Monday, June 18, 2007
We're Back
We returned on June 14th. The sunny blue skies of the Bay Area welcomed us back. We look forward to our next life adventures now that we have closed the book on the Central America experience.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Xela II
On our return trip to Xela we decided to invest time in several activities. On our first full day back in town, we signed up and sought out classes for area of interest.
1) Well, first we signed up for more Spanish classes. These went really well. We finish off a significant part of the most important grammar (conjugations of course), and we gained plently more practice between our classes and just hanging out with our teachers and other students.
2) Second, we sought out volunteer opportunities. We found a project involved in sustainable development. The project was based around the building of stoves for a pueblo about an hour outside of Xela. We participated in the construction of the stoves, interacting a bit with the locals and observing rural life.
1) Well, first we signed up for more Spanish classes. These went really well. We finish off a significant part of the most important grammar (conjugations of course), and we gained plently more practice between our classes and just hanging out with our teachers and other students.
2) Second, we sought out volunteer opportunities. We found a project involved in sustainable development. The project was based around the building of stoves for a pueblo about an hour outside of Xela. We participated in the construction of the stoves, interacting a bit with the locals and observing rural life.
3) Third, we signed up for salsa classes. Whew! We learned several, several moves. We also learned a couple of exercises to help move more elegantly on the dance floor.
4) Fourth, we sought out yoga classes. I never attended a yoga class, and Ami took me to an Ashtanga class. This type of yoga is pretty intense and I managed to keep up until it came to the exercises requiring flexibility. I had to go through the motions of simpler exercises while I watched other students wrapping their feet around their head. Alright, not that difficult, but too difficult for me nonetheless. After that first class, we found a much better beginner level class.
5) And finally, we found a sports complex to continue our marathon training.
As full as these days were, we also made time to hang out with our teachers and fellow students from ICA, and some time visiting with our wonderful host family. Hopefully we have created long lasting relationships, as we met some amazing people here in Xela.
4) Fourth, we sought out yoga classes. I never attended a yoga class, and Ami took me to an Ashtanga class. This type of yoga is pretty intense and I managed to keep up until it came to the exercises requiring flexibility. I had to go through the motions of simpler exercises while I watched other students wrapping their feet around their head. Alright, not that difficult, but too difficult for me nonetheless. After that first class, we found a much better beginner level class.
5) And finally, we found a sports complex to continue our marathon training.
As full as these days were, we also made time to hang out with our teachers and fellow students from ICA, and some time visiting with our wonderful host family. Hopefully we have created long lasting relationships, as we met some amazing people here in Xela.
A few interesting facts we learned during our last few days in Xela are the following:
1) The McDonald's Happy Meal, or the Cajita Feliz, originated in Guatemala
2) Instant Coffee originated in Guatemala
3) BBC indicates that the #1 country in the world for a cultural desination is Guatemala
4) Zacapa Centenario 23 year aged Rum has been ranked #1 in the world for the past 5 years
Diving in Utila
Utila is a Caribbean island off the coast of Honduras. The attraction to this island is the world class diving. The cost to become certified is less than in other locations, perhaps the cheapest in the world. Ami came here in November 2003, became certified, and raved...and raved....and raved about diving ever since. Well, since we are in Central America, and again Utila offers the best deals to become certified, we decided to head to Utila.
Utila is a tourist island, with businesses established to cater to the thousands of divers who come annually. Unfortunately, due to the tourist atmosphere, English is the dominant language. There are numerous dive schools, and because of the business they bring, numerous restaurants and bars. But, not to bore you with the island, I am going to jump to the obvious reason we went to Utila...The Diving!
Dive School Shopping: We didn´t spend much time shopping for a dive school. We went to Alton´s Dive Shop, the dive school Ami attended in 2003. The school is right on the Bay, with a sundeck extended over the Bay to relax on, and accommodations for divers with great views of the Bay.
The Course: The Open Water Dive Course lasts three and a half days. The course includes classroom time, as well as time in the shallow waters to learn skills. By day three, we are heading to sea to dive. Days 3 and 4 are dive days, but they are not very focused on what you see, but rather doing more skills and getting comfortable in deeper waters. The first level of a diving certification only allows a dive as deep as 60 feet. Plently deep for now!
Experience: When you get in the water, a whole new prespective opens up. The first time you go down deeper and deeper, I was thinking this is crazy. This place is for fish and other sea animals! My first impression of diving was how different could it be from snorkeling. Well, it is entirely different. Not only do you have tons of gear on, but the deeper you go, the more you see and the more angles you have. You swim alongside schools of fish, alongside the reef, you touch the sandy surface, you swim below fish.....just crazy! Swimming and exploring is very effortless, and definitely worth it!
There are at least 60 dive sites in Utila, and we only scratched the surface by visiting 6. But along the way we lucked out. We had the opportunity to see a whale shark. The way the process works is if one boat sees a whale shark, the capitan informs another, and the word spreads. The capitans have years of experience watching the surface of the sea to see where the whale shark is swimming. So, how do we leverage that experience? We line up on the boat, and when he gives the word, we gently slide into the water. Jumping in scares the shark(s) away. Well, the word is more like ´Go, go, go...now, now, now,´with his arms waving us on. We slid into the water, and going directly beneath us and our boat was a whale shark. It wasn´t a huge whale shark by any means, these sharks definitley can be massive, but nonetheless, we saw and swam with a whale shark!
Utila is a tourist island, with businesses established to cater to the thousands of divers who come annually. Unfortunately, due to the tourist atmosphere, English is the dominant language. There are numerous dive schools, and because of the business they bring, numerous restaurants and bars. But, not to bore you with the island, I am going to jump to the obvious reason we went to Utila...The Diving!
Dive School Shopping: We didn´t spend much time shopping for a dive school. We went to Alton´s Dive Shop, the dive school Ami attended in 2003. The school is right on the Bay, with a sundeck extended over the Bay to relax on, and accommodations for divers with great views of the Bay.
The Course: The Open Water Dive Course lasts three and a half days. The course includes classroom time, as well as time in the shallow waters to learn skills. By day three, we are heading to sea to dive. Days 3 and 4 are dive days, but they are not very focused on what you see, but rather doing more skills and getting comfortable in deeper waters. The first level of a diving certification only allows a dive as deep as 60 feet. Plently deep for now!
Experience: When you get in the water, a whole new prespective opens up. The first time you go down deeper and deeper, I was thinking this is crazy. This place is for fish and other sea animals! My first impression of diving was how different could it be from snorkeling. Well, it is entirely different. Not only do you have tons of gear on, but the deeper you go, the more you see and the more angles you have. You swim alongside schools of fish, alongside the reef, you touch the sandy surface, you swim below fish.....just crazy! Swimming and exploring is very effortless, and definitely worth it!
There are at least 60 dive sites in Utila, and we only scratched the surface by visiting 6. But along the way we lucked out. We had the opportunity to see a whale shark. The way the process works is if one boat sees a whale shark, the capitan informs another, and the word spreads. The capitans have years of experience watching the surface of the sea to see where the whale shark is swimming. So, how do we leverage that experience? We line up on the boat, and when he gives the word, we gently slide into the water. Jumping in scares the shark(s) away. Well, the word is more like ´Go, go, go...now, now, now,´with his arms waving us on. We slid into the water, and going directly beneath us and our boat was a whale shark. It wasn´t a huge whale shark by any means, these sharks definitley can be massive, but nonetheless, we saw and swam with a whale shark!
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Semuc Champey
Semuc Champey is a beautiful natural reserve. The hype that draws people here is what I am about to describe. Although, when we have the time to upload pics, you will understand a whole lot better.
Semuc Champey is a collection of seven or so natural, crystal clear pools. The pools sit atop a thunderous river, viewable before the pools start. The river disappears into the darkness, and as you continue past from where you can see the river, the crystal clear pools come into site. All are there for your eyes to enjoy, and even better for anyone to go for a swim. The pools gently continue flowing downwards and cascade gently into the next and the next, until utimately the final pool flows into the river that continues on through the countryside.
A trail takes you from the entrance area of the park up for about a 25 minute walk. During the walk, while huffing and puffing, you truely wonder what all this phyiscal exertion is for. But, once the view comes into site, you catch your breath and look in amazement. The view of Semuc Champey is a birds eye view of the pools set within the mountains. The green of the mountains meshes perfectly with the crytsal blue water of the pools.
The area of this natural beauty is set within the central part of Guatemala. Road maps will show one way in and one way out. The reason for this is the pools are surrounded by mountains on three sides.
We spent two days at Semuc Champey, and we discovered one con. Mosquitos will eat you alive. So, if you ever travel to this attraction, bring the long sleeves and the deet! But, that aside, it is definitely worth the visit.
Semuc Champey is a collection of seven or so natural, crystal clear pools. The pools sit atop a thunderous river, viewable before the pools start. The river disappears into the darkness, and as you continue past from where you can see the river, the crystal clear pools come into site. All are there for your eyes to enjoy, and even better for anyone to go for a swim. The pools gently continue flowing downwards and cascade gently into the next and the next, until utimately the final pool flows into the river that continues on through the countryside.
A trail takes you from the entrance area of the park up for about a 25 minute walk. During the walk, while huffing and puffing, you truely wonder what all this phyiscal exertion is for. But, once the view comes into site, you catch your breath and look in amazement. The view of Semuc Champey is a birds eye view of the pools set within the mountains. The green of the mountains meshes perfectly with the crytsal blue water of the pools.
The area of this natural beauty is set within the central part of Guatemala. Road maps will show one way in and one way out. The reason for this is the pools are surrounded by mountains on three sides.
We spent two days at Semuc Champey, and we discovered one con. Mosquitos will eat you alive. So, if you ever travel to this attraction, bring the long sleeves and the deet! But, that aside, it is definitely worth the visit.
Warriors Shock the World!
Well not really, but they certainly did some damage. In my previous entry about the Warriors, I informed you that the Warriors made the playoffs for the first time since 1994. Well, for the first time since 1991 they won a playoff series. As the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference, they dominated the No. 1 seeded and team with the best record in the NBA, the Dallas Mavericks. They won the series in 6 exciting games.
Unfortunately they bowed out in 5 games to a more physical Utah Jazz team in the semi-finals. Nonetheless, each of the 5 games were very exciting, as each of the 4 they lost came down to the end of the games.
Let´s see what happens in the offseason, but hopefully the team carries the momentum into next year and Warrior fans are not waiting another 13 years to enjoy playoff basketball!
Unfortunately they bowed out in 5 games to a more physical Utah Jazz team in the semi-finals. Nonetheless, each of the 5 games were very exciting, as each of the 4 they lost came down to the end of the games.
Let´s see what happens in the offseason, but hopefully the team carries the momentum into next year and Warrior fans are not waiting another 13 years to enjoy playoff basketball!
Belize con Mis Padres
On the 26th of April, Ami and I welcomed the Chima parents to Central America!
We met them at the Belize City International Airport in the morning. And, from there Ami and I were reintroduced to a world we had not experienced since we left the states, more or less. We had an airconditioned minivan pick us up at the airport and drive us cross country (only an hour, as Belize is a small country) to San Ignacio, the fist stop on the Chima train. We checked into a resort with a pool and an air-conditioned room. Now, for the large part, Ami and I have enjoyed our experiences sweating out our travel days on chicken buses, and attempting to fall alseep in humid, stuffy hostal rooms. But, this was a welcome break.
The highlights from San Igancio:
1) Tikal. Tikal. Tikal. We made the trek into the northeastern part of Guatemala from San Ignacio in order to lay our eyes on the amazing, breathtaking sites of Mayan architecture present in Tikal. We made the hike up 3 of the monumental sites to take in the breathtaking views of the region. We also made the hike through about 80% (a quote from our guide) of the Tikal ruins.
2) Chaa Creek. A eco-friendly resort. We went to this resort to spend some time relaxing. Little did we know that the ´pool ín this ecoo-friendly resort was actually a creek. We were allowed to borrow two of the canoes and row ourselves down the creek. We swam a bit in the chilly creek and with teams of Dad and Mom versus the young ACs, racing in our canoes. I don´t know if growing up in Fiji was an advantage, but Dad along with Mom took the cake each time we rowed down the creek.
The next stop was Ambergris Caye, a resort island set in the Caribbean. We made the hike from San Ignacio via minivan and water taxi, arriving at the Holiday Hotel in the early afternoon.
The highlights from our stay here are the following:
1) We rented a golf cart, the primary means of transportation (in addition to bikes and walking), and drove around to see parts of the island removed from the main tourist location. Quite a bit of development is ongoing, mostly of homes and condos.
2) We went snorkling in the Caribbean waters, and wow, the worlds second largest reef (behind that of Australia) and the sea life did not disappoint. We saw several types of fish, a shark (not a man eating type) and numerous, I mean numerous sting rays.
The last stop on the Chima tour brought us full circle and back to Belize City. We stayed at a hotel named The Princess Hotel. Our time in Belize City consisted of happy hour drinks, shopping at the tourist cruise ports and exploring downtown. The city itself is not exciting, but nonetheless an area my parents wanted to see. We made the trek over to Old Town Belize, about a 10 minute drive from downtown and a tourist creation to provide tourists with a history of Belize. Our departure from Old Belize back to downtown was the highlight of our trip to old town. We had arranged a cab to wait for us and take us back. But, of course, business called, so he left. Cabs are not plentiful from Old Belize, and when they are there, they are expensive. So, we walked to the side of the road in hopes of catching a cab back to town, but while waiting, my folks decided to pose for a picture trying to hitchhike. Well, it worked. Next thing you know a pickup is waiting for us to take us back to town!
Overall, having the Senior Chimas around was great, and just as quickly as we welcomed the air-conditioned transportation and accommodations, within a blink of an eye we were back on the Chicken Buses.
We met them at the Belize City International Airport in the morning. And, from there Ami and I were reintroduced to a world we had not experienced since we left the states, more or less. We had an airconditioned minivan pick us up at the airport and drive us cross country (only an hour, as Belize is a small country) to San Ignacio, the fist stop on the Chima train. We checked into a resort with a pool and an air-conditioned room. Now, for the large part, Ami and I have enjoyed our experiences sweating out our travel days on chicken buses, and attempting to fall alseep in humid, stuffy hostal rooms. But, this was a welcome break.
The highlights from San Igancio:
1) Tikal. Tikal. Tikal. We made the trek into the northeastern part of Guatemala from San Ignacio in order to lay our eyes on the amazing, breathtaking sites of Mayan architecture present in Tikal. We made the hike up 3 of the monumental sites to take in the breathtaking views of the region. We also made the hike through about 80% (a quote from our guide) of the Tikal ruins.
2) Chaa Creek. A eco-friendly resort. We went to this resort to spend some time relaxing. Little did we know that the ´pool ín this ecoo-friendly resort was actually a creek. We were allowed to borrow two of the canoes and row ourselves down the creek. We swam a bit in the chilly creek and with teams of Dad and Mom versus the young ACs, racing in our canoes. I don´t know if growing up in Fiji was an advantage, but Dad along with Mom took the cake each time we rowed down the creek.
The next stop was Ambergris Caye, a resort island set in the Caribbean. We made the hike from San Ignacio via minivan and water taxi, arriving at the Holiday Hotel in the early afternoon.
The highlights from our stay here are the following:
1) We rented a golf cart, the primary means of transportation (in addition to bikes and walking), and drove around to see parts of the island removed from the main tourist location. Quite a bit of development is ongoing, mostly of homes and condos.
2) We went snorkling in the Caribbean waters, and wow, the worlds second largest reef (behind that of Australia) and the sea life did not disappoint. We saw several types of fish, a shark (not a man eating type) and numerous, I mean numerous sting rays.
The last stop on the Chima tour brought us full circle and back to Belize City. We stayed at a hotel named The Princess Hotel. Our time in Belize City consisted of happy hour drinks, shopping at the tourist cruise ports and exploring downtown. The city itself is not exciting, but nonetheless an area my parents wanted to see. We made the trek over to Old Town Belize, about a 10 minute drive from downtown and a tourist creation to provide tourists with a history of Belize. Our departure from Old Belize back to downtown was the highlight of our trip to old town. We had arranged a cab to wait for us and take us back. But, of course, business called, so he left. Cabs are not plentiful from Old Belize, and when they are there, they are expensive. So, we walked to the side of the road in hopes of catching a cab back to town, but while waiting, my folks decided to pose for a picture trying to hitchhike. Well, it worked. Next thing you know a pickup is waiting for us to take us back to town!
Overall, having the Senior Chimas around was great, and just as quickly as we welcomed the air-conditioned transportation and accommodations, within a blink of an eye we were back on the Chicken Buses.
NPH (Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos)
We offically left Costa Rica on April 17th, and arrived at NPH in Nicaragua in the evening. A close friend of my mother runs this orphanage site and we wanted to visit while she was in town and spend some time with the children. NPH has several orphanage sites throughout Latin America. We wanted to visit the location in San Jorge, Nicaragua because of the personal connection.
The site, off the shores of Lago de Nicaragua, is a picturesque location home to approximately 40 children ages 7 and younger. There is an affiliate location for children ages 7 to 18 located on Ometepe, a large island set within the lake. The organization was started some 50 years ago by a priest who happened to walk into an idea. A young boy was caught stealing from the church funds by the local police. The priest, called in by the police, confronted the boy and sincerely asked why he was stealing. The boy responded that he was hungry and had no other options. The reaction by the priest set the wheels in motion for NPH. The boy was taken in by the priest, as he realized that a young man in a desperate situation needs proper attention and care. Each subsequent boy caught commiting some type of crime was immediately turned over by the police to the priest. So, boy by boy, an orphange grew. Young girls became part of the orphanage in time.
Today, the concept in San Jorge and Ometepe is such:
1) Children from a few months to 7 are educated and raised at the San Jorge location
2) Children ages 7 to 18 are educated and cared for at the Ometepe site
3) At the age of 18, the children are encouraged to pursue higher education and required to serve a year of community service with NPH.
Like all concepts, there are pros and cons, but the primary cause is to give children of very poor backgrounds the opporutunity to grow up healthy, be educated, and have more options presented to them. Now, one point to add is that not all of these children are truely orphans, but rather children of very poor backgrounds where their parents cannot care for them properly. Hopefully after the age of 18 or higher education, they can help their families in their struggle against poverty.
Our role was primarily spending time with the children, in whatever capacity that was required - playing, talking, making sure they ate their dinner.......in a nutshell, another positive influence.
The site, off the shores of Lago de Nicaragua, is a picturesque location home to approximately 40 children ages 7 and younger. There is an affiliate location for children ages 7 to 18 located on Ometepe, a large island set within the lake. The organization was started some 50 years ago by a priest who happened to walk into an idea. A young boy was caught stealing from the church funds by the local police. The priest, called in by the police, confronted the boy and sincerely asked why he was stealing. The boy responded that he was hungry and had no other options. The reaction by the priest set the wheels in motion for NPH. The boy was taken in by the priest, as he realized that a young man in a desperate situation needs proper attention and care. Each subsequent boy caught commiting some type of crime was immediately turned over by the police to the priest. So, boy by boy, an orphange grew. Young girls became part of the orphanage in time.
Today, the concept in San Jorge and Ometepe is such:
1) Children from a few months to 7 are educated and raised at the San Jorge location
2) Children ages 7 to 18 are educated and cared for at the Ometepe site
3) At the age of 18, the children are encouraged to pursue higher education and required to serve a year of community service with NPH.
Like all concepts, there are pros and cons, but the primary cause is to give children of very poor backgrounds the opporutunity to grow up healthy, be educated, and have more options presented to them. Now, one point to add is that not all of these children are truely orphans, but rather children of very poor backgrounds where their parents cannot care for them properly. Hopefully after the age of 18 or higher education, they can help their families in their struggle against poverty.
Our role was primarily spending time with the children, in whatever capacity that was required - playing, talking, making sure they ate their dinner.......in a nutshell, another positive influence.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Costa Rica II
On our return trip to Costa Rica, we took the advice from our friends that have traveled the country and decided to visit Tortuguero, a northern caribbean coastal town reknowned for being home to turtle watching and referred to as the 'mini-amazon', and Tamarindo, known for its beaches and first rate surfing.
To travel to Tortuguero from San Jose, you have to take two buses and a boat. Since the area is protected, there has been no development to reach the town, therefore, the only way to reach the coastal town is by boat. The bus rides are unspectacular, but the boat ride was pretty sweet and we were able to witness several wildlife animals along the way, including Ami spotting the famous green iguana.
Our main purpose of going to Tortuguero was to hopefully spot a leatherback turtle coming to shore and laying it's eggs. These turtles are GINORMOUS, and the best time to witness them is during the night. Therefore, we signed up for a 10 pm to 12 midnight walk along the beaches in hopes of observing the leatherback doing its thing. The beginning of the hike was amazing. Just imagine, pitch black, but your vision is aided my the salt filled waves gently breaking against the shore and the bright stars lighting up the sky, coupled with a gentle breeze to combat the warm night air. The rest of hike was more of the same view, and unfortunately for us, a lack of spotting a leatherback. So basically we hiked up and down the beach and saw nothing. There were some grumblings in the line that we were moving too quickly and with the guide using his flashlight sparingly, many were wondering could we be walking past a turtle. Anyways, the thoughts did not change the fact we did not see anything, and the guide did explain the chances were 50/50.
We also explored the town by foot in about 15 minutes, as it has that small town, everybody knows everyone else feel. The town is flanked by a river on one end and the ocean on the other. As far as excursions, there also is the opportunity to walk through or take guided tours through the preserve. Our main draw was the leatherback turtles on our excursion to this town, but we left with a great impression of the town itself.
After a detour and a night in San Jose, we traveled north to Tamarindo, a popular pacific coast destination for locals and tourists. I have to emphasize the popular part, as the location not only well-known for great surf breaks, but the development going on in this town is ridiculous. The condos, the resorts, the shopping malls, etc.....this place will be different in a number of years. The town itself is small, set alongside the ocean. The beaches seem never-ending.
Ami and I found a hostel nestled in the middle of town run by a french couple. The hostel was on the beach, therefore we did not hesitate to the hit the beaches once we had a room. The main reason we came to Tamarindo was the draw of the Pacific coast, especially in Costa Rica, and the desire to try surfing. As I mentioned, the town was picturesque, and the surfing was world class. We opted to rent boards to give it a try. We watched some ameteurs give it a go, and thought, eh, why not? So, we rented boards, and spent our brief experience either in the water or paddling along on the board. When waves came, we either were eaten up and knocked around or basically rode the waves lying down, which was pretty sweet! I got a couple of squats in there, but never stood up. Ami took a liking to riding the waves to shore laying down. Next time we will make sure to get lessons, but nonetheless we enjoyed the experience.
To travel to Tortuguero from San Jose, you have to take two buses and a boat. Since the area is protected, there has been no development to reach the town, therefore, the only way to reach the coastal town is by boat. The bus rides are unspectacular, but the boat ride was pretty sweet and we were able to witness several wildlife animals along the way, including Ami spotting the famous green iguana.
Our main purpose of going to Tortuguero was to hopefully spot a leatherback turtle coming to shore and laying it's eggs. These turtles are GINORMOUS, and the best time to witness them is during the night. Therefore, we signed up for a 10 pm to 12 midnight walk along the beaches in hopes of observing the leatherback doing its thing. The beginning of the hike was amazing. Just imagine, pitch black, but your vision is aided my the salt filled waves gently breaking against the shore and the bright stars lighting up the sky, coupled with a gentle breeze to combat the warm night air. The rest of hike was more of the same view, and unfortunately for us, a lack of spotting a leatherback. So basically we hiked up and down the beach and saw nothing. There were some grumblings in the line that we were moving too quickly and with the guide using his flashlight sparingly, many were wondering could we be walking past a turtle. Anyways, the thoughts did not change the fact we did not see anything, and the guide did explain the chances were 50/50.
We also explored the town by foot in about 15 minutes, as it has that small town, everybody knows everyone else feel. The town is flanked by a river on one end and the ocean on the other. As far as excursions, there also is the opportunity to walk through or take guided tours through the preserve. Our main draw was the leatherback turtles on our excursion to this town, but we left with a great impression of the town itself.
After a detour and a night in San Jose, we traveled north to Tamarindo, a popular pacific coast destination for locals and tourists. I have to emphasize the popular part, as the location not only well-known for great surf breaks, but the development going on in this town is ridiculous. The condos, the resorts, the shopping malls, etc.....this place will be different in a number of years. The town itself is small, set alongside the ocean. The beaches seem never-ending.
Ami and I found a hostel nestled in the middle of town run by a french couple. The hostel was on the beach, therefore we did not hesitate to the hit the beaches once we had a room. The main reason we came to Tamarindo was the draw of the Pacific coast, especially in Costa Rica, and the desire to try surfing. As I mentioned, the town was picturesque, and the surfing was world class. We opted to rent boards to give it a try. We watched some ameteurs give it a go, and thought, eh, why not? So, we rented boards, and spent our brief experience either in the water or paddling along on the board. When waves came, we either were eaten up and knocked around or basically rode the waves lying down, which was pretty sweet! I got a couple of squats in there, but never stood up. Ami took a liking to riding the waves to shore laying down. Next time we will make sure to get lessons, but nonetheless we enjoyed the experience.
For the first time in 13 years!!
I don't mean to bore those who could care less about basketball. So, if you don't care, you do not need to read the attached link. But, for those who care, my goodness, the Warriors actually made the playoffs!!!!
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Panama
Our stay in Panama was brief, but superb. We crossed the border on the Caribbean side through a small border town called Sixaola. As with all of our border crossings, we first have to clear with the departing country, and then clear with the entry country. But, in between, there is about a 10 minute walk. This particular border walk was beautiful, as we had to cross an old bridge set over a river with nothing but trees surrounding the area. In the distance, you might even catch a glimpse of the ocean. I say glimpse because as you attempt to inhale the surrounding beauty, you have to watch your steps in between the wooden boards, as nothing but air was between you and the river!
After clearing the border, we took a brief taxi ride through Chinguinola (home of the Chiquita banana, where we saw thousands of banana trees with blue bags of pesticides attached) to Almirante, another small town, mostly known for it's speed boat connection to Bocas Del Toro. For $5 a person, you enjoy a fascinating speed boat ride, never dull on the scenic aspect, as we zipped by locals living in elevated homes (for rain purposes, as it rains 9 months out of the year in Panama) off the river banks with their dogs barking at us and children waving to us, and views of ocean and surrounding shores as we left the river and entered the bay/laguna. The total ride time was 45 minutes.
We ended up only staying in Bocas Del Toro for one day, but we easily could have spent more time. Ami and I were pretty beached out during a recent stretch of water activities in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, therefore we spent our one day relaxing in town. We found a hostel in town, that appeared relatively quiet, but in reailty we did not fully learn from our experience in Antigua (El Gato Negro). Given it was Semana Santa, we figured it was better off to have a place and begin to enjoy exploring the town. I can't tell you how many times we have 'shopped' for a place (which is good to have for a more thorough selection process) and been exhausted by the time we decide on a place, primarily because we are lugging our heavy bags through the entire process....back....and forth. Nonetheless, let me leave the night in the hostel at this.....the smell of weed on the front deck, which was next to our room, seeping through the window cracks, the out of nowhere sound of guitars and singing going on, again on the front deck outside our room, the drunken roommates coming back from an '80's party at 4 in the morning. It's all good, what you expect from an affordable hostel.....we just fell prey to it a second time. No more, that is for sure.
After our short stay in Bocas Del Toro, we were off to Panama City via air, as we wanted to avoid the 12 hour bus ride and spend more time in the city. I don't know why, but I was extremely excited to see this city. We went back and forth on whether to skip Panama this time around and focus our time in the northern countries. But, in the end, we decided to focus on a couple of highlight spots in the country, including Panama City. Perhaps it was the Panama Canal that initially attracted me to the city, but in the end, the city was amazing for several other reasons. Here are the highlights:
1) Panama Canal (Miraflores Locks): An informational, touristy viewpoint for the Canal was opened in 2000, after the U.S. turned over operations to Panama. The site gives you awesome views of ships (both large and small) working their way through the locks from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. There are a total of three locks in the Canal that are open 24 hours for ships to go both ways. Including wait time, it takes a boat approximately 24 hours to cross the 50 miles of the Panama Canal. There also is a great museum, providing a historical construction breakdown, an operations breakdown, and an impact on the wildlife living in the area. A brief movie brings to life the ongoings of the Canal from the beginning to present day operations.
A couple of interesting notes:
a) The Canal officially opened on August 15th, 1914
b) The fee for passing through the Canal is based on weight. One gentlemen, Alfred Brown, swam through the Canal in 8 days for 36 cents!
c) According to our taxi driver, the U.S. does not pay for any ships passing through, as part of the agreement in turning over control to Panama. Panama officially took operations control over on December 31, 1999.
For more information, here is a site on the Panama Canal.
2) The Amador Causeway: this stretch of road connects 4 small islands, creating magnificent views of the ships entering the canal, and of the downtown skyline in the distance. The area has been somewhat modernized with several restaurants, and construction in process for stores, condos, and perhaps hotels in the future. The main strip of road however has bodies of water on both sides, with a wide strip of sidewalk perfect for jogging, biking or walking to take in the views. We went each evening because the views combined with the slight breeze made it one of our favorite spots in the city.
3) Casco Viejo (the old city of Panama): The downside to this area is passing through two of the most dangerous areas of the city, but by taking a taxi you avoid the shady areas. Casco Viejo is where the President, Martín Erasto Torrijos Espino, resides. The particular area he resides in is blocked off to locals, but foreignors can procede. So we did. His house overlooks the city skyline on one end, and the Causeway on the other. We got a glimpse of him, by chance, while being 'detained' by a security guard. The guard came over and mentioned the President was coming out briefly and we had to step back, waaay back. We didn't care, as we weren't looking to see him, but the situation was funny, as we walked back until the guard said that was enough, and he just watched us until he felt he could leave us.
So, this area has a lot of security. However, beyond this, the area is set on a area of land that juts into the sea, with the Causeway on one side and the skyline of downtown on the other, both only separated by water. As you can tell, the city had plenty of areas for great views, which added to the attraction of the city for us.
4) Hindu Temple & Sikh Gurdwara: You know you are getting older when you stop seeking out the best nightlife spots in town and start looking for temples. But anyways, the Hindu Temple was simple yet elegant, perched upon a hill. The Sikh Temple, also elegant and simple, was set within the city. The Baiji was extremely polite, including providing us a light snack. On a side note, it was very very interesting communicating with the priests at both temples in Spanish, although Ami was right at home at the Hindu Temple conversing in Gujurati. Both priests indicated that there are approxinmately 3 to 5 thousand Indians in Panama City.
5) Parque Natural Metropolitano: This park is a national park, protecting a wild area of tropical forest within the city. We spent 40 minutes (we hired a driver and we were on a time limit) in this park and that was more than enough time to climb to end of the trail and take in views of the city and Canal. We also witnessed a titi monkey, anteaters, white tailed deer, numerous trails of leaf cutter ants with leaves on their backs and the famous Morphis Butterfly.
6) Downtown is entertaining as well, littered with casinos for the gambling types.
7) Another notable landmark which catches your eye, especially at night when it is lit up, is the Bridge of the Americas, which you can see easily from the Causeway, Casco Viejo, and a viewing platform dedicated by China.
Overall, a city we both enjoyed!
After clearing the border, we took a brief taxi ride through Chinguinola (home of the Chiquita banana, where we saw thousands of banana trees with blue bags of pesticides attached) to Almirante, another small town, mostly known for it's speed boat connection to Bocas Del Toro. For $5 a person, you enjoy a fascinating speed boat ride, never dull on the scenic aspect, as we zipped by locals living in elevated homes (for rain purposes, as it rains 9 months out of the year in Panama) off the river banks with their dogs barking at us and children waving to us, and views of ocean and surrounding shores as we left the river and entered the bay/laguna. The total ride time was 45 minutes.
We ended up only staying in Bocas Del Toro for one day, but we easily could have spent more time. Ami and I were pretty beached out during a recent stretch of water activities in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, therefore we spent our one day relaxing in town. We found a hostel in town, that appeared relatively quiet, but in reailty we did not fully learn from our experience in Antigua (El Gato Negro). Given it was Semana Santa, we figured it was better off to have a place and begin to enjoy exploring the town. I can't tell you how many times we have 'shopped' for a place (which is good to have for a more thorough selection process) and been exhausted by the time we decide on a place, primarily because we are lugging our heavy bags through the entire process....back....and forth. Nonetheless, let me leave the night in the hostel at this.....the smell of weed on the front deck, which was next to our room, seeping through the window cracks, the out of nowhere sound of guitars and singing going on, again on the front deck outside our room, the drunken roommates coming back from an '80's party at 4 in the morning. It's all good, what you expect from an affordable hostel.....we just fell prey to it a second time. No more, that is for sure.
After our short stay in Bocas Del Toro, we were off to Panama City via air, as we wanted to avoid the 12 hour bus ride and spend more time in the city. I don't know why, but I was extremely excited to see this city. We went back and forth on whether to skip Panama this time around and focus our time in the northern countries. But, in the end, we decided to focus on a couple of highlight spots in the country, including Panama City. Perhaps it was the Panama Canal that initially attracted me to the city, but in the end, the city was amazing for several other reasons. Here are the highlights:
1) Panama Canal (Miraflores Locks): An informational, touristy viewpoint for the Canal was opened in 2000, after the U.S. turned over operations to Panama. The site gives you awesome views of ships (both large and small) working their way through the locks from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. There are a total of three locks in the Canal that are open 24 hours for ships to go both ways. Including wait time, it takes a boat approximately 24 hours to cross the 50 miles of the Panama Canal. There also is a great museum, providing a historical construction breakdown, an operations breakdown, and an impact on the wildlife living in the area. A brief movie brings to life the ongoings of the Canal from the beginning to present day operations.
A couple of interesting notes:
a) The Canal officially opened on August 15th, 1914
b) The fee for passing through the Canal is based on weight. One gentlemen, Alfred Brown, swam through the Canal in 8 days for 36 cents!
c) According to our taxi driver, the U.S. does not pay for any ships passing through, as part of the agreement in turning over control to Panama. Panama officially took operations control over on December 31, 1999.
For more information, here is a site on the Panama Canal.
2) The Amador Causeway: this stretch of road connects 4 small islands, creating magnificent views of the ships entering the canal, and of the downtown skyline in the distance. The area has been somewhat modernized with several restaurants, and construction in process for stores, condos, and perhaps hotels in the future. The main strip of road however has bodies of water on both sides, with a wide strip of sidewalk perfect for jogging, biking or walking to take in the views. We went each evening because the views combined with the slight breeze made it one of our favorite spots in the city.
3) Casco Viejo (the old city of Panama): The downside to this area is passing through two of the most dangerous areas of the city, but by taking a taxi you avoid the shady areas. Casco Viejo is where the President, Martín Erasto Torrijos Espino, resides. The particular area he resides in is blocked off to locals, but foreignors can procede. So we did. His house overlooks the city skyline on one end, and the Causeway on the other. We got a glimpse of him, by chance, while being 'detained' by a security guard. The guard came over and mentioned the President was coming out briefly and we had to step back, waaay back. We didn't care, as we weren't looking to see him, but the situation was funny, as we walked back until the guard said that was enough, and he just watched us until he felt he could leave us.
So, this area has a lot of security. However, beyond this, the area is set on a area of land that juts into the sea, with the Causeway on one side and the skyline of downtown on the other, both only separated by water. As you can tell, the city had plenty of areas for great views, which added to the attraction of the city for us.
4) Hindu Temple & Sikh Gurdwara: You know you are getting older when you stop seeking out the best nightlife spots in town and start looking for temples. But anyways, the Hindu Temple was simple yet elegant, perched upon a hill. The Sikh Temple, also elegant and simple, was set within the city. The Baiji was extremely polite, including providing us a light snack. On a side note, it was very very interesting communicating with the priests at both temples in Spanish, although Ami was right at home at the Hindu Temple conversing in Gujurati. Both priests indicated that there are approxinmately 3 to 5 thousand Indians in Panama City.
5) Parque Natural Metropolitano: This park is a national park, protecting a wild area of tropical forest within the city. We spent 40 minutes (we hired a driver and we were on a time limit) in this park and that was more than enough time to climb to end of the trail and take in views of the city and Canal. We also witnessed a titi monkey, anteaters, white tailed deer, numerous trails of leaf cutter ants with leaves on their backs and the famous Morphis Butterfly.
6) Downtown is entertaining as well, littered with casinos for the gambling types.
7) Another notable landmark which catches your eye, especially at night when it is lit up, is the Bridge of the Americas, which you can see easily from the Causeway, Casco Viejo, and a viewing platform dedicated by China.
Overall, a city we both enjoyed!
Costa Rica
We saw and experienced some amazing locations in the country, and here is quick recap of the places we visited and the experiences we had:
1) La Fortuna is built for tourists. Everyone we encountered, whether at hostels, hotels, tour agencies, restaurants and even the streets spoke English. Also, outside of Antigua, we probably saw more tourists here than anywhere else on our travels. Our full day of exploring here went rather quickly, but we decided to spend it participating in new activities. We chose to try repelling, which involved repelling down several waterfalls. The area offered ATV, whitewatering rafting, bicycling, horsebackriding, all of which we have done elsewhere, and all of which were pricey to repeat on a backpacker´s budget. So repelling offered us a new experience, and boy was it sweeeet! Cascading down in the waterfalls was a rush, and the hikes through the streams, falling in and out of water brought smiles to our faces. Afterwards we went to lunch and ate some great local food on behalf of the tour agency. The restaurant was set looking out over a river, where there was a backlog of cars, SUVs, and large commerical trucks trying to drive across the river because the local bridge was shut down for repairs! When we arrived, every vehicle attempting the cross got stuck midway through and had to be towed/pulled out by a tractor. This added to the backlog, as well as vehicles from both directions had to rotate turns since both sides could not cross simultaneously. Eventually, after some large construction trucks brought in and laid out some more rocks within the river, vehicles passed much more easily. A large crowd gathered to take in the scene. Why not? It was entertaining! It was more entertaining when the vehicles got stuck.
In the evening of the same day, we traveled to Tabacon Resort, that is famous for its natural hot springs set in a rain forest setting. You can enjoy an evening session for 4 hours and kick back in any of the many many hot springs. The springs varied in temperature, but most were approximately 41 degrees celsius, or about 106 degrees fahrenheit. The springs are set below an active volcano, Arenal. The temperatures for the springs are generated by the volcano. We spent the full 4 hours at the springs before returning to our hostel. We were the very last ones out of the hot springs!
The next morning we opted to take a ´Jeep, Boat, Jeep´tour to travel from La Fortuna to Monteverde. This route took less than 3 hours, which is much shorter than traveling by road, which is around 6 to 7 hours. The jeep wasn´t a jeep, but rather a microbus, but we were only interested in saving time, which was also the purpose of the service. Once we arrived in Monteverde we found a place to stay for the night and decided what activities to partake in. We had to decide quickly, because we were leaving the next afternoon to travel to San Jose, on route to the Caribbean coast. We could have spent more time in Monteverde, but since it was Semana Santa, traveling was a little tougher when relying on public transportation. Transportation was limited on Thursday, and there was no transportation on Friday. Since we arrived in Monteverde on Tuesday, we did not want to stick around for 4 days, nor did we want to be stuck in San Jose for Friday. So, we opted for the following activities with our limited time:
- The Frog Pond: a local museum housing several species of frogs and toads
- Santa Elena Cloud Forest: Monteverde is famous for its cloud forests, so we signed up for a guided tour of this cloud forest. The area is obviously muddy and dripping wet, adding to the appeal, and of course, cloudy. We were able to witness several rare birds, such as the queztal (however only a female/the male is ordinately much more beautiful) and the bellbird.
By early afternoon on Wednesday, we were off to San Jose. On Thursday morning we caught a 6:45 am bus to Cahuita, our home for 2 nights while public transportation was shut down countrywide. Cahuita is a small town on the Caribbean coast, with not much to do other than kick back and relax. Therefore, we opted to stay at Cabinas Jenny, a hostel/hotel right on the ocean. We stayed on the upper floor with an unobstructed view of the ocean, and the sound of the water hitting the shore drowning out any other noise the small town could produce. Our room had windows that opened up out over a balcony with lounge chairs and hammock. We spent much time sitting back and soaking up the relaxed atmosphere and studying our spanish.
The town is also home to a National Reserve, set along the coast. There is an area of beach accessible to the public, but a further area stretching out into the ocean not accessible to the public. The shores were large enough to relax on, but set right up against a forest. The proximity of the ocean to a forest was a rare sight for us, and we thought it was great. There also was a pathway through the preserve which allowed you to take in the sights of local animals residing in the forest, such as slothes.
After two extremely restful days in Cahuita, we were off to Panama! We will return back to Costa Rica in order to travel back up north, and we are planning on exploring Tortuguero and Tamarindo on the way.
1) La Fortuna is built for tourists. Everyone we encountered, whether at hostels, hotels, tour agencies, restaurants and even the streets spoke English. Also, outside of Antigua, we probably saw more tourists here than anywhere else on our travels. Our full day of exploring here went rather quickly, but we decided to spend it participating in new activities. We chose to try repelling, which involved repelling down several waterfalls. The area offered ATV, whitewatering rafting, bicycling, horsebackriding, all of which we have done elsewhere, and all of which were pricey to repeat on a backpacker´s budget. So repelling offered us a new experience, and boy was it sweeeet! Cascading down in the waterfalls was a rush, and the hikes through the streams, falling in and out of water brought smiles to our faces. Afterwards we went to lunch and ate some great local food on behalf of the tour agency. The restaurant was set looking out over a river, where there was a backlog of cars, SUVs, and large commerical trucks trying to drive across the river because the local bridge was shut down for repairs! When we arrived, every vehicle attempting the cross got stuck midway through and had to be towed/pulled out by a tractor. This added to the backlog, as well as vehicles from both directions had to rotate turns since both sides could not cross simultaneously. Eventually, after some large construction trucks brought in and laid out some more rocks within the river, vehicles passed much more easily. A large crowd gathered to take in the scene. Why not? It was entertaining! It was more entertaining when the vehicles got stuck.
In the evening of the same day, we traveled to Tabacon Resort, that is famous for its natural hot springs set in a rain forest setting. You can enjoy an evening session for 4 hours and kick back in any of the many many hot springs. The springs varied in temperature, but most were approximately 41 degrees celsius, or about 106 degrees fahrenheit. The springs are set below an active volcano, Arenal. The temperatures for the springs are generated by the volcano. We spent the full 4 hours at the springs before returning to our hostel. We were the very last ones out of the hot springs!
The next morning we opted to take a ´Jeep, Boat, Jeep´tour to travel from La Fortuna to Monteverde. This route took less than 3 hours, which is much shorter than traveling by road, which is around 6 to 7 hours. The jeep wasn´t a jeep, but rather a microbus, but we were only interested in saving time, which was also the purpose of the service. Once we arrived in Monteverde we found a place to stay for the night and decided what activities to partake in. We had to decide quickly, because we were leaving the next afternoon to travel to San Jose, on route to the Caribbean coast. We could have spent more time in Monteverde, but since it was Semana Santa, traveling was a little tougher when relying on public transportation. Transportation was limited on Thursday, and there was no transportation on Friday. Since we arrived in Monteverde on Tuesday, we did not want to stick around for 4 days, nor did we want to be stuck in San Jose for Friday. So, we opted for the following activities with our limited time:
- The Frog Pond: a local museum housing several species of frogs and toads
- Santa Elena Cloud Forest: Monteverde is famous for its cloud forests, so we signed up for a guided tour of this cloud forest. The area is obviously muddy and dripping wet, adding to the appeal, and of course, cloudy. We were able to witness several rare birds, such as the queztal (however only a female/the male is ordinately much more beautiful) and the bellbird.
By early afternoon on Wednesday, we were off to San Jose. On Thursday morning we caught a 6:45 am bus to Cahuita, our home for 2 nights while public transportation was shut down countrywide. Cahuita is a small town on the Caribbean coast, with not much to do other than kick back and relax. Therefore, we opted to stay at Cabinas Jenny, a hostel/hotel right on the ocean. We stayed on the upper floor with an unobstructed view of the ocean, and the sound of the water hitting the shore drowning out any other noise the small town could produce. Our room had windows that opened up out over a balcony with lounge chairs and hammock. We spent much time sitting back and soaking up the relaxed atmosphere and studying our spanish.
The town is also home to a National Reserve, set along the coast. There is an area of beach accessible to the public, but a further area stretching out into the ocean not accessible to the public. The shores were large enough to relax on, but set right up against a forest. The proximity of the ocean to a forest was a rare sight for us, and we thought it was great. There also was a pathway through the preserve which allowed you to take in the sights of local animals residing in the forest, such as slothes.
After two extremely restful days in Cahuita, we were off to Panama! We will return back to Costa Rica in order to travel back up north, and we are planning on exploring Tortuguero and Tamarindo on the way.
Spring Break in Nicaragua
Before I begin, thank you to the UCLA MBA students who warmly accepted Ami and I as part of their Spring Break trip. The trip was well planned and an amazing experience.
We met up with the group in order to visit and travel with our good friend, Sonali. Along the way, we were able to get to know 18 other individuals, all of whom were fun to visit with. Here is a quick recap of the places we saw and the experiences we had:
First, we met the group up in Managua, spending one night in the city before making our way down to San Juan Del Sur. What an amazing little town. The town is set on the Pacific Ocean and offers some great beaches and views of the Pacific Ocean; a small group of us split off one day and spent a few hours at Playa Majagual swimming and baking in the sun. We spent a lot of time just relaxing here and looking out over the ocean. It felt a lot like home, minus the fog and obviously minus the cooler weather; looking out over the ocean and listening to the waves crash against the shore were the real reminders of home. We spent two days in this town and on both evenings we watched gorgeous sunsets, one from a resort, set up on the hillside overlooking town and the other from the beach itself. So, the first day was spent swimming and chilling in the sun, splitting our time between the beaches and the resort pool, where you use the facilities at a $5 per person fee. During our time in San Juan Del Sur, we were also introduced to Flor De Caña, a great Nicaraguan rum. If you see it available in your area and enjoy a nice rum, I would recommend giving it a try.
During the second day Ami and I traveled a bit north to San Jorge and visited an orphanage, NPH, where one of my mom's close friends is actively involved. Unfortunately she was visiting family in the states during the time of our visit, but nonetheless we enjoyed it. There are 41 children at the site we visited in San Jorge. All of the children in this location are ages 7 or younger. They basically live here, eat here, are educated here, grow up here. On the Ometepe island (a short boat ride away and set within Lake Nicaragua) is a location for children ages 7 to 18, where the concept is the same. They are cared for and educated until the age of 18. The children in San Jorge move to Ometepe when they turn 7. It was great experience to see and play with the children briefly, and we are looking forward to return for another visit and hopefully help out where we can. We hope to learn more about the organization, but for now this the key information we extracted with our Spanish.
The next destination was the island of Ometepe, but we had to opt for an alternative location because of a worker's strike going on with the boat conducters to Omet
epe and the bus drivers on Ometepe. So, our alternative location took us to a hotel, La Abuela´s, set on Laguna de Apoyo. We spent two nights at this place. The hotel was set on a hill overlooking the lagoon. Closer to the lagoon, about 15 feet above water, but still over land was the hotel restaurant. A deck extended out from the restaurant over the lagoon to a 15 foot high platform to relax on, and more importantly to jump into the lagoon. Some did not hesitate and jumped in as soon as we arrived. Everyone jumped at least a few times, as it was nothing challenging at all, but a good rush. The water was not salty and was a very very comfortable tempature, great for swimming.
During the free day at the lagoon, Ami and I opted to join some on a day trip to natural thermal baths. The hot springs contained pools with varying degrees in tempatures with which to relax. We also received massages and grubbed on some good BBQ! After enjoying the pools, the massages and the meal, we laid out in hammocks...some may have even got a nap in there! Afterwards we returned to more the of the same at the lagoon...jumping into and swimming in the lagoon.
The next stop was Granada, a more touristy location, up the shore of Lake Nicaragua. We spent one night in this town before spiltting off from the group and beginning our travels south into Costa Rica and Panama. The town had a great feel, but honestly we did not do anything super cool to write about.
We met up with the group in order to visit and travel with our good friend, Sonali. Along the way, we were able to get to know 18 other individuals, all of whom were fun to visit with. Here is a quick recap of the places we saw and the experiences we had:
First, we met the group up in Managua, spending one night in the city before making our way down to San Juan Del Sur. What an amazing little town. The town is set on the Pacific Ocean and offers some great beaches and views of the Pacific Ocean; a small group of us split off one day and spent a few hours at Playa Majagual swimming and baking in the sun. We spent a lot of time just relaxing here and looking out over the ocean. It felt a lot like home, minus the fog and obviously minus the cooler weather; looking out over the ocean and listening to the waves crash against the shore were the real reminders of home. We spent two days in this town and on both evenings we watched gorgeous sunsets, one from a resort, set up on the hillside overlooking town and the other from the beach itself. So, the first day was spent swimming and chilling in the sun, splitting our time between the beaches and the resort pool, where you use the facilities at a $5 per person fee. During our time in San Juan Del Sur, we were also introduced to Flor De Caña, a great Nicaraguan rum. If you see it available in your area and enjoy a nice rum, I would recommend giving it a try.
During the second day Ami and I traveled a bit north to San Jorge and visited an orphanage, NPH, where one of my mom's close friends is actively involved. Unfortunately she was visiting family in the states during the time of our visit, but nonetheless we enjoyed it. There are 41 children at the site we visited in San Jorge. All of the children in this location are ages 7 or younger. They basically live here, eat here, are educated here, grow up here. On the Ometepe island (a short boat ride away and set within Lake Nicaragua) is a location for children ages 7 to 18, where the concept is the same. They are cared for and educated until the age of 18. The children in San Jorge move to Ometepe when they turn 7. It was great experience to see and play with the children briefly, and we are looking forward to return for another visit and hopefully help out where we can. We hope to learn more about the organization, but for now this the key information we extracted with our Spanish.
The next destination was the island of Ometepe, but we had to opt for an alternative location because of a worker's strike going on with the boat conducters to Omet
epe and the bus drivers on Ometepe. So, our alternative location took us to a hotel, La Abuela´s, set on Laguna de Apoyo. We spent two nights at this place. The hotel was set on a hill overlooking the lagoon. Closer to the lagoon, about 15 feet above water, but still over land was the hotel restaurant. A deck extended out from the restaurant over the lagoon to a 15 foot high platform to relax on, and more importantly to jump into the lagoon. Some did not hesitate and jumped in as soon as we arrived. Everyone jumped at least a few times, as it was nothing challenging at all, but a good rush. The water was not salty and was a very very comfortable tempature, great for swimming.During the free day at the lagoon, Ami and I opted to join some on a day trip to natural thermal baths. The hot springs contained pools with varying degrees in tempatures with which to relax. We also received massages and grubbed on some good BBQ! After enjoying the pools, the massages and the meal, we laid out in hammocks...some may have even got a nap in there! Afterwards we returned to more the of the same at the lagoon...jumping into and swimming in the lagoon.
The next stop was Granada, a more touristy location, up the shore of Lake Nicaragua. We spent one night in this town before spiltting off from the group and beginning our travels south into Costa Rica and Panama. The town had a great feel, but honestly we did not do anything super cool to write about.
Robbed!
On April 1st, we were robbed! We arrived at the local bus station in San Jose, Costa Rica in the morning and waited like everyone else to purchase tickets to our destination. The place was buzzing, and while waiting in line, a lady picked up one of our small backpacks and walked off. We saw nothing. It all happened literally within a few seconds from us visually seeing the bag to it being gone and us not being able to see any sign of it. We knew it was a lady only because Ami saw a lady sitting nearby, but she did not get a decent look at her.
I immediately jumped out of line when Ami mentioned the bag was missing and we asked a couple of people in the area if they saw anything. They responded no. One idiot taxi driver said with a smirk he saw a lady run off with several bags. I immediately ignored him because I had a strong feeling he only wanted to drive me around the area - I felt like he would rip me off in a taxi rather than really help us out, so I just decided to run around a few of the neighboring blocks and see if I could see anything. After around 10 to 15 minutes, and seeing nothing, we resigned to the fact the bag was long gone. You realize that these guys probably have done this 100 times and have a way of concealing the act within seconds, and my efforts running down a few streets were more out of ´just in case´ rather than really expecting to see anything. Ami found a policeman relatively quickly as well and mentioned the situation. He shrugged his shoulders and said you need to watch your things.
Not knowing the area around the bus station very well, we decided it was in our best interests to get on our bus and resolve the situation when we arrived in La Fortuna. We took inventory of what was in the bag and realized nothing lost was super costly. The most important item was the camera, and primarily because we procrastinated in posting our pictures on-line, therefore the majority of our pictures were gone. But, we realized we have the few pictures we have posted on our blog, that with digital you end up with a lot of pics you never do much with and that we have been fortunate to share many of our travel experiences to date with some very cool people. Luckily we exchanged contact information, and we sent out an email asking them to share their pictures with us. This is one of those situations where it helped to have 10 digitals and 10 of the same pictures taken! Everything else in the bag was replaceable and not a huge issue. We lucked out in the big picture.
Speaking of the big picture, we talked a lot about attachment, especially attachment to things. There are emotions that seem pretty prevalent after something like this occurs. We felt annoyed and frustrated for most of the bus ride after the theft. Annoyed at ourselves for not being more careful, and therefore frustrated that we allowed it to happen. But, the situation was done, and we could only learn from it now. But, we quickly removed ourselves from attachment to the things in the bag because it would only prevent us from moving forward.
So, we are now surviving on disposable cameras until the end of this month when, lucky for us, my parents are visiting us in Central America. We will have a new camera and will be ready to capture our last two months digitally. Look out for a picture blog as well in the future!
I immediately jumped out of line when Ami mentioned the bag was missing and we asked a couple of people in the area if they saw anything. They responded no. One idiot taxi driver said with a smirk he saw a lady run off with several bags. I immediately ignored him because I had a strong feeling he only wanted to drive me around the area - I felt like he would rip me off in a taxi rather than really help us out, so I just decided to run around a few of the neighboring blocks and see if I could see anything. After around 10 to 15 minutes, and seeing nothing, we resigned to the fact the bag was long gone. You realize that these guys probably have done this 100 times and have a way of concealing the act within seconds, and my efforts running down a few streets were more out of ´just in case´ rather than really expecting to see anything. Ami found a policeman relatively quickly as well and mentioned the situation. He shrugged his shoulders and said you need to watch your things.
Not knowing the area around the bus station very well, we decided it was in our best interests to get on our bus and resolve the situation when we arrived in La Fortuna. We took inventory of what was in the bag and realized nothing lost was super costly. The most important item was the camera, and primarily because we procrastinated in posting our pictures on-line, therefore the majority of our pictures were gone. But, we realized we have the few pictures we have posted on our blog, that with digital you end up with a lot of pics you never do much with and that we have been fortunate to share many of our travel experiences to date with some very cool people. Luckily we exchanged contact information, and we sent out an email asking them to share their pictures with us. This is one of those situations where it helped to have 10 digitals and 10 of the same pictures taken! Everything else in the bag was replaceable and not a huge issue. We lucked out in the big picture.
Speaking of the big picture, we talked a lot about attachment, especially attachment to things. There are emotions that seem pretty prevalent after something like this occurs. We felt annoyed and frustrated for most of the bus ride after the theft. Annoyed at ourselves for not being more careful, and therefore frustrated that we allowed it to happen. But, the situation was done, and we could only learn from it now. But, we quickly removed ourselves from attachment to the things in the bag because it would only prevent us from moving forward.
So, we are now surviving on disposable cameras until the end of this month when, lucky for us, my parents are visiting us in Central America. We will have a new camera and will be ready to capture our last two months digitally. Look out for a picture blog as well in the future!
Latin Music mixed w/Hindi
We have heard a lot of great latin american songs during our 2 months of travels. But, to our surprise, we have also heard many latin songs mixed with hindi music. One of the more popular songs is called Flow Natural. Check it out! If anyone has heard of any others, let us know.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Guatemala to El Salvador to Honduras and finally in Nicarugua
Quick recap and more later:
We bused from Xela to Guatemala City last Saturday. Stayed in Guatemala City for one night and bused to San Salvador on Tica Bus (the first class service that takes care of your border crossings and all that). We stayed in San Salvador for two nights, making a day trip to the town of Suchitoto, small quaint town with a magnificent view of its lake. San Salvador was more developed that we expected, may have something to do with them being on the US dollar. Lots of mega malls, cinemas, fast foods. Then we local bused to San Miguel in El Salvador, by far the hottest city we´ve been to so far, but had the most intricate labyrinth-like market with everything anyone could possibly want. The next day, we local bused to the border and walked through the El Salvador border into Honduras. We caught local buses (had to switch a few times of course), we were trying to get to a town called Esteli in Nicaragua, but since it was getting dark, we stayed in the Honduras border town of San Marcos (at the Nicaragua border). We´re so glad we ended up staying too. San Marcos is a charming little town, all the folks are really friendly and it´s super safe. Most of the cities we´re in, we´re cautious if we´re walking around at night, which isn´t very often, but in San Marcos, kids were walking around, riding bicycles, people were lounging on steps outside, it was just a very laid back, chill town. This morning, we left San Marcos and walked through the Honduran border into Nicaragua. At the border we passed the Tica bus, which is what normal travellers take, but not us of course. Where´s the excitement and adventure in that? :) After a taxi ride and a bus ride, we arrived in Esteli this afternoon. This town lost a lot of revolutionaries during the Sadinista times and the mothers of the fallen heroes run a gallery and museum that we will check out tomorrow. There´s also many Spanish schools here that started for the internationalists that had come to help out after the revolution. There´s a waterfall nearby that we plan to swim in tomorrow and then we will bus over to Managua and meet Sonali and her b-school friends.
El Salvador´s Currency
For those who are interested, the currency in El Salvador is US Dollars. Here is an article from 2000 providing a brief explanation as to why the change occurred:
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/elsalvador/dollar.htm
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/elsalvador/dollar.htm
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Xela Continued
Since we last posted, we´ve had two weeks of classes. Here´s a post about the two weeks of classes and some of the activities during those weeks.
We watched Maria Llena de Gracia (Maria Full of Grace), which is an excellent movie. We got to listen to someone who works with Rigoberta Menchu speak about her campaign for presidency of Guatemala this September and George Bush´s visit.
Menchu is the first female and first indigenous person running for President here. She is a fighter for indigenous rights, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, and has an autobiography about life during the Civil War in Guatemala. ( I, Rigoberta Menchu). Many people here, however, do not like what she has done. In addition, most feel the country is not ready for a female or indigenous person to lead the country.
Something very interesting that we learned and did not know was Glamis Gold and their relation to Guatemala. Glamis Gold is a US/Canadian (mostly US) company that mines gold in Guatemala. They exploit minor Guatemalan workers, keep 99% of the profits and Guatemala sees only 1%. More reading here on Glamis Gold.
Bush was recieved in Guatemala with many protests, especially Mayan people, since he visited a site that is sacred to them. They said they would have to cleanse the site after Bush left. Overall, we didn´t really see or feel anything in Xela, most of it was in Guatemala City and the indigenous cities that he visited.
We watched a play put on by the teachers about San Simon, the diety of the Guatemalan highlands. The play was hilarious, because the teachers were drunk. San Simon is a stuffed figure draped in colorful clothes and smokes a cigar. He grants wishes when prayed to and offered liqour or cigars.
We went to one of Anita´s (our host mom) grandchild´s birthday party. His name is Danilo and he turned 8. After they sing happy birthday in Spanish, they count the number of years you are and then they yell 'Mordido, Mordido' (Morder means Bite) and push your face into the cake. This kid though, voluntarily smashed his own face into the cake. It definately took us off guard, I didn´t even get to take a picture, I was so shocked. We got him a John Cena shirt (wrestler) which we see him wearing atleast 3 times a week now.
We visited the cemetary in Xela with our teachers one day during class. Very colorful, happy, pretty place. Legend of a 17 year-old gypsy who was in love with a Guatemalan boy. The boy´s parents didn´t want them to be together and sent him off to Mexico. She killed herself at 17 and how everyone writes messages of love, hope for love, lost love, etc on her tomb.
We bathed in natural sulfur hot springs at Fuentes Georginas and did natural volcanic steam baths at Los Vahos.
We attended a futbol (soccer) game, Xelaju vs. Municipal (Xela vs Guatemala City). Xelaju won 2-0. It was so fun and educational, we picked up a lot of new vocabulary, all bad words of course. It was quite entertaining watching whole families sing songs with vulgar words together.
We found an Indian restuarant (Sabor de la India) here and took our host mom and her daughter to dinner one night. The mom we could tell really enjoyed it, the daughter not so much. The host familiy has been fabulous. They own an internet cafe, so have been letting us use internet free. We´ve done our laundry here twice, which saves us time, energy, and money. And they enjoy talking to us.
Volcan Tajumulco
This activity deserves an entry all to itself. We participated in a weekend excursion to climb Volcan Tajumulco, the HIGHEST point in Central America. FYI: The volcano is inactive before anyone thinks otherwise.
The original plan was to drive to the base of the volcano and hike up to a base camp, which is an hour hike from the peak. The hike is intense, but the slant of the volcano is not too harsh. The intense aspect is the hiking uphill nonetheless for around 3 hours wearing huge backpacks.
Here is what actually happened. We met at the school in Xela around 7 am and began the 2 hour drive to San Marcos, the location of the volcano. We stopped for breakfast and this is where plans changed. We thought the plans changed for the better. The owner of the school accompanied us on the drive to breakfast, and he met a man who offered to drive everyone on the backroads of the volcano. The backroads would take us further up the volcano, thus reducing the required time to hike to the base camp by half.
The man's truck was a compact 4x4 with a wooden surrounding approximately 4.5 feet tall, 2.5 feet above the walls to the truck bed. There were 19 of us. How was this going to work? Let me tell you. One by one, he tied our bags to the side of the truck until every bag was tied to the exterior. Then, one by one, 16 of us hopped in the back of the pickup, with 3 squeezing into the small seats in the extended cab. This ride was an hour adventure supposedly saving us 2 hours of hiking with the backpacks uphill. Didn't happen.
Well, we would not relaize this until later of course. First let me tell you about the truck ride. If we ever wanted to experience a cattle ride, here was our chance. We stood for an hour with the wind in our face, ducking from tree branches, attempting to brace ourselves over uneven gravel and potholes, and trying to avoid breathing in the dust kicked up by the truck. We had a truck of policemen drive by laughing at us, and for those standing in the rear, apologies were in order. The dust kicked up by the truck essentially covered every inch of their upper body. All bags also were covered in dust. Fortunately Ami and I were in the middle, able to avoid a majority of the dirt kicked up thanks to our human shields standing in the rear. We were also able to bounce on and off the people in front of and behind us when we hit dips in the road. When we reached high points on the volcano, the truck refused to carry 20 people any further. This resulted in several passengers bailing, and the driver saying, 'No hay problema. Muy facil.' So with perhaps 7 or 8 less bodies in the truck, we continued on to the ultimate stopping point the driver wanted to take us to. The rest walked the 10 to 15 minutes to catch up with us.
When we arrived, we were ready for the 1 hour hike, happy to avoid the 2 hour hike by taking the truck. Our excitement grew as the pick up driver said we could make it up in 45 minutes. Sweet!
With our bags in hand, freshly dusted down with nearby bush shrubs, we set out for our hike to the camp. Not only did it take 2.5 hours, it was up the steep side of the mountain. I thought to myself, our school owner must not have done this hike. We hiked up the steep grade with our backpacks. Whew!
When we arrived at base camp, we ate lunch (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and carrot bread - everyone had to bring their own food). Then we set up camp with the tents and sleeping bags the school rented for us. Our tent was so old (no spikes), we had to tie the tent to four trees that flanked the tent corners. Great, the tent is up. Yeah, but the door is broken (well the zipper to the door) - more on this later.
Anyways, at this point it is 3:30 in the afternoon, and everyone was ready to complete the hike to the top. Again, one hour, give or take, from the camp. So, we continued our hike up and reached the top. Vale la pena! (It is worth it!) When we reached the top, all the struggles and experiences to reach the top were well worth it. We ascended above many clouds (but remained in the thick of several other clouds) and rocks and found ourselves at the highest point in Central America! There was a plaque which indicated 'Mas Alto' or Highest. After oohing and aahing at the spectacular views that presented themselves as clouds came and went, we settle in for a gorgeous sunset. Because clouds were constantly flowing over the volcano, views of the sunset came and went. But, when the clouds were thin, the reflections and colors created were a unique site. Some clouds were so thick, not only did the views and the setting sun disappear, fellow hikers only 20 feet away, disappeared. Fortunately the clouds moved rapidly, otherwise we would have been in the thick of clouds with visibility limited to 10 feet.
After the sunset, we made our way back to camp and we were welcomed by a campfire fellow hikers started. We grubbed on....peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches and carrot bread, PLUS smores! We basically sat around the camp fire and got to know some of our classmates better. The night was clear and crisp by nightfall and we enjoyed the clearest sky and the most stars I have ever seen.
About 100 feet from our campsite, you could see out over San Marcos. Our campsite was above the layer of clouds settled over the town, so we saw city lights between the layer of clouds. Also, in the far distance we saw lightening light up the sky and the lightening was below us as well.
We settled in for the night after the campfire and taking in views from the campsite. So, if you remember earlier within this post, I mentioned the tent door was broken, so using our resources, we duck-taped the door shut once everyone was settled in the tent and ready for bed. We also had layered up with clothes because the tempature was going to be freezing. I don't think anyone slept more than 2 hours because it was cold and it was tough getting comfortable. A few students slept outside and woke up with ice on their sleeping bags.
Well, the night passed and we woke up at 6 am in order to watch the sun rise. Afterwards we packed up the tent and our belongings and trekked down the moderatley sloped side of the volcano (the side we were supposed to hike up as well). A fellow student inspired us pick up as much trash as we could during our hike down, but overall it was discouraging to see so much trash amongst the otherwise beatufiul views. The hike down took around 2 to 2.5 hours and we caught a microbus bus to San Marcos and a chicken bus back to Xela.
Needless to say we were exhausted and passed out as soon as we returned home, but after showers of course!
Friday, March 16, 2007
Desfile Bufo - Huelga de Dolores
Today, I asked Jeft about this tradition they have here called Huelga de Dolores (Strike of Pain). The tradition has been going on for over 100 years. It is all carried out by university students at the public university of San Carlos, which has a big campus in Xela and in Guatemala. Two to three weeks before the Friday of Semana Santa/Holy Week (first week of April), the students, dressed in robes and covered with masks similar to KKK, take to the streets and visit ALL stores, establishments, banks, schools, restaurants, etc to collect money. They decide the amount and you need to pay them then and there. If you decide not to, they write your name down and you get visited during the night of Friday of Semana Santa. Your house gets graffitied with an acidic substance that is very difficult to remove. The money they collect is said to go to charitable causes, but obvioulsy people have doubts. They wear those costumes to conceal themselves but as well to make a mockery of the church people who wear those outfits during the week as well for all the processions. The Friday of Holy Week, the students of San Carlos have a parade, called Desfile Bufo (Parade of Mockery) mocking the local government, Bush, etc. It´s very interactive, and although they don´t bother foreigners, Guatemalans like to watch but try to stay out of their way, because they´ll be made to do something silly or else pay.
I personally think the parade and all would be great entertainment, but I don´t know about collecting these ¨taxes¨ and then defiling establishments if they choose not to pay. Sounds horrible. The teachers at the university are also scared of these kids and if they come into their classrooms during class and ask the teacher to leave, the teachers quietly do so. Weird tradition.
I don´t know these folks, but they have some good pictures and descriptions regarding the tradition.
La Policia
My teacher, Jeft, told me some stories of police corruption. It sounds very similar to India, if you have money, you can get yourself out of many situations. He was at an after-party once (which are very illegal) and the cops busted in. Luckily he was in a line against the wall with foreigners, who do not have to carry their ID. All Guatemalans must carry thir ID cards at all times. They asked him for his ID and he started speaking in English pretending he didn´t understand. The cop didn´t believe him and called over the chief. If you were a Guatemalan and didn´t have your ID card on you, you were going to prison that night. The chief came over, talked to him for a while, the chief in Spanish, he in English and fake broken Spanish. The chief patted him on the shoulder and said ¨good acting¨ and let him go, but threatened that if he ever saw him in Xela and found out he was Guatemalan, there´d be big trouble.
Couple of weeks later, he ran into the chief when at the gas station with his mom. Luckily, probably because his mom was there, he let him go. Two of his friends were not so lucky that night. They didn´t have their IDs on them and went to prison for the night. Here´s the prison story. You´re asked what gang you belong to, there are two big ones here. If you say neither, you get beat up by both, so it´s better you pick one and you get sent into a room with members from the other gang, who beat you up pretty bad. Then, you´re made to take off all your clothes and stand in a small confined space all night with no food and people pissing on you, splashing ice cold water on you, etc.
Once, a neighbor of his was asked to pay 2,000 Quetzals for something minor. He didn´t have it, so they took him to prison. He was allowed to make a phone call for the money, but his parents didn´t have it, so he had to spend two nights in prison, got beat up and still had to pay to get out. I don´t remember what he did, but it was practically nothing, they just wanted the money. Another teacher at the school was driving with a friend (they had both been drinking) and they were pulled over by a cop. Instead of taking them in because they were obviously drunk, he asked for money. They didn´t have money, but the girl gave him her watch and her rings and the her friend said he had his bank card and could withdraw some, so the cop said fine and walked with him to the bank. That is the only reason Jeft has a credit card, so that if he is ever in a position where cops are harassing him and asking for money, he can get it from a bank and avoid prison.
Couple of weeks later, he ran into the chief when at the gas station with his mom. Luckily, probably because his mom was there, he let him go. Two of his friends were not so lucky that night. They didn´t have their IDs on them and went to prison for the night. Here´s the prison story. You´re asked what gang you belong to, there are two big ones here. If you say neither, you get beat up by both, so it´s better you pick one and you get sent into a room with members from the other gang, who beat you up pretty bad. Then, you´re made to take off all your clothes and stand in a small confined space all night with no food and people pissing on you, splashing ice cold water on you, etc.
Once, a neighbor of his was asked to pay 2,000 Quetzals for something minor. He didn´t have it, so they took him to prison. He was allowed to make a phone call for the money, but his parents didn´t have it, so he had to spend two nights in prison, got beat up and still had to pay to get out. I don´t remember what he did, but it was practically nothing, they just wanted the money. Another teacher at the school was driving with a friend (they had both been drinking) and they were pulled over by a cop. Instead of taking them in because they were obviously drunk, he asked for money. They didn´t have money, but the girl gave him her watch and her rings and the her friend said he had his bank card and could withdraw some, so the cop said fine and walked with him to the bank. That is the only reason Jeft has a credit card, so that if he is ever in a position where cops are harassing him and asking for money, he can get it from a bank and avoid prison.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Update
Sorry we´ve been behind on our blog. We´ll update soon with some interesting feild trips, Bush´s visit, and our hike to the highest point in Central America. We´ve just started our third week of classes in Xela. Hope everyone is doing well!
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Xela
We arrived in Xela (Mayan name for the town Quetzaltenango) on Friday evening after two wonderful nights at the Marriott. We thought we´d splurge for a first class bus ($2 more than the chicken bus) since it was a 5 hour ride and this way we wouldn´t have to change buses. We stayed in hostals for the first two nights and walked around a lot over the weekend. Xela has 4 major markets, we visited 2 of them on Saturday. One of them reminded me a lot of the markets in India (like in Santa Cruz West) becuase they´re selling fruits and veggies in stalls and on the ground, as well as clothes, plates, socks, toothpaste and all sorts of stuff. At the other market, we tried a drink, called Ponche, that was hot water with pieces of fruit and a little liquor, not great, but not bad.Xela is the 2nd largest city in Guatemala, but it is relatively easy to walk around. (The only major problem being the pollution! Black clouds going into nostrils has got to be bad news.) We started classes at ICA on Monday. Both our teachers are young, still in university, a lot different from the school in Antigua. So far, we are enjoying these teacher and the teaching style more.
We are staying with an awesome family, super friendly and super talkative, which is great for practicing our Spanish. Oh ya, and it helps that they think we´re good, gives us a boost. We´re living with a mother and daughter. Her other 3 children are married and live close by so they come around often with the kids as well. The kids are all adorable, very talkative and so funny! His eyes are cross-eyed on purpose in the picture.
On Sunday, the whole family gets together. That was our first day there and they all made us feel so welcome. The food is good, more basic than in Antigua - huevos, frijoles, tortillas, plantains, fresh juices everyday as well as pastas and soups. We even tried Pepian - a traditional or typical meal from Guatemala. It is based on recado, a tomato, chillies and spices sauce, and some vegetables like potatoes and güisquil (chayote is the Mexican name and most people recognize by this name) along with either beef or chicken, but you can also eat it without meat. We even sit around the table for a while after lunch and dinner to just chat.Yesterday, we went to a nearby town called Salcaja. It is famous for 3 things, 1. its traditional fabric. We saw the intricate process necessary to make the fabric, 2. for its ¨Caldo de frutas¨ which is a liquor made there (similar to sangria but the fruit is fermented for 4 months so it´s really strong) and 3. for the oldest church in Central America which is now only open for special occassions.
More to come on Xela as our visit continues.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Chicken Buses
What appears to be the most popular method of transportation in Guatemala is the Chicken Bus. They are old school buses from the states, probably sent down after they didn´t pass the emission standards anymore. They let out huge clouds of exhaust as they go by!
The drivers are also somewhat reckless. They turn corners like they are driving a sports car. Which means you can´t really ever get comfortable. Some of the drivers drive as if they are playing Mario Kart. We were sitting in the back seats of one Chicken Bus, going a cool 70 MPH on the winding roads of Guatemala and another Chicken Bus is tailgating us, honking it´s horn trying to pass us.
The seats are also uncomfortable, but are even less comfortable for someone 5´9¨or taller. I have had a tough time sitting straight for too long. And, because the buses are old, Ami and I watched a seat collapse two rows in front of us, while the two passengers sitting on the bench held on for dear life since seats are hard to come by once the bus fills up. When the bus does fill up, people just squeeze themselves in as a third person in the row. And when that fills up, someone else will sit in the gap between the two benches in the same row.
Having said all of the above, the chicken bus system is very efficient. We have transferred a number of times, and everyone knows which bag belongs to whom. Oh yeah, bigger bags are tied to the roof. So a local will climb the rear ladder and pass your bag down to you and simultaneously tell you where to go to catch your next bus. And when you turn around, there is usually a bus headed where you need to go. So, you just hop onto the next bus.
It's a backpacker's way to travel!
The drivers are also somewhat reckless. They turn corners like they are driving a sports car. Which means you can´t really ever get comfortable. Some of the drivers drive as if they are playing Mario Kart. We were sitting in the back seats of one Chicken Bus, going a cool 70 MPH on the winding roads of Guatemala and another Chicken Bus is tailgating us, honking it´s horn trying to pass us.
The seats are also uncomfortable, but are even less comfortable for someone 5´9¨or taller. I have had a tough time sitting straight for too long. And, because the buses are old, Ami and I watched a seat collapse two rows in front of us, while the two passengers sitting on the bench held on for dear life since seats are hard to come by once the bus fills up. When the bus does fill up, people just squeeze themselves in as a third person in the row. And when that fills up, someone else will sit in the gap between the two benches in the same row.
Having said all of the above, the chicken bus system is very efficient. We have transferred a number of times, and everyone knows which bag belongs to whom. Oh yeah, bigger bags are tied to the roof. So a local will climb the rear ladder and pass your bag down to you and simultaneously tell you where to go to catch your next bus. And when you turn around, there is usually a bus headed where you need to go. So, you just hop onto the next bus.
It's a backpacker's way to travel!
Ricky Martin
We went to Guatemala City from Panajachel to meet Reshma (childhood and family friend) and see her rock the show with Ricky Martin! We stayed at the Marriott with Reshma and pampered ourselves in the pool, jacuzzi, and eucalyptus steam room...fantastic!The whole experience was first class all the way. Reshma is one of eight dancers in the show, we met a bunch of the dancers and band members, all really cool people. (We didn´t meet Ricky before anyone asks. It wasn´t important).
The concert was Thursday night at the Estadio Mateo Flores. When we arrived at the stadium, and we saw a HUGE V.I.P. sign. We looked at the sign, looked at our tckets, looked at each other and said, ´That´s us!´ We kept showing our tickets to the ushers and they kept pointing forward to the next usher. We were in virtually the front row. We met Reshma before the show started and she got us into the V.I.P. party (to the right of the stage). We ate sushi and drank good Guatemalan rum (18 year old and 12 year old Ron Butron) for 2 hours before the concert started.The concert was a lot of fun. Ricky Martin is a fantastic entertainer, making up his dance moves as he goes along. Although I have to say, anytime Reshma was on stage, I was watching her.
Most of songs he sang were in Spanish and during the two songs in English, interestingly the crowd was quiet. He spoke in Spanish between songs, which was beautiful, although we didn´t understand a lot. We also got the exit cue from Reshma to beat the crowds. As the whole crowd shouted ¨Otra, Otra! (Encore)¨, we ran (literally because it was so fun to run at that point for some reason) out the stadium to catch a taxi. We got back a little before the dancers and band folks and hung out with some of them downstairs for a bit before going to bed (and waking up to another morning in the jacuzzi and eucalyptus steam room!)MuJER
We met two amazing girls, Ana and Tania, in Guatemala City who started an organization called MuJER. They were introduced to us through a friend that met them at Manav Sadhna in India where they were all volunteering.Sidenote - We took the bus from the Marriott to meet them. I (tried) to tell the bus driver to let us know when we got to Palacio Nacional (National Palace) where we were meeting them. We got off the bus when he told us to, walked the two blocks he told us to and found ourselves in front of the Policia Nacional (National Police) building. Umm..not exactly where we wanted to go, but we got lucky and the Palace was within walking distance. Gotta practice pronunciation!
Ana and Tania studied abroad in India and volunteered once a week at Manav Sadhna. After they graduated college, they wanted to do something meaningful. They had heard some news about these women in Guatemala on NPR and decided to come down and see if they could do something. So for two years, they have been working with women of ¨La Linea¨(the railrood tracks) in Guatemala City. The women there are marginalized sex workers, they charge among the lowest rates in Guatemala. Ana and Tania are teaching a group of 25-30 of these women how to read and write so they can empower themselves. Their motive is not to get these women out of their line of work, becuase for many of them it is their means of survival, but to educate, empower, and increase their self-esteem. If they do get out of the work, it is a bonus. They educated us on the grotesque murders of over 2,800 women in Guatemala since 2001. None of these stories make the news. They are organizing a conference on the Guatemalan Femicide in Los Angeles in March.
They were also nice enough to show us around a little. We took a tour of the National Palace. We saw the room where President Bush will be sitting with other delegates when he comes to visit Guatemala on March 10th. We walked around the central market, which is a maze of shops selling textiles, paintings, hammocks, clothes, etc., as well as fruits, veggies, spices, all types of food. Extremely colorful. Before we parted, they wanted to show us ¨La Linea¨. It is comprised of three blocks along the railroad tracks and they work with just one block (since it is only the two of them, they don´t have the resources to meet all of the women). We walked by one of the other blocks, so the women they work with would not feel like they were being exploited. It was a very unexpected site for us. Basically, it´s continuous one-story buildings on both sides of the tracks with open doors at every 5-6 meters that lead into rooms which these women work and sometimes live in.
We wish Ana and Tania all the best in their work. They are very inspiring and spirited young women.
Lago de Atitlan
After the Earth Lodge, we took the chicken buses to Panajachal, the main city in Lago de Atitlan (Lake). Panajachel reminds me a little of Goa. The main areas being touristy, but fun with shops selling clothes, jewelery, and other trinkets, cute restuarants, hotels and hostals and then at the end of it all is a beautiful body of water, in this case, a lake that was formed because of a collapsed volcano. The lake is absolutely gorgeous, turquoise blue waters with 3 volcanos surrounding it.We took a small boat to another city on the lake, called San Marcos. San Marcos is a small lakeside town known for yoga, meditation, reiki, and massages. San Pedro is another town nearby known for its drugs and parties, but we´ve heard they have a pretty good Spanish school there. We found a really nice hostal in San Marcos and stayed there for two nights. We´re thinking about going back to do a massage course, in case you don´t know, I´ve been told I´m not very good at massages (I think my hands just aren´t strong enough) but I´m hoping they´ll have some techniques to show me.
We really just read, studied, and relaxed in San Marcos. Took in the beautiful views, put our feet in the water (a little too cold to swim in, but definitely next time), exercised and semi-meditated in the beautiful gardens in the mornings, and explored the small town and the restaurants in the evenings. It was a good relaxing couple of days before we thought it was going to get hectic...
Earth Lodge
The afternoon that we hiked the volcano, we went to the Earth Lodge for one night. The Earth Lodge is a quiet, peaceful, eco-friendly (you have to pay 5 Q for a hot shower) lodge outside of Antigua. It's about a 20 minute ride from Antigua, which we got to do in true Guatemalan style - in the back of an open pick-up truck. And you have to stand the whole time, because I think if you sit, your butt would have bruises. After the adventurous drive up the mountain, we had to walk down on a pathway further into the mountain where Earth Lodge is. (It was a very difficult hike back up to the road from Earth Lodge with our backpacks and at the high altitude - Phew!). They have a beautiful treehouse, but it was taken that night, so we stayed in the dorm-type cabin. The views are spectacular from this place! The cities seems so far away and the volcanos just make for gorgeous scenery. 
We hung out in hammocks, read and studied a little, chilled out, watched Da Vinci Code, ate dinner with the owners and the other visitors. The owners are from the Bay Area and Canada and just wanted a change in lifestyle. The only complaint is the spiders, we saw two big ones, that we would have been just fine not seeing.Volcan Pacaya
Last Sunday, we climbed up an active volcano. Three of the 33 volcanos in Guatemala are active. We left at 6am and got back around 1pm. The hike wasn't so bad, but that's probably because we had some kids with us and were taking lots of breaks
, a blessing since we were at such high altitude. Our guide told us that there were red hot rocks falling from the mountain that day, so we wouldn't be able to go all the way to the crater. It's really interesting, the mountain is lush and green and beautiful until you get closer to the top of the volcano where it's all been burned and is black rock and ash. The most beautiful part for me was the stark contrast between the green and black of the mountain. We did see the black rocks falling with lots of red sparks, we saw a couple of areas that were pure red with lava, and we were able to see lava between the rocks that we were actually climbing and walking on. 
It got really hot and humid as we got into the black ash area of the mountain. The guidebooks tell you many stories of robberies in the area, but it seems to be pretty safe. Could be another story at night.Saturday, February 17, 2007
Common Hope
We visited an NGO called Common Hope on Thursday afternoon. As part of the tour we visited San Pedro, one of the 14 towns. We visited a Common Hope school, a participating family's home, and the clinic and office of Common Hope. The organization just celebrated its 20th anniversary. It was started by a couple from Minnesota. They work with poor children and families in 14 different pueblos and towns surrounding Antigua in the fields of education, health care, and housing. They have certain requirements that classify a family as being "poor". Primary and secondary education in Guatemala is "free", but some families cannot even afford the uniforms and books that are required, so Common Hope pays for those. They also build homes for people and use a sweat-equity form of payment. A typical home would be paid off after about 200 or so hours of work for the organization. Since many of these people do not own the land under them, the homes are constructed to be easily mobile. They also have a clinic where families that are part of the program can be treated for a very small cost. They get their funds from large donations and a child sponsorship program.
Week 1 of Spanish
Hola! 
A quick additional fact: The majority of towns and cities in Guatemala have a Central Park serving as the center of town. The Church is always on the east side of the Park.
We began our Spanish classes on Monday. We had 4 hours of class Monday thru Friday, from 8am to 12pm daily. In addition to the time in class, we probably studied atleast a few hours each day. We learned a lot of verbs, a lot of basic conversation tools, some verb tenses, and lots of vocabulary. Our teachers, Carmen and Olga were both really friendly, fun women with lots of interesting stories to share. The majority of the teachers only speak Spanish, and your classes are one on one. Therefore, you have no choice but to speak Spanish. It was the first week of classes, so the conversations were semi basic. To give you an example, I (Amir) was able to describe the Golden Temple to my teacher, Carmen. She was very appreciative of the knowledge, as she did not know anything about India. I (Ami) had a really funny moment with Olga. She was teaching me a word, hay, and she was saying what I swear sounded like "Hay, terir, terrar"-ok, something like that. So I asked her to repeat it probably 3 times and I tried to say it back to her to understand what she meant. All of a sudden, she started laughing hysterically and pulled out a piece of paper to write, "Hay - There is. There are." We had a good laugh over that. Overall, the instruction approach was thorough, but not overwhelming.
Several students, mostly from the US, come to Antigua to study Spanish. We were able to meet several fellow students. Some had been studying for several weeks straight and were pretty good. A few of them had no background in Spanish, so we were impressed and excited about our potential to learn during the course of our travels and classes.
We also learned our first salsa moves on Wednesday. The school organized for salsa lessons to be provided, so a salsa instructor came and taught us the basics. We practiced the moves for an hour and a half! It was really fun, but it will be so much fun once we're good at it! But we have to start somewhere!
We hiked up to la Cruz, the Cross, with our friends at another school. The views of Antigua and Volcano Agua were beautiful. In years past, they had a lot of robberies against foreigners in that area, so since then, they have police up there all the time, and haven't had any problems since. We were also escorted by the town's tourist police.
As for accomodations, we stayed with a family for the entire week, which was great. The madre de la casa was Dona Dora, a cute, elderly lady who made us feel right at home. She would laugh with us at our mistakes, but was patient and fun to talk to. We ate all our meals there for the week - breakfast at 7 am, lunch at 12:15 and dinner at 6 pm. Some mornings we would have just fruit, which although may be good for you, is not filling on its own. Lunch and Dinner was traditional home cooked Guatemalan food. The portions were healthy (more on that later), and overall, the comida was great. It also was great to be able to unpack for a while and settle in.My favorite food story with the host family was with meal portions. Trust me, she knew who could eat! One evening she made sandwiches...sounds plain, but they were really good. She had just finished making them as 4 of us, including Ami and myself, walked into the dining room. She was bringing the plates for Ami and another student into the dining room while I was walking towards the kitchen to wash my hands. As she was giving Ami and our housemate their plates (one sandwich per plate), I saw a plate with two sandwiches. I smiled ear to ear and grabbed the plate and walked with it back into the dining room. She pointed at me and said "Si". I knew it was for me and said "Muchas Gracias", still maintaining the big smile. Everyone shared a laugh. I was just happy to have enough food. Thank you Senora!
Pictures to come soon with the above text. Before having a picture taken, they yell out Whisky! My kind of country. Sounds much better than cheese.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Antigua
As you can probably tell, we have some down time on our hands, thus two entries in one day! Don´t worry, the pace will slow. We thought we would describe some of the local Antigua scene. Antigua is very touristy. Many foreigners come here to study Spanish, thus a whole scene has developed that caters to people like ourselves. There are many restaurants, bars and great places to shop. But, many things are extremely affordable when compared to the states.
The Guatemalan currency is called the Quetzal (Q). The conversion is approximately 7.6 Q to $1 U.S. To give you an idea of cost, our average nightly stay has been about 90Q, roughly $11-$12, for both of us. Our average dinner has been around 60Q, or $8, for both. Keep in mind we are being budget conscious, but nothing crazy, so we could find cheaper. There have recently been a run on the banks, so cash was hard to come by. Since we have arrived we have not had any problem withdrawing cash. And, most places, well actually no places have taken credit cards yet.
As for the food, tostadas and tortillas are a local delicacy. If you purchase from street vendors, it costs 6-9Q for one. They are extremely filling and come with all the trimmings (cheese baked within the tortilla, salsa, guacamole, beans, lettuce, onions) and they are cooked fresh in front of you. You can also pick up 3 tacos (with all the trimmings) for 10Q. Here is a sample of what we ate. The drink is a hot drink made of corn.
The town of Antigua is pretty small, mostly centered around 6 streets, running north to south, and 6 avenues, running east to west. All the streets are cobblestone. There are 3 volcanoes near the town, with one still active.
The Guatemalan currency is called the Quetzal (Q). The conversion is approximately 7.6 Q to $1 U.S. To give you an idea of cost, our average nightly stay has been about 90Q, roughly $11-$12, for both of us. Our average dinner has been around 60Q, or $8, for both. Keep in mind we are being budget conscious, but nothing crazy, so we could find cheaper. There have recently been a run on the banks, so cash was hard to come by. Since we have arrived we have not had any problem withdrawing cash. And, most places, well actually no places have taken credit cards yet.
As for the food, tostadas and tortillas are a local delicacy. If you purchase from street vendors, it costs 6-9Q for one. They are extremely filling and come with all the trimmings (cheese baked within the tortilla, salsa, guacamole, beans, lettuce, onions) and they are cooked fresh in front of you. You can also pick up 3 tacos (with all the trimmings) for 10Q. Here is a sample of what we ate. The drink is a hot drink made of corn.
The town of Antigua is pretty small, mostly centered around 6 streets, running north to south, and 6 avenues, running east to west. All the streets are cobblestone. There are 3 volcanoes near the town, with one still active.Transportaton within the town. You can get around very easily on foot and YUP, they have rickshaws! All the streets in Antigua are cobblestoned. Very cute and picturesque, but not quite so fun to walk on.
The locals are very nice. The indigenous Mayans, who live in villages set in the mountains, come down often to sell goods at the markets. No one speaks English, so it has been a great way to pick up some Spanish preceding our classes. The culture is very colorful and cheerful.
The locals are very nice. The indigenous Mayans, who live in villages set in the mountains, come down often to sell goods at the markets. No one speaks English, so it has been a great way to pick up some Spanish preceding our classes. The culture is very colorful and cheerful.
Fireworks, Hostal Stay & Spanish Classes
During our first day exploring Antigua, we met this very sweet lady, Nancy, while we were wandering the streets. Let me be clear on how we met her. We looked like lost tourists trying to find our way and this lady approached us and said, ´Hablas Ingles.´My response was a big ´Si.´She answered the many questions we threw at her and invited us over to her apartment. She is living in Antigua for a total of 2 plus months, just focusing on improving her Spanish and enjoying life. Well, among the numerous topics we discussed, she warned us of one Guatemalan tradition. Guatemalans celebrate their birthdays at the exact time of birth and with FIREWORKS! So, she warned us not to be surprised when fireworks went off at numerous times of the night. Let´s just say fireworks went off non-stop ALL evening, but luckily we were exhausted from our first day of travel and were able to fall asleep. I imagine the fireworks went on all night.
The next night we decided to stay in a hostal for one night. Again, while w
andering the streets, we were referred to this place called El Gato Negro (The Black Cat). We were still somewhat exhausted from the travels and adjusting to sleeping in lumpy beds, so we spent minimal time searching for the next night´s resting spot. The place had great breakfast included, as well as free internet, so we were sold. Our room was a dorm like setting, as we shared the room with 4 others. The hostal was all Gringos. We thought since our Spanish was still basic, it would be good to talk to other travelers and get some input on things to do, places to go, etc.
During our second day exploring the city, we decided on a Spanish school, Francisco Marroquin. The link provides an excellent description of the school and the surrounding setting where we will be studying. We will be moving in with our host family on Sunday and staying with them for the entire week we are studying.
The next night we decided to stay in a hostal for one night. Again, while w
andering the streets, we were referred to this place called El Gato Negro (The Black Cat). We were still somewhat exhausted from the travels and adjusting to sleeping in lumpy beds, so we spent minimal time searching for the next night´s resting spot. The place had great breakfast included, as well as free internet, so we were sold. Our room was a dorm like setting, as we shared the room with 4 others. The hostal was all Gringos. We thought since our Spanish was still basic, it would be good to talk to other travelers and get some input on things to do, places to go, etc.During our second day exploring the city, we decided on a Spanish school, Francisco Marroquin. The link provides an excellent description of the school and the surrounding setting where we will be studying. We will be moving in with our host family on Sunday and staying with them for the entire week we are studying.
Thursday, February 8, 2007
We're Here!
So after two delayed flights, riding the local bus in Guatemala City, walking with our heavy backpacks, taxing to the bus terminal, and riding the camioneta to Antigua, we're finally here! Exhausted, but enjoying every minute. We've checked out a handful of Spanish schools and will decide where to start studying on Monday.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
