La Ruta de las Flores- Soy Mexicano pero mi estomago es Guanaco July 7

Today I arrived in a charming little town called Juayúa in the route of the flowers... I was thinking of just heading to Guatemala and boy am I glad that I came here. Again the hostel is crowded with Europeans and Canadians and so on... but it is an amazing little town. They have this gastronomic festival every weekend and they have some kick ass food. I am salivating just thinking of what I had today and what I will try tomorrow. The guanacos pour their soul into making the food here and it is so goooood. I had a great dinner for only $1.20 


But I am having... como se dice... una crisis de concincia. I feel bad for some people and I feel like giving them money especially kids and elderly. The guide book says I should donate to a local charity so I will do that. But I wish I could give them money, but also feel like I might insult them. If they ask me for it I give them whatever change I have but it's hard and it breaks my heart :o(


Day 2 in Juayua 


Today was super. I woke up pretty early for a hike called La ruta de las siete cascadas ( The route of the seven waterfalls). So we had out with our guide Douglas. The tour consisted of me, a British postman, a snobby Italian and I think a French couple wearing crocks. So we head out and we come to the edge of town where the guide lives and right away this swarm of dogs comes our way. He told us that they were his dogs... well most of them anyways. His home was very modest and his mom was cooking on a wood fire. We began walking and came across some more tourists. Douglas mentioned we were going to this part first because it gets crowded later in the day and it's also the only place you can swim. We were pretty impressed right away and the other visitors went for a deep. I just sat and hang out with the dogs who were going on the hike too. 


Eventually it got really difficult. We began walking up hill through coffee fields and the trail got slippery and difficult to follow. At some point we even had to use a rope to climb down this scary looking cliff. I was pretty cold about it, but Douglas was really patient and awesome about it and I managed to make it. My pants however didn't make it. At some point towards the end when we were eating lunch, which consisted of avocado, onion, tomato, cucumbers and boiled egg sandwiches and pineapple, I realized that there was this huge rip on my pants. So technically there were some causalities. Which I guess it's ok because I kept slipping on these scary looking rocks. 


Douglas used to be a coffee worker. He planted the coffee trees. He mentioned that he would get paid $5 a day and had to work long ours even if it rained. He also mentioned that coffee pickers get paid about $1 for every 25 pounds of coffee beans they collect. Some times people might make about $4 or $5. So its pretty bad for them. Which is crazy because it is then sold by the finca owners at the price of gold. And 5 bucks doesn't go very far here either. 


I Just got back from eating some food at the festival gastronomico, and getting some fun stuff from the vendors. There were some indigenous women selling things and they were speaking a native language called kakchikel. The language is not native to the region but many of them migrated during the Guatemalan civil war. On the way back I got rained on and by rained on I mean poured on. As I stood on the cobble stone street with my feet deep on water under the canopy of a food vendor, they asked if I wanted to sit on their stool. It was so nice :o) 

Doggy Guide

Douglas and his dogs 

After climbing down 

French people and a waterfall