The Guatemalan Adventure Continues

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Monday, October 17, 2005 (Antigua, Guatemala)

Shannon: Sean and I started our Spanish language classes today and it was…well, we’ll see… The biggest problem is that my teacher doesn’t speak any English - and I don’t speak any Spanish, obviously. You don’t have to look very far to see the problem in this one. It was pretty disappointing, since it appears that the other teachers do speak English and mine is the only one who doesn’t. (When we interviewed with the director of the school we were really clear about my language abilities, so I’m not sure what he was thinking when he made up the teacher-student assignments.) We muddled through the first lesson, but a lot seemed to be lost in the translation. On the bright side, I did manage to pick up some things and Sean straightened me out on others after class, so I think I am headed in the right direction. Today we did 2 ½ hours of intensive one-on-one instruction followed by 1 ½ hours of group work (introductions, games, etc). Hopefully I will get more out of it tomorrow.

We also moved in with our host family today. Our host mom, Rosita, has 4 children (all grown), some of whom still live at home. To be honest, I am having a little difficulty distinguishing who-is-who, since there always seems to be people coming in and out of the house (and I didn’t exactly catch all of the rapid-fire Spanish introductions). Our living arrangements are nice, though, very clean and spacious. Sean and I are sharing a room upstairs with two twin beds. And as part of the homestay, Rosita will cook 3 meals a day for us. I am excited about that, since I think it will be interesting to see what some typical Guatemalan meals are like. There are 3 other students living in the house with us - one British couple and one other American. In order to take complete advantage of the homestay arrangement, we probably should be speaking Spanish during meals - but to be honest, it was really nice to converse in English during lunch and dinner today and get to know the other students. After my disappointing lesson today, it was nice to speak my native tongue.

Other than the language lessons, I am really enjoying Antigua. As we mentioned in our previous blog, it’s a cute little city - very manageable in size and a whole lot prettier than the smoggy mess that is Guatemala City. It’s obviously a very touristy town, but with the tourism comes a lot of services, including internet cafes, nice coffee shops, bookstores, etc. It’s hard to complain about it being too touristy when you’re sitting in a coffee shop enjoying the free Wi-fi connection and sipping a cool drink. Plus, it was a bit exciting moving into the homestay today. Moving in with a family makes me feel a bit more like a local (though I’m obviously not) - but I now have a neighborhood that I live in and somehow that makes it seem like I’ve taken at least one tiny step off the tourist trail.


Thursday, October 20, 2005 (Antigua, Guatemala)

Shannon: Sean and I need to make a decision today about whether we continue with the language lessons next week or not, and I’m a bit on the fence at this point. My lessons up to this point haven’t exactly been what I had hoped, though they’ve gotten a bit better as the week has progressed. The language barrier between my teacher and I has been a continual problem - why they started me off with someone who doesn’t speak any English is still a mystery. And to be honest, she’s not exactly the best teacher. The director of the school is sensing our dissatisfaction with the situation and he went out of his way to let Sean know that, if we did decide to stay longer, I would have a different teacher next week (one who everyone seems to agree is very good). On one hand, I am just now starting to pick up some of the very basics - and the possibility of a better teacher next week is appealing. Plus, our original idea for this trip was that we would spend 2-3 weeks taking language lessons, so some part of me feels like I would not be doing what I said I would if I were to quit now. And I really would like to build on the foundation that I learned this week, at least to the point that I can have a very basic conversation with a person at the market. But on the other hand, I’m a little pissed off that they stuck me with this lame teacher and don’t exactly feel like rewarding them with another weeks payment. And since Sean has been supplementing my Spanish language education anyway, I almost feel that I could practice what I learned this week and have Sean teach me a little more as we travel. Plus - and this is really more of a factor - Sean and I are feeling like our time in Guatemala is running out. We got a bit of a late start on this trip because of Hurricane Katrina and, if we still want to visit Panama, Peru and Argentina, we feel like we should start to think about leaving Guatemala in the next week or two weeks. So if we want to see other parts of the country, it would make sense to move on. Hmmmm…

Otherwise, things are going very well. Sean and I have fallen into a bit of a daily routine - breakfast, language classes, lunch, nap, homework at a coffee shop, dinner, go out with the other language students. I’m enjoying the homestay - Rosita is a good cook and has made a variety of things for us to eat. Some of them are obviously very Americanized - I don’t think the Mayan’s ever ate Corn Flakes for breakfast - but she throws in some good Guatemalan dishes as well. And I’m getting my veggies - she makes excellent salads and serves a lot of fruit - which are a relief for my somewhat dodgy digestive system. I know Sean is a little disappointed that she hasn’t responded enthusiastically to his conversation starters, but nonetheless she is a pleasant person to be around.


Sunday, October 23, 2005 (Antigua, Guatemala)

Sean: Well, we’ve completed a week of Spanish classes and have decided to move on. After a long “Team Sean and Shannon” conference we decided that this wasn’t exactly what we wanted to be doing. That is, the language program wasn’t very well suited to either of us. I don’t want to be too critical because, pound for pound, this is the place to learn Spanish; one-on-one instruction for four hours a day and room & board with a Guatemalan family for only $130 per person per week. It is an amazing deal for anyone truly wanting to take the time and learn all they can about the Spanish language. For me, though, I was looking more for a general refresher course and for Shannon, a general beginner’s introduction to the language - neither one of us is looking to be translators. It is obvious that the schools here are geared more toward someone willing to stay for 10 or 12 weeks, looking to perfect their Spanish skills for work elsewhere, rather than the “three week” travelers looking for some travel basics and not necessarily seeking proficiency (even though I believe the majority of people are here for that very idea). Also, while we’ve met others who’ve had better experiences, our home stay experience wasn’t very stellar. It is quite obvious that hosting students is a business for these families. I didn’t find our host mother mean or unapproachable, but she definitely was not very interested in expanding our knowledge of the people of her country or their language.

But the real beauty of the home stay arrangement that is worth the fuss, are the people you meet. One of the hallmarks of traveling actually is meeting other travelers and this trip so far has not been disappointing at all. You meet such amazing people from all over the world and just having conversations with these like-minded, interesting and intelligent denizens of the globe is something that being on the road produces in spades. Not only is the conversation stimulating but the invaluable travel advice you share is just as important. Getting together and sharing stories about where you’re going and where you’ve been brings you closer together. We purposefully kept our trip as open as possible to take advantage of this. It’s almost a shame though when you have to part ways, but in these days of electronic communications being what they are, I’m hopeful that we’ll keep in touch. Even if these brief encounters don’t produce long term relationships, it was well worth it.

Shannon: What Sean is saying about meeting other people is absolutely correct - traveling is not just about meeting the local people, but interacting with the other travelers - people who, generally speaking, are as interested in other cultures as you are. Sean and I had a great night, for instance, drinking 25 cent vodka and orange juices (yeah, no kidding) and talking international and local politics with a German girl and an Aussie. We may not get to Germany on this trip, but I still learned a ton of things about it. I love that about traveling.

Sean: Another reason that leaving Antigua is probably for the best is that this town gives you a skewed sense of Guatemala and Guatemalans. Not only are the Gringos here en masse, but during the weekends, Antigua is the place to be for all the hipsters from around the country. On Saturdays and Sundays the streets are filled with young, western looking locals cruising the streets and hanging out with their friends. It’s understandable because Antigua has some choice restaurants and bars that are quite cosmopolitan and international - from an Irish pub to Sushi to Italian. Not only that, but the amazing architecture with beautiful courtyards lurking behind most street side doors gives the place a very distinct feel that is unlike the rest of country. Of course, when you hear that the majority of Guatemalans live on less than $2 per day you wonder who can afford these “nicer” places that are charging the outrageous sum of $10 per entrée. While we are in the fortunate position of not having to scrimp, it’s very hard to pay for that $10 entrée when the both of us can eat like kings for $4 on the outskirts of town. The prices here are quite low by New Orleans standards, but like in the middle of the French Quarter, you can pay quite a bit for mediocre food.

On Saturday (October 22), we took a trip to climb an active Volcano. At 8,300 feet, Volcan Pacaya is one of the smallest in Guatemala, but that in no way diminishes its impact. After ascending, we were treated to some amazing sights. Unfortunately, the clouds rolled in during our ascent and the view off the mountain was severely limited, but the colored lava rocks and escaping gases on the mountain had an unearthly feel to them and you couldn’t help but feel transported. It was a challenging slog to the top, but two hours of upward mobility produced some of the most interesting landscapes you could find. Disappointingly, there was no lava flowing but the heat coming from the vents was intense. Not to mention that when the wind shifted, blowing the noxious gases into our faces, we couldn’t help but think of the years we’d shaved off our lives just so we could make an interesting blog entry. I hope each and every one of you appreciates the lengths we’ll go to bring you the very best in travel experiences.


Monday, October 24, 2005 (Coban, Guatemala)

Shannon: Sean and I are on the move north, headed for Tikal. We decided to break up the journey by stopping in Coban, a small city in the middle of the country. To get back to Guatemala City from Antigua, we took what is known locally as a “chicken bus” - basically a converted US school bus repainted in vivid colors and named for the cargo they sometimes carry. Sean and I have yet to actually see chickens as cargo, but it is common to see the top rack of the buses filled with fruits and various other items people are transporting to and from the market. The busses are cheap, go everywhere, and always filled to capacity (and beyond). What makes these buses memorable, though, is sitting down and watching the delightful drama of humanity unfold. First there are the “runners” - generally two guys who, at every stop in the road, hustle to get more people on board by shouting out the destination in a well-rehearsed cadence (Guate…Guate…Guate...Guate). One works the back door and one hustles the front, deftly cramming more and more passengers into the bus, which often takes off without them aboard, forcing them to run and leap onto the back ladder. Then there are the vendors - people who climb on board to give you what amounts to a 5-minute info-mercial about the product they are hawking to their latest captive audience; complete with “today only” language thrown in, appealing to both your sense of urgency and a good deal.

Sean: And certainly not least of all is the main attraction - the bus driver, who drives as though his very life depends on making it to his destination in a certain amount of time. When you look up after a particularly harrowing maneuver, you half expect to see Keanu Reeves mouthing in his ear: “Don’t…go…below…50.” I’ve read the statistics and understand completely why, as a traveler, I’m less likely to become the victim of Ahmed’s post-mortem fantasy and his jihad against westerners. No, it is painfully obvious that I’m more likely to “eat it” as Jose screams up and down narrow mountain passes with an itchy stick shift finger and some overdeveloped quadriceps, double clutching our bus into a ravine.

Shannon: Sean’s not kidding. But we’ve learned that it’s not just the chicken bus drivers - it’s seemingly every bus driver in Guatemala. After we got off the chicken bus in Guatemala City, we changed to a larger Greyhound-type bus for the ride to Coban. I thought for sure this would be a more pleasant ride, since a larger bus would surely mean slower driving, right?. On the contrary, a bigger bus only means a bigger challenge for the driver, as in you have to go that much faster in order to pass other cars while screaming around blind corners on high mountain passes. (Sean and I were wondering if there is any correlation between their driving skills and the fact that every bus driver in Guatemala seems to have a small statue of Jesus mounted above the windshield?) After a while, I gave up watching the horror unfold in front of me and just concentrated on trying to stay in my seat, which - because the bus adhered to the “one seat, one passenger” concept that is so foreign on the chicken buses - was actually quite difficult.

We did make it to Coban in one piece, however. Tomorrow we will tour a coffee plantation and an orchid nursery before venturing out again on a bus to Lanquin, home to some of the prettiest scenery in Guatemala, or so we’ve been told.


Thursday October 27, 2005 (Lanquin, Guatemala)

Shannon: They say that when you’re least expecting it, good things will happen to you. I can honestly report that, in the least likely of places, we found something close to paradise. Sean and I left Coban on Tuesday, having toured a coffee plantation (interesting place) and an orchid nursery (not as interesting, unfortunately - hardly anything was in bloom). One of our friends from Antigua highly recommended that we stop in Lanquin, about 2 hours by bus from Coban. The scenery was beautiful, much better than we expected, but we hadn’t realized how out of the way this place was until we drove about 45 minutes on a dirt road getting to the city of Lanquin. The city itself isn’t much - a few streets really. Tamara (our friend) highly recommended staying at a place called “El Retiro” - or what I thought was going to be a basic hostel. The reality is far from what I imagined. For 100 Quetzals - or less than $13 - Sean and I have our own thatched hut overlooking a pretty river. The main “hut”, so to speak, serves cold drinks and tasty food. (Sean: Very tasty food. Luckily we were here for the Wednesday buffet and for about $6 per person we were able to stuff ourselves silly on some of the best food I’ve had in months.) And the main attraction in this area, a place called Semuc Champey, is gorgeous. It’s basically a series of stepped pools, one flowing into the other, on top of a limestone “bridge” (called that because part of the river flows beneath the pools in a huge underground cavern). You can swim in these pools - in cool, turquoise water heated by the sun. Sean and I went yesterday and practically had the place to ourselves. At most, there were a few other people in the pools with us at any time, though most of the day we had a huge pool all to ourselves. And with very typical Guatemalan hospitality, the people who worked there went out of their way for us. One guy, a lifeguard, took us to where the river diverges and flows under the rocks and patiently waited while we took photos before leading us along like a kid at Christmas wanting to show us the next cool thing.


Sean: I really cannot stress how helpful and friendly the Guatemalan people are. As a traveler, you are hyper aware of the fact that you stick out wherever you go. Either your skin tone or your mode of dress pegs you instantly as a “rich” westerner and the plethora of negative advice about petty criminals keeps you on edge. But I have to say (knock on wood) that while I’ve been well treated in just about every place I’ve ever traveled, the Guatemalan people have definitely won us over. Every major interaction I’ve had with one of these fine citizens has included a phrase that goes something like, “I just want to make sure you come away with a positive view of my country.” This hasn’t happened once or twice, but EVERY single time.

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Comments

[Dear Old Dad]

Guatemalan Adventure Continued
Another great update. Sorry to hear about your disappointing experience in Spanish school. The country and people sound fascinating. Glad to hear all well with you both. Keep it coming! Happy Halloween! Love, D.O.D.