Update #3:
It has been an incredible week since my last writing…and I’ve done quite a bit! Will try to give you a vivid but concise sum (not likely, sorry!)…
Monday we had another cooking session at school with the maestras – chuchitos, doblados (fried tortillas stuffed with potatoe) and guacamole. Followed by some delish (disinfected) strawberry birthday cake…gotta love disinfected fruits! Birthday celebration part deux was at Pana Rock in town for two students. Met some fun and interesting Guatemalans they had befriended – good to know some locals for sure.
Wednesday was my last day of class and I spent most of the 4 hour session answering Florinda’s questions about what we’d all been up to at Pana Rock. Gossip never gets old, eh? Thus a great last day of class. Then we all went to a nature reserve in Pana for the afternoon. A nice little walk out of town avoiding being obliterated by chickenbuses led us to a park of fruit trees, café, monkeys and waterfalls. Lisa and Tricia arrived on Thursday midday from Antigua as their last stop before heading back to the States. Since they weren’t getting in until a little later I decided to visit Santa Catarina Palopo, the town just to the left of Pana. Little did I know private boats are the only option and they start at Q150 (normal public lancha rate: Q25). So I walked.
The 4km took about 40minutes between flip flops (oops) and the rolling mountains…and avoiding the tuk tuk’s barelling downhill. Despite the semi-confused look on almost everyone’s face upon seeing a gringa, sola, walking on the cliffs, I felt very safe and the views were stunning. When I finally rolled into Sta. Cataraina it seemed very small, less touristy, and had a great little square with a simple church even though it clearly served as the hub of town. I grabbed a Q1 ($0.13) wedge of fresh watermelon on the street and wandered to eat by the dock. School was still in session and I found some great soccer fields close to the water. Sitting on the docks you can tell this is primarily a fishing/farming town and for reasons I’m still working out the tourism exists but they don’t attract that many people. The rains really hamper the ability of bigger boats to get in and out of the docks because of washed up algae/plant life, so maybe that’s part of it. 
After my watermelon and musings I wandered back towards the center to find that school was letting out! The chaos of that many kids dumping onto the street is electric. And all the stands of fruit, bags of colored drink, toys, and etc had popped up in that little bit of time. Soccer games ensued and little girls giggled together in corners. I obviously sat myself right in the middle of it all on the steps of the church, debating which soccer game to join and when. I am now probably the background on about 15 different kids’ cell phones. All of a sudden a little girl with her backpack and a bag of clothes joined me on the steps. Melba wasn’t nervous to talk to me at all! We did a quick introduction, talked about school (classes of only 24! Hallelujah), and she decided she wanted to take me around. So off we went – first to find her friend Cindy across the little plaza, then to the beach. There was some kind of handoff of the clothes I still haven’t figured out…I think someone was going to wash them later in the lake. Then Melba and I wandered up into the depths of the town where clearly few gringos go – based on the snickers and grabbings of little kids we passed – and saw her house and her friend’s house. I felt very uncomfortable with the intrusion but didn’t know how to explain to her why both her friends and I to an extent seemed uncomfortable. Anyway, problem avoided because we headed right back down to the lake. She took me to some of the local swimming holes, explained that the plants in the water kept some of the boats with tourists out, I taught her how to skip rocks, we collected snails, and then played soccer with a tiny ball on the beach. I met her grandfather briefly (he has four wives) and an aunt – both of whom just laughed at the pair of us wandering hand in hand through the alleys! Then she got a hold of my camera. Well, we all know kids are sponges and technology is exceptionally easy for them. I found myself on a modeling shoot and she managed to take around 86 pics with my camera until the battery ran out. *Word to the wise: careful about teaching kids about the zoom feature or you wind up with an unnecessary number of photos that are just far too close to look good. Despite the large amount of deleting I would have to do later, spending the day with Melba was enchanting and I’m so lucky she found me!
I finally extracted myself from Melba’s tiny hand because I needed to get back to Pana to find Lisa. Unfortunately I had no texts left and she couldn’t use the phone, so we really were uncoordinated. Then I found there weren’t really tuktuks in Sta. Catarina so I hoofed it back another 40 mintues. Got a great tan though!
Friday they headed to Tecpan to see the Mayan ruins there. Since I visited the site in March I decided it’d be a good day to climb a volcano. So at 6am I waited for my bus…nothing. 6:15 Andrea from the tour place picks me up and explains that the guide is waiting in San Pedro for me at a café. I talk to him, all is good, eventually get a lancha across the lake..which of course stops at every little nook of a town on the way there. I get to the café over an hour later than planned and no one but an older American guy is there – no guide. I wait, I call the four office numbers about 20 times, leave messages, go back to the café – nothing. Angry and really not wanting to waste the day I get some coffee by the lake to regroup. Wound up with a Q200 guided hike down El Noz (a mountain there looks like a face laying down…thus “the nose” or “el indio”). Off Pedro and I go – solo tour with a guy I don’t know? Why not. Chickenbus #3 has been survived, btw. After telling him my volcano tour saga he helps me call the office, where someone finally answers, and get them to pay up. I know my Spanish has advanced if I can yell at someone, on a low-quality cell phone, in Spanish, on a mountain, in a chickenbus. Good sign.
Anyway, we get up the mountain, jump out on the side of the road by some farms, buy some corn from a lady walking down the street for breakfast (absolutely delicious corn), and start our wander through the farms. I could never have found this trek on my own and no group would take this route. But being just the two of us we just walked through the coffee and corn farms while everyone was out working to get to this small path he knows. At its most luxurious the path was a foot wide, at its least a few inches and we would pause so Pedro could machete some of the brush away…followed by me praying the roots of the tall grasses were strong enough to keep me from toppling over the side! What a VIEW. He even took me to a small waterfall tucked into the mountain that serves as the main water source for the town of San Juan. Basically there’s a 3in PVC pipe that just hangs among the trees all the way from the waterfall in the mountain to a tank somewehre in town…so every now and then you step over or duck under loose PVC pipe. This is the “clean” water – compared to towns that get it from the lake, anyway.
We walk out of the path after passing the corn & frijoles, café, and aguacate fields and right into San Juan. Unexpected but a great surprise so I call Omar, who I find out isn’t working and even when he is it’s on the coffee co-op at the mouth of the trail. How fortiutous. Pedro then takes me to a sewing co-op where I get suckered into an incredible bag. Spent the rest of the day at the coffee co-op hearing about the water project, life in San Juan, and waiting out the monsoon.
After the rains a group came to hear about the project he’s doing and I made friends with the neighbor kids. They were so adorable and so excited about the camera. Once I let them have it there was no turning back. Pictures of EVERYONE and EVERYTHING. Unfortunately there was a fence and barbed wire between us so some of the pics are less than stellar. But I didn’t get that camera back for at least an hour. That night when I got back I made sure to print out some pictures to give them – printed photos are not common so I thought $3 was worth a little excitement over a simple gift.
In the morning (Saturday) we headed to San Pedro for some wandering. There’s not a ton there – a cool set of cafes and restuarants tucked into a maze in the back of town but not a ton to do and they wanted to shop a bit more. So off to San Juan we went and had a great second tour of the co-op’s! They bought a pretty decent amount and the women were fantastically kind and appreciative. One woman explained that by supporting their stores we supported the women, and when the women have money, their kids go to school. She said that was why the streets were cleaner and calmer than most of the other towns. Talk about hitting Lisa and I where we’re weakest! Such a phenomenal sentiment from her and one that cemented my need to go back at least once before I leave. Anyway, then back to San Pedro and immediately caught a lancha to Santiago so only had a quick goodbye with the duo.
Santiago was good, it’s the biggest town on the lake like I said last time. We went to get custom leather sandals made for him from a local guy – one hour for custom shoes at only $20? Sheesh. Then had a leisurely lunch, grabbed the shoes, took a decent hike out of town to buy hot sauce, and then back to San Pedro. My last night on the lake – so sad!
Sunday I headed back to Pana. I wandered up to a woman making jewlery on the road and her stuff was incredible. Before I knew it I’d bought a ring and am looking forward to seeing her again for more. My bus was to come at 12…it came at 1240. Then we drove inefficiently all over a town the size of Manayunk for another hour before heading out to the back roads instead of the highway. What a drive! The views were incredible and it was the epitome of rural Guatemala – caves, farms, etc. We got to see a little bit of something real. Including a bridge still unrepaired after washing out last rainy season, which meant we drove through the mud to cross. The tourists that say things like “well this is an interesting choice” about situations like that are an embarassment – how can you think that anyone would choose not to fix a bridge or would choose not to take the main highway if there were another choice? Can’t they see that it’s rainy season and this bridge has been out of commission for some time? There are men literally shoveling mud to give water a path – that’s not just a quirk of Guatemala, that’s the reality that no one, including the government, has money to address basic issues. Sorry, rant over.
Got to Zone 10 and found Mario at our hostel – Quetzalroo…Aussies are the best. Finally a hot shower on Monday!! Looked at an amazing apartment on one of the main streets in Zone 10/Zone 9 and over breakfast at McDonald’s we decided to just bite the bullet and take it. The area is “safe” (aka, safer), the apartment building is secured, run by a company not some under the table situation, and the area has places to eat, drink, wander, etc. $7 taxi to Shalom. And it’s really nice…my conscience hurts a little but considering that the safe zone involves 8 armed men guarding Chili’s on a Monday night, I’m surviving the moral twinges just fine. Home Sweet Home!
If you're trying to reach me, my address is below, as are my phone numbers:
Cell: Country Code 502 4279 9886
Apt: Country Code 502 2203 5900
Ave Reforma 15-25 Zona 10
Apto 206
Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala, C.A.
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