March 8th ((Today is the Dia de la Mujer in Peru... congratulations, ladies, it´s our day!!!!!))
Guatemala has ended, and now I find myself in El Ombligo del Mundo -- ´´the bellybutton of the world´´ -- and heart of the Inca culture: Cusco, Peru. It´s cold here, something I´m not used to (highs 60s, lows 30s --- no heating at all, just lots of layers and blankets!!!). It´s also rainy season, so most days we have had a couple of hours of pouring rain (one day we had hail!)... always concerning for the tourism industry as mudslides and flooding are threatening the Sacred Valley and Inca trail to Machu Picchu. However, despite the weather and the fact that I only have two pairs of pants (total), life is great. I´m adjusting well overall, and can finally climb 2 flights of stairs without panting from exhaustion (11,000 feet is no joke if you´re not used to it!!). It feels like life has slowed a bit (no longer moving every other day but now have a residence and some sort of schedule...), and luckily I´m still on my feet. We will see what the future weeks bring.
But first, the end of Guatemala.
Guatemala ended very well. Last update I was at Lago Atitlan (lago = lake) in a town called San Pedro de la Laguna and it was February 18th. San Pedro was an odd town... very touristy and party town compared with the rest of the country that we had travelled through before. Both Harry and I were taken aback by the variety of restaurants and bars (and the easily accessible internet), but it did provide a nice place to spend a few days. Lago Atitlan is a beautiful large lake in southern Guatemala, surrounded by 3 volcanoes and only accessible by very bumpy and curvy roads. On our ride into the area (on chicken bus -- so called because it´s not uncommon to see chickens or any other animal on the bus.. and they´re always elaborately and brightly painted and decorated, and the drivers are always maniacs..).. I found myself praying for safe passage as we flew around corners, I swear on two wheels at times. These buses are basically old school buses, but to make money they stuff the buses full of people, so much so that each seat has three people, meaning six people across a row... making for not so comfortable passage. And the drivers and traffic just add to the chaos. On the ride we saw one overturned semi on a sharp curve (lucky he hadn´t plunged over the edge), and also saw a fellow chicken bus on the side of the row with its back axel totally busted and both back tires nowhere to be seen with the back of the bus just sitting on the pavement. Both had happened no longer than one hour earlier, and passengers were standing at the side of the road trying to flag down another bus to hop on. My goodness. Anyway, we luckily had safe passage to San Pedro and after a night of yummy thai food we awoke on Feb 18th and decided to explore the lake. As it was Friday, we had heard that the town across the lake, Santiago de Atitlan, was having their market... so we hopped on a boat (the only way to travel between towns on the lake, as they are really separated by menacing terrain and mountains..) and spent the day exploring the market and town. The market was large and took over all streets surrounding the main plaza, and once again I felt like a giant stomping around -- I had to duck so that my head wouldn´t touch the tarps hung up over the sellers to provide shade!! We also visited their very old and beautiful church which we learned combines Catholicism and Maya (a theme we would see in the following days as well).. and also saw its very peculiar altar the shape of one of the volcanoes on the lake -- a clear indication of their reliance and appreciation of mother earth and their surroundings. Also visited a very odd place called ´´Casa de Maximón´´ in a local house. Basically it is a shrine to ´´the evil saint´´ Maximon, and is another example of the mixing of Catholicism and Maya. The local people worship this ´´saint´´ and it is considered sacred for them. Harry and I were both interested to see it, but a little freaked out too... we went and basically it was two very drugged old men ´´guarding´´ the corpse of something in a casket in a dark room with lots of relics and candles burning everywhere. We literally spent 30 seconds inside until I had to get out because I felt super weird and just heavy.. hard to explain, but i know that it was not normal and I got super bad bad bad vibes. Freaky. Harry was also totally creeped out. Anyways, on our way out of town we stopped at a local store of an NGO that has come into the region to bring together very talented artesan women weavers to produce absolutely beautiful woven works. Nice to see sustainability in action! But that was about it for the day.
On Saturday 2/19 we ate breakfast, packed up our stuff, got on a boat, and travelled across the lake to a town called Panajachel. We found a nice restaurant overlooking the lake and had a good lunch. As we were getting ready to leave we were approached by a young kid who offered to shine Harry´s tennis shoes. This is common around here so I didn´t find it particularly odd, so we started talking to him and found out that he´s in 5th grade and working hard and trying to make money for his family as his dad works in Guatemala (and never sees them), and his mom is at home in the mountains (1 1/2 hour bus ride away) taking care of other children... and he was trying to make enough money to buy his aunt a small wedding gift and get some food for the family. He told us he hadn´t eaten all day -- and by his skin and bones appearance and dirty face I believed him--, so we let him pick out anything from the menu to eat (he chose fried fish) while we talked to him and listened to his story. It was a moving experience for me, and as I watched Harry talk to the kid and encourage him to stay in school and ask him about his dreams and goals in life, I was very much reminded of how different my culture is than the culture in which I was living. Harry is very good at dealing with these sort of situations and incorporating teaching moments into playtime and laughter with kids, and I hope that those few words he offered were taken to heart by the niño, but who knows. It´s unfortunate that a 10 year old has so much responsibility for taking care of his family and siblings and can´t just play outside and be a kid. We left before he finished eating, and when we went to look for him just a few minutes later he had disappeared... likely packed up the fish and french frieds and salad and coke to take home to his hungry family. That afternoon we got a shuttle bus to take us northwest out of the lake region to a town called Chichicastenango -- a town in the mountains and famous for its large and colorful Sunday morning market. We arrived to town hours later that saturday night, and despite the darkness we could see what seemed like a million vendors setting up the frames of their stands and camping out on the cold stone roads in preparation for the market the next day. For dinner I had an awesome skewer of meat and yummy soup, and promptly fell asleep.
Sunday 2/20 was market day and Harry and I spent a good 3-4 hours wandering through town taking in the culture and all of the available merchandise. We each bought a few different things but we are both not big shoppers and were exhausted and happy to retire around lunch time. I had read in my travel book about this Mayan shrine on a hillside just outside of town so I forced Harry to come with me (called Pascual Abaj)... the walk was nice and gave a great view of the vibrant and colorful cemetary on a neighboring hillside, but the shrine itself was dark with an altar with various candles and statues -- I honestly didn´t get a good look because I started getting weird vibes again (probably just my imagination freaking me out) and walked down the hill while Harry took some pictures and then joined up with me later. Apparently there are a bunch of shrines on many of the different surrounding hillsides, and they´ve all been there, in one form or another, for hundreds of years. After the walk we then found a restaurant for some delicious coffee and relaxation, and then later on went to Mass at Iglesia San Tomas (also famous for its mixing of Catholicism and Maya) and promptly to bed.
Monday morning 2/21 we took a morning bus to Quetzetenango (aka Xela = ´´Shay-la´´). Literally got picked up on the street amongst plumes of black smoke and got a nice push on my tushy from the driver´s assistant as he shoved me onto the moving chicken bus through the back emergency exit door. Sube sube sube!!! (´´climb up climb up climb up!!´´) Ok dude!!!!!! We had bought avocadoes and bread to eat for breakfast on the ride, but most of it ended up rolling around on the floor of the bus given the speed of the bus and ridiculously curvy roads. After a 3 hour ride we arrived, found a hotel, ate Mexican fajitas for the first time in guatemala (YUMM!!!!!!!!!), and used the internet for awhile. After the hint of a friend I finally started reading world news that I had been neglecting for the previous 6 weeks and couldn´t believe what I was reading about Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Greece, and then Libya...what a crazy and inspiring time we are living in. Pretty awesome to see people organize themselves in mass numbers and stand up for their rights and beliefs.. and it has been pretty encouraging to me to know that ordinary people can still really make a difference!!!!!
Tuesday 2/22 was another absolute highlight of the trip. We had booked a tour the day before, so at 330AM we were picked up by the tour company with our private guide and shortly thereafter began our ascent up the famous Volcan Santa Maria (last erupted 1902 and is at almost 3800m = 12400feet). Took about 5 1/2 hours to reach the summit--spectacular-- but the climb itself was very very interesting as well. A good chunk of the climb was done in total darkness with headlamps, but thankfully there was a pretty well marked trail (I´m not sure we needed a guide for anything, except for safety reasons as there are semi-frequent muggings of tourists). Right at dawn we heard a bunch of local men coming up the trail behind us and then learned from our guide that a local 70 year old man had been hiking the volcano a few days earlier with a group of other locals but somehow got lost and hadn´t yet been found.. after 2 nights of freezing temperatures and harsh environment. This self-organized search party were armed with machetes and dressed in tshirts and dress pants and dress shoes (probably don´t own hiking pants or boots).. and had dedicated their days to finding their lost friend. Pretty sad, really, and throughout our climb we could hear them yelling and searching the mountain for Don Miguel. We also crossed paths with probably 50 locals (maybe 4 or 5 groups) who were coming down the mountain after camping at the summit the night before... our guide told us that they occasionally do this after a day of religious ceremonies and offerings at the summit. All of the women were dressed in their traditional clothes and some were barefoot or --even worse!--wearing high heels, and the men were carrying very heavy loads of their tents and food etc... I couldn´t believe it because the path was very muddy and slippery, and the route was without doubt challenging even for me with all of my gear. When we reached the top we had an absolutely phenomenal view of the tops of all of the mountains in the area.. they appeared like islands in a big sea above the clouds.. and at the top were various groups of local people chanting and burning things and praying and making offerings. Pretty impressive to see, and a practice that I´m sure has been passed down for many generations and still very much a part of their everyday lives. And then right below the summit was Volcan Santiaguito, one of the 3 currently active volcanoes in Guatemala. We sat at the top of Volcan Santa Maria and ate some snacks while overlooking Volcan Santiaguito, waiting to see an eruption because in the past few weeks it has been having small eruptions every 30 minutes or so. Through the breaks in the clouds we could see small plumes of smoke coming from its round crater and I was certainly impressed as it was a live and active and erupting volcano RIGHT next to us! After resting for like a half hour we decided to head to the other side of the summit to take in the view from there. I excused myself in order to make an offering of my own in the form of a bathroom break behind the bushes, and shortly thereafter was startled by a LOUD RUMBLING right next to me. I looked up and saw this MASSIVE plume of white smoke coming from the crater of Santiaguito.. it was magical, really, to watch this volcano have a huge eruption, and something I´ll never forget. A little later on, as the sulfurous fumes from the nearby eruption started getting too close for comfort, we basically ran down the entire mountain given the steepness and slippery mud and before we knew it were at the bottom after a fully thrilling and satisfying 9 hour excursion. So happy we did it. We headed back to town and then hopped on nice charter bus for a few hours, then a standing room only chicken bus to our final destination in Guatemala -- the city of Antigua.
Moonlit hike
Sunrise
The following morning (2/23) in Antigua we slept in to catch up on sleep from our early morning the day before, and then had a bad breakfast in our hotel ((sooooo sicckkkkk offffffff blacckkkkk beannnnsssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)). However, despite the rocky start we set out on foot to explore Antigua and were not disappointed. Antigua is really only 45 minutes southwest of Guatemala City... it´s a beautiful eclectic colonial city with brightly painted buildings and houses, a really great variety of restaurants and bars, and is overshadowed by the massive cone volcano, Volcan Agua in the direct south. It´s much different than any other place we had been before, and even more full of tourists than Lago Atitlan...I´m much less a city girl and more of an adventure girl, but it was still very nice. We sat in the main plaza for like 2 hours talking and hanging out and watching life of the locals go by and then decided to explore some more. We checked out the very impressive ruins of the main cathedral just off the main plaza (totallly destroyed by an earthquake in 1763 and never restored). We walked by the ruins of a convent called Santa Clara and then to the ruins of the Church of San Francisco. Unfortunately we couldn´t enter the church because we had shorts on, but we were able to go to the ruins of the convent next door. There housed the story and tributes to San Pedro de Betancourt, the first Saint of Central America. Known for his work educating the poor and street children, and later in his life starting a hospital and caring for the very sick, I felt a sort of connection and was very very impressed by the collection of thank yous and tributes that the museum had received by people who attributed good things and miracles to him. It was very nice and I was very touched as I felt like I could relate to his life in many ways (though I´m certainly not a saint!!!!!). He was also credited with planting a tree (in the 1400s??) that still blooms all year round -- so I forced Harry to walk with me to the outskirts of town to see the tree.. and I remain inspired as it was beautiful and big and full of blooms. We bummed around the rest of the day and arranged a tour to the famed Volcan Pacaya the next morning, got some dinner, and headed to bed early.
The next morning, Thurs 2/24 was Volcan Pacaya day! We were picked up at 6am by a tour operator, joined with 3 frenchmen, a guy from Holland, a guy from England, a lady from Minnesota (!!), and a guy from Norway. Volcan Pacaya is another one of the three active volcanoes in Guatemala (the final being Volcan Fuego also near Antigua that we could hear rumbling throughout our climb), but it hasn´t erupted since May 2010 and experts say there´s no lava.., so it was totally safe to climb. The climb was nice.. not too difficult, but we got a kick out of the local people who followed our group of tourists up the mountain about half way, all mounted on horses, offering a ´´taxi´´ for those who couldn´t make the climb. The lady from Minnesota accepted (haha). On the way up we walked through pine forests, overlooked a large Korean owned geothermal plant (one of the two places in the country harvesting energy from volcanic activity-- I thought that was pretty cool), and then up to an area about halfway up the volcano that had been clearly torched by previous eruptions but now was regrowing small undergrowth, and then up to a plateau area with just volcanic ash and nothing growing. From here we had a great view of the surrounding countryside, as well as a great view of the crater (you can´t summit the volcano because it still spews smoke and is very very hot!!!, though there hasn´t been any lava for 9+ months). We then crossed to a side of the volcano, over large chunks of volcanic rock and then went with our guide literally just 10 feet underground to this ´´sauna´´... basically a little cave that was SUPER hot from the heat of the volcano inside. Our guide also carried some sticks from lower parts of the mountain and put them over a crack in the volcano, and they spontaneously burst into flames from the heat inside the volcano. Pretty nuts. After a long rest we had a crazy fun and absolutely thrilling RUN down the volcano, as each step down felt like it was 10 feet from the previous step and your feet just got buried in volcanic ash and you had to avoid all of these trees and bushes... felt like skiing in hiking boots and was totally awesome. Oh man the quads BURNED!!!! Back in Antigua, after climbing two volcanoes in three days, we felt like we just wanted to relax, so that´s what we did. That night was our 2nd to last night in Guatemala so we decided to splurge and went to a fancy restaurant called Hector´s (thanks Emilie for the recommendation!) and had the best meal of all of Guatemala.. nice bruchetta, this awesome beef stew and a delicious bottle of wine. Yum yum.
Friday 2/25 we had some breakfast at a French bakery and then took our final chicken bus (in all its glory -- a total mix of people, crazy speeds on crazy roads, packages of luggage/food/animals/furniture all tied onto the roof, bright colors, and CHEAP!) back to Guatemala City. We then spent the next 2 hours fulfilling Harry´s only request for our entire Guatemala trip -- that we go to the Harley Davidson store in Guatemala City. Like a kid in a candy store he bounced around between all of the motorcycles and gear and I just sat back and watched his excitement. I honestly think the day that he buys a Harley Davidson motorcycle he´ll probably die from a heart attack from the thrill of it all! Later that night we struggled to find a decent restaurant in the massive city, but finally stumbled upon this delicious Colombian restaurant and had the 2nd best meal of the trip -- and our final El Gallo beers of the trip. All was good, and a nice end to a fantastic trip.
I just want to give a little shout out to the Guatemalan people in general.. overall they were very very nice, we had absolutely no problems, I never felt unsafe or threatened, and I felt like as a tourist I was treated extremely well. I would certainly come back and highly recommend it to anyone.
Saturday 2/26 we left Guatemala City around noon, flew through El Salvador where we indulged in delicious airport Papusas (traditional food of El Salvador.. tortillas stuff with cheese and beans or meat, topped with cabbage and a yummy sweet red sauce--- you can buy equally awesome ones in the market at Lake and Bloomington in Minneapolis), and then flew to Lima. Got a massive pizza for dinner and only ate half of it. I suggested just leaving the leftovers at the restaurant because we had no place to take them for ourselves, Harry suggested we take it to give to a kid in the street. We took the pizza with us, and sure enough on the way home we saw a family literally digging through garbage on the street. Harry gave the pizza to the little girl and she opened the box and exclaimed, ´´daddy, look! it hasn´t even been touched!´´ Pretty sad.. and a constant reminder of the true blessings we have...and a great example of the character of Harry. We have become very close and I feel so blessed to have had him as a travel buddy. We spent the overnight in Lima, and then Sunday morning, 2/27, I arrived in Cusco!!!!!
And here I am. I´ve been here for a week, just started my 2nd week, working in the local middle class hospital and now for a few days in a local primary care clinic (all is for credit for med school). Many many interesting stories and medical cases, as well as observations about the city and their health care in general, but those will have to wait until the next blog update. To say the least, things are different. I will be in Peru working for another month (5 weeks total), until I leave for Ecuador to work for another 4 weeks.
My 16 week adventure is officially half over, and it feels like time has absolutely flown by. As always, I cherish the updates you send. I think of you often!!!
Harry says hi and that you should send him Harley gear.
:)
Love love,
Tarita
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