Last week was the best week yet that I've had here in Guatemala. After a month or so of very little independence, we got to escape to Field-Based Training. We left last Sunday and spent a week traveling around Guatemala to visit current ecotourism volunteers at their sites, learn about their projects, and see what their daily lives are like.
We crammed 13 of us, plus all of our stuff for a week, into a smaller version of the 15 passenger vans that we're used to in the states and headed off to Chilasco, Baja Verapaz. (There are 22 departments, which are like states, in Guatemala; Baja Verapaz is one of them which is north of the capital. We also went to Alta Verapaz and Quiche.) Chilasco is an aldea, which means it has less than 1000 inhabitants and is fairly disconnected. We had to drive 45 minutes up an unpaved road to get to it. The attraction at this site is a 130 meter waterfall, "Salto de Chilasco." It's the tallest waterfall in all of Central America, and was only discovered in 1990! The local population more or less knew it existed, but didn't realize the value of it, so didn't bother visiting it. They are so busy with their fields that it doesn't make sense to just go for a hike. So this waterfall is a fairly new attraction, and thus a Peace Corps volunteer is stationed there to help them develop the site … and someone from my group will be replacing him, most likely one of the guys because they don't tend to place females in such secluded locations for safety reasons. So this will probably not be my new home.
The volunteer at that site has done a great job developing it. He's currently helping the association he works with apply for a grant called the "Debt Swap." Guatemala has a 15 million dollar debt to the U.S., but the U.S. will forgive the debt if that money is invested into environmental conservation. Pretty cool. The association that he works with is very enthusiastic and hard-working, which can be rare here. One of the members greeted us with a heartfelt speech about how much he appreciates what we have given up in order to contribute to his country. It was pretty inspiring and reminded me why I am here. That afternoon we hiked the 3 kilometers to see the waterfall. Chilasco is in a cloud forest, so the vegetation is incredibly diverse, but it also rains a lot (it felt a little like home!). It was raining on Sunday, so when we got to the waterfall, we couldn't even see it! Luckily, after about 5 minutes the clouds parted and gave us an amazing view of the waterfall. It felt great to get in a good hike. Although it was only 6 km round trip, it was up and down the whole way, so a good workout indeed. And I got covered in mud, which is always fun.
Monday we helped paint the Visitors Center then hit the road to San Cristobal, Alta Verapaz. There we met another volunteer whose project is to work with a coffee farm to create tours of the farm. That has been a difficult project for her because her counterpart (each of us will receive a counterpart, which is a Guatemalan individual or group that we will be working with) has been very challenging to work with. So she has picked up a secondary project of working with a cultural museum of the Pokomchi (one of the Maya groups). After we went to the museum, Dave, Laura and I went for a run through town – my first in two weeks because of my silly soccer injuries. It was fantastic. We ended up at a church that's on top of a hill that overlooks the town and the lagoon next to it. The view was amazing with the mountains and the water. San Cristobal is a cute town, and it made me realize that maybe it would be nice to be in a town of a few thousand people. Originally, I thought that I'd want to be in an aldea – super secluded with only a few hundred people living there. Even though that's the kind of seclusion I have in Yellowstone, and I love that, it would be a bit different here because I don't have a car. There would be no internet access in a place like that, and possibly no market, and it could take a few hours on a chicken bus to get to town. (Oh yes, chicken buses. I don't believe I've mentioned these yet: the U.S. sells old school buses to Guatemalans who then put in new, more powerful engines, paint them vibrant colors, and decorate the insides with religious paraphernalia, naked women, and U.S. cartoon figures. They're cheap and they go everywhere, but sometimes I'm afraid they're going to roll over as they take the corners a bit too fast.) Point being, though, that being in a "big town" of a few thousand people wouldn't be too bad. I would have access to basic amenities, and there would probably be a pretty sweet market where I could buy the produce that I crave.
The next morning, after breakfast (which was finally fruit, instead of the usual beans and eggs!), we headed out to Chicaman and Uspantan, Quiche. The highway we took is one of the major thorofares in Guatemala, yet most of it is not paved. After the Peace Accords in 1996, the country could finally think about something besides war, so the president initiated a lot of road improvement projects. This one, though, only started about two years ago and is no where close to being finished. Due to the construction, there are long waits to get through, but we didn't know the hours of them before we left. So we gambled … and lost. It's closed between 9 am and noon. We got to the stop at 9:30 – 2 ½ hours of waiting. But don't worry, about a dozen local women had made the trip down to the encuentra to sell their homemade food at elevated prices. We also passed the time swinging on a vine over the creek with some local girls, and getting diesel fumes blown in our faces by the dump trucks. When noon finally rolled around, it was off to the races. Lines don't really exist in Guatemala, so it didn't matter that we were the first to arrive. The other vehicles around us jockeyed for position trying to shove past other vehicles when there was no way they would succeed.
We eventually arrived in Chicaman, Quiche. It's a rich town of about 2000 people, mainly ladinos (that's the name for a mix of white and indigenous blood), that was created only about 50 years ago. One volunteer lives there, and 5 miles down the road in Uspantan, there's another ecotourism volunteer, as well as two others: environmental education and municipal development. Uspantan has about 6000 residents and is mainly indigenous, thus there is a bit of a feud between the two towns. We spent the rest of the week (Tuesday through Saturday) in this area.
Tuesday we learned about the projects in Uspantan. We went to a Mayan ceremonial hill that overlooks the town. The volunteer is working on getting the municipality to buy the land in order to protect the site. The guide that took us up there showed us a cave that is used for ceremonies, which supposedly connects to Coban, about 50 miles away. He said that in 3 days, you could make the trip. I'm not so sure I believe him, but if it is true, imagine how crazy that trip would be! No sun for 3 days and camping out in a cave. But there is a danger involved in it, besides the risk of claustrophobia: the bat poop in caves like this could have a mold growing on them that would cause fungal pneumonia – the volunteer in Chicaman came down with this a couple years ago. The Uspantan volunteer has two other main projects that she's working on. With her site mates, she is building a school out of recycled materials (plastic bottles filled with trash) for a local community that is lacking a school. She also works in the village that Rigoberta Menchu (the Nobel Peace Prize winning indigenous woman who spoke up during the civil war) is from. Supposedly, though, that village no longer cares for Menchu because she didn't bring any of the money she won back to the community. She also made some false statements in her book.
I really loved Uspantan and could see myself living there. Again, the town's a bit bigger than I thought I'd want, but it has an AMAZING market, which would be quite worth the size of the town. The area is also spectacular; I'm told that there are many great places to run, and the house I would inherit from the current volunteer is incredible. The word on the street is that one of the ecotourism girls will be assigned to Uspantan, which leaves me with a 50% chance of being assigned there. I would be quite happy there, except the site lacks actual ecotourism projects and instead has mainly community/cultural tourism. We will see. I can tell Flavio (my boss) my site preferences, but I think he already has a good idea of where he will be putting each of us, which will be made known in TWO WEEKS!! I can't wait.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we got to know the sites within Chicaman. First, we went to an archaeological site that is a few hours up another dirt road. The site is on the property of Don Julio. When he inherited his property, he had the option to sell some large cedar trees for Q30,000 ($4000) each, which is a lot of money. But he decided not to, and instead is working with CONAP (Guatemala's park service) to protect his land. In that beautiful forest of his, he found a handful of classic and post-classic Mayan temples. It was incredible. In December, some archaeologists are coming to do a dig and determine the origins of what's there. Also on his land are 7 natural springs of water, one of which he sends right beneath his outhouse for a constant flush. We were also incredibly lucky to see a Quetzal (the Guatemalan national bird, and the name of its currency), which is quite rare. Don Julio is an interesting man indeed. It was amazing how much he cares about protecting his forest. He has another side to him, though. Word on the street is that back in the days of the war, he killed some of the people from Rigoberta Menchu's village. But supposedly they killed his father. Thus, the probability of those two groups working together is highly unlikely, even though it would be a great little circuit of tourism and would benefit both groups.
On Thursday, we headed, once again, a few hours up another unpaved road to an aldea named Pajuil. (A pajuil is a large black bird that looks kind of like a turkey, but has been hunted close to extinction by the locals.) The volunteer is working with Pajuil to establish a community tourism project. Our assignment for the day was to put on a workshop for the community members. In the morning, 5 trainees each gave a charla (presentation) to a women's artesania group on the basics of marketing, so they can start selling the goods that they make. In the afternoon, the other 5 of us gave charlas about tourism to the men of the tourism committee. My presentation was about the experience that a tourist desires (particularly a tourist that is leaving the beaten path to come up to Pajuil). My main points were that the tourist wants a unique experience, including nature, tranquility, and culture. Therefore, I tried to communicate to the men that they need to conserve their natural and cultural resources. In saying this, I meant to tell them that, for example, they shouldn't hunt the birds. The word for hunt is cazar, but, when speaking in front of a large group of people in Spanish, it is very easy to misspeak. So instead of using the verb cazar, I used a very similar one: casarse, which means to marry. So I told these men that they shouldn't marry the birds! Really, in my head I said it with a "z", but I added the –se on the end, and thus it sounded like casarse. Oh well, everyone likes to laugh at the gringa. But I think I got my point across that they need to conserve those resources because they can use them for tourism. They're also worried about the disintegration of their culture, and so I tried to communicate to them that through educating the tourists about their culture, it can live on in their hearts and minds.
As we were leaving they got out the generator (no electricity in the village) to watch their weekly movie. Following the theme of the day, they put on Tourists, which is a movie about locals eating the organs of tourists. Francisco, the town leader, told us that he was showing it so that the community members would know what not to do.
Our final activity, on Friday, was tubing down the Rio Chixoy. It's one of the few rivers that isn't contaminated in Guatemala, which is due to its remoteness. We were supposed to do some trail work after the trip, but it was so unorganized in the morning that we didn't have time in the afternoon, so we just didn't do any work that day. The river was beautiful, especially at the end where there are a couple hundred meters of waterfalls pouring off the cliffs above into the river.
All in all, a pretty exciting week!
