In Guatemala, Part II [pp. 265-277]

In Guatemala
services. The churches are adorned with
costly images, and are in the main of considerable antiquity. The dominant race is
politically divided into the church and
anti-church parties, as seems to be the case
in most of the Spanish-American countries; and while the anti-churchites have
now the upper hand, the other is biding its
time under the control of some of the
ablest minds of the republic.
Our first stopping-place was a native
pueblo, which afforded no tavern or hotel,
and where we contracted for our lunch of
coffee, eggs, beans, and tortillas with a native vender, and sat on the ground in the
public plaza to watch the culinary operations and partake of our not too appetizing meal. Thence up, up, up,-often
driving our animals ahead or dragging
them after us where the road was too precipitous for riding, through lands devoted
to sheep-grazing, the culture of onions,
potatoes and tomatoes, which thrive in this
high altitude, slaking our thirst from icecold springs that gushed from the walls of
rock, and enjoying scenic effects that surpassed anything previously known to my
experience.
It seemed that the original engineer of
that particular road had been imbued with
one single desire, to-wit,-the attainment
of the absolute summit of every peak.
There was no skirting of ravines, no taking advantage of natural courses; it. -was
straight up and down or zigzagging by
short and precipitous grades. It was a
safe bet that given the summit of a mountain in the direction of our journey, we
would reach that point. These mountains
are mainly separated by valleys or ravines,
and rise in solitary magnificence to a
point, not, as in the Sierra or Rockies,
mass piled on mass in undefined contour.
And so our journey continued, until
well on towards evening we caught our
first view of LakeAmatitlan, and anchored
for the night in the large pueblo of Solold,
where a fair meal and a cot awaited us and
whence at five the following morning we
proceeded in a southwesterly direction on
our refreshed animals.
Our first experience was a sheer descent
of three miles by a road in which I counted
seventy-two sharp turns, and down which
almost to the borders of the lake we drove
our animals ahead of us. Thence up a
long steep incline, and Amatitlan lay exposed at our feet, a magnificent sheet of
water surrounded by lofty cones, here and
there a village dotting its shores, or peeping out from some promontory. In the
exuberance of our spirits, fed by the fresh
morning mountain air, we emptied our
pistols at some ducks, mere specks on the
surface of the water far below us, and
yelled as if we were the first discoverers of
the lake instead of being travelers after
three hundred and seventy-five years on a
road which was the original highway between the City of Mexico and the later
Spanish conquests to the South.
Our road carried us till midday within
sight of the lake, and at our lunch halt a
characteristic of the people was brought
prominently before us. It was a wayside
inn and we were decidedly hungry. Seating ourselves on a bench, after attending
the needs of our animals (which was
always our first consideration), we were
delighted to see carried into what was
evidently the dining-room platters of meat,
tamales, tortillas, sweets, all the dainties
known to a native feast. We smacked our
lips in joyful anticipation.
"Bring us meat," we said to a native
maiden as she passed.
"No hay" (there is none), was the answer.
"But we smell it,-we see it; there it
goes in very substance; it is no airy
dream."
"No hay."
And so with dogged persistence it was
"No hay" to everything. We discovered
that some family reunion or feast was in
progress. No money could buy what the v
would not give. I suggested an assault at
arms and pointed out a plan of campaign.
One of us was to cover the company with
his gun while the other went in and satisfied his hunger, then to alternate, and,
this accomplished, to back away together,
mount our steeds, and fly. This alluring
programme was vetoed, and we were
forced to content ourselves with some stale
native cheese, dry bread, and villainous
coffee. We departed from that inhospitable hostelry sad and unsatisfied men.
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