Taking Time Off

Home Again

2008-02-25T14:19:00.000-08:00

I'm back home. It's time to head to jury duty and back to work. But, I'm so glad I took time off to travel and learn. It is one of the smartest things I've ever done. I know how fortunate I am to have been able to take this time off.

I also know how fortunate I am to have met such amazing people in my travles. Each country was very different from the others, but I feel confident making the generalization that the people of Central America who I had the fortune of living, working, and learning with are some of the most compassionate, proud, and resilient people I have met. I am truly humbled by the generosity and strength I had the pleasure of experiencing.

And here's the link to the pics (the Nicaragua and Costa Rica sets are on the right hand side):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13525016@N03/

Assorted stuff

2008-02-25T13:43:00.000-08:00

In Granada the most popular form of transport is the bicycle, and they make it work for as many people as they need. More often than not there are at least two people sharing one bike, but I now also know that a family of four can, in fact, ride together on one bike. The same goes for three teenage boys or two old women. Whoever needs a ride hops on.
As hard as I tried, I could not make myself like papaya. Even skipping dinner so I would be really hungry for the papaya breakfast didn't work. I just don't like the icky fruit.
Chickens sleep in trees. If you are in the country waiting for an early bus, don't sit under the tree. The chickens will poop on you.
When you get hit in the nose with a surf board, it's really hard to pronounce a name like Brenda. For several days I had to introduce myself as Bretha.
Hummingbirds take breaks. In Costa Rica waiting for another bus, about twenty of them landed on the ground and waddled around for about five minutes. Of course, the noise I made getting out my camera was enough to scare them away.
Staying in hostels is a great way to meet people from all over the world. It's also a great way to get your ear talked off about way better places and trips than the one you're currently on. A few of my favorite quotes (supposedly heard by the staff) posted on a sign in a hostel:

You think that's cold? I was in Antarctica once...

Oh yeah, that's not a bad chicken bus ride. One time in Laos my bus flipped over eight times...

Grasshoppers? That's nothing. I ate baby chinchillas in Brazil...

Despite that sign, I had the misfortune of having the bunk next to a guy from Vancouver who claimed to be fluent in Spanish after reading a phrase book on the bus for five hours. He also claimed to have been in Nicaragua during the civil war helping the Sandanistas for three weeks. He is now only 19 years old. I bet he had the best second grade "what I did over my summer break" essay ever!

If you leave smelly old sandals and ugly shorts unattended on the beach, they will get stolen. The same goes for broken sunglasses.

Posing as a chica surfista

2008-02-18T14:48:00.000-08:00

I came to Playa Tamarindo to learn to surf. So, I woke up Sunday morning and headed to my first class. Fortunately, there were only two of us in the class. Unfortunately, the other guy was pretty much a natural. Even though it was his first time, he got up on his first try and started surfing. Then, there was me. Lets just say I drank about six gallons of sea water and received tons of nice encouraging words from the teacher (the same words I use when a student is so far off base I don`t know where to go next). That was the first hour of class. Miraculoulsy, the second hour went much better and I started to surf. I knew I`d finally made it when the teacher left me alone to go check on the other guy.

Having limited time and probably too much pride, I signed up for another lesson that afternoon. This went much better and I had a really good teacher who changed my stance to something that works much better for me. After two classes in one day, I pretty much had rubbed all the skin off my thighs, stomache, and hands and was so sore I could barely move. But, I was having so much fun!

I took only one class each of the next two days (the teacher said I would probably end up killing myself in the ocean if I got too carried away like the first day), and I`m now in a place where I can catch my own waves and I get up about as often as I fall down which is good enough for me!

Oh yeah, on my second day there was a baby sea turtle stuck in the surf. He was exhausted and couldn`t get out past the waves to get out to sea. I could totally identify. At the end of a session I can barely paddle the board back twenty feet. So, a real surfer took the baby turtle out past the big breaking waves to set him free!

The Immigration Blues

2008-02-18T06:34:00.000-08:00

Many people I have met from outside the U.S. talk about how horrible it is even to stop in the U.S. and to have to go through immigration - apparently even if you´re just changing planes to head to another country. After making the land crossing to Costa Rica, I have just a little taste of the tediousness, but at least I didn´t have to do the retinal scan that foreigners have to in the U.S.

I left Granada at 7 in the morning to make the 5 hour trip to Liberia, Costa Rica. At 9:30 we got off the bus at the border. We had to wait for thirty minutes to leave through Nicaraguan immigration. When we got back on the bus I was actually naive enough to think that we were all done. We had given our passports to the bus driver after all. But, actually, the process was just beginning.

We got our passports back, got back on the bus and waited in a long line of cars to go through a car wash type thing to rid the bus of contaminants. We then got back off the bus and were told to get in a long line. There were actually two lines that merged into one, so I got in the back of the shorter. I should have known better.

I didn´t realize until I got to the merging point that this line was the cutting line and people in the other line held on the each other and pushed ahead to make sure my line didn´t get in. When I saw the people in my line shoving their way in I realized what was going on. I didn´t want to push anybody, but also didn´t want to go all the way to the back after waiting 40 minutes already. So, I found a nice looking old lady in the official line and told her I hadn´t known that I was in the bad line. She was very nice and let me in front of her saying that we were on the same bus anyways and if I started all over they´d have to wait for me.

After another two and half hours we finally reached the immagration desk to get our passports stamped. I was relieved and walked out to the bus ready to get on our way. But, everyone was just sitting next to the bus waiting. When I asked, I was informed that we had to get our luggage off the bus to have it inspected. So after another 40 minutes of waiting around for the official person to open the baggage storage on the bus, we took our luggage over to a long table and waited while a woman looked through it. That took a good 40 minutes (must be the magic number there), then we were off. At least I thought. We still had to stop two more times while police got on the bus to check everyone´s passports. At least we could stay in our seats for that. There is a definite concern in Costa Rica about large numbers of Nica immigrants, so I´m hoping the trip back into Nicaragua won´t be as slow. Knock on wood.

Anyways, I finally made it to Liberia at 4 p.m. (having missed my 2:30 bus to the beach) and took a taxi to Playa Tamarindo. I checked into the hostel and went straight to the ocean for a fantastic swim! Defintely vale la pena (worth the trouble) :-)

A Very Nice Day

2008-02-15T17:14:00.001-08:00

Yesterday: Class in the morning, then I went straight from school to visit a new special education center that has been set up in Granada by a retired couple from Seattle. A really nice woman at my language school set up a visit so I could see what´s happening. I´m so glad she did!

Just walking around the city I have seen several apparently homeless adults with developmental disabilites and one home where a child is secured to a rocking chair with belts every time I walk by. I have been asking about special education services in Nicaragua and from what I´ve been told they are virtually nonexistent in Granada especially for economically struggling families - which unfortunately means most familes.

The new center is serving around thirty adults with developmental disabilities who come from struggling families or even from living on the street. They are currently working on creating handicrafts that will be sold with the profits going directly to the individual. The opportunity to become a valued wage earner is a huge change of perspective for these adults, and they are rightfully very proud of their work. One student, Octavio, gave me a very detailed tour of the center and of the candle making process and also talked about the plans to add kitchen facilities to the school. A retired special ed teacher from Alaska was there volunteering and we had a great talk about developing a sustainable life skills curriculum. The director of the center was really excited about the prospect. I wish I´d have known earlier about the center, but I´m still pretty excited to go home and have a project to work on! Heads up sped teacher friends - I´ll be bugging you to borrow materials!

After the tour, I went straight to Carita Feliz to help with the art class and as usual had a great time with the awesome kiddos. I´m pretty sure my Spanish is getting better because even the five year olds can understand me now - well at least half the time :-)

From Carita Feliz I headed home via a quick walk through the central park to check out the goings on at the poetry fesitval. Then home for a very late lunch. Homework, then off to the language school director´s house for dinner. He and his wife are two of the most fantastic people I´ve ever met. They have been working with the boys´ program for eleven years and even have two of the boys living with them and their two kids. Not to mention the whole family is absolutely hilarious! They are also really patient with my slow Spanish which makes me much less self-concious about speaking. I think that was my first night where I hung out speaking just Spanish and felt like I could express myself similar to how I would in English. It was a really nice night, and I even got more dancing lessons from the seven year old daughter and her neighbor friend.

I don´t want to leave

2008-02-15T12:53:00.000-08:00

Somehow the last two entries got switched, but no worries. I´m sure you can figure it out.

Well, tomorrow I take an early bus to Costa Rica where I´m going to take a week to learn to surf before heading back to Colorado. That´s the plan anyways. I may just end up going for a swim with a surf board attached to my ankle. But, I´m excited to give it a go.

Anyways, as usual it´s a bit sad to be saying goodbye. My host family here in Granada was very nice, but I didn´t have the opportunity to get to know them very well which in a way is disappointing, but also makes goodbye easier. I have to admit I will miss the two year old, Julio Cesar, and our daily game where he has the green action figure without feet and I have the gold one without an arm and we look all over the living room for our missing parts.

Saying goodbye to the teachers and the kids at Casa Xalteva was tougher. I learned so much there. Definitely my Spanish is better, but more importantly it was really inspiring being surrounded by the great people that work at the school and the kids that benefit from their programs. Casa Xalteva is by far one of the best social programs I´ve encountered in my travels and is run by absolutely fantastic people.

The truly hard part was saying goodbye to the kids I was working with at Carita Feliz. They are so freaking great! I had purchased a painting from my favorite kiddo, and today she surprised me with a gift of another painting she had been saving that wasn´t on display to be sold. She told me it was her insurance policy that I would return. She´s good, huh? So, yeah, I´ll definitely be returning to Granada!

Cosiguina

2008-02-11T14:31:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I had the pleasure err... opportunity to go on a three day backpacking trip to the far northwest corner of the country. My friend from Holland, Cecile, and I left Granada Thursday after class and headed to Leon. We checked into a great hostel and used her guide book to take a walking tour of the city´s churches and murals. Leon is a very politically minded city, so it was really fascinating to check out the murals and their strong statements. I also met a group of three siblings who where guarding their mom´s bike cart while she was selling fruit on the street. They asked for money, so I said I´d give them ten cordobas if they´d let me give them a ride on the bike. Their mom was totally cool with it, but as soon as they climbed on and we started out for a spin around the park about ten other kids appeared out of nowhere and jumped on. It was kind of like riding the bus here - when I think it´s a bit crowded I get a quick reminder that I have no concept of crowded. It was a lot of fun and quite a workout with kids hanging on everywhere, but most definitely worth the fifty cents I spent.

The next morning we got up way too early and packed up and headed out towards Cosiguina. The six hour bus ride was a pretty typical chicken bus ride until we stopped for a break with about 40 minutes left to go and our guide suggested that we could ride on the top of the bus if we liked. I was super excited and climbed on up. Not only was it cooler and quieter up there but the view of the villages and the ocean was fantastic and constantly ducking to dodge tree branches was a fun game. I also got to help a little bit with lowering things down from the roof when passengers got off at the stops.

When we finally arrived at our stop, we grabbed our bags and hiked to a deserted beach. It was absolutely gorgeous with black sand and views across the bay of both Honduras and El Salvador. The village nearby is truly isolated, so many people came down to the beach to see what we were up to. One young kid even let me take his horse for a ride on the beach. The water was wavy, but not too strong and perfect for swimming. The local kids showed us how they search in the surf for what they call chiquitin. They are some sort of shell fish-beetle type thing they use to make soup. We collected fire wood, watched the sun set, and ate dinner around the fire. One of the locals who helped teach our guide the trail to the nearby volcano told us jokes and stories in Spanish, but also had this amazing ability to look at the Orion constellation in order to tell what time it was. No matter how many times we asked over the two nights we were there, he was never more than five minutes off with the time.

The next day we headed off to hike the remnants of what used to be the tallest Volcano in Nicaragua, Volcan Coisguina. Fortunately, because I had to climb up this thing, after a huge eruption it's no longer as tall and there's beautiful crater lake where the top used to be. Most of the hike was in the scorching sun walking through sand. It was much better when we finally reached the forest section which provided a bit of shade. The view at the top was stunning. The crater lake was about five hundred feet below the summit with cliffs going straight down to it. I've never wanted to swim so badly, but it just wasn't possible. However, four hours later when we finally returned to camp it felt so great to jump in the ocean!

That night we had dinner in the home of a local family. This was one of the richest families in the community, but that is definitely a relative term. They lived in a tiny shack without electricity or plumbing. They had one bed and the kitchen was outdoors. The animals roamed freely including a rooster perched on the footboard of the bed. They also had two pet parrots that had babies that they spoon fed milk. There were also three dead iguanas in the sink that the grandpa was cleaning. I'll spare you all the details but the noise it made when he pulled off the skin will haunt me forever. Fortunately, we had fish for dinner!

We camped on the beach again that night and got up early to head back to the city. The long bus ride was really crowded and especially interesting because lots of people got on the bus carrying their game cocks for the big fight that day.

But the most exciting part of the ride came when the guide said it was time to get off, so I activated my chicken bus departure skills and grabbed my pack and jumped off. Unfortunately, I was a bit too efficient because when I got off I was standing alone in a cloud of dust with nobody else from my group around. I was kind of pissed and confused, so I decided I'd better just start figuring out how to get back to Granada from this middle of nowhere town. I asked somebody where the bus terminal was and he said it was three blocks ahead. So, I started walking. After about ten minutes and no bus stop, I asked again. This time the guy said the terminal was about four miles up the road, so I tried to hail a taxi that passed but it didn't stop. I kept walking along this deserted road cursing the guide. After about a mile, a bus came along so I hopped on and headed to the terminal. At the terminal I actually caught up with the group again, and the guide felt so bad. He said he had made a mistake and by the time he told everybody to stay on the bus I'd already hopped off. He said he was totally impressed with my speed, but apparently it didn't serve me well. He did buy me a banana pineapple smoothie to make up for my troubles, though!

For all the times I thought my job sucked...

2008-02-11T14:03:00.000-08:00

Last week my school had a bike riding excursion to the neighborhood where Andres, the guide from my school and a graduate of the boys program it sponsors, grew up. El Pantanal is one of the poorest neighborhoods in Granada. The families make a living collecting scrap metal from the city dump. You can see the dump outside of the neighborhood by following the cloud of smoke from all the rotting going on. The parents and children search through the garbage in the blazing sun in order to get five cents for every pound of metal they collect. I asked Andres if he preferred the metal collecting or leading us around in the afternoons. He´s still thinking it over.

We rode through the neighborhood on bikes that the school has fixed up. I had one that very well could have been the same bike I had in third grade. It was kind of notstalgic until I got tired and forgot about pedalling backwards to stop. I had to do a panic stop by dragging my feet, but at least it woke me up. In the neighborhood, we left our bikes in the house of Andres´ family and hiked up to a nice lookout over the city. On the hike, we stopped to look at a yard where they had a pet pisote on a leash. Since pisotes are one of my favorites (the raccon monkey pig animals I fell in love with in Guatemala), I asked if I could pet it and the woman at home was nice enough to pick him up and bring him over to me. His name is Sylvester and when he was picked up and cradled he stuck out his little tounge. Pretty much the cutest thing ever!

Visiting El Pantanal was another great reminder of how incredibly lucky we are to have all that we do living in the developed world. It´s also humbling to remember that these are the conditions in which the majority of the world lives. Makes me feel really wimpy for having whined about all the times the water goes out in my homestay, not too mention all the times I take for granted the incredible luxuries I have back home.

Gringa Smurf

2008-02-11T13:47:00.000-08:00

Last week one of my friends commented that I had something blue on my arm. I wiped it off and didn´t think much of it until I went to take a shower that night and realized both of my elbows and my feet and ankles also had a bluish hue. I couldn´t figure out what I´d gotten into and decided it must just be a strange combo of dirt, sunblock, and bug spray. But, when I woke up the next morning I was even bluer. Since the water was out again, I had to go to school and my volunteer job with my new skin tone. Pretty embarrassing, but all the questions helped me to figure out it was from the dark blue sheets on my bed. Mystery solved.

Ometepe

2008-02-04T15:37:00.000-08:00

I'd like to start off by apologizing to anyone who had the misfortune of witnessing my salsa dance/walk home yesterday afternoon! Actually, I chickened out before I left the cafe, but I did sing a few versus of Nothing at All by Air Supply along with the t.v. when I got home. It's so normal here that nobody even batted an eye. Clearly, very tolerant people.

This past weekend I visited Ometepe, a beautiful volcanic island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. I would like to write about the beautiful view of the volcanoes as we approached the island by boat, but unfortunately the waves were a bit too large for my liking and I spent the trip paniking over where I was going to find more plastic bags to accomodate my sea sickness. However, my travel buddy assured me that it was in fact a spectacular view!

Once arriving on solid land, my Austrian friend from school, Claudia, and I took a pickup truck from the port city to a village on the north side of the island. Sitting in the back we got a great view of both volcanic peaks on the island and of the local villages and banana fields. We checked into a hotel and as we were putting our bags down a young boy came to the door to say hi. At first we just said hola and kept unpaking, but when I looked up I realized it was one of the kids from the language school's boys program. It turns out five of the kids and the two directors of the school were on a weekend bike trip around the island. We said hi to everybody and chatted for a while, but didn't expect to really see the group much.

The next morning we got up early to meet our pick up driver for a tour around the island. As we rode in the back of the truck I hung my small towel in the wind in hopes it would dry and couldn´t help but feel like a Sandanista with a flag. The driver said I was only missing a gun and I would have passed for Ortega. We visited three gorgeous beaches, did a canopy zip line tour through a jungle surrounded by two different types of monkies, swam in a natural spring, hiked, and enjoyed some local beer while watching the sun set. This Spanish studying stuff is pretty hard work!

When we got back to the hotel, Alex one of the kids from our school´s group was yelling our names and riding his bike towards us. He said he saw us drive by while the group was eating dinner and wanted us to join him. He said they were right around the corner which turned out to mean about ten blocks away, but we ran along side his bike and pulled up a chair to join the group for a super yummy typical Nica dinner. Unfortunately, one of the kiddos had crashed his bike that morning on a steep downhill section and got stitches in two different parts of his head, chipped a tooth, and was covered in road rash. So, the next day we took him and his sick with the flu little brother (ages 10 and 12) back to Granada with us while the rest of the group continued on their journey. It was a bit tedious hauling the bike with us on the ferry, in the taxis, and on the buses but both kids were real troopers. I can´t imagine how miserable it must have been for those kiddos to travel sick and injured with two gringos with lousy Spanish that they barely knew. But they didn´t complain at all and were really patient with us, so it all turned out well!

Singing and Dancing

2008-02-04T13:39:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to a going away party for a friend from my school. When I got to the house, the entire family was in the middle of the living room dancing. Even the auntie who had on a polyester suit and orthopedic shoes that any nun would be proud of was shaking her ass off. We danced to all types of music (traditional Nica marimba music to rap and everything in between) and everybody was singing dancing and having so much fun. Even the teens in the street out front playing soccer would break into some moves while waiting for cars to pass. In my house the dad is always singing and dancing while he sweeps the floors in the morning and the 20 something year old son loves to sit in front of his DVD of air supply videos and sing his heart out. And, just before I walked into this internet cafe, a teenage kid was walking home from school this afternoon practicing his recorder (like the one we all got in fourth grade) while his friends were singing along. It doesn´t matter if the music or dance is good or bad. It´s just a natural expression of joy - like laughing or smiling. I think I´m going to walk home now and practice my salsa moves on the way!

Carita Feliz and I Love My Gecko Friends

2008-01-31T13:31:00.000-08:00

I just finished my second day of volunteer work at El Centro Carita Feliz. I am helping an art teacher with a class of about fifteen kids. It has been really fun so far, and it feels really good to be teaching again. It´s funny how a break from something can help you find the joy in it again. Trying to teach in a foreign lanaguage has been a great reminder of what little influence talk has on instruction. Examples and simply stated instructions really does work wonders. It´s especially cool that there´s a student in the class who is deaf and mute and I have the easiest time instructing him because I don´t have to worry about recalling specific vocabulary and using the correct verb tenses. The center sells the students´ canvas paintings for $30 per piece and the student gets half and the center the other half. It's definitely student art - nothing mind blowing, but I plan to buy one. If anybody is interested, I could take some photos of the work and email them to you.

I also wanted to write a quick note about the awesome geckos that are all over my bedroom. They´re a really pretty off-white almost clear color and every day I get to see at least one chase down a mosquito on the wall and eat it. I caught an ant the other night and tried to feed it to one of the geckos, but the gecko was too skittish to notice I had food for it. I even found a rather large gecko in my purse when I was leaving the house after lunch today. I´ll have to check my bags before I leave so I don´t subject any to a probably deadly trip to Colorado. Oh yeah, they also make this cute chirping noise all night that helps to distract from screaming children, loud tv shows, and family debates.

Super Tuesday

2008-01-31T13:15:00.000-08:00

I had a really nice Tuesday. After class and running home for lunch, I went back to the school for my second trip to Laguna Apoyo. I didn´t think it was possible, but it was even more perfect swimming there the second time. I totally had one of those happy place moments. I stopped for a second after jumping in the water to look around me and remember everything. I was floating in the middle of a crater lake filled with clear cool water under a bright sun with views of lush green volcanoes all around me. Ahhh.

After we returned from the lagoon, I went home to change and headed out to a local hostel to meet some other students for a free screening of The Road to Guantanamo. It was a fantastic film, but even better was the discussion afterwards. It´s quite a treat to discuss a meaty topic over some beers with an Austrian, a Dutch, and a Nicaraguan friend. I´m pretty sure we solved all of the world´s problems after the second round!

2008-01-28T14:30:00.001-08:00

My homestay is quite interesting. The two year old continues to be cute for the hour a day he's in a good mood, but the other 23 when he's screaming his head off is getting a bit old. So are the mosquitoes that swarm me at night through the large hole in the roof above my bed. But the bright side is that the ice cold shower feels quite good on sweaty itchy mosquito bites.

Okay, enough spoiled westerner whining. I feel like I'm getting a much more real homestay experience than I had in Guatemala. There I was in an impeccable and quiet house with a retired couple, but here I'm really a renter in a busy household going about their daily life. And, my situation actually got better today because I got to switch to a different room because the other student moved out. This room has a mosquito net, a complete roof, and a place to put away my clothes which is nice. Although I will miss the stray cat that sometimes was looking at me from the roof in the mornings as I woke up.

The student that moved out was this hilarious hyper young kid from Chicago. He didn't speak Spanish, but always gave it a go with really entertaining Spanglish. I called him my little brother and told him how I proud I was when he made the decision to move into a youth hostel to get away from all his bad influence friends in the neighborhood. The family had asked me several times to translate for him that the guys he was hanging out with were bad news, but he kept saying they just had bad reputations but were good guys. It never occurred to him that people who were deported from the U.S. for gang involvement and drugs might not be hanging out with him just to keep their English sharp. Well, he finally wised up and I get the good room out of it!!!!

Free Time in Granada

2008-01-28T14:11:00.000-08:00

I had a fun first weekend.

I went to a large market about a half an hour from Granada. It was definitely similar to other Latin American markets I've been to, but there were a couple of noteworthy distinctions. The first was the large selection of taxidermied reptiles including an assortment of frog couples in compromising positions. It was a bit disconcerting, but in order to assist the local economy I did my Christmas shopping early. So, let me know if you prefer frogs or lizards. The second new encounter for me was the giant cheese section of the market. Cheese is so delicious that I didn't think twice about cruising through. But, I was very wrong and I may never eat my former favorite food again. The smell was horrific. It was far worse than even the meat section and most definitely the worst smell ever. I need to stop writing about it to keep from gagging. Oh well. At least this new repulsion will be a healthy diet change.

I also went on a kayak tour of the small islands in Lake Nicaragua. It was really fun and a bit scary when we got into the wavy open water. The lake is the only place that has a special type of shark that migrates from ocean salt water up the fresh water rivers to the lake. There numbers are quite small, so we didn't really have much of a chance to see one but it was still exciting to think that they're out there somewhere. We did see a ton of really cool looking birds and some interesting plants though. We also saw caiman skeleton with its head and part of its tail still attached.

Settling In

2008-01-24T14:03:00.000-08:00

My first two days of classes and living with a family are going well. I have class with another girl from the states. She is a bit farther along with Spanish than I am which is great because it pushes me. The school has a really down to earth feel and funds a program helping street kids by providing meals, clothing, and tutoring. Several of the teachers and the school tour guide are graduates of the program.

The school activity yesterday afternoon was a trip to a crater lake about 15 miles from Granada. The water was really nice and it felt so good to cool off. Have I mentioned that it is really hot here? In the evening after dinner, I went to a free salsa class at the school. I think I might have finally exorcised my salsa demons. I wouldn´t exactly call what I´m doing salsa dancing, but at least now I´m moving in the same direction as everyone else :-)

My family lives about ten yards from the school which is really nice in the morning. The house centers around a courtyard kitchen and besides the kitchen table all the furniture is rocking chairs (about 10) around a coffee table. I love it - in fact it totally rocks. Sorry. There is a grandmother, husband and wife, their two kids, and their daughter´s two kids in the house. The two year old and nine month old are hilarious and really fun. The two year old has been trying to explain something to me about dogs for two days now, but I´m just not getting it. Hopefully, we´ll cover his vocabulary in class tomorrow. The whole family is good natured, and they think it´s hilarious that every time I go to use the bathroom or the sink, the water goes out for several hours. Oh well. At least I´m not wasting water.

It´s really hot here

2008-01-22T17:51:00.000-08:00

I am in Nicaragua! I arrived this morning and had no trouble changing money and finding the bus stop to get out of Managua and head to Granada. It was a little tricky when I was getting out of the cab at the bus stop and two bus conductors grabbed my backpack and started arguing about which bus I should take. Fortunately, my panic Spanish kicked right in and I was able to yell at them that I didn´t care which bus I took I just wanted my bag back. One of the guys hurled it onto his bus, so I followed my bag in and took that one. I´m pretty sure they were intimidated by me so that´s why they didn´t give the back directly to me :-)

Once we got into Granada, I decided to get off at a stop that lots of passengers stood up for. I didn´t know where to head, so I put on my packs and started walking like I knew where I was going. For the first time ever this worked out really well because after a block I saw a sign for a hostel that was recommended on wikitravel. I checked into a tiny but mostly clean dorm that I´m sharing with two girls from Germany.

After claiming my bunk, I consulted my Lonely Planet bible er book and set out to find a school to enroll in. However, I totally managed to misread the map and went in the complete wrong direction. After walking in the sun and humidity through blocks and blocks of shanty homes, I decided I´d better head back the way I came. I was pretty embarrassed when I realized I was only a block away from where I wanted to go when I turned right instead of left. Oh well, at least I got to see a less touristy side of the city.

I stopped to get some lunch at little homefront restaurant, and the owner was so nice and chatty. She told me of a school nearby that has a good reputation, and she even told me I could come back and pay later when she couldn´t make change for my large cordoba bills. The school turned out to be great and I start classes tomorrow morning and move into my homestay after class. The director even made phone calls to two possible volunteer places and set up appointments for me to visit. And the best part: after I found a bank to make change and went back to the restuarant, I got a free piece of yummy cornbread.

After all that work I needed a nap and managed to snag one of the hammocks in front of the hostel. Now I´m at the internet cafe after dinner and two beers. A pretty good first day!

Goodbye and pics

2007-12-06T08:47:00.000-08:00

Leaving Guatemala was sad. Saying goodbye to new friends and my new family was really hard. My host mom cried and so did I. I had such a great experience. I am still in awe of the amazing and strong Guatemalan people. I am so grateful for everything I learned.

I organized most of my pics into groups. I still need to add the pics from the volcano (they're on Sean's camera), but I will do that today.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13525016@N03/

Lava

2007-12-06T08:14:00.001-08:00

For our last day in Guatemala, Sean and I went on a sunset hike up an active volacano about an hour and a half outside of Antingua.

When we got off the bus at the trail head, a group of kids came running up to sell hiking sticks. I had heard that you can use the stick to poke the lava flows and they'll catch on fire, so of course we had to get one for each of us - the best 5 quetzales I've ever spent!

We hiked up a steep trail for about 45 minutes (I would have preferred an hour, but the guide was practically running to get us there before it got dark) to a great lookout point over a field of volcanic rock with a view of bright red lava flowing down the side of the volcano.

We then went down to the field of black rock. Some of the rock had been lava as recently as 21 days ago and some was much older. It was a bit tricky walking on it because the rocks were really sharp and loose and some of the bigger rocks were hollow, and when you stepped on them they cracked and broke - not to mention the guide was still running.

The closer we got to the red lava flows, the hotter it got. Many of the rocks were steaming and in a couple of places you could look down below your feet into crevices with hot red patches. We of course stuck our hiking sticks in there, and yep they totally caught on fire!

We hiked right up to the lava flows and made it in time to watch the sunset. I still can't believe they let us get that close to the lava. It was crazy watching how quickly the lava flowed and changed paths.

Sean, of course, had to hike up a little higher to get closer to a big lava lake thingy (that's the technical term). I chose to stay where I was by the lava river since I had already burnt a small hole in my shoe and was terrified of the rapidly changing flows. Sean made it back just fine in time to catch the guide hiking back.

We weren't in such a rush hiking back down, but it was a bit tricky since the guide didn't have any flashlights with him and it was pitch black out. Fortunately I had thrown my headlamp in my backpack, but that was the only light for our group of 15 people. It helped me avoid the piles of horse crap along the trail, but the rest of the group wasn't so lucky - sorry guys.

Back at the trail head a young boy collected the sticks back to sell again tomorrow. He was really quite clever and also asked if I wanted to give him my headlamp so I wouldn't have to carry it in my suitcase. He said he could use it to get tips from guiding hikers down. He even tolerated my education is freedom speech and agreed to study really hard in school and follow his dreams, so clearly I had to give this cutie the headlamp. These kids are smart and know a sucker when they see one, so as we were waiting for the bus and got some fruit out of the backpack there was suddenly a large group of kiddos around us offering to study really hard if we would share. So, no fruit for us. When we got in the bus I remembered that we also had some bread in the backpack so we snacked on that, and not two seconds later a kid was at an open window asking if anyone had bread. Being the kind person I am, I slouched down in my seat and told Sean to hide the bread until the kid went away. I have my limits.

El Salvador

2007-12-02T15:01:00.000-08:00

After a day of chicken buses through Honduras, Sean and I spent another night in Honduras before heading to the boder town of El Poy. We were dropped off at the border town and started walking towards the road blocks and immigration offices with our backpacks excited about entering El Salvador.

We heard that the El Salavdorian border officials would be really strict, but it was quite the opposite. In reality, we had to ask around to get someone to look at our passports and even then they were Honduran exit officials and barely seemed to care. We kept on walking through what felt like no-man's land, and finally asked where the next bus stop was and where to find immigration. A really helpful guy, like all the Salvadorans we encountered, told us we were already in El Salvador and pointed to the nearby bus stop. We hopped a bus to the town of La Palma, and a short ride later we were there. I think I'm still waiting for somebody official looking to grab me and ask why I was in El Salvador without permission.

La Palma is an interesting little town. Many of the townspeople make their living producing art in the style of Fernando Llort. He taught his style to the artists in the town, and the bright colorful work is all over town and painted on every kind of souvenier item you can imagine. We looked around at the shops, hung out in the town square, and hiked along a almost totally dried up river. La Palma is a nice place with really friendly people, but honestly a bit boring.

We thought we would make the next day more exciting by taking what had been described as a terrifying chicken bus ride through the mountains to the border town of Metapan. If anyone ever tries to tell you to take the so called exhilarating ride from Citala to Metapan, suggest that you sit in church reading chemistry text books instead because it would be more exciting. The four hour ride along dirt roads with a few hills at 10 m.p.h. was pretty and a nice view of rural life in El Salvador, but nowhere close to exhilarating. Oh well, now we know.

Honduras

2007-12-02T14:27:00.000-08:00

Honduras is cool.

Sean and I visited Copan, a city right on the border with Guatemala that has a large site with Mayan ruins. The ruins are smaller than Tikal, but really impressive because of the sculptural details. It was also cool seeing ruins that hadn't been totally restored and had large trees growing right through the pyramid steps. There were also Scarlet Macaws and giant forest rats all around!

We also spent two fantastic days at a coffee and cardamom plantation about 20 miles outside of Copan. The countryside there is so lush and beautiful. We stayed in the guest house and when we weren't out having fun we ate great homemade food and lounged in hamocks.

I think the best part was the horseback tour of the finca. We pretty much ate our way through - we stopped to taste fresh coffee beans and cardamom and to eat grapefruit, starfruit, and coconuts fresh from the trees!

At the stables when we were getting ready to ride, the guide asked who was nervous and Sean was the only one who raised his hand, so he got put on this sweet little pregnant pony. I didn't say anything and somehow managed to get the big old horse that doesn't like other horses and took off running every time someone tried to take over his spot as first in line. Later in the trip, Sean switched horses with the guide and his new horse kept trying to race my horse. It was really fun going fast, but also a bit terrifying since I had very little control and was pretty much just hanging on for dear life.

When the guide stopped to pick grapefruit for us to try, the guide's horse took off without him. He asked me to chase after it with my horse and bring it back. I thought he was kidding and laughed it off, but he was serious and said my horse would know what to do and I just needed to grab the rope from his horse when we got in front of it. So, I gave grumpy old Lucero a kick and we took off. He was right, all I had to do was hold on then grab the rope from his horse. I'm thinking about joining the rodeo if this teaching stuff doesn't work out :-)

Our last day in Honduras consisted of too many hours riding and waiting for chicken buses. The only bright part of the day was a little kid at one crossroads town who sat down next to us as we were eating peanut butter and crackers. When he found out we were from the U.S., he got all excited because we must know Andy, a guy who volunteered in his community and helped his dad. I tried to explain that we didn't know him, but the kid went on describing him insisting that we must have met him being from the same place and all. So if anybody knows Andy who is white and has brown hair and Volunteered near La Entrada, tell him that a little kid who really likes peanut butter says, "Hi."

Semuc Champey

2007-11-20T10:36:00.001-08:00

Well, I got over my moral dilema and went to Semuc Champey with Judith. It was a trip of a lifetime and it was so fun having my Guatemalan mom along (even with having to scam her hubby).

I feel like I shouldn´t even try to describe the trip because it would just be cheesy and could no way come close to doing justice to how beautiful Semuc Champey is, but it was so cool that I have to talk about it!

The trip to Semuc Champey was a lot of time in a bus followed by a long bumpy ride standing in the back of a crowded pickup, but worth every second of travel. We stayed at a hotel called Las Marias that was really more like summer camp with cabins, a canteen, and a big rope swing over the river. They had a pet monkey there named Pancha who they took in after a forest fire left her stranded. They also had Marimba music and dancing in the evenings. It´s official: I am absolutely to worst salsa dancer in the world.

From the camp, we could walk to Semuc Champey. It is a national park consisting of a series of pools and waterfalls on top of a natural limestone bridge over a rushing river. It´s surrounded by lush rainforest. It was so fun swimming in the pools and climbing up and down the small waterfalls! On the walk back to camp, we took turns jumping off the bridge into the freezing river. I just can´t seem to avoid the peer pressure to jump off tall things in this country!

The next day we walked to the Kai-ban caves for a tour. It started out with a dip in the river from a huge swing (I totally belly flopped) and a hike up a large waterfall to the cave entrance. In the entrance we were each given a candle and followed the guide in wading through knee deep water that quickly became so deep we had to swim. We followed the guide up and down rope ladders, through a small opening filled with rushing water, up a rope ladder in the middle of a gushing waterfall, and into a large cavern. We, of course, also stopped to jump off some high rock outcroppings into a deep pool. All of this in the dark cave lit only by candles. After exiting the caves, we took an inner tube trip down the river back to camp.

The whole trip was so much fun. I was talking to Judith about how I felt like I was in ¨The Goonies¨ on the cave trip. She said she knew the movie and totally agreed. However when we were back home and I told Pepe about feeling like I was in The Goonies, Judith jumped in to explain to him that goonies are those cute fluffy animals that turn ugly and crazy mean when you feed them after midnight. I guess she had a very different experience in the caves than I did!

Fear of Public Speaking

2007-11-20T10:25:00.000-08:00

Every Thursday at the school there is a small celebration for the students finishing their classes and each exiting student is expected to give a short speech in Spanish. Since I am leaving Thursday to travel with Sean, I gave my speech last week. I wrote out a really good speech using the harder verb tenses and practiced it the night before and morning of class. However, when it came time for the speech, I totally panicked and spit out two really simple sentences chock full of errors. I sounded like I did when I first got here. I still passed my test and got my credits, but it would have been nice to look like I actually learned something in my ten weeks here. Oh well. Public speaking has never been my thing.

Lago Atitlan Part III

2007-11-13T15:12:00.000-08:00

Well, I went to the lake again. A group of students from the school and two of the girls from the Tikal trip went. It was relaxing and fun to hang out with friends I´ve made that will be leaving soon. I finally got the guts to jump off the really tall rock in San Marcos. I thought the other one was scary, but this one was terrifying. I went three times to prove to myself I could do it, but it only got scarier each time. Definitely worth it, but never again :-)

Yesterday, I went on another field trip with my teacher. She has family in Huehuetenango (about a two hour bus ride from Xela). She brought her five kids who are really fun (ages 1 - 16), but the baby Marco had an upset tummy on the bus ride and projectile vomited all over his sister, me, and the young guy in our seat. You wouldn´t think a kid that size could hold fifty gallons of milk in him, but he did - for a little while at least. I felt the worst for the guy in our seat. He had baby puke on his leather jacket, hair, and face. I gave him tissues to clean up with, but he still had a patch on his cheek when he got off at his stop. The rest of the day was much more relaxing. We visited ruins and hung out with my teacher´s family. On the bus ride home, the nine year old used my camera to take all kinds of pictures. She was trying to work with reflections in the windows and all kinds of cool stuff. Her pictures turned out pretty well considering how much we were bouncing and flying around the curvy mountain roads.

Today I am dealing with a moral dilema. My host mom really wants to go along on the trip I´m taking to Semuc Champey this weekend, but she and her husband decided they shouldn´t spend the money. No problem, except that today when Pepe was gone she told me she has quite a bit of money that she keeps for emergencies because Pepe is careless with spending. She had talked to her daughter who suggested she tell Pepe that I was paying for her trip as a present and use her secret bank account. I didn´t have the guts to say no. So, during lunch she told Pepe how nice I am that I´m paying for her trip. I hated lying to him - especially since he was out volunteering with the Red Cross while we were home scheming. I was thinking about paying for her trip to make it not a lie, but that won´t erase the fact that we lied to Pepe´s face (not to mention the fact that I´m cheap). I´m going to leave it be and let it be their problem. Oh well - just put it on my bad karma tab.

Assorted stuff

2007-11-08T16:39:00.000-08:00

I posted pics on Flickr of Livingston, Rio Dulce, Champerico, Lago Atitlan with Sean, and some places around Xela (alas, no Tikal pics yet). I have not yet had time to organize them or put in comments. But, you are welcome to check them out if you would like:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13525016@N03/

Also, Colom won the presidential election. He was the less scary of the two candidates, so I am relieved for Guatemala.

Also, the teacher I have now is really into field trips. Lucky me! We went to a local shop yesterday where they produce dolls from recycled bottles and newspapers. They are hand painted in the typical dress of all of the twenty some different indiginous groups in Guatemala. The details were beautiful and I was able to hang out with the artists and ask questions. I do not know if it helped me practice subjunctive verbs, but it was certainly cool!

Tikal

2007-11-08T15:50:00.000-08:00

I finally made it to Tikal. It is an amazing place. Totally worth the 15 hour bus trip (even with my friend sitting next to me puking most of the way and the driver running over a duck!). My host mom came along on the trip, and it was totally fun to hang out with her outside of Xela.

We stayed in Flores which is a small island town in Lake Peten Itza. Our first day in Flores we took a boat to visit a small museum run by a totally adorable and strange little man. He showed us relics from Tikal and other Mayan sites along with his collection of antique record players and a giant radio his dad built in the 40s. My favorite part of the tour was the way he referred to anything dated B.C. as "before the Jesus."

After the museum, we hiked to a nice lookout point for a great view of the lake and of Flores. Our next stop was a secluded point on the lake for swimming. The shore was rocky, but the water was absolutely fantastic for swimming - crystal clear and warm! We were then treated to a view of the sunset from our boat!

We left our hotel at 3:30 on Saturday morning to get to the Tikal ruins in time to watch the sunrise. We hiked in the dark through the jungle to the base of Temple IV, then climbed to the top to take our place for the show. At the request of the guides, everyone was still and silent on top of the temple. We were sitting above the trees watching the tops of the other temples appear in the changing colors of the sunrise. We could hear the deep growl of the holwer monkeys, the screeches of the spider monkeys, and the songs of birds soaring above everything. We were even treated to two toucans resting in the branches of a tree in front of the temple.

Once the sun was bright and the other tour groups had left, our guide began sharing his knowledge of Tikal and the jungle surrounding it. We climbed other temples, toured living quarters, a ball court, sacrificial sites, saw two types of monkeys and tons of birds, and learned about the natural medicines from the plants in the area. The man was amazing. Even after listening to him for 8 hours, I wanted to hear more. Anything I think of saying to describe the experience just sounds silly. I will just leave it at amazing. Stay tuned for the pics!

After heading back to Flores for showers and food, a few of us went swimming again. There was a bar on a dock near our hotel, so my host mom went with us to drink coffee while we jumped off the dock to swim. There were several kids who lived near the dock who joined us. They were really cute. I forgot the word for "dive" so I tried asking the kids. I got two responses: "fall on your head" and "jump on your head." My host mom gave me the correct word, but from then on out we referred to diving in the way the kids taught us.

We left two hours earlier than planned the next morning in order to get a head start on any election day traffic or problems. However, when we got to a river crossing barely outside of Flores, the ferry was broken and there was no other way across. The ferry was really a raft with an outboard motor attached to one side, but it worked on the way there and was our only option for getting back without having to go five hours out of the way. It is hard to say, but it seemed a bit suspect on an election day with a lot of people trying to cross the river to vote, but who knows. After sitting and waiting for two hours, our tour guide took a boat accross and threatened to call the tourist police (guys with black socks, sandals, and machine guns?) if they didn{t find someone to fix the motor. I do not know if it was coincidence or not, but soon after someone figured out that they could tie two small boats to the sides of the ferry. The steering was a bit iffy, but it worked and we were on our way.

We arrived in Xela around 11 p.m. Judith and I were both exhausted, but totally giddy after such an amazing trip. One more time: Tikal was amazing.

Los Vahos

2007-10-30T15:43:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-26T17:48:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-17T14:27:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-08T14:06:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-03T17:17:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-03T17:00:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-01T12:10:00.000-07:00

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.

Lake Chichabal

2007-09-29T17:21:00.001-07:00

Last Sunday, we went on a cool hike to Lake Chichabal which is a site sacred to the Mayans. They believe it is a place of balance between heaven and hell and still frequently practice ceremonies there. We hiked up a crater and then down a long set of steps to the lake. It is a beautiful lush place, but is also kind of dark with a thick cloud mist hovering around. I can totally understand why the lake holds the significance it does. We hung near the water and ate our lunches then hiked around the lake and back up. On the way back up the weather switched from drizzly to a downpour so it was really slippery, but fun! The ride back to Xela in the rain in the back of a pick uptruck was really wet and cold, but it certainly made my luke warm shower back at the house feel great!

St. Simone

2007-09-27T13:14:00.000-07:00

I went to a small town about thirty minutes by chicken bus called San Andres Xecul. There's a really cool mix of Catholicism and traditional Mayan beliefs practiced here, which I understand is pretty common in Guatemala. We visited the local church which is painted bright yellow with colorful carvings gracing the facade. Inside is a beautiful candlelit church with lots of intricate carvings and metal work, but it also has several window displays along the side with mannequin saints in various holy poses. Above the altar is a dramatically posed Jesus with pink and green neon lights surrounding him.
In addition to the church, this town is know for its adoration and celebration on Saint Simone. He is a sort of Robin Hood figure/saint. There is an effigy of him that travels to a different home every ten years. It is an honor for a local elder to house him and the saint gets his own room and a bed that he is placed into every night. People come from all over to pray to him and make offerings of candles, rum, and cigarettes.
When we arrived at the home a man was there praying and lighting candles. He welcomed us in and was generous to let us stay and observe. His prayers were really sincere and he didn't hold back at all. Most of the students left to wait outside, but the three of who stayed for the forty minutes or so got a real treat. His prayers included lots of songs and was a cool mixture of Spanish and K'iche. Afterwards, he sat down and talked to us about his prayers and his life. He welcomed us to visit Simone if we wished. Unfortunately I was fresh out of rum and cigarrettes, but I still went up and said a quick prayer to the mannequin wearing a suit and Elvis glasses and with a big cigar in his mouth.
In our conversation with the man afterwards he asked if the three of us were traveling with spouses or alone and when Kristin told him I was getting married, he replied, "So, in the U.S. that's about a four or five year contract right?" I was sure I misunderstood, but nope that's what he said! We had a fun chat, then headed back towards Xela. I have to go now. I have a lot of thinking to do about whether I want to go with the four or the five year contract :-)

Ms. Magoo

2007-09-25T15:20:00.000-07:00

On Friday, I was walking along minding my own business when I spotted an unusually gross slimy spot on the sidewalk. I took extra care to step around it, but managed instead to fall off the curb and land my butt cheek in the middle of the puddle. I jumped up quickly and walked off only to realize about ten minutes later that I´d knocked my glasses off in the fall. I went back for them, but they were gone! I´ve been getting along fine without them except for all the school stuff. Fortunately my teacher is really sweet and told me about a shoe store she saw with a sign stating that they sell reading glasses. I went by there yesterday, and when I inquired about glasses the store clerk got out a shoe box full of gently used glasses of varying perscriptions. I dug through and found a pair that kind of sort of seems close to what I need, so I am now the proud owner of small rectangle black wire frames with a deep smokey tint. I´m positive that I could find an eye doctor here and order appropriate glasses (assuming I could read the chart in Spanish), but I figure my groovy pair will work until I get back home. The happy ending to this story is that my old glasses probably ended up in a shoe box somewhere and will find a good home!

The more you learn, the less you know...

2007-09-20T10:06:00.001-07:00

I went to yoga last night. It was a good class and I got the added bonus of a solid review of vocabulary for the parts of the body. It was about halfway through the class when I finally realized he was telling me to square my hips.
I´ve been working really hard to improve my Spanish, but it´s hard to say if it´s working. I have days where I feel like I can communicate really well and more days where all I do is give and receive blank looks.
On Tuesday, I declared Wednesdays as my days without English. It was harder than I thought it would be - especially while hanging out with other English speakers, but it was a fun experiement that I will continue. If I get the guts, I may expand the program to two days per week.
I took some time after school to upload pictures to flickr. I didn´t have time to really organize them yet and put some in several times. However, if you´re up to weeding through them feel free to check them out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13525016@N03/

The Fair, Cuban Music, and a Good Hike

2007-09-16T17:17:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the Indepence Day celebration for Guatemala. We had a much appreciated day off from school on Friday, and there were activities around town all weekend. Friday, I went to the fair just outside of town. It´s nice to know that there are some constants all over the world, and apparently fairs are one of them. We rode rickety rides, ate greasy food, played silly games, and walked by tons of vendors pushing their wares. On the way home from the fair, we stopped to watch one of the zillion parades they had this weekend. I enjoyed watching some concerts, speeches, and Mayan dance routines in the central park as well. It was a very festive Independence Day.
Last night several students met up to celebrate a student´s birthday. We had good food and conversation and were treated to some world class music. As we were chilling out listening to the Cuban band, one of the students commented that the keyboard player looked like one of the guys from Buena Vista Social Club. Everyone that had seen the movie totally agreed, and later another patron confirmed for us that it was in fact him! I guess he plays in Xela a couple times a year. What a treat.
Today, we hiked up La Muela which is a rocky point near the Volcano Santa Maria outside of town. It was a great hike with beautiful scenery and a little culture too. The way up wound through some agricultural areas. There was corn that stood at least twice as tall as me and lots of flowers. One kind of flower is common in the US as a garnish for salads (according to an avid gardner student), so I tried it - pretty yummy. We also saw tons of little lizards, some of which were bright green and had blue necks and bellies. Once we got closer to the rocky area, there were lots of locals hiking along headed to a church service partway up to the rocks. There were women in traditional skirts and tiny little shoes with heels walking along gracefully while I stumbled along in my hiking boots huffing and puffing. Once we passed the church service site (outside near the trees around a soccer field), we came upon a Mayan sauna and ceremony site. It wasn´t being used at the time, so we got to check it out. The sauna part was still quite hot. After the spa stop, the terrain got really rocky and fun. We had to do some scrambling to get to the top, but it was totally worth it. Great views and relaxing on the volcanic rocks in the sun was so warm and cozy. The way down was a bit tricky with all the loose rocks, but it was a fantastic hike to end a really great weekend.
P.S. The trip leader for the hike told me that the Big White House of Mystery is supposedly haunted. The story goes that at one point the house was used as student housing, and in the 80s two Guatemalan and one foreign student were killed there and now haunt the place. I guess we could count old abandoned house ghost stories as another universal constant. I´ll let you know if I see anything scary!

The Mystery of the Big White House

2007-09-13T16:45:00.000-07:00

There is a house behind my host family´s house that is totally out of place here in Xela. In a neighborhood of single story cement buildings attached to one another is an ornate white wood mansion that takes up about half the block and is surrounded by a large fence. It has a huge For Sale sign on the front and appears to be abandoned. I wondered about it, but never remembered to ask anyone.
Last night as we were walking home from going out to dinner, my host mom headed towards the gates of that house. I asked her what she was doing, and she said we were going to go to Socrates and Pelusa´s house (those are the names of her two dogs). I laughed thinking it was a cute joke because there were two similar sized dogs barking from behind the gates, but she pulled her keys out of her pocket and opened the gate! We walked in and were greeted by her dogs. She explained that her husband´s family owns the house, but is trying to sell it. I was really shocked, but to her it was no big deal and she didn´t say much else and we just cut through the mansion grounds back to our house.
I told my teacher about it at school today, and she said it´s pretty well known that the family has been trying to sell the place for a long time. She also said the inside is totally furnished with colonial antiques. She suggested I ask my mom for a tour. Hopefully, I´ll get the guts to ask and will see the inside!

The Rigoberta Menchu Follow-up

2007-09-11T17:56:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to an article about Rigoberta Menchu and how she fared in the recent elections - the quick version, if you´d prefer, is that she didn´t do well at all :-(
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/11/world/americas/11guatxx.html?ex=1190088000&en=19f3ce998dce18cf&ei=5070&emc=eta1

La Pedrera

2007-09-11T17:32:00.000-07:00

I headed up to the volunteer project for the first time on Monday. It´s a pretty gook hike up to the one room school, but totally worth it for the view and the kids. The kids range from the ages of 7 to 15 with a few much younger siblings hanging around. The project provides daily tutoring and also provides sponsorship to pay for the kids´ education. From what I understand from my whole two days of experience, many of the kids would be working if they didn´t get the help to pay for school. Even though the kids are on a week break from school for Independence Day, the place was packed with kids anxious to practice math and English. The math practice has been awesome for reinforcing my numbers in Spanish. Talking with the kids has also been great for practicing my speaking skills in general, and they are super patient with me. They got a recent donation from a group in Santa Fe which is paying for a bathroom to be built near the school. It should be completed soon which means I´ll be able to drink water during the hike up without fear!

Chicken Buses and Giant Hairy Spiders

2007-09-10T09:39:00.000-07:00

After class on Friday, I left for Lake Atitlan for the weekend with two other students from my school. We took a chicken bus, old school buses painted in bright colors which are the overcrowded public buses of Guatemala, from Xela to San Pedro de Laguna. The ride was super crowded and I had the misfortune of sitting in the hump seat on the bus. With my backpack in my lap and two other adults sharing my seat there wasn´t much room, but you get what you pay for - about three dollars for a three hour trip - and the view going down to the lake was gorgeous. Lake Atitlan is a crater lake surrounded by lush volcanoes with clouds hovering around the peaks. It´s one of the most beautiful places I´ve seen!

We arrived in the lakeside town of San Pedro in the evening and went to a nearby hotel. The other two students were together, so they got a room, and I took a bed in the dormitory. It wasn´t really a dorm, though, because I ended up being the only one there. Well, except for my fellow dormer Harry the Digusting Spider. He was huge with striped legs and had little spidery antenna things sticking out of his mouth - oh and in case it wasn´t clear, he was really hairy. I was convinced he was some type of tarantula, but really I have no idea if they even have those here. He also only had seven legs, so he must have been a hardened survivor. I decided I might not fare well trying to kill him, so I went outside to read and left the door open so he could escape. He must have been plotting how he was going to kill me, so he didn´t want to leave. Sarah and Neil and I decided to go explore the city and get dinner, so I left Harry there hoping he would lose interest in me and leave. We returned a few hours later and there he was waiting for me, but this time he had moved within a few feet of my bed. I debated for a long time what to do, and finally decided that he would be a stupid spider to waste his venom on me. I moved my bed as far away from him as I could and went to sleep. In the morning he was gone, and I was still alive and spider bite free! I got some good pics of him to prove his overwhelming scariness, but finding an internet connection here that won´t take two days to upload a picture is proving tough. I´m sure I´ll figure something out, but in the mean time you´ll have to trust me that he makes the spider from The Two Towers seem adorable!

After saying goodbye to our groovy hostel, we took a boat to another town on the lake called San Marcos. It is this quiet place that´s a Guatemalan haven for alternative medicine and the like. This hotel had a little dorm with a thatched roof and bamboo walls. The place was surrounded by lush jungle and also had a communal kitchen with vegetarian cooks, a Mayan sauna, and morning yoga classes. My whole stay including super yummy meals, sauna, and yoga was $28. I wasn´t looking forward to hanging out with a bunch of strangers, but a huge rain storm forced the issue and I ended up having a blast with 5 really cool people from England and Austria.

Luckily, before the big storm hit we were able to hike a trail along the lake that we had heard about that leads to some cliffs you can jump off of into the lake. We weren´t sure if we found the right cliffs, but there was no way we were leaving without trying. It was so scary standing there getting ready to jump, but it was so worth it! We each ended up jumping three times and each time was equally exciting. I went back the next day with two of the other travellers I met and they confirmed that we had indeed chosen the right cliffs - I guess we already knew that from the lack of broken legs, but it´s nice to get validation.

We headed out to go back to Xela around noon on Sunday. We knew it could be a bit tough travelling on election day, but we couldn´t skip school! Unfortunately, a bit tough turned out to be an understatement. We waited about an hour to catch a crowded boat back to San Pedro which wasn´t a huge deal, but when we got to San Pedro we found out the buses weren´t running because of election day (people in San Marcos had assured us they would be). We thought about staying in San Pedro for the night, but realized we could take a truck to the next bigger town. We negotiated a pickup truck ride half the way then took a tuk-tuk for as far as we could. Then, we had to pay another truck to take us up to the main highway. All of this was quite an exercise in communication and patience, but it was also pretty fun (at least until we got rained on and a bit cold for the last part of the ride). When the truck dropped us off at the main highway (a term used quitel loosely here) we were lucky to quickly catch a chicken bus headed back to Xela. And, to make for a super happy ending I didn´t have to sit in the hump seat!

Politics

2007-09-05T15:41:00.000-07:00

Guatemala's presidential elections are this weekend. Today was the last day for candidates to campaign, and it's now quiet time for Guatemalans to think things over until Sunday's election. I really don't understand what's going on, but I did see a huge billboard for Rigoberta Menchu, a former Nobel Peace Prize winner, who I made a poor unsuspecting student do a report on a couple years ago when he swore he had absolutely nothing to write about. I figured it was just a coincidence, but nope, it's her! From what I've heard and from what I actually understood of that her chances don't look good, but things are pretty wide open right now. I guess she just returned from exile to Guatemala this year, but many indiginous people don´t like her because they feel that she hasn´t helped them directly. I'll ask my teacher for more info which I will most likely totally misunderstand and incorrectly report back to you.

El Cementario

2007-09-05T08:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon we took a little field trip to the cemetery in town. When you first walk in there is a brightly colored grave with writing all over it. It is the grave of a gypsy who died in the early 1900s. She died at 17 of a broken heart because she and her love were prohibited by their families of different classes to see each other. Legend has it that you write on her grave what you need and when it comes true you bring her flowers. There were things like, "Please help me get a girlfriend fast" and more serious things like, "Help my dying son not suffer" all over it. She had a decent amount of flowers, so there might be something to it.

We also saw some graves missing the marlbe covers because of looting, and in one you could see some human bones on the bottom. I feel bad for those families. Like it´s not bad enough that your family´s grave was vandalized, they also have to see Grandpa´s bones sticking out. Most of the statues were missing parts because there apparently is some benefit to stealing marble pieces. I´m not really sure where the market is for assorted marble heads and feet, but it must be lucrative. The only statues that weren´t vandalized were the ones of the angel of death - he´s bad mojo to mess with. I have some pictures to post, but the computers at school are too slow and I forgot to bring the USB cable with me to the internet cafe. So stay tuned for tacky pictures of human bones.

The City

2007-09-05T08:07:00.000-07:00

Xela is a really cool city. I´m so glad I´m here. The first day it really reminded me of Florence with its narrow stone streets and the big classical buildings in the city center. I made immediate comparisons to Mexico when I got here, but other than the stray dogs and crazy traffic it´s really quite different - well, there is the Spanish thing too. Now that I´ve been here almost three whole days, I think I´m getting a feel for the city it is without all the comparisons. It´s pretty tranquil for a large city, and the vibe is chill. I can walk everywhere - so far - which I love. It´s colder than you´d think for Central America, but I´ve been fine with a fleece and I´ve been lucky enough to only get rained on once so far. The city is at about 7,000 feet and is surrounded by really lush jungle and volcanoes. I´m having trouble posting pictures :-( , but my school´s website has some good pics of Xela and the school: www.casaxelaju.com

First Day

2007-09-03T15:57:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Guatemala City early Sunday morning without incident. I was met outside of customs by a representative of the school holding a sign with my name. He didn´t say anything when I introduced myself and just started walking, so I followed. We went to the parking lot and he said, ¨carro,¨ so I put my suitcase in the trunk and got in. Once we were driving he started talking and explained that he was going to drop me off at the bus station, but when we got there we had to sit outside and wait for it to open. He talked about the upcoming election and the general state of things in Guatemala City. It was really interesting and he was super tolerant of my terrible broken Spanish. I commented to him that the city seemed incredibly traquil to me and he laughed and reminded me that it was 6 am on a Sunday morning. So I guess I didn´t get to see the real Guatemala City, which is just fine with me.

I caught the bus at 8 and proptly fell asleep for the first 3 hours of the 5 hour ride. I was jolted awake when we went over a bump and my head hit the window frame. I was annoyed for about a half a second until I took a look around me. We were winding around the side of a mountain covered in jungle driving through the clouds. It was absolutely beautiful and I saw wild calla lillies, lots of cute goats, cows, and chickens. We stopped periodically in the small towns to pick up other passengers, most of whom were indigenous. One woman at a bus stop was holding the hand of a toddler, had a baby in a blanket on her back, and a huge bundle wrapped in cloth balanced on her head and she and her kids were totally chill and almost still the whole rest of the ride. I also enjoyed watching the driver´s assistant whose job it was to take tickets and hold the broken door shut. He also got to pick the CDs and by his choice in music I´m pretty sure he had been recently dumped.

When I arrived in Quetzaltenango there wasn´t anyone with my name on a sign, but I figured my family would find me pretty easily being the only foreigner on the bus. I waited until everyone had left the bus stop and started looking questioningly toward anyone walking my way, but no luck. I asked one of the police where a bathroom was, then came back outside and decided I would wait fifteen more minutes then catch a cab to my host family´s house and if they weren´t home then to the school. Luckily a woman came rushing towards me saying my name after about ten minutes. She hailed a cab and took me to her house. She seemed very serious and other than asking me where I was from didn´t say anything. I figured she must be a liason from the school escorting me to my house. But, I was wrong. She was Judith my host mom. She took me inside pointed to my room and left. I started unpacking and thinking about heading out to explore and get some food, but she called my name again and I followed her to the kitchen where she pointed to the food on the stove and showed me where the dishes are and told me to eat. I had decided I wouldn´t be practicing much Spanish at home, but I was wrong. Once I got my food and sat down she became warm and animated and we chatted for quite a while. She is really nice. I think we were both pretty shy initially. I met her husband later and he is also shy, but pretty funny.

After eating, we went for a walk and she showed me how to get to the school and the central park. I can walk to pretty much everything which I love. The bell is ringing for class, gotta go...