Kelly and Ben in Honduras

June through August 2007

The first week in June is environmental week with Arbor Day and Earth Day.  I have an environmental group with the local high school and we helped plan some activities– a parade which you can see above, and a drawing and mural competition.  There was also an environmental parade last year, and Honduran’s love parades so I am hoping that it is one thing that the environmental group is responsible for that actually sticks after I am back in the states.  That is probably the hardest part of our work here, thinking about sustainability and change that will carry on after you leave.

The next phase of the trip was a week in Guatemala, something we had been wanting to do for a while.  We started off in Antigua, which is a beautiful colonial town less than an hour from Guatemala City.  We ate well and started tuning our bartering skills at the famous Artisan Market.  Ali was definitely the best barterer as you can see her in action to the right.  That is actually in Panajechel, the main town where all the water taxis leave from to explore Lago Atitlan, the beautiful lake in all the pictures below.  We had intentions of exploring the several Mayan villages around the lake but were basically sucked into our beautiful lodge– Casa del Mundo, which is in the picture below.  I highly recommend it for a relaxing, cultural, pretty cheap vacation.  Although we didn’t explore the Mayan villages the Mayan cluture is everywhere.  Very different than Honduras.  It seemed like more than half the people spoke Mayan.  Most could also speak Spanish but normally speak Mayan.

So instead of exploring we relaxed, read, relaxed,  swam, relaxed, jumped off the rocks, and relaxed some more.  One night we signed up for the wood burning hot tub, which is  on one of the balconies overlooking the lake.  It was wonderful.  When you started to get too hot, you just had to jump in the lake and get back in the hot tub.

During our travels around Central America  we hope to actually explore a little more around the lake although we might find ourselves at Casa del Mundo for a night.

After being a little worried that they didn’t make it as I was sitting in the San Pedro airport watching the last people get off their plane, Ali and Josh finally arrived.  During the Josh-phase of the trip we did all the normal stuff– bird park, Ruins, and San Lucas, although Ali and Josh were the first to make the tortillas.  I love the woman cracking up in the background. 

After Josh left, we spent a little more time in Copan visiting our friend Lloyd’s coffe finca for the first time (to the right and below) and taking Ali to one of my water projects.  Although she had moments of thinking I was crazy for taking her on such an isolated, muddy, difficult hike, I think she liked it...right Ali?!  It was fund for me to share my work experience which I don’t normally get to do with visitors.

Ali also got to experience the lights going out– which is part of our normal life here.  We’re on our way to Jim’s pizza for dinner where there is a generator.

View from hammock in our first room to the right with Volcano.

View from second room to left.

Off and on during the first part of August we helped out with a food aid distribution that some missionaries that we are friends with were organizing and running.  We did  needs assessments of the families that came requesting food and did some translation work.  You may have heard that because of the high global demand for corn the price has risen to a point that is has affected the food supply in developing countries in Latin America.  Given that corn tortillas are the primary staple, along with beans, of the Honduran diet people in the poorer communities have been effected by this increase in price.  That combined with decreased and late crop yield meant that some communities were experiencing a food shortage.  The fatter white guy in the middle of the picture is Steve, one of the missionaries.  He is not experiencing a food shortage

The photo to the right is the bridge through Cabanas.  It was washed out during Hurricane Mitch over 10 years ago and was never repaired.  It pretty much collapsed and sits just below the average water level.  So on days when the water level is not too high pick up trucks can still pass over—like this guy is about to do.  Nobody seems to be in too much of a rush to fix it  and fortunately there is a foot bridge (out of the view of the photo) so people are never completely stranded on the other side. 

The nearest other PC Volunteer to us is Sarah who lives the small town of Cabanas about 15 km from us.  She comes to Copan frequently to buy food, use the internet, etc. so we went to Cabanas one weekend to check out her town.  The population of Cabanas is about 2,000 and it is a pretty quiet town where everybody knows everybody else - and Sarah is the local celebrity (due to her being a Gringo).  There is a really pretty park which is the subject of a considerable amount of local pride and a nice traditional style Catholic church.  The sign below says there is a $25 fine for throwing trash in the river.  We took the photo for the sake of irony because there is actually a lot of trash in the vicinity of the sign.  I guess $25 is not much of a threat