Back in Coban with electricity, internet, and all other trappings of civilization. To catch up a bit, we´re recapping San Andres.
Day one, we all started our homestays, and some hit off well, while the unlucky ones still got warm smiles and a greeting. Not much more happened after that, to my knowledge, and the day ended quietly.
Day two was our first day in language school, which we all enjoyed. In the morning, we had a group meeting to figure out what was going on for the week, aside from school. School was different for all of us during the week, since none of us are at exactly the same level of Spanish as another in the group, so day one class was more or less an assessment by the teachers of what we already knew.
Day three in San Andres. We started the day with a little community work at a local beach, affectionately known as ¨Gringo Beach.¨ We cleaned up a lot of trash, and did a little landscpaing to offset erosion, and finished off with digging a firepit. Though, that doesn´t really seem too necesary in retrospect, as there´s an old out of business restaurant hanging over the water with roof access. Most people build their fires up there. Class continued as it had the day before, and while everyone was fairly satisfied with how things were going, I understand that Rachel´s teacher put her through a lot of material she pointed out to already knowing. I also understand that this is the day that Julia started to make visits to a ¨curandera,¨ a local herbal healer. This day was also Nick´s birthday, celebrating number two in our line of four. We celebrated by having a great pizza dinner at a hilltop dinner, ate some spam (yes Ethan, we ATE the spam), gave Nick a toy motorcycle, and finished up by christening our new fire pit at Gringo Beach.
Day four. In the morning, we visited a zoo run by a foundation called ARCA, although I forget what that stands for. All the animals in the zoo were rescued from poachers. I was kind of sad, because a lot of them were babies at the time, and can never be released back into the wild. The animals included about a dozen spider monkies, some of whom reached out of the cage to offer a handshake, while others rattled the wire fencing and screamed at us; a baby leopard; and a variety of exotic birds, including parrots in various stages of molting, and an interesting larger black bird Edgar Allen Poe would have had a field day writing about. Once again, school as normal, but I think Jessica and another person went on little field trips with their teachers instead of having class in the classroom.
Day five. We spent the morning sweeping a forest path to help maintain a fire line and reduce the risk of forest fires in the area. When we were done, we chilled in the woods for a bit, and had our first encounter with howler monkies. We didn´t actually see them, but it would have been hard to not hear them; until we figured out what was making the noise, we thought we were in Jurassic Park. Class went as usual.
Day six. Our last full day in the homestays, and our last day in class at this language school. In the morning, we drove up the road to a farm outside of town, called La Finca Zacharias. It´s a non-profit farm in it´s beginning stages, and has long term goals of lumber production and providing needed jobs to the folks in town. For class, we all took a fieldtrip together into the next town and met a woman who runs an association of women who hold an interest in alternative remedies. They also make a range of herbal soaps, for which they have recently made a production contract with Sephora in a line called Mayan Mystique, though I understand that the line will not be on the shelves for a couple years.
Day seven, we made a day trip the fantastic Mayan ruins of Tikal, which are heartstoppingly beautiful. The views afforded from climbing up the steep monuments and temples is well worth the scary climb up. George Lucas thought so, too, the Ewok village was actually filmed in Tikal, and you can recognize one of the scenes from the top of a temple.
We made camp for the night at another set of ruins, where Patito was unfortunately lost, presumabely eaten by a jaguar. We later climbed up to the top of a ceremonial temple, and watched the sun set, before heading back to eat canned beans over a bonfire.
We pilled back to San Andres in the morning, to get the rest of our stuff, and begin our drive to Coban.
Tim for the CAM Carpe Diem Spring 2009 group.
