La Laguna del Señor

Chalo and I went over to a beautiful lagoon in the ejido Señor today. The people of Señor started an ecotourism project where they cleaned up the lagoon, built trails, and erected an observation deck. They now charge 10 pesos per person to go to the lagoon, which is low enough that locals can afford it but still enough money to provide a steady revenue stream to the ejido.

We swam out in the water and I learned a few basic nature words in Mayan, like "Ja" which means water in almost any form, serving as the word for rain, lagoon, drinking water, etc. I'm so used to the often one-sided nature of cultural discussions outside the US (they know all about us from TV, but we don't know about them) that its really refreshing to meet some one who has heard very little about Gringoland.

As an example, here's a snippet of our conversation:

Chalo: "How do they make tortillas in the US?"
Andon: "They... they don't really use that many tortillas in the US. "
Chalo, with a concerned look on his face: "Then what do they eat??"
Andon: "They eat more bread..."
Chalo: "Do they get full??"
Andon, holding back a chucle: "Yeah, they get full."
Chalo: "We eat the bread sometimes, but it doesn't get us full. The
tortillas are better..."

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*Image credits: Scince I forgot to bring my camera along for this trip, the beautiful pictures above were donated by Monica and Alfredo from OEPF.