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For my last weekend in Guatemala, I went to the Caribbean, specifically to Rio Dulce and Livingston. Rio Dulce and Livingston are located in the Eastern part of Guatemala on the Caribbean sea. We arrived in Rio Dulce on Friday night. It was sweltering hot! As I was riding the bus, I was sticking my head out into the darkness to try to cool myself off. When we arrived, we went straight to the bar for a cool drink. We quickly had to adjust to the island lifestyle with everyone half-dressed and way more relaxed than us city folks. After we had our frosty beverages, we went to dance. In this area, punta dancing is the thing. Basically it involves shaking your hips really fast for a whole song. We had to try to it for ourselves. Hilarity ensued obviously! After we got our groove on, we went to our extremely hot bedroom to try to go to sleep. After many hours of talking in the darkness, we were finally able to go to sleep. When I awoke, I realized that we were in the jungle and directly over the water! It was a beautiful thing to wake up to. Our
Amanda and I consuming some very large Guatemalan hot dogs
They had guacamole, cabbage, ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise. Mmmm... Guatemalans do everything big! boat to Livingston didn't leave until 1:30, so we spent the morning swimming in the Rio Dulce and drinking limonada to cool ourselves off. The boat ride to Livingston was absolutely stunning. Clear waters with huge hills covered in palm trees, little straw huts on the edge of the water, and people slowly paddling through their day. We stopped off at a "hot springs" and wow did it live up to its name! It was not like the bathtub hot springs we went to last weekend, it was scalding hot! I actually screamed when I got in because I was surprised by how amazingly hot it was! The Guatemalans there were laughing and trying to encourage me to get in, but it was just too hot! So we abandoned it, and continued on our journey to Livingston. Livingston is a sleepy harbor town inhabited by Garifunas, who are black Caribbean Guatemalans. This is the only place in Guatemala where they live. Livingston was so different from everywhere else I've been in Guatemala. Quite the contrast from the cool, misty hills of Xela last weekend. It's like a tropical paradise with an edge. A laid back mixture of Garifunas, ladinos, indigenous
people, and a few gringos who loved the island life and never left. The guy who led us to our hostel was one such guy. He was actually from East L.A. originally. We stayed at the Casa de la Iguana hostel, which was a cabin, but much nicer than the shack we stayed in in Semuc Champey. As soon as we arrived, we took a taxi to the beach. Unfortunately, at exactly the same time, the storm started rolling in. We were sipping our cool drinks watching the waves pass by, as a dark cloud flowed over our view. We were hoping that the storm would hold off, but by dinner it was pouring! Our dinner was delicious though, so it held off the disappointment for awhile! We had tapado, which is the local specialty. It's a coconut stew filled with plantains and all sorts of seafood. It was so fresh, the seafood still had their eyeballs and skin! After dinner, we walked back to the hostel in the pouring rain, holding our towels over our heads as umbrellas. I was determined to have a good night, since it was my last weekend in Guatemala, so we went out to
find some live music and punta. Unfortunately, the rain killed the nightlife, but we had a good night anyway. On Sunday, we returned to the city from Puerto Barrios.
Back on the home front... it's my last week. And I returned Sunday to 23 new people in our house! From 4 to 23 is a pretty big adjustment. But it's going pretty well. It's definitely more hectic, but it's interesting too. Never a dull moment. Today I went to Antigua for the last time to see it again and finish up my souvenir shopping. My last ride on the chicken bus...oddly I will miss it.
School is progressing well, but I'm already sad about leaving on Friday. I feel like we've made real progress, especially with the older kids and our class that we've only had for a few weeks. The kids are able to speak in some full sentences now in English and continually surprise us with what they're able to say! We've gotten into a good rhythm, but now it's time to go and Amanda will have to carry on without me. I'm really going to miss the kids. Not only have we been teachers, but
I feel like we've been friends too. Our down time with the kids whether dancing, running around, playing basketball, playing tic tack toe, or just talking has been just as fun as our teaching. And some of the kids I've developed special relationships with. It's going to be sad. The upside is that Friday is also the 13th anniversary of CAFNIMA (the mother organization of Casita Amarilla) so there will be a big party on my last day. I think that will be really nice. A great farewell.
I'm making the most out of my last week. I can't believe how fast it's gone...
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