This week has been a gastronomical adventure on many accounts. Now in general Guatemalan cuisine leaves much to be desired. With the exception of some truly amazing tacos at one particular stand, I've been less than impressed with Guatemalan food. It's not bad, just not as good as say Mexican (I am not alone in this assessment). This week really wasn't much different...but it was more interesting.

Moving along...

I've been to Itzapa 3 times and this was the first time Carlos ever had me over for lunch. Apparently I'm one of the few who hasn't been to his place and it kinda surprised him that I had never been. With very short notice his wife and daughter made food for us. It was scrambled eggs and tortillas, simple but good and filling.

Carlos's house is full of animals. his oldest son (who also helps at Mayapedal) has two young cows he's raising as an investment. His daughters are raising chickens, and the family has a cat, a dog and two puppies, including a rottweiler puppy that Carlos is clearly very proud of. Carlos encourages his kids to raise animals to sell to teach them early on to work. The whole family has a strong work ethic and it shows. A good portion of his house is taken up by his shop where he and young Carlos do their home based welding business.

Not content with Guatemala fare, the volunteers often crave tastes from back home. Most often requested are Chocolate and peanut butter(amazingly enough the land that originated chocolate has an amazing lack of quality chocolate candy). Sadly, we couldn't do anything about the chocolate, but we realized that with peanuts and a blender we might all satiate our Peanut butter cravings. A quick Google search revealed that the recipe is surprisingly simple: Peanuts, sugar, salt, oil. Blend until creamy. It took some practice to blend the peanuts efficiently but the end product was good enough that I might stop buying peanut butter the way I stopped buying jelly and starting making my own jam.

Inspired by out great peanut buttery success the volunteers decided to move on to more adventurous culinary challenges. Rebeca, a new volunteer spent time in Korea teaching English and brought back a recipe for lettuce rolls. With our fresh peanut butter, some canned tuna and some sanitized veggies, we made our own version of the east Asian dish. Now I have no idea what they were supposed to taste like, but everyone loved them.

Now, the other volunteers were away on Saturday and I was going to head out myself when one of our neighbors, a nice older lady with a young son came by to invite us all over for lunch. It was clear that she had put a lot of effort into this so I of course accepted the invitation. On the menu today...Rabbit stew. I knew it was coming, and I kept reassuring myself "it's just meat," but the thought kept pounding in my brain, "you're eating thumper." The meat was actually really flavorful and tender, but it was hard to enjoy. I was just immensely grateful that I didn't get the head. Juan Francisco, insisted that his father would like it and I wasn't about to disagree. He also took me out and showed me our lunch's more fortunate friend. He's apparently keeping the other rabbit as a pet. I was glad they didn't invite me to help cook. Eating thumper was bad enough I don't think I could kill and skin a small furry animal...unless I was really hungry.

The last meal was the most involved. First off I had to go to Antigua (about 40 min away) and hop a shuttle van an hour away to Pacaya. From there it was a 4km hike uphill. We hiked by corn field (because you're never that far from a corn field in Guatemala). We passed a beautiful lake that provided most of the potable water for the local area.

As we neared the summit, the lush greenery and full fields gave way to a harsh barren wasteland of pumice and charred earth. The terrain looked almost like the lunar surface seen in the Apollo videos but with various sized pebbles instead of the fine dust of the moon. The entire area was seemingly devoid of life but I was able to find a couple bushes struggling to survive in the barren waste.

We climbed ever higher up the face of the mountain, even the most sure footed of us slipping every two steps as the pebbly surface gave way under the slightest pressure and sent small rocks cascading down to the people below. There wasn't too much danger of sliding very far, but it was slow going climbing up and even small falls lead to large lacerations on the sharp pumice. A group of girls going up along side us attempted the climb in skirts and many of their hems were shredded by the time we got down.

But after the long trek, we finally came to our destination the lava flows of Volcan Pacaya. This was a clear difference between Guatemala and the US, we got as close as we wanted to the Lava. The only thing keeping me from taking a sample was common sense and a strong self preservation instinct. Still I climbed all over the lava flow, seeing glowing rock between the cracks of the ground on which I was standing. It wasn't until I was nearly done that I noticed the very disconcerting sight of collapsed lava chambers, meaning the ground below me was hollow and could have easily collapsed under my weight.

Now, what does one do after climbing for two hours up a steep volcano when confronted with molten rock many times hotter than anything we are likely to encounter in our normal lives (unless we work in the right labs)? Well of course you roast Marshmallows! Not content to be like everyone else and roast marshmallows over boiling lava, I roasted marshmallows over boiling lava at the end of a machete! I got lots of strange looks doing so, but I assured everyone that I was mostly harmless and by the third round of free marshmallows, they mostly fell for it.

Once again Guatemalan cuisine left something to be desired, but the views were simply to die for. Even the panorama shots don't do it justice. Over the slowly creeping lava you could see on one side an ocean of clouds breaking like waves upon the shores of the far off Volcan de Fuego (volcano of fire). The setting sun casting golden rays over the volcano and illuminating the lush valley between. The verdant greens fed by centuries of deadly lava flows bearing tons of rich nutrients. Small cities and town resting peacefully in the shadows of the towering volcanoes, seemingly unaware of their impending doom.

Guatemala is completely build on volcanic land so there's not really a safe place anywhere, but many of the volcanoes are dormant and the active ones tend to bubble and boil constantly rather than exploding in massive eruptions. We did see a minor eruption on Volcan de Fuego as we were descending. Interesting note: I was supposed to go to Volcan de Fuego this day, but the tour group I was going to go with changed their minds and went to the market at Chichicastenango instead...that was probably a good choice.

This will probably be my last post as I leave in two days and I don't have any more interesting travel plans. Hope you enjoyed my posts. I'll post again next time I go somewhere interesting.

There are lots of aid groups in Guatemala.  Every time I've flown to or from here, I've been on the plane with at least one larger group all wearing matching t-shirts coming to do some sort of service project.  However, Mayapedal is a bit different in that it's locally owned and operated.  It's pretty much home grown innovation.  It was thus very cool to find another very similar program just a few miles down the road.

Technología Para Salud (Technology for Health) or TPS, is very similar to Mayapedal in organization and operation, but they do different alternative technologies.  TPS is run by a guy named Julio Cesar.  He's smart and well spoken and is doing some pretty cool projects.  We went to visit him in hopes of developing a partnership between the two organizations.

TPS has been around for years developing alternative technology. 

They make:

Solar herb driers that use a glass panel to heat air, which then dries trays of herbs (so direct sunlight doesn't damage their properties). 

Estufas Mejoradas (improved stoves) that use less fuel and take smoke away.  Many people still cook over wood or charcoal fires and this often leaves the kitchen full of smoke.  Respiratory disease from this kind of smoke exposure is one of the biggest killers in the world.  Julio Cesar, says it's not the most  efficient design, but it's a balance of cooking efficiency and low cost of production.  There are several groups making similar designs in Guatemala, and I know a lot of research on this topic has been done at MIT's D-lab.

Composting Toilets.  This is exactly what it says, you poop in a box and 6 months later you throw it on your garden.  It sounds gross, but he assures me there's no risk of disease transmission because the design dries the waste.  The toilet has two sides so you use one side until it's full, then move the toilet over to the other side and use that one.  Hopefully it takes more than 6 months to fill, otherwise you have to move the compost before it's done and put it somewhere to finish.  Julio Cesar has a large family so they have to do this.  You throw a mix of dirt, ash, and sawdust on top of the waste after using the toilet to keep flies away and to help with drying.  They've been using it for years, so it does seem to work.

A family sized waste facility.  It has spaces for recyclables, trash, and composting.  This may seem simple, but many people here burn their trash or throw it in the street.  I almost got hit by a small bag of trash the other night as I walked by someone's door.  Sometimes simple innovations are the best.

A gray water recycling system.  It's simply a series of pipes that takes water from the home and runs it through a screen and filter (charcoal and rocks) and then directs it to the garden.  Again it's a simple idea but effective.

TPS is also home to a large herb garden.  They sell the saplings and also produce shampoos and medicinal teas.

TPS is a really great organization and I hope we'll be able to collaborate.  Unfortunately it looks like they are running into some hard times right now and may have to sell off a portion of their land (namely the herb garden), which would be a real shame.

My posts have all been delayed since I've been busy and sick.  I'm way behind on everything. I hope to have the next one up soon.