true life planet

Yesterday we visited the FDN office in El Estor and made arrangements to go down to the dock to meet our gude and his fishing boat today.

We spent this morning collecting provisions (food, matches, sunblock, bug repellent) and trying to imagine what the refuge would be like. It is very very remote, and rarely visited by tourists-and the only people nearby are is small settlement of Quíche indigenous people. It was just going to be us two women, the people that lived there, and whatever animals were there.

We went down to the dock to look for the boat that was supposed to take us out to the refuge at about 10:30 am..we asked around for Alfonso, the name we had been given at the office. We found Alfonso standing on a fishing boat.

We had to wait at the dock for over an hour, because people were loading the boat with huge boxes of food-I mean, seriously, like pallets of food onto this tiny boat! I had been worried about our backpacks and the our plastic bags of food we had with us-that they would be too heavy for the boat. But, after I saw the huge bags of maiz, the containers of gasoline and water, and the enormous heap of eggs, vegetables, and so on..I stoipped being worried about our bags being too heavy and started worrying about us drowning instead.

While we were waiting on the dock, one thing I noticed about the people waiting near us is that there was absolutely no eye contact-they never looked directly at us, ever. No one smiled, either. This was a little different, as in most places people had at least smiled or said hello to us in Guatemala.

Moira went off in search of a newspaper. Meanwhile, I started talking to a fisherwoman whose boat was docked next to ours. She was very friendly and explained to me that the people waiting to head out to Polochic were Qúiche´-and that they are very private and do not interact much with visitors, or with people outside of their culture.

Moira came back and we got onto the boat-I was really nervous, because there were alot of people on it already, and in order to get on to it, I basically had to wade out into the lake, and then step up into the boat. I sort of have a fear of boats, so it was hard for me. But I did it, and then we just hung out waiting for it to fill up with people-which it did, it was packed to the brim when we left finally.

While we were waiting for the last few people to board, I sat and looked around at all the people.

The women were all under umbrellas-in part for shade, and in part to avoid any contact with us. They were all wearing just past the knee woven skirts that were very full skirted; large blousy pullover tunics made of different colors of polyester lace; and flipflops. One woman was nursing. One man told me the woman next to me was 30 years old-she looked about 55 years old.

The children were all sitting near the women. They were a bit more interested in us than the adults, examining our clothes,stealing glances, and flashing an occassional smile our direction. The girls were all wearing tshirts or similiar oversized lace tunics like their mothers, with brightly colored past the knee skirts. The boys dressed like the men, in jeans and polo shirts.

The men were more friendly, and some spoke a little Spanish, so they attempted to converse with us. They all had on rubber galoshes, jeans and tshirts, with the Rambo theme seemingly popular. It seems Sylvester Stallone was quite popular here!

We were waitinf for awhile in the hot sun, so I took out a bag of tiny plums and passed them around.Some people gingerly took one, some continued to act like I wasn´t on the boat. I tried to attempt a few phrases in Qúiche´, and succeeded in butchering it mercilessly, so at this point decided to focus on the view of the lake instead.

Lake Izabel is Guatemalas biggest lake-and it is spectacular. It is surprisingly clean, the water is a pretty blue-green, and it supports an amazing variety of wildlife-fish, turtles, birds, manatees…at certain points on the trip across the lake, I could just look into the water and see all plants and fish, the water was that clear.

Once across the lake, we entered a river, and and as we got closer to the Polochic Refuge, things got more visually interesting. People started to appear on either side of the river, along either bank, all rowing small wooden canoes, the kind made out of a single tree. All of the boats I saw were carrying women and a few children, and they all seemed to be fishing-althought it is hard to say, since I was at a distance. When they first saw the boat, (and us-Moira and I ) in the boat) they immediately covered their faces with their blouses until we were out of view. Even if we went out of our way not to look at them, they did this.

people also were waiting for us, out on the water, as our boat passed-our boat was carrying food to be delivered along the way. One tiny boat came out to us, a tiny wooden canoe, carrying a tiny boy wearing only a t-shirt, and a man, standing and rowing. He made his way over to our boat, and an enormous 100 pound bag of maiz was lifted off our boat and put into ours. He shook our hands and rowed away.

At this point, thew women were a littel less shy, looking at us and talking amongst themselves. Only the men seemed to speak Spanish and Qúiche´ and if the women had a question about something, they would ask the one of the men in Qúiche´, and then he would ask us in Spanish.

The river got more narrow-almost swamplike-it began to look and feel like a tropical jungle, complete with dangling vines, stiffling humidity and lots and lots of animals. We saw turtles, and one man asked us if we like turtle soup-I said no, and it seemed like a good time to say we were vegetarians, just in case afuture invite included turtle soup. The first time we saw a howler monkey, it was hanging from a branch right above us. It was so small, so black and furry, it was hard to believe that this was the animal that was letting out the blood cuddling ¨howl¨we kept hearing. It sounds very ferocious, and I would not describe it as a howl, but more like a cross between a gutteral roar and the sound of a flushing toilet (really!). It´s very deep, very penetrating, and chilled me to the bone the first time I heard it. How could this cute furry ball make such a noise ?

We finally arrived at¨Selemphim, the tiny Qúiche´settlement in POlychic, and the boat docked against the muddy bank and somewhat makeshift dock. People and at least a dozen children were on the bank, and more were walking down towards us on a cement bridge. here, people smiled a bit more, and the children seemed welcoming.

We got our bags, climbed out of the boat, and follwed the trail leading to the sceince station-what was to be our home for the next five days. When I cam down the path and turned around the final corner and viewed the house for the first time-it took my breath awy.

In the middle of this tropical forest, was alarge clearing, and risingf up out of it was a huge building, about 3 stories tall. It was connected by a series of platforms to other smaller buildings in the clearing.

All of the buildings were built Qúiche¨style-but much grander, because of their astonishing size. They had wooden frames, and were built basically on top of a wodden deck. The walls were entirely fashioned from wooden sticks and vines; the enormous roof was made of small tree trunks and palm fronds. The buildings had windows all the way around, lined with wire mesh and mosquito netting.

When we entered the main building, Alfonso explained a bit about it´s construction. It took about ten years to build, and was built in parts. It has an upstairs that is divided into two parts-one side with the beds for men, the other side for women, and these are joined by an observation platform. Downstairs includes an enormous dininghall, a kitchen, and a huge room filled with hammocks for lounging(my favorite).

The platforms off the main building have ramps and walkways that lead to private cabanas and bathrooms-and the entire place runs off of solar power!

Once we settled in, we met the other guests there-a Guatemalan woman studying the behavior of birds in the palm trees there, and two Guatemalan men who were ecologists. They were only staying one more night, so aftyer that we would have the place to ourselves!

I was pretty sunburned(in spite of tons of sunscreen) from the boat ride, and feeling grumpy and tired, so I hiked around alone on one of the trails alone, and then came back for dinner.

When it was time for bed, I climbed into my tent-I call it a tent, because thats what it was, a white shroud covering my mattress and tucked in all the way around to keep out the mosquitos. It was a little like camping when you are a kid.

The sound of the animals, the insects, the birds, seemed to get louder and louder-then somehow I got used to it, and it became impossible to differenciate between any one noise form the other, except the occassional scream of a howler monkey. And somehow, I fell fast asleep.

gg

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