Western Highlands and Hiking a Volcano

Western Guatemalan highlands, as seen from our car.

Last night we returned from a trip to San Marcos, a department (state) of Guatemala in the western highlands bordering Mexico. The purpose of the trip was to accompany a new staff member to the community where he will serve and live with his host family, as well as to visit some projects. We stayed in a small community called Sibinal, nestled in between two active volcanoes, Tajamulco and Tacana.

A common site along the road.

MCC partners with agricultural cooperatives in two communities in this very rural corner of Guatemala. The community we visited is called La Linea, which means "The Line". (Not to be confused with the other La Linea, in El Salvador. See this post.) It is called La Linea because this community finds itself on the border of Guatemala and Mexico.

To get to this community we drove on a very rocky, steep road for more than an hour around the volcano from Sibinal, often having to use 4-wheel drive. It was a bumpy ride. We arrived and these students welcomed us. The community has one road that leads to the school, and then to get to the homes there is a trail straight up the side of Tacana to the community members' homes. This trail is one of two approaches to summit the volcano.

The welcoming committee.

A rousing game of futbol.
(The blue building is the local school).

Watching the students play soccer. 

Fast buddies. These girls helped Ellie pick flowers.

This little girl was washing her cup in the outdoor kitchen sink.

In this community, MCC helps support a number of families to create greenhouses and home gardens. The greenhouses mostly have roses and chrysanthemums that are sold at local markets in Guatemala and just across the border in Mexico, and the home gardens are to help provide a way of sustainable living.

A greenhouse full of flowers.

A special flower with healing properties that is dried to make tea.

More flowers in the greenhouse ready to be cut and sold.
(And a daughter of one family with a greenhouse.)

A major motivation behind these projects is to help families afford to live without needing to migrate to Mexico or the US to work for several months of the year. Instead, these families raise enough food to eat and make enough money selling their flowers to not need to find other work. We met many people who once had to migrate for months at a time who now can stay and provide a livelihood for their families at home.

First sign of strawberries.

Almost every house had several plants growing like this one.

After visiting each house we hiked up more to visit more homes and greenhouses. 

Three levels of greenhouses, each owned and operated by a different family.

We hiked up this volcano to about 8500 feet for over 30 minutes. The volcano's peak reaches over 13,000 feet.

 About half way up the side of the volcano we stopped for lunch.

The kitchen where chicken soup was cooking on the stove.

The girls seem to make friends wherever we go.

Lunch.
("The dining room")

The border between Guatemala and Mexico, divided by occasional cement markers.

After a knee-jarring trip back down the mountain, we got back in the truck and drove about one minute down the road, where it abruptly ended and led to the abyss of a pine forrest. We had reached the porous border with Mexico.

We headed back to Sibinal to take a hot shower and eat some comida tipica, reflecting on the harsh reality of living on the side of an active volcano. We are excited to work with these communities in the coming years. More pictures to come.