Route of the Maya Oat Trip
Tour of Guatemala City, Guatemala
Thursday, 14 Dec 2023 - Safe Passage Visit
Low 60’s about 9am. 6UV and 35AQ.
11:16 daylight & 5:34 p sunset.
4* below avg high & at the avg low & 10* below record high in
2017. Up at 6:35am. Down for breakfast about 7:45am. Sat with Antoinette & Steven from Upstate
New York & Florida. They are quite
interesting & have RV’d some. On the bus & on the way to the dump at 8:30am.
Today we were introduced to a program sponsored by OAT
called Safe Passage https://www.safepassage.org/ A courageous young woman named Hanley Denning
started it back in 1999. She was on her
way back to the US after a 2 year visit to Guatemala to study Spanish, when a
friend convinced her to visit the Guatemala City Dump. What she found there changed her life &
the lives to hundreds of children & their parents. People live in the dump and make their
livelihood digging through the thousands of pounds of trash that are delivered
there everyday. At the time of her
visit, the children of all those people also worked & played in the dump
with no schools & little food & practically no shelter. With an investment of $5000 and the donation
of a metal shed from a local priest, she started a school/day care for 46
children. Unfortunately she was killed
in a freak vehicle accident in 2007 when a truck lost it’s breaks & crashed
into her vehicle. What she started has
continued until now & expanded into an accredited school program that helps
500 – 600 children a year. It was
heartbreaking & uplifting at the same time.
School is currently on break right now, so we didn’t meet any of the
children, but one of the mothers that had attended the school came to speak
with us. What a story. Most of us have been in tears the remainder
of the day. Unbelievable story about
courage & perseverance. Hanley was
only about 30 years old. Incredible.
Took a short drive around the neighbor hood of the dump to see how populated it was & what it looked like.
Then a short stop to walk around the Mayan archeological
site of Karminjuyu. Only a small portion
of it has been excavated. It was a huge
city of probably 100,000 people & the Spaniards drained the lake toforce
them into submission & killed the city.
It’s now mostly used as a place for religious ceremonies by the local
leaders. There were a group of school
kids there getting a performance in native dress of the calling & ball
game. We were lucky to see that. Amazing how they hit that ball on their thighs. Then walked around & saw a couple of the
ceremonies. Short visit in to the
museum.
On to La Adobe. It
was a fabulous restaurant & I enjoyed my pork sampler platter that had 2
crispy tortillas with different types of relish in them. One was mostly beets & it was
delicious! Then a 3rd soft
blue tortilla with sliced sausage. Got
hot sauce for it & it was lovely.
George had a beef tortilla. There
was a band playing some local Guatemalan music & a selection of Christmas
songs. Anne joked that they had escaped
from their retirement home!! They were a
bit long in the tooth. Still really
enjoying the group.
On
for a very short stop at the Cathedral in the Historic square. Couldn’t walk around there as their has been
too many incidence of pick pocketing in OAT’s experience. He even had us remove our rings & gold
jewelry before we left the restaurant.
Drove around the square for a few pictures & stopped at
the new area of the Judicial buildings for a panoramic view of the city from a
bridge overpass.
Back to the hotel, we skipped the extra stop to a
museum. We went to the 24 Shop to check
for wine, but they didn’t have the Carminere from last night, so went back to
the Express we had used last night, but they didn’t have it either. Ended up taking a long walk around the square
& just as we were giving up, we found another Express & they had 4
bottles of it, so we bought 3 of them. Found this Merle Norman & thought that was amazing! Back to the room to relax & catch up on emails & FB
& my journal. Ready for TV about 8pm.
Watched NCIS while I did Spelling Bee.
Got Queen Bee & Connections.
Got book notification from the library & downloaded it. Bed about 11pm.
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