the longest time

i think that this is officially the longest time we have stayed in one place since... well actually 7 months ago in taiwan! we are really enjoying ourselves on this amazing lake in this sweet little town. cheap delicious healthy food, rich organic local coffee, a huge sacred lake to swim in, a culture of people sincerely friendly and amazing to observe and interact with, and lots of good travelers to meet.

we finally found our home that we will live in for the next two weeks. we have been moving around a lot in these last two weeks but basically all in this one neighborhood that is based around 4 guesthouses owned by three brothers. we have finally hit the jackpot thought. our room right now is incredible its on the very top floor with only one other room next to it and this huge balcony with a 360 degree view of this entire area. you can see more than 5 villages as well as all three volcanoes and the indian nose point which is a natural monument and of course lake atitlan! its also been a wonderful vortex for musicians too! every single night we have sat around with at least 3 and sometimes more guiatar players and its amazing because they are not just guitarristas but they are damn good ones! its like having little concerts of our own on our porch every night. and such interesting people too! for example our neighbors in the room next door are on the 11th month of their trip all around the world. the trick to their trip is that they are traveling without EVER getting on a plane! so they have traveled incredibly far distances for weeks on end in cargo ships and trains!

today is my birthday and we are going to have a little fiesta up on the rooftop if you think you can make it! yummy chocolate cake and pan de coco and lots of guitars, sonrisas and conversacion interesante!

needless to say we are doing wonderfully and full of health and all that good jazz!

LOVE!!!!x0x0x0x0

ode to the man in the window

although i have already touched upon this subject. we´ve decided that the man in the window here in san pedro deserves at the very least his own dedication.

the small windy path up the hill to the outdoor fruit and vegetable market is lined with various tiendas and restaurants mostly for locals up in this part of town. the buildings are old and cement and crumbly in places. up this steep path on the left side is the small window with the white scarf hung across it where the infamous face of guatemala does his work.

its hard to tell how old this man really is. red and i are guessing somewhere between 85 and 112 yrs old. he is one of the older Tzutujil (the tribe of mayans around here) men that still don the tradition clothes. this consists of a light button up shirt, a brimmed hat and incredibly intricately embroidered white pants. the pants were fashioned when life was based around standing in canoes and so only come down to mid-calf they are also held up by a long woven scarf of bright colors.

perhaps in your life you have come across a person that has a self appointed job that is of utmost importance if only in their eyes. this is the case with the old man in the window. from very early in the morning to late afternoon, the old man hangs out side of his window which is just higher than my head on the wall. all you can see is his head and two arms that kind of dangle. really the best description for this guy is Muppet-like. dont get me wrong i dont mean that in a bad way, i love muppets. this guy just kind of moves and speaks as though there are invisible marionette strings suspended mid air.

and his job is a worthy one. his job is to greet the world. it would be an interesting experiment to hide somewhere and actually count how many times this guy says ¨buenos dias, buenos tardes¨ and ¨hola¨ in a day. its hard to describe how happy this makes me. he not only says it though, he REALLY means it too! for hours on end. another beautiful thing about it is that he is completely indiscriminate to whom he greets. Tourists get just as hearty of a good morning as his family members. A group of lollygagging school kids will get an Hola just as soon as the guy with 500 lbs of rocks in a bag on his back. we have even seen him greet Tuk Tuks which are the tiny motorized taxi vehicles, despite the fact that they whiz by without even looking in his direction.

the restaurant where we eat our 3 veggie tacos for $1 every day is right above his perch so sometimes we sneakily spy down. its just so cool to see how happy he makes people as he surprises them from his window. and even better yet we have met more than one visitor who was here in san pedro up to 5 years ago and witnessed this same thing back then too. one guy´s girlfriend was lucky or sneaky enough to get a photo of the old man 3 years ago. evidently the picture hangs in the bathroom back in colorado. he said everyday when he goes pee he looks at this old man. he´s actually something of a legend!

as i mentioned before, it has been proven that the man actually speaks no other spanish, similarly to most older Tzutujil people here speaking their native tongue. there was one day that red and i were walking past that we thought he may have even stumbled on the little spanish he knew. it went like this:
us: ¨Hola Senor!!¨
him: ¨Buenos....Buenos..Buenos Tardes, Buenos Tardes!¨
as we walked past we wondered, did he actually forget his favorite thing to say? the answer was clear then we looked at our watch. the time was 12:02. it wasnt that he forgot, he was simply waiting for the change in phrase! is it morning, is it afternoon?

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