¡Guate-ever!

Ok some may say I am a little late in posting this blog. Some may think it’s not swimming centric enough. To both I say, “Guate-ever”!

Yes a new phrase, I learned in our recent 3 week viaje to Guatemala. While swimming wasn’t the focus of this trip we did find some time for the water.

To continue our Spanish language journey we decided on an early spring trip to Guatemala. Our research uncovered that it would be a good place to immerse ourselves in the language, learn about a heavily Mayan influenced culture, and all at a unique time of year,Semana Santa (Easter week).

Flying into Guatemala City late at night we stayed at an airport hotel as the next morning we had an early flight to Flores. Flores is in north eastern-ish Guatemala kind of near the Belize border. Flores sits on a large lake and is the gateway to Tikal National Park, our destination. The Mayan ruins in Tikal dates back as far as 900 bce. We stayed at the eco-friendly Jungle Lodge within the park itself. The lodge was nice yet rustic with the electricity and internet scheduled to go off and on at certain times during the day.

The big thing to do is the watch the sunrise over the Mayan ruins. We hired a private guide/naturalist and started our journey into the park in the dark at 4:30am. It was really cool to listen to the jungle “wake up” in the morning with the sounds of birds and howler monkeys.

We enjoyed seeing the sunrises over the ancient Mayan temples,and learning about the sophistication of the Mayan civilization. Even more amazing was our tour was in totally in Spanish and I understood nearly all of it!

It was the jungle and yes it was “jungle hot”. I’m talking like 110 degrees with tons of humidity. After the tour it was time for a “swim”. One needs to be a bit selective on where they swim in the jungle.

After Tikal we stayed a few days at Las Lagunas Boutique Hotel to decompress after several long days of travel. Yes it was still jungle hot and I was still wary of where to swim.

After Tikal/Flores we flew back to Guatemala City and took a car to the Central Highlands to Lago Atitlan.

Lago Atitlan was formed thousands of years ago with the eruption of a super volcano that formed a massive caldera. Eventually it turned into a lake and is now the largest lake in Central America.

The lake is about 11 miles long and 6 or 7 miles wide with small remote villages tucked around the lake. The primary way, perhaps only, way to get from village to village was by “lancha” (boat). The villages felt very indigenous with many local handmade crafts and textiles.

We stayed in two different hotels on the lake; Casa del Mundo and Casa Palopo. Both very cool and different. Casa del Mundo was very authentic a bit quirky an built into a hillside and Casa Palopo an elegant Relais & Chateau property.

We had the opportunity to swim in the lake a couple of times once at Casa del Mundo and their wonderful swimming patios and another time the village of San Marco and a cool park where you could sun yourself on the rocks and swim.

Both hotels had great vistas of the lake and the surrounding volcanoes. From either vantage point I couldn’t help but wonder…is this a potential distance swim for the futuro? Hmmm…stay tuned.

We were then off to our last and final stop in Guatemala, the town of Antigua. While once the former capital of Guatemala it is a manageable sized town known for its Colonial architecture with stunning views of Volcan de Agua.

We were there for about 10 days to continue our Spanish language journey at a local escuela and importantly to experience Semana Santa (Easter Week). Antigua is well known for having one grandest and most unique Semana Santas en el mundo.

The Antiguena Academy’s learning model is all private one on one lessons. The classroom (aula) was a park in town where students sat with their teachers and studied Spanish. It was a pretty setting.

One of the real highlights of the trip was our friends the Freeman’s and my sister Linda, joined us for the Semana Santa festivities.

We had a great time hiking Pacaya volcano with Lynn & Steve, visiting a coffee plantation with Linda and all of us meandering and exploring the streets, shops, restaurants and bars of Antigua and learning about Semana Santa.

The Semana Santa (Holy Week) celebrations have been taking place in Antigua since the 16th century. It is known to be one of the grandest Semana Santa celebrations in the world blending Catholic and indigenous traditions.

It was a bustling and very local vibe, i.e. not seeing many gringos the entire time we were there. While there were preparations for celebrations or celebrations most of the week it really kicked into gear on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

The street are filled with alfombras basically colorful sawdust carpets created by shopkeepers and residences along the procession routes.

The processions start at various churches at different hours of the day with massive andas (floats) with religious adornments on top of them. They are carried by men dressed in purple cloaks or women wearing black swaying in a reverent meditative walk. Incense is wafting everywhere! The processions of andas and the bands following them walk over the alfombras destroying them. The processions can last as long as 10+ hours with celebrants trading off and on carrying the andas.

If you are religious or not…it is really special to experience the devotion, pageantry, tradition and mixed cultural influence of this long time important celebration.

Guatemala like Colombia (see blog-¡Que Chimba!) are both countries with violent pasts in the relatively recent past. Having visited both countries in the last five months I have much respect for these people.

In my experience the people are kind, share a strong sense of community and culture. Perhaps even more important the people are resilient and hopeful despite the adversity they have faced.

I suspect many Guatemalans may have an attitude of “Guat-ever” as they may have a better perspective on what’s important and what’s not important in life. Perhaps we can learn something from them!