Black beaches of Guatemala

Black beaches? like Hawaii? well sorta, yes, as in the sand is black, afluent like Hawaii, no. The guide books describe them as delapitated and that maybe there time has come and gone. I guess thats why were the only gringos there, which after spending a week in a very gringo'fied Xela was welcome. The menu wasn't in english.

On the way to the beach we stopped in at Tak Alik Ab Aj, the oldest ruins yet found in Central America and one of the few examples of the Olmec and Mayan culture mixing. The flora was just as interesting as the ruins, with orchids growing on most every tree!
Arriving in Champico the people were easily recognized as beach types, sandals, no shirts and lots of beach cruisers. This town was once a bustling port city, 2nd largest in Guatemala, during the height of the coffee fincas or plantations. There is a pier going out to sea and is standing by nothing shy of a miracle, and the railroad tracks end just shy of the pier. I presume this is how they used to load the coffee onto boats 100 years ago. Now, its being used to store fishing boats which get lowered off the end past the breakers. Off course I had to go check out the mechanism with which the fishermen risk there lives, more miracles that it works. Kim noticed that there was not a single unfilled hammock during the height of the day.



We really enjoyed our lunch of shrimp and fish fried in garlic and just before heading home, Maggie bought us each a green coconut to drink. This is a real treat. The milk is not as sweet or thick as a brown coconut, *just* right for a hot day at the beach.





Having photo uploading issues, but over in our pictures there are photos of this trip. The volcano is Sanguanita, and is very active. From Xela we can see the larger dormant volcano but only the PLUMES of smoke from the wee one. Driving down to the beach afforded a great view of the little one. I read in the paper that a group of geologist have just finished building six monitoring stations around this volcanoe in an effort to predict a larger erruption and avert deaths. Remember, Xela is the second largest city in Guatemala and about 10-15 miles from this volcanoe. Not sure if size really means anything in the world of volcanoes as the biggist volcanoe I've ever seen was the lake in Yellowstone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_Volcano

Well the bell just rang for classes to start again so. Yo va!

oo, and here's a picture of our host family