Vamos a La Playa!

On Saturday, my friends Leslie, Lauren and I set off for Champerio, on the Pacific Coast and slightly south of Xela. The trip to the coast took about three hours. It is amazing how quickly the climate changes from the cold, mountainous environs of the Altiplano, where Xela is located, to the warm humidity of the gentle coastal slope. The coastal region is covered in large fincas. These used to be primarily banana, cotton and coffee fincas. Now they are primarily coffee fincas, as well as industrial shrimp farming stations.

Champerio is the coast reduced to its most basic elements: A strip of black sand, the strong rolling surf and a seemingly endless bleached white sky. At one end there is a rusting pier, which looks it’s about to be subsumed by the sea as well. The pier was once supposed to support major vessels, but now it barely supports the few local fishermen. Aldous Huxley once called this the most tedious beach on earth. Despite Huxley´s biting remarks, the beach does have sun and surf, which many of the wealthier people from the Altiplano are desperate for. The beach is lined with ranchos, the palm thatched shelters that most of us know as palapas, selling amazing seafood, ceviche, and liters of Gallo, the ubiquitous national beer, plus a couple of dark, dank hotels.

This is not the sort of place that many white people visit. The beach is populated with Ladinos, in all sorts of strange swimwear, from speedoes to tee-shirts and aquasox. There were also some Maya folk. The indigenous women tend to be very modest, so they will venture into the water fully dressed in their heavy huiples and long skirts. Many people here don’t swim very well, the surf is unbelievably strong because the beaches drop off sharply, and there was a single overweight lifeguard napping in the sand, so most people only wade into the water. The exception being some local kids who had taught themselves to surf. The lack of white people made Leslie, Laura and I and our bikinis quite the spectacle. Many Ladino men wanted to have their pictures taken with us in our bikinis. This made me feel quite a bit better about taking pictures Guatemaltecos. We also considered asking for a quetzal a photo.