a day in the life

yesterday morning i woke up early and headed up to the indigenous market. its so amazing to watch i wish that i were invisible and that my eyes were cameras. it is mostly women there. women and girls selling chiles, papayas, intricately embroidered fabric, cabbage, star fruit, avocados, braisseres! and then the shoppers also dressed in full traditional garb with babies slung around their backs and aprons full of what they are purchasing, haggling with merchants, laughing and competing for the best prices. ahh the fruits and veggies are so good here too, probably because of the nutritious volcanic soil!

i buy oats, pineapple, and bananas for a sum price of less than 1.50 u.s. and headed home to make it at our guesthouse´s community kitchen. red and i eat and then head for san pedros yummiest coffee-internet place. ahh being in coffee country is amazing in the mornings and the mochas and hot chocolates are made from local mayan made deliciously real chocolate too.

when we come back to our room we get a minute to chat in broken spanish to our landlady´s 14 yr old daughter, donna. i get roped into helping her with english homework which is actually pretty fun.

for lunch we buy fresh baked carrot cake and donuts from the mayan lady who walks and sells it, carrying the basket on her head. we wrap it up and head to the dock to rent a kayak for $1 an hour.

the guy there assures us that there will be no wind on our trip and that we can get to the volcanic black sand beach in 35 minutes. he is wrong about both! its so windy that it takes us quite a bit longer and we also get dumped from the waves, but man was that secluded little beach ever pretty. i have only seen black sand like that in hawaii.

we are pretty chilly when we get back and are complaining about the lack of hot showers in central america when i remembered the solar hot tubs! a local guy has a solar water heater and has made several little cement tubs in his bamboo garden that he fills in with water so hot you cant even get in at first. and then for $3 a person you can stay for a couple hours or until its cool.

so we meet up with a new friend for some delish phad thai and regain our warmth and soak our kayaking muscles under the full moon glow for the rest of the evening.

this place is great!

the home of mayan cosmology

how many times have i said that a place is one of our all time favorites? probably a lot, but this time i really mean it!

the lago de atitlan is in the guatemalen highlands. it is a lake in the crater of a former volcano that is now ten miles wide and one mile deep! what? i cant even begin to fathom what that eruption was like that created this massive hole! oh my word though, it is so beautiful here! the landscape is really dramatic. the entire lake is enclosed by magnificent mountains and three more volcanoes! it is quite a trek to get down here because you need to weave up and around those mountains to get access to this place.

we are in san pedro which is one of a handful of villages that are located on the lake. this village has changed quite a bit in the last ten years with incoming travelers from all around the world who fall in love and end up staying here. there is still quite a strong indigenous presence with lots of colorfully dressed men, women and children meandering the labrynth of paths that make up this town. the mayans that live here have no history or ever coming to this place. they believe that the lago de atitlan is the birthplace of mayan cosmology. most of their folktales take place right in these very mountains and beaches that i can literally see from this spot at my outdoor internet cafe!

i love watching the women with how they carry their most heavy loads atop their heads as well as carrying a baby or two in their arms as they hike up a hill. and the boys and men with their strap that loops around their forehead allowing them to haul huge loads like 100 lbs of firewood or we even saw one really old man who was carrying a full size wooden bench by the strap on his head!

the kids are freaking adorable in the traditional dress as well. everyone is very friendly, too. it feels like we are welcome. in fact one of our very favorite people here is this old guy up the street from us. by old, i mean he´s at least 200 yrs old! every morning if you walk up the cobblestone street there is this little square hole in an old cement wall where this guy hangs out (literally) with his traditional white shirt and embroidered hat and gives his morning salute to every passerby!! although, dont try to go past ¨buenos dias¨with him because that is the full extent of his spanish ability. many older folks round here speak only mayan.

unfortunately the mayans are really uncomfortable having their pictures taken so i am for the most part unable to share with my friends and family one of the most beautiful and touching aspect of traveling in central america. if you are curious i HIGHLY recommend going to google or yahoo images and typing in mayan women, take a look at lake atitlan too!

the expat vibe here is really chilled out and there is an amazing array of funky little bars (most whom have free documentaries and bonfires nightly)and restaurants all down windy dirt paths lined with flowers and coffee and avocado trees. you can have a delicious choice of international foods from fresh baked tortillas (by our neighbor an old mayan woman), phad thai, samosas, falafel, carrot juice, limeade and then there are lots of women who walk around selling fresh baked carrot bread and brownies too!

and did i mention that we pay $7 a night for our room with a private bathroom?

we may stay here.

roasting marshmellows on molten lava

the day we climbed the volcano pacaya was definitely one to remember. first we drove for an hour outside of pacaya to arrive mid-way up the volcano. at the bottom some really sweet faced kids were competing to sell walking sticks which they assured you were Necessarrrrrriio! (necessary) although kids working is usually hard to see, the selling of walking sticks was actually more like a lemonade stand. the kids were giggling a lot and joking around with us!

the hike up took an hour and a half through forest up to where the sand path turned into volcanic rock. a path we followed for the last section was from a volcanic eruption only a year or two ago which got you thinking.... why are we here?

the closer we got, the freakier the path (or lack there of) soon we were just balancing our steps on top of volcanic rocks which were piled on other volcanic rocks all shakey-like. and oh yes, it got even more exciting when you realized that most of the time the rocks that were formally on top of other rocks were simply on top of real live hell´s oven hot molten lava! i am one of the more clumsy people around and it was more than unnerving for me to choose steps as we got up to the lava because in other places i may have been able to steady myself with my hands on the ground but here you didnt know which rocks might burn your hand off! people´s shoes were literally melting to the rocks!

the lava was awesome, red got a lot closer than me. it was hard to get a good look though because of the extreme heat just radiating all around you up there. it was pretty thrilling though, knowing that there is absolutely no reason that the thing wouldn´t blow up at any time! i think i got my life´s fill of lava that day.

Antigua

antigua was neat-- it was a bit more touristy than i expected. a lot more tourists and less travelers and mostly i dont care except that the prices were higher for room and board. its a beautiful little place though, most well known for its quaint cobblestone streets where the houses are very unique and tons of different colors and also the huge volcanoes that surround it are overwhelming the horizon in a magnificent way.

also there are centuries old churches all around the city, some of which are comprabable to mayan ruins because of an earthquake that turned many into rubble.

red and i got sick, but ooh lucky us we got to watch bad movies in english from the comfort of our bed. key words are sick and english. especially seeing how it seems like the only movies we ever catch in the rare event that we have a room with a tv are Home Alone 2 and Jurassic Park 3.... what?

spelunking and sacred pools

yet another magical day was spent in lanquin last week. we departed from our backpackers paradise El Retiro--which consisted of a cabin on a hill side facing nothing but gorgeous mountains and a river (which we tubed down!!!yay!).

we havent done a lot of tours but this was said to be worth it and everyone we had met at El Retiro were really great so we did. the group was about 10 people and as we got to the cave we were all given a candle which was immediately needed! i have been in a few caves before, but nothing like this! it was small and narrow with all kinds of stalagtites hanging and you were always standing in water--sometimes up to your neck--sometimes swimming in it!! which was tricky with the candle. the guide said that the formations were millions of years old, formed from when this part of the country which is quite inland was covered in ocean! it was really mystical looking with the line of candle flames as we were lead up little mounds and around corners and there were even waterfalls inside this little narrow cave that people could choose to climb up and jump down! not me, oh no. the steep and slippery ladders that we used to scale the rocks into little caves were quite enough to challenge me!

the scariest part of all though was at the end. i noticed that the cave was getting smaller and smaller and that since we were towards the end of the line i noticed we were waiting for people to take turns doing something. doing what? welll... at the end of the narrow section was a hole in the cave which was half filled with a little waterfall and then some air. i looked at jose the guide and said, YOU WANT ME TO DO WHAT?! he wanted me to put my hands where my feet were and dangle at the edge of the hole and drop down---into what, how deep, which direction, he didnt say.

as for me, i think that i held on too long and only realized it cause i was getting pummeled by the waterfall so i let go and was taken down with the water and submerged and came up to...what? darkness? where is everyone? thankfully i realized i was turned around and the other group peeps were up on a ledge nearby all wild eyed and a mix between freaked out and excited!

all in all it was a really good time. after we got out of the pools we had some lunch at a little tienda. nachos consisting of doritos with cheese wiz on it? and then headed over to seumuc champey. spectacular pools of water where a big river is split with half going over a natural limestone bridge forming huge and crystal clear pools and the other half down into a cave below it! truly spectacular!

since i still dont have my pix up from this month take a look at semuc champey here if you want! just open a new window and cut and paste

http://www.jaunted.com/files/3/semuc_champey.jpg

aMiGos NueVOs

some cool people that we met recently include a girl whose job was teaching for 5 months a year all over the world on a sail boat for "semester at sea", an older american ouple backpacking in guatemala to find a place to retire, an austrian guy who just finished his civil service duty (the alternative they get to joining the army)in nicaragua, a woman who has traveled more than anyone i ever met with DISNEY to recruit people, a girl who backpacked all over the middle east and africa alone!

these pictures are from the finca de ixobel in poptun, guatemala. 400 acres of relaxing farm extravaganza with lovely homemade food at night!

glorious chicken bus misadventures

the next stop was a 400 acre farm called the finca de ixobel, a place that we loved. we stayed in a tree house for 10$ a night and spent our time reading, doing art, swimming in their hammock lined lake, and hiking in their forests, fields, and waterways. at night they had family style dinners with some of the most delicious veggie food ever!

now there are sometimes two ways that you can go about getting to your next destination. 1 is much more expensive and much more comfortable. 2. is the chicken bus or the coopertivo, the local transportation!

there are such pluses and minuses to the both of them it can be hard. we do a little of both, but for the 14 hr ride (split over 2 days)to our next destination we chose to do the chicken buses.

there are chicken buses all over the world, and it simply means anything goes in chickens and all and as many people as you can POSSIBLY fit inside. in guatemala the chicken buses are either former u.s. school buses all painted funky like the Further bus from the Grateful Dead or 15 passenger vans.

15? HA! we were on one that had 34 people in it!!!

we had gotten dropped off at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere when a van pulled up and said they were going to our destination, we had been traveling since 3 am so we were stoked...until we came around and the door opened to reveal every possible seat taken including some impromptu seats plus some people sitting on each other's laps...but amazingly enough the driver gave a shove here and a push there and there was just enough (not really at all) for us to squeeze in forcing one or two guys to squat around the doorway with their necks all creaked crazy like. we were definitely uncomfortable and looking forward to getting there when we stopped to let one guy off, PHEW, right? oh no. oh no. OH NO! do these 4 70 yr. old men with chainsaws think they are actually getting on? oh yes. 1 guy off, 4 guys on. what? it was like the game twister random limbs squashed here and there and red's guitar over some laps! if i could have had room to breathe i would have laughed! of course none of the locals even batted an eye---they do this everyday!

on the schoolbuses, i think the most amazing part is the guy who works with the driver. the thing is, you don't buy tickets, you just get on and its always a mad crazy rush because there are no strict schedules, so if you dont get on who knows when you will go! on top of that, EVERYONE is getting on and off at different cities, villages, specific stores, homes, cross streets, or often in the middle of freaking nowhere with maybe a little dirt path meandering off into the fields!

and not only that but they dont just go through the front door, but also through the emergency exit in the back---we joke that everytime one guy gets off, three crawl through the windows! anyhow the job of the guy who works with the driver is to weave through that mess of jam packed people who have entered the bus in various locations and times and find out who's paid and who hasnt and who is getting off where---truly an act of genious!

ahhh.. but the rewards are that you really see how and where people are living. as we weaved down roads no better than river beds through steep and curvy mountains, you get a glimpse of these tiny villages and the amazing everyday lives of the indigenous people and despite that guy's elbow in your back and that woman's heel on your foot, you are thankful.

osama bin laden, moses, and i at the drag queen parade

jared is growing out his beard and his hair for the whole trip and its pretty funny because we have gotten more than one taliban comment or people say salaam or think he's pakistani. one time someone caught the striking resemblance between him and the moses statue he was sitting by :)

going back to flores was totally different this time because there was some wild kind of fair going on. first of all across from the little island that flores is there were carnival rides and a big stage for big loud mariachi bands and also little tented areas with tons of foosball tables under them that looked like they were from 1967...?! people were also celebrating on the island, starting out with this parade that consisted of 7 drunken guatemalen dudes dressed as women dancing down the middle of the street following a truck with big speakers and setting off firecrackers everywhere.. i was totally impressed with their stamina as they made it all around the little island at least 3 times! by the 3rd time around not only were there more men dancing but there were horn players and two men carrying a marimba while the other man walked and played!!! also a big crowd of people all following walking down the middle of the street, what a riot!

the picture with red is of the Gallo Beer girls...they conned us into playing some dice game in the hopes of winning a free beer!

los animales

here is a list of animals have seen in the last few months--

dolphin and baby eels
manatees puffer fish
sea horses parrot fish
horn fish osprey
friggit birds tapir
wild parrots toucan
sting rays eagle rays
flying fish howler monkeys
tarantulas and other creepy spideys
crocodiles lobster
egrets cranes
barracudas irridescent butterflies
fireflies venus fly trap like plant
bats sharks

and two of my favorites, one was this weird little guy that looked like a mix between a cat and a racoon! and another was a little lizard with a dinosaur head that actually ran STANDING UP on his back two legs! hilarious!!!

the guide told us that manatees are most closely related to the elephant which is definitely a cool mental image. red and i also decided that they are a lot like the beloved sloth as well in the way that they are so mellow and dont bother anyone or anything and they are just big fat sea cows munchin on sea grass! love em!

i pet a sting ray!!!

so i definitely overdosed on the internet while my dad and sister were in town for xmas, so i havent been updating, but here you are....

xmas was fantastic, as i said, my dad and sister and their loved ones came to san pedro an island off of belize for a week at xmas. it was really great to see them, go to some sweeet snorkeling spots, delicious restaurants, hot showers, and comfortable beds.

yeah, so snorkeling with sting rays and sharks, what? but oh man it was so cool! the rays are so graceful and even playful! at first i stayed 20 ft away thinking of the poor croc. hunter, but when we went to shark-ray alley the snorkel guide jumped in with about6 rays and said we could roo! i was the first and i went up to where the guy was feeding the rays right into their mouths. i went more near and he asked if wanted to pet it? apparently it wasnt really a question because he quickly shoved the ray at me saying dont touch the tail! what?! it was awesome though, what a rush!

we also saw an 8ft reef shark and a baby one too! then as we were about to head back we stopped to look for a hawkbill sea turtle and sure enough he came over to check us out! this guy was amazing! lime green, yellow, and forest green, he came up for air and it was like this ancient grandfather taking a big wheezy gasp...so cool!

after they left to go back to the cold, jared and i were headed off to go work on an organic farm in the jungles in belize. to make a long story short, we didnt make it there. we were really frustrated at first, but then it was ok cause next on the list was guatemala.