Hittin' the Slopes - May 30th, 2017

About an hour away from our hotel in Chimaltenango, across the rolling beautiful fields of cantaloupes and carnations meant for the US, is the mountain aldea of Chipata. It’s a wonderful ride: thick green foliage, hundreds of people and animals looking at us with amiable curiosity, and vistas from the tops of mountains to the mountains beyond and valleys below that makes you feel like the king or queen of the world.

We stop about a mile away from our worksite at a nursery run by six women who have been working with AIR for six years. Throughout their partnership, these women have raised and planted more than a half a million trees, many of which were visible on our ride in. Doctora tells us to listen carefully, as these women are Kakchiquel Maya, and speak only a few words of Spanish. As Luis, our técnico, translates their story, the throat clicks and glottal stops of that ancient language is like nothing we’ve ever heard.

Our worksite, we’re told, is much more suave than yesterday (referring to the dirt,) but is much more steep. Luis wasn’t kidding. It’s simply the side of a mountain, no ifs ands or buts about it. The dirt is much more suave and easy to work with than yesterday, and we only have to hoe a circle of clearance around the little tree before we easily dig and plant it. Yet we have to step carefully, leaning on our tools and holding onto trees as we descend. The good news is we plant 400 TREES! And we plant them much faster than expected. More good news is that Florida and Louisiana people aren’t used to this sort of terrain by a long shot and we’ll all sleep well tonight.

Finally, because we plant 400 trees much faster than expected—awesome—we get the chance to swing by the Mayan ruin of Ixchimche. We get a discount because AIR planted super-rare trees there and since we arrive with only 45 minutes left before it closes. Doctora leads us on a whirlwind tour of its big temples and palaces, some still partially encased by hills and trees. Of particular interest are the places of sacrifice, animal, human, and otherwise. We climb all over what we can, especially the two ball courts, learning what we can from the stones of the only city that staged a guerilla war against the Spanish invaders.


Tomorrow, we build stoves. – Adam Darragh - 

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