La Carrera y el Desayuno de Dames

I (Jeff) survived the run with Juan Carlos and Manuel.  We ran up a hill that was about one hour long, followed by rolling terrain for another 30 minutes.  Manuel, who is my language instructor, hasn’t been running much and today was a bit more than he was up to.  This probably saved me since Juan Carlos weighs about 90 lbs and could have really pushed the pace. 

The run was a very cool way to learn more about Guatemala.  Juan Carlos asked if I wanted to run to a secret place.  Heck ya!  The secret placed ended up being a sacred grove in the woods with a statue of the Virgin Mary.  It is really interesting how Catholicism has mixed with the pre-Columbian traditions.  The family that was there praying was making a burnt offering, which we learned was an important part of Mayan ceremonies at Tikal.  Juan Carlos told me that this grove is also where families give thanks to nature.

The views of the lake and surrounding volcanos during the run were incredible.  I thought this might be a new morning ritual, so I asked them about safety.  They told me I was fine jogging with them, but shouldn’t jog this road by myself because robbers target gringos (my word).  I said, “When I run, I have nothing to steal.”  He said they might kidnap me for ransom.  I had heard this before, so I was disappointed but not surprised.  Sadly, my other options are the cobblestone streets of San Pedro.

Juan Carlos asked if there were laws in the US about how old you had to be to date.  I told him that there were no laws limiting dating, but we did have statutory rape laws.  Juan Carlos (who is 21) then said he would like to take Lynn out on a date.  I said, “Can I come?”  He and Manuel said that Juan Carlos likes to joke around a lot.  Excellent joke Juan Carlos.

While Jeff was off running, the girls and I (Kathy) headed to the gym.  We worked out, Brooke puked, and then returned to a wonderful breakfast with Marta – a ladies breakfast.  She made a breakfast of fresh fruit – papaya, watermelon, cantelope, and bananas – with yogurt.  She had fresh honey and syrup from San Pedro to go along with it. Delicious!

I sat at the table and visited with Marta for a while after breakfast.  She complimented me on the girls and how helpful they are, and how well they get along with each other.  She said Lynn seems much older than 16 years old.  She said she is enjoying having us here.  I told her how we are very much enjoying being with her!  I also learned that her husband died 31 days after her youngest son was born.  Did he die in the civil war?  I did not ask.  We have already learned from her niece, Jonna, that one of Marta’s brothers died in the civil war, and her husband’s time of death was during the civil war.  Maybe we’ll find out while we are here.

Today I began teaching English to two Guatemalan women through the school.  They are both in their early 20’s. Through the school you can volunteer your time to help Guatemalans learn English.  We went over vocabulary, questioning words, and began to answer basic “Do you want…?” questions.  Tomorrow Jeff and I will both teach the two women in the morning. 

So far it seems our time has been eating, sleeping, and speaking/practicing Spanish.  This weekend we hope to visit some of the other villages around the lake.  Tonight, after dinner, we will shop a little.  We are very much enjoying our time in San Pedro – all four of us.  The girls told us last night that they really liked it here and have settled in.  They love Marta and being in her home.  It was nice to hear!

 

The girls studying in their bedroom.

 

Mayan Culture and Language School

Our homestay hostess, Marta, grew up speaking Tz'utujil, the Mayan language local to San Pedro La Laguna.  At some point she learned Spanish, and later English.  How many languages can you speak fluently?  Marta guesses that about 50% of the locals speak Spanish, and the rest speak only Tz'utujil.  This dynamic is changing.  Most of those older than 20 can speak Tz'utujil, while very young children speak primarily Spanish.  Hopefully, the Tz'utujil language won’t decline in the way that many of the Native American languages did in the United States.  The Tz'utujil language is very local.  There are 12 villages around Lake Atitlan.  Three of the villages speak Tz'utujil.  There are at least two other Mayan languages spoken in the other villages. 

One of the very cool things about Guatemala is how the Mayan people have preserved their culture.  Most of the Mayan women in San Pedro still wear traditional (and very colorful) clothing.  They are decked out in beautiful hand-made skirts and huipils (blouse); and skillfully carry packages on their heads.  Although most of the younger men wear clothes like us, older men often wear very colorful woven shirts, pants, and a man purse.  Topped off with a sombrero, they can pull this off without looking girly.  In fact, they are muy macho and I dare you to suggest otherwise.

The girls began today by cooking with Marta.  She has two sons, but confided that she always wanted a daughter so she could cook with her and visit with her.  Enter Kathy, Lynn and Brooke!  The girls made a homemade pineapple marmalade from fresh fruit.  They also made crepes.  I helped by telling them how delicious everything tasted.  Crepes and a cup of coffee made from beans grown right in San Pedro; who could ask for more?

Making marmalade with Marta



The constant Spanish lesson.

 

We had more cooking lessons for lunch.  Brooke and Kathy made tortillas with Marta.  We ate them with a chicken stir fry and it was good.

Life was grand yesterday when all we needed to learn was, “My name is…”  “I am from…”  “Hello, how are you?”  Today, we lost a little baby skin.  We started conjugating irregular verbs (Yo quiero, Tu quieres, El/Ella quiere, Nosotros queremos, Ustedes quieren, Ellos/Ellas quieren).  Bring back any bad memories? 

 

 

Our four hour lesson was interrupted with a ‘crash,’ and people asking if anyone knew CPR.  All of students and instructors kind of stared at each other.  I had CPR training years ago, but was petrified to try it in the real world.  However, if someone actually needed CPR, doing nothing was the worst thing that I could do, so I went upstairs.  It was a huge relief to see that the woman in need was breathing, so no CPR was necessary.  She was having a seizer, and people got her into a safe position as she slowly recovered.  Within 20 minutes, she was walking and being taken to get medical attention.  I think it’s time to get recertified in CPR.

Tomorrow, I’m going on a run with two of the teachers at the Spanish school - Kathy's teacher, Juan Carlos, and my teacher, Manuel.  They are both in their 20s, and when I asked how far they planned on running, they said, “Until we get tired.”  I said, “I don’t get tired.”  They laughed, and exchanged a look like they were going to school me.  I’ll let you know tomorrow if my boasting was a mistake. 

First Day of Language School

Today we had our first leisurely day of the entire trip so far. 

Marta, (our Espanol madre, as the girls have come to call her) made us a delicious breakfast.  It was like an open-faced submarine sandwich.  On it there was some sauce (not sure what but it was good), a slice of a ham, avocado, lettuce, an perfectly ripe tomato, and onion.  She also had thick toast with pineapple marmalade for the top.  It was delicious!

We had about 4 hours of down time between breakfast and lunch.  So, we ran some errands and Jeff and I went for a run.  We explored the city.  It is extremely hilly and the streets are cobblestone, so it was kind of like a trail run.  It was also somewhat like an obstacle course too - dodging people and tuk tuks.

Following lunch we had our first day of language school!  Much to the girls' pleasure, they both have young female teachers (maestras).  We also had a 30 minute break all together where they served us guacamole on a tortilla and chocolate cake.  Like what seems to be part of the Guatemalan culture, Guatemalan coffee was also served.  Brooke tried her first coffee - but wasn't a huge fan.  Don't think she's defecting to the "dark side" with Jeff and Lynn quite yet. There are students at the school from London, France, New Zealand, the bay area in CA, and Washington, D.C.  We were inundated with a ton of vocabulary and new terms in a short period of time.  Jeff, Brooke, and I were all assigned homework.  Being in class has brought back a lot of my Spanish knowledge from high school, which I'm pleased about.  The school seems like it's going to be a great choice, especially the one-on-one teachers for all of us.  It is forcing the girls to participate, and they're enjoying it too. 

Between our Espanol madre and the language school, we are getting an incredible amount of hours with Spanish.  Marta only speaks Spanish to us during meals (but understands some English so she works through what we want to say with us).  We learned a ton before we even went to school today since we had already had 3 meals with her.

Tonight Marta's 18 year old niece, Jonna, came to have dinner with us.  She speaks 3 languages - English, Spanish, and the native Mayan language of San Pedro. It was fun talking to her.  She said she is going to come back tomorrow night. 

We didn't get any pictures today.  We planned to get a picture with Marta tonight at dinner, however she and her 2 sisters went to church shortly after dinner started and her niece stayed to eat with us.  We will get pictures with Marta and her family as the two weeks progress.  I think we will see a lot of them.

Tomorrow am the girls and I have a date with Marta at 8 am to make homemade pineapple marmalade to serve with breakfast at 8:30/9.  We also have plans with her to make homemade tortillas at noon for our 1 pm lunch.  We will make the tortillas back in the US for our gang meal in NC at the end of July!

Tikal to San Pedro

We took the shuttle from Tikal back to Santa Elena/Flores and had time to kill before our overnight bus left Santa Elena.  We had a delicious lunch at Raices on the lake in Flores, thanks to the recommendation of Alejandro at the Jaguar Inn.

Our food spread at Raices.

We took the overnight bus back to Guatemala City last night, splurging for first class seats.  All of us slept soundly the entire ride, and we arrived at the bus station in a little less than eight hours.  As we disembarked half asleep from the bus at 5 am, we were immediately pounced on by dozens of cab drivers.  TAXI?  Antigua? Airport? TAXI senor?  We struck a bargain with one of the drivers to take us all the way to Antigua.

When researching Guatemala, I found people to be either hot or cold about Antigua.  Those who raved about it preferred it over any place in the world.  The other camp loudly proclaimed that it was too touristy and not authentic enough.  Everyone there is supposedly an English speaking Gringo.  Well, at 6 am on a Sunday morning, this is not the case.  Even the tourist police lacked any English skills.  Fortunately, we know enough Spanish to ask where the bus station is.  Unfortunately, we don’t know enough to understand their answer.  We never expect folks to speak English in a foreign country.  We just had some hopes based on the on-line complainers.

Eventually, we bumped into a man whose job it is to round up all the ‘wet behind the ears’ gringos and get them on a chicken bus.  Yes, we did achieve that great cultural milestone of Central America.  For those of you that don’t know, chicken buses are refurbished school buses from the United States.  When I say refurbished, I mean pimped.  Just check out Google images for ‘chicken bus’ and you will see what I mean.  Inside they generally blast some fun music and they crowd in as many people as they can.  But it gets more fun than that.  Remember how slow and safe US school buses are?  Well, the speed governor has been removed baby!  Think Grand Prix racing through the narrow streets of some European city.  Then the buses hit the country side and fly up and down and around mountain roads.  Let me tell you, they drive ‘em like they stole ‘em!  Once in a while the driver leans on the horn, slams on the breaks, and lets people waiting on the side of the road board the bus.  The guy who rounded us up in Antigua hangs on the side of the bus to rush new passengers aboard.  And you gotta run to get on the bus.  We left some slower folks behind.  Besides being a lot of fun, chicken buses are cheap.  We paid about $4 each for a three hour bus ride, and I’m pretty sure they overcharged us for being gringos. 

On all of our bus rides through Guatemala, we noticed that the roads are littered with people selling things.  Sometimes they are selling handicrafts, but most often they are selling food.  Fruit, grilled chicken, tortillas, drinks.  Many of them seemed like they hadn’t sold anything all day long.  When I mentioned this to a tour guide, his response was that they do whatever they can to survive.  “The government isn’t going to feed them,” he said.  Even though we knew the statistics, our visit has been eye-opening.

Our chicken bus ride ended safely at the lakeside city of Panahachel.  We had finally arrived at Lake Atitlan.   We hopped on a water taxi and headed to San Pedro.  On the taxi, we chatted it up with a young man who spent six months in Portland, Oregon.  He told us how irritated he was that everyone took advantage of white people here. That’s not something I have ever heard before since it has always gone the other way in the US.  Anyway, he was referring to the fact that they charged us 25 quetzals for the water taxi, and he only had to pay 15.  The 10 quetzal difference is about $1.25, so it’s hard to haggle with the taxi about that.  Besides, that’s nothing compared to how the Italians took advantage of us.   Non-EU citizens got hosed at every government run tourist attraction.




Lunch on Lake Atitlan upon our arrival in San Pedro La Laguna.

We checked in with the Orbita Spanish School.  Rene, the owner, seems very nice.  He hooked us up with our host.  She is a very kind woman as well.  She even invited us to dinner tonight even though our meals don’t start until tomorrow.  Our room has a balcony with a view of the lake.  The only down side, which is actually an up side, is that they all insist on using Spanish all of the time.  Yes, immersion is the best way to learn a language.  But we’re tired!




View from our balcony at the homestay.

Watching the USA vs. Japan women’s World Cup game in Spanish at our homestay now.  Exciting!

Sunrise Tour

Because sleep is overrated, we awoke at 3:30 am on Saturday morning for our sunrise tour of Tikal.  We met Caesar, our guide, outside the Jaguar Inn where he had coffee waiting.  At 4 am, flashlights in hand, Caesar, the 4 of us, and 11 others headed into the park.
Caesar stopped along the way to give us information about park wildlife – both in English and Spanish.  However, when walking he insisted on “silencio” so that we could all experience the jungle as it was wakening.  We could hear the howler monkeys in the distance and let me tell you, I would not have wanted to be an early explorer in the jungle. Frightening sound!

We made it to the top of Temple #4 as the sun was rising.  We sat on the top, along with other tour groups, and listened to the animals.  Spider monkeys climbed among the treetops at our feet and parrots flew between the trees.  The howler monkeys continued to make a HUGE raucous a short distance from us.



The temples at sunrise.

Unfortunately, the morning was cloudy so we didn’t get the full effect of the sunrise.  But… the view was amazing and the animals were impressive.  A coatimundi was walking around the top of the temple while we were there.  Beggar!

Although we were all tired, we agreed we were glad we did the sunrise tour.  We headed back to our bungalow for a nap after a pleasant walk back to the Jaguar Inn with Caesar.  All of the others in the tour group stayed at the site after the tour, so we enjoyed a walk alone with Caesar, chatting about politics and life in Guatemala.

Caesar reminded us, Aunt Nancy, a little of Dietrich from our Underground Tour in Seattle.  One of our favorite quotes of his is, "You're downstream without a paddle, brother."  He also repeatedly referred to his fellow countrymen as, "My people."  He was proud of his heritage, which we appreciated.

Caesar and our tour group.

 

Tikal

Today was a very, very successful day! 

The shuttle arrived at 8 am, and after picking up two other sets of passengers, we headed on the road to Tikal.  The trip took a little over an hour and was quite entertaining.  At one point the driver totally swerved to the other side of the road.  When I asked Lynn what just happened, she replied, “There was a dog laying in the middle of the road.”  I turned around to see the dog still laying smack dab in the road.  Still didn’t move.  Guess he didn’t feel any reason to move for traffic, and the people around him weren’t making him move. Crazy.

The shuttle driver brought us directly to the Jaguar Inn, inside Tikal National Park.  We went into the hotel, not sure what would be our situation as check-in is at 2 pm and it was only 9:30 am.  The man at reception told us we could leave our bags in the corner and head into the ruins for a little bit. Come back around 1:30/2. He said they had had a full house the night before.  Before we walked away, he said, “Wait a minute. Let me check your room.” We must have seemed saddened by the prospect of staying in our filthy clothes on our filthy bodies.  He came back with a huge smile on his face and told us our room was ready!!  Music to our ears! 

Much to our sheer pleasure, our room has its own bathroom, with plumbing as it is in the USA.  The hot water is only turned on from 6-9 am but none of us cared!  It is about 80 degrees so it is not cold outside at all.  We all showered and then headed to the dining room for breakfast.  We had pancakes and were extremely content.

Brooke enjoying the hammock on our porch at the Jaguar Inn,

 

With full stomachs and clean bodies, we headed to the ruins.  They are amazing!!  We spent about 4 hours in the park, walking to all of the ruins and taking a ton of pictures!  We thought about how neat it would be to see the ruins with our archeologist friend, Beloved Nancy Davis.  Some of the ruins are completely uncovered, some are still being excavated.  Howler monkeys screamed at us from overhead and spider monkeys ran among the treetops.  Jeff captured it all on video. 



Looking at Temple #1 from Temple #2.

 
Jeff decided he is going to market a t-shirt to tourist that says, “I left my heart at Tikal…so the sun could rise.”



Temples #3 and 4 in the background.

We treated ourselves to an excellent dinner at the Inn, complete with an appetizer of nachos and a huge papaya fruit smoothie.  Today we are all back in good spirits.  There is even WiFi so the girls had an opportunity to post on Instagram.

Tomorrow we head back into the ruins for a sunrise tour.  Caesar, our guide, already introduced himself to us.  We will meet him in the front parking lot at 4 am.  The plan is to do the tour and then head back via shuttle to Flores for the day.  One of the workers here is from Bakersfield, CA and he is going to give us some recommendations for places to see and eat at while we are there.

We’ll take the overnight bus and make our way to San Pedro La Laguna and the language school.  Should be there by Sunday evening.

On On

We knew that the beginning of our trip would be a trial.  We flew out of Plattsburgh at 2:45 am and arrived in Ft. Lauderdale at 6 am.  We had a 4 hour layover in a crowded airport that had all of the charm of a NYS Thruway rest area in the 1970s.  There, we found a patch of dirty carpet and went to sleep, while Brooke stood sentry.  The flight to Guatemala City was another 2.5 hours, but we crossed two time zones, so we arrived at 11 am. 

On the second leg of our flight, we sat next to Del Griffith.  He was a bit drunk, but friendly.  His wife grew up in Guatemala, and she was a bit concerned with our plan to catch a taxi from the airport to the bus station.  They always hire a private tour company when in Guatemala.

Since our plan was well-researched and straying from it would be both a challenge and expensive, we decided to stick with it.  Right before customs, we were able to get some local cash at an ATM, and headed for the airport taxi stand.  It was very well organized to prevent fraud.  We pointed to the address of the bus company (por favor), paid exactly what I had seen as the rate on line ($10), hopped in a cab, and headed into the gut of Guatemala City.  When careening through a foreign city in a cab, where you don’t speak the language, you feel a certain uneasiness and hope that the world is generally a benevolent place.  My prayers to St. Christopher were answered, and we were dropped off in a sketchy part of town (which is most of it) in front of the bus station. 

Kathy Outside Bus Station, Guatemala City

“Santa Elena por favor?  Quatro persons.  Quantos?”  That’s about as good as my Spanish gets, but mixed with some finger pointing and a ridiculously large and subservient smile, it was enough.  Kathy took four years of high school Spanish, so thankfully, she was able to say, “My name is Kathy.  The horse is under the table.”

Here is where the plan unraveled.  The bus we planned to take left at 9 pm.  There was another bus that was leaving at 2 pm.  For many reasons, including the neighborhood, the 2 pm bus seemed like a no brainer.  We climbed aboard, and were on our way, pleased with the fact that we managed to get as far as we had.  A flaw in our improvisation soon occurred to us.  Instead of arriving in Santa Elena at 5 am and waiting for an 8 am shuttle to Tikal, we arrived at 1 am (bad traffic and slow going made the trip 11 hours long).  We didn’t know anything about where we would be dropped off, and it would be late.

We got off the bus at Santa Elena and were pounced on by cab drivers, but that was okay.  We asked him in our best, non-existent Spanish to take us to the closest town (Flores), and did he know of any hotels that would take us in at the late hour of 1:30 am?  He nodded in the affirmative and off we went.  After winding through narrow one-way streets for a while, he pulled over and started to knock on a door.  All the lights were out, and he was getting no answer.  We went to the next option.  A guy leaning out of his window in an alley wanted 580 Q (about $75).  Where a bed can be had for $8, this was certainly an attempt to take advantage of us.  Although it was 1:30, we said no thanks.  The third place was the charm.  Our driver woke up the proprietor, who found us a room for 250Q (about $35).  We had our place.  After shedding the proprietor, who after having been awoken, was now eager to chat, we crashed into our one star accommodation and slept soundly until 7:30 am.  For the record, lest you think I dropped the ball on my 22^nd wedding anniversary, the room had a balcony with a lovely view of the lake.

Burning our candle at both ends, we were on a shuttle to Tikal National Park by 8 am.  One hour later, we were at our hotel checking in and getting our first shower in two days.  Things are looking up!