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Published: June 27th 2006
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Before I came to Guatemala, I researched quite a bit on the web for information about Xela and Guatemala. I came across the website www.xelapages.com . This website was really useful to me, especially the discussion board. During my first week in Xela, (when I was still exploring the city) I walked to Xelapages and met the owners- Tom and his wife Mary Jo. Tom is a gringo, and is originally from West Virginia, but spent quite a few years in San Francisco doing trading for a large company. He met Mary Jo in San Francisco, and then have been married for 11 years. Mary Jo is originally from Xela, and came to the United States after high school. They have been settled in Guatemala for the last 3-4 years, and they have a ten year old boy and five year old girl.
A couple of weeks ago, I heard about a volunteer project through the local freebie gringo bulletin. This volunteer project was to help clean up a beach that was affected last year by Hurricane Stan. The plan was to bring down a group of people on Friday, clean the beach on Saturday, and leave Sunday morning. The
beach is called Tilapa Beach and it is about 10km from the border of Mexico.
I wanted to see a different side of Guatemala, and I also was interested in the project. Coincidentally, the project was being run by Tom and his wife Mary Jo. I contacted Tom, and secured my spot. Since I was at the mountain school for two weeks prior, I made arrangements with Tom to pick me up Friday afternoon on their way down to Tilapa.
The distance from Xela to Tilapa Beach is 3 hours in the car, but the first half of the road is really bad, due to the continuous rain and mudslides that Guatemala has. In total, there were about 20 people coming down for the weekend from Xela. Tom picked me up in his Jeep Cherokee at 3:30 pm, and informed me that Mary Jo and a van full of people were a little behind us.
The ride down went smoothly, I listened to Tom and Lucas speak about the politics around Xela, and gained some insight about property ownership and the local businesses. Lucas is originally from Australia, but he has been in Xela for about 5
years. He is a journalist, and writes for Lonely Planet (he wrote the Guatemala version). Tom is really interesting to talk to, because he knows a lot about Guatemala, so whenever I have a question, I will ask Tom.
We made it down to Tilapa, after passing through acres of banana plantations that are owned by Dole and the United Fruit Company. I really felt a different vibe as we neared Tilapa. The air was hot and more humid. I no longer saw houses with sheet metal for roofs, but thatched roof houses. The population of pigs was growing exponentially. I saw more hammocks and palm trees with coconuts. I felt that I was in the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua.
We made it in to Tilapa and waited for the rest of the group. In the meantime, we had cold drinks and relaxed. When everyone had arrived, we all boarded a boat to take us to Tilapita Beach (a smaller peninsula) from Tilapa. It was a 10 minute boat ride, and we made it to Tilapita. We walked a short distance to the hotel, meanwhile passing small tiendas (mom and pop type of small stores operated out of
their homes), a church, houses with hammocks swinging between the palm trees, and the occasional pig or piglet.
One of the girls had backed out the day before, so I had a room to myself at the hotel. The room was very simple, with two full sized beds, a fan, and a toilet, shower, and sink. The bathroom did not have a door, and when I turned the shower on, the piping shook. Still, I felt happy and thankful to be on the coast.
After setting down my stuff, I grabbed my camera and ran to the ocean to take pictures of the sunset. This was my first glimse of the beach, and I saw piles of plastic, wood, and other objects lying in the sand. Like Tom and Mary Jo, I saw the potential for beauty, so I felt optimistic being here. After exploring the beach, I came back to the hotel and went to bed early at 9:00pm.
I woke up at 5:30 am the next day to the sound of chickens and roosters crowing outside by window. I could see the sun rising, so I left at 6:00 am to catch the sunrise. Another
girl in my group was awake, so we went to the beach to watch the sunrise. I walked down the beach barefoot and explored the area. I saw much debris from Hurricane Stan- various pieces of plastic, wood, shoes, and clothing. The beach that was not affected was beautiful- black sand and the water was warm and clear.
We all gathered for breakfast at 10 am, for a breakfast of beans, eggs, and potatoes. The couple that owns the hotel made all of our food on a wood buring stove. The food was amazing, and throughout the weekend I had shrimp, fish soup along with rice, tortillas, beans and beer.
We started to clean up after breakfast, and finished by 1:30. We all wanted to see the Argentina vs Mexico game at 2:00. The clean up was hard work, but with people using rakes to gather the debris, and then others gathering the debris into a big pile, we were able to make some good progress. Apparently, the debris will be gathered by the city later this month. I plan on returning in a couple of weeks with Alfonso, so we will see.
All in all, it
was a great weekend. I made new friends, saw another side of Guatemala and helped a community. Till next time.
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Dad
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Beach
It looks like the developers haven't found that beach yet. It's beautiful. You gotta wonder where all that junk came from.