The sailboat I am sailing on to Belize

After a week in the jungle of Rio Dulce, I am off in just a couple of hours for a 6 day sailing trip to Belize. Belize is just above Guatemala and apparently at one time was all one country.

No computer, no internet and heavens knows what else I am in for. It should be interesting and I am very much looking forward to the trip. You can check out more at www.sailing-diving-guatemala.com

The weather this week has been overcast and cool - a dramatic change from the usual “steambath” that I had heard about Rio Dulce. Like everywhere in the world, the climate is changing. I am hoping and praying for blue skies in Belize.

This trip was a great lesson in checking out what I wanted to do before making judgments about whether or not it was in the budget. Probably you have said more times than not, “I can´t afford to do that!” I bet you´ve said that before you even knew what anything was going to cost! You had just decided in your mind you couldn´t afford it.

It´s why I have learned to check things out because more often than not, I´m surprised by the price….to the good! For example, 6 nights on this sailboat, all food included is $475 Canadian. That´s not astronomical by anybody´s standards that is reading this blog. Most people are shocked at how reasonable it is. Apparently the food is excellent - fruit, vegetables and mostly seafood - my kind of diet. I guess we´ll find out. My only other cost is $10 to leave Guatemala and $40 for the park fees in Belize. So a very affordable week of holiday.

I´ll let you know when I get back. I will be in Antigua for a few days before I leave Guatemala. There´s a big religious celebration happening that weekend in Antigua that I´ve heard is spectacular. Will be interesting to say the least.

Have a fabulous week - I know I will!

This little girl´s mother died giving birth to her

One night while having dinner in San Marcos, I noticed an older Caucasian woman with a young Guatemalan child. Nosy me was trying to figure out the relationship, as there didn´t seem to be a mother present and this woman was either babysitting or a guardian. Finally, I just asked and wow – what a story.

While this little girl´s mother was giving birth to her, the mother died. The father, unable to take care of the new baby or the older brother, relinquished guardianship of the brother to a grandmother and gave this Caucasian woman who happened to be in the room for the birth, legal guardianship of the new baby.

Talk about an instant change in one´s plans. Unfortunately, because of the woman´s age, the Guatemalan government won´t let her officially the little girl which means she´s either staying in Guatemala for a long time or she will have to relinquish guardianship of the child.

As one of the tenants at Pasajcap on the lake was a midwife from the States, I learned a little bit about maternal mortality here in Guatemala from her, and it isn´t pretty. She had attended two Guatemalan births – one the mother died, the other, the baby died. Legally she wasn´t allowed to assist, but was simply an observer in the room. She felt that both deaths could have been prevented with better supplies and training. Hemorraghing is a major issue as many women are already anemic and midwives are apparently being urged by “modern doctors” to hurry up the delivery of the babies. Babies and mothers are not adapting well to this new method of a process as old as life itself.

From my research online, I learned that the maternal mortality rate in Guatemala remains the highest in all of Central America at 190 deaths per 100,000 live births. On the other hand, in the US, the maternal death rate was 11 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2005

Child mortality in Guatemala ranked the highest of all Central American countries in 1995, with 51 out of every 1,000 dying before the age of five. However, in the past seven years, this number has decreased to 45 out of every 1,000 so we are headed in the right direction, mostly due to the work of many NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in the country.

On one of our last boat trips on Lake Atitlan, I sat beside a young mother with a little boy 3 years old and a young baby of about 6 months. It was nearing dark but she told me that they would have to walk 1 ½ hours home up the mountain to their village home. Dangerous – yes. Isolated – definitely. This problem is one of the reasons for high maternal mortality.

The book “Too far to walk: Maternal mortality in context” explains that isolation and then lack of proper staff and equipment is a problem in the Guatemalan highlands.

It´s one of the reasons that I can only applaud and support the amazing work I have continually witnessed over the last few months. Incredible dedication coupled with a wonderful commitment to helping the Guatemalans has meant that real progress is being made on many fronts.

The example of this little girl who is being so lovingly cared for by a foreigner in her time of need is a perfect example. I´ll be letting you know soon how you can help make a difference. There is lots of work to do here and if we all do a little, it will add up to a lot!

The little house I am currently staying in on the Rio Dulce

It seems like a lifetime ago that I was sitting in my place on Lake Atitlan making arrangements for Brenda and Adrian´s trip to Guatemala in February. Now they´re gone and I´m wrapping up the last couple of weeks in Central America.

One of the places I reserved was on the Rio Dulce (literally Sweet River) at a place called Hotel Tortugal. With thatched roofs and a real jungle feeling, we decided it was a bargain at $50 a night for an adorable little house in a romantic setting for Brenda and Adrian and reasonable for a bungalow at $40 a night for me.

However, when we arrived last Friday, the romantic little house was very cute but my bungalow was dark, small and wasn´t at all conducive to getting any work done this week. So off I went to speak with the owner about what we could do. Thankfully, she understood completely, especially when she heard I was working on my next book and would be spending lots of time in my place writing.

Once I made it clear to her what was important to me (light, space, privacy and a place to work), she took me to this little house behind where Brenda and Adrian were staying. Very private, located at the top of the hill overlooking the river with jungle all around, Brenda and I were pretty impressed by the size and amenities the little house had. Lovely livingroom furniture, a wrap-around balcony with tables, chairs and plenty of places to work, a full kitchen and a large bedroom all added up to a nice house.

I was thinking, “yikes, if the little bungalow is $40, Brenda and Adrian´s is $50, this place must be $150 a night.” I was calculating in my mind how much I would be willing to pay to have the place which coincidentally had just been vacated that day after a month´s occupancy. Fortuitous or what?

So of course my only comment was, “how much for the week?” She stopped and said, “we normally only rent it out for the month and to people we know and trust but I´ll rent it to you for the week for….$200.” I heard Brenda almost gasp behind me and I quickly said, “it´s a deal. Can you get a cleaner in here this afternoon so I can move in? It will be worth a nice tip if she can do it?” Needless to say, I was moving in before the cleaning lady was locking up the door.

Don´t ask me how she did the math on this one, but what Brenda has noticed repeatedly throughout our journey together is that I know when to shut up in negotiations. I never speak first and I always allow the other person to put out the first offer. Amazingly, it is often better than what I was willing to pay.

So how do you get what you want? First of all, be clear on what you want. Secondly, expect to get what you want OR better. I had told Brenda and Adrian several times on the trip that I couldn´t wait to see what my surprise at the Rio Dulce was going to be. The beauty of Antigua had completely taken me by surprise - I wasn´t expecting it to be so pretty. The weather in Tikal was a complete surprise to all of us as we donned jackets and sweaters instead of sweating profusely. The only thing left was my surprise in Rio Dulce. I expected it to be good but this was an amazing surprise!

Thirdly, learn to keep quiet. Maybe it´s all those years of training as a Jehovah´s Witness going from door to door, I don´t know. But I do know that as much as I can talk, I can also shut up when it´s in my highest and best interest to do so. Negotiations is definitely one of those times and I have repeatedly found that silence and patience are two valuable tools to get what you want.

The owner is thrilled because I´m happy, she´s already rented out my bungalow and she has an extra $200 this week renting the house. Now if she could only talk to the cockroaches that like this place as much as I do….then I´d be even happier.

The hot waterfalls at Finca Paraiso

Life in the Rio Dulce is another world. It´s hard to believe that it´s the same country as Lake Atitlan and Antigua. It reminds me alot of when I lived on the coast in Ecuador. It´s probably all the bugs that has me reminiscing the most. On Saturday Brenda, Adrian and I had a fabulous day, hiring a private boat and a captain to take us to Livingston. Livingston is unique for 2 reasons - you can only get to it by boat and it has a large population of Garfuna people. We got off the boat and thought we were in Jamaica!

Yup, they speak English, they are black like the Jamacians and it felt like another world. It was a total culture shock! After a few hours wandering through the town, eating and drinking, talking to some very interesting folks, we headed back to Rio Dulce. The river, although not the largest by any means in Central America is considered one of the most beautiful and our captain took us through narrow tributaries where we could have been on a Universal Studios movie set in Hollywood.

Sunday we went for a walk and found a fabulous hotel on the river where we had lunch and we explored the castle that is at the entrance to a massive lake. There were lots of pirates in this area for centuries and the castle has been beautifully rebuilt. It was also great to see lots of Guatemalan families enjoying picnics on the grounds and enjoying their day off together.

Monday morning Brenda and Adrian were off with their private driver to Guatemala City and flew home today. Back on my own for the next few weeks, I´m catching up on my suntanning and work!

As I woke up yesterday morning to my avocado partially eaten by what would appear to be a rat, they fumigated my place and put out rat poison on bananas. This morning I woke up to 14 dead cockroaches in just the livingroom and kitchen. I stopped counting when I got to the bedroom. I could hear the rat in the roof last night but hopefully he stays along ways away from me and we´ll get along just fine.

Instead as there was no electricity this morning, I hopped on a boat into town and caught the local transport out to Finca Paraiso, a local place that is raved about in the guidebooks.

Now local transport was something else again. As Brenda and Adrian chose to do the trip as first class as possible, we have been hiring our own boats and drivers. It really is so affordable to do it that way here but today I was back to my usual setting - what do the locals do? So instead I was in the equivalent of a Chevy van and there were 20 people in it. People were standing, sitting on top of each other and the door was open for part of the trip. The driver, although he was driving fairly slowly was on his cell phone, making change, adjusting the radio and manouvering around corners where the roadsign said, “Dangerous Curves”. It was not a trip for the faint of heart although I never felt like death was imminent which has been the case in other countries.

I arrived at Finca Paraiso 35 minutes later and thankfully another Guatemalan family disembarked with me because there were no proper sign or directions. $1.20 was admission and again no signs as to where to go. I headed off on the path through the jungle and found my own way. Amazingly enough, there was an entire tour bus full of French-speaking people who were just finishing up their swim in the hot thermal waters and then I shared the place with about 15 people from New Zealand and Australia! Incredible how people get around.

Finca Paraiso is unlike anything I have seen. It´s a pool in a river that has cold water with scalding hot waterfalls that warm the water. I take the hottest showers of anyone I know and this was too hot for me. Later the guide took me to the source of the water which bubbles out of the earth at about 76 degrees Centigrade or 169 degrees Farhenheit. The plants in the water are actually white they are so burned by the sulphur and heat.

Needless to say, it was a fabulous experience bathing in the hot/warm/cold waters - it was your choice as to where you wanted to relax. After a very cold beer at the tiny restaurant that wasn´t open except for beer, I got a ride back to Rio Dulce in a similar van - fortunately with only half the people as the trip in.

A bit of shopping, a nice lunch of garlic shrimp and a boat trip back home. Thankfully electricity was back on and I can work for the rest of the day. Tomorrow I will tell you about this amazing little house I am staying in - despite the rat and the bugs, it´s very neat. And how I got it had Brenda spitting nails. It´s a great story of creating what you want.

Part of the Grand Plaza

Brenda and Adrian climbing up the long, steep flight of stairs beside Temple 5.

Tikal, the world of the Mayans was our destination on Wednesday afternoon. A 45 minute road trip from Antigua to Guatemala City was followed by a 70 minute flight to Flores in the jungle. After the worst landing of our small 48 seater plane, we were shocked to be hit with cold winds as we left the plane.

We had expected hot and humid but soon found out that a storm had hit the area that afternoon, hence the terrific turbulence landing and the unexpected cold weather. The 75 minute trip out to Tikal National Park was on a very dark highway littered with fallen leaves, branches and even a tree ¾ of the way across the road.

We arrived tired and cold but excited to see this amazing archaeological site of the Mayan civilization. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, right now 13 temples and palaces are being restored. There are literally thousands of temples at this site. Some of the best archaeologists in the world have worked at the Tikal site.

We walked for 9 hours yesterday over miles of ground including climbing a few temples – one 14 stories high. Brenda, Adrian and I hired a fabulous guide for the morning and Francisco was a wealth of knowledge about the Mayans, plants, trees, animals, natural medicine and just about anything else we asked. At the end of over 4 hours with us, our heads were aching with all the knowledge he had imparted and our legs were already sore. But after a brief lunch break, we headed back out for another 5 hours of exploring on our own.

Like everything we have experienced in Guatemala, there were very few rules or restrictions as to what we could do in the park which made the experience even more incredible.

Despite the unseasonably cold temperatures (it had been 38 degrees Celsius the morning of the evening we arrived and yesterday as we toured it was 15 degrees Celsius) it was actually perfect for what we wanted to do, which was spend a full-on day walking and climbing temples. We also saw toucan birds, incredible parrots, a host of other birds, monkeys, and the fourth largest rodent in the world. It was amazing. After the coldest night ever, we left this morning for Rio Dulce where we arrived to fabulous blue skies and wonderfully warm weather.

Tomorrow we are off to explore the sites on the river and Livingston which is on the Caribbean side of Guatemala. We´ve hired a private boat and captain for the day which is starting at 7:30 tomorrow morning.

I just had to share at least a couple of amazing photos from yesterday´s trip to Tikal with you. I expect tomorrow will be spectacular as well.

Another amazing day yesterday in Antigua. After a leisurely breakfast at our beautiful B&B, we headed through parts of the city we hadn´t yet discovered. We hit the market – the biggest market any of us have ever seen in our travels. It was like a maze and once we got into the bowels of it, we walked for what seemed like ages to see the light of day again. Everything from pottery, baskets, underwear, and pirated DVDs to an immense variety of food was on offer.

We then visited an incredible ruin that was destroyed by several earthquakes, the latest one in 1976. The remains of the convent and church had a remarkable energy about it and Brenda and I both felt it very strongly.

You can´t turn a corner in Antigua without running into a ruin, all of them caused by earthquakes. Just yesterday we were woken up by a tremblor at about 5:00 a.m. and experienced another strong one at 9:30 while having breakfast. With Antigua being surrounded by 4 volcanoes, the seismic activity is strong and we sure felt it yesterday.

The number of ruins, cobblestone streets and all of the courtyards everywhere give the city a very European feel while maintaining the Guatemalan characteristics that we love – great prices, beautiful people, wonderful weather, amazing food and incredible shopping.

Brenda had told me before she came that she wouldn´t be doing any shopping as her and Adrian have done a lot of traveling and what more could she need from Guatemala! Well right about now, if they buy any more, they´ll be buying another suitcase! The shopping is truly irresistible. Beautiful, beautiful goods at bargain prices. I now have enough scarves to last me a couple of lifetimes!

After another delicious lunch, Adrian went back to our B&B for a rest while Brenda and I scoured the city looking for a place for me to return to after my sailing trip to Belize. I will have 2 ½ more days in the city before flying to Seattle. That weekend however, there is a big festival here in Antigua (which I didn´t know about) and finding a place has been a bit challenging.

Last night we headed to a restaurant just down the street where we had dinner and watched a short show that featured the beautiful traditional Mayan costumes. We have seen a costume like this for sale for over $1000 US and that doesn´t include the mask which is another several hundred dollars. It was another great evening.

This afternoon we have a taxi arranged to take us to Guatemala City where we fly out this evening to Flores. We have accommodation right in the park at Tikal which is full of ancient Mayan ruins. Will be a highlight of the trip, I am sure.

The most beautiful church in Antigua

Saturday, Brenda, Adrian and I went ziplining just outside of Panajachel. They had never been before and it was a great time. The weather was perfect and we did 8 fabulous ziplines across the jungle. We fed bananas to the monkeys and a small racoon-looking creature that is apparently endangered in Central America. It was an amazing day!

Sunday, I spent much of the afternoon with Senor Pablo and his family in San Pablo. I took along a French-Canadian couple who wanted to help out the family and community but wanted to meet them first. It was an “eye-opening” experience to see the reality of life on the lake for the Mayan people.

That afternoon we learned that the next morning at 6:00 the teachers were protesting low wages and insufficient educational materials for the students. Therefore, it was decided that we would leave at 4:00 a.m. to avoid any blockages on the Pan American highway. Although it was not fun getting up at 3:30 in the morning, we decided that it was worth the trouble because getting stuck on the highway for hours or even days was worse.

Consequently, we arrived in Antigua at 6:30 in the morning and thankfully the beautiful bed and breakfast we had rented was gracious enough to feed us an unexpected breakfast and take care of us. We spent the day yesterday touring on foot Antigua. All of us have fallen in love with this amazing city. Now deemed an UNESCO heritage city because of the incredible monuments from the 15th and 16th century, Antigua is being restored.

We had wonderful food, pecan pie for $1.00, cappucino coffees for $1.00 and lunch at the most exquisite hotel set in an old convent. The bed and breakfast we are at was an old convent from the 16th century and is absolutely exquisite. It has been the most fabulous 24 hours already here and we are looking forward to another wonderful day and a half before we fly to Tikal to see the ruins.

Each of us had privately been wondering if the people in the “big city” would be as gracious and lovely as we had experienced at the lake. We had nothing to worry about as they have been just as beautiful to deal with. We´ll see how it is as we head to the hot climate on the coast and experience a whole new perspective of Guatemala.

There´s nothing like a big beautiful pool filled with sulphur-rich mineral waters that are just the right temperature. Yesterday we left by 8:00 and drove about two hours to Las Fuentes de Georgina. The last 30 minutes of the drive was through beautiful agricultural fields that were absolutely stunning. We all marveled at the size of the carrots, radishes and beets. It was a cornucopia of vegetables – a vegetarian´s delight!

The hot springs were more than we hoped for as the pools were virtually empty and in a stunning setting. After a couple of hours in the pools and a very satisfying lunch, our driver Chema took us to Zunil where we saw the market where produce is sent all over Guatemala and even to Mexico. It was like a “super-size me” vegetable market and a very busy one at that.

Chema next drove us through Quetzaltenango (also known as Xela), the second largest city in Guatemala. We didn’t stop long as we knew that we still had a two hour drive home. It was a great group that went and as we drove we compared notes of our travels around the world.

One thing I have noted is that people who generally come to Guatemala have done some traveling – Guatemala is not the first place people usually choose to travel to – so it was a fabulous time all the way around.

Unfortunately, internet has been down two days this week – the joys of a developing country – which has made life a bit more challenging. I have tons of pictures to upload which I will try to get done this weekend before we hit the road on Monday for Antigua.

Today I am off to get my hair cut and colored in Panajachel while Brenda and Adrian play at this beautiful beachside restaurant and pool we found on our walk this week. I can´t believe it´s my last weekend at the lake.

Fabulous day, memorable two months.

Making lunch for 420 children

This morning Brenda, Adrian and I were on a boat by 8:00 heading to the nearby village of Santa Cruz. We were met by two amazing women who run Amigos de Santa Cruz, a foundation they have created to help out the local people with health initiatives, education, and a whole lot more!

Now 14 years after their initial steps to contribute back to a country they love, Pat and Nancy have done what most of us only dream of accomplishing. As we toured the small village, Pat pointed out many of the things they have accomplished such as a beautiful vocational school that is nearing completion.

In this picture you see one of three local women preparing the food (chicken, vegetables and rice) for 420 students. These children are fed one nutritious meal every day thanks to the efforts of Pat, Nancy, many donors and the collaboration they have fostered in the community.

However, their work goes far beyond Santa Cruz. They also work in two other small villages on the lake and three very remote villages high up in the mountains. I highly recommend you check out what they have done at www.amigosdesantacruz.org

It was an awe-inspiring morning that filled all of us with lots of emotion and incredible gratitude that people like Pat and Nancy are doing such an amazing job of making a difference.

We then had a fabulous day walking all the way home with a few stops for refreshments including a most magnificent lunch. But it was about 3 hours of hiking several hundred feet up the mountain on narrow little ledges as we enjoyed the spectacular views. I took over 100 pictures just today!

Tomorrow we are headed to natural hot springs about two hours away. I´ve organized a driver, van and 7 of us from here are headed out for the day. Interestingly, all Canadians! Pasajcap is full of Canadians these days. Pierre does have some vacancies for next month if coming to Guatemala interests you. This has been a great jumping off place to see a very beautiful part of the country. Still great weather here before the rainy season starts in May. I´ll let you know about our journey to the hot springs tomorrow.

It´s been quite the busy week. We went to Panajachel on Thursday and Brenda and Adrian were in awe at how different it was from the other two towns they had seen. Yesterday I worked with a couple of clients and in the afternoon we both had massage appointments. Today we headed across the lake to Santiago.

No sooner had we stepped off the boat when a young boy approached us asking if we wanted to go to see Maximon. Maximon is the rum-drinking, cigar smoking idol that is worshipped in Santiago. I said yes and before we knew it, he had us escorted to his friend´s tuk-tuk negotiating a deal of 15 Quetzales for all 3 of us. ($1.80) He clambered into the back so all 3 of us would fit in the back seat and off we went.

However, the upsell was fast coming for little Joel. Just 9 years old, he had the sales pitch down better than I´ve seen many entrepreneurs 3 times his age. He told us that there were actually 5 sites we needed to see in Santiago. The Mayan laundry, the Peace Park, the site of the avalanche that killed 400 people, Maximon and the Catholic Church. For just 125 Quetzales, ($15) we could have the complete tour.

We were all laughing so hard, it was difficult to catch our breath long enough to say, “it´s a deal”. David, our 18-year-old driver was also absolutely delightful. He gave us a thorough explanation of everything we saw and I translated into English for Brenda and Adrian. They both taught us about the history of Santiago and how the civil war affected the town. It was fascinating and we all learned lots.

After the tour, we had them take us to El Bambu, the restaurant I had loved on my first visit to Santiago several weeks ago. They agreed to come and pick us up and when I phoned to let them know we were ready, Joel was waiting quietly around the corner for us and David was in the parking lot already. What service for a few dollars!

David dropped us in the center so we could do some shopping and Joel escorted us, noting what we were looking for. At one point he noted that Brenda didn´t like the colors of the water bottle holders that were available so he took us to another store where there were more colors. He paid attention, carried my bag when I bought something and made sure we didn´t pay too much. He waited patiently while we shopped and was consciencious that we got to the boat on time.

He knew his prices, that our restaurant had a fabulous lake view and the schedules for the boats. He had started working at 9:00 that morning and would work until 9:00 that evening. He will repeat the schedule tomorrow before he goes back to school on Monday. We haven´t stopped chuckling about him all day - he really was one enterprising young boy!

We had a fabulous day, later meeting my little girls that sell nuts just before leaving San Pedro. (You have to get to Santiago via San Pedro so it was a long day.) As we were getting on the last boat leaving San Pedro for home, Juana and Jennifer arrived selling nuts. I got hugs and kisses and Brenda bought chocolate covered peanuts. Just 7 and 10 years old, I am always thrilled to see the girls as they were in training with their Dad when I arrived in December. Now they are all over the villages selling on their own, weighing the nuts and calculating the change. They are absolutely adorable.

We arrived home tired and ready for a quiet evening in. We have a full week planned as it is my last week on the lake. I changed my plans and am not returning here after my tour through Guatemala but am returning to Canada mid-March as originally planned. So it´s a busy week and a bit of a sad one for me. It has been such a wonderful time and it has been fabulous showing Brenda and Adrian around the lake as they too fall in love with the people, the culture, the beautiful handi-crafts and the country. It´s easy to do!