Eucalyptus Forests

On Sundays Don Enrique and his son Freddie drive up to their plot of land on top the mountain. There they cut eucalyptus to sell in Antigua and Guatemala City. They invited me to join them this week, so I crammed in to the back of their pickup truck and placed Leslie, Freddie's 4 year old daughter, on my lap. I wrapped my arms around the squiggly girl to protect her from flying into the driver's sear or out the rear window, each bump bringing visions of disaster to mind. My breath grew short and quick, due to the high altitude....the death ravine 6 inched from the trucks right wheels!!!! The narrow road to the eucalyptus trees winds around the mountain providing beautiful and terrifying views of the town below. What appears to be a one car road manages to fit vehicles driving both directions, pedestrians hopping on the moving trucks for a quick ride up, and cows heading to pasture. I find it best not to watch.
We did amazingly make it up. As I entered the blue forest the sharp sweet smell of eucalyptus tingled my noise. Every inhale hypnotized me and calmed my frazzled nerves. Don Enrique and Freddie ran throught the forest with the agility of a deer. Hopping from stone to stone and climbing while the dry earth crumpled beneath. Leslie followed close behind them. She occasionally looked back to see how I was managing the terrain yelling for me to come. “Venga! Alejandra! Venga!”
We spread a blanket under a tree and while the men chopped branches of eucalyptus, gathering them into 8 piece bundles, Leslie and I played tea.
I began to think either the eucalyptus was intoxicating me or I was suffering from a crazy form of altitude sickness because the ground seemed to be waiving. As it got stronger I realized I was feeling an earthquake. A 6.1. I actually had to support myself with both hands as the earth wiggled beneath me. Leslie soon tired of sitting and demanded we walk around. She lead the way to a freshly terraced and planted field. I watched in horror as she climbed and delicately terraced earth crumbled beneath her. She left a vertical trail in the lovely horizontally striped field. I crafted enticing suggestions to journey elsewhere. They were not enticing enough for she wouldn’t hear and continued to crosshatch the landscape. I took a deep breath and tiptoed on the flat planted area, taking care not to destroy the ledges. Meanwhile Leslie ran up and across and down them. “Weeeeeee!” I attempted to keep my shoes and feshly handwashed pants clean as Leslie gathered a thick layer of yellow dust over her body. Her large shiney eyes growing ever brighter and happier with evey destroyed ledge. At this point I was very uncomfortable, with my dirty clothes yes, but also with destruction of Don Enrique's field. I was stressed out American style. Then I realized Don Enrique and Freddie were watching us with a smile, waving to us and encouraging me to follow Leslie. With this approval Leslie and I trampled the plot to our hearts desire. I continued to step on the flat areas covered with leaves and staw. Leslie did not deem such precaustions necessary. We journey from here to there scavaging for 'food' to eat in the casasita (little house.) Leslie hopped along wearing a large sombreo we found in the bushes. She taught me the most important phrase for any 4 year old, "espera me!!!!!" We rode corn stalk horses to Antigua until they died, the stalks breaking beneath our travel songs. Stalk after stalk, horses after horse we rode. Singing all the way. We killed a good ten horses before arriving in out city. We spun around and around in the city streets. Afterwards I worked out my upper body grapping Leslie's wrist and pulling her into the air on uno, dos, tres listo! The mountain over looked Santa Lucia where the Peace Corps Office resides. In the distance Volcon Aqua Caliente hid behind the clouds playing peek-a-boo with us. Once the eucalyptus was all cut and bundled and wrapped in blankets we headed back to the car. The men arriving far ahead of us, having to wait for our breathless bodies to return. As we drove off I saw the terraced field, no longer picture perfect. Leslie curled up in my lap. We were both coverd from head to foot in yellow dirt. We had it in our hair, under our nails, inbetween our toes and she even had it in her teeth from eating it in the casasito. A picture perfect day.