La Casa del Mundo

"I'm writing this quickly because I know you all read fast!" (Adapted from Ethel Pottle, my mother).

Really, this place has expensive email so I have to get as much in as possible not to waste money. We arrived at La Casa yesterday (yes, Joanna, it's the same place) but I haven't yet gone swimming in the lake. I did manage to delete everyone of the pictures on my camera about 15 minutes ago - do read the messages on your cam screen carefully, and don't just blithely presss ok!) No matter, it just reminds me of our trip to Africa where my camera died very early in the trip - I got to use all my senses after that to enjoy the trip way more than I might have through a lens.) But we still have six weeks to go, so I'll still take pictures and will do my best not to delete the rest. There will be no pictures of Monterrico and bird life though.

We arrived here to a piece of heaven I think. Well, if heaven means climbing up to the sky on stone steps for about 185 steps to our room from the wharf. The restaurant is located half way between them so no matter where we go we will walk up and down ths stone steps. The info explains that the people bought this land to build their home and a lovely hotel. I just question what they mean by land - this place is vertical. However, that means that everywhere you go there are views of the incredible Lago de Atitlan, Lake Atitlan. Directly across from us are two amazing volcanoes, one behind the other, while to the right is another volcano - both come directly down to the shore, and in several places villages cling to the sides, which at night are lit so that there is a string of diamonds strung along the lake.

Evening meals here are communal - and incredibly tasty last night. We had a great time talking to the people at our end last night. It's amazing how many travel stories there are and how much fun it is to share them. One of the people from last night will be celebrating her 50 th birthday tomorrow, and she's invited us to help her celebrate.

This morning after a wonderful leisurely breakfast we did a walk to the little village nearby - about 10 minutes walk up and then downhill on a very steep and very narrow path. Geordie warned me to be careful lest I slip off like I did once on a little jaunt above Puerto Vallarta. I stepped with great care.

In the village we were shocked to see a very blatant example of child labour in action. It's Monday, and as far as we are concerned the kids should be in school. Not here. There were a group of children ranging in ages from 8 to 12 working their hearts out. The youngest were given a cement block each held by a rope and a tump line around their foreheads, up the path that we knew we would labour up ourselves in a few minutes. The oldest boy set a 20 kg (44 lb) sack of cement in his own forehead tumpline and then another boy laded a second one on his back above it and he set off with his 88 pounds. That other child arranged 4 cement blocks for his load and a woman who may have been his mother loaded herself up with six of them. We only hope that the people for whom they are hauling these loads are not gringos who should know better. Mind you, one of the other guests pointed out that if they didn't work, these children could well go hungry. It's a vicious circle if you ask me.

I was going to tell you all about some of the interesting meals we had in Antigua two nights ago, but after the last paragraph I feel that it would be wrong to talk of such frivolous things. There's a quandary. I'll save it for another day when I'm not quite so wracked with guilt. This is the first time we've seen the real privation that exists in this country after 10 years of peace. School may be free for these children but their parents still can't afford to clothe them, feed them and keep them without some work. So they miss school we guess. It's sad because as Elizabeth Bell mentioned during our tour in Antigua, anyone here who finished school is almost guaranteed a good life. It ain't going to happen for many of these children.