Field Trip

Hello people. Wow, it has been over a week since I last posted. They are keeping us pretty busy with all that training stuff. Some pretty neat things have happened this week. Here is one of them.

As you may or may not know, I am here with a job working in ecotourism. With that being said, the 9 other folks who are here for that same job and I took a field trip with our technical advisor and boss this past Friday. We visited a current volunteer who is working in ecotourism to check out his site. He lives in a town that sits at the base of the active volcano Pacaya. The volcano and surrounding area are part of a national park that he is working to make better. It was a nice reality check for what a volunteer experiences here. So far, I have felt pretty pampered for a Peace Corps volunteer and he provided us with some of the frustrations that we will more than likely encounter. The park was beautiful, but definitely has room for improvement.

On our way back, we stopped by a lake to see some of the environmental devastation Guaguatemala has encountered. The lake we visited, Amatitlan, is the 4th largest lake in the country and is on a path to destruction. It turns out that a very large number of the country´s major manufacturing companies have been using it as a dump. This practice has led to the color you see in these photos.

That is blue-green algae and it has killed almost everything in the lake. I thought it was a little ironic that all the nasty-ness that is going into the lake could create such a splendid color green. It reminded me of the impressive sunsets we have back at home caused by all the smog. Anyway, that is just one example of how Guamania´s natural beauty isn´t being treated properly.

Whoa, I was planning on writing about more, but I need to go eat dinner. Expect something more soon.

Times I hit my head this week in this country of short people: 5