Land of Mountains and Volcanoes

So I have been in Guatemala for a week and a half or so right now. As I said in my last post I went straight to bed the first night that I was here however the second night turned out to be much more interesting. So it was St Patricks day or at least the day to celebrate it here in Guatemala and I figured that I should go out and see what Xela had to offer in the way of night life. Some of the other folks staying in the hostel that I was in were heading to a little bar to start the night and invited me to go along. There we met a couple of their Guatemalan friends. We had a couple of beers there before heading up to the disco upstairs. It was quite interesting. Lots of music although no dancing for me. The place also had a ping pong and pool table. I played ping pong a bit against the owner of the bar downstairs who had gotten bored and come up to play. He was pretty good but I managed to beat him once. Then my new Guatemalan friends said that we should go and check out this other party that was being held by a organization that is sort of a clearing house for volunteer activities in Guatemala and specifically Xela. So we headed over there where the music was still blasting. We walked in to a Talib Kweli song so I figured it must be an ok place. The party was still raving at 4 or so when I decided to head home. All in all a good first night out in Xela.
That Monday I started Spanish school at Proyecto Linguistico Quetzaltenango (see right for the website). It is a really good school from the word on the street. The teachers are paid a little more here so there is some competition to get in. I could tell right away that it was a little more professional than the school that I had been going to in Nicaragua. It also has a very left leaning political bent to it. Many of the teachers were involved in the Guerrilla movement. Just yesterday there was a talk by one of the teachers who had been one of the main voices on the underground Guerrilla radio. It was really interesting. They have a lot of activities, conferences on different subjects, documentaries and trips to nearby places. Definitely enough to fill up the week. I think that it will take me a bit to get into some rhythm of things.
I am also living with a family. They are really nice. There is a mother and two sons one of whom has a wife and 7 month old baby all of whom live in the house. Then there is one other son who comes over a lot but lives somewhere else. Just today I held the baby for the first time. It was fun. He seems to like me because even when he is whining a little when he looks at me he gets a big grin on his face.
This past weekend we took a trip to the top of the tallest volcano in Central America. It is 4200 meters tall or so. It was really nice we started out early Saturday morning and hiked most of the day until we were about an hour from the top. Then we stopped and made camp. We had to carry all our own food and water but the school provided tents. We made a fire and I got to try my hand at cutting up large branches with a machete. It is pretty difficult and we were definitely not as good as the locals but we did manage to get some chopped. I never knew that Central America could be so cold. I mean Xela is cold at night or when the sun is not around. It probably gets down into the 40s or so but on top of this volcano with the wind it got below freezing and even with all of the warm clothes that I have here plus my sleeping bag it was damn cold. Of course in the morning when we noticed that our tent only had mesh walls that probably figured into the problem. We got up on Sunday at four in the morning to hike the rest of the way to the top. There we watched the sun rise over the mountains of Guatemala. It was pretty amazing and after I got warm I felt that it was worth it however even the beauty of the sunrise was hard dampened a little because of the freezing wind. But I survived and the hike down was pretty easy.
Now it is on with week two. Here at this school we switch teachers every week in order to get a different style of teaching and learn different accents. I think that it is a good method. I have liked the two teachers that I have had so far. This weekend there is a trip to the beach which I think I will go on. Then the local soccer team is going to play so I think that some students will try and go to that.

Goodbye Nicaragua, Hello Guatemala

The other title for this post could be "Fiery Entrances and Long Bus Rides." with the subtitle "Taxis and Addresses in Nicaragua."
So I finished up my last couple of days at language school in Nicaragua. I got a 95% on my last test and even got a diploma. I took one last look at the ocean said goodbye to my friends and headed for Managua. I took the direct bus even though it was probably a little slower just to make things a little easier. And I got to Managua no problem. So than it was bargaining time. Taxis in Managua do not have meters nor are they zoned. They go on the name a price system. So usually the taxi driver will quote you something and you will decided whether you like the price or not and either try to bargain, get in or walk away. So the first taxi driver I asked quoted me 80 which was to high so I walked away. The second driver said 120. I just laughed and the third quoted me 70 an I bargained to 60 (wish is about $3). It was probably still a little expensive and cost more than my 4 hour bus ride but it was night and I had my big bag so I did not feel like trying that hard. So off we went. Oh yeah and taxis pick up other passengers along the way if they are going the same direction you are. So we picked up two other folks and were doing all right until the car stalled on a big hill. Have no fear the driver backed into a driveway popped the hood and started fiddling. I sat tight and took my cue from the other passengers who seemed to be ready to wait it out. After not to long the driver said we were ready to go. The car still would not start but after a tricky move that involved driving backwards down the hill for a second to get the car started than backing into the driveway and then taking off. So we headed off again and after dropping the other two passengers were on our way to Emily´s house.
So a bit about addresses in Nicaragua. Although there are some houses that have numbers they do not usually mean much and most of the streets are not named anyway. So people get around by using "well known" land marks. Things like large intersections, stoplights near well known places, big trees or where things used to be before the earth quake in 72. Yeah that's right in order to know address in Guatemala not only do you need to know every major intersections building and restaurant in town you also need to know where things were 30 years ago. Oh yeah and to make things better the cardinal directions are not used that often either. Two blocks up means two blocks east because that is where the sun comes up, like wise down is west, towards the lake is north because the lake is north and towards the mountains is south. So you can imagine that people might get a little confused like my driver who confused the entrance to the hospital with the gate of the hospital and tried to drop me off 8 blocks from where I wanted to be. Luckily I had been there before so I told him no and after a little discussion he realized his mistake. Picking up other passengers, having the taxi break down, or run out of gas are some what normal things however having the taxi catch on fire as you pull up to your destination is not. Just as we came to a stop in front of Emily´s house the engine caught fire. We both quickly hopped out of the car as the taxi driver yelled for someone to give him water. He did however run around the back and toss by bag out before opening the hood and dousing the engine with a hose and buckets of water that Emily´s neighbors were supplying him.
The rest of my stay in Managua was rather calm comparatively. We drank some. Danced some and I said goodbye to some friends. Than began the long bus rider to Guatemala. I got on the bus at 2:30 in the morning. Sort of a strange time for leaving but it meant that I got into Guatemala City by 4 PM or so. The other option was staying over night in San Salvador so I took the 2:30 bus. The bus was really nice and I was able to sleep some. The only not so great part was that we did not stop until 2 in the afternoon for food. Man was I glad I had some Ritz cheese crackers. But we made it and than I took a taxi to another bus station and made it to Xela by 10 or so. I was pretty exhausted so I went straight to bed. More on the adventures in Xela and my first week in Language school coming up.

Birthdays and Goodbyes

When you live in San Juan going to Managua for the weekend is considered crazy talk. However, it was my last chance to see Mark and Emily was going to be celebrating her birthday so I had good reasons to go. So I hoped on a bus and headed up to the city of heat and smog. When I got there Emily was in the middle of getting a manicure/pedicure that her friends had gotten her for her birthday. And not to long after I got there Lenin her room mate's boyfriend, got there and decided that we men could not be sitting around watching the women get pedicures and we headed out for some beers and pool. When we got back the party was getting started and soon there were a good number of people there. There was eating drinking dancing and a cake that one of Emily's co workers had dropped off just before the party got started. Soon it was time to head out for the bar where Lenin's band was playing. First we had to push one of the guest's cars to get it started and after they were about to give up and leave it we finally got it started. Luckily the bar was only a few blocks away from the bus station that Mark was to leave from. So he lugged his big bag and guitar to the bar with us. His bus left at 2:30 in the morning so we had to keep the party going until then. Not hard since there was good live music and than some salsa dancing. Quite quickly it was time for goodbyes as Mark headed off for long bus ride to Guatemala City and than on to Mexico City to catch his flight home. It was a bit sad to see him go but we had a good trip and know that there are other adventures awaiting us as we go our separate ways.

Spanish Language School in San Juan

Sorry I have been a bit lazy about putting up posts. So I have been in San Juan del Sur just over two weeks now. It has been really nice. After the first weekend I started going to Spanish school here in San Juan del Sur and living with a family here. It is similar to what I will be doing in Guatemala although there will not be a beach and ocean there. It was really fun. In the morning I had classes from 8-12. Here is a photo of me with my teacher Carolina. It was felt good to get back into learning Spanish in a formal setting. It has been a while since I have taken any classes or had to do home work but if felt good.
The first week I paid to do the school activities in the afternoon. We did things like walk to the top of the big hill looking down over the city as you can see on the left and had a dance class. It was nice and gave me some more time to practice my Spanish. They also took us to one of the beaches that are nicer than the beach at San Juan and most of them are totally undeveloped. The second week at my school there were not any other students who were paying for activities so I decided not to either. It would have been a bit boring by myself and plus that I way I had more time to laze in the hammocks at my house or explore the town or do whatever I felt like doing.
Almost every afternoon around 5:30 you could find me on the beach watching the sunset. This is one of the best ones although I have way to many pictures of beautiful sunsets on my camera. It seemed like every day was nicer than the last one. Sitting on the beach sometimes with a cold beer watching that sort of sunset is pretty hard to beat. Than it was off to the house for some dinner. The family I have been living with is really nice. They have had students staying with them for almost ten years. At least one or maybe two of their sons is married to someone who stayed with them.
They did host multiple students though. Which was great because I got to know some other students but also meant that I probably did not speak as much Spanish as I might had if I was the only one there. When I first got to the house there were 4 other students there. Rene from Australia, Stefan and Sarah from Austria (see photo), and Tony who is originally from Greece but has lived in New York for 30 years or so. So it was quite the mix of people there. It was nice hanging out in the evenings chatting or going to a bar for a rum and coke.

It has been really nice here. The pace of life is really relaxed and it is quite beautiful. But now it is time to move on. I will be heading to Guatemala for more Spanish language school and hopefully some volunteering. Stay tuned for Mark and my last adventure together. (It was about a week ago and pics of Emliy's birthday party.)

San Juan del Sur

San Juan del Sur is Nicaragua´s version of paradise. The town itself is nice but what is really amazing is the surrounding area with pristine beaches and minimal accommodations. Of course the pictures do not really do justice to what it was like to be there but they will give you some idea. First some background on how this trip came about. Halfway through when me and Mark were first planning our trip to Nicaragua we were not really thinking about going to San Juan del Sur. It is in the south and we were planning on just being in Managua and northern Nicaragua. At some point during our trip Sarah who is Mark´s girlfriend from Sweden bought a plane ticket to meet us in Nicaragua. So that meant that maybe we would do some more touristy things in Nicaragua. But I did not want to be the third wheel so I invited Emily, who is a friend of Mark and mine who is working in Nicaragua and needed a break from Managua. Then when we were in Managua I found out that Eric the guy who was here when I was volunteering here five years ago was here. He was supposed to leave Nicaragua the Thursday before we went to San Juan but after hearing us talk about the trip his friend Ana convinced that if she changed her ticket he should change his and we could all go to San Juan. So there ended up being 6 of us heading down there plus Eric and Ana had some friends who were there already.

Eric, Ana, Emily and I met at the bus station to head down to San Juan. Mark and Sarah were to meet us there. Eric and Ana´s friend had been staying at a small beach a little north of San Juan so we arranged to up there. We managed to get to San Juan and I picked out a language school to go to for the next week. Then we headed off in taxi to the beach. Lucky us we got the last hotel room on the beach as far as we could figure. The place was pretty rustic small rooms with a bathroom and a grill for cooking. The guys who took care of the place said they could lend us some pots and pans but we would have to find our own fire wood. First things first we headed to the store down road to grab some things that we forgot in San Juan. After some tense negotiations with the owner of the pulperia she decided to lest us take the five gallon water jug by putting a deposit of 8 dollars on it. Carrying it back was not much fun but collecting firewood along the way we felt like a normal Nicaraguan family out getting fuel for the evening meal. Dinner being set up we hit the beach and although the water was cold managed to get some good body surfing in before the sun went down.

Dinner consisted of friend potatoes onions peppers and eggs. We were pretty proud of ourselves for making a pretty decent dinner with out many implements. We even seasoned it with sea salt which worked pretty well. For breakfast we made a mango-pineapple-rum sauce and made french toast to put it on. Which turned out excellent as well. The picture is Eric and Emily cooking the French toast. That day we rented a boogie board and tried our hand at bogeying. When the sun got to hot we lounged in the hammocks or took naps. Our nights consisted of a fair amount of Flor de Cana (the local rum) and sing alongs with Mark playing the guitar. On Sunday we had egg in the hole for breakfast (and we even managed it with out the College Hill Cook Book). We got in one last swim before heading out. Most folks went to Rivas to head on to Managua, Ometepe, and other locations and I headed back to San Juan del Sur to meet my new host family and teacher and begin my new life as a Spanish student.