La Adventura

Monday was a normal day until 1:15pm. After lunch Theo and I were playing a game of backgammon when Hermano Daniel stopped by and asked if we would like to go with him to visit his family. Of course! Any opportunity to get to know more people, become familiar with the area, learn about the culture, not to mention having someone asking us instead of the other way around, is an opportunity you can't turn down. Little did we know that this trip could have been our last.

His family lived outside of the city of Chamagua in an area referred to as las sopas. We had no idea what to expect. After we passed through Chamagua, which the main road was paved but almost every other street was dirt (and not nice and smooth), we turned off onto a new dirt road. At that point, Daniel got out of the truck to engage the four wheel drive. (up to this point I had wondered-found it interesting that the monastery only had trucks...this trip showed us why) At first it was just a bumpy dirt road that had some decent sized hills. But it didn't stay that way for long. We kept going up and it kept getting more rough. We ended up going through 4 small streams on the trip and summited, or crossed, 2 or 3 peaks. It is very hard to descibe this road but I'll try. It was only one lane, had huge ruts, big rocks, and areas washed out by heavy rain. The inclines were incredible, both up and down, not to mention that within a few feet of the road was a several hundred foot dropoff down the side of the mountain. These roads seemed better suited for four wheelers and dirt bikes, and I don't know if I'd even feel comforatble on one of those. Put it this way, we found out what the handles on the ceiling near the doors (know to some as ¨oh shit¨ bars) are for...to keep your head from smashing the window when going over bumps, ruts, and rocks. Throughout the trip Daniel kept asking us if we were scared yet...haha. In all reality I wasn't really scared until the way back...I think that's because it was all so new and I was enjoying the scenery (gorgeous) that I forgot about the reality of losing control and sliding to our deaths. It was on the way back when we were scaling (I can't even really say driving up the hill, because that doesn't acturately describe to the inlcine we were ascending) the steepest section (Daniel actually had his brother drive us up this section because he wasn't comfortable)...with which San Fran can't even compare...that I, as well as Theo, realized that if we started sliding backwards, we were more than likely dead. It didn't help that the brother had to switch into first gear. This required him to stop and then start on the incline...yes, it was a manual...it was rather impressive actually. Other than the trip itself, which Daniel coined ¨la adventura¨, the visit with his family was really fun. We got served some snacks before getting a tour of his fathers coffee plants, lemon trees, and two man-made ponds (about 14x10 ft) where he grows some plants, but more importantly raises fish. This seems to be a common thing since we found out last week that the two big rectangle ponds at the monastery are actually for fish, not irrigation. Daniels family is really big (in number, not height...they were quite short). He has 6 or 7 (can't remember) younger brothers and sisters. Not to mention that all of his extended family lives just down the road (or up) so there were several other kids walking around. We felt very welcome and had a great experience. It was eye opening and definitely a learning experience to see how most Guatemalans live. After the trip, it was somewhat more resonable to see why Guatemala, at least a large portion of it, is not industrialized...theres no place to build or move equipment with all of the mountains. Peoples bean and coffee fields are on the sides of mountains. I'm surprised people could keep from falling when planting or picking the food.
A few days after the visit, Daniel told us that his family enjoyed meeting us and would like us to come back for lunch one day in late November so his dad can show us how coffee is gathered and made. That will be cool! Daniel also said that they were fascinated by how tall we were...lol