Archive for April 2015
Driving Adventures
When we awoke on Wednesday, the beginning of our 7th full day in Guatemala with the Morales family, we started packing almost immediately. It was time to leave Bill & Karin’s beautiful lake house and embark on a road trip to the beach house, reported to probably be 2-hours and 45-minutes duration. After a short time, just as we had on the drive to Lake Atitlán days before, we arrived at a mysterious stretch of road where up and down directions are reversed.
Marco stopped our vehicle, turned on the 4-way hazard lights, and shifted to neutral. The Toyota began to roll uphill. It’s crazy-making!
When we approach a “T” intersection very near to our planned restaurant stop for breakfast, the traffic came to a complete standstill. We were just a couple of car lengths from where we wanted to make a left turn, but were pinned with nowhere to go. Several guys on foot seemed to be trying to augment the single traffic cop’s attempt to orchestrate some progress, but many drivers just chose their own solution and drove around any vehicle in front of them. It only served to complicate the mess.
Patience turns out to be the best course of action, and eventually we made our turn and got to stretch our legs and sit down to eat. The restaurant had a roof, but no walls around the seating area. Cyndie ordered in Spanish; an omelet with vegetables for me, pancakes for her.
Breakfast automatically came with cups of coffee and a bowl of a sweet porridge. I noticed Cyndie and Marco set their cups aside after their first taste and he ordered better coffee for the two of them. I normally don’t like cooked oatmeal or porridge, but this was sweet and not heavy. I liked it a lot. It was a great breakfast on the road.
Shortly after departing from that restaurant, we came to a stretch of divided highway with a very long backup of stopped traffic in the lanes approaching from the other direction. Shockingly, we suddenly spotted vehicles driving toward us in our lanes! After multiple cars switched lanes in reaction, everyone going our direction adjusted to the right lane. After the initial alarm, it wasn’t as unnerving as you’d think, because there is a lot of driving in each other’s lanes to make passes on the two-lane roads everywhere else. Still, they were driving into traffic and it was very hazardous, so Dunia got on her phone and reported the situation to authorities.
Despite the traffic challenges, it seemed a relatively short time had passed when we reached sights that I began to recognize from my visit there with Marco a week earlier. The beach house was just ahead.
Upon arriving, we were able to meet Bill and Karin. The two families each have adjacent beach houses beside the large shared pool. It reminds me very much of the community of families at Cyndie’s family vacation home in Hayward, WI. We also are greeted by Karin’s sister and niece, and later, Bill and Karin’s son, Anthony.
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It was significantly hotter this day than any other we’d experienced, in large part because we’ve come down to sea level and it was sunny all day. I get my first chance to play some football with the Morales boys and Anthony, followed by a jump in the pool. Dunia’s parents arrived and we met them as Marco began preparations for a dinner of grilled lobster tail.
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As the sun got low, mosquitoes and the heat contributed to drive us into our air-conditioned room at around 6:45. It feels much later than that and we give in to beckoning sleep early, after a day that felt like we mostly just lounged in the pool. Hardly the exerting activities that should have caused such tiredness. Maybe the week was finally catching up with us.
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Water Taxi
On Tuesday of our fabulous Guatemalan adventure, Marco arranged for a boat to take us to several different destinations around lake Atitlán. The portion visible from the house where we were staying near Santiago Atitlán was a small fraction of the whole. It is the deepest lake in Central America, filling a caldera that was formed by an eruption many thousands of years ago. Ash from that eruption has been detected as far away as Florida and Ecuador.
The first thing I noticed after we got out on the water was the view of the two volcanoes, Volcán Tolimán and Volcán Atitlán, that were behind us and much less noticeable from our perspective on shore. Our view was dominated by the magnificently sculpted San Pedro filling the sky across the water.
I wish I could describe every detail of the unparalleled beauty of each place they took us for a meal, luxurious cups of coffee (or chocolate), more shopping, and every superb view that accompanied them. I’m unable to find the words at this point.
Here are some impressions from my camera to give you a glimpse…
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The Lake
It was now Monday morning and we were staying at Karin and Bill’s house at Lake Atitlán. Marco and Bill are architects and business partners. The house is tucked beside the rustic hotel Posada de Santiago, and surrounded by incredibly gorgeous landscaped gardens.
The first thing we did when we woke up was walk across the road to the lake and sit in the hotel pool area, taking in the vista of the volcano San Pedro reflected on the water. The early morning air was calm. A cloudy mist floated above the surface of the water where fishermen in their canoes and flat bottom boats slowly plied their crafts.
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A man was preparing the chairs and swimming pool for the day, and after some brief dialogue with Marco, he delivered tall glasses of fresh squeezed orange juice. Marco had thought about the possibility of taking canoes across the lake to breakfast, but he learned the hotel was fully booked and they didn’t want to give up canoes for that long.
Instead, we gladly drove to breakfast, for pancakes. From the parking area, there is an incredibly lush and beautiful garden to walk through to the restaurant. For some reason, I only took a picture of the building. Some things just defy being captured in an image.
After breakfast we drove to the market in Santiago Atitlán where street vendors displayed the many bright-colored designs and craftwork of the classic Guatemalan look. We enjoy a pleasant stroll up and down the stone streets to shop for more souvenirs, while Marco went off to find a coffee maker for the house —an essential appliance they could have used when they woke up this day.
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With no agenda for the afternoon, we passed time enjoying relaxing pursuits. The boys went off together to do young Marco’s prescribed football (soccer, for US readers) exercise workout. I threatened to join them, but then passed on the opportunity. Instead, I caught up on email a bit until, somehow it had gotten to almost 2 o’clock and we needed to make it to the hotel restaurant before they stopped serving lunch. 
I ordered a ham and cheese sandwich and happily found it to be customized to a Guatemalan version of ham topped with avocado and a fabulous cheese.
After lunch, I watched part of the movie, “Guardian of the Galaxy” with Jose on his laptop computer. We paused it when Marco Sr. invited us to join everyone for some afternoon coffee/hot chocolate and cookies. We played “Golf” with a deck of cards and the board game Cranium and even some “Heads Up” with Marco’s phone, after we had him download the app.
It was feeling wonderfully like a vacation at the lake.
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To Atitlán
Flush with excitement for all we had seen of the Palm Sunday events in Antigua, we settled back into the Land Cruiser for a couple hours of driving to get to picturesque Lake Atitlán, where we would have use of their friends’ gorgeous old lake house for a few days. 
Marco decided it would make most sense to eat lunch before getting too far down the road, knowing the Restaurante El Mirador would again be a convenient option. That was at the same La Reunion Golf Resort where he took me for breakfast on our first day in Guatemala.
We had hoped to see a good view of volcanoes that first day, but the sky was thick with hazy clouds. Now on our second visit, we were experiencing a thunderstorm. In fact, with the lack of walls enclosing the seating areas, the sound of one crack was startling enough that Cyndie let out an involuntary scream. She was immediately embarrassed by her outburst and apologized profusely. I don’t believe many people noticed. Even though Cyndie was the only person to react out loud, I think everyone else experienced a bit of a silent scream inside their own heads.
Needless to say, there wasn’t much in the way of volcano views that day, either.
My being in vacation mode had me regularly losing track of time or what day it was, but after the spectacle of the Palm Sunday procession just a short time earlier, I wasn’t surprised to see the restaurant was serving a fancy looking brunch. I didn’t get around to taking pictures until I had selected desserts that looked too fine to be eaten. I liked the design that looks like a treble clef enough that it made me think of pulling out the camera.
Marco told us that it was uncharacteristically early for their rainy season to be starting, but our drive ended up involved in epic amounts of rainfall. Being seated in the car kept me from pulling out my camera to capture the drama of that afternoon, but it was probably too dark for pictures anyway.
I went so far as to make some ridiculous statement about how dark clouds always looks worse in the distance. When you eventually arrive to actual storm clouds that may have looked so ominous at a distance, they never seem nearly as dark. It didn’t take long at all for this instance to totally demonstrate the folly of my point. It just kept getting darker and darker.
Then it rained harder and harder. Unbelievable amounts of water came down as Marco heroically pushed the Toyota to proceed up the mountain road. Visibility on the windshield went from bad, to “clear enough we could see how bad.” Rain was coming down in multiple inch-per-hour rates. Runoff was beginning to become rivers which overflowed the ditches of the switchback road.
There were a few spots where it looked like a gamble to drive through, and in one place, the gushing water in a ditch was hitting an obstruction and shooting straight up into the air. Marco handled it all with a calm composure and successfully steered through the worst of it and over the mountain to the other side where the rain calmed down considerably.
When we got to the house there was a sense of relief. Then we spotted a few places where the roof leaked. It only extended the drama a tiny bit. The weather began to improve almost immediately such that we didn’t experience any further problems with leaks or floods.
We walked a short distance down to a restaurant at Posada de Santiago where Jose was quick to point out they had a guitar that was available for guests and customers to play.
We celebrated the end of our incredible 4th day with a fine meal in a very comfortable setting. Our pace would slow down a little bit now, which was well deserved, after the incredible adventures we enjoyed that Sunday. We turned in at a decent hour, and even though it was our 3rd bed in as many days, I slept wonderfully that night.
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The Procession
With the mule tour of the coffee plantation completed, it was time to return to the commerce center of Antigua for the spectacular Palm Sunday procession. This story probably has as many versions as the number of people involved in our day, but my version is a mixture of curious, interesting, entertaining, and magnificent beauty and pageantry. Mine is the version you are going to get.
A significant percentage of my perspective is through the filter of not having been able to decipher the language being spoken around me. I was also basically a blank slate in terms of expectations for the events in Antigua. With each subsequent mention of what was in store, I gained an increased sense of the magnificence about to be revealed.
Before we were even close to our destination, the traffic became congested and the number of people navigating on foot increased significantly. I got the impression time was running out and Marco wanted to get us as close as possible. It reached a point where I didn’t see how we would ever find an open spot to park so close to all the activity, when suddenly instructions came for us to climb out with Dunia and Jose, while the two Marcos (father and son) graciously elected to stay behind and figure out what to do with the vehicle.
The 4 of us on foot immersed ourselves in the flow of people hustling along. We studiously attempted to maintain contact with each other as Cyndie and I snapped photos, and Jose navigated a map he had acquired. Dunia relied on her intrepid intuition to forge ahead, while soliciting advice from anyone who would respond. I came to understand that we were in search of the most elaborate sawdust “carpets” that get created on the stone streets. We needed to find them ahead of the oncoming procession because they walk on them, stopping over each creation to offer a blessing. That meant we needed to figure out where the best carpets were and we needed to know where the procession was, and which way it was traveling.
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I can assume Dunia was asking passersby a variety of all these questions, but I couldn’t tell. In my observation, it appeared that no matter who she would stop for directions, she received the same advice: go two blocks and turn left. So we did, over and over again, it seemed. There was enough variety that we didn’t make a perfect circle, but I did begin to get the impression we had been some places more than once. Sometimes we ended up in the largest mass of people and traffic, either moving with them, or against them. Other times, we found ourselves on a much quieter avenue. We would come upon some carefully crafted creations of pine needles and wood shavings, topped with floral arrangements. Regardless the relative splendor, I could tell they didn’t match the criteria of what Dunia ultimately had in mind for us to see.
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We forged ahead, with increasing urgency. After what was beginning to seem like a fruitless effort to out-flank the procession as we navigated beyond the clamor of the main hub of activity, we turned a corner to find a perfect example of one of the more incredibly precise and intricate compositions of brightly colored sawdust that Dunia wanted to show us, while it was still in process of being finished. After spending some time visiting with the family working on the carpet, we suddenly discovered that we were standing less than a block from a straight-on view of the oncoming procession, just minutes away and about to turn a corner right in front of us. It was a double bonus!
Throughout the entire search we had seen an endless number of church faithful draped in purple robes with white headdress, looking very much the biblical shepherds. They amassed in large numbers as the float of Catholic Passion-of-Christ sculptures being carried on shoulders approached, preparing to take a shift as load-bearers. As a side note, this procession started at 11:00 a.m. and would last all day, carrying on into the late evening hours. We watched just a few minutes of it.
We ended up witnessing the added drama at this corner, of the sculpture catching on an overhead wire. There are men carrying tall poles to lift the many low-hanging wires along the route, but one of them failed to hold his wire long enough for the float to finish the turn, and the back corner caught. There was a gasp from the crowd, as the top of the sculpture pulled the wire tight, digging in enough so the returning wire lifter couldn’t just raise it up out of the way again, but had to wrestle it out from where it cut into the sculpture. The wire pulled a chunk of the column out when it came free.
A marching band followed the float, playing a slow, mournful cadence to guide the teeming mass. Just as the last of the procession cleared, younger Marco’s face appeared from the crowd, honing in on us like he had our GPS coordinates. He had come to guide us to our getaway car. We walked up the street in the direction the procession had just come from, taking in the sights of the disrupted carpets until we realized everyone had moved to the sidewalk. Uniformed women were ushering us off the street as we suddenly spotted a second float being carried by all women, again followed by a band.
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Our double bonus became a triple bonus!
It was a stupendous finish to our expedition of witnessing the amazing Palm Sunday Antigua, Guatemala Holy Week procession, in person. Our hosts had outdone themselves, once again, with perfect timing and superb results. Thank you, thank you, Marco, Dunia, Marco, and Jose! You provided us with another fabulous and wonderful experience.
And folks reading, I’m still only on day 4, and I’m only two-thirds of the way through it! Next, we head for Lake Atitlán…
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Mule Tour
It was Sunday morning, Palm Sunday, and we awoke from an excellent night of sleep —if I disregard the one moment of waking before dawn in total disorientation about where I was.
It was a gorgeous looking day outside and we marveled over the minute-by-minute changes in cloud formations that appeared around the cone of the volcano visible from the balcony of our room at the Filadelphia Coffee Resort. The accommodations were exceptional. I was glad we had taken a swim in that pool the night before, because it was looking irresistible in the morning, but there was no time for it at that point.
The view out the door of our rooms looked over the coffee production facility, with drying beans spread in decorative patterns on the ground.
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Our plan was to pack up the car and check out of our rooms after breakfast, then walk to a mule tour of the coffee plantation. When Jose came out of his room, he persuaded me to join him in a little ping-pong until everyone else was ready to go. That was a good way to get the blood flowing. At breakfast, since I’m not a coffee drinker, I went for the next best thing: hot chocolate. It looked so good, I took a picture. It was good.
The mule tour turned out to be more horses than mules, because most of their mules were being given a day off after being worked too much. That was okay with me, especially as my horse was very cooperative. The horse that Dunia was on was a little more feisty and when it took to kicking to claim some space, Jose’s foot was in the way of the kick. Things settled down after that and we plodded along, taking in the sights of the short coffee bushes growing among the taller shade trees that protect them.
After 8 or 9 years, I think it was, they replace the plants with new ones, so they have a very extensive nursery of new starters ready to go. I tended to lose focus of details when the guide described the different flavors and bitter vs. sweetness of the coffee beans from different regions, since I’m not a coffee fan, but overall it was a fascinating and rewarding thing to see.
The “tour” was not very formal, and it seemed the best way to get information from our guide was to get close enough to ask questions. Toward the end, after learning some fascinating things about the business of growing coffee, I had a nice one-on-one visit with the guide as he inquired about details of our Wintervale Ranch and I learned of his broad ranging work experience and current plan to become a barista, maybe someday opening a coffee shop of his own.
I was a little wobbly when I got out of the saddle and landed on the ground again, but was no worse for the wear in the long run.
Visiting a coffee plantation was almost enough to entice me to want to start liking coffee, but only almost. I think I’ll stay with my preference for hot chocolate or chai.
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Poetic Interlude
Much as I am enjoying the chance to relive the days of our fabulous visit with the Morales family in Guatemala, the realities of my present day responsibilities are squeezing me right out of chances to write more at this time, so I am going to compose a few non-sentence poetic word lines that come to mind to compliment this abstract closeup image of a palm tree. It is a quicker exercise for me, because I can just make it up as I go along, don’t you know.
flying
from snow
to see friends
in Guatemala
excited
anticipation
is met
with smiles
and miles
and miles
of unbelievable things
more appropriately measured
in kilometers
but no matter
it’s all the same
with fun stacked upon fun
and every day more
beauty and wonder
intrinsically magical things
friends become family
making it hard when it comes
that point of departure
when hearts tend to break
the time for goodbyes
when we have to fly
back home
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We are missing you so much, Marco, Dunia, Marco, & Jose!
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To Antigua
On our third day in Guatemala City we woke up to instructions to pack for a road trip. It immediately reminded me of the old stand up routine of George Carlin’s about “Stuff.” We needed to pack a smaller version of things we brought with us for an overnight in Antigua and then a few days in Santiago Atitlán
Due to limitations of space in the vehicle, our larger luggage would be trucked directly to the beach house where we would eventually arrive. We packed a smaller version of our travel bags. That still turned out to be a lot of stuff, especially compared to the bag Jose packed. He put on shorts and a tank top shirt and told me “This is how you dress for Antigua!” The small duffel bag he carried looked like it didn’t even have anything else in it.
“You told us to pack light!” he said to his parents when they remarked about his almost empty bag.
We dealt with a moderate amount of traffic on the relatively short trip to Antigua, where Marco strategically chose parking in a hotel that wasn’t the one we would be staying at, for reasons of convenience. That decision led to an unlikely coincidence of Cyndie surprisingly coming upon a Minnesota friend and colleague on the sidewalk of the hotel. What are the odds of that?
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We walked and browsed the bustling streets of historic Antigua. It was a superb experience. Cyndie was an excellent shopper, finding many potential items that captured her fancy. We enjoyed a lunch outdoor at an Italian restaurant that served delicious wood-fired pizza. We splurged on tiramisu cake for dessert.
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In trying to navigate the winding narrow streets from our daytime parking spot, to the exclusive Filadelfia hotel at a coffee plantation nearby where we had reservations, we came to a few roads already closed in preparation for Palm Sunday events the following day. Of course, that spectacle happened to be our objective for tomorrow. Having been naively and blissfully oblivious to many of the details of our itinerary, it was at this point that I began to grasp the enormity of what lie ahead for us in Antigua. Seriously, I had totally missed that it was actually going to be Palm Sunday.
I will never be able to adequately convey my full appreciation for the excellent and inspired planning that Marco and Dunia did to give us the absolute BEST experience imaginable while we were with them. There just aren’t enough superlatives to do them justice.
When we arrived at the hotel we were floored by the greatness of everything. It is exquisite. Our rooms provided an amazing view of volcano Agua that is entirely captivating. We dipped in the pool for a swim after dark, soaked in the hot tub, and then went to dinner in the hotel/plantation restaurant.
It was another day that ended with us feeling as though the events were the equivalent of several days worth. Truly a magnificent experience for us.
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Trip Images
Here are some additional images that represent our journey thus far…
A view of the outside and inside of the front door to the Morales’ gorgeous home in Guatemala City.
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A view of the back of their house and the beautiful hanging blossoms over the deck.
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Their variety of dogs. The pack was never stationary long enough to get them all at once.
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And more from the stable, Dunia riding, and their horses. I loved the look of the two-story housing.
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.Fandango and Sarnac
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Twice Locked
After a fantastic full night of sleep, we enjoyed breakfast out on their deck. It was Friday and Marco needed to work, but that was no problem because we would be going with Dunia to the stable where they keep their horses. Dunia had scheduled someone to record video for promotion of her C’Ubuntu equine assisted learning workshops. We would be participating in real exercises with the horses to provide the videographer genuine scenes to capture.
Cyndie had been to this stable the day before, but for me it was a thrill to meet their horses and get to know the space where they ride and host workshops. I was able to do exercises in the round pen with each of their horses under Dunia’s guidance. We finished with a group meditation on chairs in the pen with two horses free to move about and interact with us. That was a particularly amazing experience for me.
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After the round pen, we moved to beautiful pastures in a ravine and were able to spend idle time mingling with the horses in their space. The videographer used a drone, which buzzed like a horde of ferocious mosquitos, to get aerial shots. It seemed to unnerve the horses a tiny bit.
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Luckily, they all tolerated it as a necessary, temporary annoyance for us. Hopefully, Dunia will be able to report that she got some good photos and video from the day.
For lunch we made our way to a stylish contemporary restaurant in a mall, Café Saul, which is a favorite of Jose’s for their crepes. Then a stroll through the shopping mall to pick up a swim suit for Jose and makeup for Cyndie. While shopping, we heard a loud crack of thunder and then rain pounded on the roof far overhead. Power went off in the mall for a brief moment, but shopping was not disrupted.
When Dunia, Jose, and Cyndie & I got back to the house, all the doors were locked and we couldn’t get inside. Dunia phoned son Marco to come let us in and we walked around to the back deck to sit and visit. When Marco arrived and opened the door, we were in the middle of a story. Marco said something to Jose, who then jumped to his feet and they took off together in haste. Jose closed the door to the house as he stepped in and we kept on visiting until later. When we finally got up to go in, we found the door had locked again behind Jose. This time Dunia called Marco, Sr., and he suggested we drive to a nearby coffee shop to wait until he was able to join us. So we drove off again and were treated to a wonderful vista from the balcony of the cafe.
After coffee (and/or hot chocolate) and a treat there, the 4 of us headed back to the house where they prepared a chicken dinner. The boys arrived home in time to eat with us and we hung out around the table, Cyndie tracing horse images from their books while I played guitar with each of the guys. Stayed up till about midnight. It was delightful.
It was another day that felt like several. By the end, as we laughed and laughed about getting locked out twice in a row, the morning sessions with the horses seemed like it must have been a different day. That makes for a glorious vacation, if you ask me.
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Relative Something 