Quetzals!!

Day 4 – Los Lagos: After our adventures of the day before, we decided to get a detailed map and an updated tour book. This time we went straight to our destination with very little problem. Upon our arrival we saw a small cluster of people right at the entrance…when we asked what they were looking at they told us it was a Quetzal! I was not fast enough with the camera to get a photo, but here you can see an image of the famous and illusive bird. It was singing a moving about in the trees just as a quetzal should. The caretaker said that the bird was there everyday. I was gobsmacked. What a beautiful animal.

The lakes, of course, are as beautiful as ever. Caro had never seen them and I was more than happy to repeat the tour. We took a tour by balsa (a stretch of about 5 logs tied together with cord and a few short beams set on top for keeping one’s bum dry). Our guide was Arturo. He is the oldest son of one of the Ejidos. The ejidos are men who have the privilege and responsibility as stewards of the area. The positions are severely limited and passed on through a combination of inheritance and merit. One must prove his worth in order to become an ejido. In the case of Arturo it was highly unlikely that he would inherit the post, but one of his younger brothers might. He told us that the post often goes to the youngest son and that the other sons must help in order to strengthen the position of the youngest.

I asked Arturo about Homero, the guide who paddled us through the lakes a few years ago. Arturo informed us with a clear sense of disappointment that Homero had gone to the U.S. as a mojado or, in English, a “wetback”. It was clear from the way Arturo spoke that it was considered a shame that Homero had left. He told us that Homero had lacked the dedication to stay. Apparently quite a few people go. Some come back, others disappear, yet others return but not alive. For Arturo these people were abandoning the community and their responsibilities. I sensed that he thought of them as traitors even though he also expressed to us how truly difficult it was to eek out a life in this remote zone. His own position is not so precarious as others, but even then, at present he has work only every 4 days because the tourists have not been coming.

We continued on our tour but had to head back early in order to make our appointment with Dan and Lindsay from Partners in Health http://www.pih.org/home.html No one who knows me will be surprised to learn that we stayed talking for more than four hours. These guys are the real thing. That is, they are here to improve the health conditions of the people while leaving politics to others as much as possible. Talking with them was a breath of fresh air. It was clear to everyone that our areas of interest converge at several critical junctures. Looks to me as if we will be getting to know these folks.

We had to change hotels in the morning, it was a nuisance, but it worked out to be a great change. We literally moved up in the world and down in fees. We are paying 100 pesos less for a room twice as big with a view that takes our breath away, for a look see http://www.hotelhaciendalosmorales.com Last night we watched a thunderstorm roll in…lightening sliced through the sky as we drifted off to sleep.