Day 3: San Lucas Toliman

Today, we took a truck ride into the forest where we got to hike and learn about permaculture and the way a natural forest works as one coherent ecosystem. We each got to take turns drinking water from inside a special kind of tree that purifies water, which turned out pretty messy. Then we took a food tour of the forest, where we tasted blackberries, melon-cucumber-tomatoes, and more. Several students had to help translate what our tour guide said (who only spoke Spanish) into English. My favorite part of the day was walking around the plaza and buying pastries that cost about 13 cents each. We enjoyed immersing ourselves in the culture and spending time in environments that the average Guatemalan would find themselves in daily. Then we had pizza for dinner and watched a documentary about banana farming, which motivated all the students to buy organic bananas and rethink our food choices. 

Text by: Maya

Photos by: Camille