So, I woke up early this morning and headed down to the lake since the sun was out and everything was night and bright and cheery. I took a few good photos and enjoyed sitting by the water.

The boat guys weren’t too rude, and after being told that I didn’t need a boat, mostly left me alone.

Lots of tour groups running around today.

After catching a few minutes of peace and quiet, or as close as you can get here, down by the lake, I thought I’d take the bus up to Solola, which is higher up the mountain, and far less touristy.

I climbed on the bus, and after a little bit, we where off. I paid my fare of $0.38 and got a little change. I had decided to head up to Solola because today was one of the twice weekly markets, and it was nice and sunny.

Normally I wouldn’t recommend running around very many places in Guatemala with big and expensive (looking) camera equipment, but I’ve taken that bus ride a number of times, and generally don’t worry too much around the indigenous cultures unless the place I’m going is kind of deserted. It was market day, so deserted was gonna be the last thing Solola was.

After arriving in town, I walked through the square, and towards the market. Unlike Pana, Solola doesn’t have a dedicated market building, and instead twice a week (Friday and Sunday for the curious among you) they clsoe down the streets around the town square, and vendors from all around carry in their goods.

I normally try to respect peoples desires not to be photographed, especially away from tourist areas like Pana and Antigua, and simply planned to walk through the market taking photos of the colors. It seems that many things here are more colorful, the fruits and vegies, the clothing, the buildings, you name it, it’s likely to be colorful.

So far so good, everyone that I asked had been more than happy to let me take photos of their wares, and I think they appreciated me asking (many gringos fail to respect them enough to ask even before taking photos of the people) and I saw a pile of chickens feet. I asked, and the lady said it was fine to take a photo, so I did. After taking the photo, she demanded that I pay her 5 Quetzales for the photo. I was dumbstruck. It’s not uncommon for people to ask to be paid if you want a photo of them, but I’ve never had anyone try to charge me money for taking a photo of their goods. I played stupid and said a lot of things in very poor spanish that didn’t string together very well. She was unhappy, but not as much as I was. In the end, I didn’t pay her anything for taking the photo, but it did cut my day in the market short.

Here’s the photo by the way:

I’m sure that 5 Quetzales means more to her than it does to me, I think it was the way she went about trying to get it that bothered me. If she had said it would be 5 Quetzales to take the photo, I would have walked away, but she said it was fine, and then put a price on it.