Xela

It's been a busy week! Last week I traveled to Quetzaltenango (Xela). We were training the organization who will be implementing our protocol. It was really exciting to see the protocol come to life, made me feel like all my hard work this summer is actually helpful. Leading the training were two people from our Guate office, Scott and Itzel. Both are picture below.

Co-worker Scott waiting outside the office

Itzel getting crazy during the car ride back to Guate

Just to give you some context, Xela is the second largest city in Guatemala. It's located in the Western part of the country surrounded by mountains, so it's a bit colder than Guate. It also has a more extreme rainy season (although we were lucky in our 5 days with only a few showers). The city itself is pretty cool. There's a big live music scene, lots of spanish schools, and tons of coffee shops. The center of town is so beautiful with several old buildings and a view of the mountains. The town seems really safe and is an easy walk. They even have bicycle parking!

Me in the center of town. It was a bit sunny that day!

Bike parking!

My first day in Xela was pretty exciting. On our way to the office, Scott and I saw a volcano eruption (or the smoke part of the eruption)! I also went to a really good yoga class with Scott's friend, although I was really sore afterwards. Note to self: must do more yoga. We also stayed at a crazy cool hotel near the center of town that had all these antiques. And there was unlimited coffee for breakfast!

Day 1 in Xela: Volcano Eruption

The rest of the week was pretty tranquil, filled with lots of work. But we did have two high points. First, there was the most amazing Indian restaurant in Xela that we ate three nights in a row! It was some of the best Indian food I've ever had. Simply delicious! We also went to a local bakery chain called Xelapan, which makes a range of yummy breads and sweets. I originally bought a box of cookies to bring home to my parents, but somehow they disappeared in our car ride home. Still a mystery!

Best Indian food! Lamb curry thali. Also, in our three nights eating there, tried paneer cheese thali and chicken thali! Soooo delicious!

Xelapan bakery

On our car ride home, I saw a lot of political graffiti from the elections in November. The election systems is a bit confusing, but from my understanding it sounds like everyone runs in the primaries and secondaries (?). In these past elections, Rigoberta Menchu ran (but lost) for president. If you're like me, you probably don't know much about her, but her story is kind of incredible. She's a human rights advocate for indigenous populations in Guatemala. The country has a long history of atrocities against these populations during the over 30 year civil war. The wikipedia page describing the war is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemalan_Civil_War. The current president used to be in charge of a military school during the civil war. This American Life discusses some of the horrors of the civil war in a podcast called 'What Happened in Dos Erres' http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/465/what-happened-at-dos-erres/.

Political graffiti from elections in November. This is the campaign that won.

I also saw some mountain cutting on the car ride home. During the rainy season, the interamerican highway (that takes you from Guate to Xela) is really prone to mudslides. In order to hopefully prevent mudslides, the mountain is cut into something like steps. My guess is these steps help slow down the mud. Sometimes there's also a rock wall at the bottom to trap the mud.

Cutting into the mountain to try and prevent mudslides during the rainy season (May-August)

Finally, during one section of the highway, we saw several men selling parrots on the rode. The idea of buying a parrot from a guy on the rode sounds really bizarre to me, but it was very interesting. I kind of wanted to buy one, but since I'm leaving in a few days it didn't really make sense. Maybe next time!

Well, that's all for now. Be on the look-out for a post about my trip to Tikal to see Mayan ruins. For now, I'll leave you with a beautiful Carolina Blue sky captured on our journey back to Guate!

Beautiful mountains and Carolina Blue sky on the way back to Guate