Parrots

One of the many benefits of living in the tropical rainforest is watching parrots.  These two live, by choice, with my friend, Anne Lossing of Project Ix-Canaan.

Local – Not Local

The Petén is the type of tourist location where many people want to experience a controlled jungle adventure.  I find that, in general, a majority of persons living in developed countries have an internalized vision of what a developing country looks like and what services are available. 

Doña Bety is the owner of Doña Bety’s Tienda.  Her tienda is three blocks from our rental house and one block from where we will be building our house.  We have known Doña Bety for many years.  In her little tienda I can purchase almost everything that I need to eat, clean, or even a treat.  If she does not have an item in stock, she will get it for you and have it ready the next time you stop by her store.  Shopping local and providing economic opportunity.

Living in the jungle is beautiful.  It does, however, require that you keep everything clean if you don’t want to attract a lot of insects such as ants, scorpions, and mosquitoes.  I have found that having someone come in and clean our little rental house a minimum of twice a week keeps the house clean, and provides an economic opportunity for someone in the village to earn some hard currency.  Cleaning in the tropics is much more time consuming than cleaning my Pacific Northwest home.  I appreciate the gift of a clean home that Saira provides.

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I have watch the main street through the village over the years increase the number of businesses and I have watched the local children grow up to young adults.

I have watched tourist arrive.

First Harvest – Local

I have been returning to El Remate almost every year since 1998.  I have watched the village grow, people come and go, and tourists.  The village is reliant on tourism for hard currency and job opportunities.  In 2009 I attended the American Anthropology Associations annual conference in Philadelphia.  One anthropologist presented a paper titled: “Without tourists this village does not eat.”  His premise that an over reliance on wage labor had eroded knowledge of traditional food gardens and farming resonated with me.  Harmony Station has as part of its mission to be relearning and passing on traditional knowledge of jungle gardening and rain forest conservation.

On Sunday we began our day, a community universal day of rest, enjoying our surroundings.  We were due out to Harmony Station for lunch to enjoy Harmony Station's first harvest of organically grown maize and an afternoon of rest.  We enjoyed a leisurely walk over to Laguna Sal Petén and Harmony Station. 

We were greeted by one of the local women in the village who we have known for some time with an embracing hug.  Danny had her arrive that morning to make tortillas and empanadas for our ceremonial first feast. 

In addition, Danny made a vegetarian India/Mayan fusion rice dish that combined highly nutritious native plants (one a relative to nettle) that are high in protein.

A New Screened Room!

When we rented Casa de Carolina last year we kept on thinking over and over again that the covered porch spaces needed to be screened.  The jungle has many insects, among them mosquitoes.  In order to be able to enjoy the covered outdoor spaces – screening seemed like the perfect solution.  We actually ended up asking the new owner if we they would allow us to pay for the improvement.  The owner wisely agreed.  After all as a landlord he is receiving both rent and a paid upgrade.

We arrived in El Remate to a finished screened porch on the second story.  This space is now my office space and where we spend all of our time when we are here.  Cost of materials and labor – about $230USD – no mosquitoes and able to sit outside in the evening --- priceless!

Emersion, Re-acculturating or not, Re-emersion

It has been almost a year since I have posted to this blog.  It is not that I had abandoned writing or thinking about how an interdisciplinary perspective allows one to see the inherent interconnections of our systems (human and nature).  It is the disconnectedness that is created through our social construct of internet-connection, obsession with “the future”, and accumulation of …. Everything and anything.

I traveled a journey from connection with the present, connection in the moment, connection to the systems of our shared DNA all the way back to the beginning of the cosmos.  I traveled from emersion of the self in a shared system back to the world of individualization to an extreme.  I then existed in the world of speed, rush, hurry, and external pressures to press-on even faster. 

Until one day I journeyed back to be re-immersed into a slower connection to the rhythms of nature and the cosmos.  I have returned to El Remate - to the jungle.

Local fisherman in Lago Peten Itza

Harmony Station - Laguna Sal Peten