Tuk Tuk Tourin' Two

After our fun tuk tuk trip to Santa Catarina, we wanted more.  Manuel, or Señor Noventa as we liked to call him, was awesome and our time was cut short due to a flat tire.  (Remember tuk tuk drivers, always leave them wanting more.) So when we saw tuk tuk #90 drive by, we flagged him down and made an appointment for him to pick us up Monday morning for an in-depth tour of Panajachel.  As we expected, he didn't even pass by the main tourist spots and took us to some pretty interesting places.

A neat thing happened when we visited the volunteer fire department in Panajachel.  I remembered how much I always wanted to climb around on a fire truck.  Thanks to Señor 90, my dreams have finally come true.

We pulled up and the on-duty firemen were just finishing cleaning the ambulances.  The director of the fire house happened to be on duty and he took us on an impromptu tour.  The station was complete with a pool table, a dorm room with about 10 beds, and of course the required fire pole.  What was especially interesting to me is the fact that they operate strictly off of donations.  They don't receive any funding from the local or federal levels. All of their equipment is donated, as well as any of the money needed to keep the place running.  The classic fire truck pictured above was donated from Chicago.  They also had a very European looking Mercedes fire truck that was donated from Germany.  None of the fire fighters receive any pay, including the director.  And what amazed me most was that in this small town they have 42 volunteer fire fighters and paramedics, with 15 more graduating from the academy this month.  It further exemplified something that I have noticed all over in Guatemala: very few people feel entitled to anything and everyone is eager to help whenever they can.

This is their dispatch room.  They don't have a dedicated dispatcher.  One of the fire fighters on duty at the time answers the phone.  Most of the calls that they get have nothing to do with fires.  All of the buildings here are built with cinder blocks, so their isn't much to burn.  They do get wild fires in the dry season but most of the calls are search and rescue or ambulance calls.  The director who gave us the tour is also an avid windsurfer and motocross rider.  He told us about a time he lost lift windsurfing and ended up injured on the side of a mountain.  He had to call his buddies at the fire station and it took them over 4 hours to get to him.  

We spent a bit of time traveling up the road to Solola.  This is steep enough in the Montero.  I was surprised the tuk tuk made it.  About half way up the mountain there is this beautiful waterfall just on the side of the road.  It's so close that the road is in constant disrepair here.  Currently, the better part of a lane is covered in land right outside the picture.  Land slides are common everywhere we've seen in Guatemala but some part of this road is always covered in dirt and rocks.  

Manuel is telling us some very interesting fact right here I'm sure.  He was full of interesting things to teach us about his town and you can tell when he talks about it that he really enjoys sharing his love for Panajachel.  Honestly, how could you not love this place?

After the waterfall and views Señor 90 took us back into Pana and we went to "the other side of the bridge."  It's easy to think of Pana as a 3-road town but there is a whole lot more going on than initially meets the eye.

This river is pretty tame most of the time but every once in a while it swells and erodes the banks, taking all sorts of things/buildings/people with it.   Well, not really people.  There have been some big floods in the last few years, thankfully no one has been lost.  Seven years ago, the river grew so much that it took 95 homes and the main bridge out to the lake.  It had been 50 years since the last flood that big so there was plenty of time to build along the river without any consequences.  The owner of our Spanish School lost his brand new home that took two years to build.  Also, home owners insurance isn't really done in Guatemala so everyone that lost their homes really lost everything.  Manuel told us that it would take $2 million USD to build walls to turn the river into a canal.  That is an impossible amount for Panajachel.  It's a ton of money but when I think about the $1.7 billion that Utah is spending on it's I-15 expansion or the $3 BILLION spent in Colorado's big I-25 and light rail expansion recently, it seems like something could be done if the right people got together.  In the mean time, I suppose they could stop building houses next to a river that is prone to swallowing houses.

The last stop on our tour was the cemetery.  If you kick the bucket in Pana, your family has two options.  One, they can buy a plot in the middle of the cemetery that will be yours to keep forever.  These are typically two-three plots wide and they can be built up as high as you'd like, so this is the best option if you can afford it and if you have a family.  Otherwise, you can go to the municipal offices and rent a space for 10 years.  Surrounding the cemetery there is a huge wall.  Each of those squares is about 3x3 feet and the wall is 7 feet wide.  That could be your resting place as long as your family pays the rent.  If after the first 10 years, they decide not to renew your lease, you are removed, cremated and returned to your family.  They seal up your tomb and wait for the next tenant.  It's very important to leave all the tombs sealed.  A few years ago they built a new wall and left the unused spaces open.  All of the sudden, Pana had a rash of deaths.  3, 4, 5 a day for about a week.  They realized that the open tombs were calling their new residents home, so they hurried and sealed them all up.  The deaths stopped.

The graveyards here are way cooler than those in the states.  The tombs are repainted every year on Dia de los Muertos and they have a big party right there in the cemetery.  That's coming up in a few weeks.  I think we will find a place with a big cemetery and join in on the party.

We had a blast with Manuel "Señor Noventa".  We saw tons of other interesting places and it was fun to be with someone who was so eager to show us around.  When he dropped us back at the school I asked him how much we owed him.  He told us not to worry about it, it was his pleasure to show us around.  He had just spent 3 hours driving us around his town when he could have been working hard collecting 5 Quetzales per ride (that's about $0.60) to support his family.  Of course we insisted on paying him for his time but it was a nice gesture, especially when it's easy to feel like most people are trying to rip us off.  

If you are ever traveling through Pana and want an excellent, off the beaten path tour, look for Tuk Tuk #90 and flag him down.  Also be sure to schedule your tour around noon.  That's when he picks his 5 year old up from school and he may just be the cutest kid in Central America.