Weekend Trip, Day I: Iximche and Lago Atitlan

Departing from SEMILLA at 6 a.m., on this first day of our weekend field trip, we headed for Iximche, a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican archaeological site in the western highlands of Guatemala. We had breakfast at nearby Way’bi Foundation, which functions as a hotel for tourists, whose stay helps fund a hospice for children. After seeing Iximche’s ruins with a guide, we then drove another two hours east to Panajachel, where we picked up a boat and headed across Lago Atitlan, a gorgeous lake surrounded by volcanoes.

Our first stop around the lake was at Santiago Atitlan, where we had lunch at ANADESA, a cooperative founded during the civil war to help the community. At ANADESA we heard about the civil war and the nearby peace park. ANADESA’s community was the first to force the military to leave their community, in 1990, and that was the beginning of the peace process. We briefly walked through the Peace Park, dogged once again by torrential rain, and then walked to the Catholic Church where Rev. Stanley Rother, a soft-spoken Oklahoman, was killed in 1981 during the civil war. Rother became a champion of the indigenous community, which generally supported the leftist rebel groups that battled government paramilitary squads in the 1960-96 civil war. He knew not only English and Spanish but also learned Tz’utujil language, creating the first Tz’utujil translation of the New Testament. In the last year, he has been beatified by the Catholic Church.

We then took our boat across the lake once again, this time stopping in San Juan, where we are staying for the night. In this safe community, students were assigned to groups and sent out to find dinner in one of the local eateries. We’re all back at the hotel now, enjoying games, playing music, and making phone calls home. It’s been a good day.

Tomorrow morning we head for Quetzaltenango (also known as Xela), and then Sunday morning we will be in Chichicastenango (ChiChi).