Guatemala Trip

February 12 - 24, 2001

Foreword

This document contains some of the pictures and notes taken during the trip to Guatemala by Harold V. Green and Billy Mullins during February 12 through 24, 2001. This trip was conducted under the auspices of Partners of the Americas, Inc. and the Farmer to Farmer Volunteer Program and coordinated by Dr. Joseph M. Kemble, Ph.D, Department of Horticulture, Auburn University, Alabama. The purpose was to visit with beekeepers in South West Guatemala and provide technical assistance, training, and information on pest control and diseases and to determine the causes of cyclical death of the bees during the months of December through April and to establish a plan for the year 2001 - 2002.

Our Story

We meet in Wilmar Méndez's office upon our arrival in Guatemala City. Wilmar is the Director of the MOSCAMED Program for Guatemala and was our principal point of contact while we were in Guatemala. From the left, our escort Victor, Billy, Wilmar's Secretary, Harold and Wilmar.

From Guatemala City we traveled to Coatepeque, where we stayed for nine days. After our arrival in Coatepeque, one of our first stops was the diagnostic laboratory where we examined samples of bees for the Nosema and Amoebas diseases as well as the Tracheal Mite. We also examined their records for the last few weeks to determine the amount and kinds of diseases and Mites they have recorded. Veronica and Monica, laboratory technicians at the Coatepeque diagnostic laboratory, are shown preparing specimens for examination.

Veronica and Jorge, our escort, view specimens under the microscope at the Coatepeque diagnostic laboratory. At Veronica's left is a copy of the Mann Lake catalog we gave them.

We met with the Southwest Guatemala MOSCAMED Director Rony Rodas in his office at Coatepeque. From the left, Jorge, Billy, Rony and Harold.

One of our first field visits was to this queen yard operated by the Asociacion De Criadores De Abejas Reina, (Queen Breeders Association) and managed by Anthony Paz. In the picture from the left, Jorge, Harold and Anthony. This yard appeared to be well managed and produced very good queens.

Billy looks on as Anthony Paz, manager of this queen yard, handles the smoker and Jorge examines some frames.

Billy holds a frame containing sealed queen cells that are ready to hatch. After hatching, the queens are transferred to mating nucs at this yard.

Our next field visit was to this queen yard operated by MOSCAMED. This yard also served as a training center for queen rearing. The sign announces that this is a Training Center for Queen Production operated by MOSCAMED.

The queens here also were hatched on frames, but these queens after hatching, are transferred to another yard located at Chicacao for mating.

This is a view of the building and area at the MOSCAMED Queen yard and Training Center.

The first apiary we visited was this one near Coatepeque that was located adjacent to a huge rubber tree plantation. The colonies here were in poor condition due to lack of sufficient pollen to support brood rearing. The rubber trees provide nectar but not pollen and these colonies were not able to produce the royal jelly needed for brood rearing. There was formic acid treatment in these hives, apparently for the Varroa and /or Tracheal Mite. We did not see any Varroa mites in these colonies.

Billy holds a frame of brood that contains some honey but no pollen. Also the brood is scattered over the frame and the bees are festooned along the bottom of the frame instead of on the brood which indicates a condition of stress.

This is a close-up of the frame shown above.

This is a view of the rubber tree plantation next to the apiary. Our escorts Luis Corado and Juan Carlos are shown with Billy.

Our next apiary visit took us to this one near Retalhuleu. This apiary was also in poor condition, worse than the previous one, and our inspection revealed that these colonies were also lacking sufficient pollen to support brood rearing.

Billy holds a frame taken from a dead hive. There was some speculation that some of the colonies here had been purposely poisoned by local people opposed to the MOSCAMED honeybee program. While it may have been possible that poison could have caused this damage, our inspection did not find any evidence to support this claim. However, the condition of the dead hives and the presence of so many dead bees on the bottom boards gives credence to this speculation of deliberate poisoning. In addition, all of the dead colonies were furthest from the house that was located at the apiary. The colonies closest to the house were OK, though some were short of pollen.

This is a dead hive from which the frames have been removed, leaving the dead bees on the bottom board.

The dead bees are dumped into a basket. This basket contains the bees from about 15 of the 20 or so colonies that died at this location. About 30 colonies did not die and were in fairly good shape, except most were lacking in adequate pollen stores, but the bees were bringing in pollen while we were there.

Billy examines another frame of bees and brood.

Another dead colony with dead bees on the bottom board.

A close inspection of the dead bees on this bottom board was conducted to try and determine the most likely cause of death. We did not find anything obvious during our inspection of these dead bees. This is the only apiary we visited that exhibited this kind of bee kill.

After our inspection was completed the dead bees were dumped into the basket. We then inspected the remaining live hives which appeared OK but short on pollen so we recommended feeding pollen substitute immediately.

The next apiary we visited was further up the mountain among the coffee and macadamia nut trees. This apiary consisted of three sites, each within a few hundred feet of one another and of about 30-40 colonies each. Although there had been a few losses here, it was not anywhere as great as the previous apiary and was not considered particularly unusual. We inspected some colonies at one of these three sites and did not find anything unusual. The bees were bringing in pollen and appeared healthy but aggressive, more so than any of the other colonies we visited. We suspect there may be a definite amount of African bees at this location. We saw one swarm high in a tree here.

Billy inspects a frame at this second Retalhuleu. apiary. These colonies all appeared healthy and bringing in pollen and nectar.

We returned from Retalhuleu to our Hotel for lunch. The opening on the second floor above the main entrance goes all the way to the back of the Hotel and so the noises from the street traffic travel unabated down this hallway at night.

After lunch, we traveled to a Cooperative, COPIASURO, near El Sito,Catarina, and visited the diagnostic laboratory. Here, Harold is shown with the laboratory specialists Idalia Onelia Barrios and Martha Barrios and our escort, Jorge Ibarra. We reviewed the data recorded from bee sample analysis at this lab.

COPIASURO Cooperative Manager, Alvaro Almengor and Jorge discuss business. The members of this cooperative meet monthly. They bring their honey here where it is filtered and packed in barrels for shipment overseas. There were about 30 barrels left in the building ready for shipment.

The next day, we traveled to a new apiary located high in the mountains outside the town of San Antonio, Such., It is operated by the Indians there. This particular apiary is located in an area that is subjected to spraying for the medfly and we were interested to see what effect this spraying had, if any, on the colonies here.

Another closer view of the apiary sign.

Diego Coity, Manager of the CIDECA apiary, welcomes us to his apiary. When we arrived, Diego gathered all of his people, the workers, their wives and children, and gave a speech that must have lasted a good ten minutes or more. Of course Billy and I couldn't understand a word he said, so we just kind of stood there, shuffling our feet and wondering how much longer he was going to speak. When he finally finished, our escort, Armandd, turned to us and said, 'He says "Welcome"!

Inspection of the hives at CIDECA. The white sheet of plastic in front of the hive is to detect any bee kill from the aerial spraying for the medfly. There was none found after two sprays that occurred several days apart while we were there. Wilmar Mendez, the MOSCAMED Director in Guatemala City, told us the aerial spray consisted of 0.90gr/gal Success applied at a rate of 80 drops per square meter.

Another view of the CIDECA Apiary

Close-up view of a hive at CIDECA. The build-up of excess comb is caused by an insufficient number of frames in the hive and too much space between frames. Hives should have at least 9 frames and the frames should be evenly spaced. Many hives at this apiary did not have sufficient frames in them, although we saw plenty of spare frames and foundation in the store room at this apiary. This hive also has Bayvol in it for the control of the Varroa mite.

Another practice we noted at almost every apiary was the use of a sheet of plastic over the top of the hive under the hive cover. This sheet of plastic seals the hive and prevents the circulation of air though the hive. The bees need some air circulation through the hive for cooling and the evaporation of moisture caused by the drying and curing of the nectar. The bees keep the inside temperature of the hive at 93 degrees F. When the outside temperature is in the high 80's as is the case here, it is difficult for the bees to keep the proper temperature without some air circulation through the hive. During the time the temperatures are in the 80's, the hive entrance should be fully opened and the top cover should be arranged so some air is allowed to circulate through the hive. Otherwise heat stress will build up in the hive and may cause problems. It is also preferable to place the hives in partial shade.

At the conclusion of our inspection, we took a group photo.

After we left the CIDECA apiary, we returned to San Antonio, Such and stopped for a cool drink. This is a view up the street.

We stopped at the diagnostic laboratory in San Antonio, Such, and met laboratory specialists, Bessy and Carolina. This laboratory is located under an open shed and between two wood piles. We reviewed the records at this location to determine the amount and types of diseases and mites they have recorded finding.

This is a sample of some of the work they do at this laboratory. This is a photo of a sample of trachea taken through their microscope at 100x. If there were tracheal mites present, there would be some discoloration of the trachea, but this is a good, mite-free sample.

While we were visiting the laboratory, we heard a clapping noise close by. We looked around the wood pile and found these two women making tortillas. They make them by taking a piece of dough and slapping it between their hands to flatten it, then place it on the griddle to cook. In the meantime, the children help themselves to the raw dough on the slab of lava rock.

Back to the laboratory, we were shown a sample of the amoebas protozoan taken at 400x. It is difficult to see and it takes some experience to recognize this protozoan.

This is a little better view of the amoebas protozoan. The protozoa are the small, light dots, the large dots are pollen grains. This photo was taken at the microscope setting of 400x. If you look closely, you can see square graduations on the slide. They are used by the technician to determine the density of the disease, that is , some many protozoa per square.

Amoebas disease is described as often occurring together with Nosema, but because it has no clear symptoms, it often goes undetected. It is widely distributed in temperate climates, there are no chemical treatments available, but its incidence can be lowered through improved hive management practices aimed at reducing stress on the bees. We did not see any Nosema at this laboratory and their records did not indicate a prevalence of the Nosema disease here but did show frequent findings of amoebas disease.

Our next stop was the MOSCAMED queen mating yard at Chicacao. Here we are shown with the manager of the yard and one of the workers and our escort Armandd Giron next to Billy.

Here, the manager has just picked a newly mated and laying queen and is marking her. The next step is to place her in a cage and add a few attendants with her.

The manager is now picking up some attendants to go with the new queen. Usually, young bees are selected for attendants.

The queens and attendants are kept in wire cages that are pushed into a frame with honey on it. There are about twenty cages on each side of the frame shown here. These queens will be used as replacement queens through out the MOSCAMED apiaries. The quality of the queens we saw here appear to be very good.

Another diagnostic laboratory was visited. This one is operated by a cooperative in Coatepeque.

Jorge and Mario De Leon, manager of the Cooperative.

Wilmar Mendez, Director of MOSCAMED, Guatemala, conducts a discussion session with the workers at the Cooperative.

On the way to the MOSCAMED office in Mazatenango we stopped for refreshments at this gas station which is well protected by a couple of shotgun toting men, one of which is shown here. Nearly all of the better places we stopped at along the road had similar protection such as this. All the gas stations had 6 or 8 young men ready to help with the gas or service the hood, even wash the car while you filled up.

Monday morning we returned to the diagnostic laboratory to view some more samples and review their records of their past findings for Nosema and Amoebas. Veronica and Monica prepare samples while Billy views a specimen in the microscope.

This is a sample of trachea that was prepared for us. This is not one of the better samples because it was not left in the lactic acid long enough to dissolve the surrounding tissue and leave the trachea exposed.

This is a sample of Nosema. The arrow points to the Nosema protozoan, a light, elongated cell just above the arrow point, difficult to see in this picture.

This is another view of the Nosema cell at the tip of the arrow, again difficult to see, but it's there, believe me. We were fascinated during our examination of this Nosema cell because it constantly moved while we observed it. Bees infected with Nosema are unable to properly digest their food. Such bees have shortened life spans and, as they cannot digest pollen, are unable to produce royal jelly needed by larvae. This results in poor growth of the colony and even a population decrease in severe cases. The incidence of Nosema is generally the highest after confinement and variable weather conditions, when populations are low and pollen supplies have been depleted. As foraging conditions improve and the aging population is replaced by young bees, Nosema infections usually decline. Among hive management practices to prevent serious outbreaks of this disease are,- hives should be tilted slightly forward to prevent water accumulation on the bottom board, strong populations with a vigorous queen, adequate stores of honey and pollen and adequate hive ventilation.

When we arrived at this apiary, the workers were extracting honey. This apiary is located next to a huge rubber tree plantation. I don't know how wide it is, but according to my GPS, it was exactly one mile from the edge of the highway to the other edge on the plantation. So, I would guess it is at least 6 or 7 hundred acres, maybe more. They have the same problem here with these hives. Lack of pollen in the frames and the bees appear stressed, some hives died.

Here a worker prepares to uncap what little honey is on this frame. As you can see, the frame contains mostly brood, but the workers here extract any honey in the hive, no matter where it is. Not, in our opinion, good hive management. The workers do not uncap the brood.

The extractor operator loads the extractor prior to extracting.

Even the children help during honey extraction. These children and their family live in a group of buildings in the center of this rubber tree plantation. It appeared to be a community of about 20 or so people.

As we leave the extracting tent, we enter the apiary at the edge of rubber trees. The workers bring a frame at a time to the tent for uncapping and extracting.

Here we examine a typical frame of the hive. Mostly brood, a little honey, but no stored pollen.They have a real problem with pollen around these rubber tree plantations. Perhaps a planting of a few acres of corn nearby would alleviate this condition. Corn produces copious amounts of pollen when it blooms.

After our inspection of the hives, we take a group picture of the apiary workers.

With so many rubber trees around, we couldn't resist asking one of the workers to show us how a rubber tree is tapped. So this one obliged us by cutting a new tap on this tree. You can see the white sap running down into the cup. This sap will run profusely for about 3 hours, then it slows to a stop and has to be re-tapped. The workers tap each tree twice a day when harvesting the rubber sap.

These two young girls came to meet us as we started to leave the plantation, so we took their picture and showed it to them. They became happy and excited when they saw their picture.

We returned to the San Antonio, Such apiary to check on the results of the second spraying for the medfly.

This is the extracting tent at San Antonio, Such. They were extracting when we arrived today.

A worker is shown uncapping honey on this frame. He doesn't uncap the sealed brood.

After the uncapped frames are placed in the extractor, they are spun to throw out the honey.

Billy , Armandd our escort, and an apiary worker pose at the completion of the extraction process.

No extraction process would be complete without a tasting of the honey. Here, Billy and I finish tasting a sample of the honey produced at this apiary. Actually, we ate a piece of comb honey.

Before we left this apiary, I just needed to make a picture of a banana tree that had a bunch of unripe bananas hanging from it.So I decided to take a picture of one of the banana trees at this apiary. It was explained to us that the banana flower is the object at the bottom end of the bunch of bananas. When the flower first emerges, it is upright and drops its pollen down forming bananas below. When the bananas develop, the stalk becomes too heavy to remain upright, so it bends over as shown in the picture. This one is about ready to be picked in a few days.

After we left the apiary and started on our return to the hotel, we stopped at this roadside fruit stand and bought a pineapple for about one dollar. We had it cut up and ate it before we left. It was good and juicy, but not as sweet as the ones we get at home that come from Hawaii. They sell mangos, papaya, avocados, oranges and coconuts here also.

Our next stop was a visit to an apiary at this place Candelaria-Xolhuitz. We don't know how to pronounce the name of this place, have trouble with the X's, but it is a sort of plantation type community with a company store and several houses or compounds for the people to live in.

This is the end of the road here at Candelaria-Xolhuitz. The coffee warehouse is at the rear and our escort Armandd is shown speaking with one of the residents at a house on the left. The company store is not shown, but is on the right, next to the truck just out of the picture.

This is the apiary at Candelaria-Xolhuitz. It is located on the side of a steep hill in the coffee plantation. When we arrived here, we stopped on the road and couldn't see this apiary, so we asked Armandd where the apiary was. He said about 200 meters that way and pointed to the down slope of the hill. Well, he was right, it was about 200 meters. The problem was it was about 100 meters straight over, and about 100 meters straight down. It was like a stress test climbing back up that hill when we left. I had my GPS with me and took a waypoint at the end of the road above, then took another one at the apiary. The straight line distance was just over 3 tenths of a mile, but the road to this apiary was over a mile, up and down the hills and ravines and around, and back and forth.

This picture gives you a little better view of the steepness on the hill here. I'm just a few feet away from the hives, but way above them.

We get stabilized and begin inspecting the hives with Fidel Perez, the apiary manager. These hives were generally well managed, and in a good location. Some of the best we have seen so far. The side of the hill provides shade for all but a few hours during the day and there appears to be plenty of pollen and nectar for the bees here.

Armandd holds a frame of nearly all sealed brood, indicating a good laying queen and the potential of a lot of new bees in a week or so.

Armandd took our picture after the hive inspection was completed, Harold on the left with Fidel and Billy.

I took this picture to show the terracing of this apiary and also to illustrate the use of plastic on the hives that was prevalent in all but one apiary we visited. In that apiary, the plastic was rolled up and stored under the hive. Billy and I have a problem with the use of this plastic, because we believe it prevents air circulation within the hive. Bees need air, and when the hive is sealed off such as this, it prevents air circulation in the hive and promotes stress build up in the colony. This condition is aggravated further when the hives are in direct sunlight, and when pollen is scarce, such as in the case of apiaries at the rubber tree plantations. Stress build up can lead to a variety of problems including the spread of Nosema, amoebas, dysentery and even the eventual death of the colony.

As we left this apiary and walked up the hill, I saw this uncapping tank. It was made by making a box with a wire screen on the bottom and a piece of sheet metal bent into a V beneath that. The wire screen catches the cappings and allows the honey to strain through onto the bent sheet metal where the honey is then collected in buckets.

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at this place and took this picture of the blossoms on the mango tree. You can see a mango on the left. Billy remarked that the blossoms were very similar to the sumac blossoms we have in Alabama. Armandd said the mango tree was a very good source of pollen and nectar.

Because we were going to leave this hotel and stay at another location for the rest of our time, I decided to take this picture of the hotel restaurant. The fellows directly in front of the TV are from British Columbia, more specifically the Vancouver area of British Columbia. They arrived Sunday from another hotel in town that they were staying at but didn't like it so they moved to this one. They are associated with the ministry and working with the ministry here in Guatemala.

This is one of several photos I took on our way from Coatepeque to Huehuetenango. After we left Coatepeque, we went up another thousand feet or so to a plateau area that had very good soil and was suitable for vegetable crops. All the farming here is done by hand. Very little, if any, is done with the use of a tractor. We saw cabbages, corn, melons and other crops in this broad area along the hillsides.

This is a view looking back on the other side of the road, where you can see some of the houses and other farmland up the sides on the hills.

A market place in Quetzaltenango on the way to Huehuetenango.

Another view of the market at Quetzaltenango.

As we proceeded toward Huehuetenango., we were stopped along the highway at a check point for plants and other vegetable matter. Here our driver, Carlos on the left, is talking with the inspector. There is a quarantine from bringing vegetable matter into this coffee growing area from the vegetable growing area.

After our arrival in Huehuetenango, we met with about 15 or so beekeepers and discussed beekeeping in general and formed a schedule for our apiary visits the following day.

Another view of the beekeepers that attended this meeting.

Another view of these beekeepers. I don't think they got much out of this meeting because we did not have a good interpreter with us and we had a hard time communicating.

After the meeting, our host, the MOSCAMED Director for this area, Otto Bolanos, gave us a short tour of the city of Huehuetenango. We stopped at this church which is located in the center of town, went inside and took this picture. This is a large church by Guatemala standards and is well appointed.

Otto then took us to a hand crafter leather shop. Here, Otto is holding a leather holder for a knife as Billy and the shop owner look on. I ended up buying it and Billy ended up buying a nice leather belt. The store owner had to adjust the belt though, and while he was doing that, the lights went out. So he just lighted a candle and we finished our business under candle light. Billy made the joke that the city was probably selling their power to California, but I'm not sure Otto understood what he was saying.

The next day, we traveled to the Democracia area to visit apiaries in the coffee plantations. This area is about 80 kilometers Northwest of Huehuetenango and only about 10 kilometers from the Mexican border. It is high elevation, about 9000 feet and over, and very mountainous. You just about have to be a goat to work in this area.

Billy and our translator, Carlos Herrara, are shown next to the vehicle we traveled in. We were fortunate today that Otto was able to provide a translator for us the whole day. Carlos is an English teacher at the local school in Huehuetenango. He attended college at Iowa State and had a good command of the language.

Of course, no story would be complete if it didn't show a close up of the coffee tree. So I got this one right away when one of the workers came by.

This is a picture of the community in the hills of the coffee plantation. We were served a small lunch here in a room under the shed in the back. The lunch was a bowl of really thin oatmeal like gruel with a sprinkling of corn flakes on top, not bad. A can of the ubiquitous Coke for the drink. The folks here were really hospitable and well organized and we were treated very well. You can see the electric power lines in this picture. That was one thing that struck us, that no matter how remote, there was always electric power available. Also, the white pick up truck shown here is actually used as a bus to haul people around in. The metal bars are for when it rains, they can put a cover over to protect the passengers.

Back to work, we approach the first apiary at Democracia. It's on the side of a hill of course and was not one of the better apiaries that we visited.

We start our inspection of these hives and notice the ever present plastic covering on top of the hive. Also these hives are in almost direct sunlight. The temperature at this location is about 10 to 15 degrees cooler than at Coatepeque.

Another view of the apiary showing the terraces.

Most of the hives had feeders on them, but it was not clear why they were needed since they were not filled. We found Varroa mites at this apiary, the first and only apiary we found them at. We suggested that they not use the plastic on the hives, but they told us it was needed because it turned very cold at night and they didn't want their bees to get cold. We did not agree that that was a good reason to use the plastic.

This is the shed where we went into a room for lunch. The room was small and held about 6 people at a time.

On the way to the next apiary in this region, we passed a coffee drying yard where a worker was turning the beans using a rake.

Another coffee drying yard.

This is the second apiary at Democracia. It was in about the same condition as the first one, except we didn't see any Varroa mites. They did not have feeders on the hives at this apiary, though it was not far from the first one. You can see the abundant use of plastic under the top covers here.

Another view of the same apiary.

Billy points out problems with the frames of this hive.

We left the coffee plantations in the mountains and visited Rancho Carmela and the owner Jorge Alfaro. This ranch produces coffee, cattle, and honey. We did not inspect any bee hives at this location, but did talk with Jorge about beekeeping in general. Jorge does not have a problem with cyclical bee kills during the months between December and April. He is also the only beekeeper we met that markets his honey to local stores with his own label. We looked at his extracting and packaging operation and found it to be a good operation. He brings his honey supers to this building where his extractor is and after extracting and straining, stores the honey in barrels in this building.

Here is the extractor Jorge uses. It is a hand operated, six frame, tangential extractor very similar to all the rest of the ones we saw in Guatemala. The honey is strained as it leaves the extractor, then flows into the barrel below the strainer.

Jorge offers a taste of honey to our Carlos, our driver, while our translator, also named Carlos, watches. Jorge gave Billy and I each a one pound package of his coffee. After we returned home, I tried it and it was delicious, very good flavor.

After we left Rancho Carmela, we visited this last apiary at El Li Monar managed by Hugo Sabinoramas. Hugo seems to be a good manager, but like almost everyone else, uses plastic on top of the hive bodies. Billy and I maintain that this seals the air circulation in the hive and is not good for the bees. One nice feature about this apiary was that it is located adjacent to a good running mountain stream, so the bees have a close source of cool, fresh water. This apiary is the only one we saw this at.

We inspect some of the hives here. They appear in good shape and we did not see anything that was not normal for the condition of the hives. Hugo raises a few queens here also, for use in this apiary.

The last stop we made was at this new cooperative building. It is planned to use this building to receive honey from the cooperative members and then process it and package it in barrels. The tank shown here is a new tank for processing the honey and there was some discussion on how to best coat the inside to protect the honey from contact with the metal of the tank. The first thought was to coat it with wax, but we suggested a better method would be the use of food-grade quality epoxy paint. This building was also planned to be used to store materials needed by members, such as hive frames, foundation, hive bodies, medication and etc. As we noted earlier, the beekeepers in this area appear to be well organized and work together toward a common goal.

This picture was taken in the restaurant at the hotel we stayed at while in Huehuetenango, it's named Hotel Del Prado. It's a very nice hotel, has several swimming pools scattered around the grounds, waterfalls, beautiful landscaping all around the grounds, large meeting rooms, a dance hall and convention room. There were not a lot of people here at the time we were there, it was kind of off season. Joining Billy and I at the table were Roberto Castillo,one of our escorts, Otto Bolanos local MOSCAMED Director, and Carlos Garcia, another one of our escorts.

As we returned to Guatemala City from Huehuetenango, we stopped at this town, Solola, to do a little shopping. This is one of the main streets in this town. Our vehicle is at the left with Billy and our driver.

This is another view down the street in Solola. It's kind of a tourist trap, but there are so few of them here in Guatemala, that it's not an inconvenience, in fact we looked for something like this that caters to the tourist. You can even go on-line at the Internet shop, rent a computer with a high speed connection for as long as you want.

Not far from the town of Solola was the waterfront at Lake Atitlan. A beautiful setting of a blue water lake and volcanic mountains in the background.

Another view of Lake Atitlan. This is a boat launching ramp.

Another view of Lake Atitlan with two volcanos in the background.

After we arrived in Guatemala City, we met with the MOSCAMED folks and gave them a briefing of our findings, then went for another briefing several blocks down the street to the organization that works with the USDA. But the principal contact here was not able to meet with us and so we all decided to go to dinner together with our MOSCAMED contact, Wilmar Méndez, and the 3 people available at the USDA contact office, Sonia Contreras, Gabriel Rayo, and Isau Gomzalez. After dinner, one of the USDA office contact workers, Sonia Contreras, invited Billy and me to stay overnight at her family's home near the airport. So we accepted this invitation and stayed there. The next morning, Sonia and her Father drove us to the airport and saw us off. While at their home, I took this family picture. Sonia is on the left along with her three sisters, her Father, and the boyfriend of one of her sisters. Both Sonia and her sister's boyfriend speak very good English, so we had a very enjoyable evening. Sonia's Mother was in the States attending a conference, in, of all places, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

The End