Saturday, July 29th
Ok, so San Salvador is a city of chaos. At least that´s the impression that you get after visiting the city center. We left the orderliness of our posh neighborhood and drove into the busy streets of this Central American capital. The law here is made by the toughest and only they survive.
After avoiding being hit by a bus, waiting behind a green light just because some driver thought he could make it through his yellow light, and negotiating people on the streets we made it to a parking place. The attendant was kind enough to tell us where to go from there. We visited a the cathedral were mass was being given. Then, we walked around to another church with a very particular shape. The environment was getting sketchier by the minute and yes, a bit dangerous. I am not sure if the guys noticed but there were a couple of people going around us, checking out out at all times. In any case, we walked back towards the center and saw more of the city.
Todd and Greg purchased some shirts at the market and then we were off.. out of the center. The next stop was suggested by Emily as well and it was the Museum of Salvadorean Art (MARTE). This was very very nice! Also, we got a student discount and entrance was only $0.50 per person. Art there consisted of local painter´s works. Very nice! Some of it touching, some of it alarming but all in all, very colourful. The restaurant there seems to be very high end so we don´t eat there.
At this time our stomachs are asking for a meal. However, the guys want to take me out for my birthday (next Monday) to a nice place. So we drive down to the beach at La Libertad. Emily, whom we have not met yet in person, highly suggested that we go to a place called Sunzal. Once on the road, we did not know if this was the name of the place or the name of the beach or what it was.. However, we asked around and made it to Cafe Sunzal.
What a wonderful beach.. flat long stretches of waves being ridden by skilled surfers. The sand was black and inviting. Now on to Lunch/Dinner. We all ordered the combo which consisted of a seafood coctail, main entree, dessert and beverage. This place has to be the nicest and most expensive place we have eaten at so far. However, the setting and the food were amazing!! Clams, fish, squid.. you name it, it was in our table. The flan tasted like heaven. The guys paid for it.. (Thank you guys!) but stopped short of singing happy birthday in Spanish. Luckily, during the whole meal we were serenated by the speakers to the sounds or Air Supply, Brian Adams, Phil Collins, Lionel Ritchey and other heavy hitters of this caliber.
Now it was time to head back as apparently and according to the Lonely Planet, this area gets hairy at night. So Alexey drives back to San Salvador and we are there in 45 minutes.
At this point we are thinking that we are going to go out to a club or something. At the very least we were planing to have a few beers at the bar next door. However, today was tiring and I fall asleep. For some reason the last thing I remember from last night was Alexey glued to the TV watching Arnold in Terminator I. Was I dreaming?
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Looking eye to eye into our fears
Friday, July 28th
The day started early. We are out of the room around 7AM but the car has been blocked around a tight corner of the parking lot. So after moving the car back and forth repeatedly without luck, the hotel receptionist wakes up the owner of the other car and he moves it clear. We are on our way!
Getting out of town we score a whole bunch of bread at a local bakery for under $1 US. We continue on and out of Pana and the next town of Solola. The climate gets cold but the road in great condition so we breeze through to Guatemala City. Then, we park the car in a lot near the Central Plaza. Here we see the old Presidential Palace which is now a museum. There happens to be a free guided tour of this palace which is awesome! The rooms give an impression of royalty and old glamour. Very pretty.
We then go to the Plaza and take pictures. Many people had told us that this City was not worth visiting for the crime and uglyness of it all. However, at least for me, it was a nice old capital with its own groth pains. We went around town looking for a restaurant and found some sort of Argentinan parrillada place (barbeque). Eating our meals was excellent! However, it upsets my stomach just a bit.
If we want to cross the border and make it into San Salvador before the night falls, we need to leave, NOW! So we go back and pick up Rosinante. The landscape changed to vast valleys full of humid air and tropical plants. So far in the trip we really have not felt extreme heat as we had expected but this gets close to it. The road also becomes worse and after a few more hours of uneventful driving we make it to the town of xx for the border crossing into El Salvador.
As all border towns in Latin America go, this place is a dump. Sorry guys.. really, you have to watch your back because its very sketchy. The exit from Guatemala was actually pretty simple but not quick. The guy there thought it was cool to talk about the travels through all countries that had stamped my passport in the past. Some of them he knew, others he did not. He DID recognized the name of MIT! Unless he was just trying to create a bond which would make me drop him 20Q for his `own personal pocket` fee. Some guy from the streets has been bugging us saying that he will help up through the process. We give him $1 and he goes away. We did not have to get an exit stamp from Guatemala.
Now on to El Salvador. The difference in the bureaucracy necessary to enter the country is evident. First, because imigration basically looks at our stamps and says ¨go ahead, you don´t need to do anything for the car or anything else¨. Now, this was too easy right?.. RIGHT!. So we stop the car and go to customs just to check things out. Honestly, these were the nicest customs people that we have encountered. Extremely helpful. It really was not their fault that we had to spend the next hour filling out forms, making photocopies, checking the car, etc.. Some of the forms were hillarious! ¨Car engine series number? Date of Manufacture?..¨ and even ¨What side is the wheel on?¨ I really wander how, who and for what purpose will they analyze this data? The great thing was that this border crossing only cost us $1.50. The single dollar went to the unemployed bum we talked about before and the extra $0.50 for photocopies.
Now we are in Salvadorean territory. This country has been bashed by travellers as well a books everywhere. They say the country is dangerous.. murders, gangs, drugs, theft.. you name it. So far we only have experienced wonderful landscapes so we´ll tell you in the next few days if they were right.
A friend in El Salvador, Emily, had provided hotel information for us. We drive towards this hotel. KFC, Subway, Quiznos on the right.. McDonalds, TGI Fridays and of course, Pollo Campero on the left! This place is really nice!!! We have all the modern conviniences that we have in any city of the US. Now, this is very, very different that what we were expecting. True, this is the Paseo Escalon, posh part of town but still.
The recommended hotel does not have enough beds for us but they suggest a place around the corner. We have success here and negotiate a rate of $59 per night for two double beds. The cool thing is that we have covered parking and free wireless to make skype calls.
Now it was dark. We barely made it in time into San Salvador. After showering we go to dinner at an Italian place that Alexey had scouted. This place sucks.. big time! Alexey stops eating his pasta after the first few spoonfuls and I do the same 3/4 of the way through my deep fried dounut flavored calzone. Better luck tomorrow..
The day started early. We are out of the room around 7AM but the car has been blocked around a tight corner of the parking lot. So after moving the car back and forth repeatedly without luck, the hotel receptionist wakes up the owner of the other car and he moves it clear. We are on our way!
Getting out of town we score a whole bunch of bread at a local bakery for under $1 US. We continue on and out of Pana and the next town of Solola. The climate gets cold but the road in great condition so we breeze through to Guatemala City. Then, we park the car in a lot near the Central Plaza. Here we see the old Presidential Palace which is now a museum. There happens to be a free guided tour of this palace which is awesome! The rooms give an impression of royalty and old glamour. Very pretty.
We then go to the Plaza and take pictures. Many people had told us that this City was not worth visiting for the crime and uglyness of it all. However, at least for me, it was a nice old capital with its own groth pains. We went around town looking for a restaurant and found some sort of Argentinan parrillada place (barbeque). Eating our meals was excellent! However, it upsets my stomach just a bit.
If we want to cross the border and make it into San Salvador before the night falls, we need to leave, NOW! So we go back and pick up Rosinante. The landscape changed to vast valleys full of humid air and tropical plants. So far in the trip we really have not felt extreme heat as we had expected but this gets close to it. The road also becomes worse and after a few more hours of uneventful driving we make it to the town of xx for the border crossing into El Salvador.
As all border towns in Latin America go, this place is a dump. Sorry guys.. really, you have to watch your back because its very sketchy. The exit from Guatemala was actually pretty simple but not quick. The guy there thought it was cool to talk about the travels through all countries that had stamped my passport in the past. Some of them he knew, others he did not. He DID recognized the name of MIT! Unless he was just trying to create a bond which would make me drop him 20Q for his `own personal pocket` fee. Some guy from the streets has been bugging us saying that he will help up through the process. We give him $1 and he goes away. We did not have to get an exit stamp from Guatemala.
Now on to El Salvador. The difference in the bureaucracy necessary to enter the country is evident. First, because imigration basically looks at our stamps and says ¨go ahead, you don´t need to do anything for the car or anything else¨. Now, this was too easy right?.. RIGHT!. So we stop the car and go to customs just to check things out. Honestly, these were the nicest customs people that we have encountered. Extremely helpful. It really was not their fault that we had to spend the next hour filling out forms, making photocopies, checking the car, etc.. Some of the forms were hillarious! ¨Car engine series number? Date of Manufacture?..¨ and even ¨What side is the wheel on?¨ I really wander how, who and for what purpose will they analyze this data? The great thing was that this border crossing only cost us $1.50. The single dollar went to the unemployed bum we talked about before and the extra $0.50 for photocopies.
Now we are in Salvadorean territory. This country has been bashed by travellers as well a books everywhere. They say the country is dangerous.. murders, gangs, drugs, theft.. you name it. So far we only have experienced wonderful landscapes so we´ll tell you in the next few days if they were right.
A friend in El Salvador, Emily, had provided hotel information for us. We drive towards this hotel. KFC, Subway, Quiznos on the right.. McDonalds, TGI Fridays and of course, Pollo Campero on the left! This place is really nice!!! We have all the modern conviniences that we have in any city of the US. Now, this is very, very different that what we were expecting. True, this is the Paseo Escalon, posh part of town but still.
The recommended hotel does not have enough beds for us but they suggest a place around the corner. We have success here and negotiate a rate of $59 per night for two double beds. The cool thing is that we have covered parking and free wireless to make skype calls.
Now it was dark. We barely made it in time into San Salvador. After showering we go to dinner at an Italian place that Alexey had scouted. This place sucks.. big time! Alexey stops eating his pasta after the first few spoonfuls and I do the same 3/4 of the way through my deep fried dounut flavored calzone. Better luck tomorrow..
And once again, there was light..
Thursday, July 27th
After having a great breakfast for cheap at a local restaurant, I once again walked the same single street that is the center of Pana`s life. At this time, the other guys were still taking classes in Xela but we had agreed that they would flee soon after classes and meet me in Pana to spend the night here.
In order for the guys to stay over, I arranged for a 4-bed room which was actually quite nice, cheap and with its own TV and private bath here in the hotel that I´ve been staying. Since I´ve pretty much done everything there is to do in Pana, there is no other choice but to read. So I finished a book and walked around bookstores looking for good finds in Spanish. I settled for El Viejo y El Mar.
Now, the guys arrive while I´m waiting at a corner reading my book. My thinking was that I must see them past and catch them before they go too far as the entrance to the hotel parking was a bit hidden. They pick me up and we all go to the hotel. Alexey at the wheel was warned well in advance about two piles of dog poop laying in the drive way. However, it seems as if he wanted it, bad! To complete the trifecta, he runs over one of the piles in the dead center stinking up the whole scene.. To be perfectly honest, it was a bit hard to avoid but there wasn´t even an attempt.
After this, I showed the guys the town rather quickly but we spend most of the time by the lake where the views are awesome! We have a beer at the lake and then go to do some interneting and have dinner. At dinner, there is the whole membership of the Guatemalan Tai Chi club. There must have been about 40 of them. After turning the lights off and putting some trance music on the speakers someone gives a speech welcoming new members. We are thinking to ourselves that if we don´t get an order soon, we will never see the face of the grilled fish. We managed to be nice to the waiter and he brings the plates right out.
After this we go out to the only place in town that seems to have a party going on. The music was of course, reggaeton which Alexey digs. There were about 3 girls and perhaps 20 guys but it was fun to hangout there. We all go to sleep and think about the drive that we´ll have tomorrow. We will attempt to cross the border into El Salvador not before stopping to see Guatemala City. Stay tuned!
After having a great breakfast for cheap at a local restaurant, I once again walked the same single street that is the center of Pana`s life. At this time, the other guys were still taking classes in Xela but we had agreed that they would flee soon after classes and meet me in Pana to spend the night here.
In order for the guys to stay over, I arranged for a 4-bed room which was actually quite nice, cheap and with its own TV and private bath here in the hotel that I´ve been staying. Since I´ve pretty much done everything there is to do in Pana, there is no other choice but to read. So I finished a book and walked around bookstores looking for good finds in Spanish. I settled for El Viejo y El Mar.
Now, the guys arrive while I´m waiting at a corner reading my book. My thinking was that I must see them past and catch them before they go too far as the entrance to the hotel parking was a bit hidden. They pick me up and we all go to the hotel. Alexey at the wheel was warned well in advance about two piles of dog poop laying in the drive way. However, it seems as if he wanted it, bad! To complete the trifecta, he runs over one of the piles in the dead center stinking up the whole scene.. To be perfectly honest, it was a bit hard to avoid but there wasn´t even an attempt.
After this, I showed the guys the town rather quickly but we spend most of the time by the lake where the views are awesome! We have a beer at the lake and then go to do some interneting and have dinner. At dinner, there is the whole membership of the Guatemalan Tai Chi club. There must have been about 40 of them. After turning the lights off and putting some trance music on the speakers someone gives a speech welcoming new members. We are thinking to ourselves that if we don´t get an order soon, we will never see the face of the grilled fish. We managed to be nice to the waiter and he brings the plates right out.
After this we go out to the only place in town that seems to have a party going on. The music was of course, reggaeton which Alexey digs. There were about 3 girls and perhaps 20 guys but it was fun to hangout there. We all go to sleep and think about the drive that we´ll have tomorrow. We will attempt to cross the border into El Salvador not before stopping to see Guatemala City. Stay tuned!
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
The encounter with a distant past..
In my best days as a heart-breaker, around 10 or 11 years of age, it was customary for my father´s side of the family to take my brother and I to this small town in the Ecuadorian Andes. It was very interesting to see the mixing of mountain aborigen people with the more mestizo looking ones. The same perceptions and feeling that I had when I was a kid in that town have reappeared here in the towns of Lago Atitlan.This morning, after the spider incident last night, and my inability to sleep due to the Reggaeton blasting machine at the disco behind my room, I´ve decided to leave this hotel for another one. To cement my decision, I spot a humongous, even hairy spider near the shared bathroom. It´s early in the morning so I wake up this guy at the other hotel I had spotted yesterday. The guy charges me 75Q for a room with TV and private bath.. not bad. Dropped the stuff, take a shower, and run out the door.
All the hurry was because a tour boat was leaving at 8:30AM from the pier. I buy the ticket and jump in the boat or lancha. First call: San Pedro La Laguna. This town is supposed to be the bigggest of them all. In reality it´s actually quite small behind a well manicured pier area which serves as bait for tourists. After having the best breakfast so far in the trip for under $1 US dollar (nice cold fresh mango shake with 4 pieces of bread), I decide to walk around the plaza. This is accomplished in 5 minutes. However, they are enough to discover this tacit competition between young Mayan women of who wears the best shoes. In fact, their dress-up clothes are the same as the everyday ones but with high heels. They also like to carry things on their heads and flaunt their abilities by doing it without holding their cargo. I am not sure if they have the flattest heads of the planet but their ability seems innate as kids through older women do it. Never the guys.
The boat ride to San Pedro had been about 1 hr long and the one to Santiago, our next stop, was half that. Santiago Atitlan is a smaller city albeit a livelier one. Santiago´s festivities were today itself! If my memory serves me right, small town festivities equate to drunk and beligerant guys throughout the day (yes, including noon). There was no shortage of this but everyone is in their best attire and mood otherwise. I am still holding out for a big fist fight to breakout. A guy is even finishing putting a fresh coating of grease to the pole of a Palo Encebado (this is a very high slippery pole with an unknown prize awaiting at the top for the best climber). The required loud and slightly off-key band plays throughout.
Santiago is also home to Mohshimon (or however you write it) who is another religious figure for them. After they attempt to charge 5Q for taking a picture of the wooden figure, I reject the proposal and walk away. As a rule, Todd never pays for entering a church. I would add pictures to the equation. I still was able to sneak around some tourists and take a picture of it, just because I could.Drivers here have mastered the act of reverse driving. The fact that the streets are so narrow, one-way and always at a steep hill, makes them have to back up for long distances instead of having to turn streets. Watching a gigantic Gallo Beer truck do this is an amazing sight!
Another fact that caught my attention was the males´ attire. As I mentioned in a previous post, older males sometimes wear skirts, very smilar to the women. However, in this town the men wear stripped, bermuda-height pants. These are most of the time white in background with red stripes lengthwise. This is accompanied by a longsleeve dress shirt and a straw hat, cowboy style. Their shoes are Teva-like sandals made of rubber and leather sometimes. Very interesting. Older men just sit and enjoy the festivities while the younger ones get drunk.
Next and final call: San Antonio. This town was actually pretty small. But I managed to buy a lot of stuff there. They are known for onions and home-made blue-dye fabrics. Pretty nice looking things. Aside from the best views around from the old Church, nothing else to report here. The water does look like it wants to see some of my best dives a la El Remate (see previous posting) but I´ll wait for the guys to arrive before we start a proper competition.
Back in Pana and I get to the hotel. The lady seems puzzled at the fact that I have a room in their hotel. Perhaps she did not see me walk in. I rest and watch some weird Mexican TV news anchor who sports a wrestler mask (I guess it could add credibility or something). Eat.The guys are coming tomorrow and we´ll stay one more night here before heading for Guatemala City. That will be the re-unification of the foursome. Hopefully all goes as planned and they don´t bring any sickness my way.
Free at last!!
Tuesday, July 25th
After taking a ¨first class¨ bus from Xela with destination Guatemala City, it suddenly hit that I was away from the comfort of the AC, Air circulation vent, MP3 playing, etc.. this was the street for real, as I remember them from my youth in Ecuador. After one and a half hours of torture through the windy highway, we arrived at Los Encuentros which happens to be a town without any other purpose than for passengers to transfer busses to other destinations.
Quickly, I jumped into a very folkouricly adorned bus that had seen better days as a proud member of some school district in Arkansas. It was cool though, don´t get me wrong! 2 Quetzales to get to a town called Solola and then another 2.5 to get to Panajachel or ¨Pana¨ which was my final destination. Thank God I was wearing my Uruguay sweatshirt.. soon after jumping in the first connecting bus, a girl asked if I was from Uruguay to which I answered negatively. Then I explained that I had visited a couple of months back. She happened to be from Uruguay and now living in Pana. So she showed me the way to get through the busy streets of Solola to take the second connecting bus.
Now, at this point all this onion, arm pit, live chicken smells plus the effects of the curvey road are starting to add up.. my head felt a bit light and I was starting to worry that perhaps Greg had passed some of his sickness onto me. But the beautiful landscape that followed was enough to get all the viruses off my system. What a wonderful view!!!! the lake in all it´s glory serving as the base for a few volcanoes in the horizon. This is Lake Atitlan which actually is the collapsed crater of an ancient volcanoe.
People here are very simple, humble and always welcoming. A few of them, have found a great way to make money.. selling bright local fabrics to all foreign visitors. Others, do the same but in a much more (personal opinion) damaging way. Since when are smoking pipes and bongs part of a traditional custom that our Mayan aborigens make in their homes with their own hands? Since when, I ask, are Bob Marley shirts and Jamaican knitted hair nets parts of the local vestiments? Oh well, at least they are making money but let´s make sure we don´t forget the real customs.
But I digress, aside from having to bat american transplants from offering me weed, the town is actually pretty cool. I found a place to stay for 40Q which is a real deal. The only problem is that it´s kind of further out and if I wanted to go out at night I would have to cross a very dark alley by myself (note to self: Remember Oaxaca) But for tonight is ok.. I am tired anyways and will not go out.
The town basically consists of a long street where everything you need could be bought for a price. This street ends at the lake and some of the piers set up there for boats used for transportation between Pana and the numerous other towns around the rim of this crater.
After walking around town and trying to answer the question: ¨what the heck do I do here?¨, I decided to stop for dinner. It was just ok but the nightlife in this place was great. Tons of people from all over the world were there; including these two american girls no older than 19 who had somehow ended up in the same table as these two sleezy looking locals. These guys must have been truck drivers above 40 with exposed bellies and all. They seemed to be having fun until one of the girls decided to leave and the already drunk road warriors started kissing her profusely. The American girls took this to mean ¨how wonderful are the locals? would you believe this friendliness?¨ when the guys were actually just being themselves: sleezy.
Oh well, I go to bed. The room is big, wooden and I find a spider near my bed. I HATE SPIDERS!
After taking a ¨first class¨ bus from Xela with destination Guatemala City, it suddenly hit that I was away from the comfort of the AC, Air circulation vent, MP3 playing, etc.. this was the street for real, as I remember them from my youth in Ecuador. After one and a half hours of torture through the windy highway, we arrived at Los Encuentros which happens to be a town without any other purpose than for passengers to transfer busses to other destinations.
Quickly, I jumped into a very folkouricly adorned bus that had seen better days as a proud member of some school district in Arkansas. It was cool though, don´t get me wrong! 2 Quetzales to get to a town called Solola and then another 2.5 to get to Panajachel or ¨Pana¨ which was my final destination. Thank God I was wearing my Uruguay sweatshirt.. soon after jumping in the first connecting bus, a girl asked if I was from Uruguay to which I answered negatively. Then I explained that I had visited a couple of months back. She happened to be from Uruguay and now living in Pana. So she showed me the way to get through the busy streets of Solola to take the second connecting bus.
Now, at this point all this onion, arm pit, live chicken smells plus the effects of the curvey road are starting to add up.. my head felt a bit light and I was starting to worry that perhaps Greg had passed some of his sickness onto me. But the beautiful landscape that followed was enough to get all the viruses off my system. What a wonderful view!!!! the lake in all it´s glory serving as the base for a few volcanoes in the horizon. This is Lake Atitlan which actually is the collapsed crater of an ancient volcanoe.
People here are very simple, humble and always welcoming. A few of them, have found a great way to make money.. selling bright local fabrics to all foreign visitors. Others, do the same but in a much more (personal opinion) damaging way. Since when are smoking pipes and bongs part of a traditional custom that our Mayan aborigens make in their homes with their own hands? Since when, I ask, are Bob Marley shirts and Jamaican knitted hair nets parts of the local vestiments? Oh well, at least they are making money but let´s make sure we don´t forget the real customs.
But I digress, aside from having to bat american transplants from offering me weed, the town is actually pretty cool. I found a place to stay for 40Q which is a real deal. The only problem is that it´s kind of further out and if I wanted to go out at night I would have to cross a very dark alley by myself (note to self: Remember Oaxaca) But for tonight is ok.. I am tired anyways and will not go out.
The town basically consists of a long street where everything you need could be bought for a price. This street ends at the lake and some of the piers set up there for boats used for transportation between Pana and the numerous other towns around the rim of this crater.
After walking around town and trying to answer the question: ¨what the heck do I do here?¨, I decided to stop for dinner. It was just ok but the nightlife in this place was great. Tons of people from all over the world were there; including these two american girls no older than 19 who had somehow ended up in the same table as these two sleezy looking locals. These guys must have been truck drivers above 40 with exposed bellies and all. They seemed to be having fun until one of the girls decided to leave and the already drunk road warriors started kissing her profusely. The American girls took this to mean ¨how wonderful are the locals? would you believe this friendliness?¨ when the guys were actually just being themselves: sleezy.
Oh well, I go to bed. The room is big, wooden and I find a spider near my bed. I HATE SPIDERS!
The Fellowship Disperses - Act II: Life in a Guatemalan Family
Wednesday, July 26th 2006
Now that our readers (do we have any anymore?) have been updated on the developments of our facial hair growth, our laundry situation, and the number of times I have puked so far, I will attempt to describe Guatemala a bit.
Our fellowship has dispersed slightly - so I will update you on my family stay. For the past few days I´ve been living in (what I think is) a middle class, blue collar Guatemalan household. There are approximately eleven of us in the apartment which is about 800 sqft. Price: $35USD for one week room, board - three meals per day. The apartment lies off of one of the smaller streets of the town which is about fifteen feet wide, big enough for one car to squeeze by. At night there is very little lighting (read: quite sketchy) in the streets and I´ve been advised not walk alone after 10pm and certainly not to bring my passport or credit cards with me. Around midnight, there are only a handfull of people milling about town.
Mariela is clearly the head of the household and life revolves around the kitchen. This afternoon for lunch (the big meal of the day) we ate spinach soup, potato pancakes, and more of the dried leftover tomales which we have been eating all week. Soap operas, money (lack of), the Miss Universe competition, and the newest cell phones on the market are key topics of conversation. They are also intrigued with my curly hair. Football is also of great importance and they are still recovering from a month of World Cup - aka, not getting much work done.
There are three children who grew up in the household. Carlos aged 25 works the night shift for Gallo, one of Guatemala´s famous beer companies. Antonio, age 5, is pretty infatuated with numbers and enjoys running around taking pictures of everyone with my digital camera. Ana, age 27, is looking for work. Christian, Alex, and Juanito (early twenties), who also work for the beer company, are also sorta just staying in the house for a few months while they work in Quezaltenago. While seamlessly integrating into the family, I have learned that their home is Guatemala City, and they are just her for a few months of work. Obviously there is some type of revenue being generated by hosting them, but the details of this are unclear. There are a couple grand parents, great aunt type figures who are more silent.
It has been quite cold here - mid to lower 50´s at night - and we have been pretty bundled up around the house. In the morning, I still have to come up with my own toilet paper (not exactly clear what they do) and I have to wait 2 minutes for the light in the bathroom to turn on. After a series of power switches and dials I can activate the in-line water heater for the shower. Once activated, this means that I can either shower with a small trickle of hot water, or with decent pressure of freezing cold water. I opt for trying to assume the pencil position and go for the modest trickle.
Guatemala has finally recovered from 35 years of military rule and the country is slowly getting their feet back on the ground. Their education system is not terrible, but it will take time for the economy to develop more. Guatemala is 50% indigenous Indians and racism is a very big issue here. Indigenous people are consistently denied privileges and opportunities that the Hispanics are.
Trade is also and important topic. Guatemala generally is a footnote in the US economy, but US trade policy and farm subsidies are of the utmost importance to them. They feel that they haven´t had much luck accessing the market, but they try their best and send their best produce and goods abroad, saving the leftovers for themselves. Finally, it is quite clear that Guatemalans hate Mexicans with a passion. It seems that they are treated like second class citizens by the Mexicans. As a result, Guatemalans hate being associated with Mexicans - once again, the Mexico-Guatemala football clashes are the highlights of the year.
Stay tuned for the re-uniting of the fellowship. We have now depleted 2-3rds of our Cipro supply.
Now that our readers (do we have any anymore?) have been updated on the developments of our facial hair growth, our laundry situation, and the number of times I have puked so far, I will attempt to describe Guatemala a bit.
Our fellowship has dispersed slightly - so I will update you on my family stay. For the past few days I´ve been living in (what I think is) a middle class, blue collar Guatemalan household. There are approximately eleven of us in the apartment which is about 800 sqft. Price: $35USD for one week room, board - three meals per day. The apartment lies off of one of the smaller streets of the town which is about fifteen feet wide, big enough for one car to squeeze by. At night there is very little lighting (read: quite sketchy) in the streets and I´ve been advised not walk alone after 10pm and certainly not to bring my passport or credit cards with me. Around midnight, there are only a handfull of people milling about town.
Mariela is clearly the head of the household and life revolves around the kitchen. This afternoon for lunch (the big meal of the day) we ate spinach soup, potato pancakes, and more of the dried leftover tomales which we have been eating all week. Soap operas, money (lack of), the Miss Universe competition, and the newest cell phones on the market are key topics of conversation. They are also intrigued with my curly hair. Football is also of great importance and they are still recovering from a month of World Cup - aka, not getting much work done.
There are three children who grew up in the household. Carlos aged 25 works the night shift for Gallo, one of Guatemala´s famous beer companies. Antonio, age 5, is pretty infatuated with numbers and enjoys running around taking pictures of everyone with my digital camera. Ana, age 27, is looking for work. Christian, Alex, and Juanito (early twenties), who also work for the beer company, are also sorta just staying in the house for a few months while they work in Quezaltenago. While seamlessly integrating into the family, I have learned that their home is Guatemala City, and they are just her for a few months of work. Obviously there is some type of revenue being generated by hosting them, but the details of this are unclear. There are a couple grand parents, great aunt type figures who are more silent.
It has been quite cold here - mid to lower 50´s at night - and we have been pretty bundled up around the house. In the morning, I still have to come up with my own toilet paper (not exactly clear what they do) and I have to wait 2 minutes for the light in the bathroom to turn on. After a series of power switches and dials I can activate the in-line water heater for the shower. Once activated, this means that I can either shower with a small trickle of hot water, or with decent pressure of freezing cold water. I opt for trying to assume the pencil position and go for the modest trickle.
Guatemala has finally recovered from 35 years of military rule and the country is slowly getting their feet back on the ground. Their education system is not terrible, but it will take time for the economy to develop more. Guatemala is 50% indigenous Indians and racism is a very big issue here. Indigenous people are consistently denied privileges and opportunities that the Hispanics are.
Trade is also and important topic. Guatemala generally is a footnote in the US economy, but US trade policy and farm subsidies are of the utmost importance to them. They feel that they haven´t had much luck accessing the market, but they try their best and send their best produce and goods abroad, saving the leftovers for themselves. Finally, it is quite clear that Guatemalans hate Mexicans with a passion. It seems that they are treated like second class citizens by the Mexicans. As a result, Guatemalans hate being associated with Mexicans - once again, the Mexico-Guatemala football clashes are the highlights of the year.
Stay tuned for the re-uniting of the fellowship. We have now depleted 2-3rds of our Cipro supply.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Montezuma´s Revenge
Monday, July 24th
NOTE: Pictures to be included later.
NOTE: Pictures included now.
Well kids its that time of year, back to school! I was so excited I woke up at 4:00am because I couldn´t sleep. Either that or I was awaken by the sounds of Alexey praying to the porcelain god. Thats right both Greg and Alexey were heaving their guts out this morning. Luckily we had had two hotel rooms and thus two bathrooms or else things could have gotten uglier. Now I´m not normally one to celebrate the poor misfortune of others, but I don´t think it is coincidental that both Greg and Alexey shaved their faces yesterday before becoming ill. Amazingly the only other time we had an illness on the trip was when Greg shaved his beard for the first time in Belize. Now I´m not one to put much faith in superstition, but Jose might want to watch where he puts his razor. Montezuma may still be bitter over how the Spanish broke their pact and may be taking it out on others who break sacred pacts. I am happy to report I am as scraggily as ever.
In spite of his illness, Alexey was still able to battle through and attend the first day or classes today. We took our traditional school pictures at the door way to the hotel room before Jose walked us to class. Absent was Greg who was bedridden with the aforementioned illness. The classes were quite enjoyable and informative, albeit seven hours of language class in one day is quite a lot. I don´t know how my teacher Manuel was able to tolerate me. I think he eventually gave up and so the last two hours I just wrote out the conjugations for like 30 verbs that end in -ir. On the bright side I was able to learn some very important verbs for travelling in Central America (combatir:to combat, delinquir:to commit a crime, difunder:to diffuse, eludir: to ellude, invadir:to invade, oprimir se:to be oppressed, sufrir:to suffer, morir:to die and over three ways to say to hit). Perhaps the most important thing I already knew though. That is that I suck at learning languages. This time I am determined though, so maybe it will all work out in time for Jose´s wedding in March. I´m hoping to hit on some of his sexy cousins in Ecuador "¿cómo tu haciendo?"
Speaking of learning languages, I loved Jose´s wonderful wife Muoi´s comment about the reverse semi-colon. I think this is a great idea, although I think what she is actually looking for is an upside down semi-colon. I feel like the reverse semi-colon would have a period on top and a comma on the bottom pointing in the opposite direction. In fact I think there should be reverse punctuation for all punctuation marks. This would be beneficial for all backwards languages such as Hebrew and Arabic. More importantly though there needs to be some sort of punctuation mark to highlight sarcasm in written text. I actually invented something I called the "tadow" a few years back (see exhibit 1 below). Unfortunately it never really caught on. Some people try to use smiley faces or lmfao, but I think both of these are lame and we need some sort of punctuation. I feel this is absolutely necessary as often time sarcastic comedy is lost in written form where as it is very easy to express during talking via a simple point and smile (see exhibit 2 below). Does anyone know whom I should contact about this?
.............Exhibit 1....................................Exhibit 2.........
While Alexey and I were in class Jose wandered around Xela while Greg stayed back in the hotel room. Nothing much to report on either front as Xela isn´t that scenic of a city and all Greg really did was stink up the room. In fact the cleaning lady must have felt that it smelt so bad she left a can of air freshener in the room after she left.
After class Jose, Greg and I went out to dinner. Alexey was absent as he had already grown sick of us and has decided to partake in a full Spanish immersion process by staying with a Guatemalan family for the week. No more will be written about him until he stops being so reclusive. So anyways the three of us went to dinner at Pollo Campero again to partake in their free wi-fi, as we had some phone calls to make. Greg and I had to call American Airlines (don´t ever fly with them, United is much better) in order to, sadly, book our return trips back to the US of A. While there I decided to order the pollo nugget value meal. After leaving Pollo Campero we walked by a McDonald´s and noticed they had free internet. So I decided to take the chicken nugget taste test. I am happy to report that McDonald´s reigns supreme. Pollo Campero took a quick lead with better quality nuggets, although McDonald´s pulled ahead in the fries cooked in the French manner and the barbacoa salsa categories. Pollo Campero needed a win in the intagibles category to pull ahead, but that ended up being a draw. The wi-fi at Pollo Campero is spotchy at best causing us to have to call American Airlines four times before getting someone we could speak with. Likewise the internet at McDonald´s was only free for a half an hour and the computers did not allow for the uploading of pictures. Thus this post is not yet graphically enhanced. Unless it is, in which case I have added the photos elsewhere.
On a side note, congratulations to Amy Reyner for winning slacker of the week. How may you ask was she able to beat out Greg who skipped one day of Spanish classes (out of a total of three days)? Well it seems our Miss Reyner was in LA tonight when we gave her a quick skype call. Normally this would be no issue, but we then remembered that normal people work on Mondays and Tuesdays. Miss Reyner works in San Francisco, but was somehow in LA and not on a business trip. Well done Amy! Only your third Monday of work and you are already calling in sick. We salute you!
On a final quick note big shout outs to my Uncle Jack (not the one that looks like the undertaker, that is Uncle Mark). Uncle Jack has come through with all you could ask of a godfather and has arranged for a tour of a Nicaraguan cigar factory. Unfortunately I will be unable to attend as I need to now fly out of Honduras due to American Arilines suckiness. I know the other three will enjoy it immensely though and thus we thank you Uncle Jack.
NOTE: Pictures to be included later.
NOTE: Pictures included now.
Well kids its that time of year, back to school! I was so excited I woke up at 4:00am because I couldn´t sleep. Either that or I was awaken by the sounds of Alexey praying to the porcelain god. Thats right both Greg and Alexey were heaving their guts out this morning. Luckily we had had two hotel rooms and thus two bathrooms or else things could have gotten uglier. Now I´m not normally one to celebrate the poor misfortune of others, but I don´t think it is coincidental that both Greg and Alexey shaved their faces yesterday before becoming ill. Amazingly the only other time we had an illness on the trip was when Greg shaved his beard for the first time in Belize. Now I´m not one to put much faith in superstition, but Jose might want to watch where he puts his razor. Montezuma may still be bitter over how the Spanish broke their pact and may be taking it out on others who break sacred pacts. I am happy to report I am as scraggily as ever.
 |  |  |
In spite of his illness, Alexey was still able to battle through and attend the first day or classes today. We took our traditional school pictures at the door way to the hotel room before Jose walked us to class. Absent was Greg who was bedridden with the aforementioned illness. The classes were quite enjoyable and informative, albeit seven hours of language class in one day is quite a lot. I don´t know how my teacher Manuel was able to tolerate me. I think he eventually gave up and so the last two hours I just wrote out the conjugations for like 30 verbs that end in -ir. On the bright side I was able to learn some very important verbs for travelling in Central America (combatir:to combat, delinquir:to commit a crime, difunder:to diffuse, eludir: to ellude, invadir:to invade, oprimir se:to be oppressed, sufrir:to suffer, morir:to die and over three ways to say to hit). Perhaps the most important thing I already knew though. That is that I suck at learning languages. This time I am determined though, so maybe it will all work out in time for Jose´s wedding in March. I´m hoping to hit on some of his sexy cousins in Ecuador "¿cómo tu haciendo?"
Speaking of learning languages, I loved Jose´s wonderful wife Muoi´s comment about the reverse semi-colon. I think this is a great idea, although I think what she is actually looking for is an upside down semi-colon. I feel like the reverse semi-colon would have a period on top and a comma on the bottom pointing in the opposite direction. In fact I think there should be reverse punctuation for all punctuation marks. This would be beneficial for all backwards languages such as Hebrew and Arabic. More importantly though there needs to be some sort of punctuation mark to highlight sarcasm in written text. I actually invented something I called the "tadow" a few years back (see exhibit 1 below). Unfortunately it never really caught on. Some people try to use smiley faces or lmfao, but I think both of these are lame and we need some sort of punctuation. I feel this is absolutely necessary as often time sarcastic comedy is lost in written form where as it is very easy to express during talking via a simple point and smile (see exhibit 2 below). Does anyone know whom I should contact about this?
 |  |
.............Exhibit 1....................................Exhibit 2.........
While Alexey and I were in class Jose wandered around Xela while Greg stayed back in the hotel room. Nothing much to report on either front as Xela isn´t that scenic of a city and all Greg really did was stink up the room. In fact the cleaning lady must have felt that it smelt so bad she left a can of air freshener in the room after she left.
After class Jose, Greg and I went out to dinner. Alexey was absent as he had already grown sick of us and has decided to partake in a full Spanish immersion process by staying with a Guatemalan family for the week. No more will be written about him until he stops being so reclusive. So anyways the three of us went to dinner at Pollo Campero again to partake in their free wi-fi, as we had some phone calls to make. Greg and I had to call American Airlines (don´t ever fly with them, United is much better) in order to, sadly, book our return trips back to the US of A. While there I decided to order the pollo nugget value meal. After leaving Pollo Campero we walked by a McDonald´s and noticed they had free internet. So I decided to take the chicken nugget taste test. I am happy to report that McDonald´s reigns supreme. Pollo Campero took a quick lead with better quality nuggets, although McDonald´s pulled ahead in the fries cooked in the French manner and the barbacoa salsa categories. Pollo Campero needed a win in the intagibles category to pull ahead, but that ended up being a draw. The wi-fi at Pollo Campero is spotchy at best causing us to have to call American Airlines four times before getting someone we could speak with. Likewise the internet at McDonald´s was only free for a half an hour and the computers did not allow for the uploading of pictures. Thus this post is not yet graphically enhanced. Unless it is, in which case I have added the photos elsewhere.
On a side note, congratulations to Amy Reyner for winning slacker of the week. How may you ask was she able to beat out Greg who skipped one day of Spanish classes (out of a total of three days)? Well it seems our Miss Reyner was in LA tonight when we gave her a quick skype call. Normally this would be no issue, but we then remembered that normal people work on Mondays and Tuesdays. Miss Reyner works in San Francisco, but was somehow in LA and not on a business trip. Well done Amy! Only your third Monday of work and you are already calling in sick. We salute you!
On a final quick note big shout outs to my Uncle Jack (not the one that looks like the undertaker, that is Uncle Mark). Uncle Jack has come through with all you could ask of a godfather and has arranged for a tour of a Nicaraguan cigar factory. Unfortunately I will be unable to attend as I need to now fly out of Honduras due to American Arilines suckiness. I know the other three will enjoy it immensely though and thus we thank you Uncle Jack.
In the highlands, it is back to school!
Sunday, July 23rd
In the end we really did go out Saturday night and it was lots of fun. After interneting for a little while we migrated to the bar next door in the same MonoLoco establishment. In this bar, we met with Jeff who is an American taking Spanish classes in Antigua. After a couple of beers, he found enough courage to talk to the girls next to him, and therefore, next to us. Hola this, and hola that.
All in all Jeff convinced them to show us another (more happening) bar. So there we went to a bar around the corner. In all honesty it was pretty good live music and we drank until our 1AM curfew (our hotel would not respond to door bells after this time).
In the morning, we woke up pretty late. Needless to say, mass was not even an option by this time. But Antigua was undergoing a festival for the patron saint Santiago so we got ready and went outside to eat something and absorb the festivities. Most local males wore suits and some hats. Females wore their typical wares. Everyone seem to be in a good mood. I manage to buy an old used book in Spanish from a street vendor while Todd got cheated out of 10Quetzales ($1.xx dollars) when buying a table cloth piece. Alexey and Greg walked around the posh side of town.
Around 2PM we decided to leave for Xela (realname: Quetzaltenango, second largest city in Guatemala). We had a meeting at 5PM with the Spanish school administrator there for registration purposes. Classes are supposed to start on Monday already. The drive was actually quite scenic as it has been a pattern in Guatemala. The mountains are so green and full of corn and other plantations. Natives from the mountains here also exhibit a particularity that I had not seen before. The males also wear traditional skirts! We spotted quite a few older gentlement in their skirts walking around the road.
As we arrived into Xela, we came down from high in the mountains to a vast valley rather quickly. Reached the school and the guys registered for three full days of Spanish classes. The lady there, Maria Antonieta from the Inepas school, called a few places and recommended a hotel closeby. It will only be 2 blocks commute to school!
The temperature in this city is much colder and rainy than we have seen so far. Perhaps due to this or due to the fact that he drove all of these curvy roads, Greg started feeling a bit feverish. He stayed in the hotel while the rest of us walked in the rain (dedicated friends that we are) to get him some medicine. The pharmacist said that these pills would take care of his fever but we did not know if it was a stomach related illness or a cold. In any case, after this he tried to go to sleep and the rest of the gang left to have something to eat. And that was our day! The guys go to the first day of school tomorrow so stay tuned for more details.
As a sidenote, I must say that I am in love with the Pollo Campero (The country chicken) fast food chain in Guatemala. They all have free wireless Internet!!! So that is where we are doing some logistics work now a days.
In the end we really did go out Saturday night and it was lots of fun. After interneting for a little while we migrated to the bar next door in the same MonoLoco establishment. In this bar, we met with Jeff who is an American taking Spanish classes in Antigua. After a couple of beers, he found enough courage to talk to the girls next to him, and therefore, next to us. Hola this, and hola that.
All in all Jeff convinced them to show us another (more happening) bar. So there we went to a bar around the corner. In all honesty it was pretty good live music and we drank until our 1AM curfew (our hotel would not respond to door bells after this time).
In the morning, we woke up pretty late. Needless to say, mass was not even an option by this time. But Antigua was undergoing a festival for the patron saint Santiago so we got ready and went outside to eat something and absorb the festivities. Most local males wore suits and some hats. Females wore their typical wares. Everyone seem to be in a good mood. I manage to buy an old used book in Spanish from a street vendor while Todd got cheated out of 10Quetzales ($1.xx dollars) when buying a table cloth piece. Alexey and Greg walked around the posh side of town.
Around 2PM we decided to leave for Xela (realname: Quetzaltenango, second largest city in Guatemala). We had a meeting at 5PM with the Spanish school administrator there for registration purposes. Classes are supposed to start on Monday already. The drive was actually quite scenic as it has been a pattern in Guatemala. The mountains are so green and full of corn and other plantations. Natives from the mountains here also exhibit a particularity that I had not seen before. The males also wear traditional skirts! We spotted quite a few older gentlement in their skirts walking around the road.
As we arrived into Xela, we came down from high in the mountains to a vast valley rather quickly. Reached the school and the guys registered for three full days of Spanish classes. The lady there, Maria Antonieta from the Inepas school, called a few places and recommended a hotel closeby. It will only be 2 blocks commute to school!
The temperature in this city is much colder and rainy than we have seen so far. Perhaps due to this or due to the fact that he drove all of these curvy roads, Greg started feeling a bit feverish. He stayed in the hotel while the rest of us walked in the rain (dedicated friends that we are) to get him some medicine. The pharmacist said that these pills would take care of his fever but we did not know if it was a stomach related illness or a cold. In any case, after this he tried to go to sleep and the rest of the gang left to have something to eat. And that was our day! The guys go to the first day of school tomorrow so stay tuned for more details.
As a sidenote, I must say that I am in love with the Pollo Campero (The country chicken) fast food chain in Guatemala. They all have free wireless Internet!!! So that is where we are doing some logistics work now a days.
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Fire in the countryside and in the old city..
Saturday, July 22nd
5:35am the alarms start ringing. Fortunately, I´ve been using these cheap but effective ear plugs that pretty much will let me die sleeping in case of emergency in the middle of the night. So the rest of the guys wake me up around 5:45am and we are ready to go with 5 minutes on the clock to spare. Our ride is supposed to show up at 6:00am to take us to the volcanoe. It was still dark.
At this point all of us are kind of regreting the decision we made last night. We thought it would be great to wake up early and see this active volcanoe in all its glory early in the day. But it was so rainy, kind of cold and still dark.. We took a mini-bus together with an american couple who was as cheap as we were and are staying in the Ruiz 2 as well.
After the mini-bus, we were asked to get off this vehicle and wait in a tiny tourist office where a chicken bus would take us to the volcanoe. We did negotiate a $5 discount on the tour price per person so I was afraid that this would turn around to bite us very soon. Our american couple friends left in the comfortable mini-bus, without us.
The morning came about with a deep blue contrast in the sky. Now, we have been waking up really early these days so my body is ready to go to the bathroom around 6:30am. So as we waited for the chicken bus I saw my only chance around to make use of a semi-acceptable bathroom setup. After running to this tourist office and stealing toilet paper I was ready for exploring hot lava in a few minutes. The toilet paper will come in handy later in the day as you will see which justifies me telling you the story in this paragraph.
Well, so we are waiting in the chicken bus and they tell us that we are being changed into a medium sized bus. (Again I am becoming increasingly suspicious that our $5 discount was not a deal afterall) All of us were in good spirits though and after about an hour ride we were already up in the mountains. I´m wearing my black going-out pants and a slick shirt.. really looking ready to hit the clubs but all my clothes are at the washers today. The bus driver tells us in his very limited English after stopping the bus in the middle of a dirt road: ¨Go to top bus beautiful picture¨. Most tourists in the bus including us did not understand what he meant but a few of us stood up and decided to go out and check it. In the end Greg, Alexey, a few other tourists and myself rode on the top of the bus for the next 10 or so minutes of ascent. Todd decided to stay inside the bus. It was incredible! Beautiful views of the Agua volcanoe from the back side (the front side is visible from Antigua itself), coffee plantations and all sorts of mountain ranges.. After managing to avoid tree branches, take pictures and hang for our lives, we arrived to the base camp for our hike to the lava filled volcanoe top.
This is where we met our guide for the hike. Arturo was trained for 1 week by the government to be a tour guide. He knows a few words in English but does an incredibly good job of speaking veeeerrryyyy slooooowwwwwlllyyy so all foreigners understand him. If you are in Antigua, you are studying Spanish anyways.. so it´s good practice, I guess. His partner in crime was Julio. The pair of local campesinos communicated through a complex patttern of whistling. For this, Arturo used his mighty whistle (picture something that a 2nd grader would use to annoy everyone in the neighborhood).
Once on our base, we all grabbed cups of fresh Guatemalan coffee and were ready for the road. Alexey had been feeling bad all morning by now. Something was wrong with our boy. The ascent was actually quite ardous and a middle aged woman was even put on top of a horse so as to not slow down the group. Arturo assured us that we were only 5 minutes from the top (if this wasn´t the fifth time I heard him say it, I would have belived him). The views kept getting better and better! Everyone kept making stops to rest but not us, huh huh.. we were in the zone.. Alexey had to make a technical stop somewhere in the woods and this is where the TP I stole in the tourist office at 6AM came in handy. After this, we reclaimed Alexey and he was in good spirits once again!
As you can see, after getting to the top, the views were awesome! The Pacaya volcanoe was smoking and you could see all of the lava it had spit splashed in this dark black color mass. Arturo decided to go check if the solidified rock was not too hot. He actually sports rubber boots so if it were too hot, the only way of telling would be him losing a foot. He came back and ordered us to go down the rocks. Our feet kept getting warmer and warmer, now really hot! We finally got to a place where lava was slowly flowing out of this mountain.. what a beautiful sight! You can feel the heat in your whole body even though the air was actually quite cold at this altitude. Arturo decided to put a wooden stick into one of the orange glowing liquid rock apertures and it caught on fire to the admiration of all tourists.. you could just hear the ¨WWWWOOOOOOWWWWW¨ running through everyone´s mind.
We left the area and we were taken to a different path that we were assured was much more ¨dynamic¨ than other tour groups would do. Our guide was not kidding.. we stopped at a really steep hill to rest. Arturo mentioned to be careful but have fun in the next leg of the trip as he started sliding off the cliff on this volcanic ash path. Everyone followed him. This was one of the best experiences we´ve had so far! We were jumping into the air looking down the cliff and landing softly onto the ash filled path.. Our shoes got filled with little stones everywhere but the experience was unforgetable!
So we got back to Antigua and picked up our laundry. Finally!!! clean clothes for all of us.. (If you´ve been in a long trip you know this is a festive day). After napping and showering, we are ready to explore. Unfortunately, it has started raining and it´s 6PM. Most tourist things to see close at 5PM. So we are out of luck. We try walking towards the market.. There, we hit this lady selling tamales and empanadas in the streets.. One word for you guys: ¨Fabulous¨. Don´t know what the recipe is, but we all agreed this was the find of the century. They were 2.5Q each which is something like $0.30 US. Next stop: The Landivar Monument!!! YEAH! Here in Guatemala, as it turns out, there are quite a few Landivar such as myself. This guy, Rafael Landivar was a poet and is highly regarded here. So much so that he has his very own monument with arches and all. Very neat.
Pictures flying everywhere documenting our pass through Antigua. We hit the artisan´s market where Greg and I scored some pretty cool candle holders. Very quaint town with a colonial feel. Lots of people say it´s too touristy, which could be right, but it really is what you make of it. We have interacted quite a bit with locals. The guys' Spanish is improving as well.
In a change of events, we have for the first time hit a town where we won´t barely miss the festivities. Antigua celebrates their patron saint Santiago´s day next Tuesday so today there is a concert in the Plaza Central which is their version of a Mexican Zocalo. Cerveza Gallo is a big sponsor and they were running a music show there in the park. They called three guys to dance with their professional (pretty hot looking and lightly dressed) dancers. Guy number 3 knew this was probably his best and only chance to get near a woman of that caliber so he grabbed all he wanted. The crowd was pleased and awarded him the prize.. probably a beer can.
Strolling through a town in festivities is awesome. Lots of people selling stuff in the streets and just in general a very cool local feeling. Fireworks were heard in the distance. Street meat was calling us. We went for it without inhibitions. I think after the past few weeks of adjusting we are all becoming more adventurous with the food. Greg and Alexey tried some plantains dipped in mole sauce and some Bunuelos with some sweet sauce we can´t decypher yet. Todd and I went for the pupusas, him chicharon and me the cheese. We are now ready to rock and roll at the bars but not too late.. we have to wake up early tomorrow.. not sure why, but something will come up. Perhaps church.. yeah! church it is! Everyone, get ready for 8AM mass!.
And more pics of Antigua!..
5:35am the alarms start ringing. Fortunately, I´ve been using these cheap but effective ear plugs that pretty much will let me die sleeping in case of emergency in the middle of the night. So the rest of the guys wake me up around 5:45am and we are ready to go with 5 minutes on the clock to spare. Our ride is supposed to show up at 6:00am to take us to the volcanoe. It was still dark.
At this point all of us are kind of regreting the decision we made last night. We thought it would be great to wake up early and see this active volcanoe in all its glory early in the day. But it was so rainy, kind of cold and still dark.. We took a mini-bus together with an american couple who was as cheap as we were and are staying in the Ruiz 2 as well.After the mini-bus, we were asked to get off this vehicle and wait in a tiny tourist office where a chicken bus would take us to the volcanoe. We did negotiate a $5 discount on the tour price per person so I was afraid that this would turn around to bite us very soon. Our american couple friends left in the comfortable mini-bus, without us.
The morning came about with a deep blue contrast in the sky. Now, we have been waking up really early these days so my body is ready to go to the bathroom around 6:30am. So as we waited for the chicken bus I saw my only chance around to make use of a semi-acceptable bathroom setup. After running to this tourist office and stealing toilet paper I was ready for exploring hot lava in a few minutes. The toilet paper will come in handy later in the day as you will see which justifies me telling you the story in this paragraph.
Well, so we are waiting in the chicken bus and they tell us that we are being changed into a medium sized bus. (Again I am becoming increasingly suspicious that our $5 discount was not a deal afterall) All of us were in good spirits though and after about an hour ride we were already up in the mountains. I´m wearing my black going-out pants and a slick shirt.. really looking ready to hit the clubs but all my clothes are at the washers today. The bus driver tells us in his very limited English after stopping the bus in the middle of a dirt road: ¨Go to top bus beautiful picture¨. Most tourists in the bus including us did not understand what he meant but a few of us stood up and decided to go out and check it. In the end Greg, Alexey, a few other tourists and myself rode on the top of the bus for the next 10 or so minutes of ascent. Todd decided to stay inside the bus. It was incredible! Beautiful views of the Agua volcanoe from the back side (the front side is visible from Antigua itself), coffee plantations and all sorts of mountain ranges.. After managing to avoid tree branches, take pictures and hang for our lives, we arrived to the base camp for our hike to the lava filled volcanoe top.
This is where we met our guide for the hike. Arturo was trained for 1 week by the government to be a tour guide. He knows a few words in English but does an incredibly good job of speaking veeeerrryyyy slooooowwwwwlllyyy so all foreigners understand him. If you are in Antigua, you are studying Spanish anyways.. so it´s good practice, I guess. His partner in crime was Julio. The pair of local campesinos communicated through a complex patttern of whistling. For this, Arturo used his mighty whistle (picture something that a 2nd grader would use to annoy everyone in the neighborhood).
Once on our base, we all grabbed cups of fresh Guatemalan coffee and were ready for the road. Alexey had been feeling bad all morning by now. Something was wrong with our boy. The ascent was actually quite ardous and a middle aged woman was even put on top of a horse so as to not slow down the group. Arturo assured us that we were only 5 minutes from the top (if this wasn´t the fifth time I heard him say it, I would have belived him). The views kept getting better and better! Everyone kept making stops to rest but not us, huh huh.. we were in the zone.. Alexey had to make a technical stop somewhere in the woods and this is where the TP I stole in the tourist office at 6AM came in handy. After this, we reclaimed Alexey and he was in good spirits once again!
As you can see, after getting to the top, the views were awesome! The Pacaya volcanoe was smoking and you could see all of the lava it had spit splashed in this dark black color mass. Arturo decided to go check if the solidified rock was not too hot. He actually sports rubber boots so if it were too hot, the only way of telling would be him losing a foot. He came back and ordered us to go down the rocks. Our feet kept getting warmer and warmer, now really hot! We finally got to a place where lava was slowly flowing out of this mountain.. what a beautiful sight! You can feel the heat in your whole body even though the air was actually quite cold at this altitude. Arturo decided to put a wooden stick into one of the orange glowing liquid rock apertures and it caught on fire to the admiration of all tourists.. you could just hear the ¨WWWWOOOOOOWWWWW¨ running through everyone´s mind.
We left the area and we were taken to a different path that we were assured was much more ¨dynamic¨ than other tour groups would do. Our guide was not kidding.. we stopped at a really steep hill to rest. Arturo mentioned to be careful but have fun in the next leg of the trip as he started sliding off the cliff on this volcanic ash path. Everyone followed him. This was one of the best experiences we´ve had so far! We were jumping into the air looking down the cliff and landing softly onto the ash filled path.. Our shoes got filled with little stones everywhere but the experience was unforgetable!
So we got back to Antigua and picked up our laundry. Finally!!! clean clothes for all of us.. (If you´ve been in a long trip you know this is a festive day). After napping and showering, we are ready to explore. Unfortunately, it has started raining and it´s 6PM. Most tourist things to see close at 5PM. So we are out of luck. We try walking towards the market.. There, we hit this lady selling tamales and empanadas in the streets.. One word for you guys: ¨Fabulous¨. Don´t know what the recipe is, but we all agreed this was the find of the century. They were 2.5Q each which is something like $0.30 US. Next stop: The Landivar Monument!!! YEAH! Here in Guatemala, as it turns out, there are quite a few Landivar such as myself. This guy, Rafael Landivar was a poet and is highly regarded here. So much so that he has his very own monument with arches and all. Very neat.Pictures flying everywhere documenting our pass through Antigua. We hit the artisan´s market where Greg and I scored some pretty cool candle holders. Very quaint town with a colonial feel. Lots of people say it´s too touristy, which could be right, but it really is what you make of it. We have interacted quite a bit with locals. The guys' Spanish is improving as well.
In a change of events, we have for the first time hit a town where we won´t barely miss the festivities. Antigua celebrates their patron saint Santiago´s day next Tuesday so today there is a concert in the Plaza Central which is their version of a Mexican Zocalo. Cerveza Gallo is a big sponsor and they were running a music show there in the park. They called three guys to dance with their professional (pretty hot looking and lightly dressed) dancers. Guy number 3 knew this was probably his best and only chance to get near a woman of that caliber so he grabbed all he wanted. The crowd was pleased and awarded him the prize.. probably a beer can.
Strolling through a town in festivities is awesome. Lots of people selling stuff in the streets and just in general a very cool local feeling. Fireworks were heard in the distance. Street meat was calling us. We went for it without inhibitions. I think after the past few weeks of adjusting we are all becoming more adventurous with the food. Greg and Alexey tried some plantains dipped in mole sauce and some Bunuelos with some sweet sauce we can´t decypher yet. Todd and I went for the pupusas, him chicharon and me the cheese. We are now ready to rock and roll at the bars but not too late.. we have to wake up early tomorrow.. not sure why, but something will come up. Perhaps church.. yeah! church it is! Everyone, get ready for 8AM mass!.
And more pics of Antigua!..
Friday, July 21, 2006
Presidents, Speed Boats, and one big Gale
7/19/06 update. Hello. Alexey here. So, I arrive in Belize curious about what kind of operation these jokers are running. Turns out I´ve now woken up at 6am or earlier for 4 straight mornings (with a 6am volcano climb tomorrow)... I thought this was vacation! Wow, these guys are slave drivers - quite a contrast to my eastern european beer/vodka sampling tour.
So before this trip started, I only had one damn request for these folks - get a club for the car! Turns out they don´t have a "club" for the car! I mean, if my toyota corolla gets broken into 3 times in the states within a yearjust for the heck of it, what is going to happen to a car with Massachusettsplates in Colombia???? I mean, cars are really not that hard to steal. Anyway, so far so good, still looking for a walmart with a club and trying to park inprotected areas.
Wednesday, after recovering from a night of bad dancing to even worse reggae, we left the belize islands (cayes) in a small motor boat and outpaced a fastmoving storm which occasionally packed gale force winds. We were able to see the ole´ palm tree tossin round like a twig thing you always see on the weather channel. The locals seemed unphased and said they still run ferries during hurricanes - the reef protects them. (see pic) I was happy to not flip. Upon arrival to belize city we found Dennis (the 3 day car watcher) just hangingout. He took us to the car. Turns out "they weren´t exactly sure wherethe car was located" (!?!!!) so it was pretty good we ran into him.(seepic)
After finding the car, I promptly earned the name s··tbag, as I deftly huckedmy backpack on top of an enormous pile of dog crap. After 20 minutes of damage control, we were on our way to guatemala. We tried to visit the president of Belize at his house in Belmopan, but turnsout there is no president, only a prime minister. The guard told us he would have ask if we culd go in the gates, we said we were in a rush.
I get very nervous with border crossings. I carry a special glue stick because Ihave to glue my passport together before each crossing because it isdelaminating and the the picture and the edges just looks like it can beslipped in there - plus I look like a terrorist - plus the portion on the front that says US passport is pretty much rubbed off - plus there is no room for any stamps in my passport because I have all these sketchy stamps from sketchy countries. Fortunately I have usually have innocent looking people to go withme that help cover for me.
The crossing involved 5 separate payments and some negotiating, but we made it. We thought we would be smart and not get out any more belize dollars, but turnsout we nearly ran out of cash as a group (this includes back up cash), oops. The roads promptly turned to dirt as we hit guatemala, but Jose was happy because there was sugar cane juice and promise of Tepezquile (large rodent)
Finally made it to Tikal vicinity and had nice swim in the a lake with some ofthe locals. It´s great to be here, also great to be with some travelers asc heap as myself who consider spending more than $25 per day a rippoff.
Go West Young Men
NEW AND IMPROVED!!!! NOW WITH VISUAL STIMULATION AND ONE MORE SCINTILLATING STORY. SEE IF YOU CAN FIND IT!!!!
So after a wonderful day at Tikal and another lazy afternoon in El Remate we once again hit the open road for a new destination. Today´s destination is the beautiful colonial city of Antigua Guatemala. Quick history lesson. Antigua was founded on March 10th, 1543. It served as the capital of the Spanish colony of Guatemala (encompassing much of Central America from the Chiapas in Mexico down to Costa Rica) for two centuries. In 1773 it was destroyed by a two major earthquakes and the Spanish crown decided to relocate the capital to the more stable location that is the present day site of Guatemala City in 1776 (other stuff happened this year?). See kids, blogs can be fun and informative!
Before we get too far ahead of ourselves lets jump back to the beginning of the day. So it was another early morning with the alarms going off at 6:00 AM. I hate to wake up this early even when I need to go to work, so it is especially painful during vacation. But Jose made a convincing argument about getting an early start so we can get to Antigua early or something like that, I wasn´t really paying attention. All the same we were on the open road by 7:00 AM. Today with a new driver as well. Alexey has been welcomed fully into the fold and was up to the challenge of driving the entire length today. There were a few interesting moments, but we arrived safely and feces free! Well done Senor Salamini.
The drive was long, but very beautiful. It took us through some amazing mountain ranges of former volcanos that were nearly conicaly perfect and draped in clouds. We stopped for a little breakfast at a gas station and I got my favorite convenience morning food, Bimbo brand vanilla muffins. Delicioso! Jose was then lucky enough to find his favorite morning food, freshly squeezed sugar cane juice. I haven´t tried it yet, but he swears by it. We then drove for awhile more rather uneventfully and stopped for some tasty empenadas at Restaurante Yolanda in a town whose name I forget. From there things progressed slowly. We ran into some nasty traffic getting into Guatemala City. It was by far the worst traffic we have seen on the trip as we had been fairly lucky up to this point. Alexey and Jose battled through though while Greg and I studied our Spanish. It took so long we decided to skip Guatemala City (or perhaps hit it on another day) and headed straight to Antigua.
We got into Antigua in the early afternoon and found a great little hotel called Posada Ruiz 2. Not sure where the first one is, but it could have very well went out of business seeing as they only charged us 70 quetzales (<$10 US) for a room with four beds and off street parking. We think the management may not be the most experienced. In fact we think the management may actually be an adorable little four year old girl. When Goyo went in to negotiate the room the woman he was talking to apparently went to check with her little daughter to determine the rate. Luckily the little girl must have liked the look of Greg, as most little girls tend to. Although we were a little worried as she said something to us about the car after Alexey peeled out driving into the courtyard to park the car. We thought the little girl was saying deal is off no car, but Jose told us she was just saying it was a neat car. So we are still in the good graces of the management. Hopefully Greg won´t break her little heart.
The rest of the evening was spent napping, making arrangements for next week´s Spanish classes and plans for a trip to a volcano tomorrow. In addition we explored a little bit of the city although it had already gotten dark. Tomorrow we´ll take on the rest. We did make one great discovery by finding a little restaurant around the corner from the hotel with huge burritos for 12 quetzales ($1.60). This works out to a total of roughly $5 spent per person for food and lodging. I´m beginning to really enjoy Guatemala. The people tend to be really nice, it is pretty inexpensive, has great historical sites to visit and is naturally beautiful. What more could one ask for? Off to bed for now, we need to be on a bus at 6:00 AM for the Volcano trip tomorrow.
I almost forgot one of the highlights from the first day in Antigua. So while we were sitting around the hotel we discovered that they sell Gallo, the finest of all Guatemala beers. The only thing is they only sell it in litre bottles, not that I´m complaining. So Greg bought two bottles from the management (yes in Guatemala 4 year old girls are allowed to sell beer) and we got a few glasses to split it up four ways. Per usual with four guys and beer this quickly turned into a chugging contest, although we are all wusses when it comes to drinking beer (and most other things) and therefore the chugging contest was only with 8 ounce glasses. Jose proved his value on this trip yet again with an enviable time of 2.41 seconds. He attributed his success for a disgust for the taste of beer and thus a necessity to drink it fast. I put up the worst performance of the group with somewhere around 4 seconds and I ended up wearing a portion of it. I attribute my failures to a love of beer that runs deep in the Ruddick family. I can clearly recall my younger brother Jared taking sips from my dad´s beers on those sweltering Oklahoma afternoons. I hope this post doesn´t get my parents in trouble with child services. Whoops!!!
Quick side note on comments. It appears that we have been infiltrated by spam comments (as if spam e-mail isn´t bad enough, get a life spammers). That was one of the reasons we asked people to even sign anonymous posts (I assumed anonymous just meant you were too lazy to open a blogger account to post a comment, not some secret admirer), to ensure that we don´t delete any real comments. Secondly get a room Julissa and Muoi. Our comment section isn´t for you to discuss what I can only assume is pornographic poetry.
So after a wonderful day at Tikal and another lazy afternoon in El Remate we once again hit the open road for a new destination. Today´s destination is the beautiful colonial city of Antigua Guatemala. Quick history lesson. Antigua was founded on March 10th, 1543. It served as the capital of the Spanish colony of Guatemala (encompassing much of Central America from the Chiapas in Mexico down to Costa Rica) for two centuries. In 1773 it was destroyed by a two major earthquakes and the Spanish crown decided to relocate the capital to the more stable location that is the present day site of Guatemala City in 1776 (other stuff happened this year?). See kids, blogs can be fun and informative!
Before we get too far ahead of ourselves lets jump back to the beginning of the day. So it was another early morning with the alarms going off at 6:00 AM. I hate to wake up this early even when I need to go to work, so it is especially painful during vacation. But Jose made a convincing argument about getting an early start so we can get to Antigua early or something like that, I wasn´t really paying attention. All the same we were on the open road by 7:00 AM. Today with a new driver as well. Alexey has been welcomed fully into the fold and was up to the challenge of driving the entire length today. There were a few interesting moments, but we arrived safely and feces free! Well done Senor Salamini.
The drive was long, but very beautiful. It took us through some amazing mountain ranges of former volcanos that were nearly conicaly perfect and draped in clouds. We stopped for a little breakfast at a gas station and I got my favorite convenience morning food, Bimbo brand vanilla muffins. Delicioso! Jose was then lucky enough to find his favorite morning food, freshly squeezed sugar cane juice. I haven´t tried it yet, but he swears by it. We then drove for awhile more rather uneventfully and stopped for some tasty empenadas at Restaurante Yolanda in a town whose name I forget. From there things progressed slowly. We ran into some nasty traffic getting into Guatemala City. It was by far the worst traffic we have seen on the trip as we had been fairly lucky up to this point. Alexey and Jose battled through though while Greg and I studied our Spanish. It took so long we decided to skip Guatemala City (or perhaps hit it on another day) and headed straight to Antigua.We got into Antigua in the early afternoon and found a great little hotel called Posada Ruiz 2. Not sure where the first one is, but it could have very well went out of business seeing as they only charged us 70 quetzales (<$10 US) for a room with four beds and off street parking. We think the management may not be the most experienced. In fact we think the management may actually be an adorable little four year old girl. When Goyo went in to negotiate the room the woman he was talking to apparently went to check with her little daughter to determine the rate. Luckily the little girl must have liked the look of Greg, as most little girls tend to. Although we were a little worried as she said something to us about the car after Alexey peeled out driving into the courtyard to park the car. We thought the little girl was saying deal is off no car, but Jose told us she was just saying it was a neat car. So we are still in the good graces of the management. Hopefully Greg won´t break her little heart.
The rest of the evening was spent napping, making arrangements for next week´s Spanish classes and plans for a trip to a volcano tomorrow. In addition we explored a little bit of the city although it had already gotten dark. Tomorrow we´ll take on the rest. We did make one great discovery by finding a little restaurant around the corner from the hotel with huge burritos for 12 quetzales ($1.60). This works out to a total of roughly $5 spent per person for food and lodging. I´m beginning to really enjoy Guatemala. The people tend to be really nice, it is pretty inexpensive, has great historical sites to visit and is naturally beautiful. What more could one ask for? Off to bed for now, we need to be on a bus at 6:00 AM for the Volcano trip tomorrow.
I almost forgot one of the highlights from the first day in Antigua. So while we were sitting around the hotel we discovered that they sell Gallo, the finest of all Guatemala beers. The only thing is they only sell it in litre bottles, not that I´m complaining. So Greg bought two bottles from the management (yes in Guatemala 4 year old girls are allowed to sell beer) and we got a few glasses to split it up four ways. Per usual with four guys and beer this quickly turned into a chugging contest, although we are all wusses when it comes to drinking beer (and most other things) and therefore the chugging contest was only with 8 ounce glasses. Jose proved his value on this trip yet again with an enviable time of 2.41 seconds. He attributed his success for a disgust for the taste of beer and thus a necessity to drink it fast. I put up the worst performance of the group with somewhere around 4 seconds and I ended up wearing a portion of it. I attribute my failures to a love of beer that runs deep in the Ruddick family. I can clearly recall my younger brother Jared taking sips from my dad´s beers on those sweltering Oklahoma afternoons. I hope this post doesn´t get my parents in trouble with child services. Whoops!!!
Quick side note on comments. It appears that we have been infiltrated by spam comments (as if spam e-mail isn´t bad enough, get a life spammers). That was one of the reasons we asked people to even sign anonymous posts (I assumed anonymous just meant you were too lazy to open a blogger account to post a comment, not some secret admirer), to ensure that we don´t delete any real comments. Secondly get a room Julissa and Muoi. Our comment section isn´t for you to discuss what I can only assume is pornographic poetry.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
The fantastic four are ready to storm Guatemala!!
So this otherwise uneventful day found a way to redeem itself by bringing us our fourth and final piece of the puzzle. Alexey arrived around 4:30PM and is a healthy boy (picture attached)..
His arrival really came at a great time since we were so busy doing nothing! In fact, this island is so, but so relaxing and laid back that we had no other choice last night than to go to sleep early. To put things in perspective, picture this: Greg and I woke up and were having breakfast and walking the beach at 6:30AM!!!! Anyways, the day was not that great since we had some storm coming.. here is a pic of how bad it gets when it rains.
We hope to have more stories tomorrow since from the looks of it, we'll try to cross into Guatemala tomorrow. Wish us luck in recovering Rosinante at Dennis "the taxi driver"'s house in Belize City.
His arrival really came at a great time since we were so busy doing nothing! In fact, this island is so, but so relaxing and laid back that we had no other choice last night than to go to sleep early. To put things in perspective, picture this: Greg and I woke up and were having breakfast and walking the beach at 6:30AM!!!! Anyways, the day was not that great since we had some storm coming.. here is a pic of how bad it gets when it rains.
We hope to have more stories tomorrow since from the looks of it, we'll try to cross into Guatemala tomorrow. Wish us luck in recovering Rosinante at Dennis "the taxi driver"'s house in Belize City.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Lazy Sunday....On a Monday
At least I think it is Monday. I've really lost all track of time and Belize certainly isn't helping. Belize is about as far east as my new soon to be hometown of Chicago, but is for some reason it is in the Mountain Time Zone (or at least the Central American equivalent of Mountain time since they don't have daylight savings time). So anyways the sun rises early and its dark by 7:00 PM. We actually went to bed last night at like 10:00 PM for no real reason at all, simply because it had been dark for awhile and it felt like bedtime. Belize and more specifically San Pedro are pretty laid back locales and time is pretty much irrelevant. Shops open and close pretty much whenever they want to and people always tend to just kind of meander around with no place to go. Not that there really is anywhere to go seeing as San Pedro has like 12 streets and you can walk the entire "city" in like 15 minutes. It has a very Carribean feel, which has been a welcome change from all the rushing around from place to place in Mexico. Speaking English and actualy being understood has also been a welcome change, although most of the employees at the hotels and restaurants tend to be Hispanic imports and thus Jose is still the most popular guy for his ability to converse in their native tongue of Spanish. Although that hasn't really done him much good as we got charged extra for bread at a restaurant we went to for dinner last night, even after Jose ordered it in Spanish. For the most part Belize has been pretty expensive, even by American standards. For example it cost us $40 US to book a snorkeling excursion today, it was worth it though as you will read about in a paragraph or two.
So anyways since it gets light out so early here we were all up by 9:00ish. Jose and Greg went into the town to do a little shopping and I hung back at the hotel to soak in a little sun and do some reading. Greg let me borrow a book he just finished reading, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers (gratuitous plug). So far I have found it to be a great book and would suggest it to pretty much anyone. Feel free to e-mail me if you wonder whether or not I would suggest it for you (if I've never seen you drunk please include a funny personal anecdote for me to base my decision on). Except my brother Jared, you don't need to e-mail me as I would definitely suggest it to you. I'm hoping you haven't read it yet or else I would be pissed you didn't suggest it to me. Although I guess we would be even as I completely dropped the ball and forgot you collect wooden animals and now mom has already been promised the squirrel. You have a good gift coming to though. By the way nice blog (gratuitous plug). So anyways back to the beach. I figured it would be a good idea to get a little sun before it gets too intense. WRONG. Normally I am a shade of pasty white, but now I have nice pink coloring on my upper body. I love these blue eyes and blond hair, but screw this complexion. I am definitely marrying someone with darker pigment so my kids aren't cursed. Potential applicants can feel free to e-mail me (again with a funny personal anecdote and also a picture showing your deep, rich tan) and I will throw in my decision on whether you should read A.H.W.O.S.G. as an added bonus.
So after I cooked myself on the beach Jose and Greg came back and we all headed to the snorkeling shop to book our afternoon adventure. As mentioned a bit pricey, but well worth it. We went to two different locations and spent over a half an hour at each, with a pretty cool guide. The first location is called Hol Chan (a Mayan word meaning little channel) and was a really cool corral reef site. We saw all sorts of fish including barracuda, terrapin, and a few nurse sharks not to mention all sorts of other colorful creatures. After that we headed to Shark Ray Alley. Don't worry moms, this is a misnomer as it is actually more of a channel than an alley. There were no shortage of nurse sharks or southern sting rays though. They came right up to the boat as soon as we moored. Apparently they have learned that boats equal food and sure enough shortly after mooring one of our guides began to throw chunks of fish into the water. During this feeding frenzy of roughly 20 sharks we were told to quickly jump into the water to enjoy it. And so we did and still have all of our fingers and toes intact. In fact nurse sharks don't even really have teeth and are no threat. The guide even caught one in a bear hug and allowed us to pet it. It felt strangely like a snake. He also caught one of the rays which feels much more like a fish. Just a really cool experience, even though I had to resort to wearing a t-shirt to keep from getting further sunburn.
After snorkeling we headed back to the hotel. I jumped in the shower as salt water in the "beard" tends to be pretty itchy. Meanwhile Greg and Jose went to score some beers to stock the mini fridge in our room. While walking around they fell victim to what is most likely a scam and bought a raffle ticket from two little girls hoping to win a roasted chicken, chocolate cake and some Cokes for dinner. Needless to say we didn't win anything and went to a pretty cool restaurant called Reef instead. The food was pretty good and much more affordable than other restaurants. The floor was even covered in sand. What more could you ask for? That was pretty much it for the day. Just another lazy day in lazy Belize. Tune in tomorrow for another exciting day of not much happening. Actual tomorrow will be quite monumental as our final travel member arrives around 1:00 PM.
Two final notes, first all of the pictures should now be added to previous posts as we have finally gotten a reliable internet connection and time to use it. So scroll down for photographic beauty. Secondly if you post an anonymous comment we would appreciate it if you sign it with your name. I am still perplexed as to who "Me" is.
So anyways since it gets light out so early here we were all up by 9:00ish. Jose and Greg went into the town to do a little shopping and I hung back at the hotel to soak in a little sun and do some reading. Greg let me borrow a book he just finished reading, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers (gratuitous plug). So far I have found it to be a great book and would suggest it to pretty much anyone. Feel free to e-mail me if you wonder whether or not I would suggest it for you (if I've never seen you drunk please include a funny personal anecdote for me to base my decision on). Except my brother Jared, you don't need to e-mail me as I would definitely suggest it to you. I'm hoping you haven't read it yet or else I would be pissed you didn't suggest it to me. Although I guess we would be even as I completely dropped the ball and forgot you collect wooden animals and now mom has already been promised the squirrel. You have a good gift coming to though. By the way nice blog (gratuitous plug). So anyways back to the beach. I figured it would be a good idea to get a little sun before it gets too intense. WRONG. Normally I am a shade of pasty white, but now I have nice pink coloring on my upper body. I love these blue eyes and blond hair, but screw this complexion. I am definitely marrying someone with darker pigment so my kids aren't cursed. Potential applicants can feel free to e-mail me (again with a funny personal anecdote and also a picture showing your deep, rich tan) and I will throw in my decision on whether you should read A.H.W.O.S.G. as an added bonus.
So after I cooked myself on the beach Jose and Greg came back and we all headed to the snorkeling shop to book our afternoon adventure. As mentioned a bit pricey, but well worth it. We went to two different locations and spent over a half an hour at each, with a pretty cool guide. The first location is called Hol Chan (a Mayan word meaning little channel) and was a really cool corral reef site. We saw all sorts of fish including barracuda, terrapin, and a few nurse sharks not to mention all sorts of other colorful creatures. After that we headed to Shark Ray Alley. Don't worry moms, this is a misnomer as it is actually more of a channel than an alley. There were no shortage of nurse sharks or southern sting rays though. They came right up to the boat as soon as we moored. Apparently they have learned that boats equal food and sure enough shortly after mooring one of our guides began to throw chunks of fish into the water. During this feeding frenzy of roughly 20 sharks we were told to quickly jump into the water to enjoy it. And so we did and still have all of our fingers and toes intact. In fact nurse sharks don't even really have teeth and are no threat. The guide even caught one in a bear hug and allowed us to pet it. It felt strangely like a snake. He also caught one of the rays which feels much more like a fish. Just a really cool experience, even though I had to resort to wearing a t-shirt to keep from getting further sunburn.
After snorkeling we headed back to the hotel. I jumped in the shower as salt water in the "beard" tends to be pretty itchy. Meanwhile Greg and Jose went to score some beers to stock the mini fridge in our room. While walking around they fell victim to what is most likely a scam and bought a raffle ticket from two little girls hoping to win a roasted chicken, chocolate cake and some Cokes for dinner. Needless to say we didn't win anything and went to a pretty cool restaurant called Reef instead. The food was pretty good and much more affordable than other restaurants. The floor was even covered in sand. What more could you ask for? That was pretty much it for the day. Just another lazy day in lazy Belize. Tune in tomorrow for another exciting day of not much happening. Actual tomorrow will be quite monumental as our final travel member arrives around 1:00 PM. Two final notes, first all of the pictures should now be added to previous posts as we have finally gotten a reliable internet connection and time to use it. So scroll down for photographic beauty. Secondly if you post an anonymous comment we would appreciate it if you sign it with your name. I am still perplexed as to who "Me" is.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Adios amigos, arright friends!
This day was meant to be a very plain driving day. That is, we would drive all day and arrive into Chetumal, Mexico. We would then spend the night there and cross the border into Belize tomorrow Monday morning.. However, Chetumal happens to be a very boring border town (at least to Lonely Planet). Greg, who was at the wheel of Rosinante Chocolate, had a huge day.. He got us pretty much to the border in about 6 hours! Again, people had given us estimates for the drive ranging from 4.5 hours to 10 hours (most people just have no clue but they feel compelled say something anyway). On the way there, in a town called Escarcega, we stopped for gas and were pleasantly surprised to find a Burger King!!!! Now, it's not like we don't like Mexican food.. In fact, we've eaten tons of it! But as Amy, whom we met in the hostel in San Cristobal, said "After traveling in Central America for so long, I take every opportunity I have to eat something that is foreign". So we went for it.. Delicious, American, greasy but tasty! (for some reason this BK was infested with flies but we didn't mind)
Ahhh.. also, we tried some new fruit which I had never seen before during our trip. The Mexicans seem to call it Mamoncillo (they don't use this name regularly because "it sounds naughty" according to the road-side fruit-seller) or Guaya and it kind of looks like a Lychee. Very tasty but funny texture. Greg thought that a more appropriate name was "snot fruit" so that's what we called it.
The Mexico-Belize border was open on Sunday so we decided to try our luck and attempt a border crossing on the spot. It was around 2:30PM and we left Mexico. The guy at the Mexican Migration office said something about "180" so I asked him in Spanish if there was something to pay. Being very smart (and a crook) he quickly replied "just give me $100 pesos each". So we prepared the money and were ready to hand it to him when we asked for a receipt for this fee. So he got a bit scared and said that he did not have receipts so he would let us go without paying. Nice try crooked migration officer!
We would have our second corruption experience a few meters away after crossing the bridge. After clearing our paperwork with Belizean migration, we had to get a car permit for Rosinante. The lady seemed very cool. However, as we walked out, she said in a very low tone "you know, we have to check your car and if we find anything, we need to charge you.. how much are you willing to pay to settle this?". So I said "let's go and see what it is that I am going to sell in Belize and how much would it be. She quickly realized that we did not have the amount of money that she thought (she had to go through our trunk, dirty socks, crickets, towels, etc..) so she gave us the permit without much more fuss after making us throw away our entire stash of snot fruit!
Ok, so after this, we drove a couple of hours into Belize. (What an expensive place! considering we are arriving from Mexico) Our arrival into Belize City was crazy to say the least! Pardon me if you are Belizean but this town really scared us!! It was frightening to drive through and even more to stay. So we quickly had to figure out what to do if we did not want to get mugged! Most people in the streets seemed to have nothing better to do but to stand around with a bottle of beer and look scary. All of us at this point were freaking out about what to do. However, it must be said that we performed quite well under pressure. We quickly distributed the tasks for finding hotels, water taxis schedules, parking, navigation, driving, etc..
The last water taxi to the tourist island of Ambergris (where the town of San Pedro is located) was at 4:30PM. This is really where most people that come to BZ stay instead of Belize City. It was about 4:05PM and we had a car to park somewhere, no hotel reservations in San Pedro and no idea of what to do. We went to the water taxi place where a guy named Dennis (so far he has been pretty good) offered to keep the car for $10US/day at his house backyard. We agreed and we went to his house, fast! Parked in his backyard (where his buddy Steve lives in what is left of a VW van - see picture) and fled Belize City. He later asked us for US$5 for gas money too but Todd gave him BZ$5 which is half what he was asking.
Now, he took us in his taxi back to the water taxi place. Here we took the 4:30PM taxi with just 2 minutes to spare. The ride took about 1 hour and we arrived into tourist heaven! Marvellous beach, seafood everywhere, sandy streets, etc.. everything is expensive but it's safe at least. We scored a place right on the beach called Conch Shell Hotel. So tomorrow morning is going to be awesome to wake up and walk downstairs to get in the water. As soon as we arrived into the peer we saw a sting ray and a manta ray!!! It was incredible, we can't wait to do snorkeling tomorrow!
Check out San Pedro and the view from our hotel..
So we went to dinner and Greg is feeling just a bit tired so he left back to the hotel. I hope he feels much better tomorrow. Aside from that, we are all fine and really look forward to hangout here while we wait for the arrival of our fourth and final wheel (the keystone, the missing piece of the puzzle), our very own, Alexey.
Finally, here is a picture that summarizes the navigational nightmare that sometimes is to drive through these roads.. Aparently, route 186 goes in three different directions!!
Ahhh.. also, we tried some new fruit which I had never seen before during our trip. The Mexicans seem to call it Mamoncillo (they don't use this name regularly because "it sounds naughty" according to the road-side fruit-seller) or Guaya and it kind of looks like a Lychee. Very tasty but funny texture. Greg thought that a more appropriate name was "snot fruit" so that's what we called it.The Mexico-Belize border was open on Sunday so we decided to try our luck and attempt a border crossing on the spot. It was around 2:30PM and we left Mexico. The guy at the Mexican Migration office said something about "180" so I asked him in Spanish if there was something to pay. Being very smart (and a crook) he quickly replied "just give me $100 pesos each". So we prepared the money and were ready to hand it to him when we asked for a receipt for this fee. So he got a bit scared and said that he did not have receipts so he would let us go without paying. Nice try crooked migration officer!
We would have our second corruption experience a few meters away after crossing the bridge. After clearing our paperwork with Belizean migration, we had to get a car permit for Rosinante. The lady seemed very cool. However, as we walked out, she said in a very low tone "you know, we have to check your car and if we find anything, we need to charge you.. how much are you willing to pay to settle this?". So I said "let's go and see what it is that I am going to sell in Belize and how much would it be. She quickly realized that we did not have the amount of money that she thought (she had to go through our trunk, dirty socks, crickets, towels, etc..) so she gave us the permit without much more fuss after making us throw away our entire stash of snot fruit!
Ok, so after this, we drove a couple of hours into Belize. (What an expensive place! considering we are arriving from Mexico) Our arrival into Belize City was crazy to say the least! Pardon me if you are Belizean but this town really scared us!! It was frightening to drive through and even more to stay. So we quickly had to figure out what to do if we did not want to get mugged! Most people in the streets seemed to have nothing better to do but to stand around with a bottle of beer and look scary. All of us at this point were freaking out about what to do. However, it must be said that we performed quite well under pressure. We quickly distributed the tasks for finding hotels, water taxis schedules, parking, navigation, driving, etc..
The last water taxi to the tourist island of Ambergris (where the town of San Pedro is located) was at 4:30PM. This is really where most people that come to BZ stay instead of Belize City. It was about 4:05PM and we had a car to park somewhere, no hotel reservations in San Pedro and no idea of what to do. We went to the water taxi place where a guy named Dennis (so far he has been pretty good) offered to keep the car for $10US/day at his house backyard. We agreed and we went to his house, fast! Parked in his backyard (where his buddy Steve lives in what is left of a VW van - see picture) and fled Belize City. He later asked us for US$5 for gas money too but Todd gave him BZ$5 which is half what he was asking.
Now, he took us in his taxi back to the water taxi place. Here we took the 4:30PM taxi with just 2 minutes to spare. The ride took about 1 hour and we arrived into tourist heaven! Marvellous beach, seafood everywhere, sandy streets, etc.. everything is expensive but it's safe at least. We scored a place right on the beach called Conch Shell Hotel. So tomorrow morning is going to be awesome to wake up and walk downstairs to get in the water. As soon as we arrived into the peer we saw a sting ray and a manta ray!!! It was incredible, we can't wait to do snorkeling tomorrow!Check out San Pedro and the view from our hotel..
So we went to dinner and Greg is feeling just a bit tired so he left back to the hotel. I hope he feels much better tomorrow. Aside from that, we are all fine and really look forward to hangout here while we wait for the arrival of our fourth and final wheel (the keystone, the missing piece of the puzzle), our very own, Alexey.
Finally, here is a picture that summarizes the navigational nightmare that sometimes is to drive through these roads.. Aparently, route 186 goes in three different directions!!
Friday, July 14, 2006
Blazing New Trails
(Sorry about earlier, the internet cafe we were in was closing and I couldn't add all of the pictures. They are included now.)
So I´m convinced no one in Mexico ever drives anywhere. After being told that it only takes 4.5 hours to drive from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido (a trip that took over 6 hours) we were then told that it would take 13 hours to get from Puerto Escondido to San Cristobal de las Casas. Therefore we got up at 5:00 AM to ensure that we would make it to San Cristobal before it got dark and the Zapatistas come out. So after a long day of driving we rolled into San Cristobal at 2:30 PM, just a little under 9 hours of driving. Not that I am complaining, it gave us the opportunity to enjoy San Cristobal and accelerate the schedule by a day. It just makes me appreciate how few people have probably ever driven the length of Mexico and makes the adventure all that more exciting. The drive was exciting enough on its own though. It started with a wonderful sunrise (been a long time since I´ve seen one of those, unless it counts when you leave the bar as the sun is rising) and ended with an unbelievable drive on the highway to San Cristobal literally driving through the clouds (see pictures below). Muchos graicas, Presidente Fox.
Now onto San Cristobal. As I already mentioned we arrived in the afternoon and settled into our rooms in the Backpackers Hostel. I´m not a huge hostel fan, but the place is actually fairly nice with a cool courtyard and pretty cheap prices (70 pesos/person). The only problem with hostels is everyone tends to be a lot younger and usually lounder so it can be hard to settle down after a long day of driving. Typing that last sentence made me feel old, but all I need to do is look at my shoddy beard to feel childish yet again. Plus at hostels you always need to worry about the snoring factor. In Luxembourg Jose and I stayed in the same room as a few people whom we were shocked were still breathing in the morning. I´m pretty sure you could hear this one little Japanese kid in Germany, Belgium and France, but then again Luxembourg is quite small. Even worse than when my brother Jared used to grind his teeth while he was sleeping when he was younger. Hey bro, thanks for the comment. I knew you would feel the love. In fact thanks to everyone who has been posting comments, it has made checking out the blog for ourselves an enjoyable part of the day as well. Special big shout outs to my buddy Jeff whose comments may tend to be spiteful, but they usually make me laugh pretty hard. Also recognition to my dear sweet mother who can´t quite figure out how to post a comment and instead clicks on the e-mail link and sends me an e-mail message in what she thinks is a comment. I love you mom and bought you a little early birthday present today. Skip the next two paragraphs if you want it to be a surprise.
San Cristobal ended up being a very nice city. One of our favorites in Mexico so far. It was a charming Spanish colonial city with an interesting colored church built in the 16th century (see picture above). Jose thought it looked really cool, although Greg thought it resembled something he would have designed in 8th grade. We also walked around the city streets with many other cool looking buildings. We finally made our way to the market area to do our first real shopping of the trip. The market was pretty cool and was full of the indigenous people who are native to the Chiapas region of Mexico and are actually descendants of the Mayans. They were interesting people and quite short. They even made Jose look tall and as you can see in the picture in front of the church, he isn´t. Of course maybe I´m just a giant, in fact as the pictures below show there were quite a few things in San Cristobal besides the people that made me feel like a giant.
The wooden squirrel in the picture on the left is the gift for my mom. The Mayan salespeople use this really dirty tactic to hawk their wears by sending their children to try to do the selling. Greg and I both agree that these are the cutest kids in the world. They have these puppy dog eyes and the quietest voices. "Bracelet, señor?" It nearly melts your heart to tell them no, but so far I´ve been able to avoid picking up a bunch of useless crap. My mom on the other hand is one of the sweetest women in the world and always goes out of her way to help others. If she was confronted by these kids she would need to buy a new suitcase and open a Cinco de Maya type of store when she got back because she would be unable to tell them no. So her normally stoic son cracked under the sales pressure from a particularly adorable little girl of about four years old and bought a wooden squirrel. He hopes his mother will enjoy it as a little thank you present for not making me work when I was four. She let me stay unemployed until I was nine.
While in the market we also tried another culinary treat of Jose´s. It turns out he is quite the insect connosieur. This time it was ants instead of crickets. Jose claims to enjoy them immensely, whereas Greg and I ate are obligatory one each. As you can see in the pictures below, we received them with mixed results. After the insects we headed back to the hotel to drop off our new purchases before going to a restaurant for some real food. We ordered this huge dish called parrillada. It was supposed to feed two people, but the three of use couldn´t even finish it. Of course Jose was full of ants, Greg pigged out on fresh market made potato chips, and I ate too many churros.
After dinner we headed back to the hostel and met a couple of chicks, one each from Israel and England. The one is named Michal and the other is named Amy. I´ll let you figure out which is which. They were again quite young (19 and 22), but at least we´re moving in the right direction and they aren´t the jail bait that tryed to pick up Greg before. This time I was actually the lead contact and wowed Michal with my butchering of the Hebrew language which is only slightly worse than my non-existant Spanish which in turn is only slightly worse than my incomprehensible French. But hey I can understand rap lyrics so I think that should count as bilingual. Either way the chicks were pretty cool and the whole group went out for a few drinks and then to a dance club. The chicks had far more energy than us old men though (also I doubt they got up at 5:00 AM), and so we left them to continue dancing and headed back to the hostel for some much deserved sleep. Which I got very little of since there were people talking and roommates (not Jose or Greg) making "strange" noises most of the night. I guess I need to take a lesson from Greg and Jose and buy a pair of earplugs. Hopefully I can get some sleep on the way up to Palenque tomorrow.
So I´m convinced no one in Mexico ever drives anywhere. After being told that it only takes 4.5 hours to drive from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido (a trip that took over 6 hours) we were then told that it would take 13 hours to get from Puerto Escondido to San Cristobal de las Casas. Therefore we got up at 5:00 AM to ensure that we would make it to San Cristobal before it got dark and the Zapatistas come out. So after a long day of driving we rolled into San Cristobal at 2:30 PM, just a little under 9 hours of driving. Not that I am complaining, it gave us the opportunity to enjoy San Cristobal and accelerate the schedule by a day. It just makes me appreciate how few people have probably ever driven the length of Mexico and makes the adventure all that more exciting. The drive was exciting enough on its own though. It started with a wonderful sunrise (been a long time since I´ve seen one of those, unless it counts when you leave the bar as the sun is rising) and ended with an unbelievable drive on the highway to San Cristobal literally driving through the clouds (see pictures below). Muchos graicas, Presidente Fox.
 |  |
Now onto San Cristobal. As I already mentioned we arrived in the afternoon and settled into our rooms in the Backpackers Hostel. I´m not a huge hostel fan, but the place is actually fairly nice with a cool courtyard and pretty cheap prices (70 pesos/person). The only problem with hostels is everyone tends to be a lot younger and usually lounder so it can be hard to settle down after a long day of driving. Typing that last sentence made me feel old, but all I need to do is look at my shoddy beard to feel childish yet again. Plus at hostels you always need to worry about the snoring factor. In Luxembourg Jose and I stayed in the same room as a few people whom we were shocked were still breathing in the morning. I´m pretty sure you could hear this one little Japanese kid in Germany, Belgium and France, but then again Luxembourg is quite small. Even worse than when my brother Jared used to grind his teeth while he was sleeping when he was younger. Hey bro, thanks for the comment. I knew you would feel the love. In fact thanks to everyone who has been posting comments, it has made checking out the blog for ourselves an enjoyable part of the day as well. Special big shout outs to my buddy Jeff whose comments may tend to be spiteful, but they usually make me laugh pretty hard. Also recognition to my dear sweet mother who can´t quite figure out how to post a comment and instead clicks on the e-mail link and sends me an e-mail message in what she thinks is a comment. I love you mom and bought you a little early birthday present today. Skip the next two paragraphs if you want it to be a surprise.
 |  |
San Cristobal ended up being a very nice city. One of our favorites in Mexico so far. It was a charming Spanish colonial city with an interesting colored church built in the 16th century (see picture above). Jose thought it looked really cool, although Greg thought it resembled something he would have designed in 8th grade. We also walked around the city streets with many other cool looking buildings. We finally made our way to the market area to do our first real shopping of the trip. The market was pretty cool and was full of the indigenous people who are native to the Chiapas region of Mexico and are actually descendants of the Mayans. They were interesting people and quite short. They even made Jose look tall and as you can see in the picture in front of the church, he isn´t. Of course maybe I´m just a giant, in fact as the pictures below show there were quite a few things in San Cristobal besides the people that made me feel like a giant.
 |  |
The wooden squirrel in the picture on the left is the gift for my mom. The Mayan salespeople use this really dirty tactic to hawk their wears by sending their children to try to do the selling. Greg and I both agree that these are the cutest kids in the world. They have these puppy dog eyes and the quietest voices. "Bracelet, señor?" It nearly melts your heart to tell them no, but so far I´ve been able to avoid picking up a bunch of useless crap. My mom on the other hand is one of the sweetest women in the world and always goes out of her way to help others. If she was confronted by these kids she would need to buy a new suitcase and open a Cinco de Maya type of store when she got back because she would be unable to tell them no. So her normally stoic son cracked under the sales pressure from a particularly adorable little girl of about four years old and bought a wooden squirrel. He hopes his mother will enjoy it as a little thank you present for not making me work when I was four. She let me stay unemployed until I was nine.
 |  |  |
While in the market we also tried another culinary treat of Jose´s. It turns out he is quite the insect connosieur. This time it was ants instead of crickets. Jose claims to enjoy them immensely, whereas Greg and I ate are obligatory one each. As you can see in the pictures below, we received them with mixed results. After the insects we headed back to the hotel to drop off our new purchases before going to a restaurant for some real food. We ordered this huge dish called parrillada. It was supposed to feed two people, but the three of use couldn´t even finish it. Of course Jose was full of ants, Greg pigged out on fresh market made potato chips, and I ate too many churros.
After dinner we headed back to the hostel and met a couple of chicks, one each from Israel and England. The one is named Michal and the other is named Amy. I´ll let you figure out which is which. They were again quite young (19 and 22), but at least we´re moving in the right direction and they aren´t the jail bait that tryed to pick up Greg before. This time I was actually the lead contact and wowed Michal with my butchering of the Hebrew language which is only slightly worse than my non-existant Spanish which in turn is only slightly worse than my incomprehensible French. But hey I can understand rap lyrics so I think that should count as bilingual. Either way the chicks were pretty cool and the whole group went out for a few drinks and then to a dance club. The chicks had far more energy than us old men though (also I doubt they got up at 5:00 AM), and so we left them to continue dancing and headed back to the hostel for some much deserved sleep. Which I got very little of since there were people talking and roommates (not Jose or Greg) making "strange" noises most of the night. I guess I need to take a lesson from Greg and Jose and buy a pair of earplugs. Hopefully I can get some sleep on the way up to Palenque tomorrow.
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