Stage 4: Tikal to Flores
I had a bit of a break today, not as much climbing as yesterday me just over half the distance. Although the heat feels like I am working out in a sauna most of the day.
My host, Maria, lives on the opposite side of Flores from where I entered, in a district called “San Benito”. The roads are bumpy and unpaved. The houses are spaced apart and most people seem to have chickens or small livestock within their enclosures. Maria wasn’t at home but her 5-year old daughter, Mia gave me a warm welcome. She greeted me as I set my bike against the house and took my hand and pulled me excitedly into the house to introduce me to her nanny, Griselda and her pet chicken, Flores. She immediately led me to the back and wanted to play with me, with no hesitation. She’s quite the firecracker and clearly has been raised with Couchsurfers coming through her home. She was very curious about my bags, my bike and the gadgets such as my bell and lights. I had a little trouble understanding her Spanish, because of her annunciation and inability to slow down. But I assure you, that didn’t stop her from chattering on and explaining to me what I assume were the backstories and adventures of her dolls and stuffed animals.
Unfortunately, the water company had turned off the water temporarily for the district, so I couldn’t shower right away. Maria came home from work and said that I could bathe in the lake off of the Isla de Flores, and island in the city center. Problem solved!
There was another Couchsurfer there as well, Valeria. She’s a solo traveler from Peru and works in project communications for development projects around the world, to encourage cross-cultural communication and overall adoption of projects such as farming techniques and building practices. She is doing very inspiring work and fighting uphill battles to fight for systemic and cultural change in Peru and other countries. She can work remotely so she had spent 2 weeks with Maria doing her day job and hanging out her her and Mia at night.
Maria’s story is very inspiring. She grew up in San Benito and her father abandoned the family when she was a baby. She did not have a lot of opportunity growing up and worked various jobs over the years, beginning to work full time when she was 14. But when she was 19, she managed to get a university scholarship to study aquaculture in Tampa, Florida. So she became an expert in her field and upon returning to Guatemala, she started working with fish farmers, encouraging new techniques and sustainable fish farming practices. She helps farmers in all aspects of their work. She currently works for the ministry of the environment and has recently been helping lawmakers in the district draft legislation for fish farming regulations in ways that are making farming more profitable and less environmentally taxing. She said a lot of laws are just written by bureaucrats without any knowledge of the field, which ends up hurting the industries and people involved. She is very proud of her work and opportunity and was very animated when explaining these processes. She gave me some contacts at a couple of farms on my way down, where she suggested I could have a tour and see how they farm.
Together, we went to Isla de Flores, an island off of the city center. It is a touristy area with restaurants, shops and boat tours around the lake. It is very picturesque and relaxed, with people strolling around the boardwalk. I took my bath by jumping in the water and washed myself with my handy soap.
The view from Isla de Flores
We found some other Couchsurfers as well, a German/Turkish couple who were traveling around the country. I got ice cream for everyone and we hung out until the sun set. Then Mia, who had been splashing around and playing in the water got something in her eye that wouldn’t come out - an insect or something. She had to go to urgent care to get some eye drops. After that, we got some dinner and went home. Valeria and I spoke long into the night about cross-cultural communications. I told her about Power Pay and my frustrations with the energy company who continued to move the goal posts on adopting the smart meter system, to the point where I had run out of resources and was forced to abandon the project. She has seen other examples of this in the developing world, but unfortunately, the theoretical solutions don’t always work out in reality, as I also found out.
There were a lot of mosquitos out, so I hung up my hammock tent outside and fell asleep very quickly to the sounds of the jungle and barking dogs.
Comments
Post a Comment