Los Vahos

I went on a great field trip with my teacher. We went up to the agricultural area outside of Xela to visit Los Vahos, which are saunas created by natural volcanic vapor. The area is surrounded by giant old eucalyptus trees and beautiful wildflowers. After the sauna, we walked around the area and talked to some of the local farmers. One farmer had a field of bright pink and purple flowers that functioned as both a for-profit crop and a natural insect repellent for his carrot crop. As he was talking about his work, we heard a shrill bird call and he pointed out that there were two eagles soaring above. It was a lovely class, but I did get a lot of homework - poor me :-)

Livingston

After Sean headed back to the states, I used the rest of my week I off from school to check out Livingston on the east coast of Guatemala.

I was pretty nervous about travelling solo, but it went well. Once again, anytime there was a problem Guatemalans were super nice and helpful. I caught the 4 a.m bus from Xela to Guatemala City, then took a taxi to another bus station to catch the bus to Puerto Barrios on the coast.

I got to the station just in time to catch a bus that was leaving if I hustled. However, as I was running out of the station to get on the bus, I managed to step just right on a sewer grate that was missing a metal bar and my right leg went all the way through. I wasn´t sure what was happening, but suddenly I was much shorter than everyone else and two army guys with machine guns slung across their shoulders were pulling me up by the armpits. I was totally fine, but really embarrased. I missed the bus, but only had to wait an hour for the next one.

On the bus, the girl next to me told me where to get off the bus early so I could walk to the dock to catch the last boat of the day to Livingston. If she hadn´t helped me out, I would have had to spend the night in Puerto Barrios which was way less beautiful and interesting than Livingston.

Livinston is a fascinating town with a mix of Garifuna, Mayan, and Ladino cultures - not to mention beaches and great hikes. I checked into a super cheap (you get what you pay for) hostel and met up with my friends from language school, Amy and Mandy. For dinner, I tried tapado which is a seafood stew made with coconut and plantain. It was really delicous, but it did have a lot of things looking at me - fish heads, shrimp with heads, and a whole baby crab with eyes!

The next day we took a tour of Livinston with a guide named Eddie. We walked through his local Garifuna neighborhood to a point where we had a view of both Belize and Honduras. He picked some fresh sugarcane for us which was so yummy. We then continued hiking to a river where we climbed into a canoe and rode along for a half hour. We got out near a great beach where we swam, had lunch, and fed bananas to a poor pet monkey on a leash tied to a tree.
After lunch, we followed the beach to a place called Seven Altars which is a series of fresh water pools formed by a waterfall. The first and the last pools are the best for swimming, but when we got to the first one Eddie got really quiet and told us to be still. On the rocks, was a beautiful bright green snake. It had to be at least eight feet long and was slowing moving along the rocks to the other side of the pool. I have no idea what kind of snake it was, but Eddie said it could kill with one bite so we all agreed to skip swimming in the first pool and move along. The hike up to the top pool was totally worth it. The water was cool and fresh which was awesome after a long hike (Livingston is super hot and muggy) and swimming in really warm salt water at the beach. There was also a good rock to jump off (much lower than in San Marcos) which made the place perfect. We hiked a little ways back along the beaches, then took a taxi back to town. It was a fantastic day!

The next day we took a boat from Livingston to the the town of Rio Dulce. Along the way we stopped to check out the limestone cliffs, fields of lilly pads, hot springs, and a cave. It was really cool and so different from the boat trip into Livingston which was in the ocean along the coast. It blows my mind how a tiny country like Guatemala can be so different in each part. In Rio Dulce, we caught a bus back to Guatemala City to stay for the night. The next morning I headed back to Xela, and Amy and Mandy headed on to other parts of Guatemala.

Lago Atitlan Part II

Umm... yeah, so I must have clicked on ¨publicar¨ instead of ¨guardar¨ for this entry that I didn´t have time to finish. Sorry. Here´s the completed version:

Sean and I had a great time visiting Lago Atitlan. We stayed at a real cool hotel built into the side of ¨a living rock¨ which I think means rock that´s wet and brings in giant scary bugs. You´d think after my last trip to the lake that I´d be prepared for the creepy crawlies, but nope. I´m not sure if this guy was a spider or a beetle or what, but he was gross and made the other scary spider seem cute. He had eight legs, but he also had this red and black checkerboard pattern on his back and big red claw things in front of his face. I took pictures which I´ll try to upload soon.

Aside from the one scary bug, the trip was great. In San Marcos we hiked a bit, swam a bit, and Sean jumped off the rocks a lot. I got a case of the scaredy pants, and was only able to make myself jump once.

We also visited a nature preserve in Panajachel, the main tourist town on the lake. It was really pretty with lots of vegetation, swinging bridges, and a cool waterfall. The best part, though, was the animals. We were able to watch lots of howler monkeys swinging in the trees as well as pisotes scrambling around on the ground. Pisotes are kind of like racoons, but they have a monkey tail and a cute little pig-like snout. They´re not as cute as manatees or alpacas, but close!

Free Rabies Shots

Sean just left on a bus headed back to the airport in Guatemala City :-( It was so fun having him here. I tried to act like a tour guide and show him around, but really I just drug him around while I got us lost :-)

After Sean had been in Xela for a whole hour, I took him hiking up in the mountains near La Pedrera. We wandered around exploring some cool agricultural areas and villages. It was a great hike. Well... great except for the part where we were chased by a pack of dogs which bit Sean in the calf.

He´s okay thanks to the generosity of the Guatemalan health care system. We went to a local public hospital near my house for the first rabies shot. The staff was really nice and gave Sean the shot for free, but told us we´d have to go to the health department for the second dose three days later.

The idea of manuevering a health department in the US in English is pretty overwhelming to me, so I was pretty scared of trying it here. However, it wasn´t as bad as I´d thought. We definitely had to bounce around to different lines and tell the story a few times, but I´m pretty sure we got Sean the right kind of shot! But with my lousy Spanish, who knows! We were told that a rabies shot would be quite expensive, but again it was free. The nurse said it´s part of the service to Guatemalan people and they were happy to share the same service with us. Sean wrote a really nice thank you card to the guatemalan healthcare system, but I´m not sure where to send it.

The rest of the trip was time spent at Lake Atitlan and on chicken buses, but I´ll write more about that later.

Tropical black sand beaches and assorted other stuff

So, I went to Champerico on Saturday. It is a black sand beach on the pacific with huge waves and warm water. If I stop there it sounds pretty nice. However, here´s the rest of the story:
I had to ride a chicken bus for 4 hours to get there, the water was murky with floating black sand chunks, the waves and undertow were so strong I could barely wade into the water without getting knocked on my butt and drug through the sand (I still have black sand grains coming out of my ears), there were large trash eating pigs walking around town, and did I mention the 4 hours one way on the chicken bus. I really shouldn´t whine. If it had been a shorter trip (we were told it was two hours max) it totally would have been worth it, and I did get a picture of one of the pigs!

Speaking of pics, I am way behind, but I uploaded some more on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/13525016@N03/

Sunday we hiked up La Muela again. It was nice and it didn´t start raining until we got back into town. The red cross was up there practicing rescue drills, and I heard my host dad´s voice over the walkie talkie. The guy with the walkie talkie was really nice and let me say a few words to my host dad over the radio!

Really early Monday morning there was a small earthquake. No damage and no problems. It just woke me up and lasted about 5 seconds. Judith had warned me that they have frequent harmless tremors here, and that they will shout my name and tell me to go outside with them if it is anything serious. I should probably add for my mom that I do remember Taiwan and that from now on in the event of an earthquake, I will proceed immediately to the nearest door frame.

Oh yeah, last week we got to visit an older couple who make traditional chocolate for a living. We got to help pat it into the forms and I was nice enough to provide additional help by sampling the product!

Tiny kids who could totally kick my butt

Monday was National Children´s Day so we had a party at the school for the kids from La Pedrera, the local tutoring program. The kids were really cute with the pinata and it was serious work when it came time to get the candy. Even some of the mom´s there were totally into it. It was hilarious to see these tiny women in their beautiful woven mayan outfits diving into the pile for candy.

I´ve been going up to La Pedrera in the afternoons, and the kiddos there impress me more and more each time. Not only do they hike up this mountain for tutoring every day, but they also help out around the school without complaint.

A bathroom is being built for the school, and the workers need sand for the cement. So today after two hours of tutoring, about ten of the kids voluntarily carried five gallon buckets half way down the hill to a spot where the road is sandy and used their hands to fill the buckets. They then hauled the buckets back up to the school by holding the wire handle on their forehead with the bucket behind them on their necks and backs. These are kids that ranged from 8 to 15 years old, but look much younger because they are small. I helped one girl with her bucket and I was totally sore and out of breath by the time I brought it up - that´s with having to stop several times to rest. When I left, the kids were still going strong!

Frank Sinatra in Xela

My host family is really great. It´s amazing how much more fun we have the more Spanish I learn! Judith and Pepe are both in their mid fifties and retired with two daughters who live in the capital.

Pepe volunteers for the red cross and spends most of his time talking on his radio or running from the house to go somewhere. When he´s around to chat he tells stories about growing up in the big white house and about being a hippie in the 70s. He cracks himself up and has the cutest little school girl laugh which totally cracks me up.

Judith can be serious and loves to talk about politics and the state of the world, but she can also be the cutest giddiest person I´ve ever met. She has this Frank Sinatra CD that she loves to blast and dance around the kitchen to.

We have a new student, Ann, living in the house now who is 68. Last night, she and Judith were singing along to Frank and trying to teach me the words. It was totally awesome listening to Judith alternate between signing the words in Spanish and kind of sort of singing words that sounded like English.

No me gustan chicken buses

On Saturday, I visited an archaeological site where they are unearthing a combination of Mayan and Olmec ruins. It was really interesting and fun! The scuptural aspects were absolutely phemomenal. Even without consideration to the fact that they didn't even have metal tools and that the sculptures were completed well before the construction of Tikal, the work was really impressive.
On Sunday, I had a much less cultural but totally fun experience. We visited Xocomil, a huge waterpark in a hot humid area south of Xela. It was hands down the biggest and best water park I've ever been to. It's weird how this totally modern fancy high tech water park stands as an oasis in the middle of the countryside.
On the way to Xocomil on the chicken bus, I spent about and hour and a half one way standing up front with one foot on the lid of a bucket of gasoline and the other under the driver's seat with my butt pretty much in his face. The return trip was way worse. I had to climb in the back of the bus and was still trying to squeeze in as the bus took off. I got myself in and stood leaning against the back door with one hip wedged in behind the back seat and the side of my head squished against the speaker blaring pop music. I tried at one point to switch positions by alternating which hip got wedged behind the seat, but my hand slipped from the back of the seat I was gripping and I totally punched a guy in the back of the head. Fortunately, for me at least, he was another student from the school and was totally nice about it. I didn't manage the switch positions but instead lost my footing and ended up stepping on something wet and had that one foot slipping around for the rest of the ride.
Ultimately I got a seat for the last ten minutes of the ride and it all turned out fine, other than my possibly permanent condition of spanish pop songs ringing in my left ear. However, I have come to the conclusion that I don't like riding on chicken buses. My cheapskate, er economically sound, nature won't prevent their usage but I'm going to stop kidding myself. They are no longer a fun cultural experience that help challenge my spoiled western views of comfort. They are officially ooky, and I just don't like them.