The Big Trip: Maximon and the Lost Keys

Another week gone and the Spanish is really coming on well now. I have learnt the pretorit, imperfect and future tenses this week along with stacks of vocabulary. It's going so well in fact that we are going to spend another week here at the school.

Not much else to report on this week.

On Tuesday we went to see the Shawshank Redemption at one of the local cafes. However many times I see this film I never get bored of it, it's an absolute classic.

We were invited to a good birthday party at a bar called Jarachik on Wednesday. Jammed with band on the bongos for a while until it started to rain hard and we all had to move inside. Also, went to a fantastic chill out bar Zoola to watch the same musicians jam the next night.

Saturday was quite an eventful day.

We finally met Maximon today. Maximon is an wooden effigy representing a Mayan God. There are several of these located in various parts of Guatemala and they must be placated with gifts, most usually a cigar and rum! Read more about him here.

The most revered Maximon lives in Santiago Atitlan, a small market town just 20mins boat ride from San Pedro. We arrived late morning and were immediately accosted by a group of young chicos who all offered to take us to him for a small fee of Q5. After a brisk 5min walk we arrived at the current residence of Maximon and paid our Q10 to have our photo taken with him.

Later on, in the evening, Mel prepared a traditional Aussie BBQ for our family before we went out to the Buddha bar for drinks. A good night was had by all and we arrived back at our house at 1.30am, slightly inebriated, only to find we had left our keys inside our room! We tried to knock on the door and call out for Juan but with no success. It was then I had the drunken but brilliant idea of climbing onto the roof of the house so that I could access the property from the stairwell (they are currently adding a couple of floors to their place to accomodate more students so the stairwell is open to the elements). Melanie skillfully hoisted me up and somehow I managed to pull myself up onto the roof before tiptoeing down the stairs to let her in. It was then I discovered that we needed the keys to open the door from the inside. I turned to head towards our room to recover the keys to find the door locked (presumably by Juan after we left). So....I'm stuck in the reception area and Mel is waiting outside and everything has taken a turn for the worst, when Juan walks out loking slightly dazed and confused asking what's going on. The next few minutes we spent embarrasingly trying to explain, in Spanish, with the aid of our phrase books what had happened.

I think they are ok with everything now. I wrote them a letter this morning to apologise.

So, today there has been torrential rain from 1pm so I have pretty much been sitting here updating this blog and my photos. Later on we will head towards the Alegro where we hope to defend our pub quiz title.

The Big Trip: Kayaking and Chichicastenango

"Romans They Go The House" ?

It's Monday morning and time to tell you about what we've been up to in the last few days.

Our classes are going well and by the end of this afternoon we will have completed our first week. Clarita seems quite happy with my progress so I am going to step up to 5hrs a day for the second week.

Have been learning all my present tense irregular verb conjugations in the last couple of days which has been pretty tough going but I´m sure I'll get the hang of them eventually.

We had quite an eventful weekend. Saturday we went on a kayaking expedition to San Marcos where we jumped off rocks and swam in the lake. It also saw the first appearance of the frisbee (thanks Damo). You can track the journey of the frisbee in this link if you like. Just add it to your bookmarks to follow it's trail across the Americas!!

We met up with the same crew later on at a bar called Alegra where we downed a couple of litres of Sol before heading off to Chillies for some live music. Messiness ensued and we ended up in a club called Freedom playing superb Drum&Bass. Somehow we ended up being the last people there and we stumbled around San Pedro looking to party further with the bands trombonist (tromboner?).

Needless to say next morning we felt pretty groggy but we had to be done at the lakeside to catch a 7.45 bus to Chichicastenango for it was market day! Although quite touristy now and no cheaper than anywhere else it is still worth a visit to this famous market as the hustle and bustle of the traders and the kaleidoscopic array of colours make for sensory overload, even better with a hangover!

But not only that, there is a Shaman idol up on the steep hill just outside the town that you must see if ever you're here. It or he is called Pasqual Abaj and many people make the trip here to send messages via the shaman or to pray for luck and prosperity to loved ones dead or alive. It's quite an intense feeling being there and although we didn't witness it, there is quite often sacrifices of live chickens and pigs etc.

Pics of Chichi and Pasqual here.

Last night we arranged to meet up with some of the people we went to Chichi with but the rain was so heavy that we couldn't get down there. So instead, we went back to the Alegra for a burger and a pub quiz which we won netting us two bottles of Sol. Nice. We'll be back there next to defend our title.

Tonight we are cooking omelettes for our family.

The Big Trip: San Pedro

Adios mis amigos y bienvenida a San Pedro. Estoy escribiendo esta de un Internet cafe. Esta viernes en la manaña and todo is bueno! Estamos estudiando a la escuela de San Pedro y viviendo con una familia cerca del centro.

Esta espanol es facil.

Mirar.

Me llamo Estuardo y estoy bonito, guapo, inteligente, simpatico, generoso, amable y astuto.

No problema.

(corrections, especially from Cathal appreciated)


We have been here for two days now and have yet to learn the past tense so will write in good ol English for the remainder of this entry. I would have blogged earlier but we have had a power cut here which began when we arrived and has only just come back on.

We arrived by boat Tuesday lunchtime crossing the impossibly beautiful Lake Atitlan and were taken by a little man to the San Pedro school of Spanish where we enrolled for a fortnight of one to one Spanish lessons starting that afternoon. We are both taking 4hrs a day from one to five at a cost of $56, a bargain! Also, we have decided to stay with a local family to maximise our immersion in the langauge. Besides, it´s $50 for a weeks board with three meals a day except Sunday when they all go to church.

We were soon introduced to our 'mother' Rosalia who took us up through the winding cobbled streets of San Pedro to our home to be for the next two weeks. There we met her husband Juan and 15yr old son Abner. Also, there is a third student staying here Caitlin who's from Seattle and who already speaks pretty good Spanish. In a way it's a good thing that she's here as the family don't speak a single word of English.

The house is quite modest although I think for San Pedro Rosalia and Juan are quite well off. The house is currently being extended with two extra floors being added to take further students so when it's complete they will be earning a tidy income from us students. To put it into perspective, they get $50 a week, or Q375 per student which is about the same as the weekly income of one of the teachers at the school. So, when there's 5 or 6 students there at any one time...

The family are lovely. Juan is a teacher at a local school whilst Rosalia makes cakes to sell locally and they are fantastic cakes!

We had our first lunch or almuerza of rice and goat which was surprisingly good!. Rosalia loves to cook and the foood is always fresh and very tasty although I'm already getting tired of tortillas. Then it was off to school, a 10min walk away down the steep hill towards the lake.

The school is beautiful and set in the perfect surroundings of the lake and volcanoes with little straw huts dotted around the gardens where the teaching takes place. It is the perfect place to learn and with all our meals being prepared for us at home we have nothing to do but concentrate on learning the language.

My teacher is Clarita, a 21yr old girl who has just recently got married. She is a bonita chica as you can see! Melanies teacher is Letty who is very nice also.

Our first lesson went well. Clarita speaks little English but in 4hrs we covered introducing yourself, age, origin, numbers and some basic verbs. I even got some homework.

After school, we returned home for cena (dinner) with our family. There being a blackout we had to eat by candlelight. We tried to have a conversation with our hosts but it mainly consisted of listening to them, nodding our heads and saying si every now and again. After dinner we went to bed as this learning lark is quite exhausting! We have Rosalia and Juans bedroom for the duration of our stay whilst they are camping out in another room. It´s quite nice with two double beds but there are no windows so is a little dark.

Yesterday morning after breakfast and completing our homework we explored San Pedro.
It is a town of about 6000 and a lot of them are hippies! We were worried at first as the first non-local we came across was a poi wielding Israeli crusty but thankfully that's the only one we've seen. It's low season here and there is a nice balance between the local culture and the hippy bars and internet cafes that are dotted around the town. I imagine that in high season this place becomes a bit like Glastonbury but as it is now I like it. The activities on offer here range from kayaking on the lake, horse riding and volcano climbing to chilling in the bars watching movies or salsa!

The local population are mostly Tzutzuhil, a Mayan community, and do not speak Spanish amongst themselves. Tzutzuhil sounds like Klingon - lots of glottal stops.

In the afternoon, it was back to class where I learnt telling the time, days, months and some prepositions.

Last night after dinner we went out to a bar called Buddha where we played darts, drank beer and shot some pool, home away from home I suppose but the music was good and the beer cold.
I think we may be spending quite a lot of time here in the next couple of weeks.

Have got to sign off now as we need to be back for lunch before this afternoons class.

Adios

The Big Trip: The Great Chicken Bus Robbery

OK

So, three days into out trip and I have been pickpocketed already.

We are now in Panajachel which is a beautiful village on the northern tip of Lake Atitlan. I would love to tell you what a wonderful time we've had here but between making extended frustrating calls to cancel all my cards and avoiding the monsoon which starts at 2pm and persists well into the evening we havn´t really had a chance to chill.

So, on Sunday morning after a fantastic breakfast we packed our backpacks and set off in high spirits to find a chicken bus to take us to Panajachel. Luckily we found one straight away, so we threw our packs onto the roof, climbed on board and just hoped that the packs would still be there when we got to the other end. To get nto Panajachel you need to change at a non-descript town called Chimultenango. It was here, as we had just started the second leg of our journey that, as I patted my trouser pocket, I realised that I had been robbed. I have no idea who did it or when but my guess is that it was within a minute of getting on the first bus.

Now, any normal security conscious person with multiple cards and quite a lot of cash on them would split it all up carrying only what they might actually require on the journey. But not me. I had it all in safely stored my wallet in my unbuttoned jeans pocket.

I am now shaking with adrenaline with the realisation that someone is going to have one hell of a party tonight on four cards and $300 of cash. Oh, the stupidity. Added to this, the heavens have opened and we are stuck in some goddam hole that I can´t remember the name of waiting for another bus to take us down to Panajachel. After using the local toilet which is reminiscent of the scene from Trainspotting we finally catch the bus and arrived in Pana at 4pm. The next few hours are spent trying to call all of my banks where I find that 12 fraudulant transactions have already been made on my credit cards including two purchases from shoes.com and three from
another footwear website, so I´m guessing it was a woman who robbed me.

The local tourist office are great to us and waste no time in getting a police report for me that I can send to the insurance company. They also recommend a pleasant local hotel called Matitia (Q62 per dbl room) which we hole up in for the night. It has a parrot.

Today, I have spent more time in internet cafes sorting everything out. The card companies have scratched the fraudulant transactions so that´s a relief. I just need to get together all I need for the insurance claim.

It has been raining even harder this afternoon so we have decided to stay for one more night. Tomorrow we will take the local boat or llancha across the lake to San Pedro where we will begin our Spanish lessons!!

The Big Trip: Antigua

So, we have been in Guatemala for two days and already I have had one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

Antigua is a great starting point for Guatemala and is the perfect place to acclimatise for a couple of days or so. Click here for a brief history of the town.

We arrived yesterday morning from Guatemala City and found our way to our hostel Casa Amarillo (Yellow House), a lovely little place on the NW of Antigua (dbl room inc breakfast $14). We spent the remainder of the morning just chilling and wandering the streets finding a great Menu del Dia on the way (Casa de los Mixtas Q15. ATW, the exchange rate is Q14 to GBP1). In the afternoon we took a police guided tour up to the Cerre de la Cruz, a crucifix positioned high on a nearby hill overlooking the town and with spectacular views of the volcanos. Although quite touristy the area around Antigua is still quite dangerous with attacks by bandidos not uncommon.

Today has been amazing.

This morning we took a tour around the local Azotea coffee plantation and museum which also included a fascinating exhibition of Guatemalan and Mayan instruments.

We got a lift back into town with the owner of the plantation who described what it was like for the coffee producers in Guatemala. The coffee produced here is some of the finest in the world, however, the locals don't see much of it as the best beans are all exported, mainly to the US market. The Guatemalan coffee producers like so many producers around the region are seeing their modest profits squeezed as the large overseas buyers impose crippling regulations in their quest for consistent quality at low prices.

So, all you coffee drinkers out there, try to remember to buy FairTrade as when you´ve seen the working conditions up close you can really understand the pressures these people are facing every day.

So, we get back to town with just enough time to grab some supplies before embarking on our journey to Volcan Pacaya, an active volcano an hours drive south of Antigua. We are doing the night hike up the volcano as we were told that it has been very quite active recently with plenty of lava flow action to see. However, we were not prepared for what was to come.

After an almost two hour fairly strenuous hike up the side of the volcano with just our headtorches for light we clambered over a ridge, through a fence marked 'Strictly No Entry´to see an awesome sight of multiple lava flows on the side of the volcano about 200m away.

I thought this would be as close as we could get but with complete disregard to all health and safety regulations the shambolic tour leaders took us on a treachorous scramble over days old lava flows to within feet of one of the red hot flows. The heat was almost unbearable and the sound of the flow was like the loud crackling of exploding popcorn as the red hot magma crawled past us down the volcano side. Needless to say I had to get up real close to get those pictures but withdrew after the smell of buring rubber reminded me of how close I actually was.

I took up an egg to fry like you see in the documentaries but it broke in my pocket.

Got back to the hostel at half midnight. Tomorrow we are going to head towards Panajachel on Lake Atitlan by the local chicken bus.

What could possibly go wrong...

The Big Trip: A Bite from the Big Apple

We have arrived in Central America on the start of our big trip!

I am writing this from a small guesthouse positioned at the end of the runway of Guatemala City airport and things get very loud and hectic every two minutes...not gonna get much sleep tonight...

We have just arrived this evening after an amazing two days in the big apple. We did the usual touristy stuff: Times Square, Empire State, Staten Island Ferry (best way to see the statue of Liberty), Central Park (link to pics here soon). Felt like we were in an episode of Sex and the City!! NYC is a city of contradictions. Supposedly a melting pot of cultures it is also very racially segragated. There are your stereotypical uberfat MaccyD worshippers then there are your masochistic superwaifs powerjogging around central park at 9 at night. And although they can be very impatient and brash they are also extremely helpful forever asking you if you need a hand finding where you are going, only to enter into an argument with another new yorker about the best way to get there!!

Anyhow, the highlight, if you can call it that, was ground zero. It was immensely moving to be there (having been up it a few years back) and I found it very difficult to leave the site.
Another highlight was the craziest cab ride I have been in - like being in a computer game only more dangerous!

More pics here.

So, we are in Guatemala now after spending a few hours in Dallas airport waiting for the connection. Got lots planned in the next few weeks including learning the spanish lingo and climbing volcanoes!! Havn't been mugged/pickpocketed/hijacked yet.

Tune in soon with next installment!

Very tired now so off to bed...