In the last days we have begun a new and stimulating phase of our travel: after many days of intense searches and some disappointment, we have finally found two volunteering projects. We realize indeed the dream to share in a very intense way part of our journey with the Latin American people. Both the activities approach our interests and professions. The nomadic travel takes a pause in geographic sense, but our willing to explore and to know this complex and coloured world does not diminish, maybe enters in a still more conscious phase. In these days, under the deep contradictions of Guatemala, we often discuss on the indigenous issue, the traditions and the discriminations, the real opportunity to help these people. In Guatemala good part of the social support comes guaranteed through a net of associations, NGO and volunteers, but we discover that in this world there are many false promises. Quetzaltenango (Xela) offers a wide range of volunteering projects in the field of renewable energy: Xelateco is a young manufacturing enterprise, concerned with the fabrication of low cost environmentally sound infrastructure improvements (biodigesters, windmills, water pumps and filters, solar water heaters, micro-hydroelectric)… bienvenidos a Guatemala, the country of the “eternal spring”.
Guatemala, enfrentando su futuro
In Guatemala the social inequality catches up unthinkable levels, pushing us to a deep reflection on the situation of the Central American country. In our travel through the regions of Huehuetenango, Alta Verapaz and Quiché, in the north-western and remotest zone of the country, we noticed the situation of abandonment and indigenous social marginalization that the communities living on the mountains suffer. The scarcely productive land and the economy of subsistence continuously threaten those villages, reason for which the familiar nuclei lead a semi-nomadic life or are forced to migrate towards the coast, Chiapas or United States, when they have choice.
The community of Santa Barbara (Huehuetenango) represents a dramatic example: widely unproductive agriculture (95% of the territory is argillaceous), chronic absence of basic services (health, education), water and food refueling distant hours by walking. The situation is so difficult that it becomes evident the lack of the communitarian spirit which always characterizes the indigenous nuclei and that we have found in every village of Chiapas. Guatemala is remembering the first ten years of peace after a bloody civil war and often it is punished by natural catastrophes (lastly, the hurricane Stan), but this cannot be an excuse to perpetuate the discrimination against indigenous people. It’s sad to notice how much attention still enjoy ghosts of the past such us the former president Rios Montt, implied in the extermination of entire Mayan villages at the time of the civil war.
Cordillera de los Cuchumatanes
We find the right colectivo leaving from Coban to Uspantan, in the heart of the Cordillera de los Cuchumatanes, a territory nearly unexplored and inhabited by Quiche’ indigenous people, a heterogeneous group of Mayan origin that maintains unique traditions and whose women dress in a particularly elegant and colored way. Incredibly elaborated are the huipiles (hand decorated garments) from the Ixil Mayan villages of Nebaj, Chajul and Cotzal, more inside in the mountains. The road follows strong climbings along a hard way, often interrupted by maintenance jobs. We help two boys who had an accident with their pick-up, but it seems to be pretty usual here. Got to Uspantan, we change bus and we continue the travel until Santa Cruz de Quiche’, passing through the calm village of Sacapulas. We speak a lot with the people who share with us short distances of road, often young women with their children. In Quiche’ we are abandoned near a so-called terminal de buses, where we take the only available camioneta: for the first time it is an original school bus completely restored and coloured, one of those typically Central American. In a crescent atmosphere of agitation, we change bus in Los Encuentros, a trafficked crossroad. It finally seems to be the right car in order to reach Quetzaltenango, but after some kilometers the motor extinguishes and therefore we proceed to another change… as usual the bus is full of people, baggages and animals, but the driver begins a race against time and we fast approach to our target, even if the maintenance jobs oblige us to long stops. Unexpectedly we are left another time at a crossroad, it’s dark and we are travelling from more than twelve hours, but Xela (Quetzaltenango) is near and with the last two changes of colectivo we finally reach downtown.
An incredible experience ends and it seems to be a good prelude of what we will find in Central America: the chaos in its purest expression!
Coban and Semuc Champey
The craziest driver of the last four months leads us from Flores to Coban, where the first peaks of the Guatemalan Sierra Madre rise. We observe a wonderful but unusual territory, as the numerous German immigrates exported the taste for the mountain wooden huts, rendering the landscape almost alpine. In a day of debilitating movements, we visit the natural reservoir of Semuc Champey, a system of green emerald water pools, hidden in the forest. We spend the evening looking for information on how to travel until Quetzaltenango through the “Sierra de los Cuchumatanes”, a journey in a territory that very little people seem to know, but a road should exist…
Tikal, the lost world
We were dreaming a Mayan city lost in the jungle, impressive temples lived by monkeys, snakes and tucans. We were dreaming a forgotten world, to be explored in complete solitude, leaving space only to the imagination of ancient and golden times… we are allowed to feel all these intense emotions at the archaeological site of Tikal: a gigantic Mayan complex, totally dipped in the forest. There, we have passed an entire afternoon trying to climb the temples and observing with the eyes turned towards the sky the phrenetic life of the monkeys (monos araña and saraguatos) and of the other numerous animals. Only the beauty of an intense and short sunset, took us back to reality, hiding us this incredible “mundo perdido”, lost world, and its masters…
Getting to Guatemala
The song of the jungle awakes us very early and while we have breakfast we are wrapped by a misty fog. In our mind slide fast the memories of three months spent in Mexico, looks and smiles of the people known or just grazed… crossing the frontier between Mexico and Guatemala do not involve the tragic intensity of travelling from the United States to Mexico: simply we move on the other side of the river Usumacinta, from Frontera Corozal to Bethel. Here we find again the same jungle, the same bajareques (houses of wood and adobe, a mix of mud and straw), the same pleasant smiles. The unpaved, muddy road drives us along green grasses and hills, until the lake of Petèn Itzà. We start to notice the first differences with Mexico, the first days in an unknown country are always the most difficult, but also the most stimulating. Walking between the island of Flores and the pueblo of Santa Elena, we breathe an Asian atmosphere, even if it’s an image that lasts for a second: a lot of powder and hundreds of “risciò” and small vehicles adapted to the transport of passengers.