Water, Water EVERYWHERE, But Nothing Left to Drink!

As my time in Guatemala is beginning to end, I realized I haven´t posted much about Guatemala itself.  So I am going to be doing a bunch of posts about random things here in the country.  The first being the weather and the water!

 When I came here I packed lots of short sleeved shirts and capri´s, thinking it is what I would live in (Guatemala is closer to the equator, so it should be warmer, right?)  I was so wrong!  The only time I wear capri´s is when we are traveling (we have been to some truly hot places!) but any time I am home in Patzicía I am in long pants, a short sleeved shirt, a sweater, and for most of the day a jacket.  I sleep in sweats and can´t drag myself out of my warm bed each morning! It is really pretty ideal temperature for me.  Not freezing (except for a few cold spells we´ve had) and I am not dying of heat.  I would take the cold over the heat any day, so I have enjoyed skipping some of the intense warmth back home while I have been here. 

Guatemala is known as ¨The Land of Eternal Spring¨, and that is really what it is like - spring all the time!  It rains CONSTANTLY.  In the month I have been here we have had around 4 days where it hasn´t rained.  Most days it rains in the late afternoon or the night, but a few days it has rained the entire day.  On our 10 day backpacking trip it rained every single day, but it was while we were sleeping so it worked out perfectly!  I am not use to this much water!  I use my rain jacket and my backpack cover all the time as I try to stay dry coming and going to school. 

You would think that with so much rain, water would be at a surplus. It is not.  Our water goes out pretty constantly.  Our first day of school we woke up to no water, so we went without showers.  We have learned if you want a shower you better take it before 6:00 AM, or you are out of luck! Sometimes it comes back on pretty quick, other times it is our for a while.  You never know when it will go out and how long it will be gone for!

Of course we can not drink water from the tap, or even use it to brush our teeth.  We use a big jug that we fill our smaller water bottles from whenever we are home, and it lasts us about a week.  I was worried about having to spend all my money on water when we were traveling (I drink A LOT of water!) but Krista introduced em to this little gem:

Bagged water!  You buy it at almost any little tienda, it is what the Guatemalan´s use!  Where a bottle of water costs between 50 cents and a dollar (depending where you are), these bags cost between 6 and 12 cents each.  It takes about two to fill up a water bottle (because even though the natives drink it from the bag, I prefer it in a bottle!)  Even though bottled water is not expensive it really adds up, so I have learned to love these things!  I do look forward to being able to drink from the tap and not think twice about brushing my teeth, though! 

Another Stamp in the Passport!

We left Thursday night and stayed in Antigua so we would be ready to head off to Honduras the next morning.  The shuttle picked us up at 3:45 AM (Yes, like the morning.  I am ready to be done with these early morning trips!) and off we went.  The trip was LONG and the shuttle was FULL.  Every single one of the 14 small seats was filled.  Finally, around 11:00 we made it to Honduras! 

It took another hour to get all of us through immigrations, and after another 15 minutes in the shuttle we finally made it to Copán!  We found a hostel, dropped our stuff off, found lunch, and headed straight for the ruins!

The ruins at Copán are the southernmost Mayan ruins from what I understand.  The style and structure are similar to the others we have seen, though each place has it´s own unique feel and look.

The Copán ruins are fulled with the most intricate and beautiful stone carvings.  They are everywhere you look!  You could sit and observe the details for hours and hours.  It is truly amazing! 

The Copán ruins are smaller than Tikal, though larger than Iximché.  We were there in the afternoon, which turned out to be really nice.  They weren´t overly crowded, and the weather (while warmer than we are use to) was not bad at all! 

The coolest part of Copán is the tunnels that they have found under the city.  You have to pay extra to go in them, but it is worth it!   They turned out to be our favorite part.

The first tunnel we went in was small, but the second one was quite large!  The carvings continued in the tunnels, and led to a very impressive and luxurious feel.  The work that went into these places never ceases to amaze me!   

The other thing I LOVED about the ruins at Copán was the parrots flying around directly over our heads.  I have never seen such beautiful birds so close to me in the wild!  I couldn´t get enough! 

After we left the ruins we wandered around the town for a bit.  I really enjoyed Honduras and the feel of it.  It is so close to Guatemala, and yet the feel was so differerent.  The traditional clothes you see on many Guatemalan women was not there.  Cowboy boots and hats could be found on most of the men.  The people were not nearly as short, and had a distinctly different look about them.  They were not Guatemalan, and you could tell (they are very beautiful, they just look more latino then Mayan)! The food was different, the spanish was different, it was such an amazing thing to observe! 


We went into a market and made friends with some Honduran women.  One of them commented that Krista´s skin looked like milk.  Then she looked at me and told me I looked like a banana.  A banana?!?!?! Yes, I am pale, even when standing next to Krista, but I am not yellow!  Maybe she meant a peeled banana . . . that would be far more accurate! HA! 

We went to bed early and got up the next morning to go on the nature hike by the ruins.  We had heard that it was beautiful, and it truly was!  Once again, we were surrounded by jungle on every side!  These trees are refered to as ¨The Tree of Life¨ by locals.  They are HUGE.

We really enjoyed the walk (and even found another ancient Mayan ball court ruin in the middle, the sign said it was probably used as a practice court, very fun!) until about half way through when the bugs became super intense!  We were getting bitten on every side, regardless of the bug spray we had put on.  Krista smashed a spider in her hair, and then I smashed one on my face that led blood and guts down the side of my face.  I couldn´t get it off, I made Krista help me after she was done remarking how disgusting it was! We are not squeemish girls, but we were DONE! We were grateful to find the exit and get out! 

We wandered around the city a bit more before packing up our stuff and catching an afternoon shuttle back to Antigua, and then our busses to get home.  It was a quick trip, but a really fun one!

Tamales!!!

I have already mentioned it, but I REALLY love to cook and am facinated with foreign cousine!  My love of food has really allowed me to connect with all sorts of people, and jump right into different cultures.  The other night we were visiting a family, and the mother was making tamales to sell at her stand the next day.  I asked if I could help, and she was thrilled!  She put one of her traditional aprons on me (not that it helped, I still made a mess!) and set me to work!

First she showed me how to put the rice paste in the middle of the banana leave, add a piece of chicken, and sauce.  You stir it all together until the mixture is well blended.

Then you fold the banana leaf in a special way, shaking the mixture to the bottom and folding over the ends. 

She showed me how to make the first one, then she left me to do the rest.  It was so much fun!  By the fourth or fifth I was feeling pretty confident, and they started to look more like they should!  By the time the night was over I had made nine, and was ridiculously pround of my small stack of tamales!

The family told me that now I can marry a Guatemalan since I can make tamales!  Small problem, I don´t actually know how to make the rice paste or the sauce, but I do enjoy assembling them!  She told me that the next day she mentioned that a Gringa had made the tamales, and they all sold really fast :-) Guess I´m a natural!

Iximché

I have learned that Guatemala is a land filled with many volcanoes, and many ruins!  Both of these make if a land with much to see and do. Tuesday we took off from school early and headed to Ichimché, a set of ruins that are only about half an hour away from where we live.  Ryan was leaving a few days later, so we wanted to go before he left. 

Ichimché is much smaller than some of the other ruins that we have visited, but I loved it!  There were very few people there, we almost had the whole place to ourselves.  The weather was perfect, and it was just so peaceful.  It made for a perfect day of wandering around.

We couldn´t resist taking a picture of what seemed like a possible sacrificial alter.  So Krista is sacrificing Ryan! After this we found a spot where a Mayan religion still preforms sacrifices.  They were sacrificing chickens that day.  It was an odd experience. We left quickly.

Some of the ruins you can still climb, others you can´t.  The ones you can arre really cool!  The view is always really fun from the top! 

Ryan told us that Ichimché is the proposed Land of Ishmael from the Book of Mormon, which I found very cool.  I promptly reviewed the section of the Book of Mormon that talks about the Land of Ishmael as soon as I got home. I need to study more about these places, I find it so facinating! I´m not sure if it really is or not, but it does give me something to think on.

Iximché even had one of the Mayan ball courts that I had been dying to see.  It did not disappoint! 

Ruins never get old.  You can feel the rich history (most of which we don´t even know!) as you walk through them.

Every structure is built so well.  The lines and angles are so close to perfect.  To be able to build the way they did, without any of the modern technology we use, continues to astound me!  And then to think that they could just walk away from these magnificent cities floors me.

When we got home that night Domatila had prepared a going away dinner for Ryan. We sat around and laughed and talked and enjoyed her amazing Guatemalan food!  I love these people, they are just so amazing! And I love this land!  Always something to see and do.  Hooray for Guatemala! 

Backpacking: The Good, The Bad, and The Dirty.

During our  trip I learned a lot about backpacking.  Some things are good, and some things are bad.  I´m not expert by any means, our trip was only 10 days.  We met people who were backpacking for months, and a few that were even backpacking for a year, one that was out for 18 months..  Even so, I am going to share my thoughts on backpacking with you, along with some random pictures from the trip that I didn´t know what to do with them.

Puerto Barrios.  There was seriously nothing in this place! 

The Good:  I will start with some of the good things about backpacking.  The ability to see a lot of really cool things in a very short amount of time, and pretty cheaply is definitely a plus!  You also end up seeing areas off the beaten path which can be the coolest things ever! 

We stayed in two hotels that had glass doors on the bathroom.
What is the point of a glass door on a bathroom?

The number one, very best part of backpacking is the people that you meet!  I found that backpackers in general are some of the nicest and coolest people you will ever meet.  They are fun to talk to, have amazing stories, and super kind!  I was amazed that every step along the way we made friends and had fun!  I have never understood how people could travel alone, but I guess you meet enough people it can be done.  Trips are never boring with these kinds of people around!

Swinging Tarzan style from a vine!

The Bad:  Now for some of the cons of backpacking.  You carry what you pack.  Always.  Yes, you can leave it in your hostel when you are settled in an area (it´s pretty safe, everyone is in the same boat as you are so things don´t get stollen all that often, though I wouldn´t reccomend leaving your passport) but you travel A LOT and whenever you travel, you carry your bag!  And sometimes you have to be checked out of your hostel at a certain time and you end up carrying your backpack with you as you climb a volcano.  It can get heavy.

Sometimes you luck out and catch a GORGEOUS sunset!

As I mentioned, you do A LOT of traveling.  Yes, there are amazing days full of fun and adventure, but there are also a lot of days where you sit on a bus/boat/shuttle for the entire day. Of our 10 day trip, 4 of those days were spent with 6-12 hours of traveling.  Often there are not smooth roads, and the trip can be long. If you have any kind of motion sickness whatsoever, backpacking is NOT for you! 

We ended up getting quite a bit of sleep on our trip (not that sleep is a bad thing at all!) because if you are in an area that is dangerous, you want to be in your hostel by the time it gets dark.  Also, since we are not drinkers or partiers, there isn´t generally a whole lot to do after the sun goes down.  Unless you are at a super cool hostel where they turn on the music and salsa dance!

Once again, riding in the back of a Guatemalan truck.  This time with more people! 

The Dirty:  Yes, folks.  Backpacking gets dirty.  You take what you get when it comes to hostels.  Some are better than others.  You always ask to see the beds before you decide if you are going to stay there.  Krista always just stands back and waits for my response.  She knows that I have a harder time with general ickyness than she does.  One day she came out of the bathroom after a shower and said ¨I wouldn´t reccomend you take a shower here¨.  She knows me pretty well by now, so I trust her advice and skipped a shower that day.  Showers when you are backpacking are optional anyway.  Kind of gross, but true! You are generally dirty while backpacking.  But it is okay, because so is everyone else. Don´t look to closely at our pictures, por favor, or you may notice our dirtyness.  

While waiting for our boat in Punta Gorda we were dying in the heat and humidity.  We decided to grab a coke and sit.  Our coordinator suggested that we drink a coke a week to help our stomaches while we are in Guatemala.  I am NOT a fan of soda, and yet I am learning to tolerate coke, and even look forward to my weekly bottle!

Other Things I Have Learned: I have gotten MUCH better with packing my backpack!  I am still not as good as Krista, I have no idea how she gets by with so little, but I have gotten better.  I have learned a few tricks that help to keep the backpack small.  For example, a container of dental floss is small, but a baggie with precut pieces of dental floss takes up less space.  Travel sized shampoo is small, but little pouches of shampoo and conditioner are really easy to shove into the small spaces.  The less full your backpack, the better.  Also, you need to be picky with the clothes that you take.  You need to like them, because you will wear them again and again and again.  However, you need to realize that by the time you get home you will probably be so sick of them you want to throw them away!

L is for Livingston.
Not our favorite place.

Denise told me I wouldn´t need a book because we would be so busy I wouldn´t have time for it, and I wouldn´t be able to read on the road.  BIG mistake.  Have I mentioned the long travel days?  That, along with the facts that I am a sever bookaholic, and never get carsick mean that a book while backpacking is a must!  Not having one was the biggest regret of my entire trip! I always take a book along now, regardless of the extra space/weight it takes up.  Having one less shirt is totally worth it.  With or without a book, the long travel days give you lots of time to be in your head, so you better be comfortable there! 

At the end of our 12 hour traveling day.  This is truly how we felt. 

If you are going to backpack, I would HIGHLY reccomend going with someone you get along with really well.  I really lucked out with Krista.  We had never met until we were at the airport on our way to Guatemala, and it amazes me how well we get along!  It could not have been planned any better. We travel at the same speed (very fast, who needs sleep?) which works for us.  We have a lot of the same beliefs, which has been so helpful!  We agree on what to do really easily, and didn´t have any meltdowns along the way.  Plus we didn´t kill each other, and are still friends which I consider highly successful!  I think you should be really careful when you are deciding who to backpack with, because it could cause big problems!  Like I said, many people do it alone, but I enjoyed going with someone.  I think it is more fun, safer, and it makes it easier to pack (One carries the bugspray, the other sunblock, etc). 

A man in Rio Dulce gave us his phone number in case we wanted to go swimming with him.  They like Gringa´s here a  lot.  No worries, we did not use his number.  Pretty sure he would have been sorely disappointed in our overly modest swimwear anyway!

All in all, it was a great experience!  I do not think I could be one of those people who could backpack for an extended period of time (I think 2 to 3 weeks would be my maximum, a year or even 4 months would be out of the question!)  I would still like to possibly backpack around Europe one day, and the things I have learned here will change the way I do things then.  It is a very different traveling experience, some things I like, some things I don´t, but it does make for some great stories and some amazing memories! 

The Adventure to Top Them All!!!

We left our treehouse oasis and jumped on a shuttle for Semuc Champey.  It was a six hour ride on a very narrow dirt road, up and down throught the mountains, the entire way!  It was a very long trip! Once we got to the middle of nowhere, a truck from our hostel came and picked us up and drove us even further into the middle of nowhere.  We were wondering exactly where it was we were going to be staying.  I did finally get to fullfill my dream of riding in the back of a Guatemalan truck though!  

We finally got to our hostel - El Portal.  It truly is in the middle of nowhere, and it is spectacular!  Well, the hostel itself isn´t, but the scenery totally makes up for the constant lack of running water (it was off more than it was on) and the four hours of electricity allowed daily.  Plus, the people we met at El Portal were so much fun!

We got up early to head out on our tour.  We didn´t know quite what we would be doing the whole day, but we had been told by many people that it was worth it!  So we signed up and met with our group to head off on our adventure.  We lucked out and had a small group of 9 (the day before they had 25). 

The first thing we did was go on a hike.  It was super green and pretty, though the humidity had us all dripping (litterally, sweat dripping off the end of your nose) within minutes.  We hiked for about half an hour and got to El Mirador (the lookout) where we could look down and see Semuc Champey.  It was a phenomenal sight! 

Semuc Champey is a group of natural pools that are known to some as the 8th wonder of the world.  They are warm, and clear, and the most amazing shades of blue and green you have ever seen.   Pictures can not do Semuc justice!

After we had seen the view from up top we hiked down to where we could swim in the pools.  We were SO grateful to jump in the cool water after being so hot on the hike!

Our tour guide took us through Semuc Champey.  We swam through all the pools, did some cliff jumping, slid down the natural waterslides made by the slick rocks (so much fun, and worth the bruised bottom!) and dove down and into some hidden caves.

Semuc is not only absolutely beautiful, but it is extremely entertaining!  We had a great time, giggling as we went down the slides and floating in the water.  To top it off, our guide was hilarious and kept us all laughing!

We really lucked out with our group.  We became friends quickly with all of them!  The whole day was spent laughing and joking and cheering each other on.  Two of us were from Utah, one from Hawaii, one a girl living in Panama, two from Germany, one from Switzerland, one from England and one from Russia.

After we had swam around for a while we went back to the hostel for lunch, and then set off again for what became my favorite part of the whole trip - the bat caves!  I have to preface this part by saying that I have NO pictures of this, which kills me!  We weren´t allowed to take anything into the cave that coun´t get completely soaked.  If I ever make it back, a waterproof camera is a must! These pictures I found on google images of other people who went through the cave, so that you have an idea of just how cool it was!

I love caves and enjoy them anytime I can get in one, but this was different.  These caves are filled with water, and have no lights.  When you go in you are given a candle, and taught how to hold it so that you can swim with one hand and hold your candle with the other.  Without the candles it is pitch black. 

Going into a cave with a candle is a cool experience to begin with, but it gets even cooler.  Some of the time you have to swim through the water, other times your feet can touch the bottom so you can walk.  It is loud through the whole thing because of the rushing water.  You form a line and make your way through the tunnels, swimming under, around, and through many rocks and things along the way.

Part way in you come to a waterfall in the middle of the cave with a rope hanging down with several knots in it.  The guide grabbed the rope and climbed up top, instructing each of us to do the same.  You climb the rope with a fairly strong waterfall pouring over the top of your head.  Such a unique experience! 

When you finally get to the back of the cave there is a huge pond.  We stood around it with our candles and all took turns climbing up to the top of the wall and jumping in. Cliffjumping in a cave.  Does it get any cooler?

After that we started to make our way out of the cave, climbing down the rope through the waterfall and coming to an area that Krista dubbed ¨The Birth Canal¨ (very appropriately named!)  It is a hole in a rock with water gushing through it.  You can´t see through it at all, and there is no place to put your head to breathe.  You just put your legs through and let go, letting the guide catch you at the bottom.  Kind of scary, and totally cool!

We left the caves two hours later soaking wet, pretty cold, tired, and all with HUGE grins on our face.  Such an incredible experience!  I would have done it again if we had time!

But our day wasn´t over yet!  We grabbed some tubes and tubed down the river by our hostel.  Very nice and relaxing!

We thought our day was over as we walked back to the hostel crossing a bridge with our tubes. Our guide threw down his tube and asked who wanted to jump in.  We all thought he was kidding (though the picture doesn´t show it, the bridge is actually quite high!) until he turned around and jumped in! So we dropped our tubes and jumped in after him.  It was AMAZING!

We went home and showered and then ate dinner with all our new friends from our group as we all taked about what a great day it had been!  Then the workers at El Portal turned on the music and started dancing!  So we ended the day with Salsa Dancing lessons.  I am so not coordinated when it comes to salsa dancing, but it is fun anyway!

Honestly, days don´t get much better than this one.  We had been to some truly phenomenal places, and yet this day is the highlight of my entire trip in Guatemala (at least so far!) and that is saying something!

The next day we woke up early to once again ride in the back of a truck to town, bid farewell to our new friends, and catch our shuttle back to Antigua.  After that we took the two busses that took us back to Patzicía.  It was an 11 hour day of traveling, and we arrived home glad to be there!  It was a fantastic backpacking trip where we made memories that will last a lifetime, but it was good to be home! 

That time we lived in a treehouse ...

By the time we arrived in Rio Dulce we were pretty tired.  Turns out backpacking can be exhausting, Krista looked like a lobster (BAD sunburn!) and I had caught a cold somewhere along the way.  We decided to take a day and just rest before starting out the next day.  We picked our hostel - El Tortugal - because it had free kayaking, which we loved.  However, we did not expect what we found when we got there! 

We had to call to have a water taxi from the hostel come and pick us up from the dock.  This was the view as we pulled up to the front:

This hostel was like staying in a treehouse, and who hasn´t dreamed of that before!  There was a nice restaurant in the front, a library and game room above, a beautiful deck to relax on, and all sorts of fun people to meet! 

This was the path that led to our little bungalo. 

You climbed a really cool (though dangerously steep) staircase, and found the room that we stayed in.  There were four beds, each in it´s own little alcove with a personal reading light and bug net.  There were no walls,  just the ceiling and floor.  It was awesome! 

I stayed in the yellow alcove, Krista was in the pink.  The view from the bed was phenomenal and the sounds all night were so fun!  Denise had talked me out of taking a book on the trip (packing for 10 days in a backpack is hard!  Plus she said I wouldn´t have time for it) BIG mistake for someone like me!  I was dying!  When I found english books at El Tortugal I grabbed one and devouered the first 70 pages, and the last chapter before putting it back on the shelf when we left the next day.   

This is the path that led to the bathrooms and showers, which were exceptionally nice, probably some of the nicest of all the hostel´s and hotels we have stayed in (kind of surprising!)  I had no reservations about using these showers! 

This place was so incredible!  We really did spend the whole day enjoying the place, kayaking, reading, and relaxing!

Remember that time when I swore I would never wear a skirt while backpacking again?  I totally ate my words this trip!  It was so hot and humid everywhere we went that we were almost ALWAYS in a skirt if we weren´t in our swimsuits!

And just because I can´t resist putting this in, we thought it was SO funny!

I have to say, living in a tree house was SUPER cool!