Chahal, Alta Verapaz

For the next two years, I will be living in a lowland sub-tropical rain forest, aka the jungle! Two things make me nervous about my site assignment: the weather and the isolation. It's hot and humid in Chahal, which I'm not used to and don't really like, but when am I ever going to have the opportunity to live in a sub-tropical rain forest again? I'll just go jump in the river daily to cool off! The isolation: I'm an 1 1/2 hours from the closest volunteer, so I may get a bit lonely at times, but it sounds like I will have plenty of very interesting work to keep me busy. And it will just make seeing my friends that much more exciting. As well, I didn't join the Peace Corps for the social life.

Here are a few interesting facts about Chahal:

• Northeast corner of Alta Verapaz, near the departments of Peten and Izabal, Belize and the Caribbean
• 367 km from the capital via Rio Dulce; supposedly 4.5 hours but probably longer
• 148 km from Coban (the nearest city) with 54 km unpaved; about 3 hours
• Altitude is 240m
• Hot, humid climate; temperature 26 – 28 deg. Celsius
• Rainy season from June to February (400 cm/year)
• 2 rivers: Rio Chiyu, Rio Chahal
• Town has about 3000 people
• 94% Indigenous (Q’eqchi)
• The site of the town was moved recently probably because of flooding

My Objectives:

• Develop ecotourism projects for the municipal park of Las Conchas and the Caves of Setzol and in areas of forest management towards the goal of conservation.
• Support the implementation of emergency plans against floods that occur in the region.
• Train municipal personnel in the management of urban trash and tourist sites.

To achieve those:

• Review the sites and create management plans
• Create interpretative trails
• Marketing of the parks: create website, flyers, guidebooks
• Environmental education
• Trash management and latrine systems in order to decrease water contamination
• Register the parks as Protected Areas with CONAP (the national park system)
• Help to reduce forest fires (during the dry season, the slash-and-burn agriculture gets out of control

The sites:

• Parque Municipal Las Conchas
  17 km from Chahal
  Series of limestone pools and waterfalls on the Rio Chiyu
  Pools are 8m deep, 20m wide and connected by a series of “spectacular” waterfalls
• Cuevas (Caves) of Setzol
  12 km from Chahal (last 5 km by foot)
  Bats!
• Various forests
  

Cool places close to me:

• Chisec – Puerta al Mundo Maya (Door to the Maya World) (1.5 hours) – archaeological site, caves, lagoons
• Parque Nacional Laguna Lachua (3 hours) – perfectly round, pristine turquoise lake
• Semuc Champey and Lanquin Caves – limestone pools and underground rivers (world renowned)
• Tikal and some cool treks in the department of Peten (lowland tropical forest) – major pre-classic Maya ruins
• Belize
• Rio Dulce/Lago de Izabal (1.5 hours) – huge river that expands into Guatemala’s largest lake, shrinks back to a river, broadens into another lake, then flows into the Caribbean; it has the longest bridge in Central America over it
• Bocas del Polochic Refuge and Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve (near Rio Dulce) – amazing wildlife viewing opportunities
• Livingston – only way to get here is take a boat from Rio Dulce; no roads lead to this town! It’s a laid back Garifuna (black Guatemalans) Caribbean town

Lonely Planet describes this whole area as “waiting to be discovered,” and the road through my town as an “adventure” and a way to get off the gringo path. How cool!