A City Under the Influence of the Ocean

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After Chiquimula we took several buses and a boat to get to Monterrico which is an island because it is surrounded by a swamp and the pacific ocean. Monterrico was not much more than a main street which seemed to be a continuation of the black sand beach you find at the end of it. From the moment you arrive you can hear the crashing of the waves, which follows you wherever you go along with the inescapable black sand that makes the roads.

I hadn´t washed my clothes in...a while so we went to follow a sign for somewhere to get it done. We found the place and along the way i found a soccer game. A bunch of guys playing barefoot on the black sand and a few patches of grass between two goal posts surrounded by a small cement wall. I wanted to play, so we went back to the room to find a pair of shorts... and i tried to get a pair from the laundry lady but they were already wet. So, i put on Carl´s bathing suit and went back to the field where i reluctantly introduced myself and asked if i could play.They said sure and soon enough i was running around, barefoot playing soccer with these guys. They of course were swearing and making fun of each other so i became very animated in english which they found hilarous. My team dominated for four rounds, but at some point someone had a handball which decidedly became a penalty. Soon my team was pushing their teammate aside laughing saying, "ella, la chica" oh real funny.. make the girl take it. So i did, it was funny them telling me to put it in the corner, i did to their delight and surprise and i was as obnoxious about making the kick as they had been about me taking it, all in good fun. It was a really good time, i had wanted to find a pick up game while we were here. Unfortunately because they were barefoot in the sand, i was too, and found a little piece of glass in my foot. Cleaned the cut and it´s fine but it was a sandy one.

The next day we walked over to the turtle hatchery and found some guy who we made plans with for a tour of the beach at night to look for turtles. We collected shells and played in the super rough waves until it became too much and i wanted to get out. In the process of getting out i was knocked over and tossed around by the increadible force that i´d been trying to get away from, i was consequently COVERED in sand. Unfortunately that included by eye which was scratched by it. I quickly got out, and went into a hotel to attempt to wash it out to keep it from getting worse but i was covered in sand, my face my hands and i just wasn´t getting anywhere. Frustrated and in pain we started to walk/stumble back to the hotel to wash it out. Kindly some tourist police noticed us and took us to a pharmacist who flushed it out with saline for me. He also gave me some drops to put in it to keep it lubricated. We of course, coming from the beach didn´t have any money and said we´d come back with the 50 Q we owed. The nice police people took us back to our hotel where i got most of the sand off of me and layed around with my eyes closed for a while. But not too long after returning and cleaning up did the Turtle place guy knock on the door. He said he´d heard that i had gotten something in my eye at the beach. Said he had talked to the pharmacist and offered to take the money over there for us. We still trying to get my contact out and the sand out let him. He came back with our reciept from the pharmacist saying which said that it had cost 70Q, and that he had paid it. So we gave him the other 20Q and he was on his way.

We took our tour that night with this Turtle guy and three other people. We met at the hatchery and walked the beach for a few hours. We found no turtles but the guy said we could come out the following night with him. And of course our reciept was valid to enter the iguana and turtle museum and refuge the following morning.

The following morning we went to the iguana reserve where we found out that this turtle guy didn´t work for the turtle place, and that ou"reciept" was nothing to these people. They let us in for free because they knew of this guy and all of his previous mischief, then they led us to the police to tell them about our "tour" and this guy. They had spoken to two of the people we´d been with the night before, earlier that morning. Our concern other than the frustrations of having found this guy At the Hatchery and still having been lied to was really the pharmacist. We went over to the pharmacist who said that he´d only been paid 50Q, the original price and this guy had told him to write it for 70 because we were giving him a tip, which really had been a charge. The police had him return the 20Q he´d added to us...and after giving him a reallly hard time let him on his way. The whole town seemed to know about this guy and his previous run ins with the law, and problems involving tourists...why no one had warned us...and why they hadn´t done something more severe with this repeated problem we couldn´t know. And why was he the one hanging around the hatchery with no one else around.

We visited the iguana refuge and saw all sizes of iguanas, super baby ones and big mamma iguanas. They also raise alligators there. So we saw baby and big mamma alligators too. (actually i don´t know if they were alligators or crocodiles). OH and tiny baby turtles from the swamp because this part of the refuge is helping to rebuild the wildlife in the swamp.. the turtles were sooooo cute like litle toys.

We talked to the Actual hatchery people and took another tour of the beach were we again didn´t find any turtles though it is the beginning of the season. This tour was different to say the least we stopped and he told us all about the process of turtle migration and what the project does in collection and release of the baby turtles. He also made a path for us with his feet to show us what the turtle´s lines would have been had we seen one. He said that there was a turtle right outside of the hatchery the night before aroudn 1am. He told us about the regulations that exist in Monterrico to protect and help the turtles in their migration and laying of eggs and that sadly he sees fewer every year. The whole adventure was nearly laughable in the end...the liar guy, the whole town had also found out and someone came up to us at dinner and asked us about it..the Real Turtle guy apoligized and i told him that really we felt bad for them because we had intended on helping the project with our tour fare from the night before as we had the second night...so really it was the hatchery that had been robbed.

Monterrico, other than our excitment had been the most laid back town we´ve found. Kids playing the sandy street, and people just sitting, hanging out on the curb. It was really what we had expected from Livingston but we found it there. We ate fish... ohh and these guys, when we had been on the beach.. they pulled up their boat and were standing around talking next to it. I looked in and the bottom was filled with allll different kinds of fish. Some white guy walked up talked to them in fluent spanish gave them some money and walked away with one of the two Hammerhead sharks in hand. How crazy is that. Anyway, we spent three nights there and had a good time, when we weren´t making friends with the police...who proceeded to wave at us every time we saw them. Heh.

From there we took a boat back across the swamp, and five buses to arrive back in Xela. Bilma´s house is rather full so we´re staying in a room that used to be a room and is now half store. But is used to be a bedroom and is now again for three nights. Bilma´s house is like a little clam after all that action before actually going home. Tomorrow we will visit Chichicastenango´s market again...the big sunday one... and then we´ll be home. So this is my last post for this month and trip of course! Hope it´s been a decent read...

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