Look, here they brought us a duck to observe.

They say they are shy animals.

Do they bite?

And it turns out that what you see here is the village jail.

I already saw my doll cut into seven pieces.

Let's try it.

Nothing has been mentioned about Costa Rica.

As you can see, he is praying and she is crying,

and according to what they are telling me, that is something normal to see here.

This can be tested.

Let’s try the salt from this thing that looks like a stone.

Welcome to a Mayan house.

We are going to live with a Mayan family.

Let's go inside so you can see how this place is.

Here we will teach these Salvadorans

how to prepare a tortilla from dough.

This is a luxury lunch.

Let's make a toast.

When you drink Coca-Cola from a glass, it means you’re having lunch in style.

Now, something never seen before.

At this moment, we will have the chance to drive a tuk-tuk.

Good morning, afternoon, or evening, I hope you are doing very well, friends.

In the previous video, we were exploring Mayan culture.

A video that was initially going to be a unique special about Mayan life,

but we ended up finding so much material that we filmed a lot

and still, it wasn’t enough.

It’s incredible.

This culture is truly impressive, so this will be the second part,

the continuation of the previous video.

If you haven’t seen it, I recommend you watch it.

I’ll leave the link in the description.

That being said, without further delay, let’s start with the second part

about the super interesting life of the Mayans in Guatemala.

We are in the village Río Jordán, an indigenous village.

This whole place is inhabited by indigenous people.

In Guatemala, there are 22 groups of Mayan indigenous people,

and the group we are in right now

is the Mam Mayan indigenous group.

It’s a subdivision, I’d say, to explain it in some way.

As you can see, life here is quite simple.

They live from agriculture, and they are just beginning to explore tourism,

since they have a lot of potential.

You’ve seen those beautiful cenotes here.

In this village, we came across something very interesting.

From what I understand, Mexico is just minutes away from here.

If we cross that mountain range you see over there,

which, of course, we are going to cross,

we will reach some markers or something similar.

Let’s see what we find.

You can notice that life here is very simple.

The houses are still made of adobe.

That you see there is a complete adobe house.

The covering is coming off, and you can see the mud.

Ladies and gentlemen, we also found very kind people.

As I was telling you, they are part of the Mam group,

and they let us come in to film a little about how they live here.

We found something very interesting.

What you are seeing is a temazcal.

It’s how the people here bathe with hot water,

basically like a sauna.

I had never seen something like this, and now we are going to see it.

The structure is made of wood,

and apparently, in the middle, it has a mixture of mud and clay.

It’s the material they use for construction.

This is stone.

And the space is small, so you have to bend down to enter.

It looks like you sit on those wooden planks over there.

I’m going to turn on a light so we can see better.

You enter, sit on those planks,

which I imagine also serve to raise your feet

and prevent them from getting dirty on the floor.

Then, firewood is placed in that opening, and a pot of water is heated.

As the water heats up, the place fills with steam,

turning it into a sauna.

Also, you can take hot water from the pot to bathe,

so it’s both a hot bath and a sauna at the same time.

So, here is the temazcal.

I’m not sure if that will be a dressing room or something similar.

Here they have chickens, which is very common in this area.

Over there is the ranch, the house where the family lives.

And pay attention to this house over here.

It’s an adobe house.

They still build houses with adobe here, and that’s how they live.

The houses are made entirely of this material.

Look, this house here is quite large.

I don’t know if it shows as large on camera, but it’s really big,

and it’s built with this material.

Also, the beams, posts, and ceiling are made of wood.

Here they have a pipe, we could say,

but look at the clear water running through it.

In fact, a moment ago there were some ducks swimming here,

and right in front, they have the crops.

In this area, they still grow crops and raise animals.

That’s the main economic activity,

since tourism practically doesn’t exist.

They are just beginning to explore that possibility.

Here they have corn planted, and further away, the corn is more grown.

In other places, I saw they had peanuts,

which is the plant from which peanuts are obtained.

And I’m not sure if it’s also part of their business,

but I saw people selling wood,

they were literally offering small piles of wood.

Look, here they brought us a duck to observe.

They say they are shy.

-Do they bite? -No

They don’t let themselves be caught easily, but once you have them in your hands,

it seems they enjoy the petting, right?

-What’s your name? -Marvin Jeremias.

Marvin, your duck is very cute.

Goodbye!

I’m not sure if I can keep filming here,

but I want to show you something very interesting.

This place is governed by local authorities.

They choose their authorities as a community,

and all important decisions are made together.

It’s a very different system from what we’re used to.

And it turns out that what you see here is the village jail.

It’s a small two-story building, with toilets on one side,

which I suppose are for the detainees.

Inside it’s really small, about 2x2 meters.

They only have two cells, and both are empty,

which indicates that people here behave well.

The decision to imprison someone is made collectively.

I imagine they meet to evaluate what happened, what the person did,

and we better move on before they lock us up.

Here we are in Llano de Coyote, which belongs to Aguacatán,

in Huehuetenango.

This is a much more remote and forgotten area.

In fact, you can see here that people still live in adobe houses,

and they told us the main economic activity is firewood selling.

In the back, you can see several firewood stalls, and doing some calculations,

it turns out cooking with firewood is expensive.

Surprisingly, cooking with firewood costs more than cooking with electricity.

For example, the firewood bundles they sell cost 35 quetzals,

and they told us they last about two days for a family.

So, per month, that would be about 525 quetzals,

which is around $75, about 40,000 colones per month,

just for firewood, which is the raw material for cooking.

Of course, people here gather their own firewood from the mountain,

which saves them that expense,

but if they had to buy it, it would be very expensive.

I was even reading a fact, though I’m not sure how true it is.

According to what I read, about 50% of Guatemala's population

still uses firewood for cooking.

Obviously, this happens mainly in rural areas,

where the energy situation is complicated

and they are far from basic services.

It seems like an exorbitant number.

That would be about 10 million people,

considering the total population of the country is 20 million.

I’m not sure, so verify in the comments

if this data is real.

However, I can imagine that a large percentage of the population

still uses firewood for cooking.

Here, in this village, we were welcomed by Julito.

I must say, we found him by the roadside,

it wasn’t planned or arranged, and the people here are very kind.

Thank you very much, Julito, for welcoming us.

He is going to teach us how to split firewood,

let’s see if these arms can handle splitting a trunk like that,

because that’s another tough part of this job.

This here is ocote, which is the root of a tree.

According to what they explain, it’s like a type of pine,

and they use it to light the other firewood.

This material is flammable, and it’s like what we know as kindling,

what we use to start the fire.

Tell me, Guatemalans who are watching me right now,

have you used this to light a bonfire or a BBQ?

I was even told that in Guatemala, they sell ocote even in Walmart,

so you can see how important it is.

Our friend Julito is telling us that there is no drinking water in this area.

The water they use is from a well.

Just so you have an idea.

Friends, this is what we have to do.

Do it, Julito, so people can see how the firewood is split.

I already saw my doll cut into seven pieces.

Let’s try it.

Nothing has been mentioned about Costa Rica.

We grab it, Fabio, we put it...

First, you have to split it there.

This is a big trunk, it’s really heavy.

Maybe it weighs about eight kilos.

We put it there first.

Julito, how do you grab this so I don’t break my hand?

You hold it like this.

I don’t know why, but I don’t think I’ll even make it.

Almost got it, friends.

Don’t come near me because you might get hurt.

Costa Rica representing!

You only managed to remove the skin.

I only removed a splinter.

I think after splitting ten of these, I’ll be exhausted.

It’s tough, it’s hard to hit, lift it, and hit again,

because it’s heavy.

Now yes, friends!

And now we grab it like Thor.

As Araya says, no one from El Salvador has said anything.

Give me a trunk.

Let’s choose one for Soyacity.

Costa Rica versus El Salvador.

Vote, cast your votes in the comments.

Here you go, Soya.

Let me step back far enough because I don’t trust it.

Friends, we are winning 1 to 0.

Better leave it like this, Soya.

That’s where Soyacity ended.

The last attempt.

Stay there!

Let’s go, Soya!

-Do you want one? -Yes

All this behind me is the village of Sacapulas.

We continue touring Mayan villages

and I want to show you something very interesting that happens here.

It turns out that near this place, there is a river called Río Negro.

Beyond that river, near the community,

there is a place where salty water springs directly from the earth, imagine that.

From there, they extract what they call black salt.

What you see here looks like a stone,

but as a kind lady who welcomed us explained to me.

In fact, the people here are very hospitable, as I’ve mentioned before.

Thank you so much for welcoming us.

She explained to me that they extract the salty water,

place it in a pot and cook it for 12 hours.

The result is this, which looks like a black stone, but is actually salt.

In fact, this can be tested.

Let’s try the salt from this thing that looks like a stone.

Indeed, friends, it’s salty and has a particular taste.

I don’t know how to describe it, but it has its own particular taste.

I imagine it must give a delicious flavor to food.

It surely gives a special flavor.

Then, what looks like a stone is ground

and sold in bags as fine powdered salt, similar to what we know.

These are the bags you see here.

Now we are at Cerro Bosque La Calera,

a giant hill full of pines.

We came to this place because there’s no better spot to talk to you

about the topic of Mayan religion and beliefs.

It turns out that this hill is considered sacred.

The Mayans come here, but over time it has become a sacred place in general.

I was told that now pastors, Mormons, Catholics,

evangelicals, and, of course, the Mayans, perform their rituals here.

When we arrived, we met a young Mayan woman

who was doing penance.

Apparently, she was kneeling from some distant place,

and was climbing the hill on her knees.

I imagine this is part of some offering

in exchange for forgiveness of sins or requested favors.

Hello, how are you?

Do you have flowers?

What beautiful flowers!

I had never seen flowers like these.

-What do you use these flowers for? -For requests

-For requests? -Yes, and for blessings.

-What do you do with them? Do you place them here? -Yes

-Do you place them on a tree? -Yes, on a tree.

-And in exchange for what? -You make a request, a wish.

-Could I do it too? -Yes.

You can ask for blessings for your whole family.

-Can I put a bouquet of flowers and ask for blessings? -Yes.

-Are you K'iche' Mayans? -No, we are orators.

-Evangelicals? -Yes

-Do you ask the God of the Bible? -Yes

How interesting.

What lovely flowers!

Do they tie this to the trees? -Yes.

-Do they place one leaf at a time? -Yes.

Thank you very much!

I hope everything goes well for you, and that your request is granted.

For example, here we found what seems to be

an evangelical pastor and a person doing penance.

As you can see, he is praying, and she is crying.

According to what they explain to me, this is something normal to see here.

The topic of Mayan beliefs is quite complex.

About 3,000 years ago, when Mayan history began,

they had a completely different belief system.

They worshipped different gods, the sun, the water,

the quetzal, which was considered a symbol of fertility,

and the god of corn, among others.

They performed rituals and ceremonies to honor these deities.

However, after the conquest, when the Spaniards arrived

and imposed Catholicism, the Mayans accepted it

because, basically, it was either accept it or die.

Despite that, many of them continued practicing their customs in secret.

However, some converted to Christianity,

while others kept their ancestral beliefs.

Today, what you find here is a kind of religious syncretism,

which is a mix of both beliefs.

What does this mean?

For example, they believe in God, the God of the Bible,

they pray to Him and make requests,

but they also maintain their traditional rituals,

like praying to their gods for rain over their crops.

That is, in general terms, the current state of Mayan beliefs.

We are arriving in Uspantán.

What you see behind me is the Arch of San Miguel,

which marks the entrance to the village.

We came here because we want to show you something very interesting.

We are going to live with a Mayan family.

Doña Julia welcomed us, and I will introduce her to you soon.

We are already walking to her house.

Before continuing, I want to mention something I heard when we arrived here,

something I had never heard and that I believe is rarely mentioned in Guatemala

and in Central America in general.

Guatemala had a civil war that lasted 36 years

and ended in the 1990s, which is relatively recent.

During that war, thousands of innocent people died,

including many indigenous people who had no connection to the conflict.

The guerrilla entered this area, taking advantage of the forested area,

and those who lived here were indigenous communities.

There were missions, they say, I don’t know, you tell me in the comments,

that went into the forests and ravaged everything they found.

Chickens, dogs, people, children.

They left nothing behind.

This is an area that was heavily impacted by those events.

Friends, now, Doña Julia opened the doors to her home for us.

Thank you so much for welcoming us.

And, directly related to what I was telling you,

while we were talking for a while,

Julia told me that she worked for 13 years at the barracks,

feeding people in the army kitchen

during the armed conflict that lasted around 36 years.

Is it true, Julia? How was that work?

-You were there for 13 years? -Yes

That’s related to what I mentioned earlier,

but now let’s put that hard episode aside

and let’s go explore Doña Julia’s house, which kindly welcomed us.

We’re going to enjoy a delicious lunch here,

and we’ll also show you the house, which, by the way, is quite low.

As you can see, this is Doña Julia’s height,

and the house is adapted to Doña Julia’s size,

so we almost left our heads stuck to the ceiling.

In fact, at first, the idea was to stay in this area,

since it’s on the route between Cobán and Quiché.

It’s the route we’ve been taking, and we had planned to sleep here.

I’ll show you.

You can stay at Doña Julia’s house.

Here is the contact for Authentic Guatemala,

which organizes whatever you need.

However, we won’t be able to stay due to time constraints,

since we got caught in a downpour when we were in Laguna Brava,

and that changed everything.

Still, we’re going to explore this place.

And, by the way, something important: now we’re one of the same.

If you notice, Doña Julia and I could perfectly pass as family.

-Right, Doña Julia? -Yes.

I’m imitating Doña Julia’s hair color.

Now yes, without further delay, welcome to a Mayan house.

We’re going to live with a Mayan family.

Let’s go inside so you can see how this place is.

At first, we find that the house has a dirt floor and is small.

As I was saying, it’s very small.

Let’s go through here and see that if I don’t bend down

we’ll leave our heads stuck.

Here is Manuela who prepared the food we’re going to eat now.

Here they are.

Just look at this beauty, friends.

Look at this deliciousness!

-Is this a beef soup? -Yes

You have no idea how this smells.

We will eat it later.

This here is the kitchen.

This is how they cook.

In fact, during this entire video, I’ve been telling you

that all kitchens in this area are wood-burning,

and indeed, look, here is a stove.

They add the wood, and now it looks white and dry

because they are going to prepare tortillas.

-Is it like that, right? -Yes

It’s because they are going to make tortillas.

They add this powder, which is lime, just like in Nicoya, Costa Rica.

How interesting!

Here we have the dough for the tortillas we are going to eat now.

This is pure corn, not maseca, it’s pure corn.

Something that can’t be missing in a Mayan diet, or in any Mayan house,

are the tortillas.

Here there are hot tortillas

that are kept wrapped in a cloth to retain the heat.

How delicious, I can already imagine that lunch!

What they are doing here is the process to prepare chili,

to make chimol.

First, they are going to toast the chili.

Let’s grab one so you can see it.

This is the chili.

As you can see, it’s a dried chili they are going to toast.

This dried chili I was touching is so powerful that, with just the powder

that came from somewhere, it already knocked me out.

Let’s continue.

On this side, there’s a new part that Doña Julia told us about.

If you look, we came from the kitchen, which is an addition,

because the one we are going to see now was the original kitchen.

This part here is adobe, and we will see it inside.

The extension they made is cement.

Doña Julia told us that to build this cement part

she had to work for many years going to Guatemala.

She took a bus that took about six hours to get there.

She went every week.

She worked, saved everything she could,

and with those savings, she was finally able to make this extension.

Now here is where visitors can come to sleep if they wish.

We have certification that the beds are good.

There you have Soyacity doing the test.

Continuing here, they simply added the beds and rooms.

This is the area that used to be the kitchen.

As you can see, there’s barely a small light, and the entire environment is adobe.

Upstairs, they have beds, and it’s also a storage area which,

during the harvest season, is used to store corn.

This you see in front is the traditional house, the one that has been here since the beginning.

As I mentioned, they recently added a cement extension.

The lives of these people are changing, fortunately,

but this adobe house was the original one.

Something very characteristic of indigenous communities in general...

Recently, in fact, I mentioned in a video

that the bathroom here is outside the house.

What you see here is a latrine, this is what they call the bathroom.

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen this kind of bathroom,

but they are bathrooms located outside the house.

It’s basically a toilet, as we know it in Costa Rica.

It’s simply a hole where people relieve themselves.

There’s no flush or anything like that.

You just do your business, clean up, and that’s it.

This cement extension they made

is with the intention of eventually building a second floor.

See that they left the terrace smooth.

I’m very glad to see that they’ve moved from the adobe house

to now building a cement house.

Friends, here we are going to teach these Salvadorans

how to prepare a corn tortilla.

In Costa Rica, they don’t eat tortillas.

Let all the Costa Ricans in the comments tell me if that’s true or not.

The first step is to make a little ball of dough, then we’re going to flatten it.

This is the style, friends.

We’re flattening it until it’s thin.

This time, we’re going to make it small, because we don’t want it to fall apart.

Now it’s got a decent shape.

I don’t align it perfectly because I have nowhere to place it.

My teammates have already seen how to make the tortilla.

Did you learn?

Once it’s ready, you grab it well, take it to the stove area, and that’s it!

There it is, friends.

Do you think this is going to work?

Although I must say I was improvising, I’m not sure if it really turned out well.

From the look the lady gave me, I think not,

but at least the attempt was nice.

A round of applause for that.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are now ready for lunch.

Look at this beauty.

Oh my God, how delicious!

Here we have a beef soup dish.

Next to it is Mr. Soyacity eating.

This is a luxury lunch, friends.

Let’s make a toast.

When you drink Coca-Cola from a glass, it means you’re having lunch in style.

And, as I showed you earlier, of course, here we have tortillas.

And over there, the ones we made a little while ago are already coming out.

Mine is the best.

The best one there is mine.

Friends, here we’re going to try the beef broth.

Look at this beauty!

How delicious!

This is what we know in Costa Rica as a "olla de carne" (beef stew).

This broth is delicious.

Friends, as I told you, Julito is a tuk-tuk driver.

Before continuing with this tour, I need to clarify something.

Julito is 11 years old and doesn’t have permission to drive the tuk-tuk,

but this is the reality of this area.

It’s what there is, and besides, he does it with joy.

He loves driving this car and gets around everywhere,

but he can only go in the upper part of the village,

because down below there’s police and they could stop him.

-Right, Julito? -They’ve already stopped me twice.

-They’ve stopped you twice? -Yes

They’ve already stopped me twice.

And aren’t you scared? -No

I want to make it clear that with this video I’m not promoting child labor

or the breaking of laws,

I’m simply showing the reality of this place.

So, let’s go carefully for a spin around the village,

doing what Julito does every day.

Let’s take a ride.

Friends, it turns out we’re running out of gas.

What’s going on?

We need to go emergency refuel.

By the way, something that I find very curious

is that Julito travels peacefully and freely around here,

and even takes his sisters out for a ride.

This makes me understand that this is a very safe place,

because if kids are walking around calmly in the street,

it must be very safe.

This ties back to what I mentioned earlier.

Here, you hardly see tourists, it’s a completely local place,

almost 100% indigenous.

We arrived just in time to refuel.

Hello!

-How much should we put in, Julito? -10

-Is 10 enough? -20

Let’s put 20, so the tank is full.

Put 20, please.

And now yes, something never seen before.

We’re going to have the opportunity to drive the tuk-tuk.

Julito is going to teach us how to do it.

To start, how do you start it?

What should we do, Julito?

First, press the clutch, just like on a motorcycle.

Careful, it’s going.

Do you have the brake on?

What do you do now?

Is it in neutral now?

Look, it starts with a lever.

-Is this the handbrake? -Yes

The process to turn it on is as follows.

We turn the key.

Now it’s in neutral.

Here are the gears.

So you can see how to drive it.

The gears go down.

You put in first, second, third, etc.

This car goes up to fourth gear.

The gas is this here.

The gas is like a motorcycle’s,

and to start it, you push the clutch and push this lever up.

You have to release the clutch.

And there you go, now it’s on.

I had to ask Julito to come help me.

Now yes, press the clutch, put in first like this.

We’ve got first gear, and it moves just like a motorcycle.

We accelerate and release the brake.

Now we’re off!

I’ve got it under control!

I have to say, this car is pretty unstable.

You have to stay well centered on the road,

because if it tilts a bit, it feels like it’s going to flip.

-Is that right, Julito? -Yes

If it tilts a bit to the side, we’ll flip.

You have to handle the crank carefully.

I think I’ve scared Julito, because he already asked me to give him back the control.

Let’s give him the control.

-Ready, Julito? -Yes

Let’s go!

-Do you do this every day? -Yes

Friends, this super video is finally coming to an end

we’ve been filming for about four or five days.

Really, if you like this kind of content,

show it some love so we can keep bringing you more material like this.

Thanks to Julito, really, he’s an amazing driver!

At just 11 years old, he works more than I do.

Thank you, Julito!

A message I want to give you is to come support these kinds of projects

and, in general, visit these remote

and forgotten areas of this beautiful country,

as well as the countries where you live.

I’m sure that in your countries, for example, in Costa Rica,

there are also remote and forgotten areas where responsible tourism,

like the one we’re doing here with Authentic Guatemala,

can make a positive impact.

Coming to support these kinds of projects

allows kids like Julito to go back to school

and live a normal life, studying and learning.

Right, Julito?

-Are you going back to school and keep studying? -Yes.

There you have it, friends.

I hope you enjoyed this video as much as I did.

Don’t forget to subscribe and share it if you liked it.

See you in the next video.

Pura vida!

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Así viven LOS MAYAS en las ALDEAS más ALEJADAS de Guatemala 🇬🇹