Nabaj and the Ixil Triangle

In the streets, the people of Nabaj seem distant, untouchable--perhaps more worried about feeding their families, due to the rising costs of foods, than greeting a stranger who is only passing through. A few opening words, however, bring a rush of energy, smiles, and laughter, and words, eager to be spoken, to you, because it is so infrequent that outsiders--aside from Peace Corps volunteers--spend time getting to know this small highland town.

The beautiful mountains, crowned with cloudy halos, surround the streets of Nabaj. Lively groups of schoolchildren, women holding hands with their children and balancing baskets on their heads, men in their farm boots and sombreros, and boys riding their motos, crisscross the stone streets of Nabaj.

Nabaj is part of the Ixil Triangle, the region in Guatemala that saw the worst violence and government oppression during the civil war. That is partly because the Guerilla Army of the Poor, the indigenous guerilla movement, was based in the mountains surrounding the towns here. The Guatemalan army pursued what was known as a ¨scorched earth policy¨in order to deal with the guerrilla presence here. This meant assuming that all of the residents of these three tiny towns were supporters of the guerrillas, and killing entire families or anyone who was suspected for being remotely against the government.

Today as Ashleigh and I began our hike over the mountains to the neighboring village of Acul, we started the path next to the town cemetary. Among the brightly painted tombstones, marked by the Mayan cross, was a stone memorial with 50 names of people who were murdered during the violence of the civil war. The monument states that ¨la reconciliación es la cosecha de la paz y el amor¨... Reconciliation is the harvest of peace and love.

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El Termascal

The ritual of cleansing oneself, of purifying the body and soul at once, of sweating out and rinsing off your anxieties, the world´s fears held captive under your skin.

The ancient Mayan ritual, practiced in an old stone and clay sitting room, with hot coals emitting heat in the center of the cavern.

María, our kind and youthful hostess, showing us her best hospitality and explaining the various steps of the ritual to us as her young son plays with balled up paper at her heels. She checks on us frequently to see if we are okay. We are. We are purring with ecstasy, breating in the hot air, letting our lungs fill with its moist energy. We are mixing with nature´s four elements, all in one place and moment, our own pure beings, free of all burdens.

Only a candle, lit in the corner, lets us catch glimpses of the reality around us, while otherwise it exists invisibly, a powerful force that radiates purity and wholesomeness.