I meant to write yesterday afternoon and get back into my Sunday blog rhythm, but we got a bit carried away with our 4th of July celebrations. Scott and I managed to convince a Guatemalan, a Spaniard, and four other Americans to spend 6 hours eating cheeseburgers and drinking beer with us in honor of the United States' Independence Day. Here's a photo of a British-American dual citizen, a Spaniard, and an American enjoying Guatemalan beer to celebrate July 4th:
How's that for globalization? Needless to say, the fiesta was great fun if not conducive to posting blog entries, as I think the last of our friends left the party shortly after midnight. I'm a little disappointed, actually, that I won't be around for the Guatemalan Independence Day celebrations in mid-September. Not content for only one bank holiday, the entire country takes a week to have parades and not go to school/work - it sounds like a blast.
Time has really flown since I arrived in Guatemala - today was my 141st day in the country, and I have only six weeks left before heading back to Atlanta. Even crazier, two weeks after getting home, I will be shipping off for an academic year in Kingston, Jamaica. Three countries in three weeks! Also, as if all that didn't constitute enough excitement, four friends are flying into Guatemala from the States to visit us next week, and we'll embark on a whirlwind 12-day tour of Guatemala and Belize. It's almost exhausting just to think about, but I'm beyond excited.
In light of the impending arrival of our gringo amigos, Scott and I decided to hang around Xela this weekend and save up some energy/enthusiasm for traveling. We celebrated the 4th on Sunday, but Saturday morning we rose and shone to climb Santa Maria volcano with 6 other clinic health educators and someone's medical student friend. This marked my third encounter with Santa Maria - the first endeavor ended in failure as my friend and I followed the incorrect trail and didn't make it to the summit, and the second attempt was under the guidance of a tour company leading us up the mountain at midnight so we could watch the sunrise from the top. I have to say, for me the third time was indeed the charm. The weather was beautiful and clear, I didn't have to wear all the clothes I own to protect against the pre-dawn chills on the volcano's face, and our entire group made it to the top in great form. Here are Scott and I on the way up:
You can see Xela and the Palajunoj Valley (where the clinic operates) in the background. And here we are at the top! Scott's on the right, and Lee, my health education partner, is on the left.
The peak immediately behind us is Pico Zunil, but the mountain further behind that, just peeping through the clouds, is San Pedro volcano on Lago Atitlan. The views were stunning. Also, Santiaguito waited for us to reach the top before erupting. We had been at the summit only long enough to eat peanut butter sandwiches before the show began:
And finally, here's Scott watching the clouds roll in from Mexico:
We were really lucky with the timing of our climb, as the clouds cooperated almost perfectly. We started hiking a little after 7 and reached the top around 10:15 and enjoyed some spectacular views. Within the hour, however, the clouds began massing and obscuring most of the views over toward Lake Atitlan, toward Mexico, and towards the Pacific Ocean. By the time we began our descent, the sight lines from the summit were almost all gone and the rain clouds were forming, too. I had just finished showering back in Xela when the thunderstorming commenced. All in all, a spectacular way to spend a Saturday morning.
Due to a series of vacations and bank holidays (a recurring theme in the school system), I've only taught health education workshops in the school twice since my last post. The schools were closed until Thursday of last week, so Scott and I were able to take a 3-day weekend to visit Semuc Champey with our friends Joe and Rachelle. On a map, Semuc Champey is about 200 miles from Xela. Our journey began at 3:30 am last Saturday morning, and we arrived at our hostel in Lanquin, a town thirty minutes from the Semuc Champey natural park, at 3 in the afternoon. It took us almost 12 hours to go 200 miles. Twelve hours! I can drive from Houston to Atlanta in that time. It only takes 8 hours to get to San Cristobal, Mexico, or Copan Ruinas, Honduras from Xela. The condition of Guatemalan transportation infrastructure is mind-blowing at times. Because there is no direct route between Xela and Semuc, or rather, the route that appears direct on a map is unpaved, we had to travel south from Xela to the capital (3.5 hours) in a bus, north again, but more easterly, to Coban (4.5 hours) in a pullman bus, and then east on gravel mountain roads to Lanquin (2 hours) in a minivan. However, when we arrived in Lanquin, we stayed in perhaps the coolest hostel ever. Straight-up Swiss Family Robinson:
Tree house dormitories! Also, since there were four of us and the dorms had four beds each, it was like having a private room for $4.50 per person. We had delicious kebabs for dinner - not particularly Guatemalan, but fantastic nonetheless - and headed to bed reasonably early so we could head to the Semuc Champey park the next morning. Semuc Champey is a nature preserve featuring a series of freshwater pools formed when most of the river Cahabon rushes into an underground cave. The gentle stream that remains above ground forms a chain of gorgeous turquoise pools, and the Guatemalan tourism board does a great job of producing posters enticing tourists to visit.
This photo captures Rachelle, Scott, and Joe beginning the trek up to the mirador, an lookout point in the jungle above the pools. The sign told us it would take an hour and fifteen minutes - we did it in less than half an hour.
Once reaching the mirador, we were able to take our own postcard-ready photos. Check it out:
And here I am with Scott:
When we descended from the mirador, we were able to see where the river enters the cave. Surprisingly, there was even a park ranger posted to warn tourists not to enter the cave themselves. He's the one wearing the orange vest below:
In contrast to the force of the river rushing into the cave, the pools above are tranquility embodied. I spent almost two hours dangling my feet and splashing around in this pool:
Here's another shot:
Really, if you're ever in central Guatemala with two or three days to play with and sufficient patience for some frustratingly inefficient transport, you ought to pay Semuc Champey a visit.
And finally, a group photo!
Semuc Champey and our hostel were awesome. Our return trip to Xela was less so - my wallet was stolen on the way back to Coban from Lanquin by our shuttle driver and his ayudante, both of whom sort of admitted to having taken my money and keys. Monday morning was spent yelling at them in front of their manager for five hours until eventually I recovered 80% of my money, but the keys are lost and gone forever. It was an unnecessary expense of negative energy, and the ordeal also prevented us from arriving back in Xela until almost 11 at night. Ugh.
On a happier note, Lee and I are having a fantastic time teaching in the school when it's open. Llanos de Pinal is eerily similar to Wayside School from the Louis Sachar books - I couldn't make up the level of disfunction we see daily. For example, a class of second graders has literally disappeared in the past two weeks - the classroom is locked and there are gumball machines inside. No one knows where the students are or what happened to the teacher. In addition, there is a kindergarten class housed in a shed, and a first grade class in the kitchen. The sixth graders today were busy installing a basketball goal, which mainly consisted of a group of boys swinging sledgehammers in the concrete courtyard, and a fourth grade class had its doors shut but was pumping out dance music on large speakers. Unbelievable. For attending school in such a loony bin, the students are actually pretty receptive to our health education lessons. Lee and I have been teaching about parasites this week, and the lessons consists of picking volunteers to be a Chief Parasite and two flies. The flies leave the classroom and re-enter with flour on their hands, then Lee and I pick them up so the students can 'fly' around the classroom contaminating walls, books, desks, and their friends by touching them and leaving a flour-y white handprint. In the mean time, the Chief Parasite wears a hat with googly eyes and antennas and supervises the whole affair, because flies and parasites work in tandem to make little kids sick :)
I will take pictures this week and post them with my next blog entry - this workshop might be my favorite so far. The niños are so enthusiastic, and I think we are able to convey a great deal of information concerning parasitic infections and methods of contamination through the activity, which is really the whole point.
All in all, life continues to go well in Xela. Un abrazo fuerte desde Guatemala,
Katy
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