The Adventure BeginsOn Wednesday, January 9th, Jane and I flew from New York via Miami to Guatemala City, to begin three weeks touring the area of Central America formerly inhabited by the Mayans. But this travelog properly begins back in the late fall of 1950, when my parents moved to a new house in New Canaan, CT. For ten years we lived on the side of a hill, surrounded by woods. We had only one adjoining neighbor, a family named Smithers. Sometime in the spring I met the daughter of the family next door, a little girl named Vey. I turned four that spring and she was one and a half. My next brother, Peter, was still an infant, and Vey became my frequent playmate.Vey's family kept sheep, and donkeys, and had a barn sometimes full of hay to jump down into from the loft. I think we got in trouble for that, but it was the most fun. Vey was two and a half years younger than I, and was actually in by brother Peter's grade at school, but we rode the school bus together and remained good friends . . . until I came home from summer camp in 1958 and her family had unexpectedly moved away.
Vey's half brother Charlie was twenty years older, and had by that time married and built a house across the street from us, and began raising a family. Twenty some years later my mother began using Charlie as an investment advisor, and pretty soon I began to see Charlie once a year at an annual meeting. Charlie was always glad to tell me what his younger half sister was up to, and I never failed to ask him to pass along my greetings. I knew from Charlie that Vey lived in Guatemala, and when Tikal was recommended to us as a 'must see' for our Mayan trip, I googled her and chased her down.
Vey had gone to Guatemala right out of college, at her father's suggestion, to offer advice on sheep farming (natch!). She fell in love with the place and the people, and has made it her home for the last 35 years. At that time, and for the next 20 years or so, Guatemala was wracked by continual waves of revolution. Also volcanoes erupting, horribly destructive earthquakes (up to 8.7 richter) and the occasional devastating huricanes. A series of right wing governments (supported by you-know-who) killed tens of thousands of men in the highlands area, leaving many women without husbands or sons with no way of supporting themselves. Knowing of their talent at weaving their traditional colored cloth, Vey began to organize some of these women into a loose cooperative of women, and opened a store (Colibri) to sell their wares in Antigua Guatemala, the city where she had settled. A few years later, after an earthquake levelled all the buildings in many towns, Vey became a founder of PAVA, a program providing needed help to towns (that the government wasn't providing). Vey has ensconced herself as a mainstay of her community, and I don't mean the expatriates who visit and maybe even buy a house.
I knew none of this when I spoke to Vey last December for the first time in 49 years. Of course she remembered me, and was thrilled (she said) by the prospect of my coming to Guatemala. Vey suggested that we might visit her, and I bid that up to a five day stay. We decided not to share photos, but just to surprise each other at the airport. Needless to say, Jane was struggling mightily to conceal her apprehension at the prospect of our stay with this "old friend" whom I had not seen since we both were children.
Vey met us at the airport, holding a handwritten sign saying "Skippy," the only name she had ever known for me. She drove us about an hour to her home, in Antigua Guatemala, the former capital. We were totally unprepared for what we encountered behind the anonymous walls of her home. It was a palace, really, built in the 1500's for the King's representative from Spain. Okay, she had to do a little fixing up, but all the rooms opened onto central gardens, with fountains, and tropical flowers, and . . . Labor is cheap down here, and Vey keeps several people employed tending her kitchen and her garden and her orchid collection.
Vey lives alone, but keeps very busy. She seems to know everybody in town, and had postponed most of her social and business obligations for our visit. Vey explained that although Charlie was her biological (half) brother, he had never been around. I was her "real" big brother, the one whe had played with from her earliest years. In her memory I am bigger than life. It seems an awesome image to live up to.
We went to an art opening (friend of a friend) the first evening, then had dinner in a friend's restaurant. Thursday Vey had to look in on another friend's horse, so we went along, then toured a coffee plantation (Guatemala is #4 in world coffee production). Jane actually picked some beans, (wait for the photos) and we learned about the many complicated steps that precede our purchase and consumption. It is not as simple as pick 'em and brew 'em. Yes it is all 'shade tree' coffee, and we saw the shade trees too. On the way back home we went to the market, and I do not mean the supermarket, but rather a football stadium sized aggregation of stalls, sheds, and palapas hawking EVERYthing under the sun. Sort of a third world emporium for localvores.
Friday Vey had to attend a school board meeting (in Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa) about 1:30 away. She had arranged for Jane and I to accompany a local (teacher's sister, actually) to three nearby Mayan sites. In two cases we were met by people who had worked with the archaeologists who developed the sites. This was our first glimpse of Mayan artifacts and culture. I am very glad that our first exposure was in places not often frequented by visitors, very far of the tourist routes. As you will read later, we found that the presence of ten or a hundred gringos (not to mention several busloads) diminishes ones experience of an ancient culture significantly. one of the sites we visited On the way home we stopped in a half dozen towns ( I exaggerate only slightly) to see 16th century churches and learn (from Vey) the historical significance of each. Or at least how many weddings &cetera she had attended.
Saturday after Jane's bilingual yoga we piled in Vey's Land Rover (have I mentioned the roads yet? They are worth a whole chapter later) and I drive us up to her lake house. With her usual understatement Vey had neglected to mention that her 'cottage' is simply striking. and it is not a cottage. She has several acres of jungle growing out of rough volcanic rocks on a point of land sticking out into Lake Atitlan, on the opposite side where the tourists and expats flock. Atitlan is a large mountain lake dominated by three surrounding volcanoes. Vey has cultivated and sometimes manicured her jungle so it looks like a cross between Fairchild Tropical Gardens and Moesh's house on Kiaora. The "boys" who share caretaker duties for her speak one of the 23 or so dialects of Mayan still extant, and they delighted us with their clicks and glottal stops, while we entertained them trying to repeat their words.
Sunday we had a lazy morning down by the lake -- nobody was brave enough to swim in the still cold water -- then drove back to the city (2.5 hours). We visited Vey's store and Jane selected a tablecloth which you will see prominently displayed on our porch table at Idle Pine. Dinner was yet another local specialty prepared by Vey's cook, followed by an early evening in preparation for our departure the next morning.
Monday we flew from Guatemala City to Flores, in northern Guatemala, and drove to Tikal where the next chapter will begin. We are grateful to Vey for letting us share her insider's perspective on Guatemala, its people, and its politics. We have a head start in our understanding of the people in this area, and got to see aspects of the country we would never have found. Vey has grown up into a truly remarkable woman. She has seemingly endless energy, and a long streak of true generosity. Her little weaving project now supports 500 weavers on dozens of towns. The PAVA organization continues its good works. I hesitate to mention this, because I know she would play it down, but she has done all this in spite of being legally blind since she was a teenager.