Last of Xela

Yes I realize it has been a week and a half since we left Xela. However, we were struggling with a lack of pictures and then blissfully without internet, so I am justified in my delay.

Gatito!
There was a little calico kitty that lived at our house. She liked attention and she liked to cry.


After pulling it off the shelf in our room, she discovered she also liked the Mennonite granola.


Gluten Friday 2.0
The fabled fruit-filled donut. This is the strawberry.
It was delicious, but I needed coffee with it. It was nearly too sweet. Just look at all that filling!

Dave was a man of vision and adventure and bought a cinnamon donut. It was a glazed donut, but before it was glazed, they dusted it with cinnamon. I can say without hesitation, it was the best of all the donuts from Bakeshop. Sublime perfection. Because it was so perfect, the only picture of it is wrapped in the blue bag in the previous shot. Dave ate it so quickly, there was no time for a picture.

Last Day at El Nahual
After another good community lunch, we had our last afternoon of class. I ventured into the present tense subjunctive and Dave and Mariela laughed a lot. During the break, Anna and some of the other volunteers put on a puppet show for the kids about not littering. The kids had made the background and puppets during the afternoon art classes at El Nahual.

Strange Fruit
Of course I have since lost where I wrote down the name of this fruit, but I did know its name at one time, and will find it out again! But for now a description. It resembles an overripe pepper with a lima bean stuck ontop. The flesh is a little shriveled, and there is the big bean. But it is considered a sweet something, not a savory. I would disagree and say it is a bitter something. The flesh is soft, like a mango but not stringy. The flavor is unique. It puckers the mouth with bitterness, much like a super-sour candy will. It leaves the tounge with a mossy coat, much like a tannic wine. The juice is so bitter that the edges of my skin around my lips that contacted the juice tingled for an hour or so after I tasted it. I was told that the bean-ish part is actually the bottom of the fruit, not the top, and is delicious and a special treat when cooked, but otherwise the fruit is eaten raw.

The last night we were in Xela, we went to Trattoria Genovese for delicious homemade gnocchi (at least that's what I went for) and shared a great meal with 10 of our friends. Then we made our way to El Cuartito for some live music and mojitos.
Anna, Marta and I were all smiles.

While it was sad to leave Marta, Lindsay, Maia, Sarah, Eva, our host family etc, I was very excited to see somewhere different. El Salvador has not only lived up to my expectations, it has exceeded them!

Antigua take 2

We left Xela on Sunday morning after some sentimental goodbyes with new friends and the host family.

A four and a half hour drive brought us to Antigua. My second visit. I wasn't itching to come back but Dave had not been here, and it puts us within a feasible drive to El Salvador tomorrow.

Antigua is a beautiful city, but as far as colonial towns that are UNESCO world heritage sites go I've got a few I prefer over it- Oaxaca City Mexico, Luang Prabang Laos, and Hoi An Vietnam (in no particular order). Partially because I find it financially inaccessible, by comparison. And more importantly, the food is not nearly as good as any of the above mentioned. It is overpriced and the service is lacking, and they include the tip.

In Xela we ate flavorful, fresh Indian for 55Q each. Here a plate of blah nachos costs 50Q. In Xela fresh, homemade gnocchi was 70Q and flavorful minestrone soup was 25Q. A decent but unremarkable pizza was 75Q and the strangest onion soup I have ever had rang up at 45Q. Anyway, you get the idea.

That said, we did have a serendipitous travel moment upon our arrival. The challenge with the van is parking. Repeatedly we read or hear about how unsafe it is parked on the street, and we head these probably valid warnings. This means that we have to find parking for it. Upon driving in to town we checked out a parking lot by the market. He wanted 250Q for two nights and refused to come down. So we headed to a hotel we read about on the lonely planet forum that supposedly had rooms and parking for about 40usd a night. More than we would spend in an ideal world, but feasible. Much to our dismay no one was there! The cleaning lady said someone would be back in 2 hours. We had parked on the street (safe during the day, it's the overnight people have warned about) and decided to walk to clear our heads. We were both in pretty low spirits, the only other place we found with parking wanted 65usd a night plus tax, and that was way more than we had planned on. We started walking down the cobblestone streets...

Then I saw the sign for the tourist office and the lightbulb finally came on that we should ask them. Sure enough, the police offer free parking in their parking lot! FREE! SAFE (ish, the rumor is that the best cops work in Antigua and get special training for all the contact with tourists) FREE!

We then found a little hotel with a shared bath and a kitchen in our price range, and spent yesterday evening and today just wandering the streets and the market.

We cooked dinner in, quesadillas with peppers and onions and guacamole. Dave is forever in-charge of guacamole, his is great. I have relinquished all guaca-control. We also finally broke into the tequila I requested from Mexico. I hand-juiced 10 limes and an orange to make us margaritas on the rocks. I used the proportions I learned working at Janie's 8 years ago.
We couldn't have bought a decent appetizer from a restaurant here for what it cost us to make a delicious dinner with perfect drinks.

After dinner we enjoyed the movie Stepbrothers. By enjoyed I mean we watched a copy we bought at the market in Xela. It was obviously filmed by someone siting in the movie theater. This was confirmed by the presence of a person's shadow getting up and walking towards the camera. I would like think he or she was going to get more popcorn.

In the morning we head for the beach in El Salvador. Fingers crossed for a smooth border crossing...

Also, no pictures. Tear. Neither of us brought cords for the cameras, we were counting on the card-reader on Dave's computer, but it is busted. In Xela we were using Marta-the-Swede-with-an-Irish-accent's cord, but that's no longer an option. We're working on a solution, most likely involving Mom and her rendezvous with us in March.

Dave's Take on Driving in Guatemala

Lago Atitlan

Saturday morning Dave and I drove up to Lago Atitlan. We thought it would be a short drive, seeing as how it was only 60 to 70 miles away, but getting there took 4.5 and the return was 3.5.

Driving here is slow. Slow. SLOW! We knew driving around the lake would be slow, but we thought getting there wouldn't be so bad, because we were taking CA-1, the Pan-american "Highway". Unfortunately a great deal of it is under construction. Just drive/ride for one day here, and you will be slow to complain about road construction at home.

Here is a typical line of backed up traffic on the "highway" where it is down to one lane and rotating which direction gets to go.


We were pulled over about 30 minutes after we left the house. Even though we had nothing to hide, it made me very nervous. Things were fine, handed over our papers, the cop looked at them, looked at us, looked through a window in the back, and said we could go.

Lago Atitlan is picturesque, and full of gringos and ex-pats. Santiago Atitlan, where we stayed, is less so than Panajachel or San Pedro. The drive there took us through coffee plantations. It is harvest and along the road were places with scales and trucks where the pickers would bring the coffee.


In addition to getting to see the coffee harvest in action, driving gave us the benefit of views like this:


A much different perspective than seeing the area from the lake, like this:



We borrowed a canoe from the place we stayed and went out on the water Saturday afternoon. The best part was seeing the locals go about using the lake.

For fishing



For watering crops


For washing clothes. The dots of color along the shore are women doing their wash.


It inspired Dave to sing a song...


Sunday we walked into Santiago Atitlan and wandered through the market where I bought a pink, previously owned, Clear Lake California sweatshirt for about 2usd. It is soft and wonderful. Dave also picked up a new mascota (pet).

Meet Gustavo (Gus) el camarron ( the shrimp).



We paid an old man named Salvador to take us to see Maximon, a local saint, and Santiago, who move houses every year. They like offerings of money, cigars, rum, and nice shoes. They share a room, but each has their own side.

This is Santiago and his posse.

After visiting Maximon we went to the church. Dave has a pic on his blog. During the war the priest, originally from Oklahoma, was murdered. The villagers respected him and requested to keep his heart and blood to honor him.

Santiago de Atitlan, like most every village in Guatemala, has their own unique Ropa Tipica. Four things stood out: the men wore ropa tipica, striped short-pants cinched with a fabric belt and sometimes elaborately embroidered; the fabric for the hupiles (women's shirts) was often striped similar the the men's pants; elaborate embroidery, including small glass beads was common; and detailed birds and flowers were the motifs of choice for the embroidery.


We were big fans of the pants. We bought two pairs from this shop.


Walking back to the room we saw this corral.
After a busy day supporting the local craftsman and visiting some minor saints we relaxed in the wood-fired sauna.

A fine weekend indeed!

GLUTEN FRIDAY!

The Mennonites do good work. Very good work. And this good work was the cause for GLUTEN FRIDAY!


La Bakeshop is only open Tuesdays and Fridays, and because I wanted Dave and our friend Lindsey, who I teach with Tuesdays/Thursdays, to taste the BEST DONUTS IN THE WORLD, we took the bus over to Zona 3 in the morning.

Dave bought a chocolate donut, ran outside, and ate it, all in the time to took Lindsey and I to decide what to buy to take to community lunch and what kind of donut we wanted for ourselves. Dave came back inside and admitted it was indeed the best donut he had ever had. Then he noticed that he could have gotten a chocolate iced donut with coconut, he moved too quickly the first time and missed it. So he bought a second donut this time with the coconut.

I had chocolate with coconut, again. I was going to branch out, to the filled donuts, but chocolate with cream filling seemed like too much and I really wanted chocolate. I also picked up a few bags of granola to snack on during the week, and a ham and cheese croisant for a savory snack (what gluten Friday would be complete without a savory snack?) and chocolate snow-flake cookies for community lunch at school.

Lindsey went with chocolate iced with peanut to eat at the shop, and M&M oatmeal cookies for later, and donut holes for community lunch.

Next Gluten Friday I will try the powder sugar with fruit filling (stawberry, or fig, or blackberry) or the glazed filled with apple.

After Bakeshop we walked to Mercado Democracia to buy what Dave needed to make guacamole for community lunch. Later at community lunch another student tried to move in on Dave's territory of Guacamole, but his was superior in texture, flavor, and quantity.

Democracia is a great market that covers a few blocks of stalls and flows into the streets.



You can find just about any fruit or vegetable for a great price. Dave bought six huge avocados and four limes for 20Q (less than three dollars). We picked up a huge bunch of bananas for less than a buck.

You can get fresh goat milk from vendors like this guy.

He milks into a little styrofoam cup, pours it into a plastic bag, and you are on your way with a nice hot bag of goat milk...

At your next stop you can be like Dave and try on some shades while you wait for another hole to be punched in your new belt.


After the shopping Gluten Friday moved to Community Lunch at El Nahual, where I ate blintzes with raisins, donut holes (as good if not better than the donuts), and chocolate snowflake cookies that put the ones I made at Christmas to shame. It was AWESOME.


Also, Dave now has a blog. You can get his take on things here.

"Como se dice 'animales' en ingles?"

As I mentioned, Tuesdays and Thursdays two or three other volunteers and I teach art/english to 4th, 5th, and 6th Graders at a school, which is an unpleasant 30 minute bike ride from El Nahual. Other than the bike ride it is a good time.

Tuesday we taught animals and the kids made masks of the animal of their choice. Thursday we worked on a few verbs like walk, talk, eat, draw, paint, swim, then the kids let loose with water colors to painting a picture showing a verb in action.

Each class is a little different. The fourth graders are the nicest and most attentive, and with the exception of one girl who knows most of the basic vocabulary, are all equal when it comes to English ability. They are a smaller class and sit two to a table, they are the best behaved and the classroom set up is most conducive to art projects. The fifth graders are really crammed into their room, about 40 kids, so it is hard to circulate around the room and help with individual pronunciation and writing. It may be impossible to keep the attention of all of them at once. I have yet to actually see their teacher. The sixth graders are sixth graders, either sweet or horrible, generally split by gender and if they sit at the front or back of the class. But they all like activities where they get to yell the words we are learning.

Here are a few shots of some of the kids and their masks.





Just to be clear about teaching English, I don't think it is that important. I think the art/ creativity is much more important because the kids get no art/creativity time in school and many don't have access to basic art supplies. The education system and the parents here are opposed to class time being spent on just art. They want their kids exposed to English, so the combination classes are the compromise.

I'm Still Here

Well it has been awhile, but it's not that I didn't want to write, I really did, but I was just so busy.
So now, an obscenely long post. To help you there are 6 sections, feel free to jump ahead.

"Daily Routine"
"Where I've Been"
"A note on Chicken Buses and Homemade Liquor"
"The Mennonites Made Me Do It"
"Random Pics with Caption"
"Coming Soon"

Daily Routine
The past two weeks I get up, get dressed, eat beans and eggs and tamalitos (like a tamale, but smaller and with no filling, or with herbs mixed into the masa or tortillas, and walk to school. All of this by 8am. And it is a 15 minute walk to school. Then I practice Spanish and learn more vocabulary and grammar one-on-one with my teacher until noon. After class I walk home, review my notes, eat lunch, and turn around to be back at school by 2:45 where I volunteer until 5. On Mondays there is a volunteer meeting in town (about a 15 minute walk from school) from 5:30 to 7. Tuesdays is movie night at school. Wednesdays is cooking class from 5:30 to 7:30, again at school. Thursdays I catch up on studying. Fridays we go out dancing. Saturday to somewhere around here. Sunday to rest and review what I learned during the week.


I was trying to squeeze internet in somewhere there, and it wasn't easy. This is mainly because it was not at my house. I had to go to an internet shop and there wasn't one between my house and school. The closest was on the long-way between school and the house which is about 25 minutes each way. Or about a 20 minute round-trip from my house to the internet place. This was a problem because I was very tired the first week from oxygen deprovation. Xela is 2,335m above sea level. The air is thin, laced with dust and smoke and car exhaust, and sometimes a little chilly. It took about a week for my body to adjust, during which I was falling asleep by 9pm.
The other reason not having internet at the house put me out of touch is it isn't higly advisable to walk alone after 8ish. I don't want anyone to worry, Xela is not dangerous, but a little more caution is advisable.

But those days are gone. Dave arrived Wednesday afternoon and we have gotten his computer hooked up to the wireless network, and pictures have been downloaded from my camera, and here I am!

Also, this week the schedule has shifted and we are taking afternoon classes from 1:30 to 5:30. In the mornings we go to El Nahual to volunteer. Dave is the ablebodied volunteer on call, so he has been asked to do maintenance on all the bikes the volunteers ride, as well as work in the garden and on the new construction site. Of course he said yes. I helped with the construction last week (construction means manually trying to level a 6m x 6m square full of big rocks and loose dirt) and will work in the garden Wednesday morning. Tuesday and Thursday mornings I will be helping teach art/ English at a nonprofit school, La Cuchilla, about a 15 minute bike-ride from El Nahual.

We are living with the same family I have been with since I got here. Elsa is a nurse, Marco is an attorney, their two sons are studying law at university, and there are 6 nursing students and 1 nurse who are pensionistas here. Marta is the cook/ house-keeper. Everyone is very friendly and tolerates/ corrects grammatical errors and pronunciation quickly and kindly. There is a little calico cat that likes to cry and a fluffy white dog named Fanni that lives on the roof. The dog-on-roof thing is common here, and they have much better lives to the street-dogs. At first I felt sorry for Fanni, but now I realize she is lucky.


Where I've Been
Not very far, actually. My first weekend here we went to Fuentes Gorginas, a hot springs about an hour from here by chicken bus and pick-up truck. It has been slightly developed, in that the water is collected in different pools which are lined with rocks and there are six bungalows and one little restaurant. The first weekend I went it was about 60% Guatemaltecos and 40% extraneros. It is about 8km up a mountain from the tiny town of Zunil 20ish km south of Xela. The road up the mountain is curvy and the width of one lane, although it has a dividing line in some spots that no vehicle could abide by, but a skinny donkey could. Small pick-ups with welded cages for the beds provide rides up to the springs for 50Q each way, or 10Q a person each way, whichever total is higher.



The drive up passes farm plots that are worked by hand. There is a wide variety of crops: corn, radishes, carrots, lettuces, chard, cabbage and flowers were what I was able to identify. There is a fantastic view of Santa Maria, a dormant volcano that looms in a perfect cone over this area. In the earlier part of the day the ride up and the hot springs are clear, but as the day progresses the clouds roll down mingling with the steam from the sulfur waters and Santa Maria vanishes into the cool, damp air.


The hottest pool. The water drips down and bubbles up at the farthest point from where this picture was taken.

The sign says "Please use bathing suits. Thank you. No food, drink, pets, or smoking in the pools."

The first Saturday I was here I went with 5 other people from school on the chicken bus.


This is not the bus we took, but a shining example of the "chicken buses" here. They are the economy buses that run everywhere. School buses of varying age and decoration, with racks ontop to hold bags and bundles and the standard of three people to a seat, four if one person is a child.

This past weekend, Dave and I decided to go to Funetes Gorginas again to give him a break from the 11 days of driving he had to get here from El Potrero Chico, the climbing site he was at near Monterrey. We stopped in the actual town of Zunil and walked around the cobble-stone streets. Women wearing traditional dress and going about their Saturday morning, buying, selling, and walking, and chatting dotted the streets.

Esmeralda, enjoys the view of Zunil from the dash.

Dave readies Sherry, the van, with "The Fortress" which is like The Club, but it matches Esmeralda.

Zunil is just a little Pueblo on the side of a mountain surrounded by fields with a river running between it and the main road. Sadly the river is full of trash because there is essentially no infrastructure for trash disposal here. The liter problem is huge, much worse than anywhere I have visited before, but there just aren't good options for the people who live here. Either dump it where everyone else does (in Zunil the two spots I noticed were off the bridge beside the river, or on an especially wide shoulder on the small road just outside of town leading up to Fuentes Gorginas. But because the litter is everywhere, including in Xela, my eyes have become a little more accustomed to it, and it is not taking away from the scenery like it was when I first arrived.

The fields go right up to the edge of town, and there are always people working in them.

After enjoying the springs for a few hours we headed back to Xela. As we were leaving the springs there was a group of 6 backpackers, all with packs and one with a guitar, who needed a ride. We crammed them into the back of Sherry and all bumped along for the return trip. Some of the guys in the group were pretty sure they had seen Sherry parked on a beach in Mexico, and sure enough they had been at the same place as Dave a week or so ago.

On Chicken Buses and Homemade Liquor
Wednesday we had a field trip with some of the teachers to Salcaja, about 20 minutes Northwest of Xela. A small town known for two things
1. It has the oldest church in Central America
2. Caldo de Fruta, a homebrewed liquor made using a mixture of fruits.
Also there is traditional weaving there. We visited the church (No pics, I accidentally left my camera at home), popped our heads into see some weavers using the foot-peddled looms, and then went and rang the doorbell of a house known to have Caldo de Fruta. The fruit itself was very strong, good, but dangerous. The liquor is smoother. Chris, a friend from school, and I went in on a large bottle for 20Q each. We haven't figured out how to split it, or when to drink it, but we have a few weeks to work it out.

The busride back from Salcaja was classic chicken bus. It was packed full, and the people who were going to have to get off sooner do not strategically place themselves near the front, or get out of their seats ahead of time, no they wait until the last minute, then yell and push and squeeze up to the front. It was 3 or four to a seat and the aisles are packed.

At the first stop in Xela many people got off, and it seemed we were waiting longer than normal. Then Chris and I noticed a fight in front of the bus. One man had taken off his belt and was striking at the other man who was counter-attacking with a rubber antenna-like item. Then I realized our bus driver wasn't there just as Jukka, another friend, said "I think our bus driver is the one with the belt."

Jukka was right, after 3 or 4 minutes the driver came back to the bus, threw his belt on the floor next to the door, and on we went. It ends up the man with the antenna was trying to scam people by saying his bus went somewhere and then taking them to a dangerous part of town and charging more money for them to get back. Our driver did not appreciate this poor reflection on his profession and took it upon himself to straighten out the scoundrel.

Another Chicken bus, this one from Antigua and full of bikes on the top.

The Mennonites Made Me Do It
They made me eat GLUTEN! On Tuesday I needed to by a cap, because my face was getting BURNED by the strong sun, and there are no straw hats sold around here. I kept thinking I would find one, but after over a week, I gave in to getting a cap. My teacher and I went to El Mercado Democracia, one of two main markets here. While there she asked if I knew what Mennonites were, I said yes, but why? And she proceeded to tell me about "La Bakeshop". There is a Mennonite community near Xela, and they have a bakery where twice a week, Tuesday and Friday, they sell bakegoods, granola, cheese, yogurt, etc. It just so happens it is was on the way from the market to the bus stop, so we went in. I didn't stand a chance.
The doughnuts were the most amazing I have ever had. I wanted one of everything, but only had one chocolate covered doughnut sprinkled with dried coconut. I haven't had gluten since, but I can't stop thinking about it, and am going back Friday.

Random Pics with Captions

The towel dispenser at Black Cat Hostel. Why aren't all of them elbow-push like this one?


Basically, don't be a pig and throw your trash in front of my house. A very popular stencil around my neighborhood.



A seed store near Mercado Democracia. The signage of the ag stores here is superb.


The boxspring "factory" on my way to school. On one side of the street they chainsaw the logs into manageable pieces. Then carry them into the shop, the turquoise building on your left, across the street where they make the boards. Put the boards into the street to dry. Then assemble into boxspring frames which are stored in the street until the fabric and a protective layer of plastic are put on, then back to the street to wait for a truck to take them away.

Coming Soon
Saturday morning Dave and I are heading to Santiago de Atitlan on Lago Atitlan. It is about a 3.5 hour chicken bus ride from here, so it will probably take us 3 hours, if we don't get lost. I am excited to get to some water. It is said the lake is beautiful and safe to swim in and kayak. We will come back Monday morning and start our last week of classes and volunteering here in Xela. We will leave on Sunday February 15. We are staying the weekend because it is Sarah's (the special programs coordinator at El Nahual) Birthday Saturday and it should quite the party. On the 15th we will either head south towards El Salvador or to eastern Guatemala. It depends on when and where Boozin' decides to meet us.

We've got a new Presidente, and I'm at a new Spanish School

SCHOOL

I started a new Spanish school yesterday, El Nahual. It is a perfect fit for me. It is non-profit and all the proceeds from the language program go to their programs for the community: an organic gardin, an accelerated program for people over the age of 14 who did not finish grade 6, an ESL program for adults and an afterschool program for kids with art, english, math, reading, and bike repair and guitar when there are volunteers who have the skills for the last two. The math and reading are taught by professional teachers. Everyone who goes to Spanish classes is expected to volunteer for 10-15 hours a week.

My teacher, Mirabel, rocks. She was two courses away from graduating with her law degree when she had her daughter, but she is going back in three months. We talk about really interesting legal and human rights issues.

Today some other volunteers and I rode bikes about 20 minutes outside of Xela to paint classrooms where there are some of El Nahual's education programs. Tomorrow I am doing community outreach to raise awareness that the programs have started back up again for the year. Thursday I am helping with art class and Friday I am helping with English/ health. Tomorrow we are watching a movie together at the school and Thursday we are having a cooking class. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!

ACCOMODATIONS

I am staying in a great house. It is a pension full of Guatemaltecan nurses and nursing students. It is very clean, the people are nice, and the food is great! Traditional Guatemalteca food, the cook Marta makes all of it, the tortillas, the tamales, the soups. You get the idea. We have a big lunch and then a small dinner of frijoles, tamales, y queso fresco. The queso fresco comes in corn husks and is lovely The only downside is the shower, while it has very nice hot water, it doesn't work. The tap works in the shower stall (why there is a tap in a shower stall I am not sure) but the shower does not, so there is a bucket involved. But before lunch today I heard a shower running from another part of the house, so I will investigate further.

SEEN...

• a man with pressed slacks and a sweater leading five goats tied together by the horns. On my walk home from school.
  
• Chevrolet sponsorship of the lunchtime news covering Obama's inaguration.
• papas fritas (french fries) sizzling in a little cart infront of a store. On my walk home from volunteering today. I bought a little plate for 4Q (10Q= 1.28 USD) and they were even better than they looked. Crisp, dusted with chili, still warm, served with a squirt of picante sauce.
  

Location change and ''Seen''

I am now in Quetzaltenango aka Xela. It was a bumpy but scenic 5 hour bus ride. It is the total antithesis of Antigua. It is loud and busy and lived in and a little dirty. I think I will like it.


Because I can't always get pictures of things, or because it is not always easy to post pictures, I am going to start a little segment called ¨Seen'' where I say what I saw in as few words as I am capable.


Seen...

• a 1980´s two-tone brown suburban full of Mariachis. Guatemala City aka Guate. From the bus window.
• every room in a small publea covered with drying red, yellow, and blue corn. About an hour away from Xela. From the bus window.
• men with guns guarding a pharmacy, a car dealership, a bank, a pharmacetical company, a roadside bus stop, and highway construction projects. From the bus window. Guate and the road from Guate to Xela.
• at least 10 dogs of various size and age wearing sweaters, tshirts or puffy-vests. Calles and Aviendas of Antigua.
• white rasta of Australian persuasion. Think Ras Trent* with an aussie accent. Front Desk/ Bar Black Cat Hostel, Xela.

*If you don't know Ras Trent. Look it up on youtube, Hulu, or SNL.com and prepare to laugh.

Molten Lava!

Yes, that's right, I saw some because I hiked up a volcano on Wednesday.
Volcan Pacaya if we're going to be specific.
And I can't say it was necessarily a good idea, although now that most of the soreness is gone and I have picked all the little pieces of lava rock out of my hand, it doesn't seem like as much of a bad idea as it did at the time.

We (me and 13 relative strangers) start our journey up the volcano being mobbed by children wielding sticks. Not really, they are just very enthusiastic about selling me a walking stick. It actually would have been helpful, of course I don't buy one, another not-so-good idea. Then we are introduced to our guide, Manuel. He tells us it is very very important we stick together, like a family. LIKE A FAMILY! TOGETHER! He yells this at us in spanish, very slowly. Like people do when they think if they yell at you, you will understand. Then he offers us the opportunity to take a horse for an additional cost, because it is 1.5 kilometers each way and we are climbing a total of 300 meters. Everyone declines this offer. Then we start walking. I unfortunately was at the back and had the horses on my heels. About a foot behind me. It is a really unpleasant feeling having horses breathing down your neck while you try to climb a dusty, sandy, steep path.

Yes three horses were still there, and anytime anyone would slow down one of the kids riding the horses would yell ''Horse! Taxi! You want? You _____!''
Insert in the blank either 'old', 'fat', 'slow' or 'girl' as applicable.

After walking for about 30 minutes one of the girls was having trouble catching her breath, so she wanted a horse. She didn't speak Spanish, the guide acted like he didn't speak English. So I translated. She wanted to make sure the horse went all the way to the top. The guide said nearly all the way, just five minutes walk after the horse stoped because it was too close to the lava. A price is named, the girl says ok, and away we go. Of course at this point all the kids who had been telling her she was a slow, fat, girl, are now saying ''A pretty horse for a pretty girl, you want this one, my horse''. I think in the future they should stick with either flattery or insults, it seems very insencere when they switch back and forth.

Of course the majority of the group, myself included, walks much slower than the guide, and we keep getting seperated. Not a big deal because the path is clear both because it is well established and full of horse poo and piss. But then he would stop and wait for us and look impatient and yell at us to be together LIKE A FAMILY!!! The third time this happens a lovely English couple and I start to joke about the like a family and it being lost on most of us cultrually.

We walk about another hour and come out of the trees and are looking at a giant lava field. (The little dots of color are people, the gray at the top is clouds around the top of the cone.)


An the guide says to the girl on the horse. Ok the horse stops here. And she looks at him and looks at me and asks ''It's only 5 minutes?'' And ask the guide and he says ''30 minutes more'' and I say, you said the horse went within 5 minutes and he says it can but it will cost more and I say that is not what he said and he says maybe I didn't understand and you get the idea. And the girl gets very uncomfortable and says she is fine and she can walk. I drop it because it's not my money, and the guide looks very smug. And it takes everything I have not to call him a liar. But I don't because I need him to lead me to the lava because after what feels like a forced-march up this thing, I want to see the orange stuff, damn it! One more time he yells about TOGETHER LIKE A FAMILY! VERY IMPORTANT!

So we start across the vast wasteland, and at first it is easy because it is sandy and down hill a little. Then we start up hill. This is where it goes from an unenjoyable walk to very unpleasant. It is like climbing a giant sanddune only this sanddune is out of crushed up lava rock, not sand. It is more dusty than sand (for those who have been to BRC, the level of dust when there is a gentle breeze, and you are getting just Playa dust in your nose and eyes, but not really an unpleasant amount) and sharper than sand, but unstable like sand.

As we keep climbing up it goes from small like sand, to something like sand and small pebbles, then the pebbles get bigger and bigger til they can properly be called rocks. But it is all kinda wobbly so you still slide as you climb and rocks are rolling down. Maybe one the size of a sneaker hits you in the shin and you say some dirty words. And Maybe you fall because the rock you have your right foot on and the rock you are putting your left foot on both slide at the same time. And maybe you put your hand down to catch yourself and you are reminded that lava that has solidified is often very sharp. Then the rocks are large and they dont slide out from under you, the rocks just wobble. And you can feel heat starting to come from the rocks. Perhaps you are reminded of a sauna with the smell of the hot lava rocks and the warm air. And perhaps you wish you were in a sauna instead of on the side of a volcano. Perhaps. But nonetheless you enjoy the pretty sunset that is happening to your right as you climb.

Finally we get to where the MOLTEN LAVA is. And it becomes aparant why if you are going to climb a volcano you do it where there isn't a lot of tort law. Because if you do it in Guatemala the guides encourage you to poke walking sticks into the molten lava flowing out a hole in the side of the volcano. And because people are roasting marshmallows and just generally disregarding safety. And it is kinda refreshing. (The bright flare is someone poking into the lava.)





And the molten lava is cool. And it is cool and a little freaky that you look down and see orange through the cracks in the rocks. And it is cool that even though it was cold five minutes ago, it is very toasty here, near where the magma portion of the earth is coming out of the crust.

Then the guide is yelling ''TIGRES! TIGRES!'' Because that is the name of your group and you all gather and are reminded once again to stay together LIKE A FAMILY! Because now it is dark. Also the obvious is pointed out, that you should get out your flashlight now. And if you are like me and a few other people in the group you get to be cool and pull out your headlamp. (Thanks Liza!) And down we go. A controlled slide the same steepness as before and with more dust (because 15 people are sliding down this lava rocky/sandy/dusty volcanoside). (Think light dust storm on the Playa). And a good amount of controlled falling, onto rocks.
It is very unpleasant, but you look back and there is this glow from the lava flow and there is the last little bit of a sunset, and that makes it worth it, NEARLY.




(This is at the end of the lava-scape. The dots are people's flashlights out on the lava-scape. The glow is from the molten lava.)

And we get off the lava-scape and the guide is waiting for us looking peeved that only one person kept up with him. And into the woods we go. At one point (thankfully I am not leading) some of us went left when the guide (who was way ahead of us, in the dark) had gone right. He finds us, yells at us. Three angry german women yell back at him, in German. And down we go. And he goes fast, and yells, and waits and yells. And I fall flat on my back at one point and yell dirty words, again.

But we get to the end. And the guide, in very good English, which he had not spoken up to that point, tells us that he kindly accepts tips, and as we walk past him to the little comedor to wait for our van he holds out his hand. No one tipped him.

I was blowing black snot for all of Thursday. I used a lot of Arnica cream. And I am very very grateful for my awesome little tweezers with the tiny points. Perfect for digging out shards of lava rock. (Thanks Liza!)

The final verdict- Volcan Pacaya, not really worth it unless you like pain and being yelled at.


My shoes the day after, which looked pretty new 24 hours before this was taken.

I'm headed to Xela tomorrow morning. Antigua just wasn't for me.

And yes, I risked electorcution to wash all the volcano dust off me.

A Shocking Shower and Steamed Hot Dogs

First off I want to say, my host mother is very nice and she likes to laugh and she has pets. Also, my bed is comfortable, and the house is close to school. And I like the dogs.


The problem is so far the food hasn't been very good. Wait, before you jump to accusations of my being a food snob, which I admit I can be, I am talking about steamed hot dogs, well steamed mini-hot dogs. Not quite as small as vienna sausages, but smaller than a normal hot dog. In a sauce that was neither good or bad, but the problem was that there were hot dogs in it. Today for lunch there was soup, it was ok. But I'm nervous for dinner. I'm committed for the week, so we'll see how it goes.

And true to the tradition started in Thailand, there is something noteable about the shower!


While it is not combined with the toilet, it shocks you. Literally. The shower head heats the water as it comes out, and if you touch it, it shocks you. Not very strong, but your arm tingles afterwards.

**Please note the electricity coming in on the left and the water coming in on the right.**

I'm not totally sold on Antigua. It is picturesque but it's just not doing it for me and it is not cheap. I wouldn't say it's expensive, but it does seems like things are a little overpriced because of all the tourists and language students. I am looking into moving on to Xela or San Pedro. But I am happy to be here for the week. And my teacher at school is very nice and we laughed a lot today. It should be a fun week.

I spent yesterday walking all over and looking at the details on the houses. One facade will be pristine and the adjacent will be crumbling. I am terribly intrigued by what is behind all these wooden doors of varying size, color, quality, and adornment. My favorites are the massive ones studded with metal and gleaming with varnish

http://picasaweb.google.com/Panebianco/Guatemala?feat=directlink#5290539765766068498

There have been some noteworthy knockers as well. Door knockers that is, minds out of the gutter please.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/rRPnbEeQnDfR_TUmPxX_aw?feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/JLLk_6BVDVxJ_FLRbpzyIw?feat=directlink

I was going to add more photos but for whatever reason I am having trouble, so just follow the links to see what I'm talking about...

I think that's all for now. I'm off to the little Salsa class they have at the school.

Antigua

I'm safe and sound in Antigua. My flight arrived in Guatemala City around 9 last night. I took a shuttle to Antigua. There were two other people in it. Joe from Minneapolis and Sofie who lives in NYC but is Russian. Sofie was very stressed about having not planned, but went ahead with her stress and all anyways. Joe had been here before and was confident a cheap place to stay could be found even arriving between 10 and 11.

We found the Kafka Hostel. It had good ambiance and bad beds, but they were beds none-the-less. The beds were in a little 6 bed dorm room that a very unpleasant woman and her strange son were also staying in. They were pissed when they had to move their belongings, which were strewn about on every bed and in every cubby, but the hostel employee was pretty unapologetic about it.
There were also two cats in the room. Apparently there are a lot of cats at the place. Even being the animal lover I am, I found it strange to bring strange cats into your hostel bed.

This morning I got up and got lost. No seriously. And I blame it all on Lonely Planet. Normally LP has decent maps. Well the Antigua map in the Central America on a Shoestring guide is oriented all funny and they don't show it on the map. So I set off going East towards the spanish school I wanted to check out, but it ends up it was North West of where I was. Fortunately Antigua is small, so I just walked all over and eventually got to where I had originally intended.
On my way to La Union (the school I'll start at Monday), I bought some pineapple from a street vendor. It was sickly sweet and so I opted for some of the chili salt to cut the syrupy feel in my mouth.

This afternoon I moved into my room at the house I am staying in. The mom is named Elina and she has two dogs, who are my new best friends. They are about the size of Louie, and very gregarious. We all know I will not complain about friendly dogs.

Sadly the internet place I chose does not have memory card readers, so no pictures yet, but soon, very soon...

Hope everyone is having a lovely Saturday!

Oh and if you notice there are no contractions because I cannot find it on this keyboard.