Iguanas, sea turtle babies, and sandals in Monterrico

by Richardson Family

After spending a relaxing week at our wonderful rental house in Santa Cruz de Laguna, Camille, Holland and I (Phillip) decided we’d take a short 3 day trip to see something outside of the Lake Atitlan area. We’d be taking a much longer trip to some famous Mayan ruins up north in the Yucatan towards the end of our time in Guatemala, and thought it would be a good idea to start out with a slightly less ambitious adventure first.

Since Shelly was staying at the Santa Cruz house and was the only one of us four who spoke decent Spanish, we knew that we’d be stretching our communication abilities.

Of all the places that we could get to and return in a few days, Monterrico interested us the most.

Our guide book described it as a laid-back resort city on Guatemala’s southern coastal plain. It has a black sand beach, a nature reserve, and is where endangered sea turtles come to burrow their nests in the sand from July to October. We liked the idea of dipping our toes in the Pacific Ocean and seeing how it compared to the Pacific we knew from our home in Oregon. However, what the guidebook also said was that the ocean was very powerful and should never be underestimated, that there was no shade on the beach, the sand was blisteringly hot, and that insect repellent was required.

We were able to arrange our hotels and shuttles at Lake Atitlan, so we set off on a Saturday morning in good spirits and ready for adventure. Our first shuttle leg was to Antigua where we were to stay for one night and then catch an early shuttle for Monterrico.

We arrived in Antigua in the late afternoon during a downpour, and made a snap decision to stop at the first hotel we ran across. This turned out to be another angel idea. The room was perfect, the family that ran it was very nice, and we slept very well that night. The next morning, our shuttle was very late. It finally arrived and we set out on the highway towards the coast. We had been told to make sure our driver dropped us off at our hotel door, but when we arrived in Monterrico, the driver said he couldn’t do that because there wasn’t enough room to turn the bus around. We ended up having to walk only a short distance, but the sandy unpaved “road” made us wonder if we were really in the right place after all.

The hotel couldn’t have been better, however. We had our own private bungalow and the food served in their restaurant was great. They even had a swimming pool. Right after we dumped our luggage, we rushed out to see the ocean. The black sand beach was really more of a medium gray, but it was extremely hot! The familiar sound of the surf though, was as peaceful as what we remembered from Oregon.

But the slope of the shoreline was steep and the waves were ferocious. It wasn’t long until I noticed that Holland was having trouble standing up in the undertow. Camille even had to help her catch her balance. I insisted that they not get in past their knees, but soon enough Holland came running to exclaim that the surf had ripped her sandals right off her feet. She was very disheartened by this, and I didn’t seem very able to console her. In fact, I was feeling a little self-righteous and judgmental, and had to catch myself to be kind, forgiving, and to help her do the only thing we could possibly do in the situation, which was to pray. After calming my own agitated and blaming mind, I stopped to listen and tried to discern what angel thoughts God was sending our way. I felt a sense of peace, a true love for my daughter, and said that perhaps we should go take another look. As soon as we reached the
shoreline, we saw her two sandals directly in front of us at the tip of newly wet sand, in what must have been a large wave that had moments before deposited them there. It was such an immediate and direct vision, as if they had been handed to us on a silver platter!

We rounded out our trip by taking a boat tour through a nearby mangrove swamp, visiting the nature center and seeing iguanas, sea turtle babies, caimans. And we had a nice talk with one of the men who work to save the sea turtle hatchlings once they come out. The whole excursion was a blessing.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 5:25 pm and is filed under Safety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.