Lake Atitlan

hello everyone!!! im back! So where did I leave off....

Thursday: so we decided to hit up happy hour. 2 for 1 drinks at tacotendo right by us, and me abbey and natalie had alot of fun there! After we got back us girls and matt and clark decided to walk to a bar called cien puertas where we had some Gallo (the local beer) and met some cool people from minnesota and canada who were filming a documentary about Canadian oil companies exploiting the Guatemalan people. Then we went back towards the house and stopped at taco and tequila to check it out, the owner is friends with Juan Carlos who works here. So thursday night was alot of fun and it was nice to go out and relax some.

Friday: At work on friday there was a birthday party at the school I work at! The parents brought in Pinatas and tres leches cake (my favorite) and pizza and ice cream. It took the kids forever to break the pinata because they're only like 4 years old though so that was pretty funny to watch and one strange thing was that they sung "happy birthday" to the kind in english??? it was weird to hear that but I guess thats not uncommon there. After work we came back to the house and we had to pack like crazy because the drivers showed up early. so we all finally got loaded up and set off on the 3 hour drive to Lake Atitlan. The drive was really pretty but I couldnt take alot of pictures because they just werent turning out the way I wanted them to when I was driving. When we got to the town we had to stop and talk to and pay the guy (a travel agent) who set up the ride for us. He turned out to be a huge jerk and thought we were just stupid americans who he was going to rip off. BUT we kept our heads up and ended up getting a fair price that we had originally agreed on for the ride and we saved a lot of money by booking our hotel and tour by ourselves since he was trying to seriously overcharge us. So me abbey and natalie stayed in Panajachel (a town on the Lake) at the Hotel Primavera, which was really nice! We had a badass shower thank goodness, and nice beds, and it was right in the middle of the town. After we settled in we went to eat at Pana Rock which was a restaurant that basically looked exactly like a Hard Rock and it was pretty good! We met the owner (an American lady) and she had an adorable little pug puppy that was running all over the restaurant with a pink rhinestone collar and a little black hoodie. Then we decided to walk up to this rooftop bar we had seen that was blasting some party music. Well when we got up there, expecting a good time it turned out we were the only people in the bar and they were just playing their music ridiculously loud and giving themselves a light show...a little disappointing so we decided to keep moving. Finally we found La Palapa; this was a bar/restaurant attached to a hostel about a block away from us (by the way if you ask a local, everything is 2 blocks away, no matter how far it may actually be). This place was awesome. It was owned by a lady from Arizona and she thought we were pretty awesome too. We met people from all over the place here, hostels are seriously so cool. We met people from Arizona, Canada, Michigan, Florida, Holland, England and Australia, as well as some really cool locals. There was a house band there playing American dance music in Spanish so that was sooo much fun and we spent the rest of the night there having a great time. Me and Abbey are definitely going to be staying in a hostel on our next trip.

Saturday: We got up bright and early for our boat tour. Our hotel was on Calle Santander which was a road straight down to the lake that was just lined completely with shops and street vendors so on our way to the lake we did a bit of shopping and met a tour guide named Santiago who we ended up renting a private boat ride from to 4 different Mayan villages around the lake. The boat ride to the first town was beautiful and I took a bunch of pictures, you can see we were completely surrounded by mountains and 3 volcanoes and all the little towns (including Panajachel) were just on the side of mountains. We also saw a few really huge houses that were obviously built by retirees who came to Lake Atitlan to live. The first town we stopped in was San Marcos. San Marcos was probably the most touristy of all the ones we stopped in. It was definitely a hippie town full of old white people. There were signs for meditation, yoga, crystal readings and henna everywhere so that was pretty funny. We wandered around the town fro a bit and stumbled on to this hostel there that was so pretty, it had a huge back porch area with bean bags that was right on the water, I would really love to stay there if we get another chance. Then we took the boat to the next town, San Juan. As soon as we got off the boat we realized that the entire town is uphill, like straight uphill, so that was rough but we walked around. This town was very focused on art and there were galleries everywhere, we walked into a few and from what we saw there were some very talented people there. Abbey and Natalie got some ice cream there and I got a COKE, which is a big deal because pretty much all you can find here is Pepsi and Super Cola. This town was a bit sketchier than San Marcos and we ended up walking back to the boat a bit early to head to San Pedro. San Pedro was my favorite town. They had a market area which was fun and then we kept walking further and we found a lookout over the water where people were washing their clothes in the lake and there were a few spanish schools there because most of the people dont even speak Spanish, just a Mayan language. I bought some peanuts from a peanut farmer there and they're pretty awesome. After shopping a bit we went to eat a rooftop restaurant called Allegre that had an amazing view of the lake. It was a restaurant/bar owned by a guy from Scotland and it was really cool. They had pool tables there and they showed movies every night on a projector! The food took forever to get though so we had to get it to go so we could get back to the boat. San Pedro was a good mix of original Mayan culture and touristy areas. Then we headed to Santiago. Santiago was pretty sketchy. From the minute our boat pulled in we were getting rude stares from everyone. This town was definitely the least touristy of them all and they did not like gringas. There was a larger market there though so we ate and shopped a bit before we decided it was time to go. The boat ride back was rough. The water had gotten ridiculously choppy by the time we left and I'm pretty sure we're all pretty sore today from it. I could use a massage. Also me and abbey were dumb and didnt wear sunscreen so we're really burned. haha. Saturday night we went to dinner at a place called Solomon's Porch. It was a restaurant owned by a couple from Florida and husbands was in a band that was playing while we ate. They donate a large portion of their profits from the restaurant to building houses for locals in Panajachel and for scholarships for kids there. They were such nice people and the food was awesome, and so was the Sangria. Then we decided to go back to La Palapa cuz we had promised the owner the night before and it turned out the band of the owner of Solomon's Porch was playing there too! So we hung out there for a bit and headed back earlier than Friday.

Sunday: Today we again got up early to pack everything up and caught our ride back home. We first had him stop in Chichicastenango, which is the biggest marketplace in Guatemala. When we first got out of the car I only saw one street of shops and I was like, "oh this isnt that big", boy was I wrong. It was insanely huge and we only got through maybe a quarter of it. There were tons and tons of people there and it was a bit overwhelming cuz people were yelling at us to buy stuff from everywhere and were coming up to you or sending their kids up to you to get you to buy all kinds of random things. I did end up buying a couple things, and it was a lot of fun to haggle with those people, they really enjoy it actually, its a but strange. In the middle of the market there was a church where people were sitting on the steps selling flowers and burning incense, I guess because it was Sunday. After a while we all got back to the car and finished the drive home. Now we're just chillin back here waiting for dinner (i think it might be pizza!! yay!) and to meet the new people. An insight group of 8 people got here last night and they're only staying a week, but they went to Antigua for the day so we gotta wait for them to get back!

here's some pics but theres more on facebook!

san pedro

tuk tuk

Vineria

It has begun. I knew I wouldnt be able to keep up writing in my blog everyday for long. I'm gonna be honest, I wasnt busy, I just wasn't feeling it yesterday. haha. But, regardless, yesterday was a good day!

At work it was pretty much the same but all the kids really started getting excited about English. They out me in the 3 year old classroom for like 30 minutes to teach English alone without any warning though so that was kind of difficult trying to fill that much time without any notice, but I still think it went as well as it could with 10 3yr olds running around in there. Little Jose also confessed his love to me and now only refers to me as "mi amor", which is precious. Josh may have some competition, haha.

After work we ate lunch and then we got to go to our field trip to the winery! We thought maybe this winery was like down the road a bit but we soon found out it was almost 2 hours away, wooo. The drive was pretty though and we got to go through Antigua and a small Mayan village called Santa Maria Jesus on the way. Antigua looked beautiful and very colonial and I'm really excited to go there, me and Abbey are planning on going fro Holy Week in April because we heard there were all kinds of beautiful celebrations there during that time.

Antigua

an old church in Antigua that was turned into a theatre

 Santa Maria Jesus was a tiny town and there were tons of Mayan people. It was interesting seeing their lifestyle as we passed through. Women and children were waiting in a couple in town to collect water because there is no running water in the town. The men and boys were coming back from working during the day in the fields, riding on mules and carrying machetes and wood on their backs.

In Santa Maria Jesus

The problem with this town, as with much of Guatemala was the trash situation. People just threw their trash all over the town and the sides of the road were completely covered in mountains of it. Virginia was telling us that a huge reason for this is because there is no trash pick up in the mountains where they live and also because of the introduction of plastics into their lifestyle in a town where it used to be all natural, biodegradable food; so when they threw their trash on the road, it simply dissolved unlike the trash they have now. Way to go America.

 

After we got through the town we started this 30 minute drive down possibly the worst road I've ever been down. Virginia said the last few governments of Guatemala completely ignored the road situation and so they are in terrible condition. I'm pretty sure we all almost go sick on this road. FINALLY we reached the promise land.

Entrance to the winery, Chateau DeFay

The winery was small, but beautiful and was on the side of a mountain where you could see a bunch of the volcanoes in Guatemala from the top. Our guide told us how they make the wine and showed us the grapes and the vats for fermenting the wine, blah, blah, blah. Then we got to taste. Personally, I didnt really like much of the wine, since it was mostly white, and there was some sort of strange spice to it that I had never tasted before.

 BUT it was still a really cool experience, and the best part was there were PUPPIES there. Their german shepherd just had a litter of the most adorable puppies, and so I got pretty obsessed and we tried to convince Virginia to let us bring one back to home base with us. She actually said yes....but I'm almost positive it was the wine talking.

puppies!

On the way out of the winery there were tons of coffee trees growing so we got out and picked a couple of berries (did you know coffee beans came in berries cuz I sure didnt) and peeled them where we sucked on the beans which were covered in this gel-like sweet stuff. It was interesting.

eating a coffee thing

The way back down from the winery was way faster and when we got home we had some delicious pasta waiting for us. yay! So overall yesterday was a good day.

TODAY at work I got to lead a surprise gym lesson, which was awesome cuz it kind of tired out the kids, thank goodness, they have wayyyyy too much energy. Then one of the nuns who works there is trying to learn English so we sat and talked for like 30 minutes and tried to help each other out. Her name is Magdelena and she is so sweet, and hilarious, I really like her. The teacher in the room I spend most of the time in is Sr. Patti and she's not a nun, and she is also really funny. I really do enjoy my work there, the women are all really good people ( i mean, theyre nuns) and the children are so sweet and funny.

This afternoon we had a Spanish lesson, and it was pretty helpful, we went over body parts and new things to talk to the children about, Rosario is such a sweet lady. Then we came back to the house and we've been trying to figure out our housing and ride situation for this weekend's trip to Lake Atitlan, which is proving to be extremely stressful. When we're done we've decided to hit up happy hour at tacontendo a couple blocks away. I cant stress enough how much I need a margarita.

Well thats its for now, if you havent already seen, I posted new pics from the winery on facebook so be sure to check em out!

DOS

so last night me and abbey ended up watching this ridiculous movie on netflix called flakes about a cereal restaurant...don't waste your time. thats all the update for last night.

Also my mother told me I need to work on my grammar and punctuation since I'm a college graduate...we'll see how that goes. Sorry I'm not sorry people.

Today, second day of work, was pretty awesome again. When I got to work the kids were all really excited to see me and ran up to me yelling "lili!!!!". It was pretty adorable. We worked on more english words today too and most of the kids really couldn't care less but there's this one named Jose who loves english. He is soooo smart and he's only 4 years old; he remembers the words I teach him, like colors and numbers almost immediately. Ello es precioso.

After we got back from our jobs we had the best meal I've had in Guatemala. Seriously. It was a rice and chicken dish with a chicken broth based sauce that was delicious and a salad with this dressing that I'm pretty sure was some sort of avocado ranch, mmm. AND I finally got my fresh pineapple. After lunch Don Francisco (our driver) took us to exchange our money finally, so I'm rollin in the dough haha. But really, their money is so pretty here!


Then we had a Spanish lesson this afternoon, which went really well I think. Our teacher was so helpful and she was mostly just focused on making sure we knew basic commands for our children and were able to talk to them a bit. She's going to be here teaching us every tuesday and thursday so I feel like that'll be really helpful. I was again surprised by how much I remembered!

After our lesson me and Abbey went on our first solo adventure. We went to check out this gym that's really close to us to see about prices and its about $50 so I'll have to see if thats worth it to pay to not get creeped on. Then we went into a pretty sketch discount pharmacy to try and get Abbey some drogas cuz she's been sick the whole time here...but they had no idea what we were trying to say and kept trying to sell us baby aspirin, so we decided to just go to the grocery store instead. We finally got some snacks because dinner is so early here that we need something to tie us over until morning some days, sooo thank god. AND after many problems we got straws!!! We purposely figured out the word for straw before we went and asked a lady working at the store and both her and a man working there just looked at us like we were idiots and led us to a large assortment of different things that were definitely NOT straws, before we had to find them ourselves. So after we found them we brought them over to the lady we were talking to and she was like "ohhhh" and then repeated the EXACT same word we had told her earlier. It was obnoxious. I sometimes feel like here that some people don't even try to listen to us cuz they just look at us and assume "Ohh gringas...they don't know what they're talking about." But mission accomplished none the less.

After that adventure we came home and ate dinner and we've pretty much just been chilling ever since, I think we're all pretty tired, and I'm probably going to bed, so good night!

hola amigos, today was my first day of work! so i am at a placement at Padre Antonio Rocco's day care where i am sort of an assistant teacher. really i just help out where ever they need me in the center. the center is in Guatemala City about 5 minutes from home base and they serve children ages 2-5 from underprivileged families. There are 3 classrooms but so far ive only worked in 2- the 2 yr olds and the 4 yr olds and they are both adorable. the children are so sweet and the teachers and nun who work there were all very welcoming, the only problem is that no one there speaks english so it was kind of a total immersion for me. the 4 yr old kids are really excited to learn english words though so thats good! the 4 yr old teacher where i was most of the day also likes to listen to english pop music, but she doesnt understand any english so it was funny to me because she didnt realize that most of the songs she was playing were definitely not appropriate for children. at lunch time i found out that guatemalans dont eat hot dogs the same way we do...they sauteed the hot dogs in a brown sauce and then chopped them up and served them over rice...it was strange and they called it chi chi but it smelled delicious.

after work we went back to the home base and then went on a city tour. the city is split into zonas which are basically neighborhoods and they are pretty much divided by class and/or what their major product is. one stop we made was at the largest public cemetery in the city and in guatemala they have the above ground mausoleums like in New Orleans. the cemetery was really beautiful except when we got to the back we noticed a terrible smell and our guide Juan Carlos had us get out of the car and walk to the  back end of the cemetery where there is a giant ravine and in this ravine was a huge dump where hundreds of people were making their living scavenging through the trash they could resell. the whole area smelled terrible and there were hundreds and hundred of vultures everywhere. after the cemetery we went through the zona where the people we saw below lived and it was just one room shacks full of other peoples trash basically. it was really sad to see. especially when we drove about 30 minutes later through a zona on the other side of town that was so wealthy. this area was filled with gated neighborhoods and houses and american hotels, stores and restaurants. the difference in the areas was staggering.

 after that they took us to get some ice cream and i tried dulce de leche ice cream which was pretty awesome! and then we came back to home base and ate and now we're just hanging out, sooo i guess i will talk to yall later! adios!

more details

ok so now that i've had my coffee, heres more details on yesterday! so on getting to our house we met Enrique (guard) and Virginia (director) and they are awesome. Enrique is going to help me with my spanish, and since i keep constantly asking him things i think he may be getting annoyed. after we got in Vince (another CCS volunteer who has been here like 6 times) took us on a walk around a bit of the town and showed us some of the basic places to go, thank goodness we had someone like him here or we'd be lost. in the evening we heard a "band practice" in the street, apparently there is a huge parade every year and bands have to try out to be in it and so they practice constantly in the streets, so thats pretty cool cuz it sounds like there is a parade all the time! then after dinner we all decided not to waste a perfectly good saturday night and walked to a couple restaurants in town where i learned a few things:

• even if you just order a drink, you will get food. dont try to refuse. 
• seeing a guard standing in the shadows with an assault rifle is not a big deal...it happens.
• Cerveza mixta- is a mix of light and dark beer, and pretty much just tastes like Shiner
• WATCH OUT because apparently they serve beer con tomate o sal...with tomatos or salt mixed, i have no idea why. but just check
• there is no "short walk" to the laundromat... its like 17 blocks
• guatemalan music videos are very similar to the backstreet boys form the 90's
• this town shuts down around midnight or earlier
• there are so many parks! there's one like every 3 blocks

and thats about it for now. this morning i finally got out of bed around 7:30 even though i'd been up for what felt like hours, our house is on the main street and its so loud outside, we're really close to the airport, on the bus route and right across the street from a huge church (really pretty) so needless to say i didnt sleep well. after i got up i got to meet the cook/housekeeper Julieta who also only speaks Spanish so thats another person to practice with! yay! then me and abbey tried to do a puzzle in our courtyard only to realize halfway through that it was actually two different puzzles in the same box but neither of them had all the pieces. today we have orientation so i'm pretty excited about that! we also found a calendar with our "cultural activities" for each day listed and it looks like we'll be doing a city tour after work tomorrow and going to a winery on Wednesday! well ill update again later, im going to go get some pictures of the house!


*****UPDATE*****

we went wandering around town this afternoon before lunch and its pretty awesome. they close off part of their 6th street and its just basically a park on sundays where people sell food and walk their dogs and ride bikes, pretty cool. also there are stray dogs everywhere, its really sad. but we walked down the street cuz we heard there was a park at the very end, and oh man we were not prepared for what we saw. at the end of the street was a carnival!!!! with BUMPER CARS! so we  obviously had to ride them. well apparently their version of "los carros locos" is a little different in Guatemala, and by different i mean far less safe and far more awesome. the cars were sparking all over the place, you could smell the burning from the cars and when we slammed into each other it was literally like getting in a car accident. pretty sure we all have whiplash, but it was sooooo worth it. then we went back home and got to eat some awesome soup. great day so far and its almost time for orientation!

our first day!

Hey everyone!!! I AM IN GUATEMALA!!! and its pretty awesome. so me and abbey did end up staying up all night till our flight this morning so we were both pretty exhausted, but now that i'm here i'm so excited that i dont know that i could nap if i tried. We met Natalie (our other roommate) at the airport in Miami and luckily we were all on the same flight so we got a chance to talk to here and kind of get to know her and shes pretty awesome. i think we're gonna have some fun.

Once we left the airport there was no question that i am definitely gonna be learning some spanish. our driver and house guard both only speak spanish so luckily i have someone to practice with and i was able to kind-of communicate with them, kind of. it will get better, i know it.

but the homebase is awesome!! me, abbey and natalie are all in the same room and we've spent the past couple hours unpacking our stuff and we actually fit it all! anddd now i gotta go eat!

*****UPDATE*******

so i got busy after dinner meeting all the other CCS volunteers and forgot to post BUT it is now 7:30 in the morning and i cant sleep...go figure, so nows as good a time as any. After dinner last night, we went out to a couple of local restaurants as a group and tried some local specials, and i think we"re going to be just fine here :) well im gonna go eat breakfast! later.

heres a pic of the outside of our house:

Hello everyone! This is my blog for my time in Guatemala for all you family and friends out there who want to keep track of what we're up to! Once again thank you sooo much to everyone who made this trip possible for me, your support really means alot.

I'm going to Guatemala City March 3rd, which is Saturday, which is reeeeally soon. I'm amazed at how fast this trip snuck up on me. Me and Abbey have been going back and forth pretty much constantly with questions and I'm pretty sure that Alexa (our Cross-Cultural Solutions contact) is probably pretty ready for us to just get out of America and stop bugging her. 

I've always been a last minute packer so I imagine i'll be throwing things in my suitcase on our way out the door at 3am Saturday morning, no big deal. The only flight without an overnight layover leaves at 5am on Saturday...so I'm figuring I wont be getting much sleep that night anyway.

So me and Abbey got our work assignments today, FINALLY. I am going to be working at Padre Antonio Rocco's child care center. I'll be helping with games and arts and crafts with kids ages 1-6, so that's right up my alley! 

In case anyone was wondering I will not be using my cell phone while I'm there so if you want to contact me use this blog, facebook or email me and I'll try to respond ASAP but I know I wont have very much time on the internet daily so it may take awhile. I'm also going to try to post a picture per post on here but I heard that you have to be careful with your camera so we'll see how much I can get.

For now here's a picture of Guatemala City i found on google, enjoy!

I'll try and write again on Saturday when I get in!

-Lili