"I"ve never actually seen a sacrifice"

Said our guide Marian as we traveled through the country side of Guatemala on our way to Iximche, but I'll get back to that later...

Our second day in Guatemala began cool and peaceful with much anticipation of touring some Mayan ruins. We met up with our Common Hope host Lys and learned more history from Marian on the drive. We asked about politics, education, and religion and enjoyed hearing one native Guatemalan's opinion.

The drive to Iximche was eye-opening for me. Seeing more of the rural areas and observing the harsh living conditions made it hard not to think of all I have at home in Minnesota. The beautiful country side and volcanic mountains were somewhat shrouded in sadness for me, as I could not imagine living as many Guatemalans do.

Arriving at the ruins brought me to another place of wonder about what this amazing culture must have been like more than a thousand years ago. Marian was so knowledgable and shared information on the Mayan number system and some of the symbolism found on the Guatemalan currency, "Quetzales". We wandered through the plaza's and imagined what a market day might look like, a "ball game", and just what day to day life must have been like in a "city" such as this.

So about that sacrifice...
Marian shared with us that because it was Sunday we may see a Mayan ceremony going on at the ruins. We walked a short trail and started to smell smoke and saw some fires on the ground. Sure enough there were about 3 families conducting rituals which we could sit and observe. It was intriguing to watch them place an egg in the fire, pour sand, sugar and then...
pull a chicken out of a bag. We looked at one another and I think all had similar thoughts...we are going to see a sacrifice today. It's hard to put into words what watching someone else's spiritual practice is like, especially when it's so different from your own. I"ll just say it was fascinating.

We left the ruins and had an amazing lunch at a popular roadside restaraunt. The ride home to Antigua was quiet and sleepy. We picked up our last team member, Betsy in Antigua and ventured out on our own to do some people watching and shopping before dinner back at Common Hope. Looking forward to another memorable day tomorrow!