Return to Guatemala #1

I was back in Guatemala for the first three weeks of January and had high hopes of sending travel blogs from there, but the technology wasn't up to it.  So here, belatedly, are some reflections on my favorite place south of the border.

San Marcos La Laguna

I spent most of my visit in San Marcos La Laguna, a Mayan village on the northwest shore of Lake Atitlan in the Guatemala Highlands.  It was the season of the coffee harvest.  Many of the villagers were picking coffee beans, filling large white plastic bags with red beans, dousing the beans with vinegar for preservation, then selling their crop to the wholesalers who came to the village every evening.

San Marcos is an unusual mix of traditional Mayan life and an imported culture, really, counterculture, from the West.  Who are the foreign residents?  Some are New Age types who practice and teach yoga, massage, and meditation.  Other foreigners run small businesses -- hotels and restaurants or construction -- or work in development projects with the Mayan locals.  I visited a health clinic, art program for kids and Waldorf grammar school, women's weaving cooperative, and recycling program.  A third, smaller group of foreigners, either Guatemalan elites or Europeans and North Americans, own homes on Lake Atitlan and spend vacations there.

The foreigners and Mayans intermix mainly in the world of commerce.  A distressing part of being in San Marcos is witnessing the class divide, with the foreigners as the haves and the Mayans, the have-nots.  Still, the local families seem relatively content growing coffee and vegetables and fishing and performing service jobs in the tourism industry.

Mi Habitacion

Imagine my surprise to discover a beautiful, modern apartment complex, Pasaj-cap, that was a 20 minute walk along a dusty road from San Marcos.  I stayed in a tasteful, ultra-modern studio apartment with a full kitchen, up-to-date bathroom, Internet connection, fireplace and lots of space (800 square feet) that was designed by a visionary Frenchmen who spent 10 years building his six-apartment complex.  Many mornings, after fixing my coffee, I stretched out in an indoor hammock that hung in front of huge glass windows which looked out on the lake and three volcanoes brushed with clouds.

For me, Pasaj-cap was close to paradise.  Every morning I swam alone in gorgeous Lake Atitlan, although I had to make my way down, and up, a steep flagstone path from my studio to the lake.  Most afternoons and evenings, I walked to San Marcos to get some "city" life and eat in one of the local restaurants.  I treated myself to a return ride to Pasaj-cap in a tuk-tuk (a 3-wheeled, motorized pedicab) that cost about 70 cents per person.  It was a rough ride, but a lot better than walking.

The Cybernetic Revolution

Between last year and this year, the biggest change in San Marcos was the coming of the Internet.  Previously, there were two Internet cafes -- one of them not very reliable.  Today, many of the foreigners have home computers through satellite connections or they pick up wireless signals from a neighboring village on the lake.  Again, the great divide.  The Mayan people have no access to the Internet except for a computer or two in the local school.  Foreigners are thrilled to have better communication with each other; the Mayan locals seem unconcerned about missing anything.

This comfortable divide will not last long.  Already the Mayan youth are aware of visitors' I Pods and Blackberries and, inevitably, they will want such gadgets for themselves.  Given the gadgets' cost, the locals will not be able to afford them and some fear there will be an increase in theft in the future.  

My Internet exprience was mixed.  I was able to read email on my new mini-computer and follow the news of the world on the Web -- but that was only when the satellite reception was working.  And the few times I tried to send blogs, my signal was cut in the midst of typing.  Instead of learning to save everything, I gave up -- but I have hope for blogs on future visits.  And the next time I go to Guatemala, I will bring an old laptop with me to give to the village school.

In my next blog, I will write about the Mayan family I am involved with in San Marcos and about my new godmothering experience.

For those interested in learning more about Pasaj-cap, please see http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/region/central-america/guatemala/lake-atitlan/pasajcap