Today is Guatemala’s official Independence Day marking the liberation of Guatemala from the Spanish Crown in 1821. It is celebrated by fiestas in the town squares with Guatemalan families dressed in their finest clothing, and school children performing practiced skits, or playing musical instruments and dancing. Dan said he saw many women dressed in heels and their Mayan best, climbing nimbly out of cayucos at the town dock. There was quite a bit of flag waving, and of course FIREWORKS!! The celebration was after dark so we chose not to go.
The Not- so- Nice
Guatemala has not provided peace and prosperity for all of its citizens; to this day Human Rights violations go unpunished and the police are said to be corrupt and not available to the people to discover facts concerning crime. The United States, historically, has had a hand in repression and land grabbing in the country- from the United Fruit Company and its banana growth to supporting repressive government regimes which forced the descendents of the indigenous Maya to work for the fruit companies for low wages, while violently quelling any uprisings for higher wages and better working conditions
I'm just learning about links. Click each of the links (words in blue) you care to. Be sure to explore more fully the Frutas del Mondo links at a'medicine" near the bottom.
ENJOY!
history has a short history which may be of interest. Also, a scathing statement of United States involvement in Guatemala is to be found in links on the website inrioduce.com. A local expat wrote the material.Keven Given the reported “facts” I guess it should not come as a surprise that US expats who moved here for the low cost of living sometimes find it hard to feel part of the Guatemalan community. Stories of bribes needed and unavailability of assistance when something happens are rampant.
Tourist Warnings for September 2010
Tourists are warned that Guatemala can be a dangerous place if you go outside the regular tourist haunts where the newly formed tourist assistance groups ASISTAR do not police the areas.
Official Tourist warnings
Last week while reading on-line about road closing because of the mud and landslides blocking major highways throughout Guatemala, where a least one full bus was swept away in a slide, travel ,you realize that not only do locals have graft and corruption as a way of life but they cope with an ongoing stream of natural disasters of earth tremors, volcanoes, and washouts simply due to the rainy climate. Their country is very dangerous in another way with only 2 percent of reported crime ever being investigated. This is the reality that one is warned one must face when a tourist visiting this otherwise gloriously beautiful country!
BUT A Very GOOD Thing-and so far Good things for us!
A few days ago Dan and I joined eight other Gringos and visited a very special Finca. Tavel is a bit tough, but we all ten and Kevin and driver crammmed into the van. We met Dwight,the owner of the business, Frutas del Mondo, who began his work in Guatemala in the 1970’s as a volunteer in the Peace Core. He saw the deforestation of the hillsides for farming ;the slash and burn agriculture and is trying to assist Guatemalans with reforestation. To that end he has searched the world for plants, especially fruiting ones, that grow well in the climate and provide food or a “crop” that can support a family and provide a small business income for the local farmer, while replanting impoverished, barren hillsides. Part of what Dwight has been able to do with plants is propagating from roots and clippings, but he has been very successful in grafting trees which apparently are able to grow and mature to fruit-bearing much faster than what might be typical for the plant.
Here's how to grow Noni and Rambutan
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| Noni & Ramaton |
An informative tour (Anything I write here is best of my recollection and there probably are errors in naming. It was mind-boggling)
Our tour led us from fruit tree to fruit tree while walking on a peanut ground cover. Dwight would put his pruning pole up and snip us off a juicy new fruit to try-, smell or be told the medicinal qualities of, thus our tour was called “The edible fruit tour”.
While munching, learning to peel the crazy looking outer shells and watching the nursery occupations going on around us, Dwight fascinated us with his knowledge. He grows the “hottest pepper in the world” from India. I’m too scared to use the pepper I brought home in cooking! On internet sites looking for a recipe I found WARNINGS that say to wear a mask, gloves, don't touch your eyes and be careful the next day.
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| From pepper |
Bhut Jolokia - Ground Pepper #1155 1.5 oz $ 16.95
WORLD'S HOTTEST - Bhut Jolokia Ground Pepper!
It is so hot you can't even imagine, when you eat it, it's like dying. It's the "poison chili" in some areas, the "king of the chilis" in others. It so hot it's COOL. 1,000,000 scoville heat units. All Natural.
He showed us how black and white pepper grows and suggested that it could be a very lucrative crop with an established market. On the farm he served us a lunch of fish; freshly caught Tilapia from his own pond where the fish is raised, with fresh picked vegetables, limeade and maracuya fruit drink and let us all sample three varieties from other countries of a fruit that grows wild in Guatemala and which he has helped other local farmers to plant for profit and brought in two other varieties that are growing well.
An exciting new concept
The local Guatemalans who believe in the reforestation and great eats are encouraged to use some of the trees and plants for their landscaping, and while enjoying the fruits or selling their harvest, to keep the area natural.
As we toured, felt, smelled and ate we saw large and amazing trees. One *had old cd’s hung from branches of trees to keep pests away; we were given natural lemon-grass insect repellant as very few pesticides are used. We saw solar panels feeding storage batteries at the houses, of course not new to us as boaters, a gravel and sand water purifying system, composting facilities and composting toilets, a tree grafting project where wax holds the newly grafted limb securely, and all that luscious fruit.
Everything looked clean, orderly and well cared for, but there was one practice that made Dan and I cringe. Apparently woodpeckers like one of his fruits and will peck a hole in every one, ruining it for sale. He mentioned it to one of his workmen. That workman considers woodpecker a delicacy and he sits under the tree, shoots every woodpecker and his family eats them. I’m not sure that’s too healthy for the woodpecker population.
We didn’t really have time to go into the medicinal plants available in the rainforest which are plentiful and which he has had some sucess raising on his farm. Two we did talk about were the insect repellent above and the Noni, an ugly, nasty tasting plant known by many names. It’s white, soft and lumpy. Well, who knew it is a miracle product. I know I’m sending folks off to lots of websites this month but give this one a try. medicine
AND LOTS OF PICTURES ON THE FRUTAS DEL MONDO FARM
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| Frutas del Mondo |
A few more activities this month.
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| Vista Rio |
I tried to get in a picture from our local internet newspaper but it didn't work. You can picture this I think. First you grab shoe polish and if you want to write a name of a particular person, place or thing to bash you do that. A few macho Gringo guys swung mightily at lights, windows etc- then passing locals were invited to play. Children, women and elderly were handed the sledge and told to wail away. They raised 5,700 Quetzales or $712 for the cause!
Many of the local Rio Dulce residents, having never experienced a benefit car or van "smash", were understandably impressed and perhaps a bit confused by the event. But they had fun watching the crazy Gringos beat up a reasonably nice looking van with a big sledgehammer.
And another day......
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| Catamaran |
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