One week off with Dad and then in Antigua, Guatemala

My schedule here allows me to work for 21 days in the community and then take a week off to explore. For this reason, I was able to spend 4 days with my father who visited from New York to see a small piece of Chiapas, and then I spent the latter 4 days in Antigua, Guatemala visiting Lorraine, the Ob/Gyn doctor with whom I worked in Hospital Altamirano, and her husband Miguel. Dad and I explored San Cristobal and the Chiflon waterfalls near Comitan. With him, he brought enough cookies and brownies to throw a grand party, as well as several books I’d been lacking. Despite his altitude sickness and frustration with the omnipresent evidence of poverty, we had a good visit and I hope he went home more worldly for it. From San Cris, I took a 12 hour van across the Guatemalan border to Antigua. On the road, Guatemala’s differences with Chiapas are well pronounced beginning with the famous Chicken buses and continuing with their more sophisticated farming methods. Unfortunately, the border road is very dangerous, although much safer since the police increased their presence a couple years back. The Chicken buses, our old American yellow school buses, are the primary method of public transportation in Guatemala. Completely absent from Chiapas, they are painted in vivid colors and when parked, have a artistic beauty that can only be contrasted by their bat-out-of-hell approach to driving and their exhaust which in itself is reminiscent of the 19th century British Industrial Era.

Antigua, like San Cristobal, is a colonial town with colorful houses lining the cobblestone streets. It stands alone, however, in its architectural achievements and ubiquitous church ruins. From the 16th Century, Antigua had been the center of Latin America, and as such, every church group flocked into to establish their cornerstone. The earthquake of 1773 destroyed nearly all of them and left beautiful ruins on nearly every other block of the city to explore just as the people, unable to move the stone blocks of their city undone, moved the capital from Antigua to Guatemala City. Miguel is heavily involved in preserving Antigua’s cultural heritage and casting a spotlight on Guatemala’s artistic traditions. He and Lorraine have a gorgeous house with a fountain they had designed and a rooftop garden view of the ever prominent Volcanoes.

During my stay, I hiked up Volcano Pacaya (my first volcano – and part of the way with a 2 ½ year old Australian boy named Jessie on my back) a semi-active volcano that smokes sulfurous fumes daily and occasionally spits fiery rocks. The view from the top was incredible but more fun was skiing down the volcanic ash. Also, I went to the market in Chichicastenango (Chichi, (CHEE-CHEE) for short) where colorful Guatemalan textiles collide with colorful Americans from the cruise ships who are bussed in and bussed out without ever having to learn a word of Spanish. That cultural shock aside, it was a very good visit and I left to return to my clinic in Belesario yesterday with a deep appreciation for Antigua and a lasting friendship with Lorraine and Miguel.