the entire day until the archeological site, so it was just bread, nuts and fruits: I was pretty hungry as soon as I got to Iximché.

Iximché is a site very unlike the ones in the jungle, or Mayan lowlands, being mostly flat. However, it is remarkably big with six plazas, all surrounded by their own pyramidial structures, and having two big ball courts; basically it was laid out as two separate administrative cities combined. None of the remains are as well kept as Tikal or Yaxchilán though: the spanish burnt everything to the ground. You see, the people of Iximché initially sided with the Spanish against the K’iche people, before trying to revolt and being beaten down and burned by the Spanish. The k'iche were the people of the towns I mentioned in an earlier footprint.

And after that I had the chocofruta, and these should only be eaten when the weather is really hot, otherwise the chocolate just becomes something of a "crust" that falls off and on the floor, as soon as you try to eat it. Frequently, they are impossible to eat. But hey, I got it for free!

Afterwards, I found some food in the nearby town of Tecpán—chicken tacos, because I could not find anything else—and bought food for the day after. I pushed my bike up a long, steep gravel path to what was supposed to be a "mtb guatemala campsite", but the place was closed as closed can be, with barbed wire around it. I wasn't going to cycle back to town and stay in a shitty hotel, so (on advice from a local guide I came across on the way up) I decided to wildcamp in a deserted shed just off the road. Good views of the city included. No tenga pena.

And afterwards I also heard it again a lot in Antigua, where I arrived the next day. The hostel there wasn't quite "no tengo pena" but thats something I will complain about in the next footprint.Read more