Chris is sick AGAIN. It is NOT pretty, that´s for sure! We´ve had the same thing to eat except two things: 1) Yesterday Chris drank a Hot Toddy (hot milk w/whisky and Cinnamon) 2) Tuesday Chris ate this Fiambre (a local dish for Dia de los muertos) that contained some shellfish (which will be another blog about how my host family tried to kill me...).
I think it was the shellfish that got him, he thinks the milk.... I don´t know, but I think that shellfish in a country where we´re not directly on the coast, and all the water is contaminated makes more sense... but who knows.
Any thoughts on this one?
Thursday, November 5, 2009
I Spy
Well this will be short, but I needed to write a little bit of a story.... Every country that I have visited thus far in 2009 has presented a midget in clear sight. In the USA it´s quite clear and obvious there are many, Mexico - I saw one on the beach in March running in a thong chasing birds, Honduras - I saw a midget get in a kayak and later came to find out that he was actually a porn star!, and Yesterday in Guatemala I saw a midget that owned an Internet cafe. I think that perhaps I´ve moved away from mullets to midgets...
Monday, October 26, 2009
Death By Exhaust Inhalation
Well I hope I return from my travels without some sort of respiratory malfunction or disease. They surely do not have any emissions requirements in this city. Walking in el central you get blasted by bus exhaust on every street corner - therefore I´ve decided to start wearing a gas mask. I hope that I don´t stick out too much!
Perhaps I´ll try to capture the perfect moment on camera for you to enjoy!
Pray for my health - I need it!
Perhaps I´ll try to capture the perfect moment on camera for you to enjoy!
Pray for my health - I need it!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
La Familia
You know – mi familia in Xela will never be my family! Dad and Mom are irreplacable! Plus, these people really feel more like a cousin or a brother and sister in another country. They are my same age with a one and half year old (David), so really they are just cool people that are helping me with my spanish! I try to speak to them about all the new stuff that I learn, but I butcher it everytime. At least they are patient with me, and help me figure it out. I’m pretty sure that I’ll never get POR or PARA in the correct context! I’ll try to get a family photo of them before I leave here so you can see who they are… you know the sad thing is that Alejandra (Sadie) is the wife, and I can never remember her husbands name. I think it starts with an E! I suppose I should figure that out sooner than later, especially if I want to write a thank you note for allowing me to stay at their house.
Oh a few things about the house. You can see a picture of that here, but you should know that it’s just the upstairs. It’s just slightly bigger than my old apartment off 13th Ave. It may not even be much bigger actually, but nonetheless you have an idea of size. You walk into the family room where they have some funny couches (I’ll try to get a photo of them soon), and a rocking chair – but not your typical rocking chair just one that sits in the corner holding stuff. To the direct right off the family room, you find their bedroom (where they spend most of their time). Next to that is a small kitchen complete with a stove about 1/3 the size of the average stove, a microwave (yes amazing), a fridge the size of my old one in my apartment (and believe it or not, it’s actually nicer than my old fridge! HA!), a small sink and a few cupboards. Nothing too fancy, and it’s pretty small. They have a bathroom just off the family room, and it’s your average bathroom. No tub, just a shower with very little warm water. A heating plate to try and warm the water. If you turn the water on too high, it gets cooooold, and when I say cold I mean that I thought I was going to have a heart attack from shock… So you can try to find warm water if you’re lucky! Oiff the back of the family room there is a dining room where we always eat, so we have family dinners which is pretty cool, and a great time to practice my spanish! I suppose that I get confused and play charades with them often at dinner to figure things out! I bet they go to bed and laugh at my lack of spanish skills! Oh well, as long as I can provide some entertainment!
My room… hmm. The window, or lack there of. I suppose it would be a lie to say that I don’t have a window, but it only goes to the hall closet, so really it’s useless. Not even sure why it’s there!? If you can figure out why a room would have a window into a hall closet, I would greatly appreciate the explanation because I’m quite confused. No air circulation + humidity = one really interesting way to sleep. They ask to keep the door closed because of their son, David, so you can imagine how HOT it is! I hope that one day I don’t suffocate! My room is more like a large walk in closet with a bed, desk and dresser. I do have a radio in my room that gets some good spanish stations, so that’s good!! I suppose it’s not a bad set up, but the lack of air flow does kind of put a damper on feeling sane in my room! I guess that’s good to keep me from spending time just sitting in my room staring at the wall, THAT may be a crazy person! HAHA!
Oh a few things about the house. You can see a picture of that here, but you should know that it’s just the upstairs. It’s just slightly bigger than my old apartment off 13th Ave. It may not even be much bigger actually, but nonetheless you have an idea of size. You walk into the family room where they have some funny couches (I’ll try to get a photo of them soon), and a rocking chair – but not your typical rocking chair just one that sits in the corner holding stuff. To the direct right off the family room, you find their bedroom (where they spend most of their time). Next to that is a small kitchen complete with a stove about 1/3 the size of the average stove, a microwave (yes amazing), a fridge the size of my old one in my apartment (and believe it or not, it’s actually nicer than my old fridge! HA!), a small sink and a few cupboards. Nothing too fancy, and it’s pretty small. They have a bathroom just off the family room, and it’s your average bathroom. No tub, just a shower with very little warm water. A heating plate to try and warm the water. If you turn the water on too high, it gets cooooold, and when I say cold I mean that I thought I was going to have a heart attack from shock… So you can try to find warm water if you’re lucky! Oiff the back of the family room there is a dining room where we always eat, so we have family dinners which is pretty cool, and a great time to practice my spanish! I suppose that I get confused and play charades with them often at dinner to figure things out! I bet they go to bed and laugh at my lack of spanish skills! Oh well, as long as I can provide some entertainment!
My room… hmm. The window, or lack there of. I suppose it would be a lie to say that I don’t have a window, but it only goes to the hall closet, so really it’s useless. Not even sure why it’s there!? If you can figure out why a room would have a window into a hall closet, I would greatly appreciate the explanation because I’m quite confused. No air circulation + humidity = one really interesting way to sleep. They ask to keep the door closed because of their son, David, so you can imagine how HOT it is! I hope that one day I don’t suffocate! My room is more like a large walk in closet with a bed, desk and dresser. I do have a radio in my room that gets some good spanish stations, so that’s good!! I suppose it’s not a bad set up, but the lack of air flow does kind of put a damper on feeling sane in my room! I guess that’s good to keep me from spending time just sitting in my room staring at the wall, THAT may be a crazy person! HAHA!
Blue Angel
You know that I would have thought that most of the café’s in Central America would just be unbelievable and incredible to just see each and everyone one of them, but I’m beginning to see that I am wrong about a lot more things that I thought! Central America = good coffee & café’s, right!?! NOPE, WRONG!! Places to avoid – Blue Angel. We have our school meeting here every Monday, and well let me tell you that this place is overpriced and doesn’t even have good coffee. I would rather drink instant coffee than this coffee! 10q for some coffee with cream and sugar (which is equivalent to about $1.15), hello Starbucks of Xela! I suppose I had a good Oatmeal Cookie (vegan style) there… that’s about all the good I have to write about the Blue Angel. If visiting Xela, don’t waste your money!!!
CEMETERIA
This ground is off limits! They say to stay away from the cemetary, which I suppose is a good place to stay away from in ANY country; but it seems so much more inticing when someone tells you to stay away. This cemetary is HUGE! The picture doesn’t do it justice, and well it goes on for blocks and blocks and blocks and blocks… They say that the hoodlums hang out there, which I would imagine to be those people that might beat me up and rape me, so I will stay away. However, I can’t tell you that I’m not tempted to sneak a peek in there! J There are other places they have told us to avoid, however they didn’t tell us where they were so how do you expect me to avoid those places??! Just curious!!!
I suppose that I will TENGO CUIDAD! (take caution!)
I suppose that I will TENGO CUIDAD! (take caution!)
FOOLED BY CHICKEN BUSES!!
So… lesson – if you have to yell at someone in spanish, even if you don’t have the right vocabular, try anyway. A group of 6 of us were on our way to Las Fuentes Geroginas and the climb of Volcan Zunil for the weekend. We decided to take “chicken buses” for 5 quitales (5 Q) about 50 cents in the states. For those that don’t know, these are old US school buses that obviously don’t pass any of the requirments for safety or emissions in the states; therefore, they are shipped to Guatemala for the use of public transportation. Not just any public transportation, but for transporting TONS (and when I say tons, I mean if people are not stacked on top of each other the bus is not full) of people.
We declined a ride in a van for 10 Q because we wanted to save the money so that round trip it would only be 10q for the weekend, but in hindsight we should have jumped on the opportunity. We arrived at the bus stop (aka – side of street where hopefully a bus will stop because you’re standing there), and a few seconds later the bus came. We jumped on with SEVERAL other people and paid our 5Q. We made it about 5 minutes on this bus, and on the first hill the bus broke down. Yes, the hood came open, and the bus driver popped out to “fix” the bus with his small tool kit. YEAH RIGHT! The bus wouldn’t even move, it sounded like an elephant having a baby – the bus was dead. About 10 minutes later the bus driver had made a call, and began to yell at us to get off the bus and onto the other bus that had just pulled up behind us. He opened the back door and the front door and told every one in a loud spanish yell to get on the other bus, my ignorance thought that we didn’t need to pay the second bus because we already paid the first one. WRONG! I was fooled by the stupid bus driver, I swear this is a job they do all the time to make more more. A conspiracy in Guatemala! (I just know it!)
Anyway, success getting to the town right outside of Las Fuentes and Volcan Zunil… Now the way home. You would have thought we learned out lesson to just make sure the bus was working. I swear this one was fine. No crazy noises, and we made it successfully half way back to Xela before the bus stopped, the bus driver turned off the engine and we just sat on the bus for 20 minutes. Finally, Deny (one of the guys traveling with us) got off to ask what the problem was because we were NOT about to get fooled again by these Chicken Bus Drivers! Oh no mister, I learned my lesson, you were not going to take my 5 Q and try to tell me to get on another bus! He said the bus was not full enough, so we had to wait until the bus filled up with people. This is where I learned what a full bus was! I thought when the seats were full, and the standing room in the center of the bus (which they would NEVER let you do in The States) was full, that we were ready to go. WRONG AGAIN! People kept coming in the bus, passing me and I have no idea where they were going. I thought for sure that someone had the back door open and people were walking in the front door through the bus for a tour and then jumping off the back. WRONG AGAIN! They were just piling people in the back like sardines. Literally I had a womans belly hanging on me the whole time… Ah yes, personal bubble POPPED!
Moral of the story – PERSONAL BUBBLES DON’T EXIST ON CHICKEN BUSES, GET YOUR MONEY BACK FROM SOME GUY IF HASN’T DROPPED YOU OFF AT YOUR FINAL DESTINATION, AND YOUR SPANISH IS NEVER TOO BAD TO YELL AT SOMEONE TRYING TO PULL A FAST ONE….
We declined a ride in a van for 10 Q because we wanted to save the money so that round trip it would only be 10q for the weekend, but in hindsight we should have jumped on the opportunity. We arrived at the bus stop (aka – side of street where hopefully a bus will stop because you’re standing there), and a few seconds later the bus came. We jumped on with SEVERAL other people and paid our 5Q. We made it about 5 minutes on this bus, and on the first hill the bus broke down. Yes, the hood came open, and the bus driver popped out to “fix” the bus with his small tool kit. YEAH RIGHT! The bus wouldn’t even move, it sounded like an elephant having a baby – the bus was dead. About 10 minutes later the bus driver had made a call, and began to yell at us to get off the bus and onto the other bus that had just pulled up behind us. He opened the back door and the front door and told every one in a loud spanish yell to get on the other bus, my ignorance thought that we didn’t need to pay the second bus because we already paid the first one. WRONG! I was fooled by the stupid bus driver, I swear this is a job they do all the time to make more more. A conspiracy in Guatemala! (I just know it!)
Anyway, success getting to the town right outside of Las Fuentes and Volcan Zunil… Now the way home. You would have thought we learned out lesson to just make sure the bus was working. I swear this one was fine. No crazy noises, and we made it successfully half way back to Xela before the bus stopped, the bus driver turned off the engine and we just sat on the bus for 20 minutes. Finally, Deny (one of the guys traveling with us) got off to ask what the problem was because we were NOT about to get fooled again by these Chicken Bus Drivers! Oh no mister, I learned my lesson, you were not going to take my 5 Q and try to tell me to get on another bus! He said the bus was not full enough, so we had to wait until the bus filled up with people. This is where I learned what a full bus was! I thought when the seats were full, and the standing room in the center of the bus (which they would NEVER let you do in The States) was full, that we were ready to go. WRONG AGAIN! People kept coming in the bus, passing me and I have no idea where they were going. I thought for sure that someone had the back door open and people were walking in the front door through the bus for a tour and then jumping off the back. WRONG AGAIN! They were just piling people in the back like sardines. Literally I had a womans belly hanging on me the whole time… Ah yes, personal bubble POPPED!
Moral of the story – PERSONAL BUBBLES DON’T EXIST ON CHICKEN BUSES, GET YOUR MONEY BACK FROM SOME GUY IF HASN’T DROPPED YOU OFF AT YOUR FINAL DESTINATION, AND YOUR SPANISH IS NEVER TOO BAD TO YELL AT SOMEONE TRYING TO PULL A FAST ONE….
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