I've been to the mountain

 

Today nine of us students got in the back of a pick up truck and drove out of the city to a trailhead for a seven mile hike. Up a mountain we went for 2 hours to get to an overlook of an active volcano, then back down again. The hike was a little strenuous – steep with lots of rocks and loose sand. But it was a beautiful day and we all enjoyed each other’s company – which included a 6-year old! We were led by one of the teachers from our school.

The view from the top was amazing, with this smoking volcano in the foreground surrounded by mountains of hardened ash. Beyond the volcano was a panorama of plains and distant mountains, with Mexico in the distance. Breathtaking is the word, especially as we stood at an altitude of 9,600 feet (Xela is at about 7,600, so it was a 2,000 feet gain in elevation).

While we rested and snacked, our leader took the opportunity to speak to us about some of the history and politics of the land we were looking at. He spoke in Spanish only and I could get maybe half of what he was saying (which I count as good!). He talked about the war which created the genocide, the extreme concentration of the land ownership in the hands of the rich and the multinationals, the displacement of indegenous people into the cities where they have no jobs or jobs that pay slave wages, the arms brought into the country from the United States, the destruction of the land and ecosystem brought on by all the mineral extraction, the narco trafficking, the evil effects of capitalismo, neoliberalismo, miltarismo. All reasons that have propelled the migration of people north to the United States. I didn’t hear him mention the drought that has been brought on here in recent years as a result of climate change, but I just might have missed that. (It gets tiring trying to understand the Spanish and I check out sometimes).

It was a wonderful way to spend the day off from classes, out in the beauty, getting a workout in body and mind both, hanging with good people, and learning la vida Guatemalteca first hand from a man who has lived it. We even saw a number of Mayan farmers and shepherds up on the mountain trying to make a living. I like this immersion thing.