*Guatemala*
*Guatemala is a country in North America. It would take you 51 hours to
drive there from Steinbach. That’s over 2 days even if you never stopped.
Their official language is Spanish and the population is 16 million. Their
money is called the quetzal. It’s named after their national bird, the
resplendent quetzal. That is very cool! They named their money after the
bird because the quetzal’s tail feathers used to be used as money by the
ancient Mayans. They also used salt, jade, and cacao beans as money. One
Canadian dollar equal 6.10 quetzals. Guatemala is in the same time zone as
Steinbach.*
* Guatemala has volcanic highlands, lowlands, and coastal plains. They
grow sugarcane, corn, bananas, and coffee. They make sugar, textiles,
furniture, and chemicals. They also grow 2000 tons of cacao every year. The
cacao bean is what chocolate is made of. *
* One of the most famous places in Guatemala is called Tikal. It had a
sports stadium, a school, a hospital, and a library. Now, it’s ruins in the
jungle.*
* In the jungles of the Peten region, people collect sap from sapodilla
trees. The sap, called chicle, is used to make chewing gum.*
* On the first day of November, two towns in Guatemala have a kite
festival. They make their own kites out of bamboo, string, and tissue
paper. The festival started because they believed the kits help people
connect to their ancestors. Ancestors are family that lived before you did,
like your great grandparents and your great great grandparents. *
*Volcanoes*
* Guatemala has a lot of volcanoes. There are at least 30 along the
pacific coast. Three of Guatemala’s volcanoes are active. One of them is
called Fuego. When it erupted in 2018, the ash went 33,000 feet in the air,
high enough to see it from space!*
* Volcanoes can be helpful sometimes. Scientists think that the volcano
eruption caused ash to fall on ancient Mayan cities which made the soil
better for growing food. *
* One of the volcanoes near the city of Antigua Guatemala is called
Agua. Its Mayan name is Guhatezmalh, which means “mountain that vomits
water,” and it’s said to be where Guatemala got its name.*
*Sea Turtles*
* Lots of sea turtles hatch at the beaches of Monterrico. They chirp at
each other from inside their eggs before they hatch, maybe so they’ll know
to hatch at the same time. *
* Leatherbacks are the BIGGEST kind of sea turtle. They are usually 4 to
6 feet long, but the biggest one found was almost 10 feet long. Ellie is
almost 5 feet tall. Ellie’s dad is 6 feet and 3 inches tall. Leatherbacks
are also the only sea turtle without a hard shell. That’s how they got
their name.
They can swim a very long way. One leatherback was tracked
migrating 12,500 miles, from Asia to the US. *
* Green turtles are named for the green fat underneath their shells. It
gets dyed green by the food they eat- seagrasses, algae, and other plants. *
* Olive ridleys are one of the smallest sea turtles but they can still
weigh up to 100 pounds. They are named for the colour of their shells,
which are usually olive green.*
* Sea turtles lay their eggs on the beach and bury them deep under the
sand. When the baby turtles hatch, they have to dig their way out and
scramble to the sea before anything can catch them. They will remember the
exact same beach later and return to start their own families. *
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