I'm a bad person

For not posting, that is.

Chris and I ended up staying in San Andres for 3 weeks. Towards the end of each week we just couldn't pull ourselves away, even from that damn rooster. Poor Chris didn't get one night of sleep more than 4 hours because of him. All of the locals kept encouraging him to buy the the rooster from his owner and then make a nice soup out of him. Chris just couldn't bring himself to do it. However, now we are fairly comfortable with speaking Spanish and we've made life-long friends with the family with whom we stayed.

Highlights:

-We visited Tikal, the ancient Mayan ruins in Northern Guatemala, about 2 hours away from San Andres. For those who don't know, we're talking about the Rebel base from Star Wars. It was very cool, many limestone temples and pyramids and Maya ball fields. All with a little Disneyland thrown in. For example, we hiked a pyramid with the group of students with whom we came to watch a tranquil sunset. About 10 minutes after we reached the top, 2 groups of 20 high-schoolers came climbing up and proceeded to talk through the whole thing. Loudly. Oh well. The five of us spent the night in hammocks, in the actual park, with millions of stars, fireflies, and the sounds of howler-monkeys. We made up for the noisy sunset and woke up at 4am and paid a guard to let us into the ruins before the park opened and climbed up one of the temples, which we had all to ourselves! There's nothing quite like sitting on a 60 meter-high Maya temple, watching spider monkeys and oscillating turkeys as the sun rises.

-We left San Andres on Saturday the 23rd and headed to the beautiful Rio Dulce (Sweet River) in NE Guatemala and stayed in a tranquil neighboring town right next to el Castillo de San Felipe, a castle built in the 1500's. This area of Guatemala is much more tropical. Caught a boat from Rio Dulce to Livingston, this was quite a memorable adventure. The driver of our 10-person speedboat wasn't more than 13, and boy did he haul ass on the river! We caught some serious air. Transportation in Guatemala, be it bus or boat, is not for the faint-hearted. The boat stopped several times, once for a pit stop where we all drank from coconuts, and once to explore some amazing caves near a hot springs.

Chris and I are now in Livingston, Guatemala, a port town only accessable by boat. It is by far the most culturally diverse place we have ever seen. There is a large population of Spanish-speaking Latinos, a large population of Qeq'chi Maya people, a large population of Garifuna, who are black Caribs who speak a mixture of English and Creole with Jamaican accents and who are famed for their music, and a decent-sized population of ex-pats from all around the world. And the food here is amazing, lots of seafood and caribbean-influenced cuisine.

Unfortunately I've been experiencing what we think is some minor heat stroke for the last 3 days with a fever, chills, and body aches starting each late afternoon. It's hot here. Really, really hot. Taking 4 cold showers a day doesn't even help. However, I'm in Central America, having the time of my life.

Tomorrow we're headed to Quirigua, Guatemala, an archeological site with incripted stelae. Then, Honduras, here we come!

P.S. pictures soon. this computer doesn't have a USB outlet.

This is Flores. Flores is a town in the Petén region of Guatemala. It is a beautiful, beautiful place but there are so many tourists. Me no likey. It´s extremely expensive to Guatemalan standards and the food is terrible. However, one must go through Flores in order to reach San Andrés, the quaint town Chris and I have called our home for the past week.

A great big ¨THANKS¨ to tio Chris and tia Lisa, who recommended the EcoEscuela de Español, where Chris and I have been taking one on one Spanish classes. We´ve been living with a local family, the most reputable host-family in the whole town! The people in this town are the nicest I have ever encountered: genereous, hospitable, and patient with our spanish. We have been making the effort, thanks to our teachers and our host-family, to speak almost exclusively in Spanish. It´s actually quite difficult and bizarre for me to write this in English. Ahh! My brain hurts!
Here´s a typical weekday for us in San Andrés:

2:00 am: we are awoken by a young, crazy rooster who lives on the roof next door and hasn´t yet been trained to only call with the sun.

3:00 am: the same

etc.

6:00 am: wake up, push-ups and sit-ups, shower if there happens to be running water that day, complete any last homework that may be lingering, eat breakfast cooked by Marta, the matriarch of the house, approx. 70 years

8:00 am: lessons start at school, located one block from our house. there are five students including us, all from the states. we´ve befriended two of them. my teacher is Elga, 30 yrs old, a sweet woman who is defintely a bit of a cut-up. we spend a lot of time conversing, which is my greatest challenge. she also teaches grammar, or should i say, reminds me of proper grammar rules, since I´m discovering I remember much from high school.

12:00 pm: return home and eat lunch.

Afternoons: we typically visit lake Petén Itzá ( a huge monstrousity of a lake) and go for a swim. There is a dock about 5 minutes from our house. very refreshing.
sometimes a siesta. always homework, always in front of the fan in our bedroom.
the school offers optional activites each afternoon: traditional cooking with a local family (we learned how to make tortillas), restoring and cleaning the nearby beaches or paths in the local park, and visiting an animal rehabilitation center in Flores. that was cool. We saw monkeys, guacamayas (a very colorful bird), and many trees used for a variety of things: traditional medicine, marimbas, etc.

7:00 pm: dinner

After dinner we head to our bedroom to do homework, or hang out with the family, or meet up with our new friends at the local cantina.

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And now, a look at our only problem we´ve encountered on this trip thus far: the weather. Right now it´s 97 degrees; this has been typical for each day. It generally cools off around 8 or 9pm and doesn´t get unbearable again until around 10am. Both Chris and I have dealt with some nasty heat stroke. It took me about 5 or 6 days to acclimate to the weather in the Petén region (which by the way is North Guatemala, if you´re interested). Before I got acclimated (it´s now only been 2 or 3 days), I could only stomach about 1/4 of the ammount of food I normally eat. It was pretty miserable. Now everything´s okay, we´ve learned that we have to either swim or take a cold shower in the afternoons. To put it all in perspective: I have to say we´re doing pretty well when our one major problem is drinking beer fast enough for it to stay cold.



This is the view from our bedroom deck. (yeah, we have it pretty good. it´s unusual for visitors to have their own floor and own deck. we share it only for laundry-hanging space.) La Casa de Marta y Rolando is a wonderful one. It is constantly bustling with people coming and going, lots of children running around, and many animals. They have only 1 dog and 2 birds, but at any given time there could be 3 or 4 more dogs; they like to drop in at any time. This, of course, does not include the many villages of insects, lizards, and toads.

Here´s a shocker for many: I´ve been eating red meat since our arrival to Guatemala! (I can now picture my brother doing a celebratory dance. He used to try to slip meat in my food as a child.) The food here is all very good, lots of assorted meats, rice, tortillas, soups, eggs, plantains, and fruits. Not many vegetables.

I promise to be better about my blog. The town in which we´re staying doesn´t have internet.

Love to all!