Posts Tagged ‘tikal’

Monkeys, Kids and Laughter

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

I´ve realized over the past few days that I´ve really adjusted to life here. It´s much slower, much simpler and I can´t believe that I haven´t checked my cell phone in a week!  These past few days the heat has been really intense along with the humidity where you have a constant layer of sweat. For a few nights there has been just as extreme storms with the rain falling from the sky and a concert of lightning and thunder that goes on for hours.

Two days ago I went went with a group of about 16 teens and their younger brothers and sisters to the Cerro Cahui Biotopo. It´s a beautiful hike where we saw monkeys who came closer when we stopped to take a look at them. It was a family of about 6 of them. Although I´ve been warned that they sometimes throw things at you or try to take things off of you like your sunglasses, they just dangled from the trees and appeared just as curious about us as we were with them.

After hiking the Temples in Tikal the day before, I was a bit exhausted hiking up this big hill in the Biotopo but having 16 kids all wanting to go further to reach the lookouts, once we got there, I understood. The view was incredible and from a distance I could see the dock where I spend a lot of time resting and swimming in the lake. This lake is one of the things I am going to miss most. It´s stunning natural beauty, the gift it gives me of cooling off from the heat, and the many friends I´ve met who come for the same reason.

That night I brought a bag of gluten free pasta that I brought from home  to the Italian restaurant next door for Angelo to prepare with one of his yummy sauces served with some wine from Chile. I´m trying to stick to my gluten free diet here as much as possible but it´s difficult. Over the past few days I´ve also eaten more vegetables compared to the first few. We played a game with a little girl there, taking turns hiding her stuffed animal dog, closing our eyes and telling each other if you are hot or cold, of course in Spanish. She was pretty darn smart as to where she was hiding it!

Everyday I´m getting up around 7am which is so unusual for me, especially because that means that it´s 6am at home. Usually I get up around 8am and I go to bed anywhere between 11pm to midnight. Here it´s been between 9-10pm.  I´m wondering if I´ll be able to keep that up at home…

Yesterday I spent the morning at the dock swimming, reading my book and having lunch with Allison.  We prepared a fruit salad that included papaya, apples, bananas and strawberries sprinkled with fresh lime from trees on the hotel grounds. I then went and met Dy (Dyana) from Australia who is here volunteering.  In the morning she assists the town doctor and then everyday at 2pm she goes to the kids center and does arts and crafts with the little ones. I brought them some construction paper, some glue and some Play Doh to contribute to their supplies. It was fun watching their creativity come alive with the masks they made, one of the many creative ideas that Dy has come up with to keep them entertained.

After visiting with the kids I walked down the hill and went with Allison to go see Estella and her beautiful 5 year old, Esmerelda. We all went swimming and as dinnertime came upon us we had fish dinner prepared for us by Estella served with pasta lefovers and salad. There was a family there visiting from Guatemala city. Their little one, also 5 and also named Esmerelda, was such a comedienne.  She kept wanting to tell me joke after joke which of course was difficult for me to understand but with further explanation from her parents, I got it and was able to join them in laughter.

This morning I was supposed to meet with the teens again to learn more English. After waiting for a half hour which is normal here, unfortunately no one showed. I don´t think it´s because of a language barrier, I know the days of the week pretty well. Is it lack of motivation? Did their families say they have to stay home and do their daily life chores? Rather than pondering about it further, I decided to go to the internet cafe, do another blog entry and will enjoy the rest of my day. I do hope I get to see them again.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Coaching Abroad | No Comments »

Tikal and Primitive Life

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

I´m actually becoming a morning person here due to the sun rising so early and the sound of the birds or chickens as my wake up alarm. Although yesterday I did set my alarm to make sure I was packed and ready. I was picked up by our friend Erwin here who owns a hostel named Sak Luk. He then took me to the beach in El Remate where the Triathlon Allison was participating in was starting. We cheered her on as they sounded the start and waited for her to make it back out of the water and on to her bike. Once on her bike, we caught up with her and rode along side her the whole way to Tikal which was about 20 miles.

Once in Tikal, she put on her running shoes and began her run around the ruins. While she was doing her run, I was guided to the finish line by our friend Estella and her beautiful little girl Esmerelda, to wait for her. It was in the middle of the Central Plaza where Temple 1 and 2 are in Tikal. After climbing to the top of Temple 2, I got a true sense of the magestry of the Ancient Mayans and the beauty of the land where they lived and highly respected. After also climbing Temples 4 & 5 and hiking around Tikal park, I definitely got my taste of the jungle.

The variety of the trees and plants, let alone the insects and birds we saw were incredible. The sounds of the jungle are something I will never forget. I truly wish I had a video camera just to record the sounds. Those of the Howler monkeys which sound like a lion was so strong that we could hear their echo a few miles away. I did catch a glimpse of 2 but they were deep within a few trees and moved along before I could snap a photo.

After hours of walking through this historical place we then waited for a bus that would take us to a very remote and primitive town called Uaxactun. The only running water or electricity is from a generator. We stayed at a hostel that was owned by a friend of Erwin´s. We had to be careful where we walked and use our flashlights since there were toads hopping around. We were made a meal of black beans, tortillas, rice and scrambled eggs with onions and red pepper. This is the primary diet most remote and poor Guatemalans eat.

After being exhausted we all laid our heads down for attempted sleep. I think I did manage to catch a few hours but didn´t sleep too well due to the intense heat and humidity, the absolute blackness of the night and the sounds of the crickets and bugs buzzing against the screens above our head. Once the chickens and the roosters started welcoming the morning, we quickly gathered up our things and walked about 800 ft. to another ruin. We watched the sun make it´s way into the day and had a moment of silence while listening to the birds that Erwin said were saying hello to us.

We then caught the bus which was a very bumpy ride once again from Uaxactun, back through Tikal and ultimately back to El Remate. When back at my bungalow, I put my bathing suit on, grabbed a quick bite of the carrot cake I had bought the other day, grabbed an apple and headed down to the dock for a rest and a swim. The cool water was very soothing and today I noticed all the little fish that hung around even though I was amongst them.

After mingling with some local El Remate folks I headed back to my room and took a very needed nap. A shower followed and some relaxed conversation before Allison and I were picked up by Erwin who has been incredibly generous with being our guide, our taxi and our friend. We are now in Flores and Santa Elena for the afternoon. For the first time there was a heavy rain today and a few degrees of cooler temperatures until it burned off.

The rest of the afternoon will be shopping around, dinner somewhere here in Flores, going to the Maxi Supermercado to get some groceries, and back to El Remate. Tomorrow I will have a full morning meeting with the teens to hopefully get a closer look at some Howler monkeys and the possbility of some Spider monkey as well during our hike to Cerro Cahui Biotopo. After….could be another swim, more relaxation, or who knows…another venture out.

The more I´m here and the more I get to know the local people, the more I learn about the political corruption. Although the land is rich with resources, most people are poor. Similar to the US but more so, there is a big divide between the rich and the poor, the middle class is very small and the lines are grey. Overall, the beauty wins and is what I do my best to soak in everyday.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Coaching Abroad | No Comments »

My first few days in El Remate

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

Prior to arriving in El Remate, my journey consisted of waking up at 4am to head over to my sister´s to leave my car where a cab picked me. The cabbie was new at his job and started driving a cab after getting laid off from his IT consulting job. I coached him a little bit on how to use this new temporary job as an opportunity to meet new people where he came up with the idea of having business cards and resumes available to handout to potential employers, since you never know who you will meet.

My flight left at 8am and had the pleasure of meeting an English teacher and his wife from San Diego. They were traveling around Guatemala mostly without knowing where they were going to stay. I´m loving this idea of just rolling with it and seeing where things take you. When I arrived in San Salvador I had plenty of time to think about my journey ahead with a 6 hour layover. I had a subway sandwich and watched some kids play a wii that was in the middle of the airport. Brilliant marketing. I slept a little and finally stepped foot on the flight to Guatemala City. When I arrived the driver from Patricia´s Hotel picked me up and thankfully he spoke great English since I was really tired. I was so happy to lay down my head and just sleep.

I was then awoken at 5am to catch my flight to Flores where I was picked up by my friend Allison and her El Remate friend Erwin. They took me to the bank where I got some Quetzales for my entire visit. We also went to the supermarket which felt like a big Walmart to get some food. The drive to El Remate was so beautiful and so green. It´s very warm here and very humid of course being that it´s pretty much the jungle. We also stopped and got some fresh cut coconut and drank the juice right out of the shell. When I arrived at my bungalow and settled in, I came down to have snack of fresh cut coconut.

The rest of my day involved, a swim in the lake where I will be spending a lot of time cooling off and swimming, a siesta and then an incredible welcome dinner for me and a reunion dinner for Allison with the women she helped planting vegetable gardens. There were more than 40 women there with their kids and they picked fresh flowers that were placed in jars on the table and we dined with new friends. When going back to the bungalow before crawling into bed, we took a night swim and chatted with Argelio who takes care of the grounds at the hotel.

I´m of course getting lots of practice at Spanish and it´s humbling in regards to how to communicate with these beautiful local people. We all want to learn just the same. I spent yesterday walking around town seeing all the gardens Allison planted 2 months ago with the two groups of women she worked with, and how much they´ve grown. Who knew that cucumbers grew so fast! There are beets, carrots, radishes, lettuce, spinach, sweet peppers, etc.

Last night, Allison and I had a caprese salad at an Italian restaurant which is right next door to my bungalow. The owner and chef who makes fresh homemade pastas and pizzas is direct from Italy. We had some wine and dessert of cooked pears, ice cream and chocolate sauce. I should also note that I am definitely having my fair share of homemade tortillas, probably too much!

In the evening we were then picked up by Erwin and had a fun time at a hotel owned by Estella and her husband Amilcar. We were entertained with singing, a strumming guitar and some tequila! It was a fun surprise to recognize some of the songs from Buena Vista Social Club. In conversation it came out that although Estella is originally from Guatemala, before marrying Amilcar she lived in LA for 10 years just along mid Wilshire.  Also along or the concert were some other travelers from the states and a volunteer from Australia, whom I´ll be working with doing arts and crafts with the local kids.

Today I was very nervous to meet with some teens but overall it went well and thank god I had Allison there to help out with translations and ideas to get them talking. They were pretty shy at first. They asked me a few questions about myself and the rest of the time I taught them English. We also got to talk about what their dreams are for future professions. Looks like we´ll have some really great lawyers, doctors, teachers, a judge, a car mechanic and a secretary contributing themselves in the future. They were ages 12-20.

As I was sitting here at this internet cafe, a man who moved here from the US and opened up a bakery came in with a basket full of fresh baked breads and muffins. He sold us some carrot cake and banana bread. I´m already digging in the bag, where the loaf is still hot and it´s so yummy! I need to save some room since I´ll be having lunch somewhere in town. After we will have a swim in the lake and tonight a nice rest before I support Allison in the El Remate triathlon tomorrow. In the morning I´ll be traveling with Erwin to Tikal where I´ll be spending the day getting familiar with the cherished ancient Mayan pyramids and ruins.

It´s incredible coming to a place where the US media talks so negatively about it, instilling a lot of fear. I´m sure there has to be some good reason for all of it, and maybe it´s not for everyone. The hardest thing for me is seeing the random dogs walking around town that are mostly scavengers with most of their bones clearly visible.

It´s also interesting to see the random horses, pigs and chickens just going where they choose. Thankfully I´ve come and am having a different experience than one that would be feared. Don´t get me wrong, I´ve run into some unwelcome friends such as very big spiders and roaches, but if that´s the worst of it, so be it.

I´ll be back in a few days…

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Coaching Abroad | Comments Off