Hablé demasiado temprano

I spoke too soon. I should have known better than to jynx myself. A day hike that totaled 5 hours shouldn't have cost 400Q.

I didn't want to just do nothing this weekend, so I decided I'd go up vulcán santa maria. Well thats all well and good but there's this rumor that its harder than Tajumulco and that the views are the same from the "Mirador" which is only halfway up the hill. There's no chance I'm only going half way, so I asked a tour company if they could take just me to the top? They said there has to be 2 people minimum, and its 400Q in total. No problem, I called a few people and they were in. The mini-bus was picking us all up at 4am Saturday morning and at 1:30am I got a text from one of our group - "Too drunk, can't go. Sorry." He had a reason to celebrate that night so I don't hold that against him. So its down to 2. 200Q a piece still wasn't bad. I get in the bus and we pick up my comrade. As we're driving to the volcano, he tells me "I went to the bathroom like 6 times last night, and I threw up...and didn't really sleep." - Why did he get in the bus? If this hike is really as hard as they say (there were Mirador hikers in the bus talking about how they had been warned about Santa Maria), there's no way he should do it. Even if he could, I really didn't want it to take 6 hrs to get to the top (4 is the average) because there's no view by 930 am.

So its just me, but the guide and I are already at the base. I ask if he can just take me and he agreed. We hit the peak in 2.5 hours after sweating more than I have yet in Guatemala (the guide was pretty sweaty too). We came down in under 2 hours and I think the temperature, altitude changes, and exertion had a weird effect on me - my fingers were swollen for about an hour after reaching the base. Oh well, the views were incredible and not having to deal with a group was almost worth the 400Q... almost.

View from Santa Maria (extinct) of Santiaguito (still very active).

Thats the view I worked for. "Vale la pena" - worth the pain.

Barrato

Cheap. Thats what things are here.

Public transportation (as inept as it can be) is 1.25Q in town and roughly 2.5 for the surrounding area. That totals...hmm maybe 30-40 cents at its most expensive. And, you can bring anything you want on. Got a 50 pound bag of cabbage? Great! they'll lash it to the roof for you. Got yours and 20 other people's backpacking packs? Sure they'll put those up there too. All the while, the "ayudante" - guy who is king of the bus - is running through the aisles collecting money, going out the back door while on the pan-am highway to climb to the roof to re-secure luggage and then climbing back in the front door to be ready for new passengers.

Best cinnamon roll in Xela (ya from Dave's gringo cafe) 10Q, just over a buck.

While watching the Mavs stomp the Heat in game 5 - Super Nachos: 35Q, a burger 38Q, 2 Liters of beer and some tequila - 70Q. Totals about 143Q and is less than $20 which is then split between James and I. And thats at a pricey gringo bar.

2 days of hiking + all the rental gear you could need + guides + food + transportation + park fees = 400Q. Just under 50 bucks for a trip to the top of central america.

Then theres xelapan, a bakery around town that makes these great/huge gingerbreads with dark chocolate on top for 4Q or 50 cents.

The best is bakeshop - open only tuesday and friday, and run by a Mennonite convent. Best baked-goods ever. Donuts for under a buck. Natural peanut butter for 3. Pies, cakes, banana bread, pastelitos, granola, you name it, they have it and it tastes good.

Ex-pats

Ex-pats are an interesting group. There's a whole subculture of them here and I'm sure around the world.

I heard rumors about the "best cinnamon rolls in Xela" at this cafe near my house - Cafe Areopagus. Well I needed a place to do some homework and have a cup of coffee so I decided to check it out. I walked in and saw 2 older men with darker skin and assumed that at the very least, they were non-american. So I said "Hola" and the bearded one just said "Hey there, what can I get ya"? It was nice to be greeted by a familiar phrase, but still a bit odd.

I ended up talking with Dave - the bearded owner, and Frank - his retired friend - for a while. Dave moved down from Missouri with his wife to work at a mission and opened the bakery / cafe to increase funding for the mission. He said he drives his truck 3-4 times a year from Xela to Kansas city for supplies (beer) and to see his daughter. 2,500 miles almost exactly. He had some cool stories about going through Mexico.

Frank is a retired development specialist who coordinated fund raising events across the US. He visited Guatemala after retiring to learn spanish. He ended up marrying his spanish teacher and moving to Xela permanently. Frank thinks the best way to learn a language is to marry someone who only speaks what you want to learn. They apparently have spanglish dates where they mix the languages they're both learning out in public to confuse others.

Dave and Frank want to start a dress business because "thats the one thing in this culture people will spend real money on, and there's closets full of unused Quincinera dresses in the states that could be sold here".

I have yet to try "the best cinnamon rolls in xela" but I'll have to go back just for another glimpse into the weird lives of US citizens living abroad.

Entrance to the clouds

The pictures are going to be small, but you'll get the idea.

This weekend I went with a group to the top of Tajumulco. Its the highest point in Central America and what's ironic is you can see a taller mountain from the summit, only that mountain is in Mexico, and thus in North America. The hike would have been a nice 1-day workout, but to see the sunrise we hiked up, slept below the summit, and then woke up at 3:30 to climb the summit in the dark. This might sound easier, but remember that two days means you need: Tents gear, lots more water, food, sleeping bags, etc... All that means a lot more weight and a lot harder hike.

The hike was still awesome. So many cool people, great views (lots of clouds) really cool guides, and the whole fee for the trip (minus costs) was donated to a children's charity. We hit base camp right as the rain started, and the guides cooked us lunch and dinner while denying our help. At 330 they woke us up, we packed our sleeping bags and cold-weather clothes, and scrambled in the dark to the summit. Once there, we napped and huddled in our sleeping bags in the below-freezing temperatures and winds. As the sun rose, an interesting glow-effect took place in the valleys between the mountains, something about the water-vapor refracting the light? It looked awesome.

What was really interesting were all the different type of people who were on the trip. A couple of cool guys about to go to grad school for teaching and taking a summer trip. A french cabinet-maker who works in France long enough to re-qualify for unemployment benefits that he uses to fund his travels. An annoying polish man who nearly hit me in the face with his dumb trekking poles. An Aggie Grad-student with an impressive set of dreds who knew my old TCA friends (Kain, Lutz, Bell, Newman). A girl with all her own high quality gear but was overtly whiney for the actual difficulty of what we were doing. A pastor's son from Ohio. Girls from a co-op at Berkely. A Vanderbilt student who worked in a local medical clinic. A retired couple going on the adventures they'd always wanted.

It was an awesome trip. I'm not sure if its true or not, but our most senior guide said we were his most enjoyable group. I had a blast, and it was good reinforcement that there are cool people everywhere and friendships aren't too hard to form.

See what I mean about the clouds here? This is near the bottom:

Hiking the summit in the dark:

Trying to stay warm at 13,845 feet.

Sunrise of Central America:

For a brief time, I was the highest point / person in Central America:

La ciudad

First, here's a picture of the "class rooms" -kinda small...but how much space do you need to talk? Plus we go on little excursions too.

Yesterday Miguel helped me buy soccer jerseys very cheaply - roughly 6 bucks a piece.

Today, he took me on the roof of the school building and was pointing out areas of the city, aspects of buildings etc... una buena vista tambien.

Tomorrow I'll go up Tajumulco - a dormant volcano near Xela - to hopefully see the sun rise from the highest point in central america. The organization thats taking me, Quetzal Trekkers threw a fund raising party last night that was a great time. Small world when Jake and I run into a previously unknown rising sophomore at Trinity, right?

Vida diario

5 hours of spanish class from 8-1 is a lot. Luckily los maestros keep it interesting. Today, my teacher for this week - Miguel - told me a raunchy mormon joke. I'll tell you in person if you're really curious.

Showers, we have them... sorta. Every house / hotel / hostel has a similar shower set up. There's a typical stall or tub structure with walls and a curtain or what have you, but instead of a spout mounted on the wall, a thin piece of stell or aluminum tubing juts out with an oversized plastic shower head attached to dump the water straight down.

Ok, thats cool. Wait, why are their electric wires spliced together and wrapped around the metal tube thats pumping water on me? why do they run to a breaker box very close to the shower? Because, thats how its done. The heaters and water pumps to fuel a shower are mostly electric. Jake can verify this - the first time he tried to shower he got shocked (not badly). If that weren't fun enough, you get put in a fun catch-22 situation: You can have all the water pressure you want...but it can't be hot. Heat comes at the cost of quantity. My typical style is to turn it so hot that i have to keep moving to keep from getting burned and then I don't ever get cold (its cold here in the mornings especially in my basically outdoor bathroom).

Finally, I saw "Pirates del caribe" last night. If anyone wants to fill me in on the witty dialogue or complex plot development that I inevitably missed watching it in spanish, feel free!

Things Learned:
- Maestro taught me how to say "cocktease" more out of his own desire to teach it than mine to learn it.
- 80 year old ailing abuelas enjoy skype but are easily angered by it.
- "Mordida del mono" is monkey bite in spanish

First few days

So my first few days in Guatemala have been a whirlwind of events and I'll try and keep them simple here. Also, my internet here isn't tan fuerte como in los estados unidos, so pictures will be small and few.

1. We decided not to go with the B&B in Guatemala city because Jake knew a woman in Antigua and she offered to house us. This was of course the better option. She picked us up at the airport and drove us to antigua (well her driver drove us) then she took us to all her social hubs which were full of traveling europeans, americans, and ex-pats galor - meaning I didn't hear any spanish. The bar we dined at was owned by a man named John who also owns a Mezcal (similar to tequila) company and the bar was fully stocked with this "Mezcal Ilegal", which was delicioso. So good we could sip it.

2. Before leaving Antigua to go to Quetzaltenango, also called Xela (shay-la), Jake took me on a little tour of Antigua. We went to the infamous arch and some local ruins

Mandatory Antigua photo

3. So then we go to Xela and move in to our host families. I live with this awesome family in one of the nicer areas of Xela (zona uno). I have my own room...its a bit small, but i have a bed and nightstand and an armoir, so I have plenty. In the home are an ailing abuela (grandma) and her daughter, my host mom, who mandates I call her 'Betty' and is a sweetheart. Her 2 daughters (Gabby 15 and Andrea 21) live here as well with another student from North Dakota (Devoni) and an American teaching at an American school here (Megan).

4. After 2 days of 5 hour spanish classes Jake and I decided to journey to Lake Aticlan and do some adventuring. We paid 100 quetzales once we got there to hike the volcano (Vulcan San Pedro) early in the morning to have an awesome view before the fog set in. Unfortunately, Jake was attacked by "los bichos de guatemala" and was very uncomfortable for about 48 hours. Needless to say, the hike was off. We regarded the 100 quetzales (10.33 dollars) as a sunk cost and moved on to a boat / walking tour of the towns surrounding the lake. One highlight was our 'opportunity' to make offerings to Maximo (Ma-shi-mo) the semi demonic mayan god of drinking and smoking. He's always housed in 1 town, but his home changes every year to 1 of 12 worshipers. The adventure was then cut short so Jake could be taken care of by his wonderful host mom "Lilly" who is pretty wonderful (she gave me soup today).

Lake Aticlan from Santiago

"Maximo" enjoying being worshiped with his clearly wasted 'priests'.

Today, Jake was a bit more energetic so we ventured into la selva (jungle) to the 'Fuentes Georginas" - natural hot springs in the highlands. How could they not be awesome? Tons of Guatemalans and foreigners all floating around in sulfer baths... probly less healthy than drinking the water, but oh well. Pictures wouldn't do this place justice. Not only do the baths produce a lot of steam, but they are high enough to be perpetually engulfed in fog, so if you really want to see a cloud filled with half-dressed guatemalans in green pools, I can email you the riveting images. The best part of the trip was when we boarded a chicken bus at the pools. We walked on and asked if they were going to the town below the pools and they said "No, directo a Xela". We excitedly grabbed seats, thankful to have a simplified trip, but for some reason the bus thought we were objects of great amusement. It wasn't until about 5 minutes in that I realized there was way more conversation on this bus than most other chicken buses. Turning around to the young guys behind us I ask - "Es un bus privado"? Laughing, they responded "Si, somos un familia" - Whoops, just boarded the private family reunion bus!

Things learned so far:

• Great Guatemalan coffee is exported or bought by restaurants. Instant coffee is most prevalent among the people.
• Evangelical churches are extremely strict and considered nearly "fanatical" while Catholic churches are considered more traditional yet less restricted. Both are rife with corruption.
• The mexican drug gangs are trying to control guatemalan production of weed.
• All you really need to know to speak spanish is the Past, Present, and Future. Otherwise its just for writing.
• Guatemalans need to drink purified water too. Sink water isn't good for anyone.
• There are so many interesting people traveling. Germans, Belgians, Canadians, Israelis, 31 year old sociology bachelor's students, people 'Woof-ing' (Working On an Organic Farm). Its really awesome to run into these people way crazier than me and here some sweet stories / get great advice.

I'm just getting warmed up. More adventures to follow.