This is Antigua, which was kind of our "home base" for the trip. We stayed here when we first arrived in Guatemala. It's a beautiful city surrounded by three volcanoes, the Volcan de Fuego, the Volcan de Agua, and Acatenango. The streets are all cobblestone and there are plazas located throughout the city with a beautiful church at the front of each.
This is our group on our way to Los Siete Altares (The Seven Altars), a series of waterfalls. We rode here in a 'taxi'--a.k.a. we stood in the back of an old jeep.
This is the largest waterfall of Los Siete Altares and the one we jumped off of.
Rio Dulce, where we met up with our driver Vinnicio on our way to Tikal.
Tikal! This is the most famous ruin that everyone thinks of when they think of Tikal. This ruin faced a square where there were many other ruins, like a city.
The hot springs... can you tell we were in the jungle?
This is our worksite! A majority of the work we did included moving a LOT of dirt from the left side of the photo to the right side. We also finished the reinforcement bars around the perimeter of the building and poured concrete on top of them.
This is one of the first days of volunteering, the first job Jossie and I had was to tie wires around the corner of each square of the rebar. I probably tied about 300 of these--let's just say my hands are very strong now. Later we filled in this section of the building in with dirt.
These guys were common visitors to the worksite...
We saw this on our way home from work one day. Now you know why you should wash your fruits and vegetables!
This is the view from the community where we worked one afternoon.
We had a break Saturday and Tino took us to a sacred lake high up in the mountains. It was a pretty tough climb, I think we figured out that we climbed around 3000 vertical feet that day.
Tino and his daughter Estefanie. She was too cute!
On Saturday local community radio station leaders stopped by the worksite. It was really nice to talk to the people we were helping out.
Our last day in Guatemala we went to the volcano Pacaya. This is us running down the side of one of the hills, the volcano is in the distance.
Me and the lava! You could walk right up to it. Although you didn't really want to cause it was real hot (taking this picture was difficult).So the second week started our volunteering. We volunteered from Wednesday to Monday and took a break on Saturday to visit the lake. The first day we met Tino, the coordinator of the training center project. Tino is a former guerrilla of the civil war in Guatemala. Amanda, the coordinator from CasaSito, is writing his autobiography so she worked with him while we were working on the training center. The book is going to be very similar in style to I, Rigoberta Menchu, which I read before leaving for Guatemala. If anyone wants to know more about Guatemala I would highly recommend this book. It's a little hard to follow in that it's all in first person dialogue, but the descriptions of the war are very realistic. I found it hard to believe some of the things the government did to the people during the civil war, but Tino's stories confirmed those things. The brutal things they did were really very sad.
The first day we also met the construction managers, Walter and Silve (everyone referred to Silve as "sub-5," though, because the guy couldn't have been more than 4'8" tall). I later learned that these guys were actually volunteers as well or were paid very little for their work. When we weren't there would only work on the weekends, their days off, and still had other construction jobs during the week. When the supplies from our donation run out, they have to wait for more donations in order to continue the construction.
I spent the first couple days tying metal reinforcement bars with wire at each corner. Later we poured cement on top of the rebar. Our second project was moving a LOT of dirt from one side of the worksite to the other, in order to level it out. This was done with pickaxes, wheelbarrows, and shovels. The only power tool I saw the entire time I was there was a circular saw, which I think they used twice. Even to drill holes they have a hand-crank screwdriver-type thing.
The volunteer site was a couple houses down from Tino's, and we would go to his house for a morning snack and lunch. They would make us Guatemalan food, which mostly consisted of chicken, rice, beans, and hundreds of tortillas. There must've been at least 50 tortillas per person. It was really interesting to see his house, which was relatively nice compared to the ones surrounding it. Next to the worksite the houses were literally shacks with tin roofs. One day Tino's wife Betty showed us her huipiles, which are traditional hand-woven blouses worn by women. They were beautiful. Walter also told us about his upcoming wedding and it was interesting to hear the differences between weddings in the U.S. and in Guatemala. He is marrying a Mayan woman and he said she was weaving her own huipil in preparation for the wedding. He also said that they do not exchange rings and that the wedding is not a big deal; he joked that he could wear his work clothes to the wedding and he would look all right.
Saturday was our day off and we took a hike to a sacred lake high in the mountains. The Mayans believed that this lake was the center of the universe. It took a while to get to the lake because we had to hike up a long ways. When we got to the lake it was really beautiful, the mist would coming up over the trees and settle down on the lake. It was pretty obvious why the Mayans held the lake as sacred. Tino, Betty, and Silve cooked us lunch over a fire in the style of the guerrillas during the war. After the hike to the lake Tino told us stories of his time in the war. He spoke in Spanish and Christie translated for us, but I was able to understand about half of what he said. The government killed his father when he was very young and that is when he decided to fight in the war. He also believed for many years that his mother and siblings had been killed while he was away but was able to find them again after over 10 years. It was really eye-opening and at the same time sad to hear what had been happening in Guatemala in recent years (the war ended in 1996) since I doubt many people even know that this was occurring. If I hadn't read I, Rigoberta Menchu before I left I would've had no idea.
Monday was our last day of work and it was sad to say goodbye to Tino. I wished we could've stayed to work longer. Everyone was so appreciative of the work we had done it really made me realize what an impact we had on the people of the community.
Tuesday we went to visit the volcano Pacaya. This hike was not as bad as the hike to the sacred lake but was still difficult. Our guide started working at the volcano when he was 8 and had worked there for 30 years. He said he does the walk up the volcano twice a day and he loves his job because he loves the nature. When we got to the top we were able to see an actual lava flow, which was really cool (and hot). That night we went to a rooftop bar in Antigua which was very beautiful at night because you were able to see the three volcanoes surrounding the city.
Wednesday we flew home, and it was nice to return home finally. Returning home was again bittersweet like China because I wanted to stay and learn more about Guatemala and at the same time I wanted to come home and see my friends. I also had to start about 4 days after I got home. I had similar reactions to how I felt upon returning from China. Seeing the peoples' houses and the way they live really made me thankful for what I have in the United States. Believe me, we are very lucky. It's pretty hard to describe to people how a third-world country lives without seeing it for themselves.
This trip again made me want to visit and learn more about other cultures and countries. After visiting Guatemala I definitely want to continue learning Spanish and hopefully one day maybe be fluent. College is really the best time to explore the world so hopefully I will be able to have other travels. Perhaps if I do I will pick this up again. Until then, I hope you've enjoyed reading my blog. I've enjoyed sharing it with everyone and recording my memories for the future.I can truly say that this summer has been the best one yet and has definitely changed who I am as a person.
Until next time,
Katie
The first day we also met the construction managers, Walter and Silve (everyone referred to Silve as "sub-5," though, because the guy couldn't have been more than 4'8" tall). I later learned that these guys were actually volunteers as well or were paid very little for their work. When we weren't there would only work on the weekends, their days off, and still had other construction jobs during the week. When the supplies from our donation run out, they have to wait for more donations in order to continue the construction.
I spent the first couple days tying metal reinforcement bars with wire at each corner. Later we poured cement on top of the rebar. Our second project was moving a LOT of dirt from one side of the worksite to the other, in order to level it out. This was done with pickaxes, wheelbarrows, and shovels. The only power tool I saw the entire time I was there was a circular saw, which I think they used twice. Even to drill holes they have a hand-crank screwdriver-type thing.
The volunteer site was a couple houses down from Tino's, and we would go to his house for a morning snack and lunch. They would make us Guatemalan food, which mostly consisted of chicken, rice, beans, and hundreds of tortillas. There must've been at least 50 tortillas per person. It was really interesting to see his house, which was relatively nice compared to the ones surrounding it. Next to the worksite the houses were literally shacks with tin roofs. One day Tino's wife Betty showed us her huipiles, which are traditional hand-woven blouses worn by women. They were beautiful. Walter also told us about his upcoming wedding and it was interesting to hear the differences between weddings in the U.S. and in Guatemala. He is marrying a Mayan woman and he said she was weaving her own huipil in preparation for the wedding. He also said that they do not exchange rings and that the wedding is not a big deal; he joked that he could wear his work clothes to the wedding and he would look all right.
Saturday was our day off and we took a hike to a sacred lake high in the mountains. The Mayans believed that this lake was the center of the universe. It took a while to get to the lake because we had to hike up a long ways. When we got to the lake it was really beautiful, the mist would coming up over the trees and settle down on the lake. It was pretty obvious why the Mayans held the lake as sacred. Tino, Betty, and Silve cooked us lunch over a fire in the style of the guerrillas during the war. After the hike to the lake Tino told us stories of his time in the war. He spoke in Spanish and Christie translated for us, but I was able to understand about half of what he said. The government killed his father when he was very young and that is when he decided to fight in the war. He also believed for many years that his mother and siblings had been killed while he was away but was able to find them again after over 10 years. It was really eye-opening and at the same time sad to hear what had been happening in Guatemala in recent years (the war ended in 1996) since I doubt many people even know that this was occurring. If I hadn't read I, Rigoberta Menchu before I left I would've had no idea.
Monday was our last day of work and it was sad to say goodbye to Tino. I wished we could've stayed to work longer. Everyone was so appreciative of the work we had done it really made me realize what an impact we had on the people of the community.
Tuesday we went to visit the volcano Pacaya. This hike was not as bad as the hike to the sacred lake but was still difficult. Our guide started working at the volcano when he was 8 and had worked there for 30 years. He said he does the walk up the volcano twice a day and he loves his job because he loves the nature. When we got to the top we were able to see an actual lava flow, which was really cool (and hot). That night we went to a rooftop bar in Antigua which was very beautiful at night because you were able to see the three volcanoes surrounding the city.
Wednesday we flew home, and it was nice to return home finally. Returning home was again bittersweet like China because I wanted to stay and learn more about Guatemala and at the same time I wanted to come home and see my friends. I also had to start about 4 days after I got home. I had similar reactions to how I felt upon returning from China. Seeing the peoples' houses and the way they live really made me thankful for what I have in the United States. Believe me, we are very lucky. It's pretty hard to describe to people how a third-world country lives without seeing it for themselves.
This trip again made me want to visit and learn more about other cultures and countries. After visiting Guatemala I definitely want to continue learning Spanish and hopefully one day maybe be fluent. College is really the best time to explore the world so hopefully I will be able to have other travels. Perhaps if I do I will pick this up again. Until then, I hope you've enjoyed reading my blog. I've enjoyed sharing it with everyone and recording my memories for the future.I can truly say that this summer has been the best one yet and has definitely changed who I am as a person.
Until next time,
Katie
