Time flies...

(Feb 7, 2012)  

              I’ve been in Guatemala for over a month now and time seems to have just flown by! Pretty much as soon as I crossed the border I set down to work and have been working between 4-10 hours a day coordinating ICO initiative meetings and my ICO database meetings ever since! The stress that I have felt has been made manageable by the positive response and interest that I have been getting from organizations that I interview. I surely wouldn’t be able to handle the work if it didn’t appear that the work I was doing was useful, but every organization that I have met seems to have been impressed by my work and are excited to be a part of the database.

                I spent a week in Quetzaltenango (‘Xela’), where I stayed with a couchsurfing friend and dashed around the city to all the markets (there are 4) and trying to coordinate a volcano hike. By the end of the week I had failed to actually GO on the hike, instead coordinating extensive meetings with 4 organizations in town to place on my database. I planned to return to Xela for some more time after my week in Loma Linda so that I could go to a few more markets, go shopping for textiles to send home, do a few more interviews, and go on a hike up a nearby volcano.

                My time in Loma Linda  (a city of 2,000 people) was amazing – while I wouldn’t necessarily call it relaxing as I was up at 6am and doing physical labour all the time, my activities kept me busy and away from the internet. In this way I was able to really enjoy and appreciate my time in Loma Linda, where I learned more about the local community development organization (ASODILL), and the features, hardships and beauty associated with rural Guatemalan towns. While I was in Loma Linda I ate all of my meals with a local family, helped out around the house, worked in the community organic garden, went for hikes through highland coffee fincas to look for the elusive Quetzal bird, worked on the worm composting project in the community (for creating nutrient-rich finca fertilizer), and dug out hiking trails for the community’s budding eco-tourism project. I learned how to make tortillas by hand (harder than it looks!), helped a local family sort through and prepare freshly picked coffee fruit, and taught English classes in the local school. I was sad to say goodbye to everyone at ASODILL and in Loma Linda but I have remained in touch and am currently working on connecting them with a tourism company in Xela to help them further develop their eco-tourism program.

                After Loma Linda I headed back to Xela to conduct a few more interviews, visit the country’s largest market in San Fransisco el Alto, and go on a very challenging volcano hike! The San Fransisco el Alto market was located in a small town in the mountains above Xela and Jenna (a girl from the beautiful Don Diego Hostel I was staying at) and I spent a great morning winding through the market corridors that seemed to engulf the entire town. The market was extremely un-touristy and was filled with food, clothing, electronic, and animal stalls. At the top of the town in what I imagine to be the central square, cows, chickens, picks and goats were being sold and herded down the village’s cobblestone streets on their way to their new homes and various fates. On Saturday morning I packed up my bag and headed to the Quetzaltrekkers office, where I was to prepare for my hike. I’m not sure what I thought the hike would be like but it turned out to be far more challenging than I had imagined. With 30lbs each on our backs in the form of tents, food, and water, our group of 10 traipsed up the steep sides of the volcano in a 5 hour hike. We had arrived into a cloud and could see very little around us. When the thunder and lightning storm started, along with pelting hail, even the strained faces of the guides couldn’t contain my enthusiasm. Here we were, on the top of a dormant volcano, unable to tell which booming sounds were from the electricity in the air around us or from the active volcano below us. We couldn’t see a thing, even when the air around us became flooded with lightning. Apparently being on the highest point of land for miles around and huddled beneath tents (essentially electricity conductors) is the worst position that a person can be in during a violent storm. I’ll remember that for the future. We survived the night and were rewarded by beautiful clear skies the following morning, allowing us to view the dramatic sunrise and watch the explosions and lava flows of the volcano below us. We made our way down the mountain in record time and rather than go to sleep and recover from the tumultuous journey, we all made plans to meet up for Superbowl Sunday. I was sound asleep by 10:30 pm – some party animal I am!

                On Monday morning I took a series of ‘chicken buses’ (colourfully painted school buses) to arrive in Santa Catarina, where I am staying now. Santa Catarina is a small village situated on Lago Atitlan and while I am here I hope to visit many of the other communities on the beautiful lake, meet up with some ICO initiatives that are occurring in the area (education, cultural centre, dentistry, stove building) and find new organizations to interview. There is a great market in Chichicastenango that I would like to visit and I may even take a stab at paragliding!

                I hope you are all enjoying the beginning of Spring!

Love,

Robin