El Paredon

El Paredon

Greetings, we have spent the last 10 days in a very small village on the west coast of Guatemala called El Paredon, which, literally, means “the sand wall”. We did not do updates while there because the Internet at our lodging had two modes: slow or broken. [We are at our new location now which has wi-fi].

There's so much to say about this place it’s hard to know where to begin, as it is so unique. We had a fantastic time and honestly could've stayed longer. At the same point, we were ready to move on and felt very content with our time and efforts in El Paredon.

General Info

Typical Beach Day

This is a vast beach with no people - literally. There is our small place, another small hotel and a newly opened hostel and that is it. On any given day you would not see more than 30 people on the beach and over half of them would be surfers in the water.  While they’re amazing local surfers, we learned that many of the parents in the village don’t let their kids surf so there are even fewer than you’d expect.

El Paredon is a village of about 1000 people. It consists of about 5 square blocks, and all of the roads are black sand.  It is not uncommon to find a random dog, horse, rooster or even pig wandering around the streets.  Virtually every local we met had lived here their whole lives. The only exception was an Israeli couple who visited here a few years ago and loved it so much that they saved up to return and opened a small restaurant (a large cheese pizza cost $5 and we ate several). Most the grandparents we met have been in their same home all their lives. Motorcycles are how most get around (if not walking) with the occasional car or 4-wheeler also being seen.  There are no police, and no crime and everyone is extremely content. Most fathers fish while the mothers stay home. School exists but it does not seem to be emphasized too terribly much.  Tourism is not prevalent here, so it’s difficult to see how they sustain themselves, but somehow it works. Several families operate very small stores (tiendas) which all seem to sell the same things.

What makes this place unique is that there is only one road to get to the village which then ends at a river, so it’s not the easiest to get to.

Road to El Paredon

Its about 20 minutes by car on a very bumpy dirt road after the pavement runs out (ironically at a private gated community for wealthy Guatemalans). One oddity is that even though this is Guatemala’s west coast the beach actually faces straight south. This means the sun rise and sunset are to our left and right as opposed to setting over the ocean like one would expect. 

While it is currently rainy season in Guatemala, there has been little rain this year.  When it does rain, it is typically at night.  We were able to see several storms while there and they were incredible!  The temperature during the day in El Paredon is in the mid-90's, but with humidity feels like 105-110.  The mosquitoes were a slight bother at dawn and dusk, but nothing bug spray didn't keep away.

Our Lodging

View from our bed :)

Main level - nets hanging from ceiling & 2 beds under futon

Front of Casita - "school day"

The place we stayed was the called The Surf House and sits right on the beach. It’s a small hotel/hostel with different types of lodging offerings from a hostel-like room set up all the way to private casitas, which is where we stayed.  Our little home had a main floor with a futon and small counter and an upstairs with a double bed. The entire casita was open air, meaning there were no glass windows, so we slept in mosquito nets at night. We had two kids on single mattresses on the floor and two sharing the futon. This and the kids stuff took up the entire main floor. We have our own bathroom with private outdoor shower (a pvc pipe run through bamboo – one temp only) and working toilet. 
All in all, the place is awesome!  It’s very quiet during the week and quite busy on the weekends as locals come to surf. That is typical most of the year they say.

Shower

In the common area, there was a fridge with beverages (which is on the honor system – a clipboard where you write your name and what you took), and a freezer with ice cream treats. Big breakfasts cost about $3-5 with lunch being slightly more and then for dinner everyone eats the same 3-course meal together at one big table, family style, for $10 each. The staff is extremely friendly and ranges from full time workers, to volunteers working for room and board. We have met locals as well as people from Spain, Switzerland, Holland, California, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Australia. We thoroughly enjoyed the location and people here.

Our Activities

Our time was spent mostly between hanging out at the beach and working with a local organization that focuses on trying to better the community. The volunteer side was challenging to figure out as communication was a little difficult (though not because of language) but once things got moving, we really enjoyed it. We spent time painting the walls of a new secondary school, helping at recess by introducing new sidewalk games, mom taught art class, and our oldest impressed the children with his map drawing skills as well as taught some guitar.  We also enjoyed surfing and playing in the waves, chatting with a local grandmother who invited us to her church (which we attended) and playing soccer (some village kids played barefoot while others wore cleats).  We ate a BBQ dinner at local family's home, boated up the river to see large sea turtles and paddled through the mangroves catching crabs and viewing that unique ecosystem. We brought one crab back and had the kitchen cook it up for us – the kids thought it was delicious! We also took a short trip to San Jose, which is a large port town and famous for the United Fruit Company, which at one point in history controlled the entire country’s fruit exportation business. There we ate fresh sushi and saw some of the local daily catch. Our last day the hotel manager invited the local soccer team to come and swim and BBQ to celebrate their recent success at some tournament. He invited the kids to participate which was a very sweet gesture.

BBQ Diner at local family home

Some of T's art students

Our oldest giving a guitar lesson to Danny

Teaching a new game

Painting school wall

Drawing the globe freehand garnered attention

G's buddies

Korean sushi in San Jose. Friend on left from Australia.

Lots of reading was done

Local catch in San Jose

Local soccer team celebration

For the most part everyone is healthy but we have had our first bouts with injury and illness here. Surfing has had its way with us as the waves are big, fast and strong here. Dad's whole body is sore for the effort.  Just getting out is dangerous as you can see in the pictures. We have several ear infections, a cut toe and foot (nothing serious), some vomiting & high temps,  and even some burnt feet from the black sand here, which gets extremely hot during the afternoon if you have to grab a screaming child who stops as it burns their little feet. 

We also experienced our first earthquake tremor. This was nothing major as not everyone in our camp felt it.  We think that only those up in the lofts were able to feel it because they were above ground, but mom & dad were about to yell at some kids (early in the morning) because we thought they were shaking the headboard of our bed!

As we post this we have just arrived at our third and final Guatemala location and it is different from where we have been so far. We have gone from the ocean to a large lake about 5000 feet above sea level. Fewer mosquitoes, no sand, and much cooler temps are certainly welcome!