Thursday, January 26, 2012

Here we are in Panajachel, Lake Atitilan. We've been here since Monday, staying at a Hotel Utz Jay, which has hot showers, a garden, and three of the biggest, friendliest German Shepherds I have ever seen.

Our last week in Antigua was packing, wrapping up everything there, and 30 seconds of our Saturday- an earthquake, AKA terramoto in Spanish. Not very big where we were- enough to rattle the windows and slosh the water in the fountain. We think it was from a 6.2 earthquake of Mexico, about 200 miles away.

On Monday we took a very crowded shuttle from Antigua to Lake Atitilan. practically the entire town of Panajachel is lined with market stalls, thus my dad has some new persistant market friends.

On Tuesday we hiked in a natural reserve for monkeys, just outside Panajachel. Sadly, we didn't actually see any of the monkeys or the coatis who all live there. We did, however, get to hike to a waterall across over half a dozen long, swinging, suspension bridges, the kind of bridges that always come crashing down in movies, but they actually give the most amazing views. We had fun riding a tuktuk back into town, where we looked at and admired another Catholic church of Spanish architecture.

Walking back to the hotel Utz Jay, we were once again amazed by the stall after stall of gorgeous textiles, stuffed down alleys and in between retaurants, tiendas, and boutiques. Roaming the streets are dozens of the most adorable dogs, all sizes and colors, but all so friendly-looking.

On Wednesday, yesterday, we took a lake tour. It took us to three towns along the lake, San Juan, San Pedro, and Santiago. Our first stop was San Juan, which in my mind was classified instantly as less of a tourist town than Panajachel or Antigua, and pretty much a relief, until seconds later when we were swarmed with tuktuk drivers crowing different prices and jabbering in a medley of Spanish and English. We refused and walked up a steepish hill, and at the top, we were met by the same tuktuk drivers, now with better prices. One offered us a tour, and we finally accepted (persistance pays off) and he took us to an organic coffee place, a weaving cooperative that used natural dyes, and an art gallery. San Juan, being geared less towards tourists, had no market, and aims for the use of more natural resources.

Next was San Pedro, bigger, busier, as touristy as Panajachel or Antigua if not more so, but because of spending so much time in San Juan, we had only fifteen minutes to get a feel for the town- we didn't really go much further than the boat dock.

From San Pedro we went to Santiago, where we explored another market, and ate lunch. Santiago was more for tourists that San Juan, but less than San Pedro. It is interesting, in each market, how different towns use different weavings and colors. In Antigua, almost every weaving had the national bird, a quetzal, woven in, in bright colors. Here in the highlands of Lake Atitilan we have more embroidery, the primary design being birds. The woven colors are also more subtle.

And today we are taking another boat and moving to San Pedro, to attend more school and explore the town we've named as touristy. I will talk more about that later, but now for the traditional by blog... pictures.

-Anda
Mi madre.

The view from the dining room in Antigua

A cat. Sleeping in the weavings.

Remember hair wraps? Here's a Guatemalan woman putting one in my hair.

Panajachel main street


Lake Atitlan, Volcan de San Pedro. (Sadly, this one doesn't puff smoke.)

My dad on a suspension bridge...

...and me, on a swinging bridge.

Directional signs are very helpful. Especially when you're in Guatemala and they point you to Nessie and Yeti.

Panajachel Catholic church

One of our German Shepherd friends

Another cross on a hill, in San Juan

This is known for it's appearance of the profile of a Maya woman.

All natural dyed cotton


Friday, January 20, 2012

Our third week in Guatemala is almost over, which also will conclude our time in Antigua. I could agreeably stay our entire time in this house, though, and through this week we've been less and less inclined to go places. We still explore in the late afternoons, though, after lunch and school- after we've swung in the hammock and read... yesterday's exploration was fun. You see, today, Friday, was our last day of school at Antiguena, so we went to look for gifts for our teachers. A friend reccommended a tradtitional Guatemalan candy store, which was fun, but we also found a chocolate museum (dude, a whole museum devoted to CHOCOLATE) where they had, along with truffles, chocolate bars, etc.- CHOCOLATE TEA. We also learned that the average American eats 51 chocolate bars per year, to which my mom said: 'that's all?'

And then last night we had guests for dinner, and, as many of you have been a part of, or are a part of a Waldorf school, you might appreciate the description of Guatemala being 'one giant Waldorf school.' True, there're lots of handwork, farming, wooden toys, and rainbow silks....


*


I told you about Antigua sidewalks. I did not tell you about Antigua houses.

Besides being really colorful, there's nothing truly outstanding architecture-wise about the outside, unlike the churches and building ruins. They're colorful town houses, all attached, right on the uneven sidewalks, no yard outside at all.


That's because the yards are inside. Walking inside a building, through a door- it's like walking outside. In the last couple weeks I read Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, originally entitled First Impressions. It proves that First Impressions are often misleading... my first impression of the house we're staying in was different. Walking towards it I thought it was pretty, but I was surprised at no yard. Having only a few visible windows, I thought it might be dark. But as the door opened, there was sunlight everywhere, three visible buildings, citrus trees, birds of paradise, a bubbling fountain, a hammock, and through a cluster of palm trees a giant lawn, and a huge garden. Jane Austen is right- first impressions can be incorrect. Now everytime i pass a house, I wonder what on Earth is behind those walls. It's really fun to go behind doors, and still be outside.

Antigua has such personality. I wonder, when we leave, what the other towns will be like. Chicken buses and tuktuks have minds of their own, and attitudes that say very clearly: 'Oh, look, someone crossing the street! Let's speed up and watch those tourists jump.'


Today two of those tuktuks raced each other down the street, almost causing a head on collision with an innocent car. I wonder why we don't have tuktuks in Washington.


And Fuego, the smoking volcano. A good sport is Fuego-watching, I mean, it's like it knows people are watching, and the eruptions get bigger and smokier, as if for entertainment. I used to find volcanoes intimidating- ash, lava... but this is a friendly volcano, one of three active in Guatemala.

On Monday we head up to Atitlan, Panajachel, and a day or two later to San Pedro, a town accessible to us only by boat.

BY THE WAY... just FYI, someone told us that by joining this blog you don't actually get emailed post updates. (Probably many of you don't want them, but...) there is, I think, a subscribe by email link, in which that SHOULD give you updates if you were wanting them...

I like hammocks. Again.


I like spiral staircases too...

These flowers were on the sidewalk for no apparent reason. Oh well, I thought they were pretty so I got in the way of people trying to load them into a truck to take a photo...

This bakery is across from de la Merced, and every day at break we'd get nibbly things that taste good. It's incredibly inexpensive, Q. 1 for a small pastry... 7.6 quetzals (the currency) to a dollar.

Yay for more pictures of Fuego!

Let's stack water bottles on the sidewalk, shall we? I wonder what they were doing here...

Meet the sidewalk. There's more poles and stuff in other places, but I can't figure out how to rotate pictures sideways to show you without making you go upside down or sideways... my internet is now in Spanish. (It's all I can do to make blog posts.)














I hope Washington is having fun in the snow!

-Anda


Monday, January 16, 2012

I have yet to see a Guatemalan speed limit sign.

Speed signs are overrated, apparently. Here, the problem is solved by large speed bumps in the middle of the highway.

Yeah, warning signs are overrated too. Nope, no sign in front of a speed bump here- you just have to hope the driver's paying attention, especially if:

-You're a giant truck piled with sugar cane- I mean seriously... I'll show you a picture.
- You're a family chatting in the back of a pick-up.
-You're on a motorcycle. Picture road construction in the U.S.- a big orange sign somewhere in there says 'MOTORCYCLES, USE EXTREME CAUTION'

Do you see that in front of the speed bumps here? No... all over Antigua? Noo.... (Antigua, remember, has cobblestone streest.) (I should show you a picture of the sidewalk) And does anybody mind? Nope.

So anyway, I got to experience these speed bumps first hand, not flying over them, but seeing them, driving from Antigua to a town called Sipacate on the Pacific Coast.

Our boat was great. Black plastic tarp roof- chipping paint... REALLY cool to ride in. It took us and two friends down an estuary- oh boy. The estuary was. So. Pretty. Calm water, mangroves! Mangroves- ever seen a mangrove? Prettyprettypretty- writing can't even give this estuary credit. Pelicans, spiraling, slow streams lined with the mangroves branching mysteriously away from the main channel. Sandbars, and in many little nooks a wooden boat tied to a tree. Occassionally there are people in the boats, poling their way down the water. At one bend there was a group of happy people swimming.

Our destination was a lagoon- a lagoon where Pacific Green turtles come for safety.

Those turtles don't show themselves much, but every few minutes a turtle head splashes to the surface.

In this calm, quiet place, what I didn't know was that a fine sand beach, waves, warm water, palm trees, was about a couple thousand feet behind the mangroves. Going past the dock we'd launched from, our boat became a ferry to a small hotel on the beach, accessible only by boats like ours. Swinging under a thatched roof were a dozen or so colorful hammocks, and some tables to eat at. A few cabins were set back a bit from the beach. Seriously, the quiet estuary and the cheerful surf were about two hundred feet away from where the hammocks were. Totally breath-taking, in an exciting way.


Driving home, we survived all the speed bumps, and remember the smoking volcano? Well, it's real name is Fuego, meaning fire, and it's one of the three active volcanoes in Guatemala. Well, on the way back to Antigua, we were a lot closer to it, and it erupted several times where we could see the smoke even better, and it was really, really neat to see that.

Sunday, or yesterday, was our last day with our host family, except we didn't see them then, so our last day in their house. We moved this morning to a 'casa nueva,' new house, this morning.

We're excited to have hot showers, have lots of windows and natural light, walk in a garden, and I even have my own house. :)

I think we moved into paradise.

Many pictures coming your way! The blurry ones or ones with weird things are probably either taken by me, or from a moving car, but I thought you guys might like to see them anyway.

Missing everyone,
Anda

Very full truck

A boat identical to the one we went on

Pelicans!

Me, on the boat

A motorcycle and boats on the shore

The beach




Fuego

I like hammocks.

Friday, January 13, 2012

On Tuesday, we went to school like normal, ate lunch like usual, and then went with our school to Cerra de la Cruz, a hill in Eastern Antigua decorated with a giant cross, probably 30+ feet tall, looking out over the entire city. Looking over the city, we were able to pick out all of our favorite churches, and the Santa Cataina Arch, as well as the various ruins we've passed around the city. Walking up the hill, you go through woods up stairs. The stairs are guarded by policemen around many corners, as the walk is notorious for running to robbers. Our host family told us there were 333 stairs, (tres, tres, tres) but we only counted 330.

Going back down we talked a bit with a friendly couple from England, who, they told us, had cycled around Europe and down the West Coast of America. Cool, we said. We live on the West Coast. They asked where, and we told them near Port Townsend, in Washington. Oh, they told us, we cycled around Port Townsend.

!!!

For those of you in Port Townsend, near, or who has visited there, they remembered the Whidbey ferry, the co-op, Fort Worden, and the hill by the Safeway. We met another woman from Salt Spring Island in British Columbia who said causually- oh, Port Townsend. Neat.

It's a small world.

I haven't really told you about our host families house, besides the roof, have I? Well, if you're getting envious right now, it's true that it's amazing here, but imagine no hot water. Yes, we are spoiled with hot water every day back home, but I didn't really think twice about it. Here, we have hot water occasionally, but for the most part we're lucky to get a slightly warm one. You can't touch the back of the shower head without getting shocked, my dad found that out the hard way, and part of the shower had usually falls off three or four times... wait, why am I telling you about the shower? I guess it's because it's one of the differences in just everyday life.

In the house there are no windows. Aieee. No windows! Or few windows. In the center of the house is a small courtyard, I guess you could call it, extending from the ground floor to the roof. The roof opening was partially covered by a slate of metal roofing. How would you feel if your roof fell off? That hardly counts as a roof, but one day at lunch there was a grating sound from above, and our host family all sat up, tensed, and grimaced. We stared cluelessly, as in the court yard room the piece of roof came crashing down. the family frowned at it, but kept eating. It was interesting to me to try imagine how we'd react at home.

As you know by now, I jump from subject to occurrance abruptly, but before that happens and we're still discussing roofs, the other day I looked up onto a roof and standing there watching us was a sweet looking dog, yes, on the roof. Some roofs here are flat, but this one was your average slant and distance from the ground. It's just another minor but obvious and amusing difference.

On Wednesday night I made a 19-month-old-friend at a dinner party. This 19-month-old-friend is VERY smart smart, and VERY busy, and during one of the few moments I was sitting down, I had one of my first conversations by myself with a woman who speaks only Spanish. I think I did okay until she asked me how old I was. Yes, I know, one of the most simple questions, and yet somehow I manged to reply that I was forty, not fourteen. Yes, Spanish is still improving.

On Thursday my mom and I went with the school to an organic macadamia farm. My dad chose to study instead. The macadamia farm was interesting enough, but the fun part was the bus.

Let me define 'bus.' A bus where I  live is a rectangle made from metal with wheels, fuzzy seats, obeying the speed rules, with advertisements posted on the walls. Blue and white painted and 'Jefferson Transit' labels.

A Guatemalan public bus is an old American school bus, painted vibrantly. they're called Chicken Buses. My interpretation of the name would be having the passengers squished in, like poor chickens. These are old school buses, remember, and we were three to a seat, which was fine, but from what we've heard that was EMPTY. Driving from the airport we passed over a dozen, with passengers all hanging out the doors. Either they don't have turning blinkers, or they don't work because the buses have Guatemalan guys all haging out of the door- bicyclist and s ignals do for blinkers just fine.

Then there's Antigua... remember I told yo uthere was cobble stone? Well potholes and speedbumps don't seem to bother the drivers much, because you'll be watching the scenery, listening to the music they play, and BOOM! Passengers fly into the air.

Chicken buses are fun to describe. Being cheap for the puclic, lots of people want to ride them, thus they have few scheduled stops. They just stop when people flag them down. If the bus isn't stopping where you want to get off, it's no problem- you just open the back exit (clearly labeled 'EMERGENCY' on the school buses) and hang onto the back ladder. When the bus slows down, you simply jump off. Problem solved. I myself did not try this, but witnessed it several tiems as we're bouncing along and, being seated in the last row, the door would open and passengers would just disappear. We did get to disembark out of the back, but it was at a bigger stop, so we actually got off a stationary bus.

We rode one again today, to and from a Mayan pueblo, and the bus was 3-6 people to a seat (counting littler kids) and several of us were standing.

The Mayan pueblo was neat- they staged an example of a Mayan wedding using students from our school (No, I didn't get married) and showed the making of the weavings and talked about the customs and designs in there clothing and such.

We went home with another weaving.

And we got to make tortillas, which, we found out quickly, is not one of my fortes. It looked weird, my tortilla. But hey- it tasted great, and my mom was good at it.

Picture time!

Cerra de la Cruz

Cerra de la Cruz... Volcano Agua in the background

Chicken buses

Textiles! Whee!

More textiles...

And more textiles!

Tortilla making

Monday, January 9, 2012

Buenas dias! Buenas tardes! Buenas noches! Depending on where you are and when you read this. You see, my Spanish is improving.

In the past few days we've seen and discovered many new things, including that our house has wifi. (yes, it took us five days to figure that out.) And that means, lucky you, more blogging.

It's hard to believe we've been here for a week! It feels like less time, and yet more time too. It's fun to start recognizing landmarks here in Antigua after being here for a bit.  We're able to communicate with our host family a little better, and they're still incredibly patient. We've learned a little conversation, which means they talk, we wave our hands around. We're getting better- my dad tried to say the bread was sweet, (dulce) but accidentally said it was dirty. (Sucio.) And today at lunch we even managed a conversation about the expensive price of braces.

On the subject of meals, we were surprised at the selection of food. Naturally we thought we'd be eating rice, beans, tortillas, avocado... for dinner our first night we were served ham sandwiches, and tonight we ate hot dogs and noodles. (A tricky spot for my mom and I, who eat neither ham nor hot dogs...) However, we did have tamales one night, and fried plaintain, a bit more what we had anticipated.

We were curious to see where our food came from, so on Saturday, market day, we visited the local market. One word: chaotic.  Picture a street six feet wide, teeming with people shouting their wares, carrying cotton candy and trays of loose toothbrushes, or in vendors with cornflakes piled on top of paper towels stacked in between piles of precariously balanced fruit with blankets hanging above. Then, in the already beyond hectic street, a car drives between the stalls, scattering people left and right.

Outside the market, we have yet to find a grocery store. Instead are tiny tiendas, practically holes in the walls, selling a wide variety of snacks and drinks. Clothing can be bought either fron the market (we even passed an... underwear... booth) or small boutiques full of various name-brand clothing.

On the streets Maya women sell weavings on practically every block. The weavings and embroidery are gorgeous, and everyone selling says 'for you, special price.' If you act reluctant, they'll eventually cut their price almost in half. In Antigua's Central Park, people of all ages are selling things. My dad can't resist these friendly Guatemalan women selling textiles for their lunch money... I don't know what we'll do with so many cloths.

Also on the streets are people picnicking. Last night on a street corner were at least five people cooking on a barbeque, next to their car. Get hungry, pull over, I guess, while zipping by are motorcycles carrying families of four.

Oh, and remember the colorful buses I mentioned in the last post? Well we learned what happens to old American school buses... they get sent to Guatemala to be painted and used for the public.


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Today, upon exploring the east side of the city, where we hadn't been yet, we spontaneously visited a jade factory and museum, where we learned about history of Mayan's using jade, and how it develops in a subduction zone between two tectonic plates. Jadeite, a type of jade found mainly in Guatemala and Burma develops in the Motagua river of Guatemala. The only place in Mesoamerica that develops jade, it was extremely important to the Maya in burial, trade, and protection.

Also in the jade museum we learned about December 21st, 2012, the supposed date of the end of the world, a wide-spread rumor that the mayans predicted an apocalypse on that date. What they actually stated, out tour guide told us, was the end of about a 5,000 year era. Every 5,000 or so years, the dark part of the Milky Way and our Solar System align, giving the appearance that the Milky Way (or Alligator, as the Mayans called it) was swallowing the Solar Sytem. Don't ask me what that has to do with jade, but I find it fascinating still.

On a completely different train of thought, also interesting is that in Guatemala it is summer, or verano. I always thought all Nothern Hemisphere countries were in the same season, but no. It's summer here in Guatemala. 'Summer vacation' is in November and December.

Now for your very enjoyment- pictures. All over are Spanish ruins and colonial churches, pictures provided by me for you to admire. :)

Santa Catalina Arch

Part of an old Spanish building

Me, at the textile market

A textile market stall

One of those amazing churches

Antigua City Hall

One of the many Tiendas

Church de Merced, which we walk by every day on the way to school

Merced detail

Some old Spanish ruins, now turned into a hotel.

~Anda

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Bienvenidos de Guatemala!

Happy New Year! The title above pretty much sums up my Spanish knowledge as far as it will go. I don't yet feel confident saying much else.

So, hola! (Oh wait, I can say that too.) Obviously, we arrived safely in Guatemala, but let me tell you a little about our trip.

So first of all, we almost missed our flight from Boston, because we took advantage of some convenient free wifi at the airport. Also breakfast, although that was unfortunately not free. Anyway, we made it on board with a good ten minutes before the doors closed, only to worry about our connection in Houston- boarding half an hour after our arrival. Fortunately, both confirmation email and boarding pass were wrong, and we had over an hour of free time. I got to use more free wifi.

Arriving in Guatemala city, we were pleasantly surprised to find that our checked bag had made both planes. We were not happy to find that our school had mis-read our flight information and planned to pick us up the next day, instead. A taxi to Antigua solved our problem.

Antigua. Where we are now. Our host family is very patient with our inability to communicate in Spanish, and very nice. Their roof is very nice too. It has a great view from it- of the surrounding volcanoes, one of which manages to convey a feeling of great safety by letting out cheerful puffs of smoke every few minutes to hour. It's cool.

Every morning (there have been three) we walk to school, about seven minutes away. In that short time, you can see a lot. Except that if you look, you're likely to fall in the uneven cobblstones of the street. I look anyway.

When you look, you notice that everything is busy. Where is everyone going? Trucks, cars, colorful buses, bicycles, pedestrians, motorcycles... all full of people. Also horses pulling buggies, which I thought very picturesque, until I noticed that most of the drivers were talking on cell phones. Also tuktuks. Little three-wheeled means of locomotion, and impossible to describe. See picture.

And color. The buses are colorful. The rooftop gardens are colorful. The buildings are every color of the rainbow, and all connected, giving Antigua's streets a closed but friendly look.

Every few blocks you come across the remains of a Spanish building, destroyed in a 1770's earthquake.they're amazing. And churches, that are everywhere, and have gorgeous architecture. I'll post some pictures, because along with the famous Santa Catalina Arch (one of the few completely intact remains of said earthquake) they're really fun to look at.

And the handicraft market. The last of the places we've explored in three days, and possibly my favorite so far. Weaving after weaving after beads after blanket- it's overwhelming. Even more so when the people selling are jabbering at you in rapid Spanish and you have to give them a half wave and mutter 'gracias' before, feeling touristy, scooting away. the textiles are outstanding.

Oh yes, school. School is fun. We're learning about, well, Spanish. The language. It's a Spanish language school after all, but yesterday we had fun with field games and a pinata. Our teachers and the other students are really nice and helpful.

That's all, until the next endless post. We'd love it if you left comments! I can't be the only one posting.
One of the many Spanish building ruins



To the left, a very large volcano. To the right, two smaller vocanoes, over the rooftops of Antigua. Photographed from OUR roof.

One of the smaller volcanoes- up close. Look closely- you can see the smoke.

The tuktuks! They're funny.

Me, in front of rainbow buildings.
These hang from many streets, we think they're holiday decorations. They appear to be made out of straws.

Hasta manana,
~Anda