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cjones


83 Blog Entries
1 Trip
309 Photos

Trips:

so-journ

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Land of the Zapatistas

San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mexico


Arrived here yesterday afternoon in San Cristobal de Las Casas, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, after stopping over for a day in Huehuetenango, Guatemala. Took the chicken bus from Quetzaltenango to Huehue but a private shuttle service from Huehue to here. Not that much difference in the price when you consider taxis to and from the bus terminals, which haven't been very close to the hotels. The shuttle also saves time and allows better views of the surrounding countryside. There was a distinct change in scenery after crossing the border into Mexico - less mountainous and more wide-open spaces and large farms. Planning to stay here until the weekend and take more Spanish classes.

The city is named after St. Bartolome de las Casas, who fought nonviolently for indigenous rights in the 16th century and now the Zapatistas are doing the same thing for the Mayan people of Chiapas as well as other oppressed and marginalized people in other parts of the country largely through an internet-based media campaign. From what I can tell, their portrayal in the mass media as dangerous rebels appears to be misleading propaganda most likely fomented by business and political interests the Zapatistas oppose. While a few armed clashes occurred within the first 2 weeks of the uprising in 1994 (which coincided with the implementation of NAFTA), the group has abstained from using weapons since then. However, the Mexican army remains vigilant and there continue to be reports of intimidation and violence by police and paramilitaries against indigenous people in the more remote areas. Here in San Cristobal I've seen a street named "Insurgentes" and much graffiti, artwork and published writing in favor of the Zapatista movement.


permalink written by  cjones on July 14, 2008 from San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mexico
from the travel blog: so-journ
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Back to school

Quetzaltenango, Guatemala


Yesterday, I started Spanish classes here in Quetzaltenango (also called Xela, pronounced "Shayla"), where I've been staying since Friday night. Learned that at least sometimes it's better not to plan ahead because I had registered online at one school that looked good online but was dissatisfied with it after visiting it in person. Also discovered that it was unnecessary to pay a registration fee, which I'm now trying to recover. Found another school that seems much better and costs less, so I registered at this one yesterday morning and had my first class there in the afternoon.

Also just received some great news from Yanapuma in their bi-monthly newsletter. Turns out that a couple of weeks ago they arranged a visit by a group of Tsa'chila from the Búa community to Finca Sarita, the organic agroforestry farm I visited in March (see blog entry on April 2). Apparently, the community members were very impressed, and as I had hoped this could lead to continued exchange of knowledge about more sustainable agricultural practices that could greatly benefit the Búa community and their land.

I had first learned about Finca Sarita from people I met at Rio Muchacho last November. Then after my visit in March and discussions there with Servio (the owner) about the needs of the Búa community, I met with people in Búa and Yanapuma staff in Quito to discuss how the farm could serve as an model and valuable source of agricultural and community development knowledge for the Tsa'chila communities, particularly Búa. My intention in all this was to bring Servio and the Sarampión community together with the Búa community through the assistance of Yanapuma. I believed, as did others at Yanapuma, that seeing a real-life example of a better alternative could be more helpful and motivating than hearing about one in a series of workshops.

permalink written by  cjones on July 8, 2008 from Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
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Birthday in Guatemala

Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala


Arrived in Guatemala on Monday and met with the staff of FUNCEDESCRI (Fundación de Servicios Cristianos) yesterday about returning to work with them on a project to build the infrastructure for their rural communities to be able to produce their own education and training materials. This is especially challenging because most people in the communities speak their own Mayan dialect but not Spanish and in some cases do not have a written tradition in their native language. A computer center and training program is planned for each community to allow creation of media such as audiovisual presentations, leaflets and posters. Another form of pedagogic communication will be puppet shows.

FUNCEDESCRI hopes that the community designed and managed education programs they are enabling will promote better agricultural practices for health and the environment, and a more localized economic system that will better support the communities.

permalink written by  cjones on July 4, 2008 from Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala
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Leaving Rio

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil


It's my last day in Brazil before heading back to KC for a few weeks. Had an amazing time here and have been blessed with many beautiful places and great people.



permalink written by  cjones on June 9, 2008 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Nice beach

Piuma, Brazil


Relaxing another day in this small fishing village before making the trip back to Rio for the weekend. Found a huge room with a balcony overlooking the ocean for the same price as a bed in a dorm room at the hostel in Rio. Great seafood and a beautiful beach here. Explored around some trails at an ecological reserve next to the town.

In the past few days, as I've been making conversation with people, a number of them have told me I speak good Portuguese! But then others didn't understand a word - just stared open-jawed and giggled, as if I was from another planet! Haven't seen other gringos since I left Iracambi on Monday.

permalink written by  cjones on June 6, 2008 from Piuma, Brazil
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Holy Spirit

Vila Velha, Brazil


Now I'm on the coast north of Rio in the state of Espírito Santo (Holy Spirit). Feels good to be here in the spirit! Vila Velha is sort of a suburb of Vitória, the capital and largest city in the state. Rather urban and modern but it has a nice, very clean beach lined with lots of food and drink shacks.

Noticed on the bus trip yesterday all the destruction of forests and soils in this part of the country, being used mostly for monoculture coffee plantations and as pastures for cattle. While in Central America much of the coffee is grown along with and in the shade of other tree species, here in Brazil - by far the largest coffee producer in the world - almost all of it is grown in the sun. This is very harmful to the soil and biodiversity, and requires much chemical use that damages the health of people and other life besides the targeted pests.

As I logged on to my email account just now, I noticed a news article on Brazil's new environment minister talking about cracking down on illegal cutting of forests for cattle grazing. The article says that burning to clear new or overgrown pasture in the Amazon accounts for about 75 percent of Brazil's production of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. That doesn't even consider the loss of trees to absorb atmospheric carbon, nor the cows' production of methane, which is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. And not just in the Amazon but in other areas of Brazil like the Atlantic rainforest where I was working. These could be some good reasons to eat less beef - to reduce the demand - and if you eat it to be more selective about where it comes from.

It seems that cattle grazing is a particularly destructive use of land in the tropics. Aside from the methane, it requires a lot of land for the quantity of food produced. But there are other destructive land uses, and good laws against deforestation exist - they're just not enforced and wealthy landowners have a lot of influence on politicians and the police. Without more enforcement, better economic alternatives and/or more conscientiousness about preserving nature - whether from a biblical or other perspective - I think the rainforest will continue to be destroyed for one purpose or another.

So what's a better alternative to the cattle? We need to be careful about what we substitute so that the cure isn't worse than the disease. The forest needs to be restored but people need income, although if they can produce their own food and trade with their neighbors they need less.

On the topic of cures worse than the disease: During my time in South America, I've been thinking, observing, reading about and talking with people about the effects of both oil extraction and the production of biofuels here. It's been well publicized that oil exploration and extraction have been destructive to forests, wildlife, rivers and people. One particularly glaring example occurred during the 70's through the early 90's in northeastern Ecuador, where the volume of oil spilled is estimated to have been 30 times that of the Exxon Valdez spill. And of course oil use contributes to global warming. But when land use is considered, the large-scale production of biofuels may have an even more detrimental impact on the climate (and on ecosystems in general) than oil.

Brazil is a major producer of biofuels - mostly from sugar cane but also from corn in the north. I saw smaller-scale production of a plant called mamona, grown for fuel oil alongside coffee at a farm next to Iracambi. Noticed that in the gas stations you can buy alcohol for much less than gasoline, and I heard that some people use this for travel within the city and gasoline for longer trips on the highway for more power.

permalink written by  cjones on June 3, 2008 from Vila Velha, Brazil
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First fruits

Rosario da Limeira, Brazil


This week I've been finishing up both the work here at Iracambi and the project I've been continuing to work on remotely for Yanapuma. Got some great news a few days ago that the grant proposal I wrote for Yanapuma was approved! This will pay for many thousands of dollars worth of GIS software and training materials for Yanapuma to continue the mapping project in Bua and to develop maps for the other communities they work with.

Also earlier this week I received the map data I was waiting for to complete the Bua map. Finished the map, which can be opened in a free program called ArcReader and allows a user to interactively explore and query the underlying map data, for example crop types, family names and areas of parcels.

At Iracambi, the new GIS coordinator arrived on Wednesday so we have a few days of overlap for me to transfer what I've observed, learned and managed to accomplish here before I leave. Made some progress with the reforestation map and cleaning up the data organization on their computer network. Also learned more about the agricultural and economic situation here and the lives of some of the local families. The reforestation plan, of which the map is a part, includes agroforestry areas to be used for experimentation and demonstration to producers in the surrounding communities.

I feel blessed to have this success and completion of the work I initiated within the past 5 months. After some setbacks, it's been encouraging.

permalink written by  cjones on May 31, 2008 from Rosario da Limeira, Brazil
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Natural capitalism

Rosario da Limeira, Brazil


Just returned from an all-day meeting in the town of Rosario_da_Limeira on potential sources of income for local farmers from payment for environmental services. About 70 people attended, with about 25% farmers and the rest from NGOs, universities and the state government. The topic was a new program being proposed in the state legislature that would compensate farmers for actions taken to protect water sources, high biodiversity areas and forests for carbon sequestration. The idea is that such payments to land owners would justly pay for land uses that preserve valuable resources, and is an example of the principles put forth by Paul Hawken, who coined the term and wrote a book entitled "Natural Capitalism".

Last weekend I visited an experimental organic coffee farm in the local community of Graminha. The weekend before I went on a 13-hour pilgrimage hike to a cross on a mountaintop in Serra_do_Brigadero state park with Virgilio from Iracambi and several others from Graminha - an annual tradition here on May 3, known as the celebration of Santa Cruz.

During the week, I've been working on the computer system here - resolving map data organization and compatibility issues, and evaluating the quality of the existing map data. I've also been using the GIS to help develop a reforestation plan for the Iracambi fazenda. Most of the property is currently used for agriculture including cattle, tilapia (fish), sugarcane and eucalyptus for timber, but some of the pasture is planned to be converted to forest using seedlings from the tree nursery here for the production of medicinal plants or agroforestry crops.





permalink written by  cjones on May 17, 2008 from Rosario da Limeira, Brazil
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Iracambi

Rosario da Limeira, Brazil


Just arrived here at the Iracambi conservation research center in one of the few remnants of the Mata Atlántica - Atlantic Rainforest - in southeast Brazil. Unlike the FUNCEDESCRI and Yanapuma NGOs in Guatemala and Ecuador, this one works in only one community and has its headquarters there, rather than in the city.

The accommodations are here seem more comfortable than in the other communities where I worked, including good food, showers and internet access. Planning to put my software background to use on the GIS project as well as to learn about and hopefully contribute to agroforestry, environmental education and alternative income generation efforts in the community.

permalink written by  cjones on May 1, 2008 from Rosario da Limeira, Brazil
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Cerrado

Pirenopolis, Brazil


Staying in the picturesque colonial town of Pirenópolis, with cobblestone streets, red tile rooftops, lots of sun and _bright_ blue skies. This is in the ecoregion called the cerrado - Brasil's great plains or savanah. Visited a farm and enchanting nature reserve called Fazenda Vagafogo, about 5 km down a dirt road reached from Pirenópolis by motorbike taxi. Feasted on an amazing spread of fresh breads, mermelades, chutneys, cheeses, and other goodies for brunch, all from ingredients produced on the farm. Went for a hike in the woods and a refreshing dip in the river.



permalink written by  cjones on April 26, 2008 from Pirenopolis, Brazil
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