GUATEMALA

November 2019

I was involved in a Habitat for Humanity Global Village build in Sololá Department in the west of Guatemala.

The Habitat Team spent 5 days working on a house (Habitat Build) near  a small town called Chaquijya and building latrines and smokeless stoves for five families who lived in a farming area near the town of San Juan Argueta.  Both Chaquijya and San Juan Argueta are on the Pan American Highway immediately north of Lake Atitlán. Go to my Habitat Guatemala 2019 page for more information and photos.

We stayed in the Hotel Jardines del Lago in Panajachel which is on the north shore of Lake Atitlán. The hotel was on the lake shore so we had a wonderful view of the lake and the volcanoes which surround it when the weather was cooperative. Lake Atitlán is actually a massive volcanic crater and surrounding the lake are the San Pedro, Tolimán and Atitlán volcanoes. Panajachel is primarily a tourist town with many vendors selling everything from traditional textiles to tacky souvenirs.

My trip to Guatemala was primarily to work for Habitat for Humanity and I did not do a lot of traveling around the country, however, there were lots of people, places and things to see.These are a few photos of people and interesting places and things that I saw on this journey.

After the build the team went to Antiqua which is a colonial city originally founded by the Spanish conquistadors in 1543. Antiqua is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. After a night in Antiqua some of the team went home and others stayed on to explore Guatemala. I flew to Costa Rica for a 12 day vacation with my wife. Visit my Costa Rica page