Verde Eventos, Antigua, a place we call home in Guatemala. And where better to spend Zoe’s birthday than there. Everything was ready, we just needed the guests. But it seemed like there were quite a few pre-parties to celebrate beforehand. Because when we returned to this beloved campsite, a whole host of Overlanders were waiting. Rigs in all shapes and sizes were lined up- from the USA, Canada, Switzerland, France, Guatemala and El Salvador. This was our third visit, but the first time we’d seen it so busy. It certainly did feel like an overlanding convention.
Guillermo, his ‘Caracol’ and his friend Claudia also joined in on the fun. We grilled the remaining treats brought from Manolo’s Argentinan restaurant in Guatemala City and made some very fine hamburgers for everyone. Huge campfires were had and the atmosphere was booming.
A week later, Zoe’s very special day arrived and she got to whack two piñatas- a real Latin American treat for us, as piñatas are not usually the custom when celebrating birthdays in Europe. Our three-year-old was now “a big girl” and her princess-themed day brought her joy from morning til night. Starting with the opening of princess gifts, to eating a delicious princess cake made in our Dutch oven, and finishing with her first-ever princess movie- Frozen.
…And the next day we thought it best to commemorate this coming of age by sending her to pre-school. Through our friend Pablo, we had met Ricardo, another entrepreneur who was invested in many projects in Antigua. He had shown us around his coffee plantation, theme park and “green” international school. And had said that Zoe was welcome at any time to drop by at the daycare. Not so ready for this huge step upon our last Antigua visit, she was now, and we were able to drop her off, watch her trot along happily and leave her for a few hours.
This, readers, was a momentous occasion, the first time she’d ever been without her mummy and daddy! And what a success it was! She made friends, played with the very exciting toys, painted and made collages, joined in with singing and dancing and learned lots of Spanish. All while mum and dad went to go learn a bit of Spanish themselves and update this very website at the awesome Internet cafe ‘Once/Doce’.
We enjoyed a week or two of routined life at Verde Eventos but our host Isaac had another mini trip in mind (last time we grilled tacos on a rooftop overlooking the former capital). This time he had asked us if he could show us the back side of Pacaya. So, camping it was. We spent one night at the Finca El Amate, with an amazing view of Antigua’s other three surrounding volcanoes.
Isaac, an exceptional tour guide, had us up at 6am the next morning ready to walk through the lava fields of the ‘Groots’ sculpture park, drive in the back of a pickup truck to a pineapple plantation (those fresh pineapples really were the juiciest), and go crabbing in and around some cascading waterfalls.
It sure was an adventure! No crabs were caught here, but we didn’t let that spoil our plans for dinner. Antigua’s famous market was still open upon our return and Isaac was able to buy four of these delicious shellfish.
We had one last big loop planned in Guatemala and went all the way back to Lanquin, where our good friends @dinoadventure were hanging out.
Lanquin lies 10km away from Semuc Champey. You may remember the treacherous road we drove from the north to Semuc Champey! The one that almost broke the car and caused a puncture. Well, GoogleMaps wanted us to go back on that road again. But little did we know that this was the complete wrong direction. An hour into this journey on this rough road, it dawned on us that we needed to turn around. Unfortunately, an hour too late because this time, we really did damage the truck and camper. More about that later.
Needless to say, it got dark again. Our running gag! We finally made it to Andrea’s cocoa farm where Karsten and Steffi were waiting. This time for a proper ‘meat’ up. We had come with the proposed idea of purchasing two pigs and feeding an entire village. Would they be interested? You bet! The very next day Richie and Karsten went to the local Ferreteria to get wire and metal poles used for a spit and were on the hunt for the stars of the show, the pigs, which didn’t turn out to be such an easy task. Most farmers only had 125 kg pigs, much larger than the little 15-20kg piglet and 40-50kg adult we were after. But after a few farm visits, they were successful. They returned with Percy and Polly (Zoe named them) in the back of Andreas’ pickup.
It was all systems go! First time as butchers, Richie and Karsten would need to run a rehearsal if they were to do it right for the big charity event taking place three days later. Even though it was their first time- it was all done in a professional manner: Killed properly, hung up, bled out, shaved and cleaned before being marinated with salt. The big one would go in the freezer and the piglet straight on the spit.
During our stay, we did get a tour of Andreas’ cocoa plantation and building project. He had only recently moved over from Germany to run the business and therefore had only just started work on his new house. It was certainly going to have an incredible view.
Andreas is already heavily involved in the local community and recommended we drop by and visit the village school. So, while Richie and Karsten were tending to the spit, Zoe and I wandered up the hill to join in with all the activities. We sang songs in Spanish, coloured in, listened to a lesson about etiquette, and practiced personal hygiene. This involved cutting nails and brushing teeth. Zoe’s highlight of the afternoon and definitely a huge focus in this school’s curriculum.
The children only attend school three afternoons a week; a total of six hours of learning time. The teacher is very passionate in what she does, but it would be great to see more resources available and more funds coming in to support the school, in order that these students can learn more than just dental hygiene. Andreas has set up a go fund with this vision in mind. If you’d also like to donate, then please head to his ‘gofundme’ page.
And from one charity to another… It was time to share our love of meat with ‘Mountaintoppromises’. We had met Ingrid and Riley, a few months prior, when shopping in a supermarket in Cobán. They are two outreach workers who work for a malnourished program. This supermarket encounter led to some interaction over social media which later resulted in a plan to go feed one of the villages they support. The girls and their team work with two villages in the San Cristobal area who are particularly malnourished. So much so that many of the mothers struggle to produce their own breast milk. With little money to buy formula, these mothers would fill their baby bottles with instant coffee! Ingrid and her team of volunteers raise money to buy baby formula and run weekly health clinics to weigh the babies and offer practical advice about how the parents can better nourish their children.
With a lack of recognized education, finding work in Guatemala is tough for these families, if they’re lucky they’ll earn a mere $10 a week.
So our plan to feed them an entire pig was definitely going to be a once-in-a-lifetime event for them. But what an event it was! This was a banquet! And talk about respecting the animal that had been slaughtered. Every tiny part of this pig had been devoured, from the juicy, tender meat itself to even the snout, ears and eyes. Children, teenagers, adults and grandparents lined up for seconds, thirds and fourths. It was a joyous celebration and one we will never forget.
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A guy from Cobán had looked the Dinos up and invited us to spend a night on his cardamom farm. We gladly agreed and set off in the pouring rain. And I guess you could say, it went downhill from there. We were preparing the best lasagna ever, making our very own mincemeat from luxury New York strip. The fire was on, ready for our Dutch oven but whilst having a spontaneous tour around the cardamom plantation, a dog took the opportunity of eating our prepared meat! He sure had expensive taste too! This was the start of a series of unfortunate events. The following day we were packing our things ready for our drive to Chichicastenango, and Richie stood on a nail! The bad kind! Blood was spewing out like in a horror movie- luckily Karsten was there to play doctor and bandaged the wound up perfectly.
The rain was not ceasing… traffic was horrendous and in an attempt to turn around during a diversion, the Dinos crashed into a pole, damaging their diesel tank.
…And if that wasn’t enough, out of the blue, Zoe violently threw up all over the car and multiple times thereafter. Steffi caught a cold that day and it appeared that this was the day Karsten’s parasite started developing. Leaving him toilet bound for two more weeks. This wasn’t a great day, but we knew things could only improve- and they did! The campsite in Chichicastenango was just beautiful, and there we met two other German Overlanding couples.
The next day was Sunday, an official Chichicastenango market day, and those who weren’t too busy throwing up or hogging the toilet limped and coughed their way to the splendor of colours that were awaiting.
Back in Antigua- there were many more parties to be had. Semana Santa was approaching (Antigua’s biggest event of the year) and the tourists were flocking in- including more Overlanders from across the globe: Argentina, Germany, USA, Holland and Belgium.
Zoe took the opportunity of visiting her beloved daycare and we got the Easter preparations ready.
Semana Santa means Holy Week, and this is huge in Antigua. Roads are closed across the Easter weekend to make way for a series of parades and processions, and alfombras (street tapestries made out of sawdust) carpet the floors. We were fortunate enough to witness the festivities, however, it’s not for everyone. This place gets busy and if you don’t like crowds, we advise you to stay well away. We timed our visits well, making sure we got up early before we were packed in like a can of sardines. The celebrations were interesting. A definite culture hit!
Time was running out for us in Guatemala, and with Richie and Karsten becoming real experts in hog roasts, we thought we’d end our wonderful four and a half months here with yet another pig party. It was Karsten’s birthday and we had found an excellent location to say goodbye to all our friends that we had made. And these carnivores were not going to miss out on some tasty pork! Friends from Guatemala City and Antigua came along bringing their friends too, and @weharttravel, travellers from the US also made a special appearance. It was fun and everyone was in high spirits! What an ending to this Guatemala adventure!
…But not quite. There was one more thing we needed to do before crossing into El Salvador, and that was to fix the damage that was caused when driving the rough road near Lanquin, foremost our stable lift and the lights on the roof of our cab (which unfortunately got smashed when flying over the numerous potholes). Through the connection of Markus Vogel, the Guatemala City-born German, we spoke about in a recent post, we camped out at his family’s ‘Delica’ factory which was also right on the site of his BMW garage. This gave us the space to work on some much-needed welding and run a service on the Dodge. Parked right outside the bakery, we enjoyed freshly baked croissants, danishes and pretzels daily and got a personal tour of their meat factory. Of course, we filled our fridge with frankfurters and bratwursts too!
There was one final sightseeing for us; the Relief in Guatemala City, and then to El Salvador we go.
We have been on the road two and half years now and as much as we embraced everything the USA and Mexico had to offer, we have not felt quite as at home as we did in this ‘land of the trees.’ The friendships we have made and the ease of integrating into the lifestyle here will surely have us coming back for more soon.
Thank you Guatemala, and thank you dear readers for reading, ‘meat’ you around the world!
