richyang travel: 2006

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Our last three weeks have been out of this world!

First, a quick trip to Tikal, only the grandest of the Mayan temples during the Classic Period (300AD- 900AD)

This picture was taken on top of a pyramid at Tikal where I met Ophelia,

a corn farmer from Chimaltenago who was on her third trip to visit Tikal.

We camped at Tikal for one night and the next morning we got up at 5:30am

to take a "sunrise" walk through the thick jungle. The mosquitoes were thick around our ears

and it was sprinkling and muddy, but we thoroughly appreciated the experience

...us with a huge Caoba tree…

Then we spent a full day busing it back into the mountains and rain of Coban, from where we took a 4 day trek into the cloud forest with www.ecoquetzal.org

A journal entry from that memorable trek…

December 1st
At 5:30 this morning I awoke to a cacophony of bird calls. I pulled myself out of my warm nest, while Richard rolled over to continue his dreams. I stepped out of the dark room where we slept and into the yard to find that we were enveloped by clouds. The temp was at 50 F and I shivered despite my fleece. The birds called me into the forest, their joyful songs echoing off the clouds. It sounded like a great orchestra. Slowly I made my way up the muddy hill into the virgin cloud forest, keeping my eyes turned upward for a sight of a quetzal. Before I went too far I saw two female quetzals, feeding on the fruit of the only tree that nourishes this endangered national bird. It is a gorgeous bird with a crimson breast and a sparkling emerald back. The male has a tail which can reach up to one meter in length. Our first day in the forest we saw a male and a female! We were ecstatic to see the male in flight. The next morning I went for an early walk to keep warm and saw five females and one male. Later that same morning we saw three males and two females. Today, because of the thick cloud cover, I wasn’t able to see the brilliant colors of the females as they fed on their fruit. But I felt joy just at hearing the flapping of their wings. This virgin forest, and thus the quetzals, continues to exist in part because of the project Ecoquetzal. This project began 15 years ago and has encouraged tourism to see the forest and the national bird. This provides income so that families have a way to survive without cutting down more forest for cornfields or cattle pasture.

We truly enjoyed our three night stay with a Q´eqchi´ family who lives an hours walk from a road. It felt good to support them so that they can protect their forest. Don Manuel y Dona Maria own a small portion of the forest behind their house, which is full of orchids, medicinal plants and quetzals. We also saw toucans, hummingbirds, and the footprints of a tigrillo (a big cat). It was a truly enchanting and rare place and we felt that we were treading in a sacred place. I have never been in forest that felt so untouched, unspoiled. It is only a one hour bus ride plus a one hour walk from an ugly, noisy, polluted city, selling lumber, beef, and coffee that comes from the destruction of the cloud forest.

Our time in the forest felt somewhat frustrating and depressing. Projects like Ecoquetzal came too late to stop the majority of destruction of these essential life-giving forests. Luckily there are now people who recognize the importance of saving the remaining areas of forest. Hopefully the pull of money will never be strong enough to tumble these remaining trees. In reflecting on the importance of these forests I pray that our lifestyle never contributes to such destruction of the earth. For some reason it is this environmental destruction that is calling to me to do something to protect it. It is people (myself included!) who have damned themselves and the earth and even now don’t realize what they are doing. And it is people who can reverse this destruction. According to the Mayan cosmovision, health is a balance between physical, spiritual, mental and environmental aspects. But now even the Mayan peoples are throwing trash in their rivers, using chemicals on their fields, and putting junk into their bodies. They are traitors to their own beliefs. There must be more education and support so that indigenous people don’t destroy themselves. I sincerely hope that we can be involved in a project like Ecoquetzal for our future and for the future of our children and grandchildren.

Some photos from our trek...

The house where we stayed for three nights and the view on a sunny day.

The cloud forest behind the house where we saw orchids and quetzals.

Hiking through our favorite section of the cloud forest, on a sunny day!

This was the first day that we saw quetzals.

A photo of the lovely family we stayed with (except for the three oldest boys who were out working).

In the background you can see the forest that they own.

Our meals were delicious and included corn tortillas and beans that were grown right beside the house and then cooked over a fire. Here Doña Maria is shelling black beans which were picked fresh from the field. Once they are cooked or dried they will all be black, but for now it´s like Easter!

Richard stayed warm by playing football (with a tiny piece of styrofoam) and Mr. tickle with 4 of the 7 boys in the family. The older two boys were working in the fields and the youngest was playing his own games. During our time in the cloud forest it never got above 60 F.

Ronaldo is 2 years old and sooooo cute!

He played a game of hide and seek with us throughout the three days we stayed with the family.

On the last day he finally let us get close to him.

After this trek we took a bus to Nebaj and we spent 2 weeks in the Cuchumatanes Mountains, the highest in Central America. Soon we will send a blog about those incredible weeks.

Thanks for your comments and emails, we love hearing from you!

PEACE

Saturday, November 25, 2006

We are writing from San Andrés, Guatemala, a small town on Lake Peten Itzá. We have been here for two weeks studying Spanish and learning about the culture, traditions, and present day issues of this lovely community. Our time here has coincided with an annual festival to celebrate the patron Saint of the town, Saint Andrew (San Andres). We have had the pleasure of being woken up at 4am every morning by a tremendous bang of firecrackers signaling the beginning of the day´s prayers. The whole town seems to be enjoying this time of praying and partying.

The following photo is a view of San Andres when arriving by boat from Flores.

We have been staying with the wonderful family of Don Alberto and Dona Sonia, their two grown children, daughter in law and granddaughter. The family is jovial and welcoming and they have treated us very well. We have enjoyed beans and tortillas and many cups of instant coffee. From our room we have a view of the lake and a nice cool breeze.

This is Richard having a blast with Dania, the granddaughter of our hosts, and the two neighbors, Angela and little Baldy (an interesting nickname), who practically live at our house.

Eco-escuela is a community cooperative which benefits 50 families in San Andres. They have been operating as a Spanish school for 15 years and their goal is not only to teach Spanish, but also to teach the students, who come from the US and Europe, about the culture and traditions of this area. During the first week in the mornings we studied “ser y estar” and el subjuntivo, and in the afternoons we went on excursions to visit protected forests, traditional doctors, animals who have been rescued from poachers, and we learned how to make tamales.

Below is a photo of my teacher, Elga, explaining to me the difference between “por y para”

One of our favorite excursions was to visit Dona Fernanda, a respected traditional doctor for children. We learned from her about how she cures children when they suffer from symptoms that often cannot be cured by modern medicine. She uses prayers, which are a mixture of Mayan and Catholic beliefs. She also uses plants to give the children herbal baths, the plants are also taken orally. Because of her faith, and the faith of her patients, she has cured many children over the 20 years that she has been working as a “curandera”.

This is Dona Fernanda showing us a cotton tree in her garden.

For our second week in San Andres, Richard continued to study with a teacher at the school in the afternoons, and I spent that time studying on my own. In the mornings we worked in a neighboring town, San Jose, with the “Association of Mayan Itza Women and medicinal plants”. Last weekend my Spanish teacher, Elga, had introduced us to Dona Irma, an elder in San Jose who was instrumental in the start-up of this women´s group. We asked Dona Irma if she needed help with anything and she invited us to help in the clean up of the plot of land that the association has turned into a garden of medicinal plants. So every morning we walked an hour up to the garden and helped to rake and haul wood. In exchange for our work, Dona Irma taught us about medicinal plants. She also taught us how to make aloe vera lotion, a tincture of Jackass Bitters for amoebas and malaria, a cough syrup made of honey and herbs, and gave us allspice leaves that help to calm the stomach. After two weeks in Guatemala we can now identify at least 20 medicinal plants and what they are used for. The people in these towns have an incredible wealth of knowledge of the many uses of the plants in this area of massive biodiversity. There are many plants in this area which are now being researched for their value in healing cancer and HIV/AIDS.

This is Dona Irma showing Richard the “Vicks” plant – it smells just like vicks!

These are two of Dona Irma´s many grandchildren who are learning about traditional medicine so that the knowledge is not lost.

The 21st of November is the first of nine days of the annual town festival. On that night there was a reenactment of a town legend of the dancing woman, “La Chatona”. To celebrate this legend the children of the town make huge dancing dolls and there is a competition to see whose doll is the most similar to the original “Chatona”. In this photo you can see the reenactment along with three of the huge dolls. It was a great display of town folklore, highlighted by fireworks that left us practically deaf at the end of the night!

Tomorrow, being Sunday, we will leave San Andres to continue our travels through Guatemala, with our first stop being Tikal, the famous ancient Mayan city. You can look forward to more photo updates. Thanks for your emails and comments. It has been fun to hear from you!

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Welcome to Guatemala!

We have now been in Guatemala for one week and we want to give you a small picture of what we have experienced. Unfortunately we cannot put sounds and smells and sweat on this blog, but we can show you some of the photos we have taken in the past week. We have found Guatemala to be amazingly beautiful. The people are beautiful and welcoming, the language refreshing, and the mountains stunning. We are enjoying ourselves enormously. You can look forward to more travel updates from us in the coming months.

Semuc Champey: We spent an afternoon swimming in these incredible pools which sit on top of a cave. The rushing river goes into a cave underneath these pools for about 600 feet before spilling out again in a spectacular display. It is a place of marvelous beauty. After hours of swimming we climbed up the mountain to a viewing platform and we saw the above view.

Here´s us after our steep ascent to the viewpoint above the pools. Hot and sweaty, but stoked!

Check out our accomodation for three nights high up in the mountains near Lanquin, not far from Coban. We were the only campers and loved it!! Beautiful mornings near the river.

Comida tipica (Typical food). For breakfast: corn tortillas, black beans, fresh cheese, scrambled eggs, and plantain bananas. And of course, locally grown coffee!!

Buying our favorite corn tortillas in the local market. 4 for 1 quetzal (15 cents)! Lunch was homemade guacamole eaten with those same tortillas...

We are in Flores on Lake Peten Itza. It is hot and humid in this lowland jungle! On the 13th of November we begin Spanish classes in a village across the lake. We will stay in the house of a local family.