From My Carly
Hi everyone!! Just wanted to send an really long email about my trip and I will send the link to my photos for everyone to enjoy after this! I first have to say that I had a wonderful week last week and the best hostess a person could ask for even though she claims that we winged it!! I will do a play by play best I can :) Sorry it is long but sweet!!I flew in on Saturday afternoon and deboarded the plane. When I finally got my bag ( I waited for about 45 minutes and was extremely scared that it had not made it) I walked out of the "Most Modern Airport in Central America" to find Carin. There was a huge mob of Guatemalans all crowded behind a fence barrier but I had no problems finding Carin as she stands at least a foot above all of them. Another funny note about that was I really never thought that I would go to a country where I at 5"3.5 would tower over people. The guy who sat next to me on the plane was no kidding maybe 4 feet tall. Amazing:) So I found my girl and we had my first experience with Guatemalan transportation. I have to interject here that thank God Carin is fluent in Spanish...I would not have known what to do if she was not. So she negotiated our ride into a town called Antigua. Antigua is about 1 hour from Guatemala City (other wise known as "Guate") and it is a very charming cobblestone town nestled below a volcano. All the buildings are painted a different bright color form a border along the streets. So we drop off my very cumbersome bag and head to the favorite bar called Monolocco (Crazy Monkey). Mono is the only bar that has the NCAA package on Satellite so we were able to catch some of the games on Saturday. We then headed to a bar named Rickey's and had a few shots and Gallos (Guratemala Beer). I have to admit that travelling can wipe you out so I asked if we could crash early..which we did.
We then got up at 7:30 the next day and caught a shuttle mini bus to Montericco which is on the west coast. It was about a 2.5 hour ride and you could drastically feel the temperature change as we got closer. I have to say the driving habits of the Guatemalan people are not "the safest"...we had a pretty uneventful (really fast) ride until we got a bit closer to the coast and the wild pigs started appearing. Needless to say we all almost ate some ham when one of them ran out in front of us! This pig was huge so it would have definitely done some damage to the mini bus...but luckily it squealed and so did our breaks and we barely missed hitting it. Also there are no child safety seats so there was little boy in the front on his dad's lap who thought that this was the funniest thing ever. So we all had a good laugh!
We stayed at a place called Johnny's in Montericco that was beach front. It is made up of small cabanas with private pools and then one large cabana with a pool and several rooms...we stayed in the large cabana connected to the other rooms. I would be remiss if I didn't stop here and say how inexpensive this country is! A room on the beach was a whopping $8.44. The sand in Montericco is black due to all of the volcanos. I am not sure if you have ever walked on black sand but it is like walking on hot coals!! So Carin and I braved our swim suits and laid out on the mini coals. One of the things about Guatemalans is that there are very interested in "Gringos" or us white folks for you Southerners! So we had some very aggressive young men that started taking our picture on the beach...it is hard to stop them when you can't really touch any part of the sand!! So Carin and I decided that we are for sure on some internet site somewhere...probably MySpace!! That night we headed onto the main street and ate some, get this PIZZA!! Carin had heard that it was good and let me tell you it was good!! There is not much of a night life in Montericco so we laid in the hammocks on the beach and enjoyed the night...it was great!! While we were at Johnny's we ended up meeting 3 American girls on Spring break. They were very nice but so innocent and worried about the future. Oh to be back in college again!! They ended up taking our shuttle the next day as well.
So we went back to Antigua for a night because of the timing of the transportation. In Antigua I treated Carin to a steak dinner...you would have thought that I had bought her the world!! She has a very small budget to live off of (comparable to what an average Guatemalan makes) and this does not afford steaks so I was happy to treat!! I think that she talked about that more than anything this week!!
After Antigua we headed to Carin's house or site as she calls it (Nahuala)! I met her site mate Eric and several Guatemalans that she lives and works with! (Sorry I don't remember all of their names) I am so glad that I got to experience her town...walking down the street we were stopped by several people that know Carin by name. It was great to see that she has been welcomed and has become a member of this town. Carin's apartment is big by Guatemalan standards! She has two rooms to herself. We ended up making guacamole (this is the first time I have ever seen Carin fix any type of food..ever) and pasta for dinner. Then we watched movies all night! It was very relaxing and she actually had alot of movies I had never seen!!Bootleg of course!
From Nahuala we then went to Lake Atitlan. Let me interject how we got to the lake...I was on a "chicken bus" (converted school bus), a mini bus (or mini van), in the back of a pickup (sorry Mom) and on a TucTuc which is a covered motorcycle with a double back seat all before 11am!! It was a trip I tell you! Our first stop on the lake was at the "town with no name." (For security reasons I can not disclose the name of the town!) Here we experienced the backpackers way of life!! It was great! We rented kayaks and ended up going really far around the lake. It was here I was able to meet another one of Carin's good friends Olivia. This town has a secret pathway that leads to all the bars and restaurants. We found a great place that served humus and cheap beer! I was in heaven:) We moved eventually to a couple other bars and even played a round of darts with some new friends. I like the town with no name!
From there we moved to a private hotel (the most expensive one we stayed at $15) called Casa Del Mundo. This is owned by a man and a wife who spent 17 years building it. It juts off the side on a cliff and I am not sure how they built it so it was a marvel. Also a marvel was getting my bag up and down the side of this cliff. Not fun but we got it there some how!! We laid out next to the lake during the day and enjoyed a family style dinner with all of the guest in the hotel (only has 15 rooms) that night. We met a couple from outside of Yosemite Park and a girl that was our age and quit her job and was backpacking around Guate and Mexico. I have to say I was a bit envious of her. Also there were some other volunteers staying there. There are around 200 volunteers in Guatemala right now so they are rampant!! Ironically the 3 spring breakers we had traveled with before were staying there as well!
From Casa Del mundo we then moved to Panachel (all transportation once on the lake is by boat). Pana is where all the people go to sell their crafts. Handmade goods that really blow the mind. Negotiating is a sport in this town! So I was able to get lots of great gifts and had my very own Spanish speaking negotiator!! As a merchant or retailer I have to say that the things that Guatemalans are making by hand are amazing. Machinery will never be able to duplicate this art form.
The trip was now winding down and emotions were high. For those of you who don't know if Carin's cries then I cry and then she cries more...we are a mess. So we held back because we had one more night in Antigua. We took a Pullman bus back to Antigua. Another interesting challenge with transportation is that they are doing alot of road construction right now, not unlike America, but they completely shut down all lanes to do their work. So you could be sitting at any given spot for hours. Fortunately we were stopped frequently but not for more than 20 minutes or so.
Back in Antigua we did some shopping (for Jade which is only found in Asia and Guatemala) and hit some other of the funky stores in the town. Then we went to watch the Final 4 games at Monolocco...where I was able to meet more of Carin's friends. We drank quite a bit on my last night in town and we shared a delicious wrap sandwich. Up until this point the famous "stomach ache" had not affected me. But I ate the end of the wrap with the lettuce and boy oh boy did I feel the vengeance!! I have been sick before but I was up all night and had to fly home the next day...it was unlike any pain I have ever felt. Thankfully it happened on the last day because I am not sure I would have eaten anything at all if it had happened on the first!!! But enough about that...at Monolocco we hung out with two girls, Holly and Cecelia, fello volunteers!! They were great and it was so fun to hang out with them...they of course drilled me for current events (which Rachel would have been much better at) and welcomed me with open arms! We also got to meet some Guatemala boys that were the same age as us (ok maybe 24 or 25 but who is counting!) and I asked them a multitude of questions about their lives so it was neat to see how they have lived up until this point. Needless to say when I woke on Sunday morning I was not in the best of shape but I had to get back to America so the reality of getting home set in. Then the reality of leaving Carin set in and no sickness could out weigh that. I tried to be strong for her but I have to admit that I cried in the cab to the airport, and apparently she was crying at the hotel:(
C, I love you girl more than any Spanish or English words could ever say...I don't care what countries we are in, the bond that we share always picks up right where it left off with no space in between. You are my breath of fresh air and you are the strongest and bravest and most giving person I know. I know that I doubted your decision once and I now know 100% that you are in the right place at the right time and God is working through you. You are amazing and I love you! Hostess with the Mostess..thanks for unforgettable trip!
Carly
posted by Carin Robinson @ 2:43 PM
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