¿¿¿The End of the adventure???

Did we accomplish what we wanted on this trip?

We all had a great time as a family and an extended family. We are so happy Julie was able to join us, not to mention many of the new friends that felt like family which we met and with whom we shared experiences along the way.

We all learned Spanish. I am thoroughly impressed by the ease and speed with which both of the kids learned. Tias had been diligently studying for some months before our trip and was in a strong second place behind Linda before our departure. Willa and I had little prior study. At the end of the trip, Tias was negotiating prices for his souveniors in complete sentences that the vendors had no problem understanding. Willa balked at the formalized study of the Spanish courses as being a bit advanced for her age, with which we had to agree, so we backed her time off to an informal format for two hours a day. Well, later she started playing with kids her age, and her language ability left me in the dust. In fact, she was constantly correcting me and explaining to whom ever I was trying to converse with what I actually meant, also in full, complete sentences. I think a few times my jaw dropped open in observing both Tias and Willa's communication abilities. Not to mention Linda, who put over a year's worth of effort.

The kids learned more than we could have expected. On the surface, they have their home school projects that they will do at home. Far more important than those points though is the expansion of ideas of possibilities for themselves and the future world as a result of encounters such as these: glimpses of lives much more difficult than the ones we lead in WI; the people we met trying to make a difference in these difficult lives; seeing and hearing of the results of a relatively recent war; a casual conversation with an engaging volunteer; well, this list could go on, but you get the idea.

Naw, this is not the end, only of the story of this segment of the journey. This trip touched each of us in many ways; fun, learning, experiencing new things together. Most profoundly is the inspiration and awe we experienced seeing those whom we met along the dusty roads we travelled, with their intentions of making whatever improvements they could in other people's lives, will be always with us.

Our last stop, Antigua again!

Difficult to believe our time is all but up here for this visit to Guatemala! Our first day here of our last three in Guatemala, our Estonian friend Kate arrived so she would be close to Guatemala City and the airport for her departure early the next day. We had a great time showing her around a bit of Antigua, eating and playing cards.

On our second day, we had to say good bye to Kate. That afternoon we had scheduled a walk up to an active volcanoe that is located between Antigua and Guatemala City. What an experience that was, to see molten rock oozing up out of the side of the mountain! The surface would cool some before enough accumulating enough to calve off and become a boulder cascading down the mountain side. Many of the up to 4' diameter red hot boulders would shatter into fiery smaller pieces before coming to a rest and glow their orange red color. A few retained their size, lodging up against ridges of previously sloughed off boulders. If you looked closely at the boulders and fragments as they came to rest, you could see the molten lava sag and settle for just a few seconds until cooled enough to retain their shape. There were also the sounds associated with these red hot rocks tumbling and shattering, not quite the sound of breaking glass (too tinny) and not quite the sound of styrofoam shapes being thrown against each other, but perhaps a mix. We sat for an hour watching, hearing and feeling this process, close enough to catch the radiant heat from the 1200 F surface. One set of fellows even ran up to rock that came to rest and lit their cigarettes from the red surface. However, we could tell they fried their fingers!

We had signed up for the evening entrance to this mountain park. At dusk we had to start our trek back. We spent many minutes turned around looking back at that lava flow as we departed. The best way to describe that scene is to imagine a downhill ski resort mountain out in Colorado with no trees, black snow and all of the ski runs an orange red color. Magnificent! From that distance we also saw many more of the other calving points on the mountainside, and watched those boulders cascade down the mountain, shattering into more orange fireworks displays.

Tias summed up the experience best, ¨what a fitting end to our Guatemalan adventure!"

Lake Attitlan, San Marcos

Here are a few shots of our short stay on Lake Attitlan. We wanted to show Julie both Lake Atitlan, a very popular tourist destination, as well as San Marcos. This lake about 3 miles wide and 7 miles long, is surrounded by several volcanoes as you can see from the pictures. There are twelve villages along the shores named after the twelve apostles.

In particular, we wanted to show Julie San Marcos. San Marcos, reached by a 45 minute boat ride from where the highway ends, is very quiet, having the tourist area in a shady tropical setting. Transportation is only by foot along narrow, neatly kept walks, winding between trees, fences and buildings. Not just a few of the buildings and places to stay are quite whimsical. For instance, we stayed in a small thatched roof hut, two beds below, and a small sleeping loft for two more. The engineer in me noted how (structurally) poorly it was built. Our first night there, a wind storm really kicked up in the area, and more than one blast made that hut quiver more than a little. In the morning there were adjacent banana trees blown down across the walks, trees missing many leaves or branches, etc. However, all but some of the trees survived and we enjoyed a day of exploring the many whimsical buildings, nooks and corners, giving both Julie and us more ideas for our own places, especially in the use of glass and a leaded glass window type technique for house windows.

We also spent part of another day by boating across the lake to another of the apostle's towns and doing some shopping for natural dyed weavings and other specialties of the area.

home shopping (with a twist)

Shopping at home for an American might conjur up images of pouring through catalogues and, well okay, this is the 21st century, perhaps web sites too. Guatemala home shopping is different. With our improved Spanish, neighborhood women are able to approach us, ask us into their homes for us to see what (usually home woven) articles they have to sell.

Pictured here is Willa and her first friend in Nebaj, Norma. Willa and Norma see each other just about daily while in Nebaj. In fact one day, Norma took Willa to school with her. Linda and I had a preview of available items during our previous visits. We wanted to wait until Julie had arrived to do any serious thoughts of buying. They live in a two room house (one bedroom and one eating/living room,) and have an outdoor kitchen. Included are pictures of Norma's Mom weaving, their wood burning cooking stove and their pila. The family picture shows Norma's brother, mother holding their baby, Norma, Willa, Julie and Norma's father. Missing is another of Norma's brothers.

Even under the best of conditions, most people in these outlying villages and towns, (and probably alot in the cities) are desparately poor, living hand to mouth. With the world economy slowing quite noticeably, conditions are worse. Norma's family made a list of the considerable expenses of sending their kids (4 total counting the baby) to grade school and linked that with the need to sell some of their weavings. I'm convinced some of the items were right out of their closet (literally.)

We were invited over for a light lunch. The lunch was a special local dish that is made only in this immediate vicinity of Guatemala called boxbul. When in season, hueskill leaves are rolled around corn made in about the same way as for tortillas and then boiled. When hueskill is not available, they can be made with swiss chard or other similar greens. The resultant broth made a really great thick soup to drink, tasting surprisingly like chicken broth.

There was a weaving (huipil) that Norma's Mom had made extra tall. She had been nearing the completion of the three month weaving process during our first visit, and when we said we wanted to wait for our very tall Julie to arrive, she finished the weaving for extra tall. A beautiful weaving it is, and maybe partly or mostly out of their truly desparate need, perhaps sprinkled with the idea it was finished just for her, Julie bought it.

We have purchased items directly from other families as well, this was not our only such experience.

working at the Mayan Hope school

The Mayan Hope school for the disabled was scheduled to start Monday, Feb 1, so we had a week to get done whatever all Don wanted. This included finishing the fencing so the poultry could get moved out of the courtyard and into a corner of the garden area. To make especially the ducks happy, Tias dug a depression for a pond. Tias and Willa set up a plastic liner and covered it with roofing tiles for protection. Also pictured here is Don and Julie standing in front of the still wet Mayan Hope sign painted on the inside courtyard wall.

The fencing involved topping the existing fence along a street with broken glass set in mortar, as well as drilling 18 holes for rebar so that barbed wire could be strung over the glass. We also had to finish the installation of a fence along the side of the yard, and create the poultry area with chicken wire. Some of the work took much longer than it normally would have had we had more appropriate tools. However, alot of the challenge here is accomplishing your goals with what you have available at hand.

Julie immediatey applied her specialty, painting. First the doors had not been painted either since being replaced or repaired. Now they all match in cheery colors. Julie's enthusiasm and beautiful execution of the work had other travellers at Popi's volunteering to paint as well. Pictured are Julie, our friend from Estonia, Katé, and Linda
painting doors.









The scope of painting expanded beyond the doors to a sign that will soon hang prominently out over the street. The inner courtyard walls were painted to match the building. Also pictured below are two others of the work crew, Mattias, note his new hair cut, and Willa. Helping Don achieve his objectives has been quite rewarding and fun for all us!

Julie's grand arrival

I arrived in Antigua about an hour before I expected Julie. I headed off to the bakery to have some treats awaiting. Upon my return, there she was! So wonderful to see her, especially on her birthday! Of the five us together currently, 3 of us have had birthdays on this adventure in Central America. Julie and I wandered the town, focusing especially on the many ruins that abound so artfully in Antigua

By 530 am the next morning, we were sitting on a bus headed to Nebaj to be reunited with the rest of the family. We made good time in the buses while at the same time, Julie got a taste of travel by bus. By 11 am, we had arrived in Nebaj!

Julie's reception in Nebaj was much anticipated by Linda and the kids, not to mention Julie and I. We walked up to the doorway of Popi's laden with many items to give Don (with whom we were staying) for his various projects. As I approached the doorway, I saw all three retreating down the hallway to go to our room, so I called out to them. Tias was nearest, he spun around, so I handed off the big duffel in my arms to him to put down out of the way somewhere. Linda and Willa rushed past me as if I weren´t there to see Julie who was waiting on the street with camera in hand. (Hence the two pictures.) Tias did give me a hug on his way out to see Julie after finding a suitable spot to put the duffel down, and eventually the girls remembered I had arrived too!

We are so happy to have her here with us!