Poetry...

Happiness

It is simple
It is kind
It is wide and vast

It is loving, accepting
It is without blame
It never minds when you act yourself
Appreciates your mistakes

It makes room for your smile
Greets you with open arms
like a warm blanket on a cold day

It is simple in a complicated world
It is kind in a cruel atmosphere
It is wide and vast in a galaxy all its own

Guatemala Declares a State of Emergency

As of last Saturday, September 5th, Guatemala as a nation has declared a state of emergency due to the substantial downpoors the country has received over the previous few days and the mud slides that have resulted. These rains are the worst this country has seen since hurricane Agatha came through three months ago. The mudslides that have resulted have wiped out thousands of homes and killed what is rumored to be 38 victims and rescuers.
Luckily, the city of Antigua, where we have been staying, is a well constructed and designed city and is not at high risk of these disasters. Several of the surrounding cities, however are among some of the distruction. Jocotenango, which is just a 10-15 minute taxi ride from Antigua suffered a mud slide that wiped out the homes of nearly 200 people and killed one woman known well in the town. The people who have lost their homes are staying in the public school building nearby while they are also received food donations from an American run organization called Nuestros Ahijados, which is where I do my own volunteering here.
The lake nearest here, Lake Atitlan, where Emi and I spent several days, suffered a severe mud slide that took out an entire public chicken bus with local Guatemalans and a shuttle carrying several tourists. Many people who attempted to help during this accident were swept away with the mud slide as well.
There have been rumors that Guatemala City itself has also suffered mudslides, and that the roads from here to the city have all been closed for several days. Emi, who has a flight scheduled out of the city tomorrow morning has been really worried. Many flights have been canceled over the past few days because the flight's passengers simply cannot get to the actual airport to board any planes.
Luckily the rain has stopped for now, but the locals here anticipate a couple more months of downpoor before the dry season begins. There has been more rain this year than in the past few decades, if not the most ever.


Some friends of mine here and I took some motorcycles out of Antigua this weekend to a little beach town called Hawaii. without motorcycles, we never would have gotten there. A trip that was supposed to take 2 hours took nearly 5 because of all the flooded roads. Had we known the roads were going to be this bad, we would not have attempted it. But it made for some INTERESTING terrain to say the least. At one point the water was up to our butts on the motorcycles. We were so lucky that none of the bikes flooded. Many times we had to jump off and while us three girls hopped into a pickup truck to go across the stretch of water, the boys pushed the bikes through. Once we were there, though the beach was amazingly sunny and gorgeous. PICS below!

Sunday, bloody Sunday... on a Thursday

Last night in Roatan! So sad to be leaving, we went out for a big celebration! It was memorable to say the least. Emi and I got a late start because we cooked up a yummy dinner for two at our sweet hotel room which consisted of pasta for the third time this week... YUM! This time we cooked it alone though... no strange Douglass cook to intercede... don't ask. During dinner we vegged out on the couch and watched some much needed American television... HBO to be exact. It was a crazy White Trash movie with Charlize Theron and Patrick Swazey but amazing no less.
We started the evening's adventure at a bar called Nova. Really cool outside bar with black lights and dancing. Talked a bit to an Italian who lives in Roatan until Emi and I distinguished that the BO smell was absolutely coming from him... EW. Needless to say we scooted as subtlely as possible away from Martin and struck up a fun conversation with an American girl who was there with the Peace Corps... INTERESTING! Have always considered that opportunity... Back on track for a fun night! Our local friends, Carlos and Cuny showed up and we all decided to head down the street for some Reggae dancing - YAY!
Bars in Roatan strictly enforce a closing hour of midnight no matter who or where you are... LAME! So a group of us jet out of the Reggae club to head to an after party and lord knows whos casa. Well on our way out in true clumsy Krissie fashion, I missed a step and rolled my right ankle. Bending my left knee reflexsively, I caught myself hard and popped right back up. In seconds Cuny and Carlos were at my elbows ensuring that I was ok. I thought I was totally fine other than a scrape on the knee and a sore ankle that would subside in a moment or two. Gritting my teeth, I tried to explain this to them. Carlos wasn't buying it and he bent down to get a closer look at the "scrape" on my knee... I believe his exact words were "WHOA! That shit deep!"
Emi took me back to the hotel where we attempted to wash the gravel out on our own to no avail... that shit was in fact deep! Carlos drove us about twenty mins into town to the emergency 24 hour doctor. 1:30AM we woke the doc up but banging on the metal gate that covered the office entrance. Inside the doctor took a look at my knee and was like "wow!" I did, in fact, need stitches. NOW the tears came! OHHH man stitches in Honduras! OHHH no! The doc comes back with all the proper materials, cuts open the saline bag for cleaning, and hands it to Carlos! CARLOS! Carlos looks at us and goes... "oh, I doctor now." At the doctor's instruction he then pours the saline over my knee... YOUCH! No alcohol can mask the pain now... The doc gives me FIVE shots of anethesia in the wound. OH MAN! Each time Cuny said, "one more, just one more." FIVE TIMES one more! Once it was numb though, the cleaning was easy. FOUR (although I thought he SAID five) Honduran stitches later we hobble out of the office all patched up and head back to the hotel.
Rolled ankle and stitches in Honduras! Check out the pics!

Island Oasis!

TEARING ourselves away from Antigua, we set off toward Honduras. We made a stop in a city called Copan Ruinas which is a really small Honduran border town. IMMEDIATELY it is obvious that Honduran people are nothing like the rest of Central Americans. They are overall actually very rude and impatient. It was a a drastic change compared to what we have become accustomed to in the last three months. While the Mayan ruins in Copan Ruinas were amazing, it is hard to justify making a stop there. The atmosphere just isn't great. We met a Welsh guy who had been waiting for his shuttle to Guatemala for THREE days. Literally every morning he woke up at 5:30AM to catch a 6AM shuttle that never showed. Then he proceeded to spend the rest of his day waiting for another shuttle that he was told was on its way and which ALSO never came. We felt so bad for him! Poor Welshie.. he eventually caught a 12PM shuttle the day we headed to Roatan Bay Island.
Once in the Bay Islands, you do not feel like you're in Honduras anymore. In fact, most of the locals we met denied any association with Honduran people whatsoever. They called themselves "islanders" or "Roatoniana". NOT surprised though given my previous statement about the "Honduran attitude" The Bay Islands in Honduras are probably among the most magnificent and gorgeous places I have ever been. The water looks like it's out of a picture. There are lots of amazing activities to get involved in but mostly we just sunbathed and enjoyed the incredible surroundings. It was very different to other places that we have backpacked thus far. Firstly, it was WAY more pricey. We splurged though and got an apartment size hotel for three nights... backpacking is hard work! It was wonderous to have our own kitchen again. We never thought we would be so excited to do some simple grocery shopping... pasta every night (cheap) but GOOD. Plus, over five strands of malaria are found in the Bay Islands (go figure) and the AC tends to keep the mosquitos away. This was, of course, our justification for splurging on the AC but it helps us sleep at night with the comfort that we may have kept the disease at bay for now... not to mention the fact that although Emi is on Malaria medication I myself am not... so LOTS of AC and LOTS of bug spray! Our friends there called our hotel room "the cold climate" HA! A nice change from the 100 degree weather they have been experiencing if you ask me!
The last day, HOWEVER, we tried scuba diving! Most people actually go to the Bay Islands in order to get certified for diving both because it is a lot more affordable than the rest of the world, and because it is really incredible. Neither Emi nor I is scuba certified but you can take a "intro" dive for about $50. This entails you and an instructor about 25 meters below in which he controls all your settings and temperatures, etc. We figured that since we were in one of the diving capitals of the world that we should really try it out. SO glad we did! It was absolutely incredible. We went with a local named Lindi, who we had befriended earlier in the week. We saw a sea turtle, lionfish, schools of incredible fish, AND eels! The place we dove is called the Aquarium among locals because of the amount of fish that are there in the reef all the time. The colors were so brilliant. WOW! I can definitely understand why people make this hobby their life.

Happily "Stuck" in Antigua

After two and a half months of bouncing from place to place, Emi and I are finding it quite difficult to move on out of Antigua, Guatemala. The city is a beautiful colonial city that is just FULL of travelors, shops, and amazing food at every corner. We even found a legit spa!!! Our first day here, Emi and I booked a couple's massage, a mani/pedi, AND a hair style/deep conditioning for less than $100 each! SO amazing. Neither of us had ever had a couple's massage before. It was definitely an interesting and entertaining experience.
We have managed to befriend an incredibly benevolent and interesting guy from Texas, named Blake (also known as shot-glass chucker's buddy) - don't worry he knows shot glasses are made for drinking not throwing desbite his buddy's shenanigans. Blake has been a wonderful tour guide! He actually works for one of the travel agencies in town that is a more modern and up to date than many of the other agencies. They sell a lot of gear that you might find at REI like Northface bags, Nalgene water bottles, and CLIFF bars! These things are an incredibly rare find anywhere in Central America let alone Guatemala. A couple days ago he let us tag along on a rock climbing adventure! MAN was that an adventure indeed. We drove about an hour to a mountain that came to be from underground pressure that actually pushed the ground up. The rock that we climbed is all sedementary rock that goes straight up. However, one of the volcanoes (Pacaya) erupted last May 27th and sent mud toward this rock that actually allowed all of these plants to grow directly on top of rocks. It was really bizzare! We had to do some intense jungle tredding to get to the particular rocks that we were set to climb. I have never rock climbed outdoors - it was really exciting! We also went with two English boys who are two of the funniest people I think I have ever met. So, this made for a seriously entertaining rock climbing experience. To make things even more interesting though, I got stung by an asp caterpillar on my left hand! I reached my hand into my backpack to grab my waterbottle and then saw this tiny, itty bitty neon yellow caterpillar just chilling on the inside of my zipper. Directly after I saw the caterpillar, my hand began to tingle sharply as if it had fallen asleep. The sting rapdily turned into a burn, until it was on FIRE. Blake jumped into action and sprayed some kind of anesthetic on it right away while Sam (funny English bloke) worked on getting the caterpillar out of my bag. As it turns out, I had mashed the caterpillar into my zipper when I opened my bag and it attacked me defensively. As time went on my hand swelled up and looked like a little micky mouse hand - YOUCH! Blake was so wonderful though, he went and got me medicine from the pharmacy and checks it every chance he has to make sure I don't have to get it removed or anything. Now, two days later, the swelling is still existent, but has got down tremendously and it doesn't hurt at all anymore. Pesky little caterpillar!
Yesterday Emi and I rented bikes from Blake's agency and he took us riding all around the area. Antigua really is a gorgeous city. Every city in Antigua must have four things in order to be a city legally; a church, a cross, a water source, and a town square. Really interesting how you can relly find each of these things present in every city you go to. We also went to one of the biggest organic farms in the area. It was really awesome! We got to walk around and try several of the vegetables and herbs. We even ate edible flowers that taste like cucumbers - WOW! The best part though was that Alex, the owner of the farm, gave us a lime that is the size of a baby's head! REALLY, it was huge. We took it to a restaurant in town and they made lime-ades for us that were AWESOME! Way more refreshing and yummy than I thought they were going to be, I must admit.
Last night was ladies night at a local bar in town (every night is ladies night somewhere). But we got free tee shirts that are awesome! The best ladies night so far though, was Wednesday night at our hostel. We have met so many awesome Europeans and they were ALL together at this particular ladies night. Everyone who wore a dress received drinks for like $.75. So, the guys ALL wore dresses! LOL - it was really hilarious. The hostel has a big bag of dresses that you can just rifle through to find the most embarassing or beautiful. Darius though, definitely had the best attire. He is a tall German who looked amazing adorned in lingerie and feathers. HAHA - I heart Antigua!
HMMMM now Emi and I have been sucked into the tattoo parlor... EEK! What that means for me, I am not too sure. I may be able to keep my addiction in check for now, but you really never know. Emi, however, is pretty set on an addition to her existing tribute to her Grandparents. She has an appointment today to check out the artist's drawing. I predict she will love it. We are headed there AFTER our giant breakfast and tour at the macadamia nut farm.... have I mentioned that I heart Antigua yet???

Rise and Shine Lake Atitclan

Waking up at Lake Atitclan is one of the most serene scenarios possible. It's sunny but cool outside with a refreshing lake smell. MMMM YUM!
This morning Emmy and I took advantage of the gorgeous day by renting a couple kayaks and riding them out to these rocks in San Marcos famous for jumping. And WOW did we figure out why they were famous or what! It was so cool to scrample up the sides of the rocks and then jump off holding all limbs and as tight to our bodies as humanly possible. It's a lot higher than it orginally looked!
Last night Emmy and I met the only other guests in our high-end Guatemalan hotel ($10 each a night), a couple of Texans and an Aussie. The five of us grabbed some dinner in town and then headed out to a local pub where we sat down to play some dominoes. LOVE dominoes. Anyway everything was going great, and Blake, one of the Texans ordered us a few shots of this really amazing teguila called Mescol that is actually illegal in the states. It was a really yummy smoky flavored tequila with a vanilla finish - YUM. We were sipping the tequila respectably when a local guy came over and stole the rest of Jay's shot! ARGH - it was so weird and uncomfortable, but he was just too intoxicated and should have just been ignored. Well in proper Texan fashion Jay found it impossible to ignnore this frustration and he THREW his shot glass at the guy in order to persuade him to purchase a new one. OMG! WHAT? WHO does that!???? Emmy and I were so confused as to what the unnecessary gesture really displayed. Blake successfully calmed both parties down, but WOW was that just plain dumb.


Tomorrow is a new day and Emmy and I are headed to the traditional Mayan market in Chichicastenango. Neither of us is too sure what this will entail exactly but we are excited nonetheless!

Where the Mayan's Go

I am in Guatemala! On a travel whim, I flew here a few days ago to meet a girlfriend from Royal Palm Junior High, Emmy Epperly! Jake and I ran into her about a month and a half ago in Costa Rica and she continued to travel around the area. Meeting her here was the best idea ever! We have been having a really great time.
Guatemala has managed to maintain this authentic culture that I have not experienced anywhere else in Central America. The indigenous people, mostly the women, wear extremely authentic Mayan attire. Their clothing consists on long vibrantly colored skirts and blouses with these thick adorned belts and then covered with an apron/skirt. I have tried to capture a couple pictures but it is something they are not open to and if they are, they are quick to charge you roughly 5 Quetzals per photo which is approximately $.75 US. What is the most interesting about their attire though is the baskets and bundles the women carry on their heads! It is incredibly impressive to see just how much they can balance comfortably on the very tops of their heads and then walk all over town in this state. Their necks must be among the strongest in the world!
Emmy and I met up in Xela, which is a town that is really known for its Spanish lessons. The tourism there is a lot lower than the rest of the popular places in the country because most tourists who pass through Xela are doing so in order to improve their Spanish. Guatemala is one of the best places to learn Spanish because the Guatemalans speak much more slowly than the rest of Central Americans, and they also have a really impressive amount of patience. Even in the hostels, the employees encourage you to use your Spanish instead of speaking English which they all know well.

The first day in Xela we explored the two markets that the town offered. The first one was mostly food and common household goods like blenders, suitcases, bathroom utensils, etc. The second one, however, was like the world’s biggest swap mart! It was like Goodwill from the states had sent a shipment and all the Guatemalans had just dumped everything into heaping piles and then the customers go digging through to find their next 3 Quetzal purchase. Emmy bought a Grateful Dead tie-die shirt that is the size of her whole body because it was only $.50. Some things are SO cheap that you feel like you have to do it! I bought a purse that is now broken so there was THAT smart purchase! Other than that I resisted… ok… a back pack too…but I needed that!


We hiked another volcano! This particular volcano was RIDICULOUSLY hard! We woke up at 4AM in order to get to the volcano and complete the hike before the daily rain comes around 2PM. The first couple hours were pitch black and groggy, but when the sun rose it was totally gorgeous. We were really high up and overlooked the entire city of Xela. After another steep and difficult 2 hours we arrived at the top of the volcano and what did we see! – COWS! At the top of the volcano! COWS! SO random!


Now we have arrived at Lake Atitclan which is a really beautiful place. Last night we stayed in the main town, Panajachal, but today we are going to head to the more hopping one called San Pedro. There are three volcanoes that surround the lake. Yesterday evening when we were taking pictures we had the luck to have some bright blue sky… take a look! Amazing. The shopping here isn’t bad as well! Actually, I kind of love the shopping! AH!