Today has been pretty good so far! At school during the morning gymnastics lessons I do for the kids I havent been feeling well and so I was super out of breath and the kids were making fun of me cuz I couldnt keep up with them. But after that we made the bunnies (conejos) I brought and for the most part I was pretty impressed by them, but there were a few that were definitely ridiculous. I wish I had brought my camera cuz we had some pretty messed up bunnies goin on in my class...like eyes all upside down, feet instead of noses, some just gave up completely and glued things wherever they wanted, but hey, at least they were occupied for a bit. Later on I brought out the awesome playdoh I made and the teacher was pretty excited to have some more for the kids. The kids kept bringing me the playdoh and asking me to make chuchitos (puppies) and munecas (dolls) for them. Only problem is that I definitely cant sculpt so we had some dilapidated puppies running around our classroom.
At lunch we were all sitting, eating, as happy as can be when Virginia suddenly said..."Do you know what you ate last week??". Never a good sentence to hear. Well come to find out we all ate cow tongue last week....and I know exactly which dish she was talking about cuz the meat was super fatty and slimy. gross. some warning would be nice, but Virginia thought it was pretty funny.
After lunch we finally got to go drop off our laundry!! yay! I really hope it doesnt get stolen. And then we had a lesson on the Mayan calendar. Mario was the name of the man giving the lesson and he explained to us the cycles of the Mayan calendar and the way of Mayan life. He explained to us how Mayans feel a deep connection with everyone and everything in the universe and for that reason they are very respectful of our Earth. He told a story of how when he was little his grandfather worked with wood and for this reason he needed to go out to the forest and cut trees. Well one day he went with his grandfather and before he cut down the tree he told Mario that they needed to ask forgiveness because they were killing a living being and disrupting our universe. I thought this was a very interesting way of thinking especially when we come from a culture in the US where it is rare to have any respect for nature. They have a saying in Mayan culture that relates to our golden rule that is Wachalal or in English-"I am you and you are me." This is a way of saying that we are all part of the greater universe and so whatever we do to harm one another harms us as well. My favorite saying was "Aj in tzagat" which means "Sin usted no estoy completo" or "without you I am not complete". This saying was not just relating to another person though but that without the trees, the wind, fire...etc. no person is complete.
Mario also told us what our birthday meant according to the Mayan calendar. My birthday is I'x which is the sign of mother earth. This sign is related closely to women, mountains, strength, vigor, vitality and feminine energy. People who are born on my birthday have a destiny of Iq' which means wind. These people are strong, vigorous, intelligent, daring, patient (no) and make good decisions. On the downside they can be easily angered, proud, vain, and can give in easily to the 7 shames (sins) -- which I sure hope is not me. On this date you should offer forgiveness by mother nature for crimes committed against her. Mario also told us of a story of the "evil eye" which is thought to be an evil spirit that descends upon children. You can clear this spirit from the child by passing an egg or a duck over them. He told us of how one time he thought his son was effected by the evil eye and so his aunt passed a baby duck over the child and the son was bette within a half hour, and an hour later the duck was dead. Virginia also told us of how she passed an egg over her granddaughter who she believed to be effected and she was immediately better and when Virginia cracked the egg open after this, the egg was rotted. So the lesson was very interesting and also Mario said the world isnt going to end....so just calm down people.
Now we're just hanging our before dinner so I'll update later!
19.3.12
18.3.12
PLAYDOH
So last night we ended up going to see "All Good Things" or as they titled it in Spanish "Crimen en Familia"...i dont really know how they came up with that translation. Luckily the movie was in English (yay!) with Spanish subtitles. To see a movie we had to go over to zone 10 and the theatre was inside Oakland Mall, which was insanely nice. It was amazing the difference between this place and the street stores in our part of town. The mall had bumper boats, a waterfall, a train that went all over and tons of nice restaurants and fancy shops. It was crazy. Also when you go up to order your ticket here ($5) you get to see a seating chart of the theatre and pick out what seat you want, which is such a good idea. Overall the movie was pretty bad and crazy long, and it was pretty funny that they were playing that movie in the theatre since it came out in 2010, but I guess that movies come out later here. But the theatre was really cool and so was the mall. After we got home we pretty much just went to bed, which let me tell you is no easy feat in this town where there are crazy sounds all night long. As a small demonstration I took a video so yall could hear the noises outside our window before we went to bed...
Today: today we got to sleep in again :) but we missed banana pancakes for breakfast :(. We went to the grocery store after we finally got up and going cuz I wanted to make some playdoh for my students. Well once we got home I tried take one of playdoh, and it was a HUGE fail. The "playdoh" had the consistency of thick glue and it was impossible to get it off my fingers and into the trash can, so that was sad. But I dont give up that easy. So take 2... i realized that we didnt have any food coloring so we got creative and used abbey's red tea to dye the dough and I made it in the microwave this time off a different recipe I found online and this time...SUCCESS!!! yay!! I think my kids will really like it because as of now they have one can of playdoh to share between all of them so they each only get a tiny piece.
This afternoon we heard this voice on a megaphone over and over and I decided to look outside and see what was going on and I saw some sort of procession going on. I think it probably has something to do with lent but I'm not too sure...but heres a video of it!
Today: today we got to sleep in again :) but we missed banana pancakes for breakfast :(. We went to the grocery store after we finally got up and going cuz I wanted to make some playdoh for my students. Well once we got home I tried take one of playdoh, and it was a HUGE fail. The "playdoh" had the consistency of thick glue and it was impossible to get it off my fingers and into the trash can, so that was sad. But I dont give up that easy. So take 2... i realized that we didnt have any food coloring so we got creative and used abbey's red tea to dye the dough and I made it in the microwave this time off a different recipe I found online and this time...SUCCESS!!! yay!! I think my kids will really like it because as of now they have one can of playdoh to share between all of them so they each only get a tiny piece.
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| PLAYDOH SUCCESS!!! |
Well thats all for today, I'll update again tomorrow, night!
17.3.12
el mirador
Hello everyone....so here's the update...
Thursday: At work we worked on this worksheet I brought for the kids but only the older ones could do it and I'm not really sure they enjoyed it so I probably wont be doing that again. But at recess the kids tried to use the beach ball again and I kept having to blow it up like every 2 minutes cuz it would deflate from all the holes and I couldnt even begin to find them all to tape them us sooo I'm going to have to find a new ball.
After work we went on a field trip!! yay! So at first we all piled into the car (all 12 of us) and went for an hour long drive...that part was rough. But definitely worth it. Our first stop was at a mirrador (lookout) on the way which over-looked the city of Antigua and it was absolutely beautiful.
So after the monastery we got back in the car and drove to this small Mayan town outside of Antigua called San Antonio Aguas Calientes. Some of the women in this town were working to preserve their culture and so they put on presentations of Mayan culture and they put one on for our group. The first part of the presentation was showing us how they wove all the clothing and rugs and blankets. They told us that by the time the girls are 8 years old they have already just about mastered the process, and let me tell you, it is insanely complicated. They dont use looms or anything, everything is done by hand. They showed us a small shirt they had woven and said it would take about 6 months to make if they worked 8 hours a day. It kind of makes you feel bad for trying to haggle with them about the price, because its so obvious about how much work went into it.
So after the wedding they let everyone shop because alot of the women had little shops set up in the area where the presentation was. I didnt end up getting anything because I didnt bring enough money since I didnt know we were shopping. But after that we got to make corn tortillas!! This Mayan woman showed us how they made a typical tortilla and let us do it! Mine turned out pretty bad and I actually dropped the first one so its probably a good thing I'm not Mayan cuz I would never get married.
After work we actually didnt have anything to do, so we got to take naps!! yay! After that me Abbey and Clark decided to go out and we found this really cool place where there was some live music! They played a good mix of stuff in English and Spanish and I think we'll definitely be going back there.
Thursday: At work we worked on this worksheet I brought for the kids but only the older ones could do it and I'm not really sure they enjoyed it so I probably wont be doing that again. But at recess the kids tried to use the beach ball again and I kept having to blow it up like every 2 minutes cuz it would deflate from all the holes and I couldnt even begin to find them all to tape them us sooo I'm going to have to find a new ball.
After work we went on a field trip!! yay! So at first we all piled into the car (all 12 of us) and went for an hour long drive...that part was rough. But definitely worth it. Our first stop was at a mirrador (lookout) on the way which over-looked the city of Antigua and it was absolutely beautiful.
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| view from the top |
After this we continued our drive and stopped at an old monastery at the edge of Antigua. It used to be a huge Cathedral with a Monastery attached but it was destroyed in an earthquake. After the earthquake no one cleaned up the ruins and it was just abandoned. Which is actually lucky for us because it was pretty awesome. We all got to wander around the ruins and then we got to this one part with a locked door....well Virginia did some sweet talking got a guard to unlock it for us and we all got to go into this secret blocked off room, it was so cool! I felt like a badass. Here's some pictures of this place, but there are a ton more on facebook.
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| Abbey and Virginia, our director |
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| Secret door |
So after the monastery we got back in the car and drove to this small Mayan town outside of Antigua called San Antonio Aguas Calientes. Some of the women in this town were working to preserve their culture and so they put on presentations of Mayan culture and they put one on for our group. The first part of the presentation was showing us how they wove all the clothing and rugs and blankets. They told us that by the time the girls are 8 years old they have already just about mastered the process, and let me tell you, it is insanely complicated. They dont use looms or anything, everything is done by hand. They showed us a small shirt they had woven and said it would take about 6 months to make if they worked 8 hours a day. It kind of makes you feel bad for trying to haggle with them about the price, because its so obvious about how much work went into it.
After that they showed us typical dress for Mayan men and women in their community and showed us a mock Mayan wedding! Clark and Jill are now happily married, big congratulations to them. They told us that in Mayan culture the groom's family pays for everything, and that there are all kinds of hand-woven gifts that the bride must make for all the members of the groom's family. All these gifts take about a year to finish and actually the bride for the mother of the groom is something that the bride already made when she was 14 years old as a sort of rite of passage. Also the typical wedding is about 12 hours with the ceremony and reception and everything and after all this the bride has to go over to the groom's parents house that night and show the mother in law that she can make tortillas and coffee before she can go home with their son. Its actually pretty funny. At the ceremony there is also a part where they put incense over the bride and groom and the lady leading the presentation (her name was Liliana) told us they make sure to purify the groom really well.
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| the wedding party |
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| Clark getting purified |
After the tortillas we got to grind our own coffee, but I didnt buy any of it, I definitely should have though, it was awesome.
Then we had to go home...but as soon as we got home we basically jumped back in the car because I guess someone had made dinner reservations at this place in zone 10. Zone 10 is where all the big hotels are so its really Americanized and everything is a bit more expensive. But the restaurant was really nice, all the waiters were dressed in traditional Mayan outfits and the food was amazing. Im glad we went, but it was more expensive than I wanted it to be so we probably wont be going back.
Friday: I BROUGHT MY CAMERA TO WORK!!! YAY! so I took a bunch of pictures of my 2 year old and 4 year old classes. Most of the kids were there in my older class, but there were only 4 in my 2 yr old class so i'll have to bring my camera back when more come. Here are a few pictures of them but there are a bunch more on facebook.
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| my 4 yr olds |
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| Ian, one of the 2 yr olds :) |
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| Jose, mi amor |
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| Estefany |
TODAY: today we have pretty much been useless. We've been really taking advantage of having nothing we have to do and pretty much we've been laying around the house all day. Everyone else left today so its just gonna be me abbey and clark for this week, good crowd. Me and Abbey tried to do laundry today, so we lugged our huge laundry bags 3 blocks down the road only to realize when we got there that it was closed...blah. So now we're trying to figure out how to see a movie in English here, wish us luck!
Check out my facebook for tons more pictures!
14.3.12
Guatemala is money. So money.
HEY THE INTERNET IS BACK!!! Sorry for not updating the past
couple days with all these new people in the house the internet has been super
sketchy. So here is goes…
Sunday: So the new people got back Sunday night, it’s a
group of 8 but theyre not all together. There’s a dad and his daughter (Dan and
Grace), two friends from college ( Jill and Terry-Ann) and everyone else is by
themselves: Kathy, Mishiah, Sarah and Caitlin. Sunday night we just kind of
hung out and played a little uno before bed and did the basic getting to know
you conversations…blah. Also it was the longest game of uno I’ve ever heard
of. So that’s all I remember of
Sunday.
Monday: Work was good, pretty much the same as usual, except
that the teacher had asked me to bring in a craft for the kids to make Munecas
(dolls). At least that’s what im pretty sure she asked….anyways I decided to
use the activity as art and to
teach the kids some body parts in English. So at breakfast Monday morning me,
abbey and Natalie started the ridiculous task of trying to draw little dolls
for the kids to color in and glue body parts onto. They were pretty awful, but
luckily kids aren’t too picky and the teacher didn’t laugh at me too much. Just
a little, which is completely understandable. After work we had a history of
Guatemala lesson with Virginia and she showed us this video about the genocides
in Guatemala. Between 1982-1984 the military government here authorized the
killing of hundreds of Mayan people in Guatemala. The men who were responsible
for this are just now being brought to justice and even so, it is only a few of
the men and it has been 30 years. I found it interesting that this event is
something that I had never really heard of; how could genocide just be
forgotten? I think it has something to do with the fact that the United States
supported the military government that committed all these crimes. But after
that me, Abbey and Natalie decided to go on a walk to the Central Park area in
town and check out some of the stores around there. On the way we saw this big
building we’d been by a bunch of times and were like “oh that’s pretty, what is
it?” So we walked inside and it turned out to be a beautiful church that we’d
never noticed. Unfortunately we didn’t have our cameras but we’ll definitely
bring them next time. The church was so ornately decorated and because it’s
lent, in one of the side chapels they had what we thought was a rug on the
floor with purple and gold decorations, but when we got closer we noticed that
it was actually made completely out of sawdust. It was amazing. Here's some pictures I got of the outside on Tuesday, inside ones to come...
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| Spooky lookin with the clouds |
After, we
walked around to a few shops and I found a few really cute pairs of cheap shoes
that I may have to come back for. That night we ordered PIZZA, which was
surprisingly difficult because we couldn’t work the online system, but it was
delicious and we watched Swingers, which was money.
Tuesday: At work on Tuesday I brought in some worksheets for
the kids to do that basically taught colors and they went ok, the kids didn’t
really understand what they were supposed to do, but regardless they had fun
coloring. After work and lunch we had our Spanish lesson and I finally learned
the words to this song that the kids have been singing at recess, so that’s
exciting. Then me, Abbey and Natalie went on another walk to see more of the
street market, we didn’t really find anything we wanted to buy but I remembered
my camera so I got some pictures!
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| Parque Centrale |
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| Wendy's |
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| Names of victims of genocide |
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| Street Market |
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| Uncle Sam |
And after that Me, Abbey and Natalie met Clark at Tacontendo
for happy hour and dinner, mmmm. The pina coladas there are probably the best
I’ve ever tasted. After that we headed back home where Miguel (the awesome
guard) taught us some puzzle games. One was where you nail a nail into a table
just a bit and you have to figure out how to balance 7-9 other nails on top of
it. It was crazy hard. And the other he tied a rope around your left wrist and
then put a knot in the middle and tied the other end around you right ankle and
you had to figure out how to untangle it. We all tried for like an hour before
Miguel showed us how to do it and it was of course ridiculously easy. It was a
really fun night.
*******UPDATE!************
The ruins: So went all piled in the car to go see the ruins and I'm kind of expecting another long trip but much to my surprise we didnt even leave the city. The ruins were actually a site that is currently being excavated in a park in the city. The park is named Kaminaljuyu and there are tons of hills in the park and underneath them they have been finding ruins from an ancient Mayan city. It was pretty cool to see the work in progress going on but the ruins here were still nothing compared to pictures I have seen of Tikal of course. The guide was telling us that when they were building the houses in the neighborhood surrounding the park they found a bunch of arrowheads and other small artifacts and many of them actually have personal collections of Mayan artifacts in their houses. Kaminaljuyu is actually an important ceremonial site for Mayan so while we were at the park we saw three different people building altars and performing ceremonies, it was really cool! Here are some pics from the park but theres more on facebook!
Surprise!: So after we went to the ruins Virginia had said that she had a surprise for all of of so we got driven around for awhile to throw us off and then ended up back at home, where we found out it was a birthday celebration for Dan (the Dad) whose birthday was in March! So I got to experience another Guatemalan birthday. Virginia had bought a pinata and we all got to take turns hitting it, i was pretty intense. After that we ate legit non-taco bell tostadas, which were amazing and some cake. Here's some pictures and video of me and Natalie doing the pinata!
Dinner: So after pinata time me abbey and natalie went to dinner at natalie's family's house in the city. The dinner was absolutely delicious and I definitely ate wayyyy too much. Also her family was awesome and so welcoming they told us to call anytime we want and we definitely will
Well thats all for yesterday! ill update later about today :)
11.3.12
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!
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!
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| san pedro |
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