Guatemala: Day 3

This was our earliest wake up day...4:30 AM! Then we headed to Lake Atitlan- it was so beautiful! We took lots of fun pictures and even stood on a pole off the pier, it was scary and some Guatemalans were making fun of us- but luckily we didn't fall in.

Then we walked around the town by the lake and ate sweet bread and Topica orange juice for breakfast. After a quick break, we all got back in the micro bus and drove to a famous market called Chichicastenango. It was a huge market with everything you can imagine. The funniest thing we saw were Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister clothes. But that's not the funny part... they were actually fake. We could tell the labels and designs were not quite the same as the real styles. Apparently, it's really popular to mimic American brands so everyone in Guatemala has fake logos on their clothing.

While on the topic of clothing...we found a "Pacca" which is like a really cheap thrift store. Christopher and I got sweatshirts, because all we brought were warm-weather clothes. And David found a pair of pants he liked, so he made a deal with the worker and TRADED his shorts for the pants...haha it was so funny. They were crazy teal pants and he got a vest too. It's never boring with David around :)

At the market, we found quite a few things to buy. I picked out a cool purple and pink headband that looks like a braid. Christopher picked out a mask that was painted in Guatemalan colors and had a Quetzal (the national bird) on it. We also ate some delicious "chocobananos" ! This is where I fell in love with them. They are just frozen bananas dipped in chocolate with peanuts on the outside- but they were definitely my favorite treat. We also found a cool gift for my parents: a wooden carved dish with red and orange painted Toucans. [which she loved] After our bartering, we ate fried chicken, french fries and drank some delicious Mayan cream soda... it was so good!

From the market- we began our long journey to La Tinta. We saw lots of things on the way: a town's cultural fair, a giant hole in road where a mud slide had taken a chunk of the road out, small children working and men carrying heavy things that probably weighed more than they did [on a side note...Paul said the men in Guatemala often carry 4 bags of cement- one on each shoulder, one on the back and one on the head. When we worked on the retaining wall, even the strong guys could only carry one bag!]

We also saw many beautiful country mountain views. At one point, our journey slowed because there was a city fair going on so we had to take a detour. This detour happened to be straight UP a hill. This was not easy for a loaded-down ambulance that only has 2-wheel drive. Luckily, we had lots of strong men that could help push it up the hill. While we waited for the ambulance we enjoyed a beautiful view of the city that reminded me of Aladdin.

When we got closer to La Tinta, a little boy told us that there was a mud-slide ahead. Paul said he thought we could most likely pull the van through, but we may have to be prepared to get out and get muddy. Despite warnings from a few more locals, we decided to keep driving because we wanted to see the mud-slide for ourselves.
When we finally arrived, we were shocked.


It was not a mud-slide...it was a landslide! The whole mountain was literally gone and there was a valley instead. We found out there was a huge landslide that happened 2 years ago, but no one except the locals had known about it. They said there used to be a bridge and a road that was built to get across, but when the rainy season comes, the land keeps falling and destroying everything they worked to re-build.

After discussing all our options, we made a plan. The only way across the landslide was to walk, but the microbus and ambulance would have to be driven all the way back to the capital and up to La Tinta another way (about 20 hours of driving). Chris, David, Katie and I were in the group to hike across, while Kyle volunteered to drive. We were really grateful for the sacrifice of Kyle, Nick, Myles, Josh and Paul- who were the drivers.

As for us hikers, we were lucky to find nice people who fed us and let us stay in their hostel. The mosh was delicious and even eggs and beans tasted great after traveling all day. The room we were given to sleep in was ok but filled with huge spiders that lived in the bamboo walls. We opted to sleep with the singles on the floor, but I still got some nasty bug bites. One highlight from our stay is Chris had a real Spanish conversation with the hostel owner! He told her we didn't need any more blankets or sleeping pads, we wanted the lights off, and no, we didn't need breakfast because we were leaving early. I was proud of him :)