Monterrico - Releasing Turtles

It wasn't all black sand and beaches in Monterrico.

They have are turtle hatchery and breeding programme there too.

For just $1 you can release these wonderful creatures into the sea from the safety of the shore.

Here we are on the beach letting them go and watching them waddle down to their new home in the sea...

Monterrico - Black sand and birds, a good crack - Guatemala

After spending so much time in the jungle we decided to take ourselves down the coast to Guatemala's pacific coast tourist hotspot, Monterrico.

And WOW was it hot, must have been 38C every day. We went to check into a place from the book called Johnny's but it looked a bit run down. So I ventured next door to the Marlin Hotel and it looked ok'er ($10 a night for aircon, that's good) .... little did we know... the owner a Tommy Lee lookalike was the local purveyor of the finest crack and had indeed been up on a 10 day bender...

We kept ourselves to ourselves and they kept themselves holed up for a few more days, one night though we stumbled on his girlfriend nursing some abandoned baby parrots.. (random!)

Here are a selection of beautiful sunsets and black sand pics... it was a very pretty vista

Neuva Alianza, Guatemala. Oh! Pollo

The best thing about staying in the community has been getting to know the people; locals, Kurt and the other guys volunteering. Working, eating and hanging out together!

The other evening was one of the best of the trip. Kurt and I had gone down the mountain to the nearest town, Reu (one and a half hour drive) to pick up supplies. Karen and Nathan (a fab chef) had agreed to team up with us to buy and cook a meal for everyone. Sara, Eluvia and Elaina from the kitchen, Kurt and Kevin and Jay, Ryan and Gustavo who were volunteers/learning trade joined us for a very alcoholic chicken casserole, plenty of Chilean red and local Gallo beer (at least for the Brits)!

It was a brilliant evening with laughing, joking and a great camp fire - one we won't forget. We've since had a few more crackin' 'pollo nights'. Meat up here is a rarity, it's expensive and without a fridge hard to keep, so it went down a storm! Though now a meal no longer feels complete without tortillas and beans.

As with many volunteer placements, we are definately learning and gaining so much more from being here than the people here are from us. Getting to know the way the community works, to joining local football matches (not unlike Meva's!), ferria's, sweet-15 birthday celebrations (the big one in Guatemala), to understanding the complexities and problems such as few people in the community being able read or write due to lack of schooling/bad government, most teens here work and hold a maturity way beyond their years. It opens your eyes to things.

But we feel we've been pretty valuable in helping Kurt and the community with their projects, especially on finishing off the new accomadation which would have been very hard without help and working on the trails. We've gone down as Kurts favourite volunteers, which can't be bad work!

It's been a brilliant January. We'll be spreading the word about Alianza through our travels and send a note to the travel books recommending it. It's definately inspired us to get involved with plenty of other projects, to stay in touch with Alianza and help them where we can. It's going to be different getting back on the road again, next stop Monterrico on the Pacific to release some baby turtles...

Volunteering at Neuva Alianza, Guatemala. Workin' it!

Day one was spent mastering the machete! Much harder than you would imagine with a definite knack, we helped to hack down areas of the forest so that the bamboo plants can grow well. It's really important to have good bamboo for furniture and gifts making business, and the community are trying to grow their own rather than buy it in. The guys from the bamboo workshop have made some awesome things from kitchen utensils (Jay made us some neat chop sticks) to complex toy planes. Pete quickly gained the nickname 'Rambo' for his machete abilities and has since been quite the driving force behind the jungle labour!

Day two we found ourselves in the construction line in the Agua Pura plant, scrubbing the 5 gallon drums until blistered formed, chlorinating them with a vigorous cleaning process, filling with spring water and sealing them ready for distribution in local towns and cities. Guatemalans are petite people but at only 5ft and 12-16 years, these girls are seriously strong and full of giggles and cheek. I really enjoyed helping them out.

Day three we found ourselves machetying down 30ft bamboo trees, carrying them though the jungle to build neat looking steps on the trails through the plantation, kilometers of which we have now cleared, repaired or dug out. This was good fun with some good team work. By day four we ached a lot but had worked out the routines and felt settled in.

Since then, we've worked on the trails a lot, which is important not only for the coffee and macadamia pickers, but should be good for when the tours kick off. It's a treat to walk them in the evenings and morning with the guys, the forest is so alive. It's interesting to greet families bathing and washing in the streams, out picking nuts or collecting fire wood to heat the stove.

We have got to know Kevin very well, he's patient with our Spanish and always energetic and smiling, even at the crack of dawn. He's great at showing us things on the forest trails. We've got to know quite a few of the community through the projects and just being stopped to chat as you walk to the shop. There aren't many gringo's up here.

My favourite people are the women in the kitchen. With a great sense of humour, warmth and just being happy to have us there. It's been lovely hanging out in the kitchen, especially with Sara who always has her gorgeous baby strapped to her back, I was so sad to say goodbye to her. I've learnt to make tortilla's, enjoy beans for brekkie, lunch and dinner and brew a good coffee...

Volunteering at Neuva Alianza, Guatemala. Getting Started!

We arrived in Comunidad Neuva Alianza 10 days ago as I'm writing this. I'm just taking a well deserved late afternoon break from jobs like building trails in the jungle and painting rooms. Pete is still grafting hard in the sun with Kurt, the lovely all-American Peace Corp guy who is based here, building concrete balconies on a new building of private rooms for the communities 'hotel'.

10 days ago we wouldn't have imagined we would be so comfortable here. I had spent the 'chicken bus' journey practicing various useful phrases for our arrival. Our Spanish is getting better but conversations are still a challenge, and we knew that no one in the community would speak any English. We wanted to set off on the right foot. When our truck pulled up in Alianza after a bone rattling journey up the mountain we were greeted by Kevin. At 18 years old, he's the communities only Guatemalan guide and he works with volunteers on various projects on the plantation. He explained things pretty quickly (throwing my 'useful' phrases out) and showed us around the old plantation owners colonial 'house' which now functions as a hostel.

We knew work would start in the morning, so we tried to settle in, work out where things were etc. We met Ryan (Canadian) and Jay (lovely laid back Korean), the only other volunteers here at the time who are good guys.

We were inspired to get in touch with the community because of their history. In brief, the lands had a sole owner until the 90's, then due to awful management and plummeting coffee prices, the people suffered 2 years of non payment.They had no option but to leave the lands they had always worked. But with the help of rural & indigenous rights organisations, the people united 40 families to fight for the money owed and to form a cooperative. They occupied the lands peacefully in 2002, negotiating all the way with the financial group who now owned the land, until Neuva Alianza won the rights in 2004. Alianza now runs their coffee & macadamia plantation, water bottling plant, bio-gas projects, community hydro-electric plant and eco-tourism project. Pretty inspiring stuff!

Sat up on the 1000m's on the hill, surrounded by tropical forest and with views of volcanoes Santa Maria and Santiaguito, Alianza has stunning views and the sunsets. The bird life is also pretty impressive. The reason for two more volunteers pitching up a few days later was because of this, they wanted to help document and take photos of the bird life in order to pull in more visitors to Alianza. Nathan, a 'crackin' welsh lad and his absolutely lovely west country girlfriend Karen had come with top-notch camera equipment, books and a help load of enthusiasm to work with Kevin on this project. As of yet, there haven't been any 'tourists' during our stay, they are really sporadic (usually big school groups) but the community feel that birdwatching tours might just encourage people up the mountain and to stay a little longer...

Quetzaltenango (Xela) & Fuentes Georginas, Guatemala

On route to our project in Reu, we stopped in Xela, a city located in the Serra Madre mountains. At 2000 meters above sea level, it seems to be most famous for being freezing cold! We were warned by several Guatemalans before we set off, and they were right.

Cold aside, it's a traditional town, cobbled streets and the Parque Central give the city it's charm with the old cathedrals (one got destroyed by a big earthquake) and monuments.

We decided to take a few chicken buses to explore the local villages outside of town while we were there and hike up the mountain to Fuentes Georginas, a natural thermal spring that gets its heat from volcano Zunil. Since the 1900's it's been a communal baths, which it looked like the the locals make the most of.

We took a 2 hours hike up from the town of Zunil, winding up through the farms, which made for a great walk. It was a welcome treat when we got there, as you can see from the pics, it was steaming hot!

The pics are: at the springs, the views of the farmland on the way up, the church in Zunil, on the chicken bus and the parque central in Xela.

Lago Atitlan, Guatemala

Aldous Huxley said Lake Atitlan was the most beautiful lake in the world, and it is! We absolutely loved this place and the people there. We spent about 5 days at the lake, exploring the various towns and villages like Santa Cruz (very traditional), San Marcus (hippy) and Panachel (main town). Transport is by taxi boat which was fun, or you can hike round the old trails from village to village which kept us fit!

Life is still very much traditional in small lake-side villages we walked through. Women wear traditional dress, coffee is the main trade (& tourism) and the lake is the center of life.

At 12 miles long and around 80 square miles, it's pretty impressive and diverse. From every town and village the views are just beautiful. We stayed in a little hostel in San Pedro Laguna for a couple of nights, its a buzzy little tourist town but we had fun hanging out with some fellow Londoners.

Then moved to Jabalito, a tiny village across the lake to stay in what is referred to as Guatamala's most beautiful hotel in all the books, Casa del Mundo. The place was a real treat!

It's the only hotel in the village and it's position gives it the most stunning views of the lake. From our bedroom (and lying in bed) you could look out at the expanse of stars, the whole lake and the mountains. Each night they held family style candle-lit dinners so you would have about 15 people round the table for a 5 course dinner. We met some brilliant people, especially a hilarious father and son, Gunther and Mateus, who were on hols from LA. Brilliant fun!

Here's some snaps: Enjoying the sunset before dinner, crossing the lake, Pete braving a dip, I fell in love with this boy who sold banana cake to us everyday and finally, the beautiful Casa del Mundo.

Chichicastenango, Guatemala

We made a day trip to Chichicastenango from Lake Atitlan where we are staying. This pretty highland town is famed for holding the biggest and best market in Guatemala where all the indigenous peoples come to sell their wears. Everything from cloths and clothes and maize and chickens.

Pete was kind enough to come with me and take on the crowds with an early start. It was worth it to see all the goods and the indigenous women in their colourful clothes. Stunning!

I also picked up a couple of gifts, including a beautiful peice of hand woven cloth for Lu Lu that I promised and a handbag for myself. Nice!

Antigua, Guatemala

We made Antigua our first stop in Guatemala. It is possibly the most pretty little town in the world. It's also surrounded by 3 volcanoes which make for an epic view.

Hit by an earthquake in the 17th century, the town was rebuilt to it's former glory but there are still ruins dotted around especially old churches that you can look around.

We enjoyed walking around the old cobbled streets, town square and eating some of the best food and wine we've had on our travels - quite a treat!

Volcano Pacaya, Guatemala

Climbing up an active volcano was something else!

4km up a bank of black sand and stones to the summit lava lake. It was so hot peoples shoes melted and we could roast marshmellows 'on the rocks'.

The sunset back down was stunning, but we forgot our headtorches and had to descend in darkness....

Copan Ruinas, Honduras

Copan is a beautiful cobbled street town 10 kms from the Guatemalan border. I loved the fact that horses were still the main form of transport.

We came to check out the ruins, Copan Ruinas. These Mayan ruins famous for their fine hieroglyphs and mesoamerican ballcourt. The ballcourt was serious stuff in Mayan times, the captain of the loosing team was sacrificed to the gods.

Since its's C19th discovery, it's continued to be the most popular Mayan site for excavations. Copan was our favourite too (we've seen a lot) and we loved seeing the Scarlet Macaws there.