Amy and Jason's Guat Trip

In mid-February, Amy Burge and Jason Beloso, two friends from graduate school, came to Guatemala for a one-week visit. With such a short time to travel, we were sure to take advantage of every minute and planned an itinerary that would keep us moving to a new place each day. Three of our local Guatemalan friends strongly suggested that we go to a place in central Guatemala called Semuc Champey, a place well off the popular tourist circuit made special by its preserved environmental beauty. Brenda (Cris’ director) offered us a car for the week since Semuc Champey was difficult to access. So how could we say no?

Saturday & Sunday / Guatemala City & Coban

We picked up Amy and Jason at the Guatemala City airport and, after spending the night in town, headed north toward Alta Verapaz (the region where Semuc Champey is located). We traveled for several hours by car through an extremely arid region when we detoured onto an unimproved dirt and rock road and started noticing some strange Dr. Seuss-looking flowering plants that seemed out of place in a desert climate. Then, almost instantly as we crossed a dry, dusty, rocky mountain range (crowned with the remains of a forgotten cow) fog appeared, and along with it, Spanish moss, ferns, bromeliads, and other dense vegetation. The hot dry air was suddenly replaced with cool moist air, reminiscent of the central coast of California - one minute we were hot and sweaty and the next, out came the fleece and beanies. It seemed that all of the trees were host to more bromeliads than they could possibly hold, and some trees succumbed to the weight of the little squatters, falling over and sending thousands of the bromeliads spilling down the hillside. As we traveled toward the city of Coban, the capital of Alta Verapaz, coffee plantations appeared everywhere, on valley floors, climbing up the steep hillsides, and the cool fog and mist continued. (Although Guatemala is renowned for its coffee, it is often difficult to find a good cup of java as most of the best beans are exported. The same is true for chocolate.)

Upon finally arriving to Coban, we quickly found the grooviest place in town - Hostal d'Acuña, where we had an excellent lunch and sat surrounded by orchids, wood thrushes, and ceremonial masks. Lunch was followed by scouting hotels around town for a place to sleep. However, after examining our choices, we ended up returning to the comfort and quiet of Hostal d'Acuña for the night.

Monday / Semuc Champey

The next morning we loaded up the car and headed east for Semuc Champey. Numerous low mountains and coffee farms dominated the landscape and the drive on the new and improved road was very pleasant. Eventually, we had to leave our smooth, paved road and detour onto a VERY rough, very steep road cut directly into the bedrock, which slowed us down to a few miles per hour. The slower speeds allowed us a bit more personal contact with pedestrians, who greeted us by whistling rather than waving, a custom we quickly adopted and used for the next several days.

That evening we stayed at a dumpy little backpacker-style hostal called Las Marias, where the service was friendly but the food and accommodations were grim. The big advantage of Las Marias is that it is within walking distance of an elaborate system of caves that tourists can swim through and explore, which we did that afternoon. Our tour guide was a 15 year-old who led us on a one-hour tour of the labyrinth of caves, through which a small river runs quickly and loudly, connecting great pools of water filled by underground waterfalls. During most of the tour we were able to walk up the river through the cave, but in several areas we had to swim for 20 - 50 yards until we could touch the floor again. Amy, Jason and Cris had brought little Petzl headlamps, making swimming easier, but I (Tyler) was equipped with a candle, obliging me to swim with one hand above the water or swim with two hands in the dark. There were several areas of the cave that involved climbing ladders and ropes, which we agreed would under no circumstances ever be possible in the litigious USA. It all seemed very dangerous at times, but it was way too interesting to want to turn back.

Tuesday morning / Semuc Champey

The next morning we went about a mile to Semuc Champey National Monument, which is a bizarre system of waterfalls and hundreds of individual pools of water at the floor of a near vertical canyon. Anyone interested in geology should visit this place as there are many unusual geological features packed into a small area. We walked around for about an hour looking at steaming turquoise pools emptying into one another, and we reached an area where we could hear a lot of water moving very quickly through a small area. A park employee showed us down to a limestone shelf where we observed a large river disappearing beneath us into a small cave. The water was moving so quickly and violently that if you were unlucky enough to fall in, you wouldn't have to worry about drowning as you'd be instantly crushed by the rapids throwing you against the boulders. We realized that all of the pools of water we had been exploring that morning were actually directly over this massive underground river, which surfaced above ground again farther down the river valley. Before leaving Semuc Champey, we climbed up the side of the canyon to a lookout platform to get a view of the whole system from above. The whole experience was spectacular. The site is the cleanest and best-preserved that we’ve seen in Guatemala. Informational signs along the hiking trails warn of the causes of environmental degradation and ask visitors to do their part to protect the area. As Cris predicted, the last sign along the trail indicated the park was a joint effort between Guatemala, USAID, and the US Peace Corps.

Tuesday afternoon / Cuchumatan
Mountains

We left Semuc Champey in the late morning and our next destination was Chichicastenango.
To get to Chichi, we had to travel back through Coban and then continue west on a dirt road through the Cuchumatan mountains for about 8 hours. The climate again turned hot and dry and the scenery was excellent. As we traveled through the mountains near Uspantan, we saw numerous villages with new adobe houses - many of them currently under construction. The neatly built mud-brown houses and terra-cotta roofs blended in perfectly with the green coffee farms on the valley floor and the rocky mountains in the background, creating a modest yet picturesque landscape. In our 6 months in Gautemala, Cris and I have seen many adobe buildings, but they are all old, often in disrepair, but still visually pleasing. New construction, on the other hand, is almost exclusively made with cinderblocks, which is not an aesthetically pleasing building material. Cinderblock construction dominates the contemporary Guatemalan landscape, so we were pleasantly surprised by the adobe construction in Uspantan.

Wednesday/ Chichicastenango and Xela

After driving all day through the Cuchumatan mountains and spending the night in Santa Cruz del Quiche, we quickly left town and made our way to Chichicastenango, a quaint little town in the western highlands famo

us for its Thursday and Sunday markets. We spent the day walking around, hanging out, and admiring the handicraft-like quilts, fabrics, masks, bags, dolls, etc. Amy and Jason scored a bedspread made of huipiles (the traditional blouses worn by Maya women) sewn together, and we all bought wooden masks, like those used in traditional Maya ceremonies.

From Chichi we drove to Xela, stopped by Cris` workto say, and then relaxed at home where we cooked and ate.

Thursday/ Lake Atitlan and Panajachel

The next morning we picked up the same theme,staying home, cooking, and eating some more. We still long for more of Amy ’s Dutch babies.) We packed up the car and made our way to Lake Atitlan where we stayed at the comfy & luxurious Villa Santa Catarina, just a couple miles outside of Panajachel, the tourist hub of Lake Atitlan one. We also stopped in at th. Our shopping adventure in Chichi must have gotten us in the capitalist spirit, because we ventured into Panajachel to take a look around, and before we left, Cris and I had bought 5 large handmade wool blankets, while A&J also boughte nearby Sololá market, possibly the most colorful place I've ever been due to the men and women dressed in traditional traje, but we escaped without spending any money.

Friday / Antigua

With the trunk of our car stuffed with blankets, we drove onward to Antigua where we checked in to the absolutely spectacular Casa Santo Domingo

http://www.casasantodomingo.com.gt/english/index.html - navigate by clicking the arrows under the photo). The hotel structure is a converted convent and the property occupies about 3 city blocks, which includes many gardens, a candle-making shop, a pottery shop, an art gallery, and a museum. In keeping with the tradition of a convent, at dusk a man with censer walked through all of the buildings spreading the smell of incense, and the staff lit several thousand candles throughout the hotel grounds, giving the whole place a peaceful ambiance. We ended Amy & Jason's last night with a pleasant dinner at the hotel restaurant.

Saturday/ The Return Home

The next morning, Amy and Jason caught a shuttle to the airport in Guatemala City, and Cris

and I drove back to Xela along the coast road. It was tough saying goodbye to such good friends and fellow travelers. We’ll have to wait until July, when we’re back in the Pacific Northwest, to share each other’s company again.

Weekend Trippin’ Around the Western Highlands

Chicabal

During Dixon’s two-month Spanish study in Xela, we had the opportunity to go on a school excursion to Chicabal, a volcano with an eponymous lagoon within its crater. It was a one-hour drive and a two-hour hike up to the top of the volcano. However,

we were rewarded with incredible views of the neighboring volcanoes and an intimate look down into Chicabal’s crater. After eating lunch up top at the volcano’s mirador, we descended the four hundred or so steps down to Chicabal’s lagoon and beach. Lester, our Guatemalan guide, explained that the lagoon is a sacred site (therefore no swimming allowed) where many Maya come to perform traditional ceremonies. He told the following story of what makes Chicabal a traditional site: In the past, the lagoon

now found in Chicabal’s crater once was located closer to Xela. The lagoon was fed by the rains, and the lagoon, in return, sustained the people. However, the god that lived in the

lagoon became angry over time as the local population littered the lagoon with their trash, human waste, and detergents from washing. As a result, the story goes, the lagoon dried up and was no longer. The Maya walked the surrounding hills and valleys until many

years later they found where the god had taken their original water source – to the crater of Volcan Chicabal. To this day it remains a protected and well preserved area. We could have spent the whole weekend lying on the warm sands of the quiet beach surrounding the lagoon.

Momostenango

The weekend before Dixon’s return to the States, Brenda (Cris’ director) and her family took the three of us on a one-day excursion to Momostenango, about an hour north of Xela.

Ana Laura, Tyler, and Alejandra explore the sandstone pillars.

Momostenango means “the place of the altars”, which may be a nod to Momos strict adherence to Maya tradition. Momos sits atop a hill forested with pine trees and is home to many sheep. For hundreds of years the local Maya population has formed their own type of cooperative through which they care for the pine trees that blanket the hill top, knowing that the trees are necessary to their survival. The wool from the sheep is used to make beautiful rugs, scarves, and blankets, decorated very simply or with elaborate quetzal bird designs. We spent our time in Momos climbing and exploring Los Riscos, the sandstone pillars located on the northern edge of town. We ended the day by drinking hot chocolate and eating fondue at a Swiss-owned restaurant set atop Cerro Candelario, overlooking the city. The hot chocolate was excellent and went well with the light rain that began to fall that night.