Guatemala - a Parents' Perspective Part I

  Antigua, Guatemala
Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Many of you will have been disappointed that Elliot hasn't kept his blog up to date since he arrived in Guatemala. Having spent the past 2 weeks with him there we can understand how frustrating the whole blogging thing is with the vagaries of internet cafe connections, the bizarre assortment of Central American keyboards where the keys don't match what appears on the screen, and perhaps most importantly the sheer volume of experiences there are to write about. So we have agreed to update the Guatemala section of his trip and he will take it up again with his travels in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras. Don't forget you can always ensure a regular contribution from Elliot by clicking on the 'Support my travels' button!

We feel very fortunate to have been able to share a small part of Elliot's adventure with him. Rather than give you all a day by day account of what happened, below are edited highlights under various headings.


ELLIOT

A chilled Elliot

We were met at Guatemala City by a bronzed (yes the quest is a success), blonde and extremely chilled Elliot who seems to have found what he wants to do in life and has made plans for the future. We will leave him to tell you what those plans are. Needless to say they involve a lot more travelling! Having spent so much time partying in Mexico Elliot was ready to get down to serious travelling by the time he arrived in Guatemala and wanted real experiences and some adventure. Two weeks in Spanish School living with a Guatemalan family gave him a taste of real life and an insight into how regular Guatemalans live. His Spanish is now really good and it was a huge relief to us that he was there to translate. He also went on several hikes including 3 days up a volcano, spent a day at a hippy retreat in San Marcos by Lago Atitlan and even had thoughts of returning there to do their 'Moon Course' - full on meditation and abstinence from food and speaking for a month (well the abstinence bit is actually only a week of it - you have to progress to the 'Sun Course' to do the full month of giving everything up). Was this the same person who left Winchester in February?! By the time we arrived he had done pretty much everything he wanted to do in Guatemala but was happy to repeat bits for our benefit and we managed to share some interesting experiences before we left.

PEOPLE WE MET

Filadelfia Finca Coffee Plantation

The most interesting and informative person we met was our guide at Finca Filadelfia Coffee Plantation who made the growing and processing of coffee come alive for us and talked to us a lot about life in modern Guatemala. Rosio is a tiny Ladino Guatemalan woman who got pregnant at 16 but managed to get a degree in Psychology and Occupational Health before going on to have 2 more children and all before she was 25! Guatemalans are too poor to pay for the services of Psychologists though and she taught Spanish instead meeting people and making friends from all around the world before she started working as a tour guide at the Finca. She had very strong views on what was wrong with her country and wants free education and healthcare as a start to get her people (especially the Mayan indigenous population) out of poverty. She asked us what we thought was the biggest money earner in Guatemala and naturally we assumed it was coffee or tourism. Sadly it is actually money sent back by a family member working in the States.

Ruth

The most persistent person we met was Ruth. A tiny Mayan woman who spends her days in the Central Plaza in Antigua selling her weaving. She had an interesting sales technique as she plonked herself down next to us for a chat, introducing herself, asking our names and shaking hands. On the first day she was quite content to chat and gave us her soft sell. But every day after that we were met by her urgent cries of 'Keith, Karen - you buy from me today?!" every time we walked through the Plaza. As it is difficult to go anywhere in Antigua without walking through the Central Plaza we found we were looking for ways to sneak around without catching her eye. In the end we had to succumb but no matter how hard we tried there was nothing we wanted to buy from her. Her hard sell really came into force then, 'I haven't sold anything all day, I need some money to buy food, my poor mother is sick and she needs food'. We still didn't buy anything. [

The most inspiring people we met were Mayah and Jeffro. An ex psychiatric Kiwi nurse who arrived at Lago de Atitlan at the end of the Civil War 17 years ago and never left and an Aussie surfer who hooked up with her 10 years ago. Together they have created what seems to be the perfect life spending a third of it in Bali where they buy handicrafts to sell in the Bahamas where they spend another third and the final third in Guatemala where they are in the process of building a luxury eco-lodge with a nature trail up the mountain. Unfortunately their gourmet vegetarian restaurant won't be open for business until Christmas but we did do the trail and spent an enjoyable if exhausting couple of hours hiking, looking at the views and watching the buzzards as we lay in hammocks in the Palapa. As Elliot says - there are never enough excuses not to change your life and they are living proof that there are alternatives.

Lorenzo at Valhalla

The most eccentric person we met was an American who ran an experimental macadamia nut farm. He had arrived in Guatemala in 1976 and never left! What is the matter with these people?! He is a true eco warrior living in the trees on his plantation and ensuring the future of the planet is safe in his neck of the woods. His extravagant claims about the important part he played in the Peace Accords at the end of the Civil War in Guatemala were too outrageous to have been made up and his unquestioning belief in what he is achieving at Valhalla made for an interesting couple of hours in his company. Macadamia nut oil is the way forward for the planet - remember you read it here first!

Irvin

Our favourite person was Irvin. Irvin approached us in Central Plaza begging for 1 quetzal (about 7p) to buy a tortilla. From his breath it seemed more likely he wanted to buy booze but hey who are we to judge? We got chatting to him, he spoke pretty good English, and it turned out he had been to Europe, to Paris, and climbed the Eiffel Tower. He had also tried to find work in Mexico but had been kicked out by immigration there. As we only had 100 quetzal notes we told him to wait until Elliot arrived who was more likely to have small change and we would give him 10Qs if he would buy some food. 'Sure' he said, 'with that I can buy chicken, rice, tortillas AND booze!' We heard his opinion on many things - the US presidency 'f**king Bush and that f**king bitch Clinton - we want a black man in the White House. Obama, yeah man, he's the one we want' to his opinion on Mexicans 'they are all f**king thieves and robbers, especially those f**king police'. Ashamed of his poverty and poor living conditions he said he would invite us to his home but didn't want us to laugh at how he lived. He couldn't believe Elliot didn't have a cell phone for us to call him on to tell him to hurry up and was worried that when Elliot did arrive he would fight with him. He kept asking us for 100Qs saying he would go and buy a coffee and get change but we were reluctant to hand it over in case we never saw him again. After about 25 minutes exchanging views about the world Elliot arrived, immediately handed over 100Qs and said we would wait while he got change. Irvin disappeared into the crowds by the coffee shop and returned minutes later with a cappuccino and all our change. Handshakes all round, 20Qs for food and booze was passed over and he thanked us for trusting him. I don't think I have ever felt so humbled. The moral of this story is: drunks aren't always aggressive, they often have an interesting story to tell and as a parent it's good to learn something about trust from your son.