smagik

It’s gorgeous, cool, and rainy outside after a freakishly hot and dry March. Everything is in bloom and the smell of lilacs is wafting in my open front door. I’ve been back from a trip that feels like a dream for two weeks and in the midst of the chaos that is the world right now, haven’t known how to write about it or sum it up.

I flew to Guatemala City on March 7th, one week after the US and Israel began bombing Iran and four months after I pre-paid to be part of a small tour of Antigua and Lake Aititlán with Luna Zorro Studio. As I waited for my delayed flight in Dallas, in the midst of what is now the longest ever government shutdown, I wondered if I had made the right decision. It didn’t take long to learn that it was the perfect decision.

Antigua is a beautiful small town nestled between three volcanoes in the central highlands of Guatemala. Guatemala has been on my list of places to go for decades and it is even more beautiful than I expected. Between a workshop on dying with natural dyes, a lesson on different weaving techniques, and a tour of the house-museum FUNBA, I wandered down beautiful cobblestone streets, through local artisan markets, learned how to make tortillas (not as easy as one would think!), and ate the freshest, most delicious farm to table meals I’ve had anywhere (Libra and Wild Daughter). As so often happens when I travel, there was a generosity of spirit in everyone we met and I was in awe of the kindness, humanity, creativity, and the connection with the earth that seemed to be everywhere there but seems hard to find at home right now.

Antigua, 6:30 am

After three days in Antigua (not enough, I will go back!), we headed to Lake Aititlán. The largest lake in Central America, it is jaw droppingly beautiful. We took a small bus from Antigua to Panajachel, just over three hours drive, and then took a boat to Casa del Mundo across the lake.

Casa del Mundo will live in my dreams until I can return. Not to be dramatic, but it’s true. Stairs into clear, cold, blue water with volcanoes in the distance.

Candle shop in Santa Catarina Palopo

And then before I knew it, it was time to head back to Antigua and then back home. We had one last amazing dinner at Libra in Antigua, I wont try to explain but please go if you can. Carrot tacos.

Upon arriving home, life has been a blur of spring cleaning, fascist insanity, news, birthdays, soccer games, protests, friends, thrifting, trying to find work, planting a garden, and doing my best to find the beauty that seemed so abundant in Guatemala, because I know it is actually everywhere.