Life of Megan: Volcanoes to Sea Level to Antigua

My last final days in Guatemala....what a sad post. I really really really want to go back :( I'll do a quick overview of each day and post photos after each. Hopefully it isn't as long as the other one - sorry about that. So anyways, my last final days in Guatemala were just as exciting as the first few. The whole trip was amazing to say the least. I cannot wait until I get a chance to go back (which I will. Promise).

Day 9 - Today started off with a boat road across Lago de Atitlan. We visited a coffee co-op. It was organic, shade-grown, and no machines. It was a sharp contrast between the co-op and the first finka de cafe we visited. Then we went to Axoj Ajkeem: a place where women do natural dyeing and hand weaving. The women all had multiple children that they had to care for while doing the dyeing and weaving. It was amazing all of the colors that they could get from one plant! We watched them hand weave all sorts of items from purses to scarves to shawl type things. Tonight I stayed with a Mayan family :) They were so welcoming, giving, and happy that I wanted to experience their lifestyle for awhile. It was a great night.

Part of the Harnandex Chotio host family :)

Beautiful volcanoes on my boat ride across Lake Atitlan

"Mayan Face" rock formation

Biological Greening around the rust. Rust is an obligate parasite that needs it's host to stay alive in order for the rust to survive. The rust keeps the area around it green/alive for as long as possible as can be seen above.

Natural Dyeing

Day 10 - Today we viewed a permaculture farm - it seemed chaotic but oh well. We hiked to see another waterfall - not as pretty as the other one but still worth the hike. I love climbing over the rocks and whatnot; call me EarthGirl! Later we drove back to Antigua where I did some shopping :)

Bananas!!!!

Tomato melon plant thingy...

Volcano from the hike down from the permaculture farm

PlantPath Girl just chilling in Nature like the usual.

Day 11 - We visited Pantaleon which is a sugarcane plantation that converts the sugarcane into bioethanol. It was just ridiculous how far the plantation stretched. We drove for over 40 minutes and we still did not reach the end of the plantation!! I won't discuss biofuels because that is a very debatable topic and I feel very strongly on it. Pantaleon pretended to be sustainable by multiple ways but it was complete crap! You don't grow an Eucalyptus forest to cut it down for woodchips to turn into electricity and saw that it offsets your Carbon footprint. NO!!! Oh, companies....greenwashing!! Anyways, the rest of the day was fun. We went out to the bars - I was more or less carried out to the pickup truck and half sat on so I would join them. It was a lot of fun actually - I'm glad Oliver made me go out with the crew!

Panorama of sugarcane and sugarcane and sugarcane

One of eight harvesters

There were 14 tractors that had 3 trailers to drive by the harvester

PlantPath Girl versus sugarcane!

Day 12 - We walked through Antigua one last time. Then we hopped on the good old Agronomy bus that took us back to Guatemala City Airport. Then the goodbyes came :'( That was awful but I didn't cry until I was on the plane and even then it was only a few tear drops. On the flight to Miami, I saw a beautiful sunset which made it a little better. I'd still do anything to see the USAC boys again...at least I have connections for the future! Miss you guys!!!!