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

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!

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.

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!