The Kite Festival!

Dia de Los Muertos! It is interesting, being in Guatemala I have learned to celebrate the dead. For Day of the Dead I attended a traditional Kite Festival in Sumpango. For about 6 months to a year before the Day of the Dead, groups of people or separate teams create these beautiful kites in honor of Day of the Dead. On the actual day there is a huge festival in Sumpango where they put all the kites up (all shapes and sizes), there is food beyond belief and the cemeteries are garnished in beautiful flowers and different types of decorations. The people celebrate their dead and give thanks to them. The cemeteries become beautiful locations of celebration. Our group decided we should leave at 6 30 am to get there early just for good seats... So not necessary. For about the first two hours I sat waiting for the kites to go up in the cold with an empty stomach. Delightful! But around 9 all the different teams started to put their kites up. There were kites ranging from 5 ft to almost 65 ft. It was incredible to see the art and dedication in each kite. Each kite has its own design, message and shape. I would venture to say the kites represent their creators. Around 11 Sumpango started filling up with people from all over. Our group decided to walk through the town and visit the cemetery as well as the market. People where everywhere. Slightly overwhelming but amazing to see the community work together to support such a major day of celebration and thanks. In order to put up the larger kites the men attached large ropes to the top of the kite which were supported by bamboo. Once they had the kite secure they fed the rope through a pulley system and about 25 men jump on the rope and play tug of war with the kite for about 15 minutes. You can hear 2 or 3 men shouting orders as the kite rises foot by foot. For the very large kites you can see men literally jumping up the rope to use their entire body weight to pull the rope down. It is incredible. We stayed at the kite festival until about 12 and then headed home. Instead of taking the boring old highway home we went four wheeling through the mountains to descend into the Antigua valley. It was weird we were higher up in altitude and we could see pine trees and it reminded me of home. I know you are all saying, uh Courtney you live in the desert but it reminded me of Mt. Lemmon and the fresh air. Just a small something to identify with. It made me really miss home. Ok that is all for now.

Putting up a kite! 

Kids kite! 

Cemetry in Sumpango! 

Just a blog of pictures!

Random but here is my Kaqchikel teacher! 

And my awesome cheerleader costume! Whats up!

Beach girls! 

Starting from the left Colleen, me and Brittany! 

All the nurses having after hour snacks! Yummy crepes

The beginning of the Mayan Ruins! (Look at those outfits!)

Ancient Mayan staircase 

Once a community center for the Mayans

This was the start to our Pyramid adventures!

Slightly confused... My face" "Uh guys what she did she say in Spanish"

Lunch spot along the river Rio Dulce

The School Crew! What a good looking bunch! Ha

Start to the pyramids! We will attempt to ascend all of them

Yet another one! 

Unfortunately could not climb this one :( 

Another community center! So much room there is a giant pyramid to my left! 

I'm tiny.. For once! 

I won the race up! 

Meet Daniel (left) an RUFINO! 

Meet Courtney (left ha!) and RUFINO

FINALMENTE!!!

Wow… I know I have not written for all of  the past, shall I say three weeks. Not to worry though I am back in civilization and have so much to update everyone on. Where do I even start… The 7.5 mag earthquake, or the 9 hour bus trip to Mayan ruins, or my extreme food poisoning or the new treatment for Rufino ( the young man with the genetic skin disease)… SO MUCH TO TELL… I will start with a small story about my friend Andres that will attempt to describe my excitement the past couple of weeks and how I feel right now!!!!
                So I have this friend Andres, very nice Guatemalan man that has taken my friends and I around Antigua to show us all the traditional Guate ways. That sounds a little politely incorrect but you get the idea. Anyways, the other day Andres was talking to me about how my Spanish is improving and I just got so excited. I feel like I take two steps forward maybe one back then three forward and then 2 back and so on and so on. As I say in Spanish “Depende en el dia”. But Andres is also practicing English so we take turns on which days we will speak each language. As I said the other day Andres told me, “You know Courtney, sometimes you just get so excited and I can neither understand your English nor Spanish so I just listen for a time that way I know what time we are meeting.” I believe my mom and everyone else has told me to slow down when I am speaking especially on the telephone… I just can’t help it guys, I get so excited!!! This is how I feel right now! I am bounded and restrained by my keyboard! Help… I am about to explode with excitement and happiness! Poor keyboard, I am trying to type so fast it just sounds like I am pounding on it. Anyway done with my side rant! Ok, here is the plan since I am so scatter brained I am going to start with the week of my demise…

It was a Sunday night… I had a lot of homework to do, I already ate dinner and well I was still hungry. So I decided ok, I’ll have a fruit smoothie. Drank the fruit smoothie, started my homework, tried to do my homework and did not finish my homework. Productivity level here is minimal. Anyway around 10 pm I started having shooting pains through my stomach and ribs. I went home decided to just go to bed and then proceeded to lay wide awake with shooting pains for about an hour. I will not go into gory details but I proceeded to violently throw up for the next 5 hours. I have never felt so horrible in my life, I thought well this is the rare disease taking over my body and I might just die in this tiny bathroom with only my vomit to keep me company. After about 3 hours my host mom opened the bathroom door, let out a small scream and closed the door. Come to find out she thought I was borracha(drunk) and decided not to help me. Later that morning she apologized after she realized I was very ill. The rest of the day was spent in my bed, drinking manzanilla tea. I kid you not everyone in Guatemala thinks manzanilla tea is a fix all… It is good but definitely not a fix all cause I still felt like death. The rest of the week was slow, and very unexciting… I pulled a neck muscle somehow so I spent the week recuperating and trying not to cry for my parents! I will say one thing, my host mom came into my room later in the week and said, “Courtney, you are the bravest student I have had. Every girl that has gotten sick in my house has cried for her mom and you just dealt with it!” I will go ahead and pat myself on my back for putting my big girl pants on and dealing with it! Oh, I forgot to say that I have come to the conclusion the smoothie was the cause of this horrible week.

Ok enough of the barfy week! Moving on. Here are just a few random thoughts from the last 3 weeks. One of the nurses I work with, who we shall call Lily has renamed me to simply “Corny”. I like to think that comes with a good connotation. Lets see here, my Spanish teacher Nory was staring at me one class and I said Nory what are you looking at. She says “WOW! Look at all your leg hair!” Thanks Nory… I am not trying to impress anyone here! So needless to say ladies and gentlemen I have not shaved my legs since I arrived in Guatemala! No judgment, I am getting in touch with my natural side. Ok now on to the weekend or one of them in the last three weeks. I decided to go out dancing with the girls. Now I was thinking ok salsa here we go. Salsa would have been a luxury, no it was SWEATY, HOT, SMELLY, and everyone was dancing about 2 cm from the next person. There was no room for Jesus, come on people do we not remember our eighth grade dances. Ok side note: I remember one of my 8^th grade dances. That very awkward time of your life… And my dad happened to be at this dance, cannot remember if he was a chaperone or what but the kid I would never have wanted to dance with in my entire life asked me to dance right in front of my dad. I hesitated to respond and then I got the eyes. And of course had to dance with the kid. Anyways side track but needless to say I did not like the dancing. Let’s see in the course of the night I was told that I am so special and different and that I should be this kids girlfriend, and I was asked to get married. The Latin charm did not work on me so no worries family I am not getting married or engaged nor do I have a boyfriend.

Ok on to bigger things. It has been a while but reach into your memory for the blog about the young man named Rufino. I will now tell you the whole story of Rufino, the sad parts, the good parts, the frustrating parts and the unfair parts. Rufino was born 23 years ago in a small town called Buena Vista, which is situated about 10km outside of Antigua. Buena Vista is positioned partially on top of one of the mountain ranges and draws most of its income from farming. Here goes the sad part. Rufino was born via incest. His father raped his brother’s daughter and that is how Rufino was born. She fled after he was born and he is now left with no mother to take care of him. Fortunately for Rufino, he has six other brothers that have tried to help maybe not with the most valiant and dedicated effort but none the less have tried. When I met Rufino, he was sitting outside, in pig manure and in the sun. His three small cousins all around age 8 where playing around him but not including Rufino. I sat near Rufino but he really didn’t talk with me much. After about two weeks of calls and lots of emails we got Rufino a Dr. appointment in the city with one of the top hospitals. Our journey started at 4 30am to pick him up and ended mid-afternoon. We took him to breakfast at the lovely McDonalds for some fine dining. In reality nothing was open but anyway. The doctor apt went well. The first visit our primary doctor started to put a team of doctors together for Rufino’s care. In one visit he already had 4 doctors working for him. After the first apt he had about three after, one with a geneticist, one with an eye doctor and another with a dermatologist. Immediately we started antibiotic eye drops and a special cream from Mexico for his body. He was to implement the total body cream and eye drops as a first step. Along with the treatment we started implementing more water consumption, less sun exposure and more bathing. Within about two weeks Rufino looked like a completely different person. We think that since Rufino has such a rare genetic disease, the cross-breeding expressed two recessive traits that were Ichthyosis. Anyway the science isn’t important but his future care is. I will be creating a documentary of Rufino’s life and a hope fund for him to continue treatment and support to ensure a more comfortable pain free life. About two days ago, I went up to his house and brought some banana bread and orang juice (his favorite) and just talked with him. He sat right up when I came in and started talking with me immediately. It put a smile from ear to ear on my face to see him perk up so fast. Usually he is really shy but, he talked with me for about 15 minutes and then I was on my merry way and couldn't help but be happy. So I will let all of you know but there will be a hope fund started for Rufino so he can continue treatment and improvement.

Ok now on to some lighter stuff!  My trip to Tikal (Mayan ruins and pyramids)! So this trip is one of our school provided field trips! Great I don’t have to do any planning… I just have to make sure I get my butt on the bus at the right time. The right time was approximately 4 am! Um I cannot remember the last time I got up that early… I think maybe it was more like I couldn’t sleep and stayed up until 4. Anyway cry me a river right, I get to see Mayan ruins stop being a baby! So our bus ride was approximately 8 ½ hours. I think I slept for about 8 ½ hours. I was so exhausted and I lucked out and got a whole bus row to myself. Living in luxury now, I could extend my legs out and stretch. It was excellent. We made about 3 stops on our way to Tikal. First was called Quirwa which is ancient Mayan community that was uncovered and now a national park. The park has a couple ruins, hieroglyphs and a community center unearthed. There is still about half the park that could be unearthed but the funding is slightly insufficient. So that was our first stop. This was about 9 am. We had already drive for about 4 to 5 hours and they expected to listen to a tour guide in SPANISH! I know I have been in class but to listen to history for two hours in Spanish I was understanding about every 6^th word. Fail! It was beautiful though! Then we got back on the bus for another 1 to 1 ½ drive to Rio Dulce which is a beautiful town situated on one of the large rivers and has “beach front” property, the only way to describe the beautiful houses and boat docks. We ate lunch in Rio, they had delicious coconut bread which I over indulged and ate like 4 pieces… Can really feel that on the waist line! Back on the bus now for another 3 or 4 hours. Time here is really dependent on the driver one and the traffic two. A two hour trip can turn into a 5 hour trip with bad traffic. Like I said pretty much slept the whole trip so we finally get to our hotel around 7 pm. Beyoootiful! It was situated on the side of the river with a edgeless pool and beautiful views of the water. Our rooms were nice simple but nice and they had HOT running water with an excellent adjustable shower head. The necessities in life right… Don’t take things for granted… Huge theme of my trip. Anyway I proceeded to fall asleep right after dinner around 9 30 which I do not know how that is possible since I slept the entire bus ride but I guess my body just needed a little extra descansar! The next day was a full day of Mayan ruins and pyramids. I would attempt to describe their beauty and grandeur  but it is not possible in words. The whole day was spent walking through ruins, jungles and up and down pyramids. Which walking up the pyramids made me feel obese. I was breathing so hard… Embarrassing… I think I am growing an extra chin. Please do not be afraid to tell me! We ate lunch amongst the pyramids in the national park and continued our explorations on another overly full stomach. Hopefully when I get back to the states I’ll be tired of eating since I am doing so much of it here! Ha The second half of the day we went to another national park with more pyramids and spent the last hours of our day on top of a pyramid that overlooked the river and the sunset descending behind the mountains. In the background you could hear howler monkeys but the tranquility of the place was overwhelming. We all sat watching the sunset for about an hour in silence. It was amazing to just think about the ancient civilizations that used to live there and how they could see the same things as we could. Breathtaking. Our day ended with a delicious chicken dinner and a little bit of wine then bed. Remember that 8 ½ hour bus ride to Tikal now we have to do it back home… Gaaaah! No more buses! Again I slept for most of the ride until the last two hours when I had to pee so bad and we were stuck in Guat City traffic. Not enjoyable considering how many bumps there was in the road. Everyone, listen I know Tucson is THE land of potholes but Tucson has nothing on Guatemala. Some of the roads are so bouncy you can barely think! We got home around 9pm and we all, meaning the whole program had to do all our homework that we had so skillfully avoided the whole weekend. Late night to say the least.

Wow that was a lot to digest. But this week as many of you may know my Grandma and her friend Lynn will be visiting me in Antigua. More to come on all of our travels and adventures with the, as my Papa Clarke would put it “Dinosaurs” in Guatemala. Of course I am joking but I have been looking forward to them coming for quite some time now! I’m sure I will have some nice stories and photos! Hope everyone is well J Abrazote a todo! 

Enferma :(

Well besides not having access to my computer... The Hp company here is really running on Guatemala time I must say. They were supposed to have my cord by last Friday and I am still waiting... So that is just great and then on top of that I got food poisoning on Monday. Yes, it feels like death if you have not experienced it. I have never been so violently ill before and hope to never experience that again. I'll spare everyone the details but I was not able to sleep the whole night. Quite awful. Hopefully,  by tomorrow I will be feeling up to par again but for now I am just being a bum. My host mom told me I was the first girl who did not cry when I was sick. She said "Que valiente", or how courageous. She told me every other girl who got sick at her house would cry for her mom and she would have no idea what to do. Don't get me wrong I wish somewhere would have been by my side to hold my hand but lets be honest throwing up is just not pretty, who wants to see that. That is about as graphic as I am going to get. But like I said fingers crossed hopefully I feel better tomorrow!
Miss you all and like I keep promising hopefully by the end of the week I will have my computer cord and I can post about the last week or so, minus the stomach problems.
Love to all :)

Technology

Hello everyone! It feels as if it has been a while since I have updated my blog. I have run into a problem. I still do not have a computer cord therefore I am being a mega moocher and I have not had enough time to write. Que triste! But by Thursday I should be able to buy a computer cord from the city. By the way the Hp mark up here is outrageous. I believe my new computer cord will cost about 100 US dollars. WHAT??? Wish I did not have to rely on technology at this moment. But I will update everyone on Thursday! 

So behind!!!

Wow I did not realize how behind I was on my writing! This is going to be a long one guys! I have so much to say!

We shall start with my internship day last week the 10th! One of the other students, Brittany decided to come with me. If you recall our mode of transportation is an outdated motorbike. Daniel, the nurse, always told me I weighed a lot now we are going to attempt three people on this pos (only way I feel describes the bike). I mean we only had to go 3 km. That is not bad right. 3 km felt like 3 hours. We had to go so slow and every bump I swore the tire would just plum fall off. I basically had my bum on the fender. Great! Needless to say I am writing this blog so we did make it there and back in one piece. The town we visited is Called Hermano Pedro, which is situated in between two small mountains and part of the town is built on the side of the mountain. Very poor town, needs a lot of simple infrastructure. But anyway Brittany and I checked patients in, doing weights and heights. Mind you when I had to write their names it was about 7 of them and all of which I had no idea how to spell. The only names I could clearly write were Maria, Gonzalez, Pedro, and Garcia. Yea. That took place the first part of the morning and the second half we visited to mothers who had just given birth about 8 to 10 days ago. The first mother was 26 years old and already had 6 kids. Her newborn was about 6 lbs, slightly malnourished if you ask me and she had to have c-section to have him. Her stitches were done horribly. We took them out and it left a gnarly scar on her stomach. Her house had 3 large beds in it that look about the color of the ground and it just smelled of b.o. All of her children were no older than 8 years old and just about the happiest kids I have seen. I played tag with them for a little bit and they were laughing at me hysterically. I looked like a big ol blue blob chasing them. It broke my heart to see what they had to sleep on just awful. It almost made me a little sick to my stomach to even think of sitting on the bed. The second mother had a "better" housing situation. I put better in quotations because better only explains the idea that its better than the worst but no where near great. Her son was about 8 days old and was having a hard time going to the restroom. Again slightly malnourished and under weight. She will probably have to go to the hospital to have all of his intestines checked. Very sad. On our way home I think the motorbike had a heart attack. Pobre moto! All around a good day.

I also realized this weekend that my camera cord that connects to my computer happened to be in my backpack the little you know what stole. So unfortunately for the time being I have no way to upload any pictures :( Now how will you guys see my "lethargic" self...

Ok on to Friday.. Thursday was not exciting it rained all day... SO TIRED OF RAIN.

Friday was our day to take a field trip into the city with our whole study abroad program. I know many of you have probably seen horrible news clips on Guat city but we will not be in those zones so need to worry. But Camino Seguro is a non-profit organization that started a school program for kids about 12 years ago and were the ones to give us our Guat tour. They took us to the Basura which is the only trash dump in all of Guatemala. That means the entire Guatemala city and surrounding towns dump in this one single area. The city does not own the trash dump, it is run by private owners. Sadly part of the informal economy is run through the sifting and sorting of the trash. Over 400 people work in the trash dump sifting through trash to re -sell or eat. Age has no bound. You will see women with babies strapped to their backs sifting through trash to support their families. It is so sad but its their way of life. Camino Seguro basically started a school program for all the Basura kids. Instead of going to the dump they now have Camino Seguro to attend school and get away from the violence of living in the trash dump. I have shortened the story a lot but I think you get the basic idea. Most of these kids will not make it past 8th grade. But living in the informal economy having passed 6th grade can get you a job. Camino is located in the center of all the squatter settlements and colonial housing. For most of the people just having a tin roof is ten times better than anything they have lived in before. So we got to see the real Guatemala and not just the glamorous tour-on cites! After our tour with Camino Seguro (which stands for Safe Passage) we went into the central downtown area and watched a live peaceful protest to a shooting that happened 2 weeks ago in Xela. The protest focused a lot on independence for the indigenous people and resignation of a lot of political leaders. By this time it was late afternoon and to be honest I was beat. No amount of Guat coffee could wake me up. Bus ride home was very silent, all pooped.

Saturday was another fun day of homework all day. Boooooo! Even though it has been over a month I keep thinking that I am not in school since I am in Guatemala. I need to snap out of this dream.

Sunday fun day! The girls and I decided that since Saturday was spent with our noses in the books we were going to Chichicastenango for their Sunday market! Market is an understatement. It is 4th avenue street food on steroids with a lot of chickens, dogs and young men selling stupid wooden flutes. The market literally took over the whole town of Chichi. They start setting up Wednesday night and hold it only on Thursday and Sunday. It is a sight to see for sure. You will never have so many people in your life offer you to buy a wooden flute. I think I started getting forceful in my "NO GRACIAS" and the word spread that hey this gringa does not want a flute. By the end of the day all the flute vendors knew. The market takes about 10 hours to walk through. It is a giant maze full of bright colored wardrobe and all of the above. I have never seen so much color in my life. How can you decide on one thing to buy... I wanted to get it all! Also if you go far west in the market you get into the livestock area, where you can see cats on leashes, turkeys hanging upside down from wires tied to their feet, little baby chicks in crates (sooooooo cute), ducks  in cages and I wouldn't be surprised if you could just walk home with a new cow. It was chaotic. People yelling out "Good price for you!" or "Your mothaa needs dis" or "You speakin English" ( by the way if you say no or make any response they already stole your attention and have grouped you into their little area). The key is to keep walking eyes straight forward with no recognition unless you want to be bargained with for a half hour. And also a key thing to know is look around for the first part of the day and by the end of the day the prices drop dramatically because everyone is trying to sell their stuff away. So wait until the end of the day and then buy all your goodies. I got a beautiful quilt that originally started at 850 quetzales and by the end of the day was 400.. See what I mean... Patience young grasshopper! And since I have no backpack I bought a traditional woven Mayan backpack! It totally screams tourist but I love it! Oh I must also comment on the chicken bus one last time. We got on all the seats were packed so for 3 hours I stood in the middle, my butt in one persons face and my stomach in the other. Every bump and turn I would smash someone. By the end of the bus ride I started at the front of the bus and the bus attendant kept pushing my back further in the bus so eventually I was by the last seat standing just waiting for the back exit door to swing open... There goes the gringa. I must also mention that the speakers are in the back of the bust and were blaring Salsa music. When I got off the bus my knees were hyper extended, I could not hear a word and I was slightly fumigated from the bus exhaust. Another lovely experience I might add.

Ok ladies and gents that is all for now! More to come this weekend!! 

Learning to weave!

Guess who is back??? Feeling much better this week. Went from feeling extremely homesick to feeling extremely inadequate in the classroom. Not really sure which one I can handle better. But Monday my geography class looked at colonial times in Guatemala and then all of a sudden we were talking about Israel and then we started talking about the processes that lead to globalization and how rural development is directly effected by globalization. I barely even touched on the rest of the three hours of class I had left after that discussion. I can read health statistics, look at graph trends, maybe even determine an outbreak but the idea of rural development in relation to colonial times has really taken my head for a spin. My fingers are crossed that by the end of the semester I will have some clarity on Latin American history and history in relation to North America. Like I said "mis dedos estan cruzado!" That was Monday. Brain dead on Monday night, resulted in going to bed at 9. How great is that? Remember when you were little and never wanted to go to bed early because it wasn't cool or something along those lines? Yea I wish with all my heart that going to bed at 8 30 every night was a reality and nap times were a mandatory part of the work day.

Now on to Tuesday! My Ka'qchikel teacher, Osbilda took us on a tour of her house in San Antonio! San Antonio is about 20 minutes away on a lovely chicken bus! It is always a new experience on a chicken bus but this ride was surprisingly calm with minimal stops and even better minimal people. Once we arrived we walked with Osbilda to her house and she took us on a tour of how to do Mayan weaving. Her room was tiny. Maybe 10 x 10 and she had a bunch of hand carved wooden tools to do everything. I think before I arrived I had this false idea of how they would weave and have fancy tools basically a machine but it was nothing as such. Everything was traditional. The weaver will first pick out raw wool or cotton then wash it, comb it and spin it. Then using a warping board (looks like a 2 x 4 with wood prongs sticking out of it in the shape of a body) she threads  the fresh wool or cotton around to make the starting cloth. This cloth is then attached to her loom which is a a stick the cloth is fed through that attaches to a belt that sits around her lower butt in a sitting position. The complex process of weaving then begins. Depending on the desired length  and design the weaver will use numerous rolls of cotton to create her masterpiece. Now mind you she is explaining this whole entire process in Spanish. I had to do some post research to fully understand everything. The process is a system of adjusting tension in the cotton through the loom by leaning forward and back with the "butt" strap"! After our weaving lesson we all got to try! It was so hard!!! You have to put some back muscle into it holy cow. After learning how to weave we were allowed to all dress up in the traditional traje! It was hysterical. The clothing was so heavy I have no idea how the women where the traje in the heat. I was sweating after about 2 minutes. Take your pictures, look pretty and get the clothing off as fast as possible. Ok that was my tuesday!

Now for the not so great news... I got my backpack stolen so I am lacking a few items, like my computer charger. So my computer is dead and has all my pictures on it. Therefore the next couple posts will probably be lacking some color.

Here is how it went:
I was sitting in a lovely cafe called Michos, the sun was shining, a few birds were chirping in the distant air, the courtyard was filled with English tourist bustling around buying jade things, the fountain had a steady flow and life was just beautiful. Ok... A little dramatic talking about how blissful the day was. BUT... I was sitting in a cafe called Michos and I was working on my computer doing some research, when a little boy selling bracelets approached me. Mind you this young man has approached me about 2 other times and had successfully swindled me into buying bracelets. Why would this time be different??? Of course he was successful but this time he gave me a great price!! (how lucky)What's another bracelet right? Anyway after I gave him the money he was looking at my computer and asked to watch a music video. Reluctantly, I let him watch  a video, which turned into about 2 more videos. I said ok I have to get back to homework so he left and I turned around for about 2 minutes and my backpack was gone. Just that fast. No one even saw him leave. The server and I ran outside, I did about 4 laps around the general area and even went to the mercado where he most likely took it to sell. Sadly I could not find it. Now I started to get angry. I decided if I saw him or even if I see him now I will grab him by his ears lift him off the ground and demand to have my backpack back... (Unrealistic I know but it was my initial reaction). Could not find him anywhere... Sad day, I lost my wallet, all my school books and notebooks and my most favorite chap stick! Anyways sob story is over, its only material things after all but just rather a giant pain in mis pompios (butt).

More to come!

Hola to everyone! School has gotten very busy but tomorrow or Saturday I will update you guys on the last week! It has been raining like crazy. I have had a headache for about a week with all the rain and climate change but I've concluded its probably Malaria. Hypochondriac tendencies... Check. But anyway love you all! If you asked for coffee... It has been sent! Cross your fingers but the post office said 15 days so take into account we are talking about Guatemala so lets go for about 20 or 21 days :) 

Abrazos!

Its Just that week

So I have hit the wall. This past week has just been... Blaah... in lack of a better word. I think the first month was overwhelming with so many different emotions, experiences, culture and adjustment. This weekend was a more relaxed weekend. The week was a little bit stressful. I had another Spanish test, my Mayan language class, well its still going. This week I have just felt inadequate. My whole house got in a funk and our Spanish sucked, my Mayan sucked, my English probably sucked and my Geography class used all my brain power for the week since it was on Monday. Ok, I am going to put my girl pants on and deal with it. I will stop feeling bad for myself, for pete sakes I am in Guatemala! This whole homesickness thing is contagious, I swear one girl feels sad and it spreads like a disease. Then all of a sudden all the girls are crying. Its crazy. I've been avoiding the criers cause that is contagious for sure. But to all my family and friends I miss you lots or in Spanish nos extrano mucho!!

But this week and weekend were very unexciting for me. I know its crazy Courtney with down time, more like Courtney over-whelmed with school and Spanish. So I really do not have much exciting news for the week. I apologize for the lack of excitement.
This weekend was fun and relaxing. However, on Wednesday one of the nurse's daughter had a birthday! Her name is Crista and she turned 12 years old! She did not have any plans so I told her I wanted to take her to ice cream! She was ecstatic. Ice cream turned into swimming at Hotel Antigua which turned into a lot of money spent! Holy cow, Hotel Antigua is like the resort of resorts here. In retrospect it wasn't an absurd amount of money but she was funny she kept asking me, are you sure? are you sure? She ran into the pool cannon ball style so of course my 20 year old self did the same.  The water was not welcoming and refreshing... It was soooo cold I instantly had chills. My toes went a little purple. The whole staff just stared at me... Probably thinking gosh beached whale in the pool hahaha. More lethargic comments to come. Anyway we swam for about an hour or until I could not move my limbs and then proceeded to eat some ice cream to feed my lethargic stomach! It turned out to be a great day. She was so excited I wanted to celebrate her birthday and her mom was very excited and more thankful than anything. Ok so that was Saturday. Saturday night consisted of homework, smoothies and going to bed early.

Sunday pretty uneventful as well. I got to sleep in for the first time in awhile it was great! The whole day was cloudy and rainy. I spent most of my morning sitting in a very quaint patio with a small fountain reading for hours! Just hours. It would probably help if my reading speed wasn't one paragraph per hour since I get so distracted by the water or the butterfly or a squirrel or something other than my reading. Focus Courtney... Focus Courtney... I also got scammed by a little boy, a very cute boy, but nonetheless scammed. He was selling little cloth bracelets he originally told me 3 for 20Q and 1 for 10Q. I only had a 10Q and then he saw 3Q on the table so he said ok 2 for 13Q... Great! About an hour later I saw him in the street and he had the biggest grin on his face. He proceeded to tell me he could get dinner now. It was another rewarding experience. Whether or not he was just scamming me or being serious I wont know but "es la vida". Meaning its just the life and you just have to go with it. It has also been raining all day... Never forget your rain jacket during the rainy season... You are guaranteed to get rained on no actually poured on.

Sorry this week and weekend are so unexciting but love and miss everyone!
Con cuidado (Go with safety)!!!!

Finally got the beach pictures!!

Beach front property! Our hotel is to the right!

Our rooms with the lovely mosquito net!

More hotel, out door showers only!

Hammocks in front of the room!

Fresh coconut anyone?

The gross chicken place...

Meat rack!!

Board walk!

The boys the started the sand war!

Colleen and her new best friend!

Giant waves!

Dirty black sand feet!

Not swimming in those bad boys!

Dear Fellow Readers,
I wanted to apologize for using "Jesus" to describe my emotion. The expression I meant to use was "jeeeez". So I apologize, it came out a little foul. That is all for now had a long day and long night for that matter. Kind seem to shake this tiredness lately.
Nos amo!

Vamos a la Playa!!!

Let me first correct my error in last weeks post... I said we vaccinated the dogs with rabbis. No we did not make all the dogs Jewish. How embarrassing... Jessssus! Correction rabies!

This past weekend my roommate Colleen and I decided to go the beach on a whim. We talked with about 3 different people to figure our bus situation out. One man said 5:30 another said 6 and lets face it, its Guatemala it could be 7 for all I know. I will say one thing though. If ever in Guatemala and you ask for directions be prepared to be even more lost. Most people will tell you directions and they take you no where near your destination... You have been warned. Ok back to the story. We missed the first bus because it left at 5am, none of the times we were told were right... Oh and there is only one bus per day that goes directly to the beach. Great. So we had to go to the crazy bus terminal with about a million buses zooming around, men yelling out destinations, vendors off and on the buses selling miscellaneous things, and people jumping on the front and back of the buses to catch a ride. Chaotic in other words. But we eventually we got ourselves on one bus to Esquintla where we would have to transfer buses, then take a new bus from there to a shuttle and from that shuttle switch to yet another shuttle to get to the beach. Our hour and half trip turned into three hours. The whole way to Esquintla the bus was packed. Three to every seat and people standing in the isle. Word to the wise, sit in the very back that way its easier to hop out the back door when its your stop. Oh and if all the windows are up its because the Guats are cold. I DIED with the windows up. No circulation and everyone is in your bubble. But once we were in Esquintla the bus terminal was tiny, it could only fit one bus on the actual road at a time, and again people yelling and bustling around. Colleen and I were very close to wetting ourselves and we could not find a bathroom anywhere. An older man yelled to us and pointed us down a tiny alley with no light. Colleen was walking down as I was trying to find my headlamp and sure enough at the end there was a toilet, and a ducky shower curtain. All I have to say is ewwwww. Then as I was gathering all my stuff I heard our bus called out. Colleen took off running towards it and I was a few steps behind her then the old man came yelling after me "Necisitas pagar!!!" Ay dios mio. I had to pay for both of us to pee. A hole 25 cents to pee. We made it onto our second bus and there wasn't a double seat open so I got stuck sitting next to a heavier set lady that was sweating PROFUSELY. She also sat with her legs wide open leaving room for about half my body to sit on the seat. At one point she moved around and her sweat got on my arm. Keep smiling Courtney, DO NOT make a face. Also, if you see someone do the sign of the cross before getting on, try not to be too alarmed. Anyways from there on out we got dropped off on the side of the highway and transferred into a small shuttle that took us through a couple port towns, where we switched yet again onto our last shuttle and within about 30 minutes we were finally at the beach! By this time I myself was doused in sweat and just wanted to get in the water. The town we were in Monte Rico was very small, pretty tropical and our first stop was a fried chicken place to use the bathroom. The lady took me into the back and asked a girl to leave... Hmm what the girl that left was watching chicken off in the sink and guess where the toilet was... Yup right next to that. Reluctantly I bought some french fries since I used her bathroom but the chicken uh no thanks. We did not have any hotel reservations so Colleen and I decided to just head to the beach and pick one ocean front. About 3 minutes of being on the beach we had a hotel, $6 a night, a pool, hammocks all over the place and a restaurant. Could I ask for more? We quickly changed into our bathing suits, had a smoothie and made our way to the black sand beach. It was incredible. The sound of the waves were enormous. It sounded like a storm every time they crashed into the surf. The waves were about 6 feet and the under toe was so strong. With my excellent swimming skills I only went in about 3 feet deep. For most of the day we sat on the beach ate fresh homemade tortillas and just enjoyed the sounds of the beach. Mid day we decided to start building a sand castle. Yes regressing to about age 8. But as we were building our mote about eight little Guatemalan boys asked to play with us. Of course we agreed and within 5 minutes it turned into a sand fight. I am not kidding I have not had that much all over my face, hair body in...EVER. They were absolutely nuts. They would chase us to the waters edge while throwing fists full of sand and then they would stop cause they were too afraid to go in the water. The sand fight turned into tag which turned into a shower and then a nap! They were nuts, just nuts. After our nap Colleen and I walked down the beach to watch the sunset and just see where the other hotels were. We came up to a resort and of course had to check it out. We looked like bums. We had sand all over our legs from walking and everyone at the resort was sitting by the pool, with their pina coladas, that was about 200 yards away from the beach. Are you serious??? Jeeez resort people... They gave us some looks. As we returned back to our hotel there was a sand volleyball game going on and of course Colleen and I being competitors at heart had to join. We got stuck with the shitty team at first... The second round we switched onto a team with two Guat guys that apparently were actually on a team that played in tournaments so we ended up ruling the court! It was a good time but again I was covered in sand from diving. Its very apparent too since the sand is black and its so humid it just cakes your skin. It was great. Dinner consisted of  a fresh cut chicken fried in front of us and delicious french fries. The french fries were perfect, not too squishy and not too hard. Reminded me of a five guys, a good American burger sounds good right about now. Later that night Colleen and I went salsa dancing. It was horrendous. Apparently there are a couple different types of salsa or at least just different beats. I looked like bambi with two left feet. Get the visual. The dancing did not last long so we returned to our room put our mosquito nets down and passed out. We missed the sunrise but were up by 7. It was quiet and the only overwhelming sound was the crash of the waves, in spanish very tranquilo (quiet and peaceful). Our shuttle to leave was scheduled for 1 so really about 1:20. Our ride home was nuts. The first shuttle started empty (false hope). Your shuttle will never just be empty. Sure enough ten minutes later the shuttle was full and the Guats closed the windows! What is the deal??? The second shuttle was even worse. I got stuck in the back with 3 people and two little kids on my lap, cute kids but it was hotter than poop. With about 3 more stops our 15 passenger van turned into a 26 passenger van. I got stuck sitting on the floor and again NO AIR! That was about a 30 minute ride back to Esquintla where we were dropped off in the middle of the town and given horrible directions to the bus terminal. While looking for the terminal of course it started to down pour. I mean with in minutes there were sheets of rain. After 10 minutes in the rain we found our Antigua bus and took cover. Again only 5 people on the bus... Do not get excited. Our bus took off and the city was just flooded, maybe about 7 inches of water in the street, hopefully our bald tires have traction... And again within 15 minutes the bus was packed. A woman got on, soaking wet, turned to sit in a seat next to me and sprayed me with her hair... I just have the best luck. If I end up having a growth on my face tomorrow I'll make sure to tell. The ride home was slow, long and hot. All the windows were closed except for Colleen's. The man sitting next to me put his wool sweater on since we had the window open, and then he proceeded to fall asleep on my arm. His wool sweater would rub my arm with every twist and turn in the road and basically chafe it. This was the story of our ride home! Oh wait I forgot to mention. There was a small leak on part of the roof and it kept dripping on this girl so I gave her a little rapper to maybe stuff it. That didn't work, so her mom asked for a piece of gum, chewed it and stuffed the hole. How innovative right, I thought it was funny. Pictures to come later!

Love to all!
Also good news for Rufino, I got a local doctor from the city to come and visit Rufino so we can hopefully get him some help!

Long day on the Finca!

Thank you to everyone for all your support and well wishes!

Today I had the opportunity to work on a finca! Also known as a farm. We left the house around 6:45 to catch our public mode of transportation: a chicken bus. Why they are called that I have no idea... Actually I do. They have bald tires, they squish about 4 people in a 2 person seat, they blast what ever kind of music, people board from the front and the back "exit door", they hall ass down side roads and their brakes well, you just hope they work. Our bus ride cost about 25 whole cents and we rode it for about 15 minutes. The town we got off was called Ciudad Vieja. We had about a 5 minute walk to pick up tools at a place called As Green As it Gets. I met a man named Pedro who was my jefe (boss) for the day. He is about 2 feet shorter than me and can carry twice as much as me. I carried a pick ax and two cement buckets (not with cement) and we headed to the finca. The town we were in was situated at the base of the volcano "Agua" and the finca was on the side of Agua. It felt like we walked forever... FOREVER... It was literally about a 15 minute walk to the finca and it felt like an hour. Our first job was to fill up the cement buckets with rocks and sand. We filled about 5 buckets with rocks and carried them down to a small creek (sin=without water) and then we carried 6 buckets of sand to the same place. The plan was to mix the rocks, sand and some cement mix to make a mixture. After those 11 buckets we had to fetch water. I had to walk up a hill to a tilapia pond with the most fowl smelling water I have ever smelled. Apparently tilapia feed on algae so the water was green and nasty. Walking back down to the creek I had to stop multiple times to switch arms to avoid spilling water on myself. The plan for the day was to build a retaining wall in part of the creek so when the rains come the water is retained and then the sediment from the rain will fill up part of the creek to make a natural bridge across the creek for motorbikes to access. Before I had got there someone had dug a trench  for us to fill with BOULDERS and cement. I started in the ditch and would pour some cement then place a boulder and pour more cement. This process was repeated for about 2 hours. When I say boulder I mean boulder. They were at least 30+ pound rocks we were using. My rock duty ended and I got to mix cement. Not much easier than lifting rocks. Mind you we were mixing with a shovel not an electric mixer. Joyous. We got to the finca at 7:30 and after all I just described it was only 9 am! Are you kidding me. Only 9am... But we did get about half of the retaining wall built and thank the heavens we ran out of cement. So we did some weeding in the farm area and had lunch in a tree! It was great but my body is in pain. I forgot what exertion was! Geez more signs of obesity ha. That was my day in  nutshell! More stories to come after I go to the black sand beaches tomorrow.

Also good news about Rulfino, my friend Lisa helped me contact a local health organization and one of the doctors have agreed to come out and check Rulfino out!!! More to come next week!

Internship and Random Thoughts

Yesterday I went to Buena Vista which is a small town about 20 minutes away from Antigua. I again rode on the back of Daniel's moto bike (he is the travel nurse) this time with a huge box of vaccinations and we had to go up a hill... Yea I think we had to stay in 1st or 2nd gear the whole way. At one point I kind of just giggled to myself and Daniel leans over and says "Courtney... Tu pesas mucho!" Translation: "Courtney... You weigh alot!" I must say I laughed pretty hard. He was completely joking but earlier I had told him I am "gorda" or heavy because I have been eating so many tortillas. He is a jokester. We pulled into a small alley and walked into a room that was about 6ft by 30 ft. It had concrete walls and was just baren. This is the "clinic" we were working in. I could not believe it. In the front of the room there was a small table where Daniel and I would check each patient in and then they would sit on a wooden bench next to me and we would give them their shots. Mostly children received vaccinations but a couple of mothers had a complete check up. The women would go into the back of the clinic where a small medicine cabinet stood and a single cloth divider quarded them from the rest of us. Through the course of the day small children, dogs and even a couple chickens ran through the clinic. Have you ever heard of ANY type of animal in a clinic in the US?? I think not, the only animals I have seen in the US clinics are the screaming children haha. At the beginning of the day we gave vaccinations to babies and towards lunch we gave dogs rabbi vaccinations. I actually gave some dogs the vaccinations but when a dog looked suspicious to Daniel he'd say no no I ll do it. He was afraid of a dog biting me so he took the naughty ones. For lunch I learned how to make tortillas!!! It was soooo hard. The girl that showed me how was only 16 years old and she probably made 16 tortillas to my one! How embarrassing. I just did not have the proper hand clap down right to flatten out the dough! But to get the dough I sifted through corn kernels that had been soaking in water, drained them and then took them to a grinder or mill that literally ground the semi wet corn into dough right in front of me. From there she kneaded the dough and then we made small balls and started "clapping" the dough into circular forms. The only two I made were disfigured and had holes. Fail. They were the "special" ones out of the group. After lunch I was waiting outside the clinic and saw a woman maybe 4 ft tall and had a small child with her not more than a year old and she had this huge jug of water she had filled up at the local water faucet. She started walking away so I asked her if I could help. She looked at me funny and reluctantly gave me the water. Oh I failed to mention she had been carrying it on her HEAD!  She lifted it off hers and placed it on my head. HOLY CRAP. It was so heavy. I could not help but laugh and neither could she. She saw me sway a little bit with the weight and thought I was crazy for wanting to help. She tried to take it back and I insisted I would take it to her house. She was amazed I even made it! It was an incredible to see how grateful and shocked she was I wanted to help. It's the little things right. After that Daniel asked me if I wanted to meet his friend Rufino. Without hesitation I said yes and he proceeded to warn me that he had a "sickness" of the skin. I still wanted to go so we bought Rufino a couple cookies and juice. We had to walk maybe about 5 minutes up part of a hill and we finally came to his small little property. Daniel called out for him and Rufino came out. I have no words or emotions to describe the health condition of Rufino. His entire body was taken over by his health condition. I can not even put into words how horrible Rufino's condition is and is getting. His mother apparently left and he is only 21 years old. He has been living like this for most of his life and has never been seen by any medical professional besides Daniel. He has 3 of his little cousins living with him (all around 3 to 5 years old) and his dad works somewhere close to the house. I am not kidding when I say if I was 3 years old and I saw Rufino I would think he was some kind of "monster". As horrible as that sounds, I am not exaggerating when I say his body is deformed because of his condition. I completely lost my appetite and just was in utter shock. How could someone go so long without medical attention. It broke my heart and made me feel guilty for ever feeling sorry for myself about anything for that matter. I talked with my friend Lisa about things I could do to help Rulfino, so right now we are in the process of contacting organizations in the area that could get help for Rulfino. Keep Rulfino in your prayers and hearts, for now we are in limbo. We left Rulfino and walked in silence back to the clinic. We gathered up all our gear and headed back to Antigua. Daniel asked if I was ok and in my best Spanish I told him I was just in shock. He gave me a hug and we were off. I did not sleep as well last night, one: I was thinking about Rufino and two: I was so SORE from that stupid water jug... How pathetic. Early signs of obesity from tortilla intake!

On a lighter note here are some observations I have made:

1. My Mayan Kaq'chikel teacher, Osbilda is an indigenous Mayab woman. She has taking a liking to me since I am the worst spanish speaker in her class and yet maybe one of the better Kag'chikel speakers. The other day I had made a small "chiste" (joke) about something and she had the deepest belly laugh I have ever heard. I couldn't help but laugh harder. Her whole body kind of shook with her laugh it was great!
2. Outside of Antigua there are many small towns that are situated in the valley and some in the mountains. Every town I have been to outside of Antigua alot of the women walk around barefoot. Barefoot. My feet hurt from walking on the concrete floors in our house. These women are a complete different kind of tough.
3. The gardening done in Antigua is done with a machete. A couple mornings ago I was walking in the street and saw a man just carrying a machete in a holster on his belt. UHH woaaah dude. Before I saw what he was doing I made sure to cross the road... Like a street would stop someone with a machete but you know. I kept watching him and he came up to a couple of bushes and went to work.
4. If you ever see a woman carrying a babe here is the amount of clothing the baby is wearing:
      -A diaper
      -A light onezy (think I spelled that one wrong)
      -A sweater
      -A pair of pants
      -Socks
      -Sometimes shoes
      -A beanie
     -And finally a blanket
     -Sometimes two blankets
Poor kids they can barely breath or move!
5. I saw a little boy wearing a U of A sweatshirt in the street two mornings ago! How ridiculous!
6. I have noticed a lot of children are semi abusive to animals here. It breaks my heart, the other day I saw a little boy no older than 4 kick a puppy because the dog was in his way. It wasn't my place to tell him no, but I almost wanted to kick him back and see how he liked it. ( Ok not really but kind of).

One of the more vicious ones!

One of the chicken visitors 

Puppy in the clinic :(

Our tiny clinic

The three little boys that live Rulfino

Giant water jug... Look at the tiny woman in front of me!

My first animal vaccination!

Trying to make tortillas! Failed attempt about 2 secs later I dropped the dough

Ok that is all for now! Love to all
Abrazos!

Sorry for the Grammatical Errors

Warning. My brain is tired and there are probably alot of grammatical errors since I am trying so hard to think in Spanish. Lo siento! Xoxo

Semuc Champay Weekend Getaway

I want to first comment on the title. "Getaway", isn't this the term we use when we need to have a short vacation to relieve stress etc.. It's funny I'm getting away from my getaway. On my bus ride back home today I was thinking ok Court, back to reality time to get back into school mode. What am I thinking... Reality? I am in a dream world right now. Every day is a new experience, a new adventure!

Ok now to start our weekend. I will start by saying we got "played" by a couple of tour agencies. Trying to make a trip for eight women (who choose not to say what they actually want to do) is very difficult. After a minor freak out with my roommate Colleen we were set to be picked up at 5:30 am. Yes even Courtney was ok with that. The night before all the girls were asking what do we bring, what food should I pack, etc etc etc. I am not your mama, figure it out, your an adult!! Holy cow, future note to self, big groups are hard to plan for. But despite that, the girls that came on the trip were all amazing people. About 5:32 the roommates and I showed up to the van and we were missing 3 of the girls... We waited... and waited. Thirty minutes later three figures in the distance were SLOWLY walking towards the van. If that were me I would be sprinting and out of breath. Mind you the reason we were leaving at 5:30am was to avoid Guatemala City traffic. So much for that plan. Apparently the reason for their tardiness was one girls forgot her wallet. Trying to control myself right now and not blow up on her. In the realm of things, what ever, we were late and I am no candidate for being early but the idea was too get to Semuc early in order to see the national park before it closes. So much for that plan and the extra 70 quetzales (currency) we paid to leave earlier. It ended up being about a seven and half hour drive through jungles, valleys, alot of Guatemala City traffic, ghettos, and bumpy, pot holey dirt roads. We had about a 1600km difference in altitude change. I usually never get car sick... I can read in the car, I can sit upside down, turns in the road dont bother me but the altitude change got me feeling green. For the first half of the ride the girls and I were chatter boxes, we played middle school car games and as soon as the altitude started to change we all slowly got quieter and quieter. After about 7 hours we came into a town called Lankin and had to switch vehicles... Hmm our guide said you needed four wheel drive to get to our hostel and the "new" vehicle only runs at certain hours of the day. Comforting. But anyway all 10 us unloaded and transferred into a truck smaller than my f 150. Four of us piled into the backseat and the other 6 in the bed of the truck... (Don't worry parents I sat in the cab). But then our driver took off, hauling ass through the tiny cobble stone roads of Lankin. I gasped about 3 times thinking we almost hit dogs or pedestrians! Then we stopped at a little hostel and picked up two Brits who both sat in the front seat. Fortunately it was a couple, and they were able to sit on each others laps. So finally we were off to our 4 wheel drive adventure to Semuc. The road was... there was no road. It was a dirt path that had severe erosion from the rains. I quietly sat with my eyes closed suffocating from how many people were in the cab and not being able to roll the windows down since it started pouring again. I have to say our driver was terrific. His truck was older than me, his clutch seemed to be going out and he had to feather the gas every time he shifted. Reminded me of when I started driving stick "A LITTLE GAS... A LITTLE CLUTCH!" (famous last words from dad before I got the car stuck on a hill). But eventually after many bumps, jolts, hills, and mud puddles we pulled up to our rustic, quaint hostel situated about 200 feet away from the river.

It was gorgeous completely made out of bamboo and wood. We only had electricity from  6pm til 10pm, I am pretty sure the entire hostel was run off of one generator! But we were placed in dorm style rooms so 5 of us were in one room and 3 in the other. The beds were... well a little questionable. The first bed I chose had a GIANT stain on it. I am going to assume for my own sanity that it was a water stain from the storms but who really knows. So I switched beds closer to all the spider webs.. Lovely... Our first night we just walked around the area. Our hostel like I said was right next to the river. At the waters edge there was a huge swing that you could launch yourself into the river, so fun! Then we walked up the road which I might add is all jungle forest with wild turkeys and chickens just grazing the side of the path. Along the path we came upon a huge suspension bridge that led to the national park. I might add the floor of the bridge was wooden and shooooot I was nervous if it was going to hold my weight ( in reality cars drove on it everyday I was just being dramatic). But then we had a lovely dinner of fried chicken, rice and the most soggy, squishy, gooooeeeey salad I had ever seen, I said seen because I did not touch it. But after dinner we were all enjoying our two hours of electricity and in the meantime got salsa lessons. One of the guys that worked the hostel was also a salsa instructor. Man were we the entertainment for the night. Eight white girls with 16 left feet. It was hysterical but, he was patient and at least some of us have the basic steps down. The night was over lights out just before ten. We all proceeded to bed. I wore long sleeves, long johns and socks with my long johns tucked in. Mind you it is about 80 degrees out and 100% humidity. I was not about to get anything crawling all up on me. It took me awhile to fall asleep but eventually I fell into a coma.

The next morning was gorgeous. I woke up around 6 30 and no one was up. It was quiet and peaceful. It was slightly chilly out and the river was calm. Our tour of the cave was scheduled for 9 30. Enough time for me to lose my cell phone and 100 quetzales. Not the end of the world, but I have no recollection of where I put both of those things... Early Alzheimer's. Yikes. But all the girls slowly woke up and we got our bathing suits on, head lamps and water shoes to go spelunking! The cave we went to has a river that runs through it and feeds into the river. At the mouth of the cave there is a semi large waterfall. Hmm how our we starting this little adventure. The guide gave us all two candles and we started the trek. We hiked up the side of a small hill and entered the mouth of the cave, also known in the Mayan world as the mouth of the alligator which leads into another world. We lit our candles and slowly walked into the dark, cold, mysterious water. I must say our Guatemalan guide was smeagol (the creature from Lord of the Rings that can climb crazy stuff and dive in dark water). I kid you not we are walking through the cave by candle light, very eerie feeling. Our guide was incredible he would tell us where rocks were in the water, steer us from room to room. Some of the rooms, we had to ascend ladders (again looked older than I did) and then descend some. As we were getting further back in the cave I could hear rushing water. Ummmm.. Thoughts in my head, great the cave is filling up with water. But to my surprise we crawled through this small opening and we were in this room with an actual waterfall. You could barely see the water was gushing everywhere. The candles went out and the guide grabbed my hand ( I was in front) and said hang on to this rope and without a word he swung me THROUGH the waterfall. I have never felt water so forceful before. He placed me on a little ledge bench thing and swung back through and started bringing everyone over one y one. Once everyone was over he told us to climb up yet another later to get to the next room. The last person came through and no guide... Heart drops for about 2 minutes and all of a sudden a man emerges from the waterfall, like I said SMEAGOL! He climbed up the center of the waterfall using the rope we swung from side to side with. He did it effortlessly. About another 5 minutes of swimming slash walking we came into the last room of the cave. Once again the guide disappeared and all of sudden a man flies in the air and lands in a cannon ball in front of us all. So of course I had to do it to. It was only about 3 km high but still cliff jumping in a cave! I was so nervous. Everyone kept chanting for me. I told them no I don't want to! But they were persistent and I couldn't be a chicken so I did it. What a rush. After our cliff jumping excursion, by the way I was not the only one to go, we headed out. The pure excitement from seeing natural light is overwhelming. Even though I knew Smeagol would get us out it was relieving. After the caves we got to tube down part of the river. It was freeeezing! So not enjoyable. But I was floating along keeping to myself and all of sudden someone says what is that... Of course I jump and there was an otter right next to me! Are those dangerous? It freaked me out. The guide said to me "Don't worry mi amor, it's only a perro de agua." Translation, "Don't worry my love its only a water dog!" Oh great I feel much better now. But after our tubing we grabbed a quick lunch and headed over to the national park to see the natural pools, also known to some as Eden. It was about a 15 minute walk along the riverside to get to these series of natural pools that are crystal clear. The pools are on top of a massive natural bridge that the river I have been talking about runs under! How crazy is that. These pools that we swim in are all above the river. Nature at its finest! The water was refreshing and cool. If you keep your feet still enough the little tiny fish in the pools will eat the dead skin off your heels! I am way too ticklish, but the fish sure liked mine for some reason. We spent the rest of our day just enjoying the pools and returned back to our hostel for the night. Ate another appetizing dinner... (sarcasm). We had a long day and an even longer drive home the next day. The girls turned in pretty early so we could get up early and catch our lovely four wheel drive truck home. That is about all I have for this weekend. I could go into so much detail about the pools and the history and the location but I would never be able to justify the beauty of the river, the cave and the pools! All in all a  great weekend. Drive back was slow, boring,  and well boring.

The pools!

The river going under the pools!

Aerial view!

Girls in the water! I am in the middle!

Ready at 5:30 waiting for the other chicas...

Still waiting!

Finally in the van and loaded!

The girls! After about 4 hours of driving... Notice I lost the socks

Our dorm room... You cant see the spider webs or the stains...

The outside! A nice little loft upstairs!

Girls walking to the river from our room!

The river! And the swing!

Very sketchy dock!

Tight tree walking!

The start to a new day!

View of the river!

Covered from head to toe!

Trying to go to sleep!

Part of the ghetto!