Stuck in San Pedro

This morning, Peter decided to be insane with Doug and two of the girls from our group and climb a volcano nearby. As I slept, they saw amazing views, and took amazing pictures, but they also got back a bit late... Meaning that our plans to leave on the 12:00 bus to Antigua weren't really gonna happen.

Also... Apparently the monsoon season is wreaking its fair share of havoc all over Guatemala, and a gigantic landslide in Panajachel (where the group parked their car) is blocking the two roads out of the town. We really don't have any way of seeing whether or not it will be cleared in time for our friends to make their plane tomorrow, but we wish them the best of luck!

Speaking of the best of luck, Peter and I really don't have to be in Guatemala City until Friday, meaning we aren't in too much trouble being stuck without a bus to Antigua. So, oh darn, we are staying in San Pedro one more night. Tomorrow is the 5 am bus to Antigua (which is the safest route right now because of the landslides on the other side of the lake), then we will finally get to go visit the babies again, and say our goodbyes to Guatemala. So not ready.

Slacker.

I am totally failing at blogging. I really did mean to keep up with it in Momostenango....And I did have access to internet...But at the same time, I was walking around a town with basically one other gringo outside our group, the town's festival was completely up and running with the main attraction, and we all were hanging out with the coolest kids and the coolest famiy ever...So I have my excuses.

I actually don't remember what I last talked about, so I'll just talk about everything in Momostenango that pops into my head.

First off, the town festival. The festival happens around this time every year, and really is just a celebration for Momos. Every day there were dancers, live music (both full-on bands and the traditional Guatemalan music, Marimba), and amazingly colorful costumes. Unfortunately, most of the pictures I got of the festival are on film... So those will take a while to put up. The dancers all wore these fantastic wooden masks of different colors, some being human faces, and others being monkeys, deer, and other animals. The girls wore the traditional Wepeal for Momostenango.

A Wepeal (I'm probably spelling that wrong) is the traditional clothing arrangement of Mayan women in Guatemala. It is comprised of a poncho-like top with amazing weaving all around the shoulders and neck, sometimes all the way down to the waist. The top is covered by a wrapped skirt and beautifully woven belt. So beautiful.

Michaella and Ingrid, two students at Instituto K'amawanik' (which means Friendship in K'iche')

Okay, so the greatest part of the festival? Fantastically insane people dangling from a rope 40 feet in the air, and making their way to the ground doing insane tricks...only hanging on to the rope. Also, they were wearing monkey costumes and masks. CRAZY! It's the main feature of the festival, but it only happens every two years... In other words, we lucked out.

Other fair attractions: steamed corn with chile sauce, ketchup, mayo, and cheese; extremely old men playing marimba and flute; the traditional red wepeal of Momostenango, which isn't worn that often anymore because of how difficult and time-consuming they are to weave. In other words, sweet!

Then, there was hanging out at the school, of course. Instituto K'amawanik' is full of the most amazing, eager, and sweet students I have ever met! We got to set up the six new computers, which, by the way, came out in the states 2 weeks ago....Doug has the sweet hook-ups. We dropped off over 80 new kids books, which are now the new school library for kids to borrow and bring home to read to their siblings. A lot of students don't even have books for kids at home, so if these get 'lost'...They're getting lost for the best of reasons. PLUS, there was Frank & Luisa's gift of $100 Australian dollars worth of school supplies (which means a TON of school supplies) --they were put to use almost immediately for the kids to write letters back to the sponsers and donors in the states.

Most of the school, just missing some primary school students.

All the girls wanted their picture with Pedro....

The Girls's Basketball team! They totally kicked butt at a game we got to watch!

Peter and I have the great fortune of being kids on a budget, so we got to stay with Abraham and Feliciana's family. Their house is just above the school on a hill, and the view is amazing. Their yard is full of corn plants and beautiful flowers, and Feliciana has a great round kitchen with a wood stove where we learned how to make tortillas again.

Feliciana is the smiley-est woman you will ever meet!

Her food was....hmm...indescribable? Tortillas, beans, hard-boiled eggs, amazing sweet tea, tomalitos (mini tomales), tomato-scrambled eggs... I could go on forever. So, after delicious dinners, we got to listen to Abraham play his accordian, sing songs in K'iche', and play with the collection of kids that live with Abraham.

Doug and Abraham.

Abraham's son, Jairo, and his family also live in the house, and his sister Lidia and her family was staying there during our visit. That means we had six extremely cute kids to play with all evening. In fact, the youngest, Lemuel, is one-- and we got to see him walk for the first time ever!

LeLe!

We lucked out to be with Abraham and the gang...Our group hiked to a hot springs that is used in their village as the Mayan baths, which was both surreal and hilarious, seeing as we are probably some of the only gringos to have ever even seen the place. The water was extremely hot, but they run natural cold water in through pipes for washing hair and cooling down. Because Mayan tradition is extremely modest, all us girls got to wear traditional smocks for bathing. Such a cool experience.

On Thursday we also got to visit another hot spring-- only this one was much more public, with a pool, private baths, etc. The drive down was a little insane-- 45 minutes of crazy dirt roads along a mountain side. The water in the hot baths at that spring was even hotter than the previous! And they really don't mess around-- we saw newborn babies in that water!

We ended up leaving Momos a day early so we had a little wiggle room for getting to Chichicastenango in time. It was so hard to say good-bye, but Momos was too great not to go back in the future. In fact, Peter and I had lunch in a cafe, got talking to the owner's family, and now have a place to stay when we come back to Momos. Too funny.

So, we thought that leaving early for Chichi would be easier...Well, the short story is this: crazy landslides, stopped by the police, realized we took a wrong turn 45 minutes before, turned around, four semi trucks stuck on the mountain road to Chichi, 3 litres of Tiky, virtually invisible speed bumps, and Peter and I sneaking into the hotel room with Doug. It was awesome.

Market day was a whole other kind of crazy. We were sent out with assignments to buy items for re-sale back in the states for fundraising. At the schools where Doug fundraises, friendship bracelets are extremely popular and great sellers, so our mission was to buy out the market of as many bracelets as we could get for as cheap as possible. Some stats:

Initial price of a bracelet: 12-15 Quetzales

Haggled price: 1.25- 2 Quetzales

Initial goal amount: 2,000

Bought: Over 3,000!!!

Haggling is such an addictive art form.

After 7 hours of exhausting haggling, we enjoyed our end-of-the-day congratulational Capirinhas, some shwag-comparing, and a dip in the pool. Oh, and Peter and I were sneaking around the hotel this whole time. A few white lies and a massivley-swanky hotel later, the rest of the group left in the rental car for Panajachel, and Peter and I took the chicken buses.

Get this-- no horror stories from the chicken buses! They were amazingly easy to transfer, not too full, and we even got a sales pitch from a guy trying to sell 'all-natural medicine'. Rad! It was an easy an successful meet-up with the group in Panajachel, and we grabbed lunch before an insane torrential downpour. After the rain 'calmed' a bit, we took a 20 minute boat ride to San Pedro, found a place to stay, and finally, here I am, in an internet cafe in yet another amazing rainstorm.

San Pedro is not only a beautiful location, but the city itself is centered around two main paved roads-- with everything connected by a network of trails and tiny paved paths. So cool! Definitely a traveller's town, but the feel is so relaxed and peaceful. Peter and I stayed in a room last night that had this view:

I mean....c'mon.

We head back to Antigua tomorrow...then just two nights before we are back in the states! Too crazy. I need to stop typing now.

Momostenango!

We arrived late last night in Momostenango, after a crazy drive up the mountain roads. Lots of detours, lots of traffic, some landslides, and a police encounter landed us safely at the new and fancy hotel in Momos. Peter and I are staying with Abraham and Feliciana (Abraham is the co-founder of the Friendship School Foundation and one of the main teachers at the school) -- However, we got in late enough that sleeping at the hotel for the night would be easier on the family.

This morning, we could finally see the awesome view around the village. It is the last map-worthy town in this area, and from here on out are just dirt roads to other barrios. The city is beautifully decorated for the town's annual fiesta, with banners up and streamers hanging from the church to the surrounding buildings. The market was in town today, and we walked around for a few hours because it is only in town on Wednesdays and Saturdays. We got lucky and saw some traditional dancing that is part of Momos' big festival.

Afterwards, we finally got to go see the school-- Instituto K'amawaqnik' ! It is a great brick building, with two floors, bathrooms, and now six new computers!

I have to head out to dinner at Feliciana's, but we will surely write more later. We miss all our friends in Antigua -- sending besos to Frank and Luisa, Rhet, Carina, and all the other travellers we met!

Casa Jackson

Yesterday at about 3:00, our group of four (Frank, Luisa, Peter and I) took a toc toc to Casa Jackson to help out with the babies. First of all, we had to take backroads on the toc toc because apparently you aren't supposed to have more than three people in at once...It was awesome though, sorta felt like a video game.

We got to the house and put on scrubs and masks and headed upstairs to help the 18 (!) little ones. The place was relatively busy because it was day-time, but all the volunteers disappear around 6:00, and they have hardly anyone to do the night shift. We planned to do the 4-7 shift, but we got there early and stayed late...because the babies were SO fricken cute!!

There are a few that are extremely malnourished -- a five year old the size of a toddler who still can't walk, a 2-month old that still is the size of a tiny premie...However, a lot of the babies are getting healthier due to the amount of work by the nurses there: they feed them plenty of meals per day, a few meals at night, and there are tons of people coming through to play with them. Its hard to walk in each separate room-- they all start crying to be picked up! We got lots of good pictures on Luisa's camera that I will try and put up in a few days.

We are meeting up with Doug today to go to Momos! So excited!

Nuestros Ahijados

I can't believe I'm about to use this phrase....but...there's so much to blog about!

I have been trying to get over my cold, and spent a lot of time watching various medical-based TV dramas yesterday, but finally got out of the house so that Peter wouldn't go insane. It's hard to make plans with fellow travellers around here, because usually we make plans over Facebook, and checking back every hour costs Q3.00 -- so, plans change a lot. After trying the whole day over the web to find Frank and Luisa, Peter and I happened upon them right as we walked out of our house. They were headed to the local homeless shelter to help out, so we went along.

It really was a great experience. We were going to meet someone by the outdoor market so they could show us to the shelter, but the volunteer organizing isn't very well structured, so we ended up just asking around for directions as nobody showed. It's amazing how much the atmosphere can change just in one block -- from Gringo hotels to people living under tin roofs within the distance of a 1/2 mile.

We showed up at the homeless shelter, and immediately a group of kids came up and hugged us. The head woman was at a sort of island in the middle of the home, and she welcomed us and explained what we needed to do. The Island was there for volunteers and workers to be able to watch over the entire center, and see if anyone needed help during the night. The center is open every hour of every day, including holidays. That means volunteers work constantly, rotating shifts so that everyone gets a chance to rest.

The center is divided into two parts: The left side is for men with alcohol and drug problems; the right side is for men, women, children, and families who don't have addiction problems - they simply can't afford a home. There are bathrooms and showers on both sides. They keep them separated in this way so that the men with addiction issues have access to bathrooms in case they need to vomit, etc. and the women and families will not be disturbed during the night.

Most of the people staying there try and give back as well -- Guatemala has a bottle bill (I wish WA would follow!!), meaning a lot of the people that stay there bring in used cans, bottles, etc. for the center to collect and later return for money.

So, Frank, Luisa, Peter, and I ladeled soup and rice milk and handed it out to all the residents for about an hour. You could really tell how thankful they all were for the help -- we even saw one man give a few Quetzales to the head woman, Thelma. The center provides mats and blankets to sleep on, and everyone helped out: cleaning, setting out mats, collecting blankets, etc.

After washing dishes and saying goodbye, a man named Louis led us back to the main street, as he said the area that the shelter is in isn't very safe after dark. Louis is a recovered alcoholic, and after 15 sober years, has helped hundreds of homeless people with alcoholism. He says he was in the same situation, and just loves giving back.

Our little group decided to go back tomorrow morning (Tuesday) and bring about 80 apples from the market so that the people at the shelter could get some fruit with dinner. We wish we could stay and help with another dinner, but tonight we are heading to Casa Jackson to help with the evening feed of malnourished babies.

Casa Jackson, the homeless shelter, and another school for underprivelged and abused children are all part of an organization called Nuestros Ahijados.

Frank and Luisa met us this morning and took us to the above mentioned school for a tour. The school is called the Dreamer Center and it is.....incredible. It is in another poor section of town, but once you go through the gates, there are waterfalls, gardens, play toys (including a mini-castle made out of stone!), different learning buildings, an outdoor stage....All through donations! It was so beautiful! They even had a stone church that has no religious affiliation, and they often hold services from many different religions at different times in the week so all the children have a chance to worship.

They said part of their mission is to create a beautiful place for the children to go during the day, because where they stay at night isn't very safe, and they often get abused, or don't get to eat. So, during the day, they get to come to school (for free!), see the beautiful gardens and ponds, play outside, get two meals, get artistic opportunities...the list goes on.

The organization is also working to start a program for the mothers of the children that go to the school. They have set up a room full of sewing supplies and machines so that 600 (!) women can start making a living while their children are at school. The sewing room is right next to the outdoor stage. They just need $1500 to get the whole project up and running (with electricity, etc...) So, we are seeing what we can do when we get back to the states.....


ALSO, Frank and Luisa went shopping for the kids in Momos today, and got SO much stuff!! We will put up pictures tonight or tomorrow.

Tonight is our last night here, and actually I have to run to meet Luisa and Frank, but we wil be at Casa Jackson for a few hours, then we have to eat our last meal with our friends :( Tomorrow is Rhet's birthday, so perhaps a piñata is in order...?

Bugs..

Unfortunately, Peter and I didn't get the chance to help out at Casa Jackson last night. Poor Frank has a bad dose of the flu, and I have an extreme runny nose. We thought that maybe having the sneezes around babies with barely any immune system wasn't really beneficial to the cause...However, we still have a few days left to a) get healthy, and b) help out.

Still, we started assisting the school in Momos by picking out some school supplies at the outdoor market. We got pencils, markers, colored pencils, crayons, and notebooks -- all for about 65 Quetzales! (around 8 US dollars) School supplies are even cheaper in Guatemala City, but I don't think we'll be able to make it into town before we go to Momostenango, so we are gonna be bartering in Antigua for our last few days. AND... if YOU want to make a donation, here is the link to the Friendship School site again:

http://www.gfsf.org/

and:

http://www.gfsf.org/donate.htm

One last thing for today... Being in Guatemala has made this album play repeatedly in my mind...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmzxGm8My2A&feature=related

Johnny Cash + Guate

Just a quick post to let you all know that last night Peter and I (and our new friend from England, Carina) went to a restaurant around the corner from our house for something sweet last night...And not only did we find tiramisu, but we also got to listen to an amazing live band play awesome music! Only three guys: two on guitar and one with a whole arrangement of percussion instruments, and they played quite the setlist, including: Traditional Latin dance music, that new Jason Mraz song, some obscure David Bowie song that Nirvana also covered, 'Ring of Fire' by Johnny Cash, a song by Sublime, and a bit of mariachi. It was awesome!! I'm on the track to find their CD...

Peter and I are joining Frank and Louisa tonight to do a 7pm to 7am shift of caring for malnourished babies at Casa Jackson in town. Definitely will write about that experience tomorrow.

Y tambien, ¡hoy es el dia final de clases de español!

Fotos

Not much going on other than our Spanish lessons-- today Peter and his teacher played a game of Scrabble against my teacher and me....and we kicked butt. Winning word: montaslo -- or, 'you get on that horse'

Other than that, I cut Peter's hair last night because he was beginning to look like a founding father:

Anyways, here are more pictures:

Frank at the pulpit in Convento de Santa Clara

Outside our doorway.

Antigua's make-out spot....Also where monks would farm fish.

The risqué fountain in the parque central.

Church of Santa Cruz

Casa de Landivar, right next to our house.

Not the best picture of him, but this is Rhet.

Cappoeira!

Only six days to Momostenango!

Around Antigua...again

So, it turns out that they sing Journey at kareoke night even in Guatemala. We got to experience it first hand on Friday night at Cafe 2000, with Frank and Louisa (our Australian friends) and a whole bunch of volunteers from a local foundation that works with malnourished children. Peter and I might get the chance to help out some time during our stay.

Saturday, we walked around and went inside all of the ruins that we've been walking past every day. Before we met up with Frank and Louisa, we were about to cross the street when we heard someone say, "Peter?"

Turns out, somebody from Peter's video production class at Bellevue College is staying here for a month and studying Spanish...And she lives two doors down from us! So crazy. So, we stole her and her friend to come on our tour of churches with us.

First stop was the Convento de Santa Clara, an old convent in upper Antigua.


It's about a block away from a montestary, and apparently there are secret tunnels that connect the two buildings-- Back in the day, those tunnels were used for Nuns and Monks to...well, you know.



The Convent's Garden


Inside part of the Chapel




Just hanging out inside a dungeon.





View of the garden plus all the hallways.



Me lo gusta.



Another ruin-- a (very) old church next to the 'river' in antigua. It has no roof, and is slowly being swallowed by the rainforest, but is amazing in the interior.


We will post more pictures tonight, including some of Frank and Louisa, and of course of the infamous Rhet.

And, I think everyone can say that Sunday was quite an....interesting? game between Spain and the Netherlands. Everyone in the restaurant we went to was cheering for España, save for two Nederlandia fans, one with an orange jersey, and one waving a sad little flag....

Police cars even parked outside the restaurant's window-- not to control unruly fans, just to watch the game. So much fun.

¡Viva España!

Next post: Tons of pictures. Including one of Pete's new Salsa Caliente shirt.

Spanish Lessons!

Peter and I started our Spanish lessons at the Ixchel Spanish School on Tuesday...
It´s great because all the teachers a) are patient, and b) speak slowly...veerryy slowly.

Other than that, not much else to report. Our daily activities involve cheap breakfast, visiting the internet cafe by our house, walking around town, Spanish classes, napping, and more cheap meals throughout the rest of the day. So far, we have gotten full off of around 15 Quetzals a person (around $1.95) So awesome. Wish Redmond was more like this...

Our friends from Australia left on Sunday for Panajachel, a nearby lake town, but they return tomorrow, and we are trying to get them connected with the Guatemala Friendship School so they can come help out. They are very enthusiastic about volunteering, and the Friendship School is a such an awesome opportunity!

I suppose I should put the link for the Guatemala Friendship School Foundation -- it´s an awesome non-profit organization created by a teacher in Washington named Doug Johnson (I happen to babysit his awesome little kids)

Anyways, here´s the link: http://www.gfsf.org
We might do something wild and crazy and exciting on the weekend....but for now, Spanish lessons.

Cappoeria parties, tortilla parties...

Well, Peter and I can barely move, and need copious naptimes, because the last two days have started off with a hike up a hill at the end of town to Mirador la Cruz, a city lookout and location of a giant cross and a little park. Rhet brought us, along with Australian & American friends, to the top early in the morning to teach us free Cappoeira classes. I don´t really know how to explain it...kind of dancing plus martial arts, used originally by Brazilian slaves. Rhet was flipping all over the place, so crazy. Definitely a workout.



Not too far of a hike rewarded us with a great view!





Last night we had a tortilla-making party in the kitchen at our place, with lots of card games, fruits, and mini-tostadas. Soo great!




Today, after a six a.m. Cappoeria, I think we´re just gonna have a lazy rest of the day... Spanish lessons start Tuesday!

Antigua, Guatemala

I dont really know how to write a blog without sounding super cheesy with everything I say...Also, this keyboard is slightly confusing so I wont be using proper punctuation most of the time¿¿¡

Anyways...Peter and I got into Antigua last night after an extremely full travel day. (We did have an awesome layover in Dallas, though-- got to hang out with Johnny, Peter´s brother) Couldn´t really see much of the city because it was dark, but we met up with the guy that runs our guesthouse, Rhet, from Italy. He showed us a place to eat, but we were less than conversational because all we could think about was food and sleep.

We have a great room, with two beds, and a bathroom (with toilet paper!) This morning, we looked out and saw......a volcano. So awesome. The rest of our day was spent walking around town and trying to find cheap eats. Everything here is so cheap, we got lunch for three dollars and a lot of spanglish.

We made it back to our room right as a crazy monsoon rained down...So fun, but the thunder was deafeaning and right above us!

Rhet introduced us to some of his friends that he met because of his travel agency he runs, so we had coffee with two Americans and two Australians, talked about travel plans, relaxed with delicious coffee, and learned that we should expect those crazy rains nearly every day!

Looking forward to tomorrow, Rhet is going to take us & our new friends on a hike, and later...Tortilla party!

By the way.... everybody should move here.

Will put up pictures when we get back to Arizona at the end of the month.

Email us if ya want, we get to use Rhet´s extra computer!

More cheezy posts later.