Doesn't look good for us

Some of you may recall the previous posting on the Huelga de Dolores, in which Canada was being protested for its mining practices in Guatemala. Well, things are turning ugly around this issue—particularly in the town of Sololá, through which the Renee/Cyp/Gab/Sam/Pat contingent passed several times en route to Panajachel.

As far as I can tell, a Canadian company called "Glamis Gold" wants to set up a mine with a purification process that involves large amounts of cyanide. Being an agricultural area, the local (mostly Mayan) residents worry about the environmental impact. There have been protests.

Source: Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network

Here's where it gets ugly: anti-mine protestors have been killed, and others threatened. A car bomb exploded. Amnesty International has put out an "urgent action" calling for protection of the threatened protestors. The company in turn has claimed that it too has recieved threats.

There is alot of history to this: the CIA installed the government that resulted in the 36-year civil war that left 200,000 dead or missing in order to protect the interests of a foreign company—in that case, the American United Fruit Company. The area around lake Atitlán (where Sololá is located) experienced some of the worst repression during this time (in the form of massacres and disappearances, among other things). A violent conflict involving assassinations and foreign corporate interests could dredge up a lot of ugliness.

I've only read a few articles on this, so I'm in no position to pass sweeping judgement. However, the initial reports are not making the Canadian company look good, and when those who question foreign interests start getting killed, it really becomes a cause for concern.

Here are some articles I've found:

• Critical backgrounder from "Mining Watch", a mining watchdog group. Links to more resources
• CBC Article
• AOL Finance article
• The Amnesty International call for Urgent Action

So this guy walks into a barber shop, Part 2

When Cyp heard that the armed barber (see part 1) was in Antigua, he had a sudden need to get his hair cut. Well, it turns out that getting one's head shaved by a guy with a revolver and a straight razor was right up Cyp's alley ("He's a celebrity!" Cyp said), and Renee took this great shot of Cyp in the chair.

(Click for full size)

Out & about

Renee and Cyp

Last week we played host (as best we could) to Renee and Cyprien, our longtime friends from Vancouver who came down for a week-long visit. Given the timeframe, we hit the tried-and-true tourist trail of Antigua (which you may recall from a previous post) and Panajachel on lake Atitlán.

I realized once they arrived how much I'd missed social interaction in English these last two and a half months. I can stumble by in Spanish, but there is always an underlying stress in conversations where you feel like you're hanging on by your fingernails. Plus, the scope of conversation is somewhat limited. So the company was very welcome.

Antigua was lovely as usual, although unusually hot. Cyp and Renee went off to view a local volcano (you can read Renee's blog entry all about it), while I enjoyed a minor eruption of my own in Antigua after eating a beef tostada. If you get a chance, do check out their photos of the volcano: it's quite impressive how close to the red splurting hole they got.

Panajachel is an old tourist town located on the edge of lake Atitlán. It was a big hippie hangout in the 60s and 70s until some nasty civil war incidents suggested that it wasn't just Haight & Ashbury with palm trees. Tourism dropped off for a while until the civil war ended in the 90s. Now it has a touristy seaside resort feel to it, and people constantly approach you selling you things in the street. There is a hint of desperation in Atitlán tourism that is not there in posh Antigua.

I've posted the shots I took during the week (try the funky slideshow!), as has Cyp. I've included some below as a sample.

First an eclipse and now this

Sitting at the computer here half an hour ago, Gab & I were doing our taxes on-line. Suddenly the room swayed and blinds swung—and no, it wasn't as a result of our potential returns.

From the U.S. Geological Survey website:

A moderate earthquake occurred at 02:40:27 (UTC) on Tuesday, April 12, 2005. The magnitude 5.3 event has been located in GUATEMALA. The hypocentral depth was estimated to be 95 km (59 miles). (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.)

A Scene at the Zoo - Part 2

Strangely enough, today's paper has a special report on the zoo and the surrounding areas. Included in this report is a short history, which I pass along with some more photos.

The park was established in 1894 by then-president José María Reyna Barrios, who had a design for a "new city" based on Paris. (It seems everything was based on Paris back then—Merida in Mexico also had the Paris thang going for it. Nowadays, the urban template seems to be middle-America strip malls. How we've progressed.)

Anyhow, once Reyna Barrios died, the area got pared down by subsequent Presidents who I guess weren't that hot on Paris. Much of it got converted into the charming Guatemala City airport. Still, the zoo remains.

Some photos.

The one he forgot to feed

Beware the pediatricians: they bite

A Scene at the Zoo

Yesterday we read in the paper that there was going to be an eclipse (did it reach Canada?). The reporter commented that "the best place to be when the eclipse comes will be the Zoo, because eclipses make the animals go crazy." Who could resist such a temptation? So, this afternoon we packed up the camera, the boy, the minidisc recorder (how cool would a zoo-ful of eclipse-crazed exotic animals sound? Elephants trumpeting, lions roaring, monkeys rioting) and off we went.

The Guatemala City zoo is actually a very cool place. I was expecting something somewhat dilapidated, but what we found was a beautiful tropical zoo with Victorian landscaping. Of course, it's completely antiquated in terms of animal treatment (Gaby calls it "politically incorrect" as a zoo) with the enclosures like giant birdcages embedded in the tropical landscape. Quasi-classical statues surround an Edwardian pavilion and overlook palm-dotted lawns and bougainvillea covered trellaces.

And the eclipse? Well, at 4:45 it happened: we peered through darkened glasses and saw it, and I waited, minidisc at the ready, for the mayhem to ensue.

The eclipse happens as scheduled...

...and the animals go bezerk.

The only bizarre behaviour to be seen was the gringo trying to juggle a digital camera and minidisc at the same time—and who tries to record a giraffe, anyway?

So this guy walks into a barber shop...

I swear this is a true story.

Not bad, and the fully armed personal security was thrown in gratis

Today I walked into a barber shop with Gab's Dad to get a cut. The shop was (of all things) a "Internet Barber", so you could surf OR get a haircut. Or both.

Anyway, the place was at the back of a building with other stores in the front. While we're waiting for a chair to become available, I hear an engine revving, and this guy drives his motorcycle through the front door, inside the building, down the hallway past the other shops, to the front of the barbershop.

He parks the bike in the hall, gets off, walks into the shop, opens a drawer in the barber's counter under the mirrors, reaches into his pants, pulls out a handgun, puts it in the drawer, closes the drawer, picks up some scissors, swivels the barber chair around, turns to us and says "y'want a cut?"