Guatemala, a New World

This trip brought to me a world of new experiences, the likes of which I have never embarked on before. The Mayan ruins at Tikal and Uaxactun were incredible for the sheer impossibilty that a civilization with such few resources and so ancient could have built the stone behemoths that greeted us upon our arrival. The buildings towered impossibly high, and implanted a vivid image of the Maya civilization into my mind´s eye. I could not escape the feeling that I was tresspassing into a different world. When I touch the walls and imagine the stories they could tell, I feel a sense of mystery, overpowering and almost nauseating. Later, we visited Antigua where we were allowed to shop at the market. To state it bluntly, the market was enormous. It was a maze of stalls all selling foods, meat, arts and crafts. The sounds and smells of the market (some more pleasant than others) infiltrated my senses sending me on a cultural experience unlike any other. What struck me most about the market was the desperateness and determination that the people possessed to sell their goods and make a living for their families. An old woman in a stall offered dirty cabbages for high prices, while a vendor three stalls down would be selling perfectly good cabbages for the same price, and yet both sat in their stalls expecting buyers. The market and all of guatemala was both eye-opening and envigorating and is a place I will never forget as long as I live.

Adam Burnier
High Tech High International