More Volcanoes

Our big excitement this week was the weaving class that I took. While I was weaving Ryan would work on homework and play with the kids that live at the cooperative. They all loved it. In fact, Kevin (age 6?) has adopted Ryan as his compañero and insists that they do their homework en serio. As if that were not fun enough, Ryan got to create a music video of all the weaving steps for your enjoyment. (Ryan: Yes - be sure to check out the video at the bottom of the post here. It should give you an idea what it’s like to make a scarf here. Enjoy!)

This Saturday we got up nice and early to go to the Laguna Chicabal . It was a hike up to the top of an old volcano that has since been filled by the lagoon. From the top we could see 5 different volcanoes. We had breakfast up there in hopes that Volcano Santiaguito would erupt for us. Ryan told everyone that if they would just think hard enough that it would happen. He was rewarded for his efforts with three eruptions and became known as el hombre del pensamiento poderoso- the man with the powerful thought. After the eruptions we descended over 600 stairs to the Laguna to find Hannah and Craig had come in to visit us.

We tried some street food this week! For only 5 Quetzales ($0.75) you can enjoy a hotdog with ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise and green hot sauce. If that weren’t enough, you get a free 3 ounce cup of orange soda to go with it. I have to admit that they aren’t nearly as exciting as Brazilian hot dogs, (or that nasty pani puri in India) but I think the fact that they’re street food adds an edge.

We went to the movies this week. We considered it a part of our Spanish training as it was the movie “Game Plan” dubbed into Spanish. We arrived 3 minutes before it started and we were the only people there. By the end it was half full, and it was the back half. I think they fill up the seats from the back. The theatre was really nice and everything was going fine, until halfway through when all the lights suddenly came on and the movie slowed to a stop. Ryan and I looked around to see if there was some kind of emergency and we needed to evacuate, but only a few people were leaving quickly with wads of money. That was when we realized it was intermission and time to buy nachos.

Keeping warm

Michelle: This weekend headed for some sun at the beach by way of some Mayan and Olmec ruins. These ruins (Abaj Tikalik) had the best kept grounds that I have ever seen around ruins. A guide took us around for free and explained what we were looking at, which turned out to be essential because a lot of the ruins are still under excavation. I have decided that being an anthropologist is for people who like 3D puzzles. First they have to uncover all the rocks, then they number them and then they put them in the correct place. I don't have enough patience at all for that kind of thing. There was also a little zoo at the ruins full of fun animals. There was one naughty spider monkey that tried to steal my camera case. Lucky for me it was wrapped around my neck and I was outside the cage so I could back up.

After the seeing the ruins we caught anther bus down to the beach (Camperico) on Guatemala's Pacific coast and enjoyed lunch with a great view. My favorite part of the beach was looking for seashells; there were all sorts of different types to enjoy. We also learned an important lesson while we were in Camparico: don't leave any food out in your hotel room that can be sniffed out by ants (we had an invasion). By chance our randomly chosen hotel was run by a member of the church so we had really good directions on how to get to the chapel on Sunday. Everyone in the little branch was so friendly, they had some lovely fans in the to keep us cool, and a nice member even gave us a ride half way back to Xela.

For a good time, here is a picture of the dog that we have to walk past everyday to get out of the house. It's a crazy dog. I think that it sniffed glue as a puppy. Be sure and click on the pictures to see more in this week's album, including a few sights here in Guaemala that have made us miss of India.

Lago de Atitlan

Michelle: Imagine that you could go on a 15 minute roller coaster ride for only 30 cents with 70 of your closest friends while listening to ¨Staying Alive¨and you will begin to understand what fun we had this weekend. This thrill ride is really only the drive up and down the mountain between Panajachel and Solola that we took this weekend in a local bus (aka Chicken Bus). It's not a trip for the faint of heart. There is a huge drop off of one side from which no one would survive a fall and the bus drivers take the curves with what appears to be reckless abandon. It was one of the most exciting rides of my life. I had to keep reminding myself that these drivers take this route 10 times a day and they were still alive.

Ryan: My favorite part was flying down the mountain, feeling the pull side to side as the driver raced through the curves, and then hearing him step on the gas instead of the brakes to give us even more speed for the next curve - incredible!

Michelle: We were in Panajachel this weekend with a group from school to visit Lago de Atitlan, what some consider to be the most beautiful lake/place on earth. You can decide, we maxed out our camera trying to capture the views. We took a ferry from town to town comparing the tourist traps with towns based on fishing or other resources. In Santa Catarina a woman volunteered to dress me up Mayan style- I felt like Rigoberta Menchu. We stayed in Panacachel Saturday night and the next day we seperated from the group to go to church. I'm so happy that we can go to church no matter where we are and they teach the same things. In this case the only thing that changed were the clothes the women wore. I would say that 90% of the women were in traditional Mayan clothing as opposed to the ward we went to last week in Xela where everyone wore Western clothes.

Ryan: Earlier this week I visited a home-based chocolate factory one afternoon while Michelle was taking her spanish class. An old Mayan woman who learned chocolate making from her parents and grandparents showed us all the steps in the process from drying the cocoa beans to forming the finished chocolate bars. I felt bad that Michelle missed it, so I bought her a whole pound of the homemade chocolate. Funny thing though, she doesn't seem to like Guatemalan chocolate so much and now I'm stuck eating it all myself.

Michelle: Very suspicious, Ryan. In case anyone wondered, it's still incredibly cold here. We have invested in more clothing and I have developed all sorts of coping mechanisms to deal with the cold classrooms and cold houses. I just have to accept that I am going to have frozen feet for six hours a day. You can be sure we have also lost all fashion sense and pile on all the cloths we can. You do what you have to.

Welcome to Guatemala

Michelle: On Thursday our great Guatemala Adventure began in Guatemala City. We stayed downtown overnight because we had missed all the buses to Xela for the day.

Ryan: Hold on – let me show a map to those who missed their Guatemalan geography class. There you see the capital, Guatemala City, in the middle of the country and up in the mountains that run right through Guatemala from Mexico in the west to Honduras in the east. You can also see Quetzaltenango up In the mountains, west of Guatemala City. The Mayan name for Quetzaltenango is Xela (Shay-la), and that’s what everybody calls it here. We heard that Antigua has a richer history and more Spanish schools than Xela, but we decided to come here because we also head Xela is not yet completely overrun by visiting college students.

Michelle: To keep ourselves warm that night in Guatemala City we went to The Bee Movie. On Friday we left bright and early for Xela on the first class bus, which would be a little bit lower than the Greyhound. The main drawback being no bathroom in the back and no stops for bathroom breaks. They were all business and we made it up the mountains in 5 hours. The scenery was magnificent. I think that we had a view of at least one volcano at all times, which reminds me, on Friday night we felt a tremor. I thought that it was just Ryan shaking the bed, but when he admitted that he wasn’t doing anything, we ran for the doorframe just like in the movies. Luckily it wasn’t very big and we are alive and well.

Ryan: We felt another shorter tremor during Sunday School, no sleeping during that class! If someone wants to do a cool little project for me, you could go into your Google Earth program and find out what those tremors registered on the Richter Scale. I never tried it myself, but I think Google Earth has “Seismic Activity” as one of the fun options you can choose and play with. If it helps, the coordinates for Xela (Quetzaltenango) are Latitude: 14° 49' 60 N, Longitude: 91° 31' 0 W. We felt the tremors at about 8pm Central US time on Jan 4, and about 11am on Jan 6. The two volcanoes just to the south of Xela are called Santa Maria and Santiaguito. Thanks.

Michelle: Xela is a cute little town, even though it is the second largest in Guatemala. After we checked into the hotel we went Spanish School shopping. We walked around the city to our favorite schools to check them out. We decided on I.C.A. which has a website if you want to check it out. We did some wheeling and dealing so that I could only take two hours of lessons, but still have access to a desk to write my dissertation while Ryan is in class for five hours. Yesterday we had a class trip to San Andres Xecul which sports the most psychedelic Catholic Church that I have ever seen. We got to see a Mayan couple just married come out and enjoy the very loud firecrackers they set off. We also got to see some Mayan ceremonial grounds that are still in use right next to a small Catholic church. This makes it very convenient for people to hit both gods at one time when they are in need. Then we learned how they dye the string for their weaving. It was a really great time and Ryan was talking Spanish like no one’s business to our fellow classmates who are from Holland, Russia, France and the US. In the afternoon we went to the “old, dirty market” by the bus stop. What a treasure! It was kind of like the market in Masaya, Nicaragua, but not as big. There was a part that the US Health Department would close down in a heartbeat, something about every other table of cooked food for eating and then butchers with their raw goods out for sale. That has gastrointestinal problems written all over it.

Snakes, Christmas and Delhi

We made it back to Ohio this week, but we still have some fun pictures and stories to share from India before the trip feels complete. On one of my days off, Michelle and I visited the Pune Snake Park and saw lots of exotic snakes, a white tiger, and some gharials. The most popular attraction was the cobra pit where the cobras constantly provoked fights with each other for the sunny spots in the pit. They would arch their heads up high, flared their hoods, hiss and then try and strike one another - what a show! That same day we also visited a restored palace where Gandhi was held as a prisoner during the years he was fighting for an independent India. The palace and gardens were very peaceful and calm, in stark contrast from everything else in busy Pune. Click on the picture of Michelle enforcing the rules to see pictures of all the snakes and click on Gandhi to see more of the palace.

On Chrismas day we celebrated with a nearly-typical American dinner complete with pumpkin pie and sugar cookies. The next day we flew up to India's capital, New Delhi, where we toured tombs, forts, temples, and survived a long drive to Agra where we saw one of the seven wonders of the world: the Taj Mahal. It really is a magnificent sight to see, but keep your nose as far away as possible - 40,000 visitors, mostly young indian boy scouts, all with their shoes off makes quite an aroma.