After a long morning of traveling yesterday I fell asleep to Inside Out 2 last night. I woke up refreshed and ready to do a Village Tour with Xaman ATV Tours. Getting there from where I was was going to be a 36 minute walk and given that I may get lost turned around or might stop for pictures, I wanted to give myself a good hour. Given that I figured it was a walking tour I wore a dress with sneakers and shorts underneath (good thing I wore the shorts-more on that later).

     As I got ready to leave the weather was nice and as soon as I came out of my Airbnb someone was being dropped off by a tut tut taxi. I showed the guy where I was going and he said he couldn’t go that far but could take me to the city center so I opted for that. Most taxi rides are 10 quetzales which is about $1.29. As he let me off in the center I navigated and walked the rest of the way to the office of Xaman ATV Tours. I arrived about 25 minutes early so I waited until the tour began at 9am.

     They are really out in the cut in a separate part of town so I could see why a taxi might not bring me all the way (or maybe he just knew a certain area, I don’t know). My tour guide for the day Hessler began gearing up some ATVs for us which I didn’t realize we’d be using today for a Village Tour (that’s why it’s good I had on shorts underneath). It was just myself for the tour so we each hopped on an ATV and headed to the first village of San Juan.

     The streets of San Juan were lined with colorful umbrellas at the top (the 1st place to do this according to Hessler) and a colorful patterned guideline right in the middle of the street. In San Juan it was here that I would learn the textil process at the Women’s Weaving Cooperative Artesenia Maya. We met Maria who appeared to be in the back weaving a scarf. Maria showed me how there are 2 types of cotton that they use for weaving, white and brown cotton. She said that they pick out the seeds by hand and then the cotton is beat multiple times to make a flat layer. Then you break a piece off and it’s linked to some thread through water and you have to spin this stick it’s attached to but also pull the cotton in a line upward without it breaking (the trick is to spin quickly). I tried it and actually did it (I thought for sure it would break because it looked so delicate but it didn’t). Still the precision of it all makes for a very tedious process. Maria said every woman has to be able to do this or she is not eligible for marriage.

     She then said they soak the cotton overnight in potato starch and it comes out looking like a yarn. Different plants are used as dyes to make the different colors. The plants are broken off and soaked for about 2 hours to gain the color. The cotton is dipped a few times to acquire the color and then dipped in banana starch so the color is absorbed without leaking/transferring. She then for a scarf has to wrap the cotton around the long (I’m going to call it a weaving board) 200 times (and that’s for all colors incorporated). She said she has to work 8 hrs a day for 2 weeks to make one scarf and big items like blankets could take her up to 2 months.

     One of the things that she said that Iiked was that the majority of the proceeds go to the women and that a portion is donated for upkeep of the facility. I knew that things like that took time to make but I had no idea just how long and all of what goes into it. I just love the colors and designs that they make, it was very hard to contain myself shopping in their store. I did mange to get a handmade dress with a belt and a scarf.

     Just next door was Xocolatl the Chocolate place. The last time I was in Guatemala I learned all about cacao and made my own chocolate bar (that’s also where I met Yvette another solo black girl traveling) so most of Vilma’s explanation I had already heard. A group of people from Arkansas joined me as Vilma continued to explain. After a demonstration of extracting the cacao beans and crushing them she let us sample some and showed us all the products that they make with it. Hessler and I sampled some shots (I sampled a cardamom and banana chocolate rum shot and both were good). I ended up leaving with some facial soap and vanilla hot chocolate to take home.

     The next stop was San Marcos which was explained to be the most expensive area around the Lake due to gentrification. Hessler explained that a lot of people chose to retire to this area from Europe and the States and that everything here costs more. Here is where if you’d like (which I didn’t) to jump off a cliff and dive into the water you can (I can’t swim but hopefully will learn soon). Upon just sitting and absorbing the calmness of the lake we met Miriam from Germany.

     Miriam was bold and wanted to take the dive but didn’t want to do so with no one around. We assured her that we’d be around for a while and encouraged her to do it (as she was still hesitant). Not only did she do it but she did it twice. Today was her last day in the area so at least she could cross that item off her to-do list. We took some photos and then left the San Marcos area.

     Our last village was San Pablo which we pretty much just rode around in. Being on the road with vehicles, tut tuts and mopeds was no issue and we covered a lot of ground on the tour. We ended up where we started back at the office and I asked for authentic Guatemalan food recommendations. They recommended a place called Jakkú which a tut tut took me to. I ordered my food and a drink to go and walked to Get Wet Atitlan to exchange tours and reschedule (tomorrow a canopy tour after an ATV adventure).

     I grabbed a fresh juice, hopped in a tut tut and proceeded back to the Airbnb. My timing was right on time as it was beginning to now rain. Inside I settled in and ate and drank. I tried on the dress I bought with the belt from earlier and it’s cute (I’ll be wearing it next summer). That’s my day for the day as the afternoon is approaching and uploads are pending. Today was more of a thrill than I imagined but in a good way (and so far, the food here around the lake needs a bit more seasoning and umph-we’ll see how future meals do).