and belated merry christmas! We didn't have a very Guatemalan Christmas but I do know they celebrate Chirstmas the afternoon/night of the 24th. One of the locals told us they started celebrating at midnight and through the wee hours of the morning. The 25th is for resting.
They eat a lot of their traditional X'Mas food, tamales - which are made of rice instead of cornmeal with meat inside them, wrapped in a banana leaf. Gifts are not a big part of Christmas here since most people are quite poor. There is of course a lot of firecracker action and you can't escape from the marimba music either.
Charlie and I opted for a very low key Christmas on a very islolated beach on Lago Izabel, near the Carribean, at a place called Denny's Beach. Denny is a Canadian who has been in Guatemala for 20 years. Coincidently, there were 7 guests from Canada, a Swiss couple and us. There are no roads to the beach, only by boat. We stayed in very simple bungalows, swam on the lake, and relaxed on the hammocks.
Our Christmas day activity included a morning horseback ride with Nilo, one of the 20 or so locals living near the beach, afternoon swim, and a special Turkey Christmas dinner, with stuffing and gravy and everything prepared with the help of the Canadians, and finished the night off with a superbly delicious chocolate cake baked by Susan from Switzerland. It was the first turkey dinner Denny has had in 20 years!
After a stormy short speed boat ride (not fun) to the nearest 'town', Charlie and I headed for a short visit at Quiriguᬠone of the Mayan ruins known for it's stelaes - stone carved pieces of important Mayan kings and animals and a night in Antigua, the most colonial town on Centro America perhaps, and reminded Charlie of Santa Fe with it's adobe buildings and beautiful plaza. We also saw the nicest looking McDonald's.
And so that was how we ended our travels in Guatemala. It's quite sad to leave but I am sure we will be back. I am now writing from San José¬ Costa Rica! Haven't done much exploring yet but it is quite different from Guatemala, much more modern and westernized, it feels a little strange...but I am sure it won't take long to get used to perfect weather and beautiful surroundings.
my head lolls forward, back, snaps straight jerking me out of sleep. We?re screaming down a paved road, misty windows in the pounding rain, 6am.
Muddy streets, muddy faces, a cross road town 2.5 hours from Coban, a twenty minute wait, and crumbling muffins for breakfast.
head lolls back, not forward, the next mini bus. Forward there is a 9 or 10 year old mayan boy, practically sitting in my lap. surrounded - are there 25 people in this bus? At least 12 in the drivers row and first back row, designed for about 4. legs hurt.
beads of sweat join my upper lip and forehead over the next legs - boat , minibus, schoolbus ride over the puente. Slight sweat, makes yesterdays bug bites itch.
we arrive in stone cool (almost) Flores, the steets smell of whitewash and tourism, drank a beer and squinted in the sun over lunch of fired chicken and grilled fruit. Manana - Tikal. Yesterday - Semuc Champey, blue pools and cliff diving.
from my journal, excuse the odd style.
We were finally able to upload photos from the digital camera. I set them up on the left hand column. It looks kind of jumbled together and some of the pictures might not have the correct title right now...but it`s better than nothing, right?
Here is a pic from Coban, taken from the cathedral on top of the hill overlooking the city.
We took a little tour of a coffee farm in Coban and a day trip to visited these gorgeous caves and natural water pools in Lanquin and Semuc Champey, ahh...
We did another 5am bus trip this morning and are now in Flores, up north in the jungle department of El Pet议 It`s the first time I have been in hot weather! Flores is sort of a little island on Lago Pet讬 just an hour or so away from Tikal, the most visited Mayan ruin which we will visit tomorrow.
You know you really love a place when you can smile to yourself and feel happy while sitting on the edge of a seat, with your knees wedged up against the seat in front of you on a crowded bus, at 5am, bumping along a rough mountain road on a ride that would take 2.5 hours to cover 25miles.
The rest of the day consisted of another 5 hour ride on a supposedly better bus. Unfortunately, Charlie and I got the first two seats behind the driver who looks like and drives like a mad terrorist, blarring music and the loudest engine imaginable. It was so bad that we really wished we had been on a crowded chicken bus. The make it worse, I had a seat above a wheel where I couldn`t put my legs down like a normal person. It was hellish.
The third bus was the polar opposite. I thought I was back in the US. It was a luxurious bus with the bus line, Monja Blanco. It had cushy seats and TVs! We watched `Mummy`in Spanish and stopped for refreshments at some truck stop sort of place. There wasn`t a single indigenous person on the bus. I felt a bit of a culture shock considering that only 12 hours before I was in the town of Todos Santos where all the men wear the same cool traditional clothing of red and white striped pants and big collared shirts.
3 buses and 12 hours later, we arrived in Cob஬ a relatively big city in central Guatemala. Coming into Coban was even more of culture shock. The road coming in resembled a small town in the US, lined with signs of Firestone, Texaco and of course, a McDonald`s. It was quite bizarre. Needless to say, the town of Cob஠is nothing special but there are supposed to be some beautiful caves nearby and I think we are going to visit a coffee farm today.
We made it to Todos Santos from Nebaj a little sooner than we had wanted... half of us got some kind of a stomach bug the end of the third day. Don`t ever attempt to hike with a big backpack on your back when you feel nauseous and weak. Let me tell you, it`s not worth it - and I wasn`t even the sickest person in the group. Luckily we were actually by a road and thanks to the wonderful uetzaltrekkers guides, we got a guy to take us down the mountain to Todos Santos. It was one of the coziest rides I have had on the back of a pick-up. I considered hiking on after vomiting up my breakfast and lunch but we made the right choice by coming down the mountain because Charlie and a couple others felt sick the next day. We were all feeling like a million bucks by the second day though. We couldn`t really figure out what it was that made us ill but probably some street food we had before you headed out on the hike the first afternoon.
It`s a pity we didn`t get to finish the hike. Only 4 out of 10 of us did. It was an amazing 3 days though. It was a bit of up and down the mountains, through valleys with with the tiniest pueblos where most have hardly seen a gringo. Most of the time we felt like we were the circus passing through or something. We had a few Austrians, 2 Canadians, 2 Bristish blokes and an Aussie with long dreadlocks (he is quite a hit with the kids), and then the two of us. Charlie thinks that I get stares because I look kind of `funky`. I look something in between a Gringo and a local, with freckles...
We ended in a beautiful mountain town of Todos Santos where almost everyone sport their traditional garb of red and white striped pants, big collar shirts and straw hats decorated with a piece of woven band around it.
After 12 hours on the bus yesterday, we arrived in Cobàn in Central Guatemala.
Ah, almost nothing beats that feeling of being an expat in a third world country. Last night we sat around with a bunch of English blokes and a Dutch girl. We drank Guatemalan beer and had vegitarian stir fry curry from the cafe Karen has been working at. A girl sat there and strummed guitar, Karen told me she is a professional guitar player from Boston. Everybody talks about where they've been or where they're going... how they're going to make ends meet when they get home. Karen prepared her Chinese tea, and we had a long conversation in Spanish with a local about the Guatemalan liquor (no wine, really only beer), New Mexican chille, and Swiss choclate.
Tommorow we leave for a 4 or 5 day trek from Nebaj to Todo's Santos... a route that illicieted several gasps from locals, but the guides assure us its ok.
Bueno pues, hasta luego.
Well, it?s been a crazy couple of days.... Friday was my last day of work at HDFSI - then packing and leaving a town I lived in for a few months, Reno, a some partying in San Francisco, and now of all places I?m sitting in a internet cafe in Xela, Guatemala. Little bit of culture shock. Karen is pretty much a local around here and helping me adjust. I took the Alamo bus from Guatemala City, left at 6:05 am. Right off the plane onto the bus basically... as we climbed and climbed (Xela is 2300 meters) more indigenous people got on the bus. I little girl with huge black eyes in a sack behind her mothers back stared and stared at me. That was about as close as I came to interacting with the locals... while there isn?t a feeling of danger here at all that I was slightly apprehensive of, I was the only thing close to resembling a gringo on that bus.
Me and Karen have lined up a 5 day trek to Todos Santos. We?ll be carrying our gear and camping, but if it rains a lot we can arrange to stay in one of the villages en-route. After that is in the air - probably Coban.
Marlo is the owner of the school and Cafe Q (where I have been working). She is one of the kindest and coolest people I have met here. She lived in Chicago for a few years and was married to an Irish American, who passed away about 8 years ago from a sudden heart attack :( After that she came back to Xela and helped her sister run the school and started the cafe. She loves kids but doesn?t have any of her own and it is almost impossible to adopt here.
Every end of the year, close to Christmas time, she takes tamales to the women detention center, the hospital and give them out to the street kids (who shine shoes for a living). She must have bought at least 250 tamales, 30 loafs of bread and a few boxes of lipton tea.
As a school activity, we went to the women?s detention center where the women are there detained waiting for their court date which takes at least half a year. In Guatemala, you are guilty unless proven innocent. We think that most of the women there are there for shoplifting and other petty crimes and most seem really nice though you never know. They don?t seem to be treated too badly at this particular center but I have heard some really sad stories. I was told that the at male prisons, sometimes the whole family lives there because the wife and children cannot survive on their own. I can?t even imagine...
Thursday morning we brought 175 tamales to the central park, played with the kids and gave them food and tea. I think we put a little too much sugar in the tea because the kids kept coming back for more! There are three brothers there who actually come into the cafe sometimes, the youngest is only about 5. They shine shoes like maybe other street kids. They have a home but their mother charges them 10 Quetzales to eat and sleep there per night! I couldn?t believe it. I can go on and on about these poor kids. Fortunately, there is a program here called Escuela de la Calle, they have a school for the street kids and a dormitory as well, which has been quite sucessful. By the way, Jonathan, thank you for making a donation!
Needless to say the food-giving was great but quite sad at the same time.
I am quite looking forward to leaving Xela only because I am starting to get really annoyed with the deafeningly loud explosion-like fireworks (it?s not even really fireworks, it sounds like they are bombing the city) and risk of getting injured by firecrackers the kids are playing with on the streets. And it?s supposed to get worse and worse as we approach Navidad (christmas).
Today the town celebrated the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. Virgin Mary is particular important to people of Xela. The story goes that right after the big earthquake here in 1902, someone saw, above the volcano that loomed over town, the figure of Mary in the smoke. And since there hasn?t been another big earthquake, the people here believe that Mary are here to protect them and named the volcano Santa Maria. Last night they had a huge procession around the Park.
Yesterday, they celebrated the Day of the Devil by taking out their garbage (i was told it?s mostly just paper and wood) and burned them on the street. I unfortunately didn?t witness any of it because I was builiding a fence at the organic farm all day.
Anyhow, I finished my four weeks of spanish classes Friday, and I am leaving Xela soon. It?s kind of sad. I am just beginning to speak better Spanish, making friends with more locals, getting into working at the cafe and the organic farm, etc. But at the same time I am getting quite excited to see other parts of Guatemala, and not being woken up at the crack of dawn by firecrackers, getting allergic reactions to the contaminated air and extreme climate.
We were able to put up part of the fence yesteday at Proyectos Ecologicos with Tina and Estuardo. We felt quite accomplished considering we have been spenidng weeks digging holes and putting in the poles for the fence. It?s quite hard work! But soon, the neighbors won?t be able to come steal our little trees and dump garbage all over the farm.
Well, I moved out of Reno last night. How long does it take one to move? Weeks of planning perhaps, packing, sorting , trucking etc? Last night it took exactly 1 hour, and I had the S4 trunk fully packed. I had half a beer with John, then hit the road.
I guess that the months of packing, moving out of our old appartment enabled that, but its pretty nice to be able to head out of town so quick. I'm now in Mt.View, preparing for the journey.
We have daily activities at school and yesterday we had a discussion about education in Guatemala. It was quite depressing as I had expected.
Problems range from not having enough teachers and teaching materials, poor learning environments, government not giving enough support to discrimination and of course, poverty.
Teaching is actually the number 1 occupation in this country but because the public schools supported by the government and education only gets 2% of the GDP - before corruption, there are not enough teaching jobs. An average school in the city has 500 kids spread out over 6 grades and there are only 3 or 4 teachers. Kids in the rural areas face more problems with discrimination due to the different indigenous languages spoken and lack of clothing for the really poor kids. The government make great promises to get votes but doesnt do anything in reality. They promised new books and great snacks for the kids and the schools for 7 books and the kids get one small, stale cookie.
Our teacher who led the discussion see this first hand because she teaches at one of the public schools in a pueblo. One time she was invited to one of the kid's home for dinner and they got tortilla with some cheese. And I think that is a good meal.
There are private schools as well but unlike in the US, the teachers get paid less. The standards might be higher just because there are less kids in each class. My spanish teacher used to teach at a private school and she said she had to leave because of the corruption and disorganization. You would not believe how little these teachers get paid. At a private school, teachers get paid on paper about $110 a month but in fact, they only get about $50 because the school would pocket the rest. At a public school, they get about $200 a month but you have to pay someone (a third person and probably government officials) at least $150, usually more, to get a teaching job.
The sad thing is that the government has no intentions to educate it's people because all they care is money and the less the people know the less resistance. Guatemala has one of the most corrupt governments in the world and the most extreme rich-poor ratio and it is actually getting worse and not better.
It is quite depressing to think that these problems exist in many other countries around the world. It really didn't hit you until you are in one and see it first hand.
#in other less depressing news, I still haven't been able to download the photos from my digital camera but hopefully soon...but...Nick has been helping us update the website and there are now a few links to pictures on the right hand column.
Karen's been preparing a list of items that I/we will need on the trip. I drove up to Reno yesterday, punched REI's address in the GPS in the S4, arrived there at 6:05 pm. Here is the list:
-Money belt
-A couple of small locks
-travel towel
-mosquito nets?
-bug spray *jungle juice - 2 bottles
-sleeping bags
I found the first sales man I could... we grabbed every item of the shelf, sequentially. I checked out by 6:15pm ... cost $153.00
Thats my kind of shopping.
Karen Dos and I took a few days off school end of last week and had a long weekend trip Lake Atitlan. We met up with another one of our friends from school who had been there for a week. We stayed on San Marcos, one of the 12 or so little towns around the lake - most of which are named after the 12 disciples.
It almost seemed that we had left Guatemala when we arrived at San Marcos. There is a center for medidation and yoga there and there were a lot of foreigners who are there to do just that. It was nice and relaxing although it did feel a little strange. I hardly spoke any Spanish the whole 4 days. I didn`t really like that. But i did do a a little yoga which was really nice since it`s been ages since I have had a chance to. I also went to a medidation session which was extremely relaxing. It was a place called Las Piramides, all off the bungalows, temple were the shape of pyramids. Most of the buildings are rather new as well which gives the town a simple resorty feel.
I also went to another town San Pedro, which is larger and more popular with backpackers, to hike a small volcano called the Indian Nose because the face of the mountain resembled that of a face of an Indian with a big nose. Even though it wasnt that high up the heat and dense bushes made it quite an effort to get to the top, but that did earn us a nice view of the entire lake and surrounding towns and volcanoes.
I am back in Xela once again - my last week here...it's kinda sad but I am really excited for Charlie to get here and do some traveling. I also think that my brain is about filled up with as much Spanish as it could take.
Ben is a friend of my mom's, who lives in the Navajo nation, close to the New Mexico border in Arizona. He was in Santa Fe yesterday, (where I currently am) and came over to talk to us. Ben has been all over the world, by a funny co-incidence he was in Cusco Peru in June 2000, meaning Karen and I were there at the same time. Too bad we didn't run into him. He went to the solstice ceremony at Saxewoman that I was too embarrassed to admit we slept through.
The Navajo's, who are the descendents of several Apache tribes, have one of the best-preserved native cultures in North America. Unlike the Pueblo tribes around Santa Fe, they never mix the Catholic ceremonies with the traditional ones, and draw strict bloodlines. Ben got water to his Hogan a few years ago, before that he lived in a more traditional manner. He herds sheep, is the Director of Education at the Dine college, graduated from Saint Johns college in Santa Fe, and has traveled more widely than I have. He questioned me on Thanksgiving, asking what it meant to me. He said Navajo's don't understand it, because eating with the family like that is a weekly if not daily occurrence, and there are no ceremonies associated with Thanksgiving. (what about beer and football??). I stuck to my position that it is as close to a tradition as we have in American culture, and it was good enough. Families go out of their way to get together, no matter where they are.
When I told him I was going to Guatemala, he asked why? What was I trying to accomplish, who was I visiting. He's been there, with a group of Native American’s, and the visited certain tribes. He said I would stand out a lot, but I think I convinced him that our main motive is not to necessarily become best friends with all native peoples, but really to have a good and maybe educational time, to see the world from an un-American perspective. Ben said I should have clear purpose, spiritually, for the purpose of my trip. I felt a little frivolous, but what can you do. He invited me to the Navajo nation, and I've already planned out an at least 1 week mini vacation from working on the ranch for and Karen and I (and any of you stragglers who make it to NM!). It will involve the northwest part of New Mexico, Canyon de Chelly (pronounced che), and probably loop back around through Taos and El Valle. It’s quite an invitation, as Canyon de Chelly is purportedly exceedingly beautiful, and not open to the public. He said we can camp on his land. I invited him to Pecos.
Santa Fe is beautiful as usual, but I have to leave today, back to Reno for another week of work. Only one week to go, and I'll be in Guatemala!