Mondays: Senderismo
According to my work plan, Mondays are reserved for senderismo — trail maintenance and construction. All around my community there are trails used by the loma lindeños to get to their parcelas. After ASODILL formed they began to see a few of the trails as having potential for supporting and attracting ecotourism.
There are four trails that have the most potential out of our network of trails. Two of those carry the potential to see the resplendent Quetzal, of which my departamento is named after (Quetzaltenango).
Resplendent Quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno). Photo by Steve Bird
Of the other two, one has a beautiful waterfall and the other has a gorgeous river with waterfalls of its own.
The Chilamate waterfall
The Río Ocós
Due to the rain and the fact that these trails are used daily by people traveling to and from their parcelas laden with firewood and pacaina, these trails are subject to some hard wear and tear. In addition, some sections of the trail were poorly chosen — through a narrow pass or up a steeper section of hillside — and would be better placed elsewhere. Therefore, we maintain and create trails.
I have only created about a 20 meter section of trail and the rest of my effort has been in the maintenance of the existing trails. With the exception of clearing the weeds and undergrowth for creating a new trail, the work is the same. Most of the work that goes into trail maintenance and construction is ensuring that the trail surface is level across its width and length, the latter of which requires steps or switchbacks. An important but less common form of maintenance is cutting back the weeds and plants from choking the trail.
New steps on a trail
Amazingly, all of this work can be done with just a machete and a hoe. At first I thought that the machete was very versatile. As it turns out the hoe is just as versatile. In addition to pushing and pulling dirt, it can also be used to chop through stubborn tree roots, as a shovel and as a mallet. A necessity.
Personally there hasn’t been much new here. We had our annual security meeting 2 weeks ago — we being the volunteers of the departamento of Quetzaltenango. The topics covered were general Peace Corps news, a medical refresher, and the potential natural disasters that may affect us here in Guatemala. The rainy season is supposed to have a strong beginning for the month of May and perhaps even June and the threat of a large earthquake is present as well. The pattern for large earthquakes in Guatemala has been every 35 years and…I’ll let you do the math since the last one in 1976. Not that you can predict earthquakes.
Next weekend is the Quetzaltenango and San Marcos welcome party in Xela. On the day of the party there are salsa (dance, not delicious accompaniment to pretty much any food) lessons that we will show off at the clubs later that night. Though I’ll probably skip the lessons and head straight for the bars.
