Todo Santos, Guatemala

As the bus roared along the road I felt my confidence dwindle away with the dust billowing away behind us. I should have been thinking about the new skills I would need and things I should learn but I remember being preoccupied with thoughts of girls I might never see again.

Guatemala lies below Mexico and is a land of mountains and jungles, hills and small villages, one of which our bus has just entered. It is the country that Simon has chosen for our next expedition and the only one Jamie will visit with us. Jamie, my 14-year-old brother who is adapting to the country by learning pick up lines in Spanish. For all my bravado and showing off with my little sibling I am really very nervous As I climb gingerly down from the bus and grab my backpack I see that I am out of my depth to a new degree.

Todo Santos lies in the mountains of Western Guatemala, a small town with a population that differs with every source. Taking a five hour ride over potholed roads in a overfilled bus, few tourists make it this far and those that do seldom stay long. The houses are made of cinderblocks or mud and are never completed to avoid tax. It is as alien to me as Asia was when I stepped into the heat of Bangkok now months ago. There are no cars here but large trucks and horses travel past on the gravely road as we first explore. How strange I must look to the people here for they are not Ladinos, the decedents of the proud conquistadors but the Maya. Small and dark their race has lived for thousands of years in these mountains where ancient rituals are still practices in dark caves.

The Maya live in a way that the first world has left behind long ago. I find this as I lug my pack into the central courtyard of a house that will be my new home for a week. Chickens run around the legs of Bobby the dog while the daughter weaves in the corner and wise Lazaru reads the bible . The kitchen has a dirt floor and a wood stove where Joanna is making fresh torteas. All my family members are dressed in the clothes of the town, them men in jackets and striped trousers of red and white, the women in blue dresses. A machete leans against the wall showing that the family owns a maize field.

As I go to sleep that first night I know that I have fallen in love. I have a feeling that one day I shall be walking yet again past unconsious drunks and wild dogs until I come to that small courtyard up a hill.


Todo Santos catholic church


Man in the market


Farming on the hills