Desfile, San Juan, Celebrating Faith

Town´s women carrying a holy statue on their patron saint day, this past Thurs.

Traje

Back view of a woman´s Traje, San Juan la Laguna on their patron saint holiday.

The volcano´s reflection in the water is almost a spitting image of the beauty itself.

Lake Images

Fishermen leave early in the morning to do their day´s work and catch food for the family or for market. This one is rowing across the lake in front of Santiago, Atitlan. The lake´s health is at risk for functioning as the community waste dump for local towns´sewage pipelines. Despite this, the lake is integral in the life of most people here, providing water, bathing, and food - life sustainance.

San Juan art and preservation

San Juan la Laguna is a town across the lake where we have three students placed for homestays and work. Yesterday, I joined 10 other passengers on a public boat and crossed the huge body of water despite threats of rain and tremendously choppy water. My chore was to pay visits to families, check in on students´well being, and of course, get lost along the way. Despite being a bit turned around after my arrival to shore and my pick up ride into town, I couldn´t help but enjoy the view. San Juan is known for it´s artisans ranging from weavers, to painters, to muralists.

A happy cow has found her meal at the top of a Solola mountian...

honoring with color

Solola, the county seat, sits about 15 minutes up the mountian from Panajachel. Traveling to hear a presentation about a near by orphanage, we noticed the view from up top was highlighted with the multi-colored cemetery that sits on the edge of the city. The dead here are buried above ground in multi-level tombs. Families rent a small ground plot, about the size of one grave, and build up rather than dig down to honor the deceased.

back yard life

I am fortunate enough to live right behind a Milpa field. This corn, planted just about the time I arrived, seems to grow an inch every day. To get home, I walk through the field, and shimmy sideways through the narrow pathway between my building and the nieghbor´s. A couple more tortilla-pounds and I may not fit anymore!

live roof

One last look at the Antigua horizon... Green roof tops flurish with ritual afternoon rains, and strong morning sun. Today, we begin our journey back to the Lake Atitlan communities.

student trail ...

A group of 19 gringos marching through the streets makes for a very obvious statement: we are tourists, students, or customers... and probably all three. Perhaps the most exciting night life we´ve had thus far was last night at a locals club. A winding, small bar space provided free, live cuban music, and lots of smiling young adults. Finally I got to move my feet to a rhythm I´ve been wishing for in Pana, but hadn´t found until coming to the larger city.

Zoning is different on Guatemalan streets, as in many Latin American communities. Residents are mixed in besides businesses; sometimes a family and a business will even share a space. This person´s house has aquired some new, green inhabitants, growing out from layers of old wall, paint, and history.

First time I´ve acknowledged myself on film since landing on Guatemalan soil... Red faced and in front of a volcano, I posed for a picture today. (see volcano in back)

The arrival to Antigua yesterday added a new flavor to our group´s experience in Guatemala . Especially for those students who lack much travel experience, this city (large for Guatemala, but ¨town¨feeling to most foreigners) has color and colonial flavor that the lake-side communities don´t flaunt. Streets are all cobblestone, half the folks in them are not local, and most of the other half are catering something to the non-local visitors. Antigua: the number one tourist destination in the country. I am reminded why my undergrad study abroad group, focused on social justice and the neoliberal economy, chose to go other places. But now, 9 years later, I must admit I am relieved to have a 3 day break from the more isolating areas of the highlands.

Final trip to Guatemala City

Coming down the mountain, on a clear day, you can see the blue of the lake from above. Arriving today, after many days of travel to and from the capital to pick up delayed students, was a relief - knowing that they had finally all arrived.

Resilience

The waters edge is littered with endless items. Wood washed ashore during the flood two days ago. Bottles, cans, bags, random treasures fallen to the bottom of the lake and now revived with the rushing current of too much water. This truck appeared the day after the flood. I am not sure if had been abandoned, or washed up as well. It's title (the dangerous ones) is shockingly appropriate for the scene of the aftermath. Needless to say, people here know how to survive. So much so that they systematically begin organized, manual clean-up immediately. With simple shovels, brooms, buckets and plastic bags, they hall the mud out of their houses, out of the streets, out of there lives. Same as the capitals' residents are doing with the volcanic ash that has baptized the city with a small reminder: Pacaya still lives.