We find the right colectivo leaving from Coban to Uspantan, in the heart of the Cordillera de los Cuchumatanes, a territory nearly unexplored and inhabited by Quiche’ indigenous people, a heterogeneous group of Mayan origin that maintains unique traditions and whose women dress in a particularly elegant and colored way. Incredibly elaborated are the huipiles (hand decorated garments) from the Ixil Mayan villages of Nebaj, Chajul and Cotzal, more inside in the mountains. The road follows strong climbings along a hard way, often interrupted by maintenance jobs. We help two boys who had an accident with their pick-up, but it seems to be pretty usual here. Got to Uspantan, we change bus and we continue the travel until Santa Cruz de Quiche’, passing through the calm village of Sacapulas. We speak a lot with the people who share with us short distances of road, often young women with their children. In Quiche’ we are abandoned near a so-called terminal de buses, where we take the only available camioneta: for the first time it is an original school bus completely restored and coloured, one of those typically Central American. In a crescent atmosphere of agitation, we change bus in Los Encuentros, a trafficked crossroad. It finally seems to be the right car in order to reach Quetzaltenango, but after some kilometers the motor extinguishes and therefore we proceed to another change… as usual the bus is full of people, baggages and animals, but the driver begins a race against time and we fast approach to our target, even if the maintenance jobs oblige us to long stops. Unexpectedly we are left another time at a crossroad, it’s dark and we are travelling from more than twelve hours, but Xela (Quetzaltenango) is near and with the last two changes of colectivo we finally reach downtown.
An incredible experience ends and it seems to be a good prelude of what we will find in Central America: the chaos in its purest expression!
