Trip: Koliber, June 29, 2015

Here we go!

Ricardo and my trip to Guatemala has begun! 

Check out the video of us getting ready to go!

I woke up early, like 7am. (I know, not really that early.) We started the day with some yoga at the pyramid where we mentally prepared to fly!!

Purpose of the trip: 1. Get to Guatemala where we will meet the people who are sewing the clothing we are selling 2. Photo documenting the people in the factories, the way they work and are treated, how they experience their lives, etc. 3. Make connections with the women's co-op who produce bamboo fiber fabric (potential product to carry) and last but not least: 4. Go to the beach. 

Ricardo has a background in many things; he is what some call a "Jack of all trades".  Pilot, Carpenter, Yogi, Musician, Business owner, Father & Native of Guatemala.  

I am a 24yo "renaissance woman" (as someone dear once described me). My passion in life is to be a Photo-Ethnographer: to marry my love for Photography with my love for Anthropology. I graduated from the University of Texas with a Bach in Anthropology. I love studying people, lives, the way we socialize and relate to one another, how people understand (or lack to understand) others; I also plan events back in Austin and manage a local musician, and dabble in marketing. 

There is a bigger reason for this trip. Of course, flying through the clouds is an exhilarating and exhausting experience, but we are also going with a mission. We believe in providing jobs for Guatemalan people, and treating them with fairness. We're calling it "Honest Trade" and no we won't be purchasing the certification for "Fair Trade," because it is apparently a crock of shit. Longer term plans also exist, but one step at a time!  Honest Trade business, helping people grow the right way. 

We had a flight lesson before we left in preparation for me to be a co-pilot. Trung was our instructor, very nice, and seemed to be a little bit surprised that I was taking a trip for the first time as a co-pilot all the way to Guatemala.  ;)

Trung, Ricardo and I went to dinner after the flight lesson and had some very interesting conversation.  I learned that all three of us have a desire to help humanity, it is no doubt we're heading into a rough patch here as humans (overpopulation, depletion of resources, insensitivity to the ecosystem, etc) but we also have the intelligence to understand how important it is to help the people who are here. Trung is a Vietnamese Refugee. He was one of the "Vietnamese Boat People" in the late 70's. His father planned an escape from South Vietnam during the Vietnam war and successfully escaped with 45 other refugees on board.

Finally I got to sleep and woke up to an awesome Yoga session at the pyramid, and lots of packing to get in the plane and take off! 

The trip took longer than we were expecting because of there are storms moving from South to North, making for very strong headwinds - decreasing our speed by 20kph. We were traveling at around 80-90 kph most of the time. 

Here is "Koliber" Ricardo's Airplane

We had a little nerve-racking experience in the beginning, the GPS stopped working all of a sudden.. and then the i-pad that we had to use as a backup GPS' battery was dead.  We were already in the air. Check out this video of us in the cockpit!

So, Ricardo said, "well, let's use the charts!" This is was a great test of panic for me. "Wow" I thought... We really have to use these charts, I'm going to be doing some math. It is definitely not the easiest thing to know where you are in the sky!! 

We put the GPS away and waited for the iPad to charge up a little bit. 

I studied the charts and started to learn how to locate where we were. Time was going a little slow. It was a very interesting moment. 

Flyin'!

Things were fine though, the iPad charged up, we stayed on course, we avoided two storms, and landed beautifully in Brownsville, TX. We were greeted by the airport staff (who are awesome!) I never want to fly commercial again!! They treat you like cattle in those things. It's a totally different ball game. You don't have to fight your neighbor to plug in your phone, you don't have overpriced coffee, just complimentary Keurigs, business centers, conference rooms, and lots of leather chairs.

Finally settling down in Brownsville...yes a well deserved beer, we are planning for tomorrow.

Tomorrow: Tampico, Mexico: to refuel, and then to Veracruz, Mexico: to sleep. 

-Letitia Smith