¿por que no?

¿por que no? it´s becoming my mantra, of sorts. the gringo-fied version of why not?

took a bus from xela to chimaltenango, in which there was a chicken to my left and a small boy vomiting up the contents of his stomach to my right, families sitting 8 people across, street-vendors jumping in through the back and front doors peddling a dizzingly assortment of food, all whilst the driver is taking hairpin turns on mountain curves in a u.s. school bus circa-1970 (i now understand why the rosary dangles from the rearview mirror and the locals cross themselves, father-son-holy spirit, when it´s time to go for a ride). and that was just to chimaltenago. an easy bus switch got me to antigua safe, sound and smelling ever so slightly of sweat, tortilla and chicken. delicious!

so as you can tell, my time in xela is over for the time being. its bittersweet, really, because as antsy as i was to get on the road, i found myself leaving just as xela and i were becoming good friends. after moving out with my host family, i checked in to the black cat hostel in xela. there were cheaper options, to be sure, but the showers were hot, the bartender was cute and the breakfast quite nearly heaven-sent.

i was there for a week, and the whole time there was about 6 other guest, give or take a backpack. my dorm room was all to myself. cool and creepy at the same time, but i did get to check every bed to make sure i had the best one. and after a couple days, the hostel workers got accostumed to me stealing extra blankets and pillows and just left them on my bed. i got to know the other employees and travelers, and we´d sit for hours in the sunny courtyard enjoying the unexpectadly hot midday sun and free cervezas. nights were spent out at cafes, dancing to live music, staying at places afterhours because the owners wanted to help me practice my espanol, taking a tour of xela by motorcycle. side trips to fuentas georginas, a natural spa heated by volcanos, steam rising from the agua caliente and mixing with the clouds making everything seem hazy, lush, tropical, smelling like sulfur but thats ok because you know it´s natural. weekends at the local futbol stadium cheering xela to victory (3-nil!), yelling incredibly innapproriate things for a lady to say in spanish but wasn´t realized until later. i forgot how much i liked to get to know a city, try it on and see how it fits. it fit.

but time to move on. bused my way down to antigua, a city i always find myself unintentionally returning to, and it felt weird being around so many tourists. felt weird paying tourist prices again, as well. but good times were to be had, as antigua is a fun city for a saturday night and i got the opportunity to embrass myself learning some sort of salsa-tango fusion from, of all people, a fellow san diegan.

next day, on a shuttle to lanquin. a blurry, bumpy, windy, dehydrated ride but worth it because central guatemala is so incredibly beautiful. i´m staying with some friends i´ve met along the road, not at el retiro where rachel was, but at another hostel that is only known by word of mouth. it´s just as tranquillo, a bit more laid back, with probably a bit more bugs, but i like it. i sleep in a loft under a thatched roof next to openness, no shoes, no mirrors, nothing but nature.

tomorrow i head up to tikal, by way of flores, most likely with a huge group of israelis that are staying in my dorm with me. maybe they can teach me more hebrew, considering my repetoire consists of ¨shalom,¨¨mazel toz¨and ¨l'chaim!¨

i know it´s been ages, and i´m trying to remember small things and funny stories that have happened, but mostly it´s been alot of living, loving and learning. and that´s why we´re all here, right?

i just realized...

xela is alex backwards. how fitting!

X

a quick recap

after spending an unplanned extra day in san pedro (turns out the buses don´t run on sunday. who knew?) i returned to xela. of course, the lake was absolutely beautiful the day i left, go figure. as the bus slowly wound up the mountain, i bid adios to the blue skies and idyllic waters and mentally prepared myself for another chilly week in xela.

side note: weekend in san pedro with ray was awesome! we went back to some of our favorite places, discovered a couple new ones and just chillllled out--san pedro's speciality.
of notable occurence:
a.) our hostel party got broken up by policia with very large, VERY loaded m-16 guns and,
b.) on sunday, there was a ginormous storm, during which i was partly convinced that the volcano had erupted or the sky was falling, because i had no idea that thunder could be that loud. and as a result,
c.) the power went out. IN THE WHOLE COUNTRY. only in guate, right? i guess its a good thing we don´t have to worry about terrorist attacks here. headlamp usage due to blackouts: 3 and counting!

xela continues to be a strange and exciting mis-mash of a city. big yet small, safe but you can´t walk alone, hummers zipping down cobblestone streets, a mickey d´s in walking distance of a small pueblo filled with indigenous mayan women making tortillas the same way they did 100s of years ago.

i´m still really enjoying my time here, though i don't lead the most interesting of lives, considering my days are largely dominated by school, homework and family life. but, i'm trying to absorb as much 'pure guatemalteco' culture as i can while i´m here. i figure i have plenty of time on this journey for crazy stories and fiestas, si? and i'll be getting my fill of hostels, so i might as well take advantage of home-cooked food and my own room while i can.

family continues to be great as well. the daughter is trying to teach me to crochet, of which i am hopelessly inept. i play football (both kinds) with the two boys. sonia continues to make really good comida, and i'm finally embracing the interesting guate food culture. like warm milk in cereal? eggs that aren´t refrigerated? and tortillas with everything? for example, for lunch yesterday we had veggie chow mein--with tortillas and salsa. and plantains. seriously, if i never had to look at a plantain again (chip or otherwise), i would be a happy girl.
(p.s. as i was writing this post, i was called to dinner. the menu? fideo--a kind of latin american pasta, tortillas--of course, and...plantains. ay dios mio)

oh, and click here for some photos of guate thus far...

a san pedro state of mind

san pedro, take two

on the way to rachel's escuela de espanol

es nesessario

after a couple litros...

made it san pedro!! good times to be had...

XX

monolinguism is curable

or so i´ve heard.

actually, spanish classes are going quite well. it took me a couple of days, but slowly those years of espanol at SFC are coming back to me (except when i confuse spanish with italian, which happens all to frequently. knowing italian is actually making it more difficult to learn spanish). my maestra is great--we joke all the time and always seem to be laughing. which makes the 4 hours fly by.

view of xela from my school

my homestay family is great as well. the mother, sonia, is incredibly sweet and really patient--she always takes the time to explain the dinner converstation so i just don´t sit there, laughing awkwardly). she is also a great cook, and i can tell she is trying really hard to cater to my veggie-ness. tosadas, enchiladas, frijoles, arroz, queso y tortillas. always mas tortillas. although the kids are probably beginning to resent the lack of meat.

the kids are AnnaRaquel, 17, Roldolfo, 13 and Saul, 9. Saul is pretty shy, but the other two are really fun and animated. yesterday, AnnaRaquel showed me how to make bracelets, and we sat around the dinner table weaving strings of green and blue and talking. unfortunately, i lost it the same day. typical, i know. but how cute is this? when i told Rodolfo that i lost it, he took one off his wrist and gave it to me. awwwww, que rico.

mi familia de xela

oh yes, and three pets--2 dogs (pancho and snoopy) and 1 cat (kitty, as in hello kitty). so it´s a full house, but i like it that way.

i PROMISE photos soon. there is only one computer i can use at the school to upload photos, and i keep forgetting the camera cord. definitely reconsidering my decision to not bring the laptop...

that volcano in the background is santa maria...to be tackled next weekend!

p.s. i've made some amigos! last night i went out with 2 danish guys, a danish girl, a irishman and a german. we ate indian food, then went to a middle eastern-themed bar where we drank guatemalan beer and played american trivia and were beat by a group of hungarians. and that is why i love traveling. the culture clash.

xela who?

first full day in Xela (by the way, it's pronounced shay-la. like the aussie girl). on the map it's technically quetzaltenengo, but everyone calls it xela, which is actually short for its mayan name, xelaju. got it? the bus ride up here was absolutely gorgeous. winding through the guatemalan highlands, i was so capitvated by the verdant green hills and distant volcanos partly shrouded by clouds that i hardly noticed how precariously close the driver liked to get to the edge of the road. we passed through some small pueblos and roadside stands peddling multicolored bolsas and sombreros, but for the most part it was mile after mile of nothing but green.

it is MUCH more frio in xela than other parts of guatemala. when they call it the highlands, it's true. 2300 meter high, to be exact. like i don't already stick out enough, i was wandering around town last night with a huge pack on my back, a smaller one in front and in shorts and flip-flops when everyone else was bundled up with scarves and gloves. can we say gringo?

xela is nothing like antigua. it's kind of hard to describe, but xela just feels alot more "guatemalan," if you will. i know that doesn't exactly paint the brightest picture for you guys, but i'm trying to find the words and they are just not coming (probably because my brain is dead from 4 straight hours of spanish school) but i think i'm going to really like it here.

last night, as i was eating dinner with my family, i was trying to explain how i really like nachos, especially with guacamole, but i couldnt eat them too often because i would get fat (dont ask me how i got on that topic). the little boy looked at his mom and said "all i understood was nachos and fat." needless to say, i've got my work cut out for me.

photos and more to come!

playing with fire

today was the big pacaya hike. we got ourselves out of bed at the ungodly hour of 6am and hung out with a couple of strays outside our hostel until a van picked us up and shuttled us off to the base of volcan pacaya--the only active volcano in guatemala that's "safe" to climb (safe, of course, being up to interpretation). after been suckered into buying a pack of marshmallows and some walking poles (aka large sticks), our group and fearless tour guide Rodolfo headed up the mountain to see some lava.

the hike wasn't long, but after a couple kilometers on a 45 degree incline on the soft, gravel-esque path, we were definitely feeling the burn. the trail was scenic at first, but once we got to the base of the lava flow the whole terrain changed from green to black. nerd alert--but it TOTALLY looked like Mount Doom a la Lord of the Rings! the guide told us that we came on the perfect day, as the volcano had just erupted. so that's what the smoke billowing out of the top meant!

hardened magma covered the ground, and those walking sticks we begrudgingly bought actually came in handy--they were quite helpful in checking which rocks were stable and which would go tumbling down the mountain. only sustaining one small cut (a blood sacrifice to the mayans), ray and i wound up on the side of pacaya next to the flowing lava. yes, if you were wondering, it was muy caliente. around 300 degrees celsius, i believe--and it only gets hotter as you get closer to the tip. and because guatemala, for better or for worse, pretty much lacks the concept of safety standards, we were able to get up close and personal with the molten hot magma. when was the last time you roasted marshmallows on top of a volcano? yeah, we did about 4 hours ago. just another day in the life.

oh yeah, we also found a snake. don't worry, it was dead.

tomorrow we part ways. ray heads to san pedro la laguna, myself to xela. there's been a bit of an issue finding transportation, so here's to hoping i make it to xela and not somewhere along the border (just kidding, mom).


until then...adios!

deja vu

whelp...we have arrived! guatemala, take 2!

One slightly jenky panaman (panamanian? panamaleno?) plane, some completely unnecessary turbulence and a suprisingly good pickle-and-onion sandwich later (ray and i had to DIY our airplane roast beef sandwich lunch), we made it to antigua. checked into the black cat hostel, where we were informed that our 50 Q a night room came with FREE internet and FREE breakfast--score!

it already feels so right to be back. we plan to commemorate our return with a couple litros of brahva extra. until next time...cheers!