A Beautiful Way to Leave

I am so blessed to have spent the last week with my cousin Angela, her husband Chris, their boys Mackenzie and Lukas, and some of their wonderful friends (hello Kelly, Kendra and Dave!!)!  My week in San Jose, Costa Rica has been a wonderful transition, breathing, relaxing time before heading back to Canada.  I can't imagine having been in a better place.  I have enjoyed it so much!  We have coloured colouring pages, watched Mater's Tall Tales (from "Cars"), played in the back yard, played with lego, ate Christmas dinner, took the bus to the central market and artisan's market, bought fruit at the Saturday morning fruit market, ate the most glorious tasting pineapples and mangoes, cooked together, rolled marshmellows in caramel, talked together, laughed and listed while doing dishes, went to Cartago in their rented van!, went to church, saw the Christmas program, spoke in Spanish with many wonderful people (Fernando, Pastor Manuel y Ligia, Janeth...), swang on swings (is swang a word?), and for me, I just enjoyed getting to know my family a bit better.  You know those people who it is refreshing just to "be" with, to share time together, no matter what you are doing?  I have so appreciated being able to just "be" with my family and get a glimpse into what their four months have been like, to witness obedience to God, and to share in their experience.  Thank you SO much for having me here!  It has been a special time for me!

Packed Week

Bueno...aqui estoy, in LIVINGSTON!!!
My last week in Xela went quickly, as did the rest of my time (except for the first week of course, which seemed to be longer than a cave without light), but it is so wonderful how we become acustomed to new life, how we can grow and adapt. The sad part is that we often lose a fresh, objective perspective of how a place "is"...but maybe this too is good, that our perpsective changes because we have new understanding...and maybe none of this makes sense.

My last week in Xela I watched a movie about "Che", attended another "Guatemalan slang" class, went to a play at el Teatro Municipal, and participated in another internacional cena, AND, I learned the present perfect and past perfect of subjunctive!!!  Sandra and I taught our last week of English classes and said goodbye to our students.  Everyday after class we would say "See you tomorrow" or if it was the weekend "See you Monday".  The students would also say goodbye to us in this way.  Bayron, a very bright, attentive young student said, as he left from the last class, "See you tomorrow..." and realizing that it wasn't true, tried "see you...uh...".  and eventually simply said, "Goodbye", and he looked at us, and left. Sandra and I could just look at each other.  It is so sad that we will not see our students again, but the experience teaching them (fun and tough, but mostly fun), was worth having to say goodbye.

For my Spanish classes, I received my diploma at the end of the week, and while it was terribly disappointing that that too meant that I was leaving, it was nice to have something concrete to show for my studies. 

Friday, after class, a friend invited me to hike Tajumulco with her and her friend, which I really wanted to do, but they were staying overnight, and Ina and I had planned on heading to Guate to Sunday...I thought that it would be possible to postpone our trip one day, but Ina wasn´t for it...
SATURDAY, I went to the park for my last time with the kids in the park.   Some new kids, some who I had seen before, and different organizers, yet again, but it was still a good time.  I went home, talked to my mom, planned our trip (this trip, that I am currently on), and
Ina, a friend that I met at ICA, from Germany, and I are travelling for a week before I head off to Costa Rica to visit my cousins (wahoo!).

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okay, so now I am in Costa Rica.  I got interrupted in Livingston and haven't had much time since for blogging. 

Back to my last Saturday in Xela:  So after spending the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon planning our trip, I was going to go out for coffee with a friend.  She had "forgotten" her sweater at the school, so we stopped by to get it, even though I KNEW that the school would be closed because it was a Saturday.  How strange then that Ina was there too, and opened the door for us! 

I AM SO DENSE.

My amazing friends threw me a surprise party for my birthday!  Dora the explorer piñata, cake, ice cream, nochos, the works.  I couldn´t believe it.  When they gave me a gift of a cuaderno (notebook) full of notes and pictures of past students (who were not even at the school anymore), I started to cry.  To my friends, thank you!  You are so thoughtful!

Pollo Campero (Guatemalan fast food chain) was sponsoring fireworks, so we headed up to the roof to check them out.  Yikes, there were A LOT!  Canada day celebrations in Tofield do NOT compare!  I would like to think that the fireworks were just for me :)

So our trip:
Sunday, we headed out at 8:30 with Galgos, me, Ina, and all of my luggage.  eek.  My poor Guatemalteca mother started to cry, a lot, when I left, which I wasn´t expecting, so of course, I started to cry too.  The trip to Guate was smooth, abeit full of curvy, mountain, motion-sickness inducing roads.  For as much talk as there is about mudslides and protests on the way to Guate, I have never had troubles (wonderfully enough!) We dropped off my stuff at a hostel in Guate and then head on to catch our next bus to Coban, about 4 hours north.  We got to the bus station.  No problem.  We bought our tickets.  No problem.  We waited for our bus.  Problem.  How were we to know that we were supposed to wait outside with the buses, instead of in the waiting room with all the people, and that no one would call us when the uncommonly on-time buses would be leaving. I guess everyone already knows that.  So we missed our first bus.  They let us catch the next one, an hour later, at no extra cost. (thankfully!) 

We made it to Coban around 8:30 at night.  12 hour day, but not bad.  Too bad, however, that our hosts, where we stayed that night, didn´t have blankets, but instead a plethera of cockroches.  Oh well, no problem.  Dry place to sleep = good thing :)

The next morning we got up at 5:20 to catch the 6:00 bus to Lanquin, which is close to Semuc Champey, WHERE there are BEAUTIFUL limestone pools (that you can swim in...hey, Bethy?!!  You should go.)  We found the bus terminal by 5:50, but unfortunately, my guidebook, which said the first bus leaves at 5:45, wasn´t even right, as the bus left 10 minutes early, and passed us in the street without stopping.  Therefore, after asking probably 10 people for help, and talking to nearly every bus that stopped near the station, we found another bus system a couple of blocks away, and we left at 7:30.  Therefore, we arrived in Lanquin around 9:45.  Unfortunately #2, the cave tour that we were planning on going, left at 9:30.  Oh well.  No big deal.  We can still see semuc!  We found our hostel (sin problemas!), got instructions to get to semuc and the limestone pools, and got some info about some bat caves to visit around 5:00 when we would get back. 

Finding the pick-ups in the town, that we could crowd in the back of, however, proved somewhat difficult for us, extranjeras, but eventually (more than 1 hour later) we figured it out, and after a slightly treacherous ride up a muddy, muddy 9 km, with a chico running ahead in the steepest place to spread sand, so that the truck wouldn´t slip down the hill,we made it to the park (I honestly didn´t think the truck would make it...but it did!).
The pools were indeed BEAUTIFUL. We hiked a small trail to a "mirador" (lookout), and then we decended to explore the pools more closely.  Wonderful Ina let me take the time to swim, even though the day was a bit chilly.  We knew the last pickup into town was at 4, so we decided to head back at 3.  Taking the second last shuttle seemed like a better idea to us.  We got to the gate at 2:50, but of course, the pickup had just left.  How is this possible.  Two early buses, in GUATEMALA, in one day.  Somehow we found them both, so therefore, we should really actually be proud! 

There was a lady selling some homemade chocolate.  A friend had raved to us about it, so we bought some (cardomon, milk, vanilla, cinnamon...I liked the cardomon the best, and tried to save half to bring home, but it didn´t travel well, so .... I ate it.  Sorry.)  Right after buying, two young girls came, out of nowhere (as we are in the middle of the country) to sell us their chocolate, but really we had no small bills to buy more.  It is tough saying no, although perhaps sometimes not hard enough.   I don´t know....there are so many vendors...so many people asking for money...I really never know what to do. 

As for the bus, we decided to start walking because we had passed a hostel that had shuttles to the next town we were going to visit, and I wanted to check out some details.  We made it to the hostel, got some info, no problem.  We stopped to talk with some moneyless people from Quebec, who were camped out with their yellow school bus, waiting for the mud to dry up, and then continued walking.  4:30, after confirming with the hostel that indeed a pickup does pass by, we finally saw the blue autobody.  Thankfully!  We did not want to walk 9 km, alone, in the Guatemalan jungle.  Ina, a bit behind me on the road waved down the truck.  It didn´t stop.  She tried the shouting method.  That didn´t really work either.  I tried the waving method, and MORE waving.  Still not stopping.  That is fine.  I am sure that it will stop when it gets to the top of the hill.  Yeah, it didn´t stop, and I am pretty sure that the Gringos (which is NOT an offensive term in Guatemala) were laughing. 

Right. 

Guatemalan jungle.

8 km more

just before sunset. 

Maybe not the best situation? (but mom, I am fine.)  And we were close to another hostel, so it wasn´t really all that bad.  Plus, I half believed that another pickup was coming, so I wasn´t that worried, because surely, the LAST pickup of the day would stop.  (Plus, I sometimes like ironic situations.  I find them more amusing, and much less stressful than predictable homework or writing tests.  eek.)  We kept walking.  Yikes, there was a lot of mud.  One Guatemalteco asked us if we were okay.  We explained the situation, and he told us a place a bit up the road where we could phone our hostel in Lanquin (8 km away).  We kept walking; met up with a kid who wanted 1Q.  I gave it to him, which is kind of weird, because I usually don´t give money to kids.  We kept walking, and eventually the Guatemalteco man who was walking with us caught up, even though he was carrying a massive load (of something...i know, descriptive, eh?!).  It turns out that it was his son to whom I gave the quetzal ($). 

The man and his son led us a bit off the road, and showed us how to stand on a rock and hold out our cell (just in the right direction and at the right angle) so that we would get TIGO cell coverage.  Nothing.  Ina tried to explain that it wouldn´t work, but he told us to wait 5 minutes, and sure enough after 5 minutes she got a bit of reception!  The only problem now was that we didn´t have the number of our hostel.  She made a call to where I left my bags in Guate so that they (who recommended to us, this hostel) could call to have someone in Lanquin pick us up.  Giving directions to someone in the capital, however, about where we were in the rainforest, proved a bit troublesome!  We waited at the rock for some time in case the hostel called us back, or rather Ina waited on the rock and I waited at the road, ready to hail the next truck.  The Guatemalteco man.generously offered to let us stay in his house with him and his wife and children if no one came to get us, as it wasn´t safe to walk the road at night.  He also decided that I would marry his 8 year old son, Freddy (good Guatemalan name).  We waited, and waited.  No one came.  We walk down the hill towards the man´s house.  No one came.  Finally, a truck for the hostel near to where we bought the chocolate (NOT where we were staying) picked us up, with the intention of going back a couple of km´s to semuc and then back to Lanquin.  I had half wished that no one would have come so that we could stay with the Guatemalan family, but I think my friend was quite happy to be going back.   I wish I had taken a picture of the man and his son...que amables.  After riding in the truck two minutes, we met another pickup who was heading directly to Lanquin, and we switched trucks.  Sitting in the front, we had good conversation with the driver.  He wants some day to build a hostel near Semuc and live there with his wife and son.  And asi (in this way), we returned to Lanquin and our hostel. 

We took hot showers (after a couple of minutes figuring out how on earth to turn on the water), ate good falafals sandwiches, and slept (with a blanket...thankfully they still had some in storage.)

We caught the shuttle the next morning to El Estor...(no problems :) with 3 German guys...We had met quite a few Germans.  It seemed to me that Germans were the only ones travelling, and I started to wonder why on earth I was learning Spanish (when obviously everyone spoke German).  The shuttle dropped us off at "Finca el paraiso", where we enjoyed gorgeous sulfur hotspring waterfalls.  It was possible to swim under the falling water and sit, or tred water under the rock in a small cave.  There were people there, but it wasn´t crowded - just nice.

From Finca el Paraiso, we caught the shuttle to the town of Rio Dulce, where we spent the night at a hostel called "El Perico", which was about a 10 minute boat ride from the town of Rio Dulce.  We had to steer through channels of water, lined with trees growing up out of the water.  Our hostel felt so secluded.  I know that Giligan lived on an island, but I was still reminded of him.  We arrived in the afternoon, so we had some time to kill.  They had some wooden, fiberglass covered "kayaks" which looked more like canoes.  I thought it was a brilliant idea to try them out.  Ina thought that maybe the little red rowboat would be a bit more stable so I grabbed my wooden paddle and walked around to the rock wall so that I could climb in.  I sat down on the wall.  I put one foot in - a bit tippy, but that was okay...next foot in.  The boat started to drift out a bit.  That is okay.  I am still undercontrol...not too worried, but my feet kept pushing the boat further....and further...and further.  My hands were still clenching the rock wall behind me. 

Ina is yelling, cuidado!  cuidado!  CUIDADO ERIN!  i wish that I could have seen my face.  I am sure that my eyes would have been huge, a mixture of laughter, adventurous uncertainty, fear, panic, realization of my own stupidity and upsurd situation - my eyebrows raised HIGH!  All of a sudden, my butt was in the water, and then my legs and chest, the wooden paddle FLYING from the boat, hitting me in the face - nose, more specifically.  Blood did not drain from my nose, but it was definitely bleeding!  MY FIRST NOSE BLEED :)  The bottom of that lagoon was definitely more weedy than I imagined, and lovely Ina helped me out.  (I think...I don't remember everything 100%).  So oops.  I definitely still had my passport on me, and some soggy money, but my passport still scans, and my stamps are all still there :)  My mother told me that when you get bucked off of a horse, you should get right back on.  Although a wetter version, I felt that the principle still applied.  Again, with Ina's help, I got into one of the canoes.  And tried to paddle around on my own, as Ina wasn't really into the whole boat thing by this point.  I definitely did NOT know how to steer, and I am pretty sure that the owner and his workers who were watching knew that.  I opted again for the small wooden paddle, like the locals use, instead of the kayak paddle.  Yeah, that would have been better.  oops.  So I made it maybe 25 meters, but with turns! 

One of the employees, and older garifuna man, then started calling out directions to me, and thanks to him and some CLBI canoeing memories, I made it back to the "docking area".  The first thing he told me, all in Spanish of course, was that I was in the kayak backwards.  Of course!  At these times, you just have to laugh at yourself (myself).  I was semi-thankful, however, that it was getting slightly dark, and that he couldn't see my sopping wet clothes.  I sat in the canoe for quite a while, and he told me that he would teach me how to canoe (he said that I was a fast learner!) and how to fish, but unfortunately, I was leaving the next day.  He kept asking me when I would come back, because he would remember me and would teach me then.  I really wish that I could give an answer, but I knew that once I left, I may never return, although I would love to.  He told me about his life, his family, and a bit about his work at the hostel.  It was so great to talk with him, and even more so in Spanish.  He told me that I wasn't really a Gringo, or maybe just half, because I talked in Spanish and was interested in learning about the culture.  We never really have a break from influencing or being influenced by others, being in interaction, creating impressions on others (not that we should be worried about it, but sometimes I forget that my actions have implications and consequences).  (and in this way, it was interesting, and kind of too bad, to hear his perspective about Gringos.)  There was a laundry service, way out there in the jungle (as well as internet.  how it is possible, I do not know!!!), so I paid the 40Q (eek...6 whole dollars!) to wash my very dirty clothes...because I was only travelling with 1 pair  of pants, and all my shirts were basically already dirty.  I went to bed early, under my mosquito net, in the loft above the dining lounge area.  The roof was straw-leaf thatched roof, and our room had two open-air, glassfree windows with a view of the lagoon.  Because I went to bed so early, I woke up several times in the night, but around 5:00, I heard scratching, and gnawing, and chewing, and scurrying.  Shucks, an animal.  I stayed curled up under my mosquito net and tried to sleep again, but every time I had convinced myself that it was my imagination, it would move again.  Around 5:45 I decided to go sleep (or rather enjoy the early morning light because I could not sleep) in one of the hammocks in the dining area, leaving my things to the mercy of "the animal".  Later, when it was light, and the others in the loft were up, I discovered that I had forgotton a bag of peanuts from La Democracia in my bag...oops.  So much for no food.  At least my sweater and books were good!  He can have the peanuts! 

After saying goodbye to my Garifuna friend,  Ina and I took the lancha (boat) to Livingston.  Livingston is only accessible by water.  The ride-tour on the river of Rio Dulce to Livingston lasted about 2 hours, and we saw Castillo San Felipe, which we didn´t tour (but talking with some others, I guess it is worth the visit if you are in the area!)  I didn´t catch the whole story, but I wonder if the Spanish had boats in Lago Izabal, and the castle, which is the separating landmark between Lago Izabal and Rio Dulce, was built to protect the Spanish from British pirates.  We also saw the "island of birds", which was FULL of cormorants, and beautiful, white pelican-stork like birds (I obviously do not know what they are called).  We also saw a couple of huge iguanas with orange-striped spines, and a turtle.  A little down the river, our boatman floated us through a sea of lily-pads.  It was very tranquil...almost like I might meet Thumbelina.  Then, all of a sudden, children in home-made canoes swarmed our boat and tried with all their might to sell us their turtle shells and wooden necklaces. The older girls (still under 10?) seemed to be semi-coaching the younger ones how to barter.  As our boat started to leave, the children noticed another one coming in, and in almost a panic, started yelling and paddling as fast as they could towards it.  They are so stressed to sell their things.  .  I don´t really know the story, but for me their need to make money and sell their things seemed so raw - so real...almost desperate, and still I don´t know if it is good to buy from them, the children, not that you can buy from EVERY person, or you would be very broke and with a lot of luggage.

We continued on, passing through the beautiful, green, bird-sanctuary gorges of Rio Dulce until we hit the more open waters of the Carribean, and the shores of Livingston, where several garifuna guys were waiting for our boat at the dock (I think so that they could get the commission off of bringing us to a hotel).  We did find our hotel.  I ate something and we heading off to find the Carribean beach.  Unfortunately...it doesn't exist.  We walked and walked, and asked for directions, but I don't think that they have one.  We did find vultures, fighting chickens, and oranges though!  We met a garifuna man on the way back to our hostel.  I asked what we should see in Livingston, and he, in English, told us that we should go past the mainstreet, and the tourist shops to see the REAL Livingston.  We ended up walking back to the docks and checking out the Crocodile pit.  One of the girls went back to the dorm, but I ran into the same man, and we started talking, mostly about racism against the Garifunas, and how they can't find work in their own town. 

He then ended up taking us on a tour to visit the town as most tourists do not see.  We met his mother (I think), and walked the streets and pathways in between houses.  I am not sure if we were wise in doing this, but it really was wonderful to escape the tourism, for just a bit.  He told us about some tourists, whom he took for another tour.  When he invited them to enter his house, to open the screen door, to meet his family, they literally ran away.  He told us to look at the garifuna people, down at the dock.  "Do they look dangerous?" he asked us.  Really, they were sitting around, talking and joking, very relaxed.  No, they did not look dangerous, not that that means that it is safe to walk around town, but it is an interesting perspective, no?  If we took a cut-out of life in Edmonton, or even in Tofield, what would people see...what would they say about the people, their lifestyle.  I am assuming that their view of us would be that of busyness, if not stress.  It was just interesting to actually stop, and look at the people. 

The next day, we hired a boat and headed out to a beach on the Caribbean, which didn't really turn out to be much of a beach sadly, but the water was warm, clear, calm, and the bottom was soft sand after getting past the sharp rocks near the "beach".  On the way back to Livingston we stopped by "Siete Altares" - a series of "waterfalls" and pools, the last of which was one of the filming locations for the original Tarzan!  There was a small cliff and a deep pool.  One lady was so cute.  She climbed up the cliff, but took several minutes to jump...on my way up, some Guatemaltecos asked where I was from and were very encouraging.  My second jump, they all starting chanting "Canada!  Canada!"  I thought that was fun. 

We needed to get back to the boat so that we could catch the afternoon boat to Livingston, however, so we didn't have time to stick around.  Thankfully, we did catch the boat from Livingston, and, still in our bathingsuits, made it back to Rio Dulce by 4:00, 30 minutes to spare before catching the 3:00 bus to Flores ;) 

In Flores, we stayed at a hostel that was FULL!  We had to stay in the delux dorm, which had it's own bathroom!  It was fun that there were so many people, if not a bit strange feeling as the other places we had been were quite empty.  I decided to catch the 4:00 bus to Tikal, a huge site of ancient Mayan ruins.  It wasn't time enough to see the sunrise, as the park didn't open until 6 am, but it was nice to get their early - morning light, less people, less heat.  Ina was going to come at 10:00 - more time to sleep!  That way she could also book our night bus tickets back to Guatemala city.  I feel terrible.  We didn't think about money; at least I didn't.  Ina bought the bus tickets, bought her shuttle ticket, and then was going to get money from me at the park, but the shuttle attendant wanted the park entrance fee right away, so Ina couldn't go.  AGHHH. 

Tikal was beautiful though.  I took a tour in Spanish, so I think that I missed a lot of information, but it was fun.  There were about 35 people in the English group, and there were 7 of us in our group.  Our guide was really good, and did great howler monkey impressions!  I would like to take the tour again, so I could actually get some facts, because there are SO many!!!  The views from the temples were beautiful...Guatemalan jungle, and more jungle.  It is so wild.  I would not like to live with the tarantulas.     It is incredible how their city still stands, and to think of how they lived so long ago, but really their ancestors still live today. 

Ina and I did end up taking the night bus to Guatemala City that night.  Then we headed to Antigua were we met up with Ryan, our friend from ICA, and Marvin, who hiked Santa Maria with us.  It was SO good to see them again!  We also ended up running into some other friends from ICA randomly who had left several weeks earlier.  so great! 

Ina and Ryan left the next day, so I wandered town a bit, visited church ruins (which are all over town, it is wonderful!), took pictures, talked with people in the park, hiked with a tour the volcano pacaya from which we saw the distant eruption of the volcano Fuego, as well as great views of Acatenango y Agua. 

Pacaya is technically still active as well; there was a huge, devestating eruption in May which destroyed homes and crops.  (The crops that grow now will be wonderful though, because of the volcanic sand).  Because of the instability of the summit, we were not allowed to climb that far, but it was still wild the waves of hot wind, and the heat that you could feel when touching certain parts of the lava rock ground.  Our guide put some grass on a stick and held it in a hole.  After 15 seconds or so, it started to smoke, and shortly after it burst into flame!

The next morning I went to the artisan's market, and then caught a bus back to Guate, where I stayed the night and then caught my flight to San Jose, Costa Rica!  Where I am now, enjoying VERY MUCH my time with my cousin Angela and her family!  I am so blessed to be here!