Last of the blogs
Trip Start
Jul 12, 2008
1
11
Trip End
Aug 17, 2008
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Friday, August 29, 2008
Our last week in Guatemala was spent in the Lake Atitlan area. We based ourselves in Panajachel and took a few day trips out to interesting Mayan villages around the lake. In Santiago we spent the day just wandering the town, seeing the church and being guided by a 9 year old boy to see the local idol named Maximon. Maximon is a man shaped figure who the locals revere and offer sacrifices of rum and cigarettes. He moves each year and lives with a local family. It was a strange experience to see how he is worshipped by the local Mayans...he was sitting right next to a figure of Jesus laying in a casket. The mixture of traditional Mayan religion, Catholicism and new Mayan traditions is very common in Guatemala.
In San Pedro we hired a guide to take us through some coffee plantations and into a town called San Juan. The guide told us that it was a short walk...like an hour and a half at most. It ended up being a 3 hour hike. The guide spoke English quite well and could talk to us about local traditions and life. The scenery was amazing and the little village was beautiful and quiet with no tourists in sight. Reese kept finding interesting bugs along the way. Our guide hired a pick-up truck to take us back to where we started so we jumped in the back and rode to San Pedro. The kids thought that was great...no seatbelts...actually no seats.
After spending leaving Lake Atitlan we took the windy road back to Antigua. Gord took only a bit of medicine before we left and was soon begging for another dose of the stuff called "Nausea." You would think he would get used to the roads but perhaps this driver was less skilled in his use of the standard transmission! Gord managed to keep everything in check but was pretty out of it by the time we got to Antigua. Motion sickness medication is a basic need on this type of trip.
We decided that we had to end this trip with something that we would never get to do at home so we booked a trip up to the volcano Pacaya. We left the hotel at 6 am to drive to the mountain village of San Francisco where the hike started. At that point there are people trying to sell you walking sticks and renting horses. We didn't think we needed either until we started the accent. It was supposed to be an hour and a half of straight uphill hiking. About 10 minutes into the walk, the horse owners started trying to negotiate with us and we ended up being able to put the two kids on a horse for around $8. It was the best money spent as the hills were steep and the kids would not have been able to hike at the pace of the rest of the group.
Around an hour and twenty minutes into the hike we arrived at the top of a huge lava flow. The black lava was a beautiful contrast to the lush green scenery. The kids said goodbye to their horse "Perla" and the driver Juan, and we followed the group onto the lava flow to explore the volcano. We walked over lava to see hot spots where the rock was white and the red lava could be seen in the cracks below. It was pretty hot and I had to take off the jacket tied around my waist so that it wouldn't catch fire. We brought some marshmallows and sticks with us so the kids got to roast them over the hot lava...haven't had such a yummy treat for awhile! The whole thing seemed a little dangerous because you could get seriously hurt with just one fall. Only in Guatemala would you be able to do this without signing a bunch of waivers! Overall it was an amazing experience to feel the heat of the volcano and to see how it produces more land with such rich soil.
That was pretty much the end of our trip. We spent some time looking at old churches in Antigua and doing some last minute shopping. We were definitely all ready to come home.
Guatemala was a bit of a paradox for me. In some ways it was so easy to travel but in other ways the tourist infrastructure still requires some development in order to fully communicate important things about the country. Perhaps I feel that way because I am not fluent in the language and not able to fully converse with locals about their country and it's past. Regardless, it was a fun trip for our family and all of us were able to experience things that we could not have experienced in our own country.
If anyone hasn't received the link to a selection of our photos here it is:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lanaandgord/CentralAmerica02?authkey=BHrvhHNqBlY
