As most of you know, Hillarie loves textiles. Guatemala brings so much joy to her given there are textiles around every corner. The textiles and culture around the fabrics, patterns, and colours is so rich that it is almost overwhelming. We spent half a spanish lesson speaking with our young Mayan teacher, Esther, about the significance of the fabric and what the women and men were wearing. Traditionally dressed herself, she shared with us in great detail what everything meant from the neckline to the end of her skirt. For example, the orange and red meant sunrise and sunset, the triangles on the edges of shirts meant the volcanoes. The black and white signified the colours of the eyes. It was so interesting and I appreciated this insight into culture.
What textiles are to Hillarie, fish and water are to me. I enjoy being in beautiful inland colonial cities like Antigua, but I crave the space and energy of the water. Lake Atitlan is a big inland lake surrounded by numerous volcanoes and communities. We spent our time in San Pedro but were also able to visit via boat or on foot another half dozen communities. I love places that have a fishing culture and a connection to water. The boat taxis ferrying people around, the Mayan women washing their clothes in the lake, the families swimming and playing. We were able to see a few ingenious young boys that used discarded 2L coke bottles tethered together as floaties as a way to dog paddle around the lake.
Then of course there are the fishermen. They use small handmade wooden canoes. Large enough for one person, a net a bucket and some fishing line. They would head out, not too far from shore and either set nets to pick up later with bouys or "hand line" right there for fish. San Pedro is ideal in that there are coffee shops right on the water to watch these men do their thing for hours on end. They could expertly navigate their canoe with one hand and set the net with the other.
Watching them "hand line" fish was like watching a weaver expertly work a loom. They do it automatically with muscle memory and know when every little tap by a small fish hooked up. They would pull in a small fish every minute or two (mainly little crappie, bluegill and a type of tilapia), place them in a bucket and keep on fishing. Around San Juan they seemed to have special fishing areas marked with buoys within which up to a dozen of them would sit and fish. I was not sure if this was for regulatory purposes in order to manage the fishery in some way or for their safety with larger boats zooming around. One could see these fish show up at the market for sale, undoubtedly to be fried as a special meal for a family.
I spoke with our house mother in San Pedro, Anita and she say they hardly eat the fish from the lake. She also said that the larger fish were mushy and not good to eat while the little ones when fried were delicious. It made me think about our western bias towards catching and eating larger fish. Especially on the west coast where we have salmon, halibut and even freshwater fish like Lake Trout that get very large. We tend to prefer to catch larger fish as a means of minimizing effort, maximizing protein and building up our egos. In Yukon, we don't focus as much on the tasty little whitefish, grayling, or the smaller stocked rainbow trout or kokannee. This is in part a cultural bias in the west, where larger is generally better, when the more sustainable choice would be the smaller fish. Angler tend to target the hardiest and more robust fish within a population which tends to skew the genetics, size and age structure of a fishery. You may notice this back home in your waters where you have observed that the fish "used to bigger". With some species like Pike that are not doing as well in a lake or area, we don't notice the population decline as much but we notice the size goes down. Don't even get me started on salmon, where the large Chinook on some runs like the Yukon River, have been high-graded for decades effectively removing the bigger 8 year olds, now the 7 years olds and on and on. I digress.
I tried to get out on the lake with a local fisherman and had it lined up, however the water blew up that day and it was unsafe to go out. They do a great job with promoting a simple fishing excursion in a traditional canoe that gets out for 2 hours just to give you a sense of the local fishing culture. We could do more of this in Canada as well. There is such a rich fishing culture in our indigenous communities that would be of great interest to tourists. I think this opportunity exists, should a First Nation wish to develop this small economic opportunity. (Note: I totally recognize the cultural appropriation issues and the need for it to be grass-roots, community driven and under control of the First Nation. I have spent the last 20 years of my life working in this area so happy to have this discussion offline). I digress again.
As you can imagine it is all not roses and rainbows. With all the users - pollution, sewage, detergents, within the lake there are significant environmental issues at play. It is not for me to judge or criticize with my western bias when people need to meet their basic needs that live along this lake. I have heard repeatedly that things are much better than they used to be. There is some awareness and environmental education and there is basic infrastructure along the lake to treat the water and sewage. They have lived along this lake for generations and have depended on it to water their crops and feed their families. It is in their best interest to protect it.
Lake Atitlan is stunning with a distinct Mayan textile culture. The fishing culture is alive and thriving as well. Next time you see a local fisherman think about the culture of fishing in that area, the connection to the land and animals, and how important it is to ensure they have healthy fish and water to keep on doing it.
We are back inland in Antigua at the moment but will be making our way slowly to the Caribbean Sea. I am looking forward to more fishing culture off the coast of Belize and the Yucatan. Stay tuned for more nerdy fish and fishing posts!
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