Golden Sunscreen and a Jungle of Coffee

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Hello Friends,

Its been some time since my last letter. But that time has been intense.

After my free coffee letter I learned what coffee is really like. We went to a coffee plantation in Coban. We recieved a tour of the facility, learned all about coffee picking a production, and in the end were given more free coffee, and the option to buy. Our guide even said, ´´if you want some unground coffee, just tell the boys, and they won´t grind your before they put it in a bag.´´ It was a fully functioning production plant of some of the best coffee in the world. Needless to say, I was impressed.

We also made our way down to a serene little place called "Semuc Champey," what the locals call the 8th Wonder of the World. It is a naturally occuring Limestone "bridge" that cuts a swath through the forest here. The Peace Corps recently turned this area into a well developed National Park. This has dramtically increased tourism and made it much more accesible. The way this thing works is that a big river split somewhere up this mountain. As it came down, the two rivers reconverge. Not before the bigger one hits this limestone though. Unable to tear through it, the big river went under it. The little river, on the other hand, went over it. This has created idyllic green pools with a raging torrent underneath.

I´ve just started taking malaria medication here, and my medication makes me more suseptible to sunburns. This is when I discovered sunscreen is a luxury item in the states. If you thought the sunscreen at Walgreens was expensive, don´t wait until guatemala to buy your next tube.

So then we found ourselves at Tikal, the gigantic ruined city of the lowland Mayans. It was the most grand city in the area for around a thousand years. It sports gigantic temples that tower over the trees. You can even see one temple top poking above the jungle from another as you stand on top of them. The surrounding foliage is JUNGLE. Complete with Lemurs, leaf cutter ants and howler monkeys. The lemurs travel in packs, the ants travel so consistantly that they cut paths through the forrest floor and the monkey´s howls shake the very forrest. How a city of 100,00 ever survived there, I can only imagine.

From there we traveled through the country and down the Rio Dulce, a green river that flows between giant cliffs covered in Jungle. The immense walls are even greener than the water. The Rio Dulce was transportation so we could arrive in Livingston, a town reached only by boat.

Livingston is a Garfuna city. This is a small settlement of Caribs, a group of people desended from a wrecked slave ship and then took over an island. After years of war the British conquored them and decided an island of free blacks could not be allowed to exist in a land where they were slaves. The British then shipped the population all over the area, and now they have settlements throughout the carribean. It is the only settlement of its kind in Guatemala. It has a real carribean flair. Tonight we plan to have another seafood dinner on the water, and hope to hear the intense drumming of the local music tonight.

We have two more sets of ruins on our list, the largest pilgramage site in all of central america, and a black sand beach on the Pacific coast. My trip is almost over. Thanks again for all the support you all have given me, and I hope to write again soon.

Love,
Carl

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