Highlights from Free Travel

After 8 weeks of Spanish classes and living with host families here in Guatemala City, we had a week of free travel where we could go anywhere we wanted (within reason, of course). Our group of 20 students split up into smaller groups and most people headed to the beach, but my group of five people decided to do something a little bit different - we headed into the rural highlands, and we got to see a whole new side of Guatemala.

We started at an agroecology center, which is working to preserve the rapidly-disappearing cloud forests. We had a 3-day trek, parts of which took us through the beautiful cloud forest, and in other parts took us through what had been the cloud forest just three months ago but has since been destroyed. We spent several days in Semuc Champey, where we enjoyed the beautiful limestone pools, and ended back at the agroecology center, and came back to the city yesterday.

Highlights from the trip:

Our trek took us through many areas accessible only by foot, which meant that not many foreigners make it to that part of Guatemala. We were a spectacle in most of the towns that we passed. At one point we were coming up to a rural K'ekchi' school, and as we walked closer we realized that all of the kids were coming out to watch us, and by the time we got to the school, all of the students and teachers were outside by the path. The five people in my group faced the large group of kids, and our K'ekchi' guide told us that the kids wanted us to sing a song in English. We sang 'Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.' They sang us a song, and they we sang 'Father Abraham' to them, complete with motions. They may have thought we were crazy, but we had a great time.

Our K'ekchi' guide, Victor, became a good friend throughout the trip. He patiently taught us many K'ekchi' phrases, which we loved practicing with the locals. The K'ekchi' people often looked surprised when we greeted them with a K'ekchi greeting. We spent two nights with K'ekchi host families. One of these nights, two of the the guys in my group played tag with some of the local kids who didn't really know any Spanish, and it was really fun to watch them interact in a universal game of tag where it didn't matter that we couldn't all speak the same language. We spoke a lot of Spanish throughout the trip with other people, and more often than not Spanish was everybody's second language, which was really cool.

In Semuc Champey, we had the opportunity to do a caving adventure one morning. Candle in hand, we entered the cave, walking through water and at times swimming, holding the candle out of the water. We climbed up and down several ladders and a waterfall, and had a great time. At one point the guide said we were 5 kilometers underground, although we were skeptical that we were that far under. It was really cool.

We had a great time, busy as it was. It was great to be out of the city and in the middle of the mountains. We helped plant some trees, played in a river, explored three different caves, trekked through the cloud forest, ate some good food, hiked through mud, conversed with some Mormans from the US, had crazy run rides in the back of many pick-ups, spent time laying in the middle of (abandoned) roads looking at the vast expanse of stars, went swimming in beautiful natural limestone pools, and had many great views.

Next we're heading to Chiapas, Mexico for a week and a half, where we'll live with a coffee-farming community. Another chance to get out of the city for a while, which is okay with me, and more chances to make many more great memories!