My Christmas music is better than theirs! :)

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas, 
Ev'rywhere you go, 
But there's no tree in the Grand Hotel, 
Nor one in the park as well, 
Not here,
In Nebaj.  

...Yes, that's right - I just made up my own awful rendition of a Christmas classic, but that's what happens when you go through the holiday season without hearing any carols!  Over the last month, I've been humming Christmas music to myself and making up the words as I go.  I've even taught some of the Guatemalan staff butchered versions of Christmas carols. Just last night, we had a Christmas party where they sang (and danced to) my re-written version of the songs!  It was all quite entertaining...

Aside from bringing my holiday spirit to Nebaj, the town has its own, unique traditions.  Whereas Black Friday marks the beginning of the US holiday season, on December 8th, Guatemalans burn a wooden devil in the town square to get rid of any evil spirits and kick off the Christmas season.  There is dancing in the streets and fireworks through the night.  In fact, every night since then, there have been encore presentations of the festivities.  As we get closer to Christmas, the middle-of-the-night merriment just gets louder.  This morning, they rang church bells from 4am to 5am continuously to accompany the outdoor live-band performance.  AT 4AM!

This ridiculous tradition of early morning celebrations has gotten my butt out of bed well before I would prefer.  Although I've had to suffer through some pretty bad music (even worse than my Christmas carols), the upside is that I have seen some of the town's morning rituals. Soon after the roosters start calling, the whole town is up and bustling.  Like in most developing countries, there is much to do in the morning.  Women hand wash clothes and hang them on the line before the sun gets strong.  By 7am, the markets are open and people are buying their groceries (a lack of refrigeration means buying on a daily basis).  Businesses are spraying water in the streets to minimize the amount of dust and dirt that carries into their offices.  Despite all of this, the best part of waking up early is seeing the sun rise over the mountains. Here are some pictures of dawn in highlands and the busy markets in town.

Sun rise:

A view from one of the streets right outside of town:

Chickens at the market (They are loud: puck-puck-puck-PUCK-PUCK!):

A little boy keeping his turkey on a tight leash:

The hat man, all set up and ready for the day:

Even though the markets have the best quality and most variety of foods in the morning, I strongly prefer going later in the day.  The morning bustle reminds me of the opening scene in Aladdin... and I am even more confused than Princess Jasmine was!  After having a very uncomfortable face-to-face interaction with an angry, squealing spotted pig, I decided that I would rather buy my veggies after the farm animals have been sold off!

More to come next week, after my trip to Tikal!  Adiós!