Week 6: Off to Guatemala

Day 36 September 12
I woke up a bit before 8 and started my morning routine of cleaning up the downstairs and laundry (on days I have it, which I do today.) I’d done most of the dishes when I woke up to get a drink at midnight. Several dishes, complete with food left-overs, had been left out and had a number of roaches on them. I had been wondering why the bugs were coming back.
No one was in the house when I woke up, but I got ready for the coffee tour Norma set up for us, if we wanted to go (200 lemps, or about 10 bucks and lunch in included.)
However, this did not happen. I arrived at the corner where we were supposed to meet at 9:01 and saw no one. I called Megan, who was apparently never planning to come, and she told me where the tour office was. I wanted another 5 minutes before going in (and I tried to call Sierra and Abby, only to learn that I had let my phone run out of saldo and could not make calls.) The guy was on the phone and had me sit down. When he got off the phone, he explained that there was a problem, with something and he had thought Norma had gotten in touch with all of us. I told him she had probably tried, but my phone is out of saldo. He was very apologetic and sure we could reschedule for a couple of days from now.
I went home and got a few things before running back out to buy more saldo at the Tigo store. I was going to hit the ATM on the way back, but someone was going into right as I passed, so I decided to just head home and deal with my ants.
Being in my room during the morning, the day, the night makes me crazy sometimes. When I’m not here, I’m at school and even when my kids are actually quiet, the children outside never stop making noise, in the hallway or on the rec field or in the classrooms. At my house, I hear the people in Picame, which is fine, I hear Nome barking constantly, I hear the honking of horns and car alarms almost as consistently as I hear Nome, I hear the loud motors struggling up the hill. Sometimes it is so loud you can’t hear what the person next to you is saying.
I swept the entire house, did the dishes, more laundry, and cooked a lot (probably too many) beans. I went to the market, but they didn’t have mangos and even the potato pickings were slim. I bought tomatoes, lichas, some crazy fruit I’d never seen before, and limes. A street vender had mangos, but for 20 lemps. I don’t know if it was the “you look like an American” price, but she didn’t lower it when I walked away. I usually get my mangos for between 5-8 lemps.
After I swept my room, I put everything on the floor onto my bed and sprayed down the floor. I left it for a few hours and put everything back down. We’ll see how it goes. They haven’t been in my bed recently, but they’ve still been in my clothes.
I went to check the mail, but the post office was closed and I tried my ATM card, but it wouldn’t go through. Things to take care of during our week off.
I spent a while at Casa Villamil, I caught up with a bunch of people and skyped with my parents. I researched some touristy places nearby to see what our options are for the coming week.
The day was quiet and largly solo. I saw Allan and Abby for a while at the house and saw Vicki and Megan in passing, but otherwise I did my cleaning, cooking, and reading in peace.
I finished the book I started reading last week. It was terribly intense at times, but incredible. It’s one of the saddest stories I’ve ever read, but the delivery was magnificent. It was in a style I normally don’t like and find confusing, but here it was just crafted so well. Everything came together in good time and the characters were so real it took until reading some of the author’s notes to be sure it was fictional. But the basis is all true and researched.
I think this is a book I’d love to teach someday. There’s so much there. I don’t know that I could bring myself to have high schoolers read it, it’s so intense and at times very disturbing. College, though, would be a great place for this book, as long as the students were properly prepared. I wish I had read it with a professor, had someone help guide through the layers. There’s so much there, I know there’s so much I had to miss. So, not for the faint of heart: Alice Walker’s Possessing the Secret of Joy.

Day 37 September 13
With half the group in Guatemala for the weekend, I’ve been getting to bed at nine or ten and waking up at eight or nine. I’ve been reading, writing, cleaning, relaxing, planning, cooking, and not feeling rushed or tired in the least. I know that next week I won’t get as much sleep, as I’ll be traveling, but it’ll be a good time none the less.
I woke up with plenty of time to cook before church (for the English language worship time after church at Megan’s.) I kept reading short stories from My First Year as a Teacher and taking note of methods that did and did not work in the classroom. It’s really nice to be able to read again. Not that I wasn’t reading through college, I was reading a lot, but almost never books I chose and never at my own pace. I certainly enjoyed a lot of the books I was assigned, and many I never would have picked up otherwise, but I had missed this kind of reading.

Church went for an hour and a half this week and I understood even less than I usually do, but it was with a different priest. I think the priest I’d had before was an American who knows Spanish really well and has been here for a while and I think this one was a Honduran. We got out at about 11:35 and Megan’s English worship was to start at 11:30.
Luckily I had done my cooking in advance so I just ran home and grabbed my dish before going up the hill. I was the fourth of nine to arrive, so I wasn’t in bad shape. The songs were good, but I’d been feeling a bit light headed all morning, probably from the heat in the crowded church, so my singing was quiet and reserved. We had more prayer and scripture this week, though Tammi and Theo are both gone to Guatemala.
After, I headed home and chatted with Judy for a long time. Many years ago she taught at Mayatan and we talked about the pros and cons of the system and the way the school is run. It was good and probably the longest conversation we’ve had, so I feel like I’m finally, really getting to know her.
When I got into the house I did some Rosetta Stone and read from my Bible. I had saved a page with the Bible broken into 365 readings and started on days 1 and 2 today. I swept out the whole house, including the stairs, and continued reading.
I ate more of my beans, of which I cooked far too many, and enjoyed the downtime. At about 8, I got a call from Chris who was back from Guatemala and wanted to know if I wanted to come over for a bit and hear all of their adventures around a fire. I did and we even sang some camp songs until his neighbors began blaring music. Caroline and friends came over and we had a grand old time talking about Guatemalan adventures until it was past my bedtime, you know, a little after nine. I headed home and went to bed.

Day 38 September 14
Despite my best efforts to get up and go in the morning, things ran late. I think it was a combination of things, but mostly that I hadn’t slept much during the night. Abby and I headed up the hill, but, right as we turned, one of the later school buses was driving by and stopped for us. Got to school at an acceptable-to-me time.
With two marching practices scheduled for during the day, and the rest of the week off of class, trying to do anything productive was a waste. My kids were the most unruly they’ve been and infuriating. They were too silly to control. One kid’s punishment was another kids delight, which is not the norm, but today it was constant. The afternoon marching practice was particularly bad, since it was one of the hottest days I’ve experienced here and we were all out in the sun, the kids in uniforms. A couple of my kids got out of hand, and one now has a busted lip. I’m sure his mother will blame me, as she already has a track record for doing so.
After school I finished my basic sketch of what I want my next full week of classes to be like and made several worksheets. I grabbed some of my books to read up on Sunday night and headed home. Again, one of the hottest days I’ve seen here, so when I was offered a ride by the parent’s of one of Michael’s students, I was excited. Turns out Sara’s English is so good because she was born and raised in New York, then to Panama, and then to here. They took me most of the way home and apologized for leaving me with the last 25% to walk, but I was going to have to walk it all anyway, so I was just relieved—and much cooler.
I went to the bank to take out my first pay check, which was only for the partial month of August. Tammi arrived and asked if I would do some grocery shopping with her. I agreed, if she would take me to the money changer for Guatemalan currency—my final commitment to the trip to Coban and surrounding areas. She was excited and agreed. While we were out I checked the mail and had my first family care package which had several much-missed items. Slim Jims, zip locks, star bursts, stickers, boric acid (for the ants and roaches), stain sticks, Febreze, among others. I unloaded it onto my bed, grabbed a slim jim and went to Casa Villamil, since I knew I wouldn’t be on for about 5 more days.
I left shortly before seven, when Tammi asked me to come to the guys place for a lovely homemade pizza meeting. We hashed out the “details” which included a lot of, we’ll see when we get there’s, but was more of a plan than we had before. Chris and I explored the shuttle option, since one of his student’s parents run a shuttle service to Guatemala. She said she would talk to her husband and see about a lowered price in the morning. We’ll probably take the bus at noon and then chicken bus it back to Copan from Livingston (which we’ll travel to along the way.)
I made my own personal plan for the next day, in my head, and went home to catch some sleep before the parade tomorrow (it’ll be the premier of our first group uniform wearing, as we got our shirts, at last, today.)

General Trip info: The rides were long, but the views were beautiful. I got to talk with a lot of fascinating people. The mountains of Guatemala stunned me. The culture changed a lot from the mountains, to the midlands, to the sea also. It was fascinating. The horses there were fatter than the horses I’ve seen in Honduras, which made me happy (emaciation is not a good time.) I realized how much I depended on the others to know what was going on with traveling or getting around, but hey, at least I had them. Also, I saw an Orb Weaver spider (first type of spider I’ve been able to ID to any degree that’s not related to the Wolf spider) and I had a Monster and Jumex for nostalgia’s sake. We saw a lot of lizards running on their back legs.

Day 39 September 15
I woke up with plenty of time to pack, clean up the house, and cover it with boric acid. I wasn’t sure exactly when the parade would be done, but I wouldn’t be rushed to pack and my house was going to be bug free when I returned.
The kids were adorable, some of the girls were in very ornate dresses, I couldn’t quite figure out the organization to it all, but we marched. We got the kids all lined up as practiced and we marched…a whole two blocks to the central park. There, in the blazing sun, we waiting and listened to speech after speech, act after act. At first I thought it was just rough on us foreigners because we didn’t know what was going on, but as it turns out, no one was listening at all. The heat was killing us all. It was actually kind of sad.
There was one act, a dance, with women dressed beautifully in traditional skirts, and men in costumes of fake horses (like they were riding the fake horses) which was very entertaining.
After nearly two hours (doesn’t sound so long to you!) we reformed and marched around town. It was fun, but still very hot. Parents were chasing their kids with water, following along and giving them water every chance they got. I think such a celebration was designed for the evening.
After sorting out some travel confusion with the group, we went on the same shuttle we originally planned. We changed buses once and landed in Coban, Guatemala. I didn’t end up spending much time in Coban, but the town was pretty. There were an awful lot of drunks asleep in the streets, which was unnerving, but we stuck together and had a nice place to stay (family owned and operated.)
Two great things about Coban: the street food was fantastic and the women all wore traditional Mayan skirts and shirts. It was beautiful.

Day 40 September 16
In the morning, Chris and I headed to the market for breakfast and a flashlight (we were going to Lankin 5 hours earlier than the others so we could do some caving and I didn’t have a flashlight.) After a bit of bartering I got my flashlight (LED) and batteries. I also picked up one of those beautiful Mayan skirts (it’s green).
We got to Lankin, which is tiny but hilly, and found an awesome backpacker’s paradise hostal. Hammocks everywhere, gorgeous view, nice dorm-style room (just us in the room, though), a river, a sauna, a pet cow, a restaurant and bar, everything. You should look at the pictures. We went for a quick dip in the river, to get over the travelers ick, before heading to the caves. One of the guides at the hostal was headed that way, so we hoped on the back of his truck.
The caves were beautiful. The first half of the way was a lighted path, which was nice. Some of the rock formations were named (which was good for my Spanish.) We wondered on past the lights and explored a bit on our own, finding some steep drops (with our eyes, not our bodies) and some tight spaces. There were tons of bats, and tons more bat guano. When we came back out, Chris went swimming in the river water that came out of the cave (we were only in dry sections) and I washed off my hands, legs, and shoes. He swam to the other side of the river, climbed up a vine, and literally swung back and forth and jumped from one vine to another, just to see if he could.
After the ride there, we had realized it wasn’t so far, so we walked back. We joked about seeing Theo, Nash, and Tammi on a bus driving by (which we didn’t, but they saw us.) We got into town shortly after they got off the bus and showed them the hostal. Everyone went swimming in the river, where we met a bunch or Israelites who were also exploring the area.
I bought home grown and homemade chocolate from some local women and it was amazing.
We all went to dinner (where we found a huge toad) and enjoyed eating and chatting for a while. When we got back, we went to the hostal’s sauna for a while, switching from the river to the sauna a few times. I think it helped clean the left over guano from my pores.

Day 41 September 17
We woke up pretty rushed and got some breakfast in town, fast. We had plans to go on a tour organized by the hostal (these were their money-makers, because the rooms are cheap, but after going I know it was definitely worth the money.) I really had no idea what was in store, I was just doing whatever the group wanted to do.
The five of us, a couple from somewhere in the west, and the eight or nine Israelites got in the back of a truck headed for a new cave I had never heard of. We arrived and gave our bags, save my camera which I kept in the guide’s water-proof camera case, to a man behind a counter. We were given candles and we headed down into the watery cave beside a gorgeous waterfall.
At first, we could wade through the water, but at times it was so deep we had to swim, candle up. We came to a waterfall, in the cave, and had the option of taking the ladder beside the waterfall, or taking the rope in the waterfall. I chose to climb up the rope. This is not something I am experienced in, but I watched two of the guys go up, and watched two of the girls go up the ladder, and decided to go for it. The guide knew I was working on my Spanish, so he spoke to me in Spanish, telling me where to put my left foot, my right foot. The water rushed at my face (my candle, flameless now, was in my mouth), I couldn’t see a thing and it kept trying to push me down. It was exhilarating. The trick is simple: don’t let go.
The next adrenaline stop-off was a jump. There was a cave wall that was rough enough to climb, without ropes, and the water near by was very deep. One at a time we climbed up the wall and jumped in. It was probably only 4 or 5 meters up, but it was only to the light of candles.
I think we only spent an hour and a half in the cave total. When we came back out, we all grabbed tubes and walked about 10 minutes down a path parallel to the river. We stopped and the guide asked for a swinging volunteer. One of the other guys did. He stood up on a stump, the guide took a swing (a rod for sitting and rope hanging off a near by tree on either end of it) and sat the guy on it. He said that when he says “Jump” we better do it, because if we jump to early or too late it’s dangerous and if we swing back it’s dangerous. Some of us jumped gracefully, others (me) did not (it was described as “you looked like you were running, but you were horizontal and moving toward the water” I also had “the worst sounding smack.”)
We then picked up out tubes again and went down to the river. We tubed for about 15 minutes, getting out just before the bridge. We walked the tubes back and got our bags from the man behind the counter. Then, headed back to the bridge.
The bridge: only 10 meters off the surface of the river, but it seemed so much higher. Jumping commenced and more adrenaline was pumped. I had a harder time motivating myself to do this one, but when the guide counted to three, I jumped.
We walked up a hill and had half an hour for lunch. We had a loaf of bread, and PB & J, so we were set (the food to buy there was pretty expensive. We got to talk to Ronnie for a while, who was on leave from the Israeli Army. Cool guy, not a jerk like one of the guys on the tour (he just kept giving the tour guide a hard time, we were not a fan.)
Next, we found ourselves in another part of the National Park. The biggie of Samuc Champey. I don’t even know how to describe the beautiful waterfalls, the clear, crisp, blue pools. I took pictures, but I really don’t think they do it justice.
We walked out onto the pools formed in the limestone (everything seems to be limestone here) and climbed down a rope in the waterfall to a rock below. We went under the overhang and watched the waterfall from inside. I explored a little deeper and saw a river rushing beside us too, the water falling from the pools above was a dribble in comparison. Once we were all down, or all who were coming down were down, we moved onto the rock (it started raining about now too) and people had the option to jump into water just below the waterfall. I thought about it for a while, but I was shaking from either exhaustion or adrenaline rushes throughout the day, and I opted out of this last jump.
When everyone had jumped, the guide, one of the other girls and I climbed back up the rope in the waterfall (still kind of intense) and he moved the rope for the jumpers to climb up from the other side of the falls.
We were then given an hour and a half to explore the pools. We hiked up to the peak of the mountain beside us and looked down at the pools—beautiful. We had a little time left when we came back down, so we swam and dove.
We also discovered where that rushing river I had seen when I was in the waterfall came from. The river rushed, pounding against the limestone on either side sa it traveled into a huge cavern. The pools were all on top of this river.
We got back to the parking lot by 4, and caught the truck back to the hostal, where we showered off and relaxed for a while. We invited Ronnie with us when we went into town for dinner, which was also rather relaxed. Everyone was pretty beat.

Day 42 September 18
We were up early and out the door to catch a ride at 7:30 to Rio Dulce. I got my tan for the trip, as we were in the back of a truck for 5 hours. Toward the end, it rained for 5 minutes, which was a great reprieve.
We stopped for breakfast about an hour in, just grabbing some street food, and then back on the road. While we were still in the mountains, the driver picked up a couple of hitch hikers, who would come and go. Only a few overlapped. First a man who just jumped on with us, then two women and a baby, later two men who were on for a long while, and an old man with a heavy sack was on for part of time they were on, and then later another man got in the cab. The two men who were on for a long time were truly indigenous. One of them didn’t even speak Spanish and the other man would translate to us in Spanish. They said there are 22 dialects in that river valley alone. Also, the word for beautiful in his dialect is (spelling, probably not, but sound wise) chabil.
We got dropped off at the thermal waterfalls in I-don’t-know-where, and thanked our driver (he was backing out of the bargain to wait for an hour while we swam, but he gave us back enough money for bus fair into town, so that was okay.) We met a really cool couple who has been sailing for two years. They go wherever they want and dock during hurricane season. They use the time to explore inland wherever they are. That’s a retired couple’s dream come true.
The swimming hole was a great temperature and the falls were really warm. The limestone the water flowed over was gorgeous. There was a ledge we hung out under for a while, it left our head in a sauna while our bodies were in the cooler water. Very cool. I sat on the rocks for a while and let the hot water beat down on my back and neck, it was like a thermal massage.
Chris, as always, wanted to go exploring. We went rock hopping upstream and found a few more hot springs and small waterfalls. The rocks in the river got larger and larger, with really cool formations. We noticed a few cave-like depressions in the rocks on either side of us. Chris went up a head for a while and came back for me, yelling that I needed to hurry. There was a huge cave that the water flowed from.
I first climbed up on the opposite back to crawl through a rock-hole from a massive limestone protrusion. It was dark in there, and the hole was small, but it was fascinating. We then got back to the creek and swam into the cave as far as light would go. I was terrified, and sure our snake-luck would run out soon. The water was very deep and the cave just felt horror-moviesque. As we didn’t have a light with us, and we were at the end of the road, we had to go back anyway—bats flying overhead.
We hurried back to find our Tammi, Theo, and Nash had already headed up to the bus waiting area. As they were watching our bags, they had taken them. The man in charge of watching people (make sure no one does anything dumb and dangerous at the falls) asked if we’d gone upstream. I said yes, it was beautiful. He asked if we’d gone in the caves, which took me a moment to understand, and I said yes, only a little. Then he asked if we were going to pay. We were shocked. We explained that we didn’t go in far, we didn’t leave to find them, we hadn’t even known they were there. And then we realized our money was a quarter mile away anyway. He said it was fine, and we apologized profusely before running off to beat the coming rain (which we failed to do.)
The others were less than thrilled to have been waiting for us, and they missed the last bus. We refrained from telling them about our adventures, at least until we got food an hour later, and their blood sugar went up. Once we got to town, we ate and picked a hotel (which didn’t seem so shady at the time.)
We went to go walk around the lake before daylight was gone and ran into Vicky, Ann, and their crew. This was just a night stop on their way back to Copan. What were the odds?
We went to the docks to watch the stars and relax some. The stars were gorgeous, and most of us saw a shooting star.I headed back pretty early since we were planning to get up early to hit the road again. Unfortunately, we had chosen a hotel without water in the bathrooms, with bugs in the beds, and right next to a church that screamed, yelled, and chanted until 10:30. I swear the sound just got louder and louder in my head. Chris and I just talked until Tammi came back. Shortly after, I tried putting in ear plugs and sleeping.