Guate to Xela

If England is the land of roundabouts, Latin America is most certainly the land of speed bumps. This morning, we made our way to Quetzaltenango (better known as Xela, shay-lah). Once we got out of Guate, I was introduced to the staggering beauty that defines the Latin American countryside.

Our 4-hour car ride to Xela was wallpapered with banana, coffee and sugar cane plantations. At any given moment, I was looking out the window at dueling political billboards, sleepy coastal towns with endless fruit stands, families who pass their time in lawn chairs on the side of the highways, and more starving stray dogs than I could count. Guatemala is also home to 27 volcanoes (only two of which are still active) and the outlines of these giant masses create a dramatic landscape throughout our journey from the capitol. Within a few square kilometers, it is not uncommon to see a 7,000+m variation in altitude.

Throughout the mountain towns, you see farmers cart their produce around on bikes. They balance their children on their handlebars and share the narrow, winding mountain roads with commercial trucks and renegade cars. Children go to work with their respective parents to begin to learn the merit of the toil, and Mayan women paint the streets with electric colors, balancing baskets on their heads with their market purchases.

It's hard to feel like anything more than a voyeur at this point. Tiff asked me today why I was so quiet and I told her that, early in my travels, I find that I don't engage with much. I gauge boundaries and draw up similarities and differences based on the world(s) that I have formerly known. I suppose we all have biased impressions because we seem to always need something--some belief or former perspective--to base it all on. It's the benefit and the burden of travel, I suppose.

First impressions? Beauty, tragedy, uncensored lives, and staggering possibility.