I saw the most bizarre thing today. We visited a nearby town, Zunil to see a weaving cooperative (which was closed), Sant Simon and their big annual fiesta celebrating the birthday of Santa Catarina, their most important saint.

We arrived at this farming town set at the foot of a mountain, with a big white colonial church in the middle of town and next to it, because of the fiesta, a ferris wheel. We made our way through the crowded streets filled with food and toy vendors and woman in their best and most colorful huipiles (traditional mayan blouses) and cortes (skirts that are basically a piece of very colorful patterned fabric). Each pueblo or region have their own style. From what I can tell, those from Zunil are extremely colorful with lots of yellow, couldn?t quite catch how the patterns differ from others though.

We went up the hill in search of San Simon. He is a Mayan legend (a statue, really) who the Mayans believed helped drive the Spaniards away. There are 4 San Simon ?statues? in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. This particular one in Zunil moves from one house to another every year.

After a bit of searching we came to this alley way that led us to a house where San Simon is housed. When we walked in, we saw a a manequin/effigy dressed in a cowboy hat, sport jacket and tie, a pair of rain boots, a blanket or towel drapped over it?s shoulders (for protection), a scarf around it`s neck, sitting in a big but simple wood chair. When we walked in, there was a woman whispering in it?s ear for blessings and two guys tilting it backwards and pouring alcohol in it`s ?mouth?. To make this even more bizarre, the ?saint? Simon is sitting in the middle of an empty room, dark, and there are strings of `Canadian Dry?, ?Crush?, and other soda signs hung up on the ceiling. Off to the side is a room filled with lit candles. Some guy charged us 2 Quetzales (about 20cents) to stand in the room. Let me tell you, it was weird.

We walked through the fiesta more. There were US flags hung up everywhere, first that I have seen here. My teacher said that they hang up the flags to ask for Santa Catherina?s blessing for all their relatives who live in the US. We also saw a group of people dressed up like we do during haloween dancing around. I can?t figured out if it is sort of a show or just people dressing up to dance around because they were surrounded by a crowd of spectators. People were dressed up as almost anything you can imagine from Bin Laden, an US army soldier to Chewy from Star Wars and the Mask from that Jim Carrey movie. Needless to say, we had quite an interesting afternoon.

*I have pictures, will try to upload them tomorrow!

I developed some pics and scanned some in. I had to scan three to a page but hopefully they are clear enough!
1. The top one is a picture of the house, the door closest on the left is my room! The middle one is a picture of the chicken buses, the bottom is the view from the house, you can kind of see Volcan Santa Maria. View images

2. This top one is a pciture of the family's pet, Daisy, and some from the Tajamulco hike. I haven't developed the black and whites i took from the top of the mountain yet but they are coming soon.

3. The top one here is one I took with Dorca, a little girl at the family in Sant Juan I visited last week. The second one is one from the San Francisco El Alto Market, the largest market in Centro America. The third one is of Chris, world famous unicycler from Vancouver who was on the trek up to the Volcano with us, he unicycled down the mountain. View Images

4. These are all from the Market. One of my friend Karen to illustrate how funny we look in a crowd of short gautemalans (she's about my height). The bottom one was taken at the animal market section. You can find all sorts of animals. People stand there with their one cow or chill out on the ground with chickens, rabbits, puppies, kittens, etc. in baskets around them. It's quite an amusing site.

Last week, I had the opportunity to go visit a family who live in a pueblo (village) in the beautiful mountains half and hour outside of Xela. The two girls in the family learned English with a friend of mine. One is 19 and had never gone to school but is dying to. The other is 23 and just had a baby and named her after my friend Jeanine. They make cheese and do some embroidery work as well. They have a cow and some pigs and turkeys. The father came and picked us up in a pick-up truck. My friend vomited when she got there from the smog and bumpy ride. They gave her some alka-seltzer and some kind of nausea pill. They say they always take these before they go on a long bus ride. I will have to try that next time.

They have a hard life but they enjoy every single bit of it and don`t complain. They also impressed me with their desire to learn and their appreciation for the opportunity to learn a little bit of english. I taught them a few words in Chinese and they taught me a few words in Mam and how to make corn tortillas in return. It`s a lot harder than you would think to make these tortillas nice and round.

I realized that I haven`t posted one on my current `home`. Quetzaltenango, more commonly known as it`s Mayan name, Xela, is the second largest city in Guatemala, after Guatemala City. I didn`t feel that it`s all the big until I went up to the mountain and was able to look down on this sprawling city packed with rows of corrugated iron roofs. It is a laid back town up in the Western Highlands and has a population of about 100,000 of mostly Mayans. Spanish is the predominant language in use but two other Mayan dialects are also spoken in this region, Mam and Quiche (pronounced kee-che).

One of my friends here, Karen `Dos` from New Zealand (Karen 2 in spanish. I am Karen `Uno` because I got to school first) said something that I find true for myself as well, that we have learned to accept the differences being in a third world country, and that difference is quickly becoming our normality. As I started thinking about where Charlie and I would go traveling when he arrives, I got a weird sad feeling, just like when I left home. I am amazed at quickly I have made this place, somewhere so different from where I have lived, where poverty is a harsh reality, home.

My daily routine consists of being woken up by firecrackers at 6am (don`t ask me why, they play with firecrackers at all times of the day and night here), breakfast at 7:15am with the family. I walk along rough cobbled stone streets, passing women in colorful fabrics, some carrying huge baskets on top of their heads. Quite likely at least one drunk asleep on the side of the street.

I have one on one spanish class from 8am - 1pm. But my Spanish lessons don`t end there. We chat with the family back at home during lunch and after that my brain really start to hurt. My school, Kie-Balam (something-Jaguar in Quiche) is in a relatively big house with a courtyard in the middle. When it`s warm out we would have our lessons outside. Most days we have optional activities at school, from visiting the nearby markets or a women weavers cooperative, a talk on natural medicine or on women in Guatemala, to learning to cook a typical Mayan dish or watching a movie in Spanish. I have made a group of friends, all girls taking spanish at my school who are also traveling alone and share my interests - a side note, i think i have met more girls then guys traveling on their own here. We frequent the same cafes for emailing and studying over coffee. A few of us also just started helping out at an organic farm a couple afternoons a week. I am also looking into working with Habitat for humanity so my afternoons will soon be even busier.

This might be a third world country but they do have high speed internet access. I think a bunch of cafes have sprung up with the rising popularity of Xela being a premier place to study Spanish. I definitely recommend learning Spanish here over Barcelona. The cafe we go to most is Cafeteria.net. You would never have guessed that it is a cafe in the third world. All the computers have Windows XP, CD burners, etc. They also have good coffee and chocolate cake. There aren`t too many places where you can get good Guatemala coffee because they can`t afford not to export it all.

By dinner time I am so tired I can hardly think, much less in Spanish. But I usually manage to spit out a few sentences about how my day went and sometimes even a conversation on interesting facts about Guatemala, Hong Kong, Chinese culture, and life in general. As if I didn`t already have enough to do, I decided to work at a cafe a few nights a week, for no pay, just a free meal or a beer in exchange. Cafe Q is a really laid back hangout frequented by spanish students, musicians, and locals alike serving vegetarian food, beer, coffee, tea, etc. It is attached to my school, owned by the same woman, Marlo. Perhaps it will help my spanish and I might learn a few interesting recipes.

So yes, life in Xela is busy. I love it in a very different way that I love San Francisco and other places I have lived. Perhaps I like the fact that I am getting fully immersed in a culture not so easily understood by those who have never spent time in this part of the world. The hardships these Guatemalans, especially the indigenous people, have had, and are still going through are beyond imagination. Women can hardly survive on their own, much less feed their children. Lots of young kids shine shoes so that they could eat. Most of them don`t have homes to go back to. The only skill indigenous women have is weaving, basically lots of work for hardly any money. Drinking is a problem because that`s one way men cope with not having jobs and being poor. The young people living outside of the city don`t have schools to go to. That being said, many young people have the opportunity to go to University in the city, while working one or two jobs during the day. It is almost hard to imagine that the 30-year civil war had ended just 6 years ago because the people are so lovely and friendly here. Xela, as I have learned from the locals, was not as affected by the war as were other indigenous villages up in the highlands and the eastern part of the country. The presidential election is coming next year and there is a chance that the ex-dictator Rio-Montt, charged with Genocide, might get nominated. If that happens, it will be a even longer time for peace to become a reality.

Well, I've purchased a SFO-GUA-SJO-SFO ticket on United, leaving 12/8/2002, to begin on my Central American leg of RTW. I’m pretty excited. After several months of slogging (with a few European and east coast interludes) my appetite for travel has increased to the level of making three weeks until the 8th seem like an awfully long time.

Karen's posts about climbing mountains and organic gardening are at least partly responsible for the travel itch. Plus, I've been working my fingers to the metaphorical bone, including publishing a new release of Siebel monitoring software found on the parent site, and I'm ready for a break.
So, Guatemala, here I come!

I went on an amazing trek this weekend, to the highest Volcano/mountain in Centro America - Volcan Tajamulco. I went with a group called Quetzaltrekkers. They have volunteer guides and does treks for a good cause. All the money goes to Escuela de la Calle (a school for the street kids, they also have a dormitory) - I encourage donations to the organization, you can find information on the website above.
We woke up saturday morning at 5am, took a series of buses until we got to our starting point at about 3000m (approx. 9750 ft) 3 hours later. By the way, the chicken buses are no longer fun, I felt quite ill on all the rides, it`s VERY smoggy, the driving is insane and it`s extremely crowded. Unfortunately I will have to take them many more times on long trips for the next couple months.
So, we trekked for about 4 or 5 hours until we got to our campsite at 4000m (about 12, 500 ft I think). It might have been the hardest trek I have done, I carried more than I usu. carry on my backpack and it`s pretty steep, and I really felt the shortness of breath from the altitude. Nonetheless, all 25 of us made it up to the top. A couple women (in their 50s!!) felt quite sick from the altitude but they made it through the night. The views we got from various points on the hike were amazing. I will post photos when I develop my film. We had an early night because we had to wake up at 4:30am the next morning to climb up to the top - 4220m, about 14,000 ft - before sunrise. There was so much condensation from the cloud and fog that our tent got quite wet, the end of my sleeping bag got soaked and I had to hike with freezing wet feet the next morning.

But it was all worth it when we saw the view from the top. We can see all the way out to the pacific ocean to Mexico, a few other mountains and volcanoes, even some smoke from one erupting from a distance. We looked down on a sea of clouds as the sun rose. It was an amazing sight!!

Needless to say, I am a little sore right now but I am considering doing a Full Moon night hike tomorrow night up to the nearby Volcan Santa Maria. Not sure if i will make it though. Now I am back in Xela breathing in smog, yuck.

I have to admit, I had my first shower in a few days this morning. Reason being that we don`t really get hot water and it`s pretty cold in the morning and at nights here, and the shower is a separate room outside in the courtyard. Like the rest of Latin America, the water is heated by electricity but thank goodness I don`t have to turn it on and off everytime i shower and risk electricuting myself (like we had to in Peru). The first time I took a shower here I didn`t get any hot water until the end of my shower and I FROZE! But I think I figured out the trick to get warm water this morning. You can`t really adjust the temperature as there is only one faucet knob. You have to turn it on enough so the `heater`kicks in but not too much because the more water the colder it gets, now I can take WARM showers more often, woo hoo! It`s funny how such little things make you happy when you live in a third world country.

So a little about the Siliezar Gonzalez family: Cleo is the mother, she is a homemaker, a great cook and very very nice, she reminds me of Po Po (my grandma in Vancouver, except younger) and makes me feel very comfortable there. Cesar is the husband who is a welder. He is not doing very well right now because his mother is very sick and they don`t have enough money to treat her. They just found out that she has gangreen which is what my grandfather had so I can relate but their biggest problem is that she is old, they have no money and can`t get a good doctor :( The government-provided healthcare is as good as none here but I can dedicate another post on that topic...

They have 6 children, three of them live in the house, Legia and Alexis work during the day and goes to university at night. Dorian is the second oldest son who is an accountant. One of their children died I think when he was young, two others are married with kids and live in Guatemala City. The family has hosted students for the past 10 years and really enjoy learning about other cultures. We have long conversations on culture and politics, healthcare, religion, etc. There are two other girls living there. One is a pastor (methodist) from colorado, the other is Elizabeth from Albuqueque. I mostly hangout with Elizabeth and two other girls, Karen from New Zealand and Anna from Sweden. We are all quite dedidcated to learn spanish but it`s hard not to revert back to English. But honestly, speaking spanish for 5 hours in class with Palmina (my teacher) and a few hours at home is probably enough practice. My brain is usually pretty fried by dinner time. I try to study some after dinner in my tiny and simple but relatively comfortable room - at least it`s warm. Oh, and there is also Daisy, Their little dog who Cleo refers to as `perro muy loca` - very crazy dog.

Riding on one of these is a truely unqiue Guatemalan experience. Everything i read about it was true, except no one brought on any chickens. I was pretty fun, at least until my bum started getting sore from the bumpy 4 hour ride.

I started my journey from the Antigua ´bus termial`- really just a bunch of buses parked on the side of the street or in a row in some lot near the market- where I had to catch a bus to Chimaltenango first and switch to another bus to Xela. All the buses are old US school buses, mostly colourfully painted and decorated over Blue Birds but also some yellow school buses that still says `School Bus`on them. As I approached the buses, some guy who was yelling `Chimal, Chimal, Chimal` takes my backpack and throws it on top of the bus (the buses also have a big rack added on up top). I actually had a seat next to the window cause the bus wasn`t that crowded (most people were at church i reckoned).

The bus pulled out of the lot a few minutes later with the guy who took my bag standing by the opened door, who i assume to be the `conductor`, yelling `Chimal, Chimal, Chimal`at anyone who looks like they are waiting for a bus on the street. Whenever someone does want to get on, the bus stops but never to a complete stop unless it`s some old persong getting on. The Condutor jumps out to help, or should i say, push the passenger on and help take their bags if there were any and takes them up to the rack. The driver would start taking off before the conductor would get back on and often times the conductor would have to run up to catch the bus. The bus stops for anyone anywhere until it`s so packed that there are 3 or 4 or 5 people to one of these two seater seats and when there is no more possible standing room - i was very happy to have a seat even though quite squished.

An hour later, I got off at some intersection, crossed the street where a bunch of people seem to be waiting for the bus. Within 2 minutes, a bus with a guy hanging out the door, yelling `Xela, Xela, Xela` came by, I get on, my bag got thrown up on the rack and off we went. This time we are going up the mountain on winding roads and I still can`t believe how my backpack didn`t fall off the rack. Luckily this bus never got too crowded (having three people to one seat is nothing!) but my legs barely fit in the space between the seats obviously made to accomodate children. I guess it doesn`t really bother them here cause they are short. I must have been one of the tallest people on the bus. So yes, Guatemalans are not too tall.

So, i got to Xela in one piece and have been taking one-on-one spanish classes in the morning and staying with a family and everything has been great. It is the poorest country I have been to so far and perhaps the most interesting. However I haven`t been able to get any volunteer work because most of them want longer term help. I might be able to do some reforestation work or help build some houses or work at a cafe. We`ll see. I suppose the focus has now switched to improving my español and really getting to know Guatemala.

I will dedicate another post to Xela and my upcoming trek up to the tallest mountain/volcano in Central America. But now, it`s time to do some studying!

After a three day delay, I finally made it to Antigua, Guatemala. I spent an extra two days in Philadelphia because they would not let me on the plane thursday night because the incompetent Lufthansa needed to recalculate my fare because i made some routing changes and decided not to tell me until i was checking in an hour before my flight. Ah well, the joys and pains of traveling, right? I did haggle them to reimburse my $75 change fee though, and I got to bug Jessica for another day.

Anyhow, Antigua is about an hour away from Guatemala City, where I flew in. I had arranged someone to pick me up and haven´t had the chance to experience a ride in the chicken buses yet (but i will tomorrow). Antigua is beautiful, surrounded by three volcanos (one of them active!) and lots of colonial architecture dating back to the 1700´s i believe. The town is a bit more touristy than I had imagined but a neat place nonetheless.
Tomorrow I head to Xela, the second largest city in Guatemala up in the Western Highlands. It´s also the second most popular place to study spanish but much less touristy than Antigua. Will send an update when I get there!
Hasta luego!

I woke up at 7:30 PST and thought that Karen would have arrived in Guatemala City two hours before this Saturday morning... I wonder what she's doing right now? Hopefully gazing out the window of some van en-route to Antigua. I think it is a pretty brave thing to do, go alone, and I look forward to a comment here or an email from her.

(Today is blog catch-up day) Just want to post one on the fabulous wedding we attended this past weekend in Saratoga Springs put on by the Zeltmann's for Laura and Justin. Got a chance to catch up with a few long lost friends from Hopkins and Charlie had his first visit to upstate NY. Congrats and best wishes to Laura and Justin who are now honeymooning in Antigua.

I was supposed to leave for Guatemala today but mom decided to surf the web and read that it's quite dangerous to travel from the airport to Antigua after dark, and my flight would not get in till 10:45pm. I looked more into it and got worried. After hours on the phone with mom and Charlie and much contemplation, I decided to extend my stay in Phili for one more day just hours before my flight. I was able to change my flight so that I fly through LAX instead of MEX, no more 8 hour layover and I get into Guatemala City in the morning. Thank goodness for the easily changeable round the world ticket. Emailed Jim at Project Mosaic Guatemala and re-arranged all my airport pickups and hotels and meetings. I feel much better about it now and am feeling more excited than worried.

I am in exotic Philadelphia right now visiting Jessica who is a first year MBA student here. I am writing from this lecture hall-turned-computer-lab at the new fancy building at Wharton. There are more than 100 IBM desktops with flat screen monitors. The place is filled up and it looked like everyone is in class taking notes when you first walk in and seems quite strange. We just came from the health clinic after getting Jessica her flu shot and now we're off to take some yearbook pictures for Jessica's ice hockey team (yes, little jessica is playing hockey) and marketing club. Later, we are going to some social at some bar and then someone's birthday dinner. Life at business school is quite hectic. Oh, and she does go to class and studies too.

Had a great week with mom and dad and my brother in the Bordeaux wine country in France. We had the most amazing meals and wine and we did squeeze in some excercising, if you consider golf much of a workout. I can go on and on about the food there but that would make this a really long post. We had a three course dinner every night and visited some of the best wineries in the region and tasted their best wines free of charge. Most of the wineries are family owned unlike those in California.
Well, I am back in the US now, flew into NYC last night and heading up to Albany for Laura and Justin's wedding tonight, will get to see my college friends and Charlie!! It feels kind of wierd to be back in the US, I miss Spain already.
Oh, and it's Pablo's (my wonderful host in Barcelona) birthday today, happy birthday Pablito!