From the Coast to Lake Atitlan, Mar. 1

View from the highway that circles Lake Atitlan

Again, today, Dave Black has shared his thoughts on our day.  Of course, I continue to have to add comments. (Dick would probably say I want to have the last word!)~~Pat

Some of the kids in Julio's yard

Today we took some food to Julio's mom and dad. Julio is in the malnutrition ward at Hermano Pedro, and Dick wanted to talk to mom and dad. Fortunately, dad was home from working in the sugar cane fields. This job has to be one the worst - about 90 F, and fields of cane on fire also. Dick says they make about Q 60 I(maybe $8)  for a 12 hr. day., and the work only lasts for 3 or 4 months.

Before the sugar cane is cut, the fields are burned.
The workers leave covered with soot.
I can only imagine what their lungs look like. . .

We then took Orlindo home, and found out he had missed only Monday for school. Apparently the teachers had a meeting of some sort. He was pretty happy to be home.

Dr. Will, who left a successful medical practice
in Seattle to come to Guatemala to
care for the people in San Lucas

Off to San Lucas we drove, to meet with an American doctor there, William Boegel, who had found a little girl who needed a wheelchair. Mom and Dad brought this girl in for physio treatment 3 X A week,, and you see how much they loved her. Quite a difference from the families we had met the day before.

Unfortunately, the chair we had brought was too big,. So Dick is going to bring another soon. Dr.Will and his wife had moved down here from Seattle 4 yrs. Ago, , and bought some land outside San Lucas Toliman, where they bring women and children to escape mostly abuse. Will also works 2 days a week at the local hospital, where he also brought down most of everything for an operating room !







Then we drove to Santiago Atitlan, to drop off some walkers to Michelle, an American lady who is working with elderly people.




Though I'd been up to the Lake before, this was the first time I had traveled by car to the "back" side of the lake (away from the more "touristy" Panajacel), and loved the new experiences.  We had been told that the road was considered "dangerous" yet could find no one who had actually had problems traveling it, so we did.


One of many stations along the road where
workers bring the coffee they have picked
to be weighed into 100 lb. bags



This remote area does not have chicken buses.
Workers are transported by over-loaded pick-ups.

We drove around Volcan San Pedro to visit Manuel ,a young man in San Juan La Laguna, whose motorized wheelchair was npt working properly. Dick changed the batteries, and said we would be back tomorrow to check on the new ones.


Dick working on Manuel's chair in the fading daylight



We spent the night in San Pedro at a very clean and nice hotel for Q100 ea. (about $12.50)- quite a bargain. Pat looked pretty comfortable in the hammock there.!  (Guilty, as charged.  I think Lake Atitlan is one of the best places on earth to renew and recharge--even if only for an evening.  I can't wait to go back!)