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.

Off Again! This Time to Chichicastenango

This was the one place that I was insistent on going, because Chichicastenango (pronounced Chee-chee-casta-nan-go) is about two and a half hours from Antigua, and is the shopping capitol of Guatemala. It's basically the supermall of artisans markets. Market days are the days to do it, and so we hit the less busy Thursday market.

Imagine stalls and stalls for blocks and blocks (probably the size of a small shopping mall) with anything you could ever want to buy in any color including flowers, fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, and fish, clothing, artisans crafts, textiles, shoes, artwork, music and decorative items for the home. Everything but furniture seemed to be sold there.

Imagine the vivid smells of it all- the sweet smell of roses mixed with the sweet bloody smell of the meat mixing with the charcoal smoke from the cooking food and the incense from the church, a couple of steps later all you can smell is citrus from the orange vendor, then musky smell of wet wool and cloth.

Mix the smells with the sounds of this massive place- the vendors calling you in English and Spanish "Very cheap, what do you like? Muy barato, que le gustas amigas?" and the clanging of pots, the chatter of tourists of every language not to mention the chatter of the locals in Spanish and the various dialects from the area, the squeals of children and pigs as mothers drag them along, the ringing of bells from both churches in the area, the applause like clapping of the ladies making masa into fresh tortillas, and the thump thump thump of the music stalls.

As we squeezed through the narrow passageways past the stalls, it was hard to decide which things I would buy. I mean did I want the pretty tablecloth back there, or the equally beautiful one down there? Do I want this red placemat with green in it, or this other red one with blue? Do I want that gorgeous wall hanging, or that bedspread? It was a beautiful thing to be able to afford some of the things I wanted!

Mom really liked these candles

and I loved all the colors!

As you walk through the market on the East and West sides are two churches. The bigger one, the Iglesia de Santo Tomas, is as much a part of the market as any stall. Vendors set up their things on it's steep steps and wait. This woman was sitting on the steps, selling her flowers and was initially very hesitant to let me photograph her. I gave her money and also promised not to photograph her face. This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip and she approved of the result.

The other church is the Capilla del Calvario. It's smaller but almost as impressive because of the Lent decorations.

We only spent a couple of hours in Chichi, but I managed to buy 4 sets of placemats, one tablecloth, one tablerunner, a day of the dead skull, gifts for my coworkers, and two curtain tiebacks. Mom bought her share too, including three shirts, a tablerunner, and more placemats!

After that is was on to Lake Atitlan.

Nasty Mattress and Rain

So on this day we spent our remaining hours on the beach. It was a little hard to leave, but after two days in the heat, and really not sleeping well because of it and the mosquito devils, it was time. We got some last swims, last looks, and some last grains of sand lodged in our nether regions.

Upon return to our hotel to check out, we noticed that the housekeeping was changing out our linens. Oh my god, it looked like a crime scene. Our foam mattresses were totally black! I'm not sure if it was mold (eck!), body fluids of some kind (ugh!), or just (and this is what stopped me from bathing in bleach) the black sand having settled into the foam spaces, but it was pretty bad. My mom, who has a tolerance for grime that borders on the insane, even said it would have deterred her from staying there. Ahh travel, ain't it sexy?

So we get on the bus back to Monterrico, where we met up again with two students from Western WU!, and on our way back into Antigua it started to rain. Normally this is a not a particularly noteworthy occurance, but this rain, after having been baking slowly in the hot, was a welcome sight. it was so nice to have the cool breeze and cool droplets.

This rain, ironically, also provided an opportunity to take the only picture of the top of Agua Volcano I had (normally the top is covered by clouds, so figure that out).

Breakfast and other pleasures of Monterrico

So Mom and I quickly figured out that one of our great loves was a good Guatemalan breakfast! This first morning in Monterrico solidified it for us. Breakfast was coffee, two fried eggs, refried black beans, toast, salsa, fried plantains with a cream sauce, a wedge of cheese and a little piece of chorizo. Heaven is breakfast and it exists in Monterrico. Here is Mom.

So this day we went to an animal preserve, Arcas, specifically protecting sea turtles, iguanas, and crocodiles. This place also hatches baby sea turtles for release in the ocean.

So after getting eaten alive by mosquitos, err, I mean wandering around the reserve, we hung out on the beach and later found a hotel with hammocks in the shade and really good chips and dip. What more does one really need? That evening we returned to the preserve.

Everyone congregates on the beach at 5:30pm and watches the preserve workers release the baby sea turtles in to the ocean. We sponsored two turtles and named them. One after my dad, Bob, and one after my adopted grandmother/family friend, Sister. There was something so touching about naming new little lives after wonderful people. I hope it gives them an advantage in life, because they say that only 1 in 100 sea turtles lives to adulthood. Hopefully these two do...

Here are ours with their littermates.