As of this post, I am on vacation. Here’s the view from the roof of our hotel, in the spectacular colonial town of Antigua. That volcano is called ‘Volcán de Agua,” and at one point in antiquity it cascaded a ruinous flood of stones, mud and water that destroyed this former Spanish capital. Following this disaster, the Spaniards relocated their capital to the present day location, Guatemala City.

Here we are doing laundry at Elias and Beth Alonzo’s house (on Sunday.) In San Mateo, everyone uses these concrete wash basins, and does it by hand. When you finish washing an item, it goes up onto the roof. Everywhere you look in San Mateo you see colorful laundry drying on lines, roofs, and hilltops. Personally, I could think of no nicer way to spend my Sunday…

Today I am relaxing in the home of Elias and Becky Alonzo; and enjoying their internet! Thank you guys!

Yesterday we hiked up a ravine in the valley and took lunch at this incredible waterfall. Elias tells me that very few people ever see it, so our group felt extremely lucky to bask in the sun and soak up the view. It was a tough scramble off-trail to find it, down the forested nearly-sheer side of the mountain.

In response to questions I have been receiving, I’d like to say that our work here is going extraordinarily well. The kids here are incredible, taking up the challenge of documenting their culture with a voracious appetite for learning new things and mastering difficult technologies. Based on our experiences with them, we all feel strongly that when we leave they will have a greater interest in their own culture, and more confidence to utilize technology. One of the students has even expressed a strong interest in pursuing journalism!

I have truly fallen in love with the humble mountain community of San Mateo. Today we washed our clothes by hand in a concrete wash basin (that’s right Mom!) It was a great way to spend a warm Sunday afternoon; meditating on the simple, efficient technologies we in North America have left somewhere in the past. There is definitely a great pleasure in stepping outside life as you know it for awhile, and learning different ways of life.

We will leave here Wednesday, making the long voyage back to Guatemala City, where I will  meet up with Mai and head towards the town of Flores and the ruins of Tikal.

It was Market Day in San Mateo on Thursday. This normally quiet town becomes all abustle as local people fill the streets with improvised clothing stalls and sacks of vibrantly colored fruits and vegetables.

After 30 minutes in the internet cafe, I have one photo online! Never fear, I have taken hundreds, and will be sorting and uploading them when I get home (which will be a huge job, as I already have taken so many, and I still have a few weeks to go…)

This is the view down the valley here, it’s a long way to the bottom. The streets in San Mateo are precipitously steep, yet children play soccer on them: that is a high-stakes game for sure! I can imagine many lost balls have come to rest far down this beautiful canyon.

We have finally arrived in the town of San Mateo, after 20 hours of travel (first by plane, then by private car.) We drove into the night Saturday, and overnighted in a small place called Huehuetenango. It had a pretty centro, with an ancient Bouganvilla in the middle. The style of the town, like most places in Guatemala, is Spanish Colonial; but it shows its age. Things were bustling after dark, solely because it is the end of ‘Semana Santa,’ the week before Easter.

San Mateo is beautiful. It is sits on the side of a mountain, looking deep into a broad valley below. There are Mayan ruins here, the most spectacular of which has a pyramid structure, two small stellae, and a ball court. San Mateo is mostly populated with indigenous Maya Chuj, who look beautiful in their traditional clothing, made from brilliantly dyed cotton. Life here is easy and the weather is warm, but our internet connection is extremely slow and unreliable. I am afraid that my plan of posting photos during my trip was a little optimistic… Honestly I am simply happy to have e-mail.

I am hopeful that I can share some photos this week; we’ll see!

This week I pack my bags, cross my ‘T’s, and dot my ‘I’s; Saturday I am leaving town, bound for Guatemala!

I’m not going alone, and I will be working; The Smithsonian is conducting a virtual museum workshop in the Chuj Mayan community of San Mateo Ixtatin in the mountainous western highlands (elevation 8500 feet) and I will be providing photography instruction along with two co-workers, Mark and Emily. Our goal is to give the students enough hands-on time with camera equipment and internet publishing software to create a virtual museum of their community for the web.

If you are interested in the school we’ll be visiting, you can see their website at http://www.ixtatan.org/

I want to keep people updated on our work, and what I’ll be up to. Please come back for more information and pictures from the trip. We will have internet access there, amazingly!

Meanwhile, I should really get back to packing.