Less is More.: San Pedro

We got to the first town, San Pedro I think it was, which was where lots of weavers were, including a co-op. I'm not sure if co-op is really a technical term but it was just a cooperative of weavers. Before we even got out of the boat there was a lady trying to sell us her woven stuff, with her presumably son who was like 7 selling stuff too, like little woven useless trinkets, and all he would do is follow us all the way up the path from the boat to the co-op, saying "cinco, ciiiiinco, para ciiiiiinco, ciiinco" wanting to sell them for 5 quetzales (8 is a dollar). His mother told me "esta es mi trabajo" (this is my work) and was going lower and lower in price for these things that probably took a day or two to weave. She was selling them for like 20 quetzales. (Divide by 8...basically $2.50).

So we went in the co-op, watched some dude who was like 14 using a big wooden loom and weaving pretty fast (I really wish it was easier to post videos, cause I have a lot of them- maybe some other time) and then we saw a room piled with woven stuff. Thats where I bought some pretty things for my pretty girl. They were a little more expensive than the lady outside :) But they showed us with a bowl of water how the colors of their stuff wouldn't run when it got wet like the cheap stuff did. Sold.

From the steps of the small church.

So of course, back in the street I find out that the hawker lady speaks enough English to call me a liar for saying I didn't wanna buy her things and then buying from inside the co-op instead. "So now you buy from me!" Damn! And again with the little kid "para ciiiiiinco" looking all sad and stuff. So then we went and saw a church overlooking the lake.

From the steps of the church.

Traditional garb apparently.

We walked further into the town and got into the touristy street, and stopped for lunch. Ate some tasty food with steak, guacamole, refried black beans, tortillas, rice, my first BEER, and my new favorite thing, fried plantains. And then the second half of our day began. Up until that point it was sunny and warm. It started POURING after lunch, and we ventured out on what felt like an entirely different day at that point.

YUM. No seriously. And some cheese too that was like feta...