Random Thoughts

While in Belize, I hung out with 8 fluent Spanish speaking people from Mexico, Spain, Brazil, Guatemala, France and Italy. For the most part, I could follow the conversation and hold my own. However, I have a funny way of using the language. When I don´t know a word, I improvise with analogies. For example, I wanted to say that the moon was full tonight, but I didn´t know the word for "full" and so instead I said, ¨la luna esta satisfecha porque es muy gorda¨. However, normally, the word ¨satisfecha¨is used to indicate that you are full from eating. So, I said that the moon is full from eating and therefore is fat. I got my point across in the end. I missed speaking Spanish with the locals in Belize and so I´m glad to be back in Guatemala.

There is something completely endearing and charming about Guatemala and its people and not to mention that it is cheaper than most. I realize that what I didn´t like about Caye Caulker in Belize were the tourist stalking locals who just hung out on the side of the road all day in order to interact with the tourists. I found them overly aggressive, especially the men at night. Thankfully, when I took a 7 hour bus ride down Belize, I had a chance to meet the non-touristy locals who were genuinely friendly. They wanted to help without any expectations and they ultimately changed my view of Belize. I suppose in any touristy area, there will be those who look to take advantage of the tourists. The countries that have not been invaded by tourists are the ones I find the most special. Rwanda is one of my favorite countries for that reason; it is not touristy and therefore the crime is low, and the locals friendly. I look forward to going to Colombia where tourism is low, however, I´m not so sure about the crime.

Stan Goes Snorkeling

I forgot to mention that I am staying in Caye Caulker an island off the coast of Belize City. It is much smaller with a backpacker feel than the more touristy and expensive Ambergris Caye. Caye Caulker really only has one main dirt road lined with restaurants, hotels and shops and where golf carts, bikes and bare feet roam the grounds.
Today, Stan and I went snorkeling since Belize has some of the best underwater life in the world and is best known for its Blue Hole. Stan tried on his snorkeling gear, but preferred to go without in the water. I just carried him in my hand as we explored under the sea. We encountered green turtles, manatees, barracudas, eels, sting rays, nurse sharks and all sorts of fish.
The manatees are also called sea cows because they are so big and slow. They swim as though they are just strolling by sight seeing. Their nearest relative is the elephant and they weigh around 800 lbs and eat a 1/3 of their body weight in sea grass each day. They are listed on the endangered species list because man hunts them for their flesh. One manatee could probably feed a small village in Africa for a month. One manatee swam up to us and then Stan tried to swim down to get a closer look, but just kept sinking and so I had to put him back in my hand. You can see both of us in the picture below with the manatee. My guide Carlos from Carlos Tours fed the nurse sharks fish so that they would come to our boat. Then we jumped into the shark infested water and watched them eat. Carlos even caught one of the sharks in his bare hands and turned it upside down so we could pet it. Sharks really have been given a bad rep over the years. They only become aggressive if you taunt them or if you look like a seal when surfing... at least that's what Carlos said to convince me to jump in.Carlos then played with a sting ray and held it for us that we could pet this animal too. I tried to avoid the tail since that can shock and kill you. If you approach sting rays from the front, they are pretty harmless. When you approach them from behind, they can get defensive and sting people. All in all, Stan thoroughly enjoyed his day out in the water. However, he is starting to lose some of his hand stitched threads. The travels are taking a toll on his body and so we'll see if he can hold up for a year.

After seeing so many fish, I started craving sushi, but I couldn't find a sushi place and so I dined on $15 lobster again for dinner. Btw, the lobster in the picture is actually much larger than the one I ate. Tomorrow, we will attempt to head back to Guatemala in one day by taking a 7 hour bus down Belize to Punta Gorda and then a boat over to Livingston

Scuba Certified

On Wednesday, I crossed the frontera into Belize and suddenly time almost stopped. Everything in Belize moves at a much slower pace and seems so different than the rest of Central America. They speak Creole and Spanish is definitely not needed. I overheard many of the locals telling tourists to just relax and chill often. People here take things very easy. The locals are friendly, sometimes too friendly, and interact often with the tourists. One guy, Tod, often referred to himself in the third person and called himself Rasta. Rasta says this and Rasta does that. He was nice enough to give me a leaf of an aloe plant to put over the many mosquito bites that I collected on my first night. The mosquitoes like to buffet on me daily and they seem to be immune to DEET. With me around, they will never starve. Despite this, I am still here.
I hadn't even planned on coming to Belize and yet I'll be here for a week. On the first day, I ended up signing up for a scuba class. I don't like to be in water and so why I own a pool is still a mystery. I once tried scuba diving in Egypt and found it fascinating and so I figured that since I am here, I might as well go for it and get over my fear of the ocean while I am at it.
I think I took the accelerated 4 day course and the first day, I watched 3 hrs of videos. The second day, I practiced basic scuba skills in the sea and went on the first dive. Breathing underwater with the regulator and without my mask on proved difficult for me. I had to repeat that skill again until I could do it correctly without holding my nose to prevent water from going up it while I breathed through the regulator in my mouth. We went that day even though a storm started to hit, but once we made it to the bottom, I had no idea a storm brewed above.

The third day, the storm still hovered and I became terribly seasick in between dives. I threw up often in the water. I really don't like being on boats and don't care much for the water, but I survived. However, I was too sick to go befriend the manatees in the water and maybe we will meet another day. Overall, I enjoyed watching the fish swim around. My favorite had blue freckles and yellow shoes with a black dress. The final day, we did another couple of dives and I passed all my skill tests and final exam. I am officially certified!

Visiting Belize has hit my budget hard financially. So, I gave up on some food and internet, the only two expendable items in my budget. During the day, I eat bread and OJ and of course ice cream saving room for my 1 meal of the day, dinner consisting of lobster. I look forward to going back to Guatemala where internet costs $1 an hour vs $7 here. Maybe Tuesday, I will head back and change my itinerary once again to remove some cities. Overall, Belize is nice, but it's not my favorite place to hang out. I need to think more about why that it is. I definitely prefer Guatemala, but the change of pace has been nice here.

Mayan Ruins of Tikal

I´m starting to get accustomed to waking up early. I woke up at 2:30 am and joined the 3am sunrise tour to see Tikal. However, this is really a misnomer since it is always cloudy and we never saw the sunrise. But I enjoyed getting to the park early enough to hear the wildlife wake up today.

The Mayans settled into Tikal in 700 BC, but somehow the city died out around 900 AD. In 1881, archaelogists began the long haul to restore this city by removing the many vines, trees, and earth that had grown over the city. The grandness of the city impressed me, however, I still think Machu Picchu is cooler.

There are definitely more stairs here than any other ruins I remember; the Mayans sure do like their stairs. I climbed up a million stairs to get to the top of some of these temples. Although, in general, I'm surprised at the lack of liability with many of the touristy things I have done here that seem somewhat dangerous especially Volcano Pacaya and so I was glad to hear that the Park closed down some of the stairs to a couple of temples after a couple of tourists fell down them and died.

After visiting Tikal, I don't think I will make the trek to see El Mirador. A couple of Germans almost convinced me to join them tomorrow for a 5 day trek into the jungle to see a recently discovered Mayan city that is even older than Tikal. Archaelogists are there now uncovering the city from the vines and trees. Very few tourists have made the trek because of the arduous and grueling hike. I have seen enough ruins for this week and plus I'm not a fan of over sized ants and leeches and so I will move on to Belize. However, I am missing the El Retiro hotel's laid back days and party nights.

Lost in Paradise

On Friday, I took the 4am bus to Guate and made it in time with 5 minutes to spare to switch to another bus to Coban. I spent a total of 10 hrs getting there. I thought about taking another bus the 2 more hours to Lanquin but decided against it. I pretty much just chilled and woke up at 4am the next day and joined a few Israelis to take the 5am bus to El Retiro hotel in Lanquin.

The El Retiro hotel is known for it´s super chill and beautiful grounds right next to a river and it fills up by mid day and so it´s essential to get there early. I had the choice of staying in a hammock for $3, a dorm for $5 and my own room for $7 and so I splurged and took my own hut. In the evenings, there are family style dinners where everyone shows up to participate. It all reminded me of the movie The Beach. I met people who showed up for a week and decided to stay for over a year. People get lost in this beautiful paradise. I almost did as well after meeting so many cool people and loving the beauty of the land, but my better sense made sure I left after a couple of days.

Since I had arrived so early, I took the 9am tour to Semuc Champey and the Las Marias Caves. In the caves, we only wore our bathing suits and swam through the cave while holding a candle for light. We walked under waterfalls and climbed throughout the cave. We then took inner tubes and glided down the river.

After the caves, we visited Semuc Champey, the limestone paradise. We swam around and I fell one too many times on the slippery parts. I have many bruises to show for it. Our guide then took us down a rope ladder with a waterfall gushing over us and into a cave right under Semuc where the river gorges out. Semuc Champey is a Mayan word for Under the Rock. This is where the river flows.


The next day, I just chilled and then went at sunset to see the Grutin Caves. In the caves, we saw bats hanging and we waited until dark to watch them all fly out in search of food. Interestingly, my guide caught a great photo of me with a bat flying right in front. Bats have sonar radar so they know where objects are and can avoid them.


The spider in the photo is blind and uses its tentacles to feel out where to go. It´s paralyzed because it doesn´t know where it is. This is the same spider, albeit the completely harmless one, that is mentioned in the Harry Potter books.

Finally Leaving Xela

My second and third days of teaching classes went much better. We immediately started the class with games to keep their attention and the kids correctly answered which foods are good and which are bad. They greatly impressed me! Sadly, just as I am finally teaching classes, I must leave. I really wanted to teach the puberty class and maybe I will return here after China. I still have much work to do on my Spanish.

I did take my eighth and final Spanish exam. After learning the subjunctive, I have now forgotten the present tense. I have so many different tenses swimming around in my head that I end up using English more than I did before. It will be good to take a holiday from the classes to give myself a chance to let it all sink in.

Last night, the family cooked us a splendid meal of special tamales since 5 of us are leaving this week. Barbara cooked cheesecakes and I made chocolate chip cookies. I will dearly miss this family and all the teachers here. They have really been the best part of my entire stay in Guatemala. After dinner, the students and I then hit a bar to finish out the night. We had a fun night out and will head for pizza tonight as a last remembrance.

Tomorrow, I will take a 4 am bus to Guatemala City and then change buses to go to Coban. All in all, I should expect about a 10 hour bus ride tomorrow. Since I´m headed into Zone 1 of Guate, I expect to have my mugger alert on red. Even though the second bus station in Guate is only 2 blocks away, I plan to take a taxi. The bus station manager even warned me that it is dangerous to walk around in that area. I figure that if the locals think it is dangerous, then it really must be dangerous and I will be alone. Wish me luck!

Teaching My First Class

Today, I taught my first health education course with Julia on nutrition and hygiene to kindergartners in Spanish. I have much work to do to improve both my Spanish as well as the quality of the class. The kids got bored easily and I had a hard time keeping their attention. Julia and I will revamp the course for tomorrow.

We started by holding out cards with different foods and explaining why they were good, but I think I gave them too much information. We then passed out the cards and asked the kids to identify which were good and which were bad foods. After that, we read a story about a girl who is so dirty she becomes sick. We taught on the importance of hygiene and how best to stay healthy. Ingrid taped some of the class for us, but I´ve decided against posting the first version because I have much to improve. Sadly, I only have 3 days of teaching to do since I plan to finally leave Xela this week. I could easily just never leave this city, but alas, I need to see the rest of Guatemala before I leave. Either Friday or Saturday, I will then go solo around the country. My brother, Jeff, and his Guatemalan friends really want me to buy a machete for when I go solo, but I think I might hurt myself if I do. I wish I had brought pepper spray and I will have to pick up some when I pass through the States for a week at the end of July. My tentative schedule is to head to Antigua, to Coban to see Semuc Champey, Tikal, possibly pass through Belize, then to Livingston and Rio Dulce and to Copan Ruins if I have time and out of Guate and onto LA for a couple days and to SF for a couple of days before heading to China.

Thankfully, my care package from Don finally arrived. He sent chewable multi vitamins so that I won´t die of choking as well as much needed chocolate chip cookies and chocolate chips so that I can make my own cookies. I probably didn´t need more sweets, but I definitely have a sweet tooth. I went to the Mennonite run Bake shop for the last time today. I have gained 10 lbs here from eating all the crazy sweets and I look forward to having to scavenge for food on the road so that I can shed some of these pounds.

Lake Chikobal and July 4th

Last night, the other students and I barbecued for July 4th because we could not forget our National pride in Guatemala. Really, we just wanted some traditional food for the night and a reason to celebrate. We barbecued hotdogs, Alex baked apple pies and we made smores. Of course, no July 4th is complete without it´s Guatemalan influence and so we drank Horchata as well. In a rather funny moment, Carolyn and I took pictures eating the smores although she looks like a lizard.

The next day, we checked out another Volcano and Lake although I lost couple cats since I don´think they are morning people. However, to Carolyn´s defense, she actually was sick. I set a 5:30 am start time and Billy, Jess and Melanie still made it out with me. Lake Chikobal is located in the crater of a volcano. It´s obviously inactive and a great place to just chill. We met up with a medicine man who guided us up the volcano while explaining the plant life. The medicine man gave us all a kernel of corn and we each made a wish and threw it into the Lake. According to him, the Mayan history is that man originally came from corn, then from monkeys and then to humans. By throwing a kernel of corn into the Lake, we reestablished our roots.

At the lake, he performed a short Mayan song and dance and blessed our watches in the water. At one point, he hit us all with a bunch of leaves in order to increase our energy within our bodies since we had just hiked a ton. The leaves actually hurt me when he whipped them all across my body. Later, we asked him to take photos of us at the Lake and he spent several minutes getting just the right angle to include a pair of forgotten shoes in the picture. At the end of the hike, we maneuvered through the corn field just following our guide until we eventually made it out. Tonight, we are all just chilling at home. The hike wiped us out.

Saved from Another Mugging

I went to my last guarderia and once again fell in love with the kids there. The children crawled all over me and we played some sort of circle game. In a not so private moment, I caught one using the bathroom. He enjoyed showing everyone that he made it on the toilet. A 5 year old child broke my heart when I learned that he wants to study, but his mom will not let him probably because she can not afford to have him go to school. Very sad...


Since the children did not create stool samples for us that day, I had to return today to pick them up. I had planned to go alone, but decided to bring Marie, an American medical student with me and I am so happy that I did. We labeled the samples, put them in a bag and then headed back the 25 minute walk to the clinic. However, along the way, 2 rather large guys, who most likely were not from Guatemala, approached us. I saw them coming and so I backed off, but they caught Marie and stood directly in front of her. I stood aways back. They told us in perfect English not to run because they had a gun. They also said that they wanted all of our money. Marie lied and said that she only had 2 Quetzales on her even though she had a ton of money for her trip to the Lake today. I didn´t see an easy way around them and so I tried to reason with them. I told them that we don´t have any money because we are volunteers at the clinic down the road. We don´t get paid for our work. We are carrying stool samples to check for parasites so that we can give the kids at the school their medicine. Marie backed me and held up our bag of stool and she also conveniently translated everything into easier words by pointing to the bag and telling them that this is the poo from the kids. I told them that we don´t have any time because we needed to get the poo to clinic quickly. I said, "It´s all for the children." A car passed us on the dirt road and the two guys just looked at each other and decided to just let us go. Maybe they thought we were either crazy or they really did care about the kids too. In the end, the poo saved us. I doubt they had a gun, but they did look rather large and intimidating enough to scare me.

By the way, I found out that one of Helga´s friends was returned today. The parents paid the requested amount and freed the girl. At least one is safe.

Return to the Lake

I realize that if I want people to call me, all I have to do is not blog for awhile. I have just been lazy and so do not worry. If I don´t blog for 2 weeks straight, then there might be reason to call and send in the man hunt.

Last weekend, Sarah, Carolyn and I headed back to Lake Aititlan. We had some difficulty getting on the right bus and I had to initiate a fight between drivers to ensure that Sarah´s backpack made it onto the right bus. We got on and off 3 buses before we were sure we were on the right one, however, one of the bus drivers refused to let us have her backpack to move to the other bus. The driver of the new bus finally convinced him, through some slang I couldn´t follow, to return the backpack. After that, we changed 2 minibuses and even took a tuk tuk before finally arriving in San Pedro, oddly a whole 30 min before the direct bus normally makes it there.

We encountered the people of San Pedro celebrating San Pedro day when we arrived. I´m still not sure what San Pedro day is about, but most likely to celebrate a Saint. Men dressed in costumes danced and recreated the Spanish war.

We dined on some of the best Italian food I have found in Guatemala and we wanted to try the street food, but the line was way too long. Unfortunately, I became sick with another bacterial bug and really could not truly enjoy my evening.

The next day, we took the boat across to San Marcos and enjoyed a lazy Sunday with a cerveza, the sun and a grassy lawn on which to relax. Just what I needed after a hectic week. I am in serious need of a pedicure as well as bug spray since I am being eaten alive by bugs that bite. I have a horrible allergic reaction to bug bites and am relying on anti-histamines to keep down the swelling. I know, my feet look so lovely with the bites and old nail polish.