Well, it’s official that I have begun to stink at keeping you all up to date with my blog! And for being a bad blogger/informer, I deeply apologize. However, I have my reasons. The main reason is that we don’t have internet at our house anymore and I have to pay to use the internet at any café, so it ends up getting kind of pricey. And sometimes when I do go to a café, I forget to even post a new blog! HA! That and I’m living in an awesome country and don’t want to spend all of my time on the internet. ¿Comprenden? There is a lot to tell you, so prepare yourselves!
There has been a lot going on here in Guatemala in the past few weeks, but I am going to focus on the past week because it has been pretty cool!
Last Friday after classes, we headed out for another exciting city: Panajachel. It was a little more than a three hour drive through the mountains (yes, rather nerve-wracking) and we eventually got there safely at about 4pm. The view was well worth the scary drive since Pana is a city over looking Lake Atitlan, the deepest lake in Central America. The lake has over 34 miles in circumference and is surrounded by at least 3 different volcanoes and quaint little towns. We checked in at our hotel and had the rest of the afternoon to wander the main road where vendors are trying to sell you every little piece of clothing and every little knick-knack. Different people had different experiences, but the man I remember most told us we were wasting his time if we weren’t going to buy anything and he practically pushed us out of his “store.” Talk about rude!
For dinner, we headed to Solomon’s Porch. Solomon’s Porch is a restaurant/bar ministry started by a former lawyer and his family from Florida. They have a heart to reach the people of Pana and they made us a delicious dinner and showed us a slide show of their ministry. They work with groups to build homes, pass out food, reach out to addicts, etc. It’s a really great ministry (feel free to Google it and find out more)!
Saturday morning we woke up early for breakfast and headed across the giant lake by boat with all of our luggage to a little city called San Juan. We pulled up to a rustic hotel overlooking the lake where we would be staying that night. After leaving our stuff at the hotel, we headed into the city to a coffee cooperative. This coffee cooperative was started in 1979 and now has over 110 members. All of their coffee is organic and we were given a tour of most of the plantation. It was beautiful! If you are a coffee drinker, you had better get online and look up the process of how coffee is grown/processed because I now have a MUCH greater appreciation for each cup of coffee I drink! We learned about different types of coffee plants, what they need to grow, how they treat them, etc. After the tour, we got to taste the coffee in whatever form we wanted (cappuchino, latte, americano, or espresso), and yes, it was absolutely delicious. If you have never bought or drank organic coffee, you have to start now...it will change your life! The people at the cooperative wanted us to learn a bit about the Mayan culture, so they had me and a guy from our group dress up in the traditional Mayan garb! It was fun to see what it would be like to wear their clothes, but I am definitely bigger than the traditional Mayan woman, that’s for sure. My arms barely fit in the sleeves of the top.
Finally, they made us a delicious traditional meal of chicken, vegetables, and rice...with corn tortillas of course. It was a really educational and fun morning!
That afternoon we headed to another cooperative, but this was a women's cooperative. There is a little store in San Juan called La Lema and the women that are part of this cooperative make and sell everything that is in the store. They use all natural dyes from different plants and flowers. All the colors are somewhat pastel-y because they come from natural sources. There were scarves, pot holders, purses, table cloths, etc. Eventually, each of us were paired up with a teacher (a mayan woman who is part of the cooperative) and after a demonstration of how they dye their threads, they began to teach us how to weave our own scarves! It was really interesting to see what these women do all day, every day. I now understand the patience and sheer determination it takes to make just one scarf. Trust me, that would not be my career of choice, but this is how these women feed their families and survive day to day. After a few errors, and a lot of help from my teacher, I was able to finish my scarf...I felt so accomplished! Because I had such a great appreciation for this cooperative, I invested in their business and bought a purse and a change purse for Q.110...which ends up being not even $15. I was proud to support their cause and give what I could to their work.
After a busy Saturday, we had the rest of the evening to relax at the hotel...where we discovered and killed some HUGE spiders! The staff at the hotel made us dinner and dessert and we just relaxed the rest of the evening. The most exciting part of that night was watching three of my peers calling bats and trying to take pictures of them, talk about hilarious. I was laughing so hard that I wanted to puke, but it was such a great night in wonderful company.
Sunday morning we woke up and after breakfast we headed out another town on the lake, Santiago Atitlan. As we pulled up after about 30 minutes on the boat, we saw that the beginning of the town in under water because the water level is so high. They were having to build docks on top of docks in which to park the boats. We got off the boat and had some time to explore the city and have lunch. Again, another place where vendors are trying to make a living and will attempt to sell you anything and everything for really cheap. It’s also interesting because in many of these lake towns, the people don’t even speak Spanish, but are trying to preserve their Mayan languages. As we made our way back to Pana on the boat, the waves on the lake started to pick up and we were definitely starting to feel a little shaky. Let me just say that I was definitely glad to be back to the shore!
That afternoon, I was ready for some alone time, away from the group so I stayed in my room at the hotel and took a nap and did some reading. Sometimes, we just need to let down away from the people we’ve been with for so long. For dinner, we went to a beautiful restaurant called Sunset Café that overlooks Lago Atitlan and we watched the sun go down behind the mountains and volcanoes.
Monday morning, we headed back to Antigua taking a different route and were able to stop at a lookout point to get some beautiful photos of a beautiful lake. While it was a really fun weekend, full of fellowship and learning, I was glad to be back home in Antigua.
**Check out Facebook for pictures...it's easier to upload them all there :)
Keep it real folks
-J
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