Unrelated writings from the Land of Eternal Spring

Volcan, Antigua

Tonight we are camping on the shores of Lake Atitlan, a beautiful place surrounded by volcanoes. We are at about 2’000 meters high, in the middle of July and guess what? It is actually cold at night. Cold to the point that we took out our comforters last night, first time since Oregon… We have not put the heater on though. The sweaters are also back on stage in the evenings (but not the MontBells, not yet at least). It is quite pleasant and a nice change from the previous weeks. Because of this pleasant weather, Guatemala is called the land of eternal spring. What is not so nice though is the cold shower in the morning… Most campsites in Guatemala do not have hot water… this is fine in tropical climate, but on a chilly morning, not so much. Yes, I know, we could use our bathroom in the camper, it actually has hot water, but it is really cramped and has turned over time into a storage space for drinking water, laundry in waiting and so on. In the USA, most campsites have washing machines and tumblers. This is not the case in Guatemala, but we can give our laundry to a “lavanderia” and retrieve it fresh and dry the next day; this is actually better as we do not have to do it ourselves. Bathrooms are usually clean, but there is always something wrong: broken flush or faucets, water bypassing pipes and coming directly from the wall, no hook to hang the clothes… Well, those minor inconveniences are part of the journey and it is not going to get any better the further south we go anyway… 

We have not observed abject poverty, except a few kids begging or selling chewing gums on the streets and some shanty towns here and there. It is actually better than I expected, but we have been to touristy places, definitely not an accurate picture of the situation in the country. The US border patrol caught 52’000 unaccompanied minors (some no more than 4 years old) in the last six months, coming mainly from Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. These kids must have a very good reason to leave on their own this beautiful country and face rape, violence and sometimes death on their journey for a better future “en el Norte”. I would definitely do the same, if I had not been born in the right time and at the right place. Lucky me, I was.