Sustainable development projects at Lago de Atitlan

The "factory" at the Womens Textile Association in San Juan

Pedro giving beta on coffee growing at the coop in San Juan

In the past few days, I visited a couple of sustainable development projects in San_Juan_La_Laguna - a small town about a half hour's walk from San Pedro. The first was a textile and handicraft association called the Asociacion de Mujeres Tejedoras Con Tinte Natural, which uses natural dyes from local plants, extracted by boiling the threads (think they're cotton) in water. The second was a coffee cooperative called La Voz Que Clama en el Desierto (Voice That Cries in the Wilderness). The coop abides by organic, shade grown and fair trade standards, the latter meaning they pay the workers a decent wage. Read in the local paper this week that Guatemala supplies more coffee to Starbucks than any other country and since most of the chain's coffee does not meet those standards, there´s a need for more such coops.

Also met an architect and juggler from Ireland who is working as a volunteer on water treatment facilities for towns by the lake. Currently, most of the water is untreated and that combined with fuel discharge by boats has killed most of the fish. In the local restaurants, the fish is the highest priced entree.

This morning before class, I visited the market at Santiago_de_Atitlan, about 40 minutes away by boat.

On the boat to Santiago de Atitlan

Market at Santiago de Atitlan

View of the lake from Santiago de Atitlan

Sustainable development projects at Lago de Atitlan

San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala