Antigua

Wednesday (4/25) We arrived in Antigua excited to check out the town. We arrived at our hotel which was a cute hostel but rather small. The 5 of us shared a room with 2 bunk beds and one solo. Felt camp style for sure. We walked around the town to check it out. It is such a beautiful town with a lot to see. There are vendors all over the streets selling things from scarves and jewelry to agua pura. 

Overall the trip in Antigua was a lot of fun. We were able to see some amazing alfombras that were made painstakingly with colored sawdust and grass. Families are in charge of making these alfombras and will place ladders and boards across in order to perfectly place the sawdust. They use tons of bright colors and sometimes figurines. The interesting part is that they have place the alfombras in the middle of the streets before processions. Then, the processions come and walk over the alfombras essentially destroying them. They then clean the streets to start the process over the next day. There are 40 days of alfombras and processions in Antigua for the 40 days of Lent. Antigua has the biggest Semana Santa celebration in all of Central America.

The processions..…huge and elaborate floats carried on the shoulders of men or women.  For Thursday, they wore purple robes. On Friday, they wore black for the death of Jesus and the mourning of Mary. Then, on Sunday they wore white. All you can see is a sea of people in the appropriate colored robe with hazes of smokes, and the loud gong of drums.  There would be hundreds of people walking with the procession and many carrying incense to fill the streets (and lungs) with the smoke. It was amazing to watch because the crowd was virtually silent watching these processions and you could truly feel the impact that these processions had on the people. On Saturday it was the women who carried the floats and only women were walking in the procession, all the other days it was men only.  Easter will forever have a completely different meaning. These streets where not filled with easter egg hunts and easter bunnies covered in chocolate but with a completely religious meaning of Easter.

Over the course of the few days we were there we were able to indulge in some delicious meals, some legit coffee, and most importantly ice cream as a lunchtime staple. Who needs lunch when travelling on a budget, and ice cream is a perfect substitute for a real meal? Clearly not us gringas.

 Kate and I happened to stumble upon a reenactment of the crucifixion of Jesus as they took him off the cross. We also went to an old monastery converted into hotel where they were having mass, we quietly snuck in the back to catch a minute of their culture.

The markets were loaded with goods and vendors ready to barter. Perhaps my favorite lines from the market were “Pase adelante” (meaning come inside) “specialladyprice”  (yes they pronounce it like one word). There was a lot of “special price for you” “what you like” “what you pay” . There was also a labyrinth of an indoor market. Jenna and I were actually lost for a few minutes trying to determine how to leave. With that said, there were some great goods to be purchased and we didn’t practice much self control when bartering was an option. It’s amazing how you feel like you are getting an awesome deal when you talk them down from a much greater price, in reality the mark-up is probably insane and you still don’t get a great deal in the end, but man it feels good. Ha ha!

There were a few nights out on the town where we were able to go out and partake in some drinking and dancing. It was definitely an interesting scene but had some good laughs from it all. My favorite being Lori and I standing on the stairs looking for fellow gringas, and men kept approaching us to dance. I turned to Lori and with the most American accent I could muster I said “ No hablo…..No hablo….” Looking at Lori questioningly for the word espanol.  We had hoped this tactic would work, but unfortunately they knew a few words of English. They continued to ask us to dance, this time in English. We got pretty desperate and resorted to making up our language which I think was something between Japanese and Hawaiin….well these guys were pretty persistent and were using the universal language of body language. They begin moving their arms in a dancing fashion.  We continued to act stupefied by these motions and they finally gave up. As they walked away Lori and I burst into laughter. The best part being perhaps that after they left, still within ear shot the bouncer guy asked us to get off the stairs, all in Spanish, and all perfectly understood.

It was a lot of fun travelling and I can’t believe time is flying by! A little over six weeks of teaching left then let the travelling continue!!!

Lake Atitlan

Sorry faithful blog followers life has been a bit loco these days. I have been avidly searching and applying for jobs in hopes that I might be able to make some “real” money when I get back to the States. But between job applications and attempting to teach University students English (when they actually show up) I have been busy travelling! Yup that’s right! Semana Santa granted us 10 childfree days to do as we please in Central America. Ah what to do with such free time you may ask, naturally the response is to go to the biggest Semana Santa Festival in all of Central America. So the 5 of us gringas made plans to spend some time relaxing at beautiful lago Atitlan. We rushed home from school on Friday (3/30/12) to pile into a truck, 7 of us to be exact, and we jetted off to spend the night in Copan. After a brief stop in La Entrada as we pondered whether to attempt the chicken bus or pay extra for the driver to take us all the way to Copan. After a few minutes of waiting and watching as the herd for the bus grew bigger and bigger it was decided the driver would be best. Again we piled into the truck this time I took the risk of riding Honduran style in the back. It was a beautiful drive and we watched as the sun set over the beautiful mountains and the wind whipped at our hair.  We had a great meal and called it an early night seeing as our bus was to leave at 6:00 am in the next morning.

Sleepy eyed but ready for our adventure we again piled into a shuttle van, yes I realize I use the word piled quite often but you must understand we literally pile on top of each other in most circumstances.  No surprise at all but there were not enough seats for the number of people travelling.  Unfortunately I was the one to bear the brunt of this one, he was definitely in my personal bubble and I prepared myself for the next 6-7 hours of travelling. The trip was mostly uneventful minus the ridiculous traffic jam that occurred and our driver’s hour long detour. Then came Guatemala City….. imagine any  large city with smog and a bit of stop and go traffic, factor in a terrible headache, hot sweatiness, and brute force of break s followed by rapid acceleration, I couldn’t keep my watermelon licuado down, fortunately I have become a bit of a bag lady and had a spare bag on hand.  We made it to Antigua where we needed to catch another bus to the lake. My saving grace Kate had Dramamine on hand meaning most of the last bus ride was a groggy haze for me, that is until the impromptu band begin jamming in the back of the bus. I mean who doesn’t bring a guitar along on a bus ride. I couldn’t help but smile sleepily as the band rocked the bus in both English and Spanish. Finally, we arrived at the lake and my stomach was settled enough to eat Greek food, yup, Greek food. I ate possibly the most delicious Falafel ever, maybe it was because it was something different than chicken and veggies that made it so yummy, or maybe it was truly great cooking, we may never really know.

Sunday we set off to explore the adorable town of San Marcos La Laguna. We may have gone a bit shopping crazy but we had a good time. Then there was the brilliant idea of kayaking across the lake. This was definitely one of those instances where judge of distance was lacking as was the wind and pending  stormish weather accounted for. The trip across was a bit of a challenge but Kate and I entertained ourselves with notions of trying out for Amazing Race.  Once across, an hour later, we were told that we would have to pay to park our kayaks. None of us fancied the idea of paying children ranging from probably 7-12 to watch our kayaks as we meandered around town. We decided to row back across the lake, this time against the wind and waves. Another hour later we found ourselves arguing with the man in charge of the kayaks. You see, we had paid for 3 hours but only used up 2 hours of kayaking time. Things began to get a bit heated and we had to search out the man who initially rented us the kayaks. After much debating, we reached a happy medium and settled on him paying us back half an hours worth. With dead arms and soggy clothes we headed back to our hostel for some nourishment. 

Monday was spent lounging around reading and of course more shopping.  A much needed uneventful day.

Continuing along the lines of brilliant ideas, Tuesday morning we had scheduled a sun rise volcano hike. What they failed to tell you is that it takes 4 hours to hike up the volcano, the tour guides estimated a mere 2 and a half hour hike. Even leaving at 3 am we missed the sun rise, and my stomach issues continued to cause me quite some pain. I was having a major case of indigestion despite the 6 tums and 2 pepto previously taken. In between stops for breathing and water intake, I was shoving my finger down my throat in attempts that I would feel better if I could get it out. Thanks to our adorable little tour guide man who wouldn’t take no for an answer, I reached the top with the rest of the girls. The view was amazing and I was so happy to say I made it. Then began the 3 hour trek back down. When we got back we ate some breakfast, showered, and took a siesta.

Wednesday was time to head off to Antigua to check out what else Guatemala had to offer.

Better late than never

I am so incredibly far behind on blogs…..Let me take a trip back to a little over a month ago when my man and his cousin came for a visit to Honduras.

Friday (3/9)  I set off to the airport to pick up Wrenn and TJ from the airport. Luckily I had a friend drive me to the airport to avoid bus travels. I got to the airport and only had to wait about 45 minutes for their plane to arrive. Just enough time for the nerves to build up a bit. I hadn’t seen Wrenn since my visit to Dallas at the beginning of January. I anxiously stood by the door waiting for it to open and them to pop out. Unfortunately,  the doors are part clear and part frosted glass, so I could see them taking a rather long time talking to immigration. I stood helplessly on the other side of the doors peeking through the parts that I could see through. After a few minutes they finally came through the door. We grabbed a quick bite and then caught a Hedman Alas bus to Copan. The bus trip was quite interesting with all the twists and turns and not without some suffering did we make it to Copan. After a long day for all of us we turned on MTV in English and went to bed. Saturday we went to check out the ruins, and I served as a guide for us. Later that afternoon we went to hang out with Kate and her Mom, Georgeanne, along with Magdiel and Carlos. We spent a great deal hanging out and chatting. Then we went out for a lovely dinner and called it a night. Sunday we crammed into Magdiel’s truck, 6 of us in one truck….4 guys and 2 girls, you can only imagine how squished we were.  After a quick stop in Santa Rosa for some groceries we were Gracias bound. I think Wrenn and TJ were quite surprised by all of Honduras and felt even more grateful for everything they have in the United States.

Monday set me off to work, with Wrenn and TJ promising to come a little bit later. My kids were beyond excited and went bonkers when they saw them. The kiddos absolutely adored them and were climbing on Wrenn like he was a human jungle gym. They played a lot of great games like futbol, duck duck goose, and volleyball. TJ came bearing gifts and gave each of my kiddos a box of colored pencils.  My students didn’t want them to ever leave (I felt the same). We spent our afternoons hanging out and checking out the town. Thursday morning the boys headed out and I had to face my kiddos alone. The students were sad, as was I, but we had all had a great time. It was so good to Wrenn again, and I am looking forward to spending more time with him J