Hasta pronto

It’s almost unBelizeable that only a month has passed since we first said guat’s up to Antigua.

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From the Pacific to the Atlantic we traveled by bus, boat and plane across Guatemala and Belize. exploring a variety of natural environments and meeting many different people along the way.

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We learned a lot a lot about a country still in the process of recovering from a long and violent civil war and saw first hand the challenges nature can pose on people with eruption of Fuego. Yet at the same time we was able experience the resilience and courage of everyday people who despite the trauma, suffering and repression they have experienced in the past remain strong in advocating for themselves and their communities.

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Our stay in Caye Caulker gave me a lot time to relax…

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(excluding the hotel fire)

but even with all that time I haven’t been able to think of a good way to say goodbye so instead I’ll say “until soon”

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There is a lot more of Central America I’d love to see in the future!

-Alan

 

A Comedic Look at Week 2 by Kendall and Alan

We have been doing a lot of thinking on how to start this blog post… so …

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Guat’s up! 

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This is Alan and Kendall’s blog post. We had a wild week in Guatemala! We traveled through Maya ruins, lakes and lots and lots of rain.

Lucky for us we brought safety ponchos so we won’t be getting surprised by the rain or run over by cars! Unlike Astrid…

Just kidding she is fine. Although she should really consider getting a safety poncho just to be safe.

Kendall does not like the ash.

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“I didn’t like the ash very much” – Kendall

We didn’t let Fuego get us down though. We left for the weekend to go to Lake Atitlan, so we escaped the chaos of Antigua for a bit. The three hour drive to the lake was pretty windy, and our first boat ride from Panajachel to San Juan was pretty bumpy.

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In our stay at lake Atitlan, we learned a lot about how traditional Maya products are made. We even got to spin some cotton into thread with the help of Delfina, a local weaver who works at the Casa Flor Ixcaco cooperative in San Juan. The next day, our focus was 100% on ceramics. We went to Maya Ken and learned about their process of making ceramics from making the molds/throwing vessels on the wheel to firing and glazing. We even got to paint our own items! And of course, we did a lot of shopping all along the way.

Overall, it was a pretty crazy weekend. We’re sure it wasn’t easy for Mily, Astrid, and Catherine.

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We are sorry Catherine.

We were back in class at the Casa on Monday and got the pleasure to hear David Stuart talk about the San Bartolo murals. It was really interesting hearing about how they documented the murals with a desktop scanner from the early 2000s and then how Heather Hurst recreated the murals as beautiful watercolor paintings. David is such an important figure in Maya archeological history. We got so much out of his lecture, but were left with one last question:

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Thanks for reading!

Alan & Kendall