Day 5

Saturday was a day of leisure and tourism.  We started with a short trip to the Instituto Tulan where Victor Racancoj, the director, presented for about an hour on the present day issues of poverty and malnutrition in Guatemala and how it affects the indigenous population much more.  Next we traveled to the Baul, a park at the top of a ridge overlooking Quetzaltenango.  Here we took some nice pictures and had some fun sliding down a long cement slide.

Afterwards we returned to Quetzaltenango for a soccer match with the people from Tulan, some of Victor's family, our driver, and our translators.   While I knew that Dr. Rust is a soccer phenom, I was surprised to see how good our students were at soccer.   We had a lot of fun and learned that playing at 5000+ feet above sea level is quite tiring.

Next, we headed to the Fuentes Georginas natural hot springs for a few hours of relaxation in the pools.  Everyone seemed to have a great time.  The drive to the hot springs follows a winding road to a very high elevation where we are in the clouds by the end of the journey.  Along the way, the students see a lot of Guatemalans farming the fields adjacent to the road.  At times, entire families are working in the fields on steep hillsides.  Most of the crops in this area are root vegetables.   At the top there is some really interesting vegetation.  It reminds me of Jurassic Park - plants with huge leaves and thick foliage everywhere.  

Finally we had a banquet with our hosts and gave some gifts to all of the Guatemalans who help us with the Quetzaltenango portion of the trip.  Our translators, Jose and Jose (who we affectionately call Jos-A and Jos-B) were terrific,  our driver, Carlos, was very helpful, as was our Tulan coordinator, Rosa.

Saludos, Professor Northrup