Travel Journal 2

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Hello from Guatemala,
This is one is going to be long because a LOT of stuff has happened. First, I want to say thank you so much for the emails back. The times when I have been homesick, lonely, or heartbroken have really been cushioned by your letters; I love and miss you all.

So when I last wrote I was on my way into Guatemala the next morning. The day was a long one. I was up at five, leaving on my first of several buses by six. I was trying to get to a small town where I could take a four-hour bus ride down the river into Guatemala. A friend of mine had tried it over a decade ago and said it was wonderful. After much confusion, I figured out my route and started on my way. After about four hours of small bus and taxi travel, I got off in the town where the little ferry lanchas were supposed to be. Unfortunately, they no longer had that service in that town anymore. So I found myself working a deal with a local family to have them take me down the river by their small lancha (fiberglass outboard dingy). After several hours of sitting on their dock, overlooking the river and sharing mangos sprinkled with chili from their yard, they took me down the river. I had to pay 700 pesos (about $70), which was the last of my money.

Eventually we start down the river and it was just the father of the household (about 55 years old) and me. He told me to watch out for crocodiles but we didn’t see any. Then, at one point about midway through, he stopped the boat and started getting undressed. I was confused as to what was going on, but then I realized, he had to get out and swim the lancha through the rapids. I wasn’t about to let this older gentleman pull my heavy behind through some rapids while I sat and watched, so I asked if he wanted help and jumped in the river (clothes and sandals and all) to help him get the boat through. I scraped the front of my shin about 7 inches and got a huge bruise on my knee from contact with the propeller, but otherwise it went smoothly. Just after I got in the water I asked him about the crocodiles that I was supposed to be watching for earlier. “Oh, they don’t eat meat, only rice and beans” he said with a smirk. I figured he had been joking about the crocodiles in the first place but we saw one a few minutes up the river from the rapids....eeek!

After about twenty minutes in the river, we jumped back in the boat. That’s when I realized I had been wearing my money belt with my passport, money cards, and travel itinerary the whole time. Oops. I had another hour on the river and was able to salvage most everything and keep my passport in one piece (they are made of some cloth like paper). I also treated my wound immediately with iodine from my mini first aid kit and never had any problems with it (it will make a nice reminder scar though). After a while, we reach the Guatemala water border and I have to jump into another boat, and pay some more money...but I don’t have any more money. I almost started crying (and this made my original escort peeved because he had apparently warned me of this). Then I remembered that I had fifteen American dollars in my money belt and they were willing to accept it. Whew… by the skin of my teeth. The boat driver even let me change some money with him (although he totally ripped me off, it was enough to catch a bus to the next big down where I was trying to stay for the night). What a day! To top it off, the hostel I wanted to stay at didn’t have any more rooms or dorm beds available, so that night I ended up sleeping in a hammock in the living room. (I could have gotten a proper hotel room somewhere else but was just really too cheap after the day was done).

So now I am in Guatemala and feeling a little relieved with the crossing behind me. I hadn’t any plans but ended up meeting some eye doctor during breakfast and we explored the Tikal ruins together for the day. These ruins are amazing and after about four hours, we had only seen about twenty percent of the excavated part. The next morning I woke up feeling sick with a cold and decided I needed to move on from the touristy town I was staying in. It might sound counterintuitive, but being on the road here is easier than staying in the hotel room all day. At least this way you get fresh air, get to see some stuff and sit in one place for long periods of time. It is too hot and boring staying in a hotel room (especially the kind of places I am springing for: no air conditioning, communal showers and European smelling roommates) so I would have gone out to explore and worn myself out. I ended up heading southeast to Rio Dulce, which is right along the Honduras border and found myself staying in the most beautiful jungle bungalow up a tiny inlet of the river. The area is a big tourist draw because it’s so beautiful and quiet. They had great food and interesting travelers staying there and I had fun recuperating for half a day there.

While in Rio dulce, I ended up meeting up with some Dutch girls who were going on a tour with a local guide (an ex pat living near by). He took us up the road an hour or more by chicken bus, and we ended up at this hot springs waterfall. The pool it drains into is cool and fairly deep so you can swim in it, dive off the rocks or climb into little sauna spaces created by the waterfall. Every other stroke is a different temperature, hot, warm, cool, and cold. Its really wild actually because its so beautiful and sensually dynamic. That was fun, but the better part was that he later took us clambering up the river for an hour and a half (in bikinis all of us, not very lady like, let me tell you) and into some caves at the mouth of the river. We had to swim into them about 500m trying to hold up our flashlights or headlamps to see where we were going (it was pitch black!) We clambered up rocks and through the water in there for another 20 or 30 minutes. It was quite scary and I screamed murder the one time I fell into the water. I didn’t fall far at all but I didn’t feel the bottom beneath me and was scared I was going to get swept down stream.... plus it was creepy because you can’t see. But the bottom was just at my chin level and one of the guys pulled me up right away.... no actual danger. I was a little embarrassed and more careful after that, although I still later slipped and fell flat on my bum on a boulder. At the head of the cave was this enormous underground waterfall; totally wild. The bad news that day was the waterproof bag the guide used to hold all our cameras leaked and everyone’s camera was broken by the end of the trip. (I was bummed but tried to practice non-attachment...and just today found that my camera works again...kind of…)

On my way back out from my river bungalow, I started to feel really icky about my experience here in GT. Up until this point, I had so few real exchanges or lessons on the real Guatemala, which is poor and consists of farms and lots of physical labor. So I decided to go somewhere and stay for a little while. I quickly found this little volunteer program fairly close by and have committed the rest of my stay to working there. I arrived early this past week and am in love. The town is fairly small (5000 maybe) and I live with a family and work in an ecological park that they are trying to restore, 1km square I believe. There are about fifteen or eighteen volunteers right now, but it seems to be a constant flux. There are a few different programs that I can work in, but working on reforestation and maintenance of this ecological park just felt like a perfect fit for me, and I love it. The last several days I was working on cleaning up the butterfly garden they have started. I have already fallen into an easy routine. Up early, with the family. I cook and do dishes with my host mother (one year my junior with a four year old son) and head to work before 7. We work until about 11 and then its too hot so we cut out for the day. I make lunch with my host mom, take a nap, play basketball with some of the husbands children from his previous marriage (they aren’t exactly conventional I have found out) and help around the house.

Just from the 5 days I have been here, my Spanish has improved loads because I am practicing ALL day. My vocabulary is progressing glacially but my ability to switch back and forth between English and Spanish, and my ability to speak without having to think it all out first, is improving by the hour. I have learned how to make empanadas, tortillas by hand, and bollos. The food is amazing and the lifestyle is really laid back.
The village is situated on a beautiful lake surrounded by rolling green hills. I have an amazing view as I come home in the hot sun, on my way down the hill to my house.

As you can see I am truly roughing it. (Although I do have to shower by bucket, and use a nasty outhouse for a toilet, and walk a kilometer in each direction to work). I would almost want to stay here forever if I wasn’t planning on going home to san Diego soon.... but I am so looking forward to seeing my family that staying longer isn’t an option.
Love you all..............Sarita

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