Andando en Antigua y Atitlán, Guatemala

June 26, 2018 0 By admin

(Originally posted June 2012)

Stepping of the bus in Antigua, the hum of Latin America welcomes me back, despite Guatemala being a new stamp for my passport. The sound of chicken buses chugging up the hills, blaring horns and music spilling out of windows. The sound of motorcycles skipping around vehicles, pedestrians and stray dogs. The blast of fire crackers celebrating birthdays, saints or really, just because. Familiar smells drift into my nose; foods grilled on carts in the plaza and exhaust fumes from recycled vehicles. This city in new to me but we’re surrounded with many familiarities from around Latin America.

Our first four days we made home in Antigua, the old colonial capital of Guatemala. Due to devastating earthquakes in the 1700s, the current capital has been since been moved to Guatemala City. The town is very accessible to tourists, even non-Spanish speakers or new travelers, in regards to restaurants, transport and shopping. We enjoyed delicious tostadas, pupusas, cheesecake, and coffee. We found a few local joints were we celebrated with a group of law students finishing their semester, ate in a hole-in-the-wall, eat-in-the-kitchen sort of lunch and purchased Guatemala soccer jackets in the local market. On the contrary we also spent time in Red’s bar to watch Euro Cup soccer matches with other foreigners, made friends with fellow travelers at the hostel, danced salsa and climbed the volcano Pacaya with hikers, roasting marshmallows at the top.

For me, the most memorable day was our visit to the indigenous villages with the Behrhorst Partners for Development, made possible by Narra’s connection as a board member. Early in the morning we took a taxi to Chimaltenango to meet Melvin who took us to visit two villages: Patzocom, where BPD has been working for several years and Rincón, where project is in the strategic planning stage. We learned about the projects:

Improved stoves enclosed to eliminate the smoke inhalation by women cooking day after day and to reduce the amount of firewood required.
Latrines designed economically and environmentally to improve the hygiene.
Water systems that bring faucets to each families home, eliminating the need to carry water from distance natural springs, water filters that purify to provide safe drinking water and the drainage systems created to return the used water to the environment. In Rincon, where projects hadn’t been started yet, the women showed us where they walked, a long ways and down a steep hill to fill containers of water from a spring. Fifteen women brought their containers, and conveniently had two child-sized containers extra. We carried water up the long, steep hill, containers of water on our heads with their giggles all in a line, as their containers were twice the size of ours.

I was drawn in to the villages, their lives and their struggles, from the connection to a home-away-from-home in Copales, Mexico. The visit to the Guatemalan villages offered a glimpse to the lives in other indigenous communities, the isolation, the culture, the level of development and the challenges faced with health, education and the economy. Learning about the work of the BPD was very impressive in the connection they make with the villages, including the development of a sustainable plan and the communities commitment to provide the manual labor and to receive training in projects that contribute to the long-term success of the stoves, water systems and stoves and their pride in having made the development a success.

Next we took a bus to Panajachel to spend a few days at Lake Atitlán, a deep crater surrounded by volcano mountains and small towns all around, accessible by boat or narrow footpaths. For a few days we stayed at a backpacker hostel, a little bubble from reality in Santa Cruz La Laguna right on the lake. We made friends with Tom, an Israeli gal working at an environmental hostel, Landros and Amaya, a Spanish-Italian couple backpacking the Mexico-Central American route and George, taking advantage of time between jobs to get out of the U.S. We spent our days hiking up mountain streams and around the hills and coast to the next towns, napping, sipping coffee while overlooking the lake and watching the clouds fall over the peaks. Before heading to Quetzaltenango we took a boat back to Panajachel to spend a night enjoying a few “cuba libres” and dancing past our bedtimes. Next stop, Spanish class in Quetzaltenango for the next three weeks…