Development Happens

Well folks, after a week off for Holy Week and a vacation to the tourist capitol of Guatemala, the colonial city of Antigua, we have some good things to report. After living here for over a year and through a change of a president, it would appear that some positive change is happening. For those of you that don't already know, Holy Week here in Guatemala, as in much of Central America, is the most important and eventful holiday of the year. Antigua, the catholic center of Central America is inundated with THOUSANDS of tourists for the week while processions and other honorary events occur to celebrate the death and subsequent rising of Jesus. Although the crazy amount of tourists from both Guatemala and around the world were a little annoying, there were many positive things about the experience. One new element that was very noticeable was the increased levels of security throughout the city. On every corner of every block stood pairs of private security guards hired by what we imagine were the local or national officials. We are not exaggerating when we say every corner either. There were hundreds of these guards on the streets during all hours of the day, 24/7. Like the National Police they were quite militaristic but at least they weren't toting Uzis or AK-47s like many of the other police officials. On the subject of the PNC or National Police force, there were many police officers on patrol as well as the private security. Additionally they had a police and fire substation in the central park with paramedics and ambulances standing by in case of emergency. The police were also making announcements to families to keep track of their children, hold their hands, etc. One last observation was the absence of the military. Typically in the past, Antigua has had regular patrols of Military Police officers walking in groups of four, packing around Israeli made assault rifles (note the reference to another Israeli made firearm ealier(Uzi), one can see quite a few here in the arms of government employees as it seems a good way to make friends in the developing world). Overall we saw some significant improvement in the tourism department versus Semana Santa last year and view this as a positive step for Guatemala has a whole and potentially a sign of things to come. We encourage everyone to think of Guatemala when they think about their next vacation. Guatemala offers rich culture, beautiful natural and Mayan-made wonders, all at a very inexpensive price.

Easter Celebrations

Once again we are approaching Semana Santa (Holy Week) and Easter here in Guatemala. Since Guatemala has its roots in Spanish Catholicism, this holiday has been adopted fiercely by the locals. In fact, the whole week and Good Friday, in particular, are almost more significant and widely celebrated than Easter Sunday. Although only about 50% of the country is actually Catholics, the entire week is a holiday for children and their parents to celebrate, reflect, and appreciate the summertime. Therefore, Guatemalan Adventures is taking this time to relax and travel.


Due to the fame and beauty of the colonial city, La Antigua, (the most "Catholic" city in Guatemala) we will be traveling there once again. This is THE place to be during Semana Santa because there are various processions all week long, ending with Friday as a climax for this whole lent season. Most of the locals make intricate and colorful "carpets" or alfombras on the cobblestone streets for Jesus to walkover (or at least is carried over by the procession). These carpets are made with a variety of elements including dyed sawdust, flowers and petals, fruit, and vegetables.

Before heading out of town, we want to wish everybody a very happy Easter. May Jesus bless your lives and make this a special time for you and your family.

Nancy & René Visit Guatemala

Due to special requests...this is a long overdue blog about Nancy and René (Brittany's mom and brother) visiting us here in Guatemala. During the Christmas holidays while René was off from school at University of Oregon they decided to pay us a visit for 2 weeks in Guatemala.

During their time here in Guatemala we traveled all around the country, some of which was already documented in our earlier post "Semuc Champey". However, there were many other activities and festivities to be had besides gallivanting in Alta Verapaz. I will expand on some of the highlights during this post. Better late than never! Right?


As mentioned earlier, we spent quite a bit of time in the Alta Verapaz region of Guatemala. They are known for their lush cloud forests and natural beauty in this part of the country. For this reason, we decided to take a trip to an orchid nursery just outside of Cobán to see the hundreds of varieties they grow. In the picture above, Nancy is posing with a 26 year old gigantic orchid; it's one of the many we admired. Some favorites were an orchid that smelled of vanilla bean and many varieties of tiny "mini-orchids" with flowers the size of a grain of rice.


After our adventures in Alta Verapaz, we headed back to Quiché to celebrate the holidays and show off where we've been living all this time. (*Special thanks to Andy and Tomasa for hosting Nancy and René at their house for 4 nights!*) One of our festivities included attending a Christmas party at the fire station where Toby has been volunteering as a fireman. All the other members brought their families to participate in multiple piñatas , dinner, and a gift exchange. (Please note: We've learned that gift baskets here are not like at home. Here it is common to get nuts, grapes, marshmallows, and chocolate.) We also visited the famous Chichicastenango market, in our neighboring town, to pick up a few Christmas gifts and show off the plethora of artisan crafts available in Guatemala.


Christmas Eve is actually more of a big deal in Guatemala than Christmas Day, so we went over to Andy and Tomasa's house to celebrate with Tomasa's family in more of a Guatemalan fashion. We all ate dinner (including traditional tamales at midnight) and drank ponche (a "punch" more like fruit cider, served hot, and made with fresh and dried fruit.) At midnight we all went up on the roof to watch the entire city explode with fireworks. Individuals all over the city and in neighboring towns all light fireworks at the same time, creating a massive display everywhere you look...and quickly creating a huge haze of smoke over the city too.


Since we had all the Guatemalan festivities prior to Christmas Day, actual Christmas wasn't a huge ordeal. The four of us exchanged gifts, which lasted about 30 minutes! Toby and I were fortunate enough to also have a few other gifts brought down by Nancy and René. Thanks friends and fam . Mostly we all just hung out during the day and took a little walk on the road to the ruins. And, to continue in the very non-traditional holiday celebration we ordered 2 x 1 pizza for dinner.


In continuation of their Guatemalan tour, we took René and Nancy to the famous and beautiful Lake Atitlán. We stopped off in Panajachel to visit our favorite coffee shop in Guatemala - Crossroads Café - and chat with our friend, the owner. After browsing the souvenirs a bit and grabbing a bite to eat, we headed over to San Pedro LaLaguna. If you know San Pedro...then you know this trip wasn't complete without plenty of pan de canela, pan de banano, pan de chocolate, and so on. We also took advantage of our other fav restaurants Fata Morgana (for coffee and fresh baked goods) and Zoola (for slow-ass service, but great atmosphere and tasty cheap veggie food). In addition to stuffing our faces, we also enjoyed watching all the coffee processing that was taking place.Atitlán is one of the 5 great coffee growing regions in Guatemala. (The others being San Marcos, Huehuetenango, Antigua, and Cobán .) Day and night the beans were run through machines to wash, soak, and split them apart. Afterwards they dry out the beans in the sun in any flat space available. In the picture above we are sitting next to the drying coffee beans. During the trip Nancy even ate and enjoyed some of the fresh coffee "cherries" right off the trees.


Another fun activity was our 2 hour kayak session where we took advantage of the sun and warmth. We all paddled across the river to a beach for laying out. We had it all to ourselves, except for the handful of cows mooing amongst the banana trees.


Of course a trip to Guatemala is not complete without visiting the famous UNESCO world heritage site of La Antigua. So last but not least, we spent a couple of night in Antigua, mainly walking the streets and appreciating the beauty of the city. We did enjoy people watching in the Parque Central and walking up to the Cerro de la Cruz viewpoint over the city. And René even got his shoes shined by one of the many people working in the park.


On the last night of their visit, Toby and René hiked the Pacaya volcano to have a little male bonding. Their barco barco group was an afternoon/evening hike, so they were able to see the lava at night as well. Thinking ahead, they brought some of the many leftover Christmas marshmallows to roast over the warm lava rocks. Meanwhile, Nancy and I enjoyed some girl time eating yummy Indian food and browsing all the adorable boutiques in Antigua.


All in all, René and Nancy's trip to Guatemala was a very memorable 2 weeks. We covered so much territory in the country and hit all the major stops on the "gringo tango" except Tikal. We had to leave something to inspire them to come back again some day!

Guatemalan Adventures Upgrades

In an effort to bring you sharper, closer, and overall better pictures of our life and the adventures we face on a regular basis, Guatemalan Adventures (we) decided to upgrade our camera this week. With one last guaranteed opportunity to get a little shipment from the United States (hat tip to the parents of fellow volunteer Katie), we took advantage of it and bought a camera that we have been wanting for awhile off Amazon.com. I wouldn't normally mention who I bought it from, but after a chaotic experience trying to buy the same camera on buy.com I figured Amazon deserved a mention for good serivce and fast shipping. This camera has about 3 times the zoom, 4 times the megapixels, 3 times screen size and 4 times the capacity of the old one which was in need of replacing since we take a lot of pictures. Planning a two month trip through Central America at the end of our stay here, was also a pretty big motivating factor in the purchase. After hoping for this camera for Christmas, we finally resorted to buying it ourselves, figuring it was a worthwhile investment. We are picking the camera up this weekend on a trip to Antigua for Semana Santa, so we should be able to bring you some new pictures of the event soon.

Chicken Bus Accident - We're Okay!

If you've been following the news over the weekend then you may have heard about the terrible chicken bus accident that happened on Friday. This bus was traveling on the highway to El Salvador when the bus overturned when the driver, making his way down the road in darkness, failed to make a sharp turn and sent the bus into a 50-meter (150-foot) deep ravine. The reports quoted witnesses as saying speeding and malfunctioning brakes were the probable causes of the accident. Reading in the Guatemalan paper we also learned that the bus had no insurance (not really that surprising) and the driver didn't even have a commercial driver's license. The death toll is now up to 54 people.

We haven't been in contact with family and friends over the weekend, so we wanted to let everyone know that we are OKAY. We frequently ride these chicken buses around Guatemala on weekends when we visit other towns or need to get to Guatemala City. They are always excessively packed with at least 3 adults to each bench and many more standing. This is the main form of transportation for all people in Guatemala, not just workers moving from farm to farm. Many Quichelenses travel to work in Guatemala City during the week, and then come home on weekends to be with their families. In some parts of the country there are Pullman buses (like Greyhound), but those do not run to and from Quiché. We say a prayer each time we must travel through the hairpin turns and 3 giant caverns on the route away and back home. Some of you have experienced these yourselves and realize the gravity and scariness that can come with these trips.

Please keep the families of the deceased in your thoughts and prayers. And, keep those coming for us! We need that safety and security as we continue to live like the locals here in Guatemala.