Guatamala 2008

Welcome to my blog! I created it so that anyone can see my travel photos of my recent trip to Guatamala without me having to be around. Feel free to send it along and live vicariously through my travel fun until your next fun trip!

One word about how to read this, read from the bottom up. Go by the dates, it will make more sense.

"I am not the same, having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world."

-Maryanne Radmacher-Hershey

Last Day in Guatamala

We got on the bus to Guatemala City early in the morning and figured we'd have most of the day there, after all it's only 45 minutes down the road from Antigua. Not the case, our bus was packed full of people heading to the capitol and we were one of the last stops! By the time we got dropped off, it was almost noon!


Guatemala City is a pretty typical Latin American capitol- too much smog, too many people, too little space. It's always interesting to walk around the main squares and see the majestic buildings, so that's what we did first. We saw the national library, government buildings, and cathedral.
We also went to a salon and Mom got her hair dyed and I got a manicure. After a nice day we went with our new friend, an Australian named Tobi, to a yummy dinner! It was a nice end to a great trip!


My favorite part of Guatemala City was this fortune telling bird guy that we ran into in the main square! So the way this mysterious thing worked was that you asked the guy a question- mine of course was would I ever find true love! He then chose the lucky bird and fed him and held up this pan full of papers which the bird picked out. I paid him for one paper which said that I already know my true love and would be realizing that soon! Hmmmm....












The next day I flew out at 8am after having my plane delayed two hours. I landed in Seattle at 7pm, after having my connecting flight CANCELLED, replaced on another flight out of L.A. and then having to walk the entire length of LAX only to be then given a full body cavity search by TSA (ok, not that bad, but I got chosen for the extended search where they wipe out the carry on bags with an alcohol wipe and that is then scanned for drugs!). I loved Guatemala but I really enjoyed my bed that first night back in the U.S. The next day I got Tucker from Jimbo and Charity's.

Last Days in Antigua- Sunday and Monday

Our last days were pretty low key. Mom looked at the alfombras again on Sunday and I wrote postcards. Monday we wandered around Antigua doing last minute things like going to the post office and trying to sell our books in English.
Monday we took a tuc-tuc out to San Pedro, just outside of Antigua and (eventually) found the grounds to the museums of music and coffee. Given that I sponsored this coffee farm and museum through my daily trips to Starbucks, Mom thought I should see what I was spending all my money on!

This is a working farm with a small museum. It was neat to see the beans from plant (above) to cup. Unfortunately not nearly enough money is given to the farms and farm workers as I would like to belive, but more on that in a second.

First the coffee is picked and the red berries (also known as the cherry) are washed and big machines seperate the beans from the fruit. The big machines to the left are washing and speperating. The machine below is dumping the unusable cherries for disposal.

The beans are then seperated by color, which is an indication of quality. The light beans are best, the darker beans not as good.

Beans have to lay out to dry completely for anywhere from 7-13 days, depending on the weather and how sunny it is.

One way to ensure good drying is to spread them thinlyon the ground for drying and to turn them to ensure all parts get their sun. Here are workers doing that.

Later the beans are seperated from the crunchy dried outer skin and are ready to roasting or exportation. The guide said that 80% of their beans were exported to Starbucks.

Here they are in those familiar coffee bags, ready to go of to parts unknown.

This is from the museum that explains how much of every dollar spend on coffee by the consumer goes to the people who work at putting it in my cup. I'll spell it out because this could be hard to read: $0.16 cents goes to the folks in the producing country (Guatamala), of that $0.08 goes to the far labor, $0.05 goes to the farm, $0.03 goes to the exporter. The remaining $0.84 goes to the folks in the consuming country (U.S.), of that $0.67 goes to the importer, $0.08 goes to the retailer, and $0.06 goes for transportation. This is not for fair trade coffee which makes sure that more money goes to the farm laborers.

After supporting the farm by buying beans and other items from the gift shop we went to the music museum.

Back to Antigua

Coming back to Antigua was hot and sticky (much like Monterrico) itself! But, the cool breezes started to come back as we climbed away from the coast and towards the volcanoes. We were just outside of Antigua when we started to feel the familiar droplets of rain! At first we kept the windows open to the small van we were in, but it soon soaked us and the heat of Antigua was melted away. As a Pacific Northwest girl I welcomed the rain with glee!
The Guatemalans walking on the side of the road did not share my enthusiasm.

Critters

After making shopping seem like something akin to running a marathon, we decided to spend our last morning in Lake Atitlan pursuing less economic interests, like looking at critters! But first, breakfast.
This morning we had breakfast at the super swanky Hotel Atitlan.


We then went got to stroll around the grounds, including the beautiful gardens.

We then went to a Nature Preserve and looked at the spider monkeys
and these animals that look like a cross between a racoon and a cat, called coatis (pronounced coy-yah-tees).They were funny little guys who traveled in a herd of about 10. They seemed equally comfortable on land or in the trees.

























After looking them we took a walk around the





preserve which included a waterfall



and suspension bridges.




















There were also many lovely flowers in full bloom!




















Also on the same property was a butterfuly preserve. We only saw one sitting down though.

And the parrots at our hotel were cute too- we think these were babies.After that it was time to head back to Antigua.

Panajachel and Santigo Atitlan

We woke up and headed down to the main strip of town for breakfast. After that we did some shopping and then walked down to see the lake in the daytime. Then we wen to the boat dock to take a boat ride across the lake to Santigo Atitlan

For about $3 we were able to boat across the lake, about a half hour ride. On the way we met a nice Guatamalan family on vacation. Their children were adorable and they appreciated my promises to send them the pictures I took of them.

Santigo Atitlan was a great little place. Slower then the crowds of Chichicastenango, and less touristy and commercial then Panajachel, it was a great place to spend the afternoon.

The entire trip I had been looking for something to go over my mantel. I originally wanted a silver or tin mirror, but no luck in Guatemala. I then looked for a pretty embroidered cloth that was big enough, but not too big! No luck, nothing seemed quite right. Mom and I stumbled into this painting shop and I found the perfect painting for that spot. After lugging it home and then having it restreched, it's perfetct in my house! Mom got one too, a painting of coffee pickers.

There were a lot of other things to buy in this town besides paintings. One commonly sold item is a hupil (pronounced who-peel) which are the shirts that a lot of the women wear. They are lovely! This shop caught my eye because of the bright colors and the rusting tin roof.

We also enjoyed walking through the town including another market (less artisans things and more household goods and food). Also an impressive church on a large square.

And everything in the shadows of volcanos.

Lake Atitlan and Panajachel

We arrived in the town of Panajachel (pronounced Pah-nah-ha-chel) on the banks of Lake Atitlan (prounounced A-teet-lan) late in the afternoon. After a quick nap we walked down to see the lake and get dinner.

The stroll through town was really nice and we did a little browsing through the main street. Panajachel seems touristy and the main strip was full of restaurants, shops, and bars. When we got to the end of the street, we overlooked the lovely Lago Atitlan.

Surrounded by three volcanos, the lake was created out of a massive explosion 85,000 years ago (the ash blew as far north as Florida and as far south as Panama!) and the land collapsed to create a hole which was 300 meters deep which later filled with water. The water is a lovely blue and the volcanos around it are impressive.

We got down there around sunset and as we ate our delicious meal (I had chili rellenos which was the culinary highlight of my dinners in Guatamala) a thunder and lightening storm lit up across the lake. We sat in the plesant warm air outside and never felt the storm.