After my hiking to El Mirador I first wanted to go to Lanquin and Semuc Champey, but after a terrible drive of 4 hours I discovered that I needed a day of. So I decided to go to Coban and one day later to Salama. In Coban is not very much to see, neither in Salama, but Salama is the town from which I would meet my Foster child Waldemar, for the first time.
There are worse places in the world than Salama and I made some nice trips to San Jeronimo (an old sugar mill) and Las Cataractes (Saltas) de Chilasco, a beautiful hiking to the highest cascades of central America.
On June 2nd it was the big day, I would meet my foster child. I sponsor the family (village) by Plan International.
http://plan-international.org/, since about 12 years, and Waldemar is now 16 years old.
I went to the Salama office of Plan and a translator (Alma), the family coach (Fransisco) and the driver (Arturo) brought me to Cimientos 3 Cruces, a small village far away and high up in the mountains. I had expected only to meet the family, but we drove to the schoolyard and there I discovered that half the village was present. In their best suites and it looked like a big party. Several speeches were held (the president of a committee, the head master etc.) and after that a performance started of all classes, singing and dancing. At the end I myself speeched, again by heart, in Spanish and the father of Waldemar speeched also.
Then we went to the house of the family (not their own house anymore, because the family has moved to Cubulco, because of the study of Waldemar) for lunch. After lunch we went to Cubulco and I gave the family some presents (food etc. from the supermarket) and to the boys (Waldemar and his brother Julio) a football shirt. This was a day never to forget. I appreciate very much the work Plan is doing and I am glad to be part of it.
The next day I left for Rio Dulce and after several busses and a lancha trip I arrived around 17:00 in Finca Tatin, a very nice jungle lodge with a perfect atmosphere. It is an eco-lodge with nice guests, good food, lots of activity possibilities and a very good Cabana. From there we made some trips to Livingston, La Playa Blanca (a marvellous caribean beach), the Seven Altars (cascades in which we could swim) and a Q'eqchi-Maya village (including a nice dive in a cave-lake).
After 3 days I unfortunately had to leave again, heading for other surprises. Without a real plan I arrived this morning in Rio Dulce again and decided to go to Lago Atitlan, probably to a completely other kind of world. I am still enjoying this trip very much.
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2 comments:
Thank you so much for the e mail, glad to hear you enjoyed your visit and the country...bye the way...Salama is a nice place :) Take care. Alma Molina
Hi Alma, Of course you are right about Salama. What I really meant is: Salama lacks 'great' touristic attraction (or ambition??), and maybe that is Salamas attraction. In fact that was the reason I stayed there longer, because I enjoyed Salamas charm, noise, smell, colours, market, plaza and people. Buen suerte, muchas gracias PARA TI, abrazos. Tom
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