Site Assignment: Salacuim, Alta Verapaz

After much anticipation, we finally found out our site or "homes" for the next two years today. Ours will be Salacuim Alta Verapaz. We're really excited. We're going to be relatively low in elevation, which means really warm. It's classified as tropical rainforest. Kari will be replacing a Peace Corps volunteer in the environmental Education program & Corby will be the first Peace Corps ecotourism volunteer in the area. The initial report sounds like there are lots of opportunities for productive work there. Compared to the site assignments of the rest of our group, we're probably the most remote (about 4 hours from the city of Coban, including 3 hours on a dirt road) & the warmest. There is the nearby tourist attraction of Laguna Lachua National Park that Corby will be with.

That's a quick summary of what we know so far. We haven't visited this area yet, but next week is a trip there. Below is a map of the general area & a touristy glamour shot of the Laguna from the internet. We'll keep you posted....

Trip to the Alta Verapaz Area

We just returned from our second and last field based training. We were able to see a part of Guatemala that we had not yet explored. It was well worth the wait, as it is one of the most beautiful areas of the country by far. We started off on Monday toward Coban. The ecotourism group went to Chilasco, which is in the cloud forest. They took a hike to the largest waterfall in Central America, but unfortunately it wasn't a clear day so the view was not as expected. The environmental education group went straight to Coban to tour a candle making facility run buy the indigenous people and talk to some of the volunteers in the area. The two groups met up in the evening and spent the night in Coban, the third largest city in Guatemala.

Chilasco Cloud Forest











The next day we dropped down into a valley in the jungle and visited Lanquin, an absolutely beautiful town in the middle of nowhere. It was very warm and tropical, unlike where we are living now in the mountains. Kari's group visited a few schools in the area and gave a workshop to students that are studying to become teachers. They also did some small art projects with the kids of a small village school. Meanwhile, Corby's group worked on building some trails and making signage for the park in the area. The highlight was meeting up to take a trip to Semuc Champey and hike to some natural turquoise pools and take a swim for the afternoon. With all the work we've been doing, we have certainly found time to have fun as well.

visiting the Lanquin schools

The pools of Semuc Champey

We finished off our week with presentations and more school visits in Chisec. We also took in a tubing trip down the river. The final event of the week was an interview to determine our future sites. We feel like it is out of our hands at this point, but are eagerly awaiting Thursday, the 16th when we will know our fate for the next two years. We are excited to get out there on our own and work with the people of Guatemala. We have had some great opportunities to explore these past few months and are ready to employ our skills we have learned. We will post our site news as soon as we find out.

More training....and some fun stuff

We've just wrapped up 2 full weeks at the training center. This was mostly along the same themes we've had since we've got here: more spanish classes, technical sessions (ecotourism & environmental ed.), along with some cultural stuff. We have managed to take part in some activities that are "blog-worthy" as well.
---------------------
Hike up Volcan Pacaya:

This was really amazing. Neither of us had ever visited an active volcano before, so we were kind of blown away. It was like walking on the moon with volcanic rocks everywhere. We also got to stare into the belly of the beast and get a good strong whiff of sulfur (it's supposed to be good for the lungs, right?).












--------------------
Eco-Camp:

Our training group followed our trip up the Volcano by running an "eco-camp" for about 20 middle-school aged kids that live nearby. We helped with some of the activities, but mostly tried to make order out of the chaos. For a lot of the kids it was their first time sleeping away from their parents/outside/etc. Overall, they had a really great experience.










----------------
Fiesta for Diana's Cupleanos:

Our roommate/hermana/sobrina Diana turned 4 years old last weekend. This was an occasion for a great party, pinatas included. We got to help out a bit with pre-party preps and eat some of the candy. If you're wondering: yes, that was a "bob esponja" pinata for the boys. Not pictured: "chica fresa" for the girls.












---------------

We're getting ready for a bigger trip next week, destination: Coban. We'll be spending a week training-on-the road. This is our last big event before we find out our location for the next two years. We'll be receiving a "site-assignment" March 16th.

Stay Tuned.