Bittersweet

Here we are. It's our last night at Lake Atitlán. For now. We feel strongly that we will return again someday. What an amazing place. We have made so many powerful connections with all kinds of people. 

I have been having so much fun learning Spanish at some lessons and also on my own, and especially practicing with the locals. Most of them are very patient and also have an interest in learning some English. Some of the Mayan people, who have their own native languages, have Spanish skills that are a few steps above mine, so we can chat just fine.  We have gotten to know a family of three ladies that walk around the village selling baskets of fruits that they carry on top of their heads. Huge piles of sandias (watermelons), papaya, mangos and piñas. They came around 8-9am and stopped at our front door and shouted "Hay sandia! Hay piña, papaya, mango!"  It was very loud and when they repeated it enough times it's hard to ignore, so we often purchased our fruit from them. They had quite a funny sense of humor. One day they saw us getting in our car (which we only did about 4 times in the 7 weeks) and they had their empty fruit baskets and were looking for a ride back to their village, which was on the way to where we were headed. We had a funny conversation with them and they giggled and waved as we drove by some of their friends on foot. 

Then the other day, I was sitting using my ancient laptop and my outdated iPhone at a hostel cafe. The three ladies came in and snuggled up around me and fondled the electronics. The oldest one looked close at my face and said something like  "WOW! You have mascara on!" I have rarely worn it since we have been on the road for four months, so it was funny that she was so observant. I thought about it and realized that she often saw me early in the morning in my yoga clothes with bed hair at our front door as I examined their papayas and pineapples.

We proceeded to have a very interesting conversation about the price of the luxuries that people like myself, privileged white folk, take for granted. The ladies here pay a tiny fraction of what we would for something like makeup, and get a product of way lesser quality. I told her that the mascara I was using was $150 quetzales ($30 CAN) for one tube, which is one reason that I use it sparingly. That's enough money to feed our family basic food here for about 5 days (at tourist prices) and for the locals more like a week of or two of food...or possibly even more! What a crazy world.

I thought that the fact that I have captured 8 scorpions in our house over 6 weeks was normal until I started telling people. Many of them said they have been here for months and had never seen a single one. They carry some powerful animal spirit messages which I have studied. Today, on our final day in this casa, I happened to find and capture a black widow spider hanging out on the kitchen counter. Here is a poor iPhone photo of her. They are a lot smaller than I imagined. I wanted a better picture...but it seemed a bit risky.

 We have truly been enamored by the tropical plants and birdsong here. The volcanoes and sunshine have a special place in our hearts, along with the spirit of cacao that is so strong here. We have participated in ingesting a whole lot of the special plant medicine over the last year but especially these last two months. 

Twice a week while we have been here we have dedicated an evening of helping to bag the freshly ground aromatic cacao paste into one-pound bricks. In exchange, we have attended healing ceremonies or taken some of the cacao home with us. Several nights we also exchanged the washing of a hundred or so rainbow cups used to drink cacao elixir at ceremonies. We have had so much fun with the cacao tribe here. It's so hard to leave the group, but we know that we all connect again through the love of cacao. 

I am currently reading the book called Naked Chocolate by David Wolfe and Shazzie. It's packed full of great info on cacao if you are curious. I bought the kindle version so it's on my iphone. So amazing. What will technology do next?!

We purchased some old-fashioned woven fabric from a women's weaving cooperative that is comprised of single mothers whom have more than three children to care for. We then asked a local Mayan woman (who knocked on our door wanting to sell us her weaving) to do some sewing work for us. We told her that we don't have a house anywhere so we have no use for woven tablecloths and curtains. She gave us a very skeptical look. It was the truth though. Weaving and sewing are her best skills and we heard from several sources in the community that any financial help we can give her through supporting her skills would be very much appreciated. She has her own children as well as several nieces and nephews to support (she told me 7 in total) and as is quite common here (and many parts of our world) she has a heap of challenges to meeting the needs of her family in regards to health and safety. 

Her teenaged niece came with her to our casa one evening and asked if she could borrow a dress of mine for her school play of Romeo y Julieta. I only had knee-length dresses, and she couldn't accept them as they weren't long enough. The ladies and girls here only wear the traditional güipil blouses and long corte skirts with wide, and usually intricate belts called fajas. Their outfits are beautifully hand embroidered with some beading on the belts and everything is very colorful. So she asked to borrow a white lace scarf of mine for her costume. I obliged. She was pretty excited to borrow such a unique item from a foreigner. 

Her cousin and aunt created some simple drawstring pouches for our special cacao bean medicine bags. We were under the assumption that they had a sewing machine to make them. It turns out they have made them all by hand. We will offer these for sale as a fundraiser at our upcoming cacao ceremonies. 

We have an awesome amount of pure cacao blocks and beans with us which have taken the place of the third human that had rode in our backseat on our way down from Mexico nearly two months ago (where did the time go??). We will be hosting cacao ceremonies starting now and heading north. Tomorrow we head to Xela / Quetzaltenango, which is the second largest city in Guatemala after the capital. Then we will cross back into Chiapas, Mexico. Excited for Chiapas!

One more tale:

One afternoon this week, I was walking back from the center of the village to our casa, which is just on the edge of town. There were hungover men strewn about on steps and benches and the smell of stale alcohol in the air.  There was garbage strewn all over between piles of dog poop from lots of food scraps being eaten by the dozens of street doggies. It was the aftermath of 10+ days of parties, booze and bombas from the annual feria of the pueblo. I was feeling a bit sad and a bit disgusted. Why do people abuse themselves and tour environment so terribly? Ugh. 

Just then, a small boy was approaching me in the distance. He was the only other person on the road. He looked at the most 6 or 7 years old, dressed in a bright blue soccer uniform. He smiled from the moment he saw me and then ran straight for me with his arms stretched out wide. I was amazed that I didn't know him at all but he clearly just wanted a big hug. That's all. Just a big hug. He was so happy to get a hug and a kiss on the head and thanked me with a huge toothy smile as he skipped away. Words can be messy and confusing, especially across cultural hurdles. Smiles, waves and hugs are universal no matter where I have been so far on the planet. I will not ever run short of love, so I will keep on spreading it along the heart trail. One hug at a time ...and one cacao bean at a time. 

Watermelon hearts? Yes please.

Nuevas Fronteras

The highlands of Chiapas and Guatemala are breathtaking, filled with endless colors, sounds and aromas. The air on Lake Atitlán is fresh and the sun is intense. The birdsong here is a wonderful soundtrack from dawn until dusk. Bananas, papayas and numerous flowering trees seem to grow everywhere that there is free space. Many of the indigenous Mayan people wear the traditional weaves of their villages in beautiful rainbow colors. 

The volcanoes remind us they are alive by releasing little puffs of ash every once in a while. Their stature is majestic, rising thousands of feet above the lake and surrounding villages. 

The journey to arrive here took two full days in the car. She was packed to the roof and our friend was sandwiched between piles in the backseat. Our first day took us from the northwest tip of Yucatan down through Campeche along the west coast of the peninsula. We then cut southbound into the heart of Chiapas in the southernmost tip of Mexico. The jungle gradually grew greener and thicker and the trees towered above us, much older and wiser here than along the coast. Coconut palms slowly morphed into banana and coffee forests. 

We climbed up through the mountain passes for several hours. As dusk settled in, in the dim sunlight we watched the corn-covered patchwork mountainsides pass us by, dotted with small villages. The steepness of these hillsides was remarkable. No modern machinery has touched those crops. Seeded by hand, harvested by hand. In the darkness of night, we wove through numerous highland villages. As the elevation increased, so did the fog. Thank goodness that a headlight polishing angel approached us in a grocery store parking lot the night before our departure! Our aged headlights were in desperate need of a facial! They helped us to safely navigate the dozens and dozens of nearly invisible speed bumps, or topes (tumulos in Guatemala) and the Friday night pedestrians on foot. 

Throughout the two days on the road we noticed many areas that had experienced recent mudslides, likely from exceptionally heavy rains. Men worked to haul away piles of rocks of all sizes. Heaps of sandy soil lined the road in some villages. Huge chunks of road were collapsed and washed away and there was no shortage of potholes, some half the size of our car. 

There were a few obvious differences that I noticed in Chiapas as compared to the other Mexican states we have traveled through:

One: the population seems generally happier. 

Two: the population is generally exceptionally well-dressed and tidy looking. 

Three: the villages and buildings appear very well-cared for, with fresh paint and virtually no garbage to be found.

Was their secret to success in their rebellion and refusal to follow along with the rest of Mexican standards? Was their desire for pride and equality that motivated a collaborative community energy? It felt like a completely different country! In a really good way. Wow!

The Zapatista movement has quieted down in recent years, but the spirit is still very much alive. Many people proudly sported cheerful grapey-purple tee shirts that said "Mover a Chiapas", meaning something like change Chiapas or shift Chiapas. 

We were so happy to see the lights of Ocosingo as we descended out of the darkness of the high peaks. We found a remarkably pristine hostel and the three of us settled in for the night. I awoke at 4am to a chorus of what sounded like a hundred roosters. I managed to fall back asleep until sunrise. We headed out very early to make the most of the daylight hours on the roads. The days and nights are approximately equal length here, about 12 hours of dark and 12 of light. It remains pretty much steady year round, as we are so close to the equator. The morning fog hung like scarves around the green mountain peaks. So lovely. 

One thing that I had read about in Chiapas is the occasional road block, set up to make a few pesos off of the unsuspecting foreigners passing through on these roads. We encountered this on our second morning as we traveled into the forested hills outside of Ocosingo. Two men had a pair of neatly cut branches laid across the road. We stopped and they said that they were collecting money to pay them for keeping the roads cleared of brush, which it did appear was really happening. They asked us for $20 pesos and we obliged. They were very friendly and thanked us with a smile, wishing us a nice day. We encountered a second stop a little while before the Guatemalan border. Three men had a rope across the road. One of them was shoveling a small heap of sand and they said they were collecting money to pay for their work on road repairs. We were skeptical. They asked for only $5 pesos. We said no problem and they thanked us and lowered the rope. That's one way to make some money. Something that would never fly where we come from!

As we approached the border of Guatemala we prepared all of our paperwork. We did our research ahead of time to make things smoother. We had to pay a fee to exit Mexico. We had to have the bottom exterior of our car sprayed with some kind of fumigation spray. We made sure to stand upwind. Two women approached and notified us of the grand fiesta happening mere meters from the fronterra gate.

The small village at the border just so happened to be celebrating their yearly festival that weekend. There were people and horses lining the Main Street. After making our rounds and filling out paperwork at several buildings, we watched the riders performing on their beautiful horses dazzling the crowd with amazing tricky footwork. We were granted our 90-day visas and as the parade finished we crept slowly along the street in our car. It was intensely hot so we had all widows rolled down. Hundreds of people still lined the streets in full celebration energy. They asked where we were from and encouraged us to dance along to the music as we rolled slowly along. One little boy yelled to me "what is your name?" in perfect English. I told him and he turned and told his little friends and they laughed. About 10 blocks later I heard someone yell my name. It was a different boy and as I looked his way, he and his friends giggled. Then two men leaned in the car window to have a chat with us. They spoke very good English and one told us that he lived in Seattle for a while. At the top of the hill at the edge of town, where the horses and cowboys were all convened, two men asked in Spanglish where we were from. As we slowly drove onward we told them Canada and one of them yelled in English "I LOVE YOU!!" We laughed and felt like we were part of the parade. 

As we exited town, we couldn't help but notice that there was red and green paint scattered along the road covering nearly every telephone pole, boulder, cliff and bridge. The green paint often had the word UNE stenciled on in white paint. The red often had a white hand symbol and the word LIDER. We saw signs in some towns that said "Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza". These were all political campaign signs. They made everything look so bright and cheerful, despite the underlying discord of politics. 

In Guatemala there are many brilliantly painted "chicken buses" zooming past us going at breakneck speeds, honking and billowing clouds of black exhaust. They are usually packed full of humans looking like sardines and piled high with luggage on the rooftops. 

As the sun sank lower in the sky, we came through more villages and mountain passes. At the top of one pass we noticed that the sunset was absolutely remarkable. We pulled over to take some shots. It was one of most beautiful sunsets I can ever remember. It looked as if God was smiling down on the city of Quetzaltenango. 

As we very slowly wound down the extremely steep and often sketchy road to Lake Atitlan, we could see the lights of the villages surrounding the shores. We encountered a broken down chicken bus on one dark corner. The police were very friendly and helped us through. We finally arrived at our destination and we unloaded our gear and parked our car in the center of the village near the well-used basketball court center. After the first few days, we have seen something like reverse vandalism, where our bounty of bumper stickers has been slowly disappearing. They must be making room for us to add some new ones from our fresh bunch of adventures. 

Our casa for the week. 

Much more to come... my eyelids are heavy after a very full day and the combination of howling dogs and cricket songs is calling me to bed. Buenas noches. 

Home is Where the Heart Is

We have made so many wonderful connections in Mexico in our first two months. The time has flown by and it already feels like one of our many homes. Especially the lovely hostel. We knew we wouldn't stay forever and as the universe began to send us subtle (and then some not-so-subtle) signs, we knew we would be departing soon. Where, we didn't yet know. However, the yoga instructor training begins on March 21, so we have that much figured out. A deadline to meet...for a change.

One man that we enjoyed getting to know at the hostel asked how things seem to flow so smoothly for us. I said that we simply do what feels right and when something feels difficult or unpleasant or forced, we step back to reevaluate and change direction. It's a fairly simple system. Intuition guides us when we listen.

While at the hostel, we enjoyed reading Discovering Your Soul Signature: a 33-day path to purpose, passion and joy by Panache Desai. It's a brilliantly written spiritual instruction manual to guide us through our thoughts and beliefs about ourselves and to peel away the layers of old dense energy to become our true selves. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to heal old patterns and beliefs and to move upward and onward in their spiritual journey. We have just started to read it a second time to dig a bit deeper.

We ended up hosting four Saturday night Cacao Ceremonies for peace and healing. They were so wonderful and the connection and heart opening that comes through the cacao plant medicine was profound for many of us. This has lead us to feel inspired to go meet the cacao shaman who inspired our cacao teacher. He resides in the mountains of Guatemala in San Marcos la Laguna on Lake Atitlan. It is a remote, two day trek from Progreso. We should have about 10 days at the lake. Then we will make a two to three day trek back up through Chiapas and Oaxaca to the Om Shanti Comunidad in Mazunte, Oaxaca, Mexico. We set our intentions and made arrangements to journey onward.

We said our goodbyes to all of our new friends at each of the mercados where we sold our vegan energy balls. What an outstanding bunch of people. We said adios to the vendors that we got to know at the local mercados where we shopped for fruits and veggies. A local couple made me a beautiful ring with a stone that was given to me back in September on the day of my Canadian citizenship ceremony. What a lovely creation with lots of beautiful memories inside!

It was bittersweet to say goodbye to our new family and yet exciting to welcome new adventures. After almost six weeks at the beach in Progreso, Yucatan, we packed up our little blue car, with a new Canadian friend in tow, and headed south for Guatemala.  A dear friend has been there for a month, and awaited our arrival.  Tonight another sweet amiga will be meeting us here, arriving via bus, shuttle van and then boat.

We made it to the lake! It was the most amazing two days that I have ever spent in a car. I will write about those two days in my next post. I'm feeling like it will be very difficult to express that experience in words and photos. I will do my best. 

PS. This little neighborhood perrita is playfully tugging on my towel as I lay in the yard enjoying the sunshine, breeze and birdsong at San Marcos. Hasta luego amigos.