''¡Estamos ratones flotando en mierda!''

Quote of the week. The translation is: "We are rats floating in shit!" Context: Chris and I were waiting in Livingston, Guatemala for our boat to leave and the man behind us apparantly was getting impatient and screamed this genious phrase to the boat driver. Guatemalans are not afraid to express their frusteration.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So here's the bad news: I haven't found a computer in three weeks that will upload my photos. You'll all just have to be patient and wait.

Here's the good news: Chris and I just left Copan, Honduras, home of a world-famous archeological site that contains amazingly beautiful Maya ruins, inscrptions, and hieroglyphs. It totally won over Tikal, which was amazing, too, but I think I'm the kind of girl who prefers artsy incriptions. The presentation of the park is also much nicer in Copan, it's father from Disneyland than Tikal. The town of Copan Ruinas, just 1 km from the actual ruins, also just happened to be our favorite Central American town so far: great food, friendly people, gorgeous setting in a valley surrounded by mountains. I did, however, have my first experience of wanting to never ever be associated with backpackers. We went to a very popular backpacker bar run by pretentious Belgians who played videos of Madonna concerts all night long in their very posh establishment. They personally told us (with their noses lifted high) that their bar gave backpackers the opportunity to mix with real, local culture. Are you kidding me? The whole time the video was playing the only locals who were in the place (who just so happened to be the servers) grimaced as they watched Madonna sing from a cross posed as Christ. This is an extremely religious culture we're talking about. I wanted to hide under the table with embarassment.

Honduras is very beautiful. One challenge has been learning the new vocabulary words. Words like "jam" and "backpack" are entirely different here than they were in Guatemala. We actually had to revert back to gestures, how emasculating. Anyways, the food is cheaper, and another difference is the transportation is a little more expensive but the bus drivers actually help the passengers courteously. Tomorrow we are headed to Utila, one of the Bay Islands, reknowned for having the cheapest high-quality scuba diving in the world. We're really excited to try scuba, but we've been hearing and reading that the islands are very expensive and very out of control with their party scene. If it does turn out to be too much like Las Vegas on the beach, we may curtail our stay. But we definitely plan to stay through Chris' birthday which is on the 4th.

Hopefully none of you have felt like rats floating in shit lately...

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.

--------------------------------------------------

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!

Note to self: red-eye flights are not a good idea

I am currently in Chisec, Guatemala. It´s day three and I´m just getting over the ¨What am I doing here?" phase. Chris and I just finished dinner at a street stand and witnessed the owner beat up his son for leering at me. So now you all have proof that my safety is in very good hands. Or maybe I should just bring this guy around with us. Actually, we´ve been surprised: we feel very, very safe and there hasn´t yet been a threat of theft that we´ve seen.

We´ve definitely had some amazing experiences thus far. We´ve ridden in three buses with three very different drivers: #1 was medium, #2 was fast, and #3 was faster. On that 3rd bus we weren´t sure we were going to make it...

I have to brag that we´re doing very well, too, especially considering this is only our third day here. Our Spanish keeps getting better, and we´re strating to know how to ask the right questions, such as ¨does the shower have hot water?¨ We´re learning how much is a reasonable price for a banano, which is what they´re called down here. Note to the Mestizo woman at the market in Coban: I may be a gringa, but I´m not going to buy 1 banana for 5 dollars.

Today we visited La Candelaria caves and were led on a private tour down the river, underneath the caves. The best part was that our mode of transport was innertube!

Pictures soon, I promise. I have to go now or I´m going to melt away into a puddle on the floor of this internet cafe.

The Great Send Off

Chris and I spent all of April packing and moving our belongings into a storage unit. Thank the universe for those great lutefisk and lingenberry-eaters in Ballard with their inexpensive facilities. Here's us the night before we left Seattle for Oregon, drinking some amazing champagne from some very lovely people (thanks to the Benton-Bozzo fam and the Fresenius crew). Guess what, guys? You've opened our tastebuds because neither of us really liked champagne all that much until we had that particular sweet, sweet nectar. It was especially delicious out of our classy martini glasses from Walgreens.

Appropriate photo, too, because if you haven't heard, Chris and I are going to get hitched. He popped the question while we were at his 3rd cousin's ranch in Eastern Oregon. We were out there for about a week, taking care of livestock, digging ditches, and laying down irrigation pipes. So, anyways, champagne for all! But first, all of you must take a trip to Walgreens to the "seasonal specials" aisle near the picnic supplies and get your own classy glasses.

We just found out our flight to Guatemala got bumped a day, so now we leave the country on May 27th. That's in about a week --we're gettin' down to the wire!



Yee-haw at the ranch!



Sunshine and daisies and fluffy bunnies...