Our spring break trip was pretty amazing and I’ll definitely take away experiences that will last a lifetime. The trip was actually a 2 credit course on community-based tourism and eco-tourism in Guatemala, more specifically the Alta Verapaz region. This region is rich in natural resources, attractions, and is the epicenter of the indigenous group known as the Qe’qchi. Our travels took us took us to the Cancuen Mayan Archaeological Site, Canderlaria National Park (Caves), and a few waterfalls. We got to meet with community leaders and discuss many of the highlights and challenges of managing these parks at the local level. Following our trip through the Alta Verapaz region, a few of us decided to continue on to Semuc Champey. Semuc Champey is a region that’s normally about 6 hours from Antigua and is home to more caves and beautiful natural lagoons. The trip through the caves with water up to your waist at times was pretty fun, but it’s all about the lagoons. These natural lagoons slope down a mountainside and are one of the most beautiful attractions I’ve ever seen. The water is turquoise and some of the pools are filled with freshwater fish. You can see straight to the bottom of the lagoons and open your eyes underwater with ease. I’ll post a few pics but it probably won’t do it complete justice.

Candelaria National Park

Semuc Champey:

Following our trip to Semuc Champey, an even smaller group of us decided not to bring our vacation to a premature end and headed on to San Raphael Chilasco. San Raphael Chilasco (Chilasco) is home to the largest waterfall in all of Central America. We had prior to heading there that Chilasco was a bit off the beaten path, but we had no idea what we were in store for. We are able to catch a bus to the base of the mountain that the town is on and had to wait for the town shuttle. After a couple of hours waiting the town shuttle mini-van arrived and true to Guatemala style, it had no room. Unlike other occasions where they would create space out of nowhere to cram you in, they truly had only room for two others waiting that weren’t in our group of 5. They offered us the option of riding on top of the bus with the cargo and fearing we wouldn’t have another shot at getting on a bus, we took it! Fear can take shape in many forms, but riding on top of a mini-van going up a mountain is a whole different level! After possibly the longest 30 drive of my life, we arrived in a town unlike any I’ve ever experienced before.

The town of Chilasco looked in many ways like one the rest of the world forgot. I don’t mean from a National Geographic-tribe in loin cloth perspective, but just based on the lack of resources. Surrounded by natural beauty, Chilasco was honestly one of the poorest looking towns I’ve ever seen.  It was basically a collection of wooden shacks, with the occasional concrete building. Despite being home of the largest waterfall in Central America, we were literally the only foreigners in the town that didn’t have any markings of a tourism hub. After walking up and down a few hills, we finally were able to secure lodging in a hostel-style dormitory, with 2 rooms separated by gender. After dropping off our bags, we decided to go back into town and pick up supplies for our trek tomorrow. The initial stares quickly turned into a swarm of little kids surrounding us and being quite fascinated with me. I guess as usual, I was the tallest person in area of Guatemala and I added to a community’s entertainment for a night. Despite all the smiles and laughter that was a result of playing with the kids, there were some disturbing elements. Many of the kids didn’t have shoes on their feet, most were extremely dirty, and many had an assortment of skin rashes. Later when we headed to what appeared to be the only pseudo restaurant in town, there were a few kids that appeared from nowhere just standing near a counter. One of the ladies from the restaurant handed each of them a tortilla and a couple of coins. It was heartwarming to see such an act, but it makes you wonder how this is even possible. I’m not saying Guatemala is the richest country on the planet, but I’ve been here long enough to realize how much agriculture is produced on such a large scale. One of the things in Chilasco that’s fascinating is that there are broccoli fields everywhere and it’s a crop you seldom see at any market here. The overwhelming majority of this along with other crops are simply for exportation. This just bothered me a bit given the fact that people in the town all this agriculture is being produced are unable to buy food. Despite the abject poverty and living conditions in the town, everyone was extremely polite and helpful.

After heading into town, we headed back to our rooms to rest before a 5:30am start time to head to the waterfall. The next morning we got up on time and took the nearly two-hour trek to the waterfalls, which lay outside the city limits. The trek was a little difficult at times, but was well worth it once we reached the falls. There were actually a few smaller waterfalls along the way, but the main attraction was beautiful. It was pretty hard to capture in one frame from the base, but I gave it a good shot. In all the trip was well worth it to Chilasco and I took more away than I ever anticipated.

Here are some of the kids in Chilasco, although they were far from the worst health-wise.

Here’s one of the shots I got of the waterfall. The one’s from closer came out blurry due to all the mist.

Thanks for patiently waiting on an update and until next time….Chow!

And per Brianne’s request: Here’s one of the randoms taken of us on top of the bus.

I just wanted to check in with everyone and give you all an update on all matters Guatemala for me. This week hasn’t been as busy as previous ones in terms of school, but I’ve been trying to load up on hours at the internship before spring break next week. We’re going to the Alta Verapaz region of Guatemala, which is unique due a number of caves, Mayan villages, and ruins in the area. Myself and 8 other students are going there as part of a school-sponsored trip that will allow me to earn 2 credits. We’ll have a chance to speak with locals regarding eco-tourism, pirate radio stations (I’ll elaborate more in my next post), and get to do some fun activities just as cave tubing, repelling, and hiking.

This week Antigua has been flooded with a large influx of Americans, mostly here for a week volunteering. At my internship, Obras Sociales, we’ve been flooded with volunteers and visitors from nursing programs. I have to admit this appears to be both a gift and a curse. On the positive end, having more helping hands around is exciting for the children and makes for a more festive atmosphere. The opposite end is that it makes for plenty of confusion around the workplace. For the most part, you have really genuine people who come to help and do whatever it takes to fit in. Unfortunately, there are always a few bad apples that can really give Americans a bad name.  Trying to tell the local nurses how to do their job isn’t exactly a way to endear yourself to the population.  Nevertheless, the week’s gone pretty good and I’m excited about the break.

This past weekend I had a chance to visit Lake Atitlan (Lago de Atitlan), which is a beautiful place. Four of us went up there this past Saturday morning and came back Sunday evening. We spent most of our time in Panahachel, which is a little hippie-town filled with expats. The other thing Pana is filled with is peddlers, more so than anywhere I’ve been thus far. Between the walks to the hotel, in restaurants, and on the lakeshore, there was a countless procession of peddlers trying to sell you wares. I have to admit it can be frustrating at times, but it really points to the poverty present within the country.  Despite this, we still had a pretty good time on the lake and even more so at the town of Santiago.

We took a boat ride over to Santiago and after getting away from the tourist zone, we were able to walk freely for the first time in awhile. We got to go into the art studio of this really good artist, Nicolas Reanda. His son works the studio in Santiago, but they’ve had expositions all over the states. After leaving the gallery, we went to the town square and I got a chance to shoot a few hoops with some local kids. After walking around for a bit longer we headed back to the port and to Panahacel.

That evening we ate at a decent Italian restaurant, but it was the street food later that was great! The food here can be a little bland at times, so finding this stand with some great tacos was well worth it! We hung out for a little bit and then headed back to our rooms. The next day after some confusion about departure times, we chicken bused it back to Antigua and wrapped up a pretty nice weekend….

Shooting hoops with the kids!!! I made this one by the way!

Me and a little Mayan Lady trying to sell me stuff!

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted and I just wanted to follow up before the weekend. This week has been yet another busy one, with 2 presentations due this week and a Spanish Midterm. The good news is that both went pretty well and the Spanish Midterm actually drags into next week.  The other school news we found out today is an optional trip we can take for spring break and receive two credits in the process. The trip goes to the highlands of the country and we’ll visit some caves, go propelling down one, tubing, and visiting some Mayan villages through the duration.  The trip is pretty inexpensive and I’m sure I’ll take advantage.

So other than school news to report, I went to Guatemala City this past Saturday.  It was a pretty interesting trip given it was my first time going and our first time riding a chicken bus! For those of you that don’t know, a Camioneta, or chicken bus are the local buses that will take you about anywhere in the country for dirt-cheap. Anyone who’s been on a military base before, would recognize the Blue Bird buses used here in Guatemala. The buses are colorfully painted and pump out more exhaust than a 18 wheeler! There always crowded and infamous for crazy drivers. Anyways my roommate and I hopped on the bus towards the city and had the rollercoaster ride of a lifetime. I didn’t think it was possible to go full speed around curbs, with no braking and me being able to live and tell about it.

So after a crazy, but quick 30 minute or so ride to the city, my roommate and I got off at the mall stop of Tikal Futura/Mira Flores. I’m not much of a mall person these days, but it was pretty interesting to see two beautiful large malls side by side in a city that looks like a barricaded fortress, or better yet a prison. Guatemala City seems to be an interesting place, but would never win a beauty contest. Given the high crime rate, there is armed security, concrete barricades, and barbwire as far as the eye can see! Nevertheless, both malls were very modern and had all the conveniences of one in the states.  After coming to this realization and watching Transformers in electronics store, we decided to head to the archaeology museum.

We caught a taxi to the National Archaeology and Ethnology Museum and viewed several Mayan artifacts. It was a bit small, but it was worth the experience overall and we saw some cool things. Once we left the museum, we tried to catch a cab, but all were trying to charge us a ridiculous rate to get back to the mall. So we decided to try our luck walking and with the assistance of a local, got on the city chicken bus. It was a tight squeeze, but only cost one Quetzal compared to the 40.00 the cabbies tried to charge us. Once we made it back to the mall stop, we immediately had to run and catch our bus heading back to Antigua.

The ride back to Antigua was remarkably peaceful and this driver actually wasn’t half-bad.  We made it back to Antigua in good time and had the rest of the day to relax and look back on a good experience….

It’s been a very busy week for me with papers, exams, internship, etc. This past weekend however, was one I’ll never forget from my experience here in Guatemala. This was the first of two sponsored trips by the school and we headed to the Petén region of Guatemala. The Petén is known as the heart of the Mayan civilization and home to a number of ruins, most notably Tikal. Our group began the weekend early, having to be ready for a bus pickup at 3:30 am Thursday morning. I’m happy to report that our bus this time was a bit larger than the ones previous, which equals me having a little legroom! This definitely came to be extremely helpful, considering our drive was over 13 hours. Our house was the first group to get on the bus and the first song on our driver’s playlist was “Damn it feels good to be a Gangster”! Right away, I knew this was going to be one entertaining ride, but it always seems to be the case in Guatemala.  The drive time included stops, meals, and our first destination, Quiriqua.

Quiriqua is a smaller Mayan site on the way to Tikal and mostly composed of stelae, which are ancient stone slabs with glyphs on them. There were also the remnants of a ancient ball court and other ruins. The site is situated in the jungle but there is a large banana plant that’s owned by Del Monte I believe along the outskirts.  I’m not exactly a plant or tree person, but there were some absolutely enormous and crazy trees surrounding the site.  The guide we had for the tour, grew up working on the banana plantation and is from the surrounding area. It was a pretty cool site overall with a lot of interesting things to look at.

After leaving Quiriqua we headed to our hotel, which was still another 2 hours away. The hotel was very nice, situated on the lake and had excellent views. Once we placed our backs and hung out for a while, we headed back out for dinner. When we arrived at the restaurant we had reservations for, we were informed by the staff that they weren’t prepared to serve us. After our Program Director and Archaeology professor discovered they needed to call in cooks to serve us, we decided to take our chances and go elsewhere. Only in Guatemala will a restaurant let a party of 19 slip away so easily when they were absolutely empty! We were able to go find a restaurant that could accommodate us and get good seafood! After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and crashed knowing we had a long day ahead of us.

Our Friday morning began at 7:00 for breakfast and we headed out for Tikal around 8:00am. Thankfully, the drive to Tikal from our hotel was only about 30 minutes and we arrived at the park. Just to clarify, Tikal is absolutely enormous and is something you’ll need at least two days to fully explore. After walking through the Jungle path through the park we began coming across small ruins and stelae.  When we began our final approach to the main square, Our director had us close our eyes to walk inside. We had to the hold the hand of those who’ve been there before until we reach the center. Once we did and I opened my eyes, I was shocked to see what was around me. This is honestly a time when a picture has a difficult time of capturing the scale of these ruins. They are enormous and it is amazing that these were constructing by a society that didn’t even have the wheel. We spent a couple of hours in the main square alone exploring and are Archaeology professor lecturing about the site. After leaving the main square, we headed to Tikal Temple IV, which is the largest of the temples. We were able to climb the recently built stairway to get to the top of the temple. The view from the top is ridiculous and you can see over the entire jungle canopy. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to spend as much time as I would have liked, but it was well worth the climb. We left the park shortly after and headed to another site, the Yaxha ruins.

The Yaxha ruins are significantly smaller than Tikal, but there was a great view from the largest temple, which overlooked a large lake. You also could hear howler monkeys as the sunset. After spending some time in Yaxha, we headed to dinner and finally back to the hotel. We all hung out for a while that night on the hotel grounds and I finally passed out from an already long, but rewarding weekend.

The next morning, we began our long journey back to Antigua and did not finally get back until around 2am Sunday. Although the drive both ways were brutal, the trip was more than worth the price of admission! Until next time folks, Chow!

Side note: We actually had a police escort both ways of our trip for precautionary purposes. After the first rest stop, I had a little fun with the boys and this happened…..

I know I’ve been a bad blogger to this point and realize whatever interest there may have been, is all but dead. Moving forward I plan on having two updates a week to keep everyone up to date on this life of mine in Guatemala. I’ve been extremely busy the past couple of weeks, but I feel that I’m back on track and ready to go!

So here’s a quick recap of the past two weeks: The Saturday before last, a few of us headed to the Volcan Pacaya, an active volcano about 2 hours from Antigua. To make a long story short, I took a beating getting up it and lived to tell about it. Our guide for the trek, herded us up the mountain like sheep and every few minutes: “Estamos bien?….VAMOS!!!! (Are we ok, let’s go!!!!!”). But despite the two or so hours it took to get up, it was more than worth it. Here are some pics from the journey….

This past weekend, I stayed in Antigua and kept it pretty low key. We had a lot of homework of late and I’ve been busy with my volunteer work. I’m currently working with a Catholic-sponsored organization called “Obras Sociales” (Social Works) working with children with Cerebral Palsy and other developmental disorders. The group actually gets all it’s funding from donations and for the most part is a pretty solid organization. The work is pretty rewarding, but exhausting at times. Some of the conditions these children have will honestly break your heart and some of the reasons behind it, even more so. I wish I could take pictures to post of the location, but we’re forbidden to do so.

This upcoming Thursday, we’re headed to the Peten region of Guatemala and will get to see the Tikal ruins. I’m pretty excited about going, considering this is the crown jewel of unearthed Mayan sites in the region. I’ll be taking plenty of pics and will have a update early next week. Until then, take care everyone and see you next time!

This past weekend myself and 11 other students went to the beach local of Monterrico! Its located on the Pacific coast of Guatemala and is known for its black sand beaches and sea turtles. Nevertheless I didn’t see the turtles, but had a good time during my stay. Monterrico is a pretty quiet beach town overall, with a number of mom and pop restaurants and hotels. The second we got off the bus, everyone was lobbying us to come to their restaurant later and enjoy a “good meal”! With that said we settled into our rooms at El Delfin (The Dolphin) hostel and headed out to the beach for a while.

The beach was beautiful and sparsely crowded, but the tide was was insane! Even me pushing 300 lbs (give or take a few) got absolutely blasted and knocked on my backside a time or two! You’ll just have to take my word on that since no known photos from those unfortunate incidents were taken…

After hanging out at the beach for a while, we all decided to go out in search of food and see a bit more of the town. As we were walking I looked to the left and saw a sea of red laid out on these tarps. We all walk closer to the the sea of red and realize that its chilies being sun dried. There was a nice old gentlemen that offered us some to try. I took the first plunge and tried one of the peppers! After tasting the pepper (which was mildly hot), I cashed in on my growing status as the biggest human being people have seen. I snapped a few photos with some kids and we proceeded to go to the family’s restaurant right around the corner.

The restaurant was great, a huge grilled fish, fries, and a few sodas for just over 9 dollars! After a great meal, we headed back to the hostel and I had some fun with a few spectators along the way. Later that evening we walked around to a few bars along the beach and had a pretty good time. After a long day that begin with the drive at 8am, I called it a night and headed to bed. Normally this would lead right in to the next morning but I’ve got to comment on the bed. My expectations aren’t particularly high on sleep accommodations at a 45 Quetzales (about $5.50/night) hostel, but this was the hardest bed in my life. The bed literally was a big slab of concrete with a futon-like pad on top! Needless to say that was an interesting night’s sleep but I somehow made it!

The next day we were scheduled to have the drive come and pick us up at 2pm, but this is the Guat so things to always go according to plan. After calling the travel agency, one of the students, Ian finally got word that the driver was on his way. I walked into the hotel lobby at 3 o’clock with the driver there asking if we were ready. He claimed he had been waiting outside for us since 1 pm. This of course was completely untrue considering one of the other students went out to look earlier and saw no one outside. After a brief conversation with the driver, Ian came to the conclusion that the guy had been hanging out at a nearby bar all day and we all noticed he had the same clothes on! Needless to say he wasn’t in the greatest of moods and drove like an absolute maniac on the way back! After some white-knuckling for two hours we finally made it back to Antigua safely.

To some this may sound like a crazy experience, but after a couple of weeks in Guatemala, its just another day at the office!

El Delfin Hotel/Hostel

Chilies!!!

Showing love to the kids!

One big fish!

Aftermath

Working off dinner!

Sunrise at the beach!

Beach pic

On a more positive note, I have a good group of housemates and our house mom Thelma is great! She’s a pretty good cook overall and I’m not really used to eating 3 meals a day. For this upcoming weekend, we’re looking maybe going to a beach in Monterrico or Picaya, which is a volcano.

Anyways I’ll begin posting on a more frequent basis, so until then…later.