Travels

Our time in Guatemala far exceeded our expectations, and we were a little sad to leave the lovely weather and head back to N. America...but the 60+ degrees that greeted us here in TN has made it a little more bearable!

We traveled with I Care International which is a non profit organization that carries no religious or political agenda, but travels and performs clinics strictly to promote eye health and offer vision through glasses to those who don't have access. We carried a couple thousand pairs of glasses and other medical equipment with us. Jason performed full eye exams and I did visual screenings as well as diabetic screenings. We were rather spoiled and only worked about 7 hours a day, stopping for lunch, but did manage to see right around 1600 patients in our 4 clinic days. They were busy days!

We landed in Guatemala city in the early morning and had hired what is referred to as a "chicken bus" to take us to San Lucas Toliman, a village about 3 normal driving hours from the city (make that 5-6 in a "chicken bus".) Although the bus looks pretty snazzy from the outside, it did leave a bit to be desired..as did the extremely windy road through the mountains. At one point after crossing a VERY narrow bridge, making a crazy sharp turn and heading up the mountain the bus came to a standstill and began rolling backwards toward the edge of the bridge before the driver could get it back in gear...quite eventful. I didn't get too many photos as I spent most of the ride soaking in all the countryside and then trying to erase from my mind the fact that we were spending a good quarter of the ride within 6 inches of a very... and I mean very...large cliff. That, and the fact that my window didn't go up or down.

We were amazed at the farming! Any open speck of land had something they were attempting to grow, and it didn't matter the size of the incline it was on! If necessary men would use a rope to tie themselves to a tree at the top of the field while they worked it. We saw a lot of cabbage, corn, and some areas of flower farms with carnations and lilies.

Our first views of the Lake Atitlan. It is quite a large lake with 12 villages scattered around it. Some are fairly touristy, however San Lucas Toliman privatized it's harbor so no public boats are allowed in, which cuts down the number of visitors.

Our hotel grounds...we were quite spoiled with beautiful lawns, a pool and a deck to relax and enjoy the view of the lake.

One of the larger volcanoes surrounding the lake. We were usually only able to see it for a few hours in the afternoon, as smoke from cook fires and field burning settles quite heavily into the valley.

More photos to come soon....