Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
lodge)isaprivatereserveonthesouthernslopesofAtitlánVolcanonamedaftertheabund-
ant bamboo trees that grow here. Altitudes range 700-3,000 meters (2,300-9,800 feet),
providing for a wonderfully diverse array of ecosystems. Several locals are employed by
the reserve, working on its coffee farm or in the ecotourism business and the lodge runs
a school for local children. Activities include hiking and bird-watching with naturalist
guides, climbing Atitlán Volcano, mountain biking, canoeing, horseback riding, and visits
to the working coffee farm. Accommodations include camping, shared-bath rooms, beauti-
ful rooms with private bathroom, or wonderful tree house cabins. Excellent, home-cooked
meals are served ($6- 8) for breakfast, lunch, and dinner including fresh salads, vegetarian
andmeatdishes,andbreadfromtheon-sitebakery.BusesheadingtoCocales passrightby
theentrancetothereserve,whichis15minutesfromSanLucasandabout45minutesfrom
Santiago.
Nearby, in the adjacent municipality of Pochuta, Chimaltenango,
El Retiro Finca and
Lodge
(Finca El Retiro, Pochuta, tel. 2365-4468,
www.elretirofinca.com
,
$35d)isanother
wonderful place to stay with four comfortable rooms and a larger wooden cabin, all with
private hot-water bathroom. The lodge is on the grounds of a working organic coffee and
banana plantation and the surrounding cloud forests harbor trails leading to waterfalls and
pristine mountain streams for you to explore. Horseback riding and mountain biking are
also available. Meals are served in a charming wooden dining room and there's also a bar
and swimming pool.
To get here, follow RN-11 south toward Cocales, turning left at the junction for the road
heading east to Pochuta. It's about a 45-minute drive from San Lucas Tolimán.
At Chichi, tourism became voyeurism. There was always so much going on — the crowded,
noisy market, the rituals on the steps of Santo Tomás, a ceremonial dance outside El Cal-
vario chapel, the explosion of firecrackers in the morning, a procession — that it was easy
to think it all a show put on for the tourists' benefit. But in Chichi it was not a show. The
“spectacle” was part of daily life for the Indians, ritual that must be performed in spite of,
not because of, the tourists. Wherever tourists went in Chichi they were treading on and
through someone else's devotional rites. Two different worlds whirled past each other, mo-
mentarily inhabiting the same space but unable to comprehend each other. Bizarre scenes
resulted from this encounter: a Quiché man walked on his knees over rough cobblestones,
crying out his agony, while a tourist trailed behind him, filming the man's act of penance
on a camcorder; a tourist group climbed the crowded steps of Santo Tomás, hoping to get a
photo of the plaza from atop the church's platform, and in the confusion a heavy-set tourist
