Gringos Who Look Like Dollar Signs: Civil war to tourism: Trekking through Guatemala
San Francisco Chronicle
San Pedro , Guatemala -- Only after we sift through a thin layer of discarded plastic bags and other household waste hugging the shore to plunge into Lago Atitlan's azure waters do we truly appreciate the grueling, yet breathtaking three-day journey we've just completed through the Guatemalan highlands.
Torrents of afternoon rain each of the last two days had dampened the spirits of 30 backpackers and dared us to long for commonplace amenities back home in our developed countries. One Israeli woman called it quits on the hike's second day and climbed into the bed of a pickup full of live chickens to continue toward Lago Atitlan, the volcanic lake, in style.
But the sacrifices are well worth it for dozens of "gringo" backpackers each week who sign up with the Quetzaltrekkers to explore the majestic volcanoes, highlands and cloud forests in an area of Central America that only 10 years ago was all but forbidden to anyone without a machete and an appetite for the bloody civil war that engulfed Guatemala for 36 years and claimed as many as 200,000 lives.
Peace accords between the highland rebels and the rightist government were reached in 1996, but the situation since then has been anything but calm. Guatemala faces a major test today when its people go to the voting booths to choose their new president in an election they hope will be free of the fraud and violence that plagued the last one, in 1999.
But the candidacy of Gen. Rios Montt, a former dictator who presided over Guatemala briefly in the early '80s during the slaughter of thousands of Mayan Indians, has overshadowed everything here this fall. Speculation is rampant among Guatemalans and international human rights organizations that El General will do anything he can to steal the election.
Such a scenario would almost certainly provoke more bloodshed and could force multinational corporations, Western aid organizations and nonprofit groups like the Quetzaltrekkers to pull out of Guatemala. As U.S. Ambassador John Hamilton said last week, "The eyes of the world are watching this election."
At first glance, the beautiful three-day hike from Quetzaltenango, where the Quetzaltrekkers are based, to Lago Atitlan -- dubbed "the most beautiful lake in the world" by Central American guidebooks -- appears tailor- made for an adventure-tourism brochure. In fact, many customers learn about the Quetzaltrekkers from guidebooks such as "Lonely Planet" or the "Rough Guides" or via the Internet, and choose to study at Spanish language schools in Quetzaltenango, known to the locals by its traditional Mayan name, Xela.
But opening gringo eyes to the natural beauties of Guatemala, or to the mass suffering endured by the indigenous peoples over the last half-century, is not the trekkers' primary aim, says Gavin Barker, a social worker from London who founded the Quetzaltrekkers in 1995. "Our sole objective is to make as much money as possible to fund our program, which aims to meet the emotional, physical and educational needs of street children, child laborers and other at-risk children in and around the Xela area," says Gavin, who has since moved on to do other community service work in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. All profit from the hikes goes toward housing and schooling street boys at la Escuela de la Calle in the economically deprived neighborhood called Las Rosas in Xela, Guatemala's second-largest city. At a centrally located dormitory, called Hogar Abierto (open home), the trekkers have sheltered as many as 50 boys between the ages of 6 and 18 over the past eight years -- boys who face such problems as substance abuse, forced labor and child prostitution.
The Quetzaltrekkers now generate a monthly income of $3,500, which comprises 80 percent of the school's total budget. Fortunes have taken off since Gavin returned in 1999 and instituted a few minor changes, such as three- month minimum commitments and small stipends for the guides. The guide with the longest current tenure is Mike, originally from Boston, who dropped his departure plans last summer and has now served nine months "only because of the kids," he says.
"No one else was here to work with them in the dorm night after night, and they need continuity. They don't bode well with new faces all the time," he says.
The trekkers have also secured the sponsorship of the outdoor apparel company North Face and the Dutch airliner KLM, among others, which have donated supplies such as backpacks and sleeping bags.
The guides are young Westerners willing to devote their lives to the organization for a matter of months. They lead hikes at any time of day or night and in any kind of weather, look after the street boys in the Hogar Abierto, and play soccer with them at the local fields on Monday evenings.
Given their difficult pasts, the boys exhibit a dog-eat-dog mentality between the goalposts, making hard tackles, throwing elbows and using the kind of language not taught in most of Xela's Spanish schools. One Monday, a boy was convinced by a trekkers guide that the word "butterfly" bore a more ominous translation in Spanish, and so he shouted it over and over again while trash-talking with his friends.
The Quetzaltrekkers offer five regular excursions in the western Guatemalan highlands: the three-day overland hike from Xela to Lago Atitlan; a two-day trip to Tajumulco volcano, the highest point in Central America; an all-night climb up Santa Maria volcano during a full moon; a two-day hike on the Santiaguito volcano; and a six-day journey to Todos Santos in the foothills of the Cuchumatanes. Prices range from $10 to $120.
The treks are breathtaking, and the money supports a good cause, but the trips are not without the potential for danger. Young women on the Atitlan hike who strayed from the larger group have been robbed by men with machetes.
On the last morning of our journey, just after watching the sun rise over the most beautiful lake in the world and mere hours before the sweet baptism we had been waiting for, our guides Gernot (Austrian) and Jonathon (Israeli) dampened the mood with a warning: "Stick together when you descend toward the lake because this is the most dangerous part of the journey. There are men with machetes who prey on tourists in these parts, and you all look like dollar signs."
Jacob Wheeler is a Michigan-based freelance writer.
San Pedro , Guatemala -- Only after we sift through a thin layer of discarded plastic bags and other household waste hugging the shore to plunge into Lago Atitlan's azure waters do we truly appreciate the grueling, yet breathtaking three-day journey we've just completed through the Guatemalan highlands.
Torrents of afternoon rain each of the last two days had dampened the spirits of 30 backpackers and dared us to long for commonplace amenities back home in our developed countries. One Israeli woman called it quits on the hike's second day and climbed into the bed of a pickup full of live chickens to continue toward Lago Atitlan, the volcanic lake, in style.
But the sacrifices are well worth it for dozens of "gringo" backpackers each week who sign up with the Quetzaltrekkers to explore the majestic volcanoes, highlands and cloud forests in an area of Central America that only 10 years ago was all but forbidden to anyone without a machete and an appetite for the bloody civil war that engulfed Guatemala for 36 years and claimed as many as 200,000 lives.
Peace accords between the highland rebels and the rightist government were reached in 1996, but the situation since then has been anything but calm. Guatemala faces a major test today when its people go to the voting booths to choose their new president in an election they hope will be free of the fraud and violence that plagued the last one, in 1999.
But the candidacy of Gen. Rios Montt, a former dictator who presided over Guatemala briefly in the early '80s during the slaughter of thousands of Mayan Indians, has overshadowed everything here this fall. Speculation is rampant among Guatemalans and international human rights organizations that El General will do anything he can to steal the election.
Such a scenario would almost certainly provoke more bloodshed and could force multinational corporations, Western aid organizations and nonprofit groups like the Quetzaltrekkers to pull out of Guatemala. As U.S. Ambassador John Hamilton said last week, "The eyes of the world are watching this election."
At first glance, the beautiful three-day hike from Quetzaltenango, where the Quetzaltrekkers are based, to Lago Atitlan -- dubbed "the most beautiful lake in the world" by Central American guidebooks -- appears tailor- made for an adventure-tourism brochure. In fact, many customers learn about the Quetzaltrekkers from guidebooks such as "Lonely Planet" or the "Rough Guides" or via the Internet, and choose to study at Spanish language schools in Quetzaltenango, known to the locals by its traditional Mayan name, Xela.
But opening gringo eyes to the natural beauties of Guatemala, or to the mass suffering endured by the indigenous peoples over the last half-century, is not the trekkers' primary aim, says Gavin Barker, a social worker from London who founded the Quetzaltrekkers in 1995. "Our sole objective is to make as much money as possible to fund our program, which aims to meet the emotional, physical and educational needs of street children, child laborers and other at-risk children in and around the Xela area," says Gavin, who has since moved on to do other community service work in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. All profit from the hikes goes toward housing and schooling street boys at la Escuela de la Calle in the economically deprived neighborhood called Las Rosas in Xela, Guatemala's second-largest city. At a centrally located dormitory, called Hogar Abierto (open home), the trekkers have sheltered as many as 50 boys between the ages of 6 and 18 over the past eight years -- boys who face such problems as substance abuse, forced labor and child prostitution.
The Quetzaltrekkers now generate a monthly income of $3,500, which comprises 80 percent of the school's total budget. Fortunes have taken off since Gavin returned in 1999 and instituted a few minor changes, such as three- month minimum commitments and small stipends for the guides. The guide with the longest current tenure is Mike, originally from Boston, who dropped his departure plans last summer and has now served nine months "only because of the kids," he says.
"No one else was here to work with them in the dorm night after night, and they need continuity. They don't bode well with new faces all the time," he says.
The trekkers have also secured the sponsorship of the outdoor apparel company North Face and the Dutch airliner KLM, among others, which have donated supplies such as backpacks and sleeping bags.
The guides are young Westerners willing to devote their lives to the organization for a matter of months. They lead hikes at any time of day or night and in any kind of weather, look after the street boys in the Hogar Abierto, and play soccer with them at the local fields on Monday evenings.
Given their difficult pasts, the boys exhibit a dog-eat-dog mentality between the goalposts, making hard tackles, throwing elbows and using the kind of language not taught in most of Xela's Spanish schools. One Monday, a boy was convinced by a trekkers guide that the word "butterfly" bore a more ominous translation in Spanish, and so he shouted it over and over again while trash-talking with his friends.
The Quetzaltrekkers offer five regular excursions in the western Guatemalan highlands: the three-day overland hike from Xela to Lago Atitlan; a two-day trip to Tajumulco volcano, the highest point in Central America; an all-night climb up Santa Maria volcano during a full moon; a two-day hike on the Santiaguito volcano; and a six-day journey to Todos Santos in the foothills of the Cuchumatanes. Prices range from $10 to $120.
The treks are breathtaking, and the money supports a good cause, but the trips are not without the potential for danger. Young women on the Atitlan hike who strayed from the larger group have been robbed by men with machetes.
On the last morning of our journey, just after watching the sun rise over the most beautiful lake in the world and mere hours before the sweet baptism we had been waiting for, our guides Gernot (Austrian) and Jonathon (Israeli) dampened the mood with a warning: "Stick together when you descend toward the lake because this is the most dangerous part of the journey. There are men with machetes who prey on tourists in these parts, and you all look like dollar signs."
Jacob Wheeler is a Michigan-based freelance writer.
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