First impressions of Xela

Because I arrived on Saturday, and class didn´t begin until Monday, I had a day to explore on my own. Still speaking very little Spanish, of course, I trudged around the city, getting a first uninformed impression of the city. I´m still a little shy to use a camera (thanks for that worry, Mom!), but I´ve included a few photos here to give a general feel of some of the city.. although, these pictures mostly deal with backroads.. I´ll get some pictures of more major centers soon. Remember, I´m no Peter or Jan with the camera, so you get what you get.


My very first thought was that the city seems very old. And not necessarily "good" old, but run-down old. But as I began to explore the city, I started to get the impression that there is a completely different mindset here. I´m currently of the belief that how buildings look on the outside is not at all important to the Guatemalan people. In many cases, it looks like these buildings have been built and painted once, and never kept-up. Lots of chipped paint, a lot of cracks and dings. But I´ve since noticed this in rather rich areas of the city, as well as poor, so now I´m wondering if it´s just unimportant in the culture to have a good-looking edifice.


I immediately felt very safe, wherever I walked. You always want to be safe overseas, of course, especially when you do not speak the language, but I really did not feel that any area was threatening at all. I think that they are probably more cautious of me. Though I don´t think that Americans would generally call the area ¨clean¨, due to the impression from the state of the buildings, but the roads and sidewalks were relatively free of debris and nastiness. The colorful paint used for the buildings adds some cheer to the relatively gray sky. Probably the scariest part of the city is that all windows and doors are barred, similar to the more crime-ridden parts of D.C. That was somewhat scary at first, but I saw that that is just the custom around here. And when you learn that the civilian police force was first instituted in Guatemala in 1997, and is still pretty low-grade, it somewhat makes sense that people protect their own property however they can.

The roads are made of.. well, it looks like whatever they could get their hands on at the time.. cobblestone, brick, pavement, concrete, paving stones, etc. The sidewalks, when they exist, range from about 6 inches wide to about 4 feet; simliarly, the sidewalks might be 6 inches high off the road to maybe 4 feet. It has a very just-in-time feel to the whole thing. I mentioned yesterday how small the roads can be.. cars just zoom all through them. If you happen to be stuck walking on a road with a really small or no sidewalk, you´d better hope that the car gives you a little bit of room as it speeds by. And since everyone walks in Xela (well except for the car-zoomers), people are used to taking their life in their hands.


The houses are really interesting. A whole block will consist of one long stucco wall, and from the outside, you cannot tell where the houses and/or businesses start or end. There is obviously no zoning here, as houses and businesses are regularly interspersed throughout the ¨neighborhood¨ (and I am usually woken in the morning by neighbor roosters). Lots of small tiendas that sell various products; more on that another time. Most of the time, you cannot tell what exists behind the wall, unless the door is open. It´s very unusual from an American viewpoint.


Maybe ¨functional chaos¨would be the best way to describe what I´ve seen so far in Xela. I was startled at one point by this huge noise up on the roof.. turned out it was this huge dog glaring down at me.. I thought it was going to pounce. As it turns out, without leash laws, dogs and cats regularly make their way up to the rooftops to stalk and intimidate. Another chaotic moment occurred last night as I was walking home and suddenly these kids lit off like 100 firecrackers in a chain reaction. But even these punks didn´t seem threatening.. more like just teenagers having a little bit of fun.

Well anyway, that´s enough for now. I´ve already got so much to say that it could take me weeks to type it all in, but my internet time is limited. These first few impressions are likely to be refined in the succeeding weeks, but they are what they are for now.