By Quincy Hirt Lexie Drew
“Welcome to El Paredon”
These four words, spoken in a kind British accent, greeted us as we stepped off the bus. It was immediately clear that this place was unlike our recent destinations as the salty, humid, and hot air washed over us. Alex (kind British voice) and Lexi (a volunteer at Surf Camp, our hostel) greeted us warmly as we settled into our palm leaf huts. We all dropped our bags as soon as we could and ran onto the black sand beach to catch our first glimpse of the ocean thus far! Later that night, we enjoyed a delicious burrito dinner at the hostel, prepared by Dina and Blanca, two local women who kept us well-fed all week. After hearing our schedule, we hopped into our bunk beds and bug nets, excited for what was to come!
We worked all week with La Choza Chula, a social enterprise working in El Paredon to support the community to flourish through educational projects, programs, and partners. Alex, Ben, Maggie, Sonal, Vicks, and Rafa—six of the main staff members of La Choza Chula—led us through different activities all week.
Each day was themed, and we kicked off Sunday, International Development Day, with a tour of El Paredon and an introduction to the issues facing the town. We then gathered in the turtle sanctuary to learn about sustainable development, the world’s global goals, and created problem trees. We then hopped into canoes with local fishermen for a tour of the beautiful mangroves. Some of us even managed to catch a few catfish with just some fishing line and a hook.
The entirety of the week followed a very similar format. The days were centered around our three consistent meals, breakfast and dinner being served at the hostel, while we jumped around to different family restaurants for lunch. Our stomachs were full, but our days were fuller. La Choza Chula planned an assortment of activities, lessons, and tours for us in El Paredon. Many of the lessons were led by the staff of the organization. One of our favorites was a social enterprise, Shark Tank, where we broke into teams and created our own organizations to address a need in the community. Other exercises included a discussion on Fair Trade and an overview of global citizenship.
Additionally, our time was spent participating in a wide array of activities with the local population. On multiple occasions, we visited the town’s schools. At the primary school we made crafts and games for the large beach clean up we helped out at this Saturday. With the third-year Secondary School students, we took part in a speed dating activity to practice our Spanish and learn more about the day to day life of teens our age in El Paredon. We also supplemented our cultural and global education with some action education as we had two surf lessons. While the group contains a diverse combination of surfing experience and skill levels, we all gave it the “old gap year try” and headed into the glittering ocean. Each of us was accompanied by our own individual instructor, whose constant cheers echoed over the water despite our continuous flopping face-first off the board. With their support, and a second day of lessons, we were all able to make some serious improvement.
Since El Paredon is not extremely large, a week was a decent amount of time to explore our surroundings. We ventured to the the local river on three separate occasions, on paddle boards, canoes, and a motor boat. Our guides taught us all about the wildlife in the river and we enjoyed the peacefulness and serenity of the river as a break from the pounding force of the ocean’s waves. One morning, we got up early and headed to the turtle sanctuary to release over 100 baby turtles into the Pacific.
It was a magnificent, natural, and breathtaking experience to watch the turtles embark on their journey as we wished them luck from the shore.
La Choza Chula definitely kept us busy, but we also had a fair amount of free time many afternoons. Some students opted to get a break from the heat and humidity by cooling off in the water, while others decided to relax and read in the hammocks by the beach.
Clearly, it was an amazing week full of gorgeous environments, captivating conversations, valuable experiences, and important lessons. Every evening we were treated to a beautiful sunset. In a way, it was very symbolic as this was our last week in Guatemala, and the sun has set on our time in this incredible country. It is an exceptional nation that offered us so much, from the hospitable people to the volcanic wilderness. We asked some of our group members to reflect on and articulate their perception of the country.
Tav told us, “The best thing has been the people we’ve met along the way. All of our tour guides, teachers, staff, and more have welcomed us into their culture and country with open arms.”
In terms of the indigenous culture, Caroline shared, “The Mayan history is unbelievably rich and the people really respect their ancestors and history.”
We have nothing but an abundance of love for this place. We are extremely thankful for our journey through Guatemala, and we know that our time here will remain with us throughout our travels and into the future. That being said, we can’t wait to see what Nicaragua has in store!