This week's Photo of the Week, Camino de Jaibalito, was taken by Pat Torpie of Santa Cruz la Laguna. Pat's photo of a young Kakchiquel woman walking along the path to Jaibalito is rendered in an evocative antique sepia tone. Photographed on November 27, 2001.
View the Photos of the Week archive at: http://santacruzlalaguna.weebly.com/photos.html
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No events to report on this week either.....
If you have any events you would like to promote, please send your blurb with image or photo to: [email protected]. I need to receive your submission no later than Sunday afternoons as this Blog comes out on Monday mornings.
Check out regular event listings on the Lake Atitlan Events Calendar, http://ev-cal.com/fb/106177
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The good news is that the word has been spreading about the Lake Atitlan Wellness Clinic and they have recently received some top-of-the-line medical equipment namely an EKG system and ultrasound technology.
Also, more and more patients have been hearing about the clinic and coming to be treated. The Lake Atitlan Wellness Clinic's patient load has recently increased from a typical 25 patients a day to 35 patients a day most of whom need medications.
Unfortunately, the bad news right now is that the Clinic is in an emergency situation. They hope it is temporary, but an emergency situation it is. They are in need of funds to buy more medicines and to pay their rent for July. If you can at all help, even in a small way, please do so. Lake Atitlan Wellness Clinic is a free clinic that is registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the U.S. Please use this link to go to their Donation Page:
http://www.lakeatitlanwellnessclinic.org/be-a-hero---contribute.html
Thank you.
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Armand Boissy has written a follow-up blog article on the situation with OCRET at the Lake answering a few questions that I had. If you have any questions for Armand about OCRET and how it is handled at the Lake, he invites you to contact him through the Comments section on his blog.
http://atitlanrealestate.blogspot.com/2015/06/follow-up-on-ocret-in-santa-cruz-la.html
Del Lago Productos Orgánicos is a group of organic producers from San Juan La Laguna that is working to build a healthy and sustainable community around Lake Atitlán. We hope that our experience growing organic foods serves as an inspiration to local food growers to shift into a more sustainable way of production.
All of our foods are grown from local seeds planted by our Mayan ancestors and using techniques that support local ecosystems. These techniques include companion planting, and the use of organic fertilizers, fungicides and insecticides.
We sell organic fertilizer and a variety of vegetables and spices to our customers in San Pedro and San Juan, and we hope to expand soon to the other towns. Additionally, to reach our goal of creating a sustainable community around the lake, we invite elementary school classrooms to our farm to teach them about sustainable agriculture and the environment. We hope to soon implement farm tours and a volunteer program.
To make an order, please message us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DelLagoProductosOrganicos, email us at [email protected], or call us at 4300-7394. We deliver every Tuesday to San Marcos and every Thursday to San Pedro.
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Casa Cakchiquel
Roberto Monterroso is teaching Hatha Yoga Sivananda routine at Casa Cakchiquel. These classes focus primarily on physical and mental restoration following that the body and mind are one and, therefore, should be treated simultaneously.
Four students minimum are needed to start a schedule of classes. All classes are taught in English. Free Trial Class on Tuesday 23 6 pm! Bring a yoga mat, blanket or sponge.
The cost of classes is Q280 per month for two times a week or Q420 per month for three times a week.
Hours :
- 8 to 9:00 am
- 3 to 4 pm ( kids )
- 6 to 7 pm
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Panajachel Center
The Panajachel Center is introducing their new evening yoga instructors who will be teaching on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 6 p.m.
Jennifer Hicke, an adventure seeking, directionally challenged, dog loving, Nutella junky, yogi who hails from the great white north. She was bestowed the title Yoga Sirumani after completing her Vinyasa training in 2014. Marrying her profession as a nurse with her love of yoga, she uses yoga to as therapy to help heal and maintain health. After completing her Masters in Global Health From McMaster University she moved to Panajachel, where she works with a large NGO in their Medical Program. On the weekends, you may find her roaming Santander or practicing Pranayama in the Despensia check out line. She is also co-founder of Pop Up Prana, a group of a yogis who aim to share the benefits of yoga and spread love worldwide.
Jessica Schaffer has practiced yoga for the last seven years. Her classes are an invigorating faster paced Hatha Vinyasa style practice with Ashtanga influences that work to to increase strength, flexibility and balance. Jessica is originally from the United Staes and for the past two and half years has had the fortune of living in Guatemala. She has has her Masters of Public Health from UC Berkeley and also works locally in development and poverty relief.
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In November, an opportunity to train in a powerful process of community and organisation building that has been developed over 35 years and tested and refined by communities around the world is being offered in San Marcos. There is a search on to find people around the lake who may be interested in training to become facilitators of this process so this skill set can be anchored here at Lake Atitlan. If you are passionate about community, curious how to upscale your conflict resolution skills and eager to find new ways to build trust and address challenging issues in diverse communities, please look into this 3-day workshop.
This training will be held at The Sanctuary, San Marcos Lake Atitlan, Guatemala and does not include accommodation or food. (DATES TO BE FULLY CONFIRMED)
The idea at present is to host an open 2.5 hour Introduction to Forum open to all in the community to learn about this process and the workshop. (Probably 2-5 pm November 18th) The next 3 days will be for those wishing to take the facilitation training process.
For more information visit their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/977048998981003/
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There have been quite a few traffic situations in Guatemala City lately due to the political protests, but finding out about these in advance is a guess at best. There are 2 Facebook pages you can check to see what is happening should you need to go to Guate. Often they are not announced very far in advance, but if you are planning a trip, it might be good to check.
First is the Facebook page of the man in charge of traffic in Guatemala City, Amilcar Montejo. His page reports a bit ahead when there are going to be blocks or marches, not to mention other traffic conditions:
https://www.facebook.com/amilcarmontejogt?fref=ts&ref=br_tf
The other is the Facebook page of Renuncia Ya, the movement that is calling for the resignation of the President. They announce their peaceful protests and marches that are planned in Guatemala City, Xela, etc on their page:
https://www.facebook.com/RenunciaYaLaVozDelPueblo/timeline
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Rainfall in Paxanax for the week of June 15-21: .8 inches or 2.03 cm.
For the same period in 2014 the rainfall was 1.4 inches or 3.556 cm
Rainfall for June 1-21, 2015: 9.95 inches or 25.273 cm
Rainfall for June 1-22, 2014: 17.35 inches or 44.069 cm
In 2015 the rainfall for the month of June is down 43% from the rainfall of June, 2014.
This Sunday found us with the wind blowing hard and continuous until mid-afternoon. The locals say this is a sure sign of the canicula. We have not had rain in 5 days which would be additional indication that an early canicula has arrived. Given that we are down considerably on rainfall so far this rainy season, I am not sure that is a good thing. Back to watering the garden and pumping water from the lake as opposed to sustaining our house on rain water. Rats!
Click this link to view the Rainfall Report on this website:
http://santacruzlalaguna.weebly.com/rainfall-report.html
*** The Mayan glyph Kawoq symbolizes rain, lightning and thunder, water and air. It also represents the collective consciousness. ***
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