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Alyece says:
Hola! It's time for another blog. We left you last in Rio Dulce where we lounged river-side for a few days and mingled with the yatchies.




(The restaurant at our dockside hotel)

With the last minute decision to return to Antigua and do a few more Spanish lessons, Erin and I left Rio Dulce last Saturday on what was the most credible/legitimate bus transportation we have experienced yet. The busdriver and other employees were actually distinguishable from the rest of the random people on the bus, there appeared to be a transport code of safety posted at the front of the bus, and they only assigned one person to one seat. We arrived back in Antigua and set up camp at this funky little hotel in town (for $5/night) called "El Chillout" where we have been staying for the past week. And yes, it IS as hilarious as the name suggests. It's run by this rad man still living in his tree-hugging, free-loving hippie days. He sits at the little bar all day smoking weed, encouraging everyone to just "chill out," and playing a mixture of psychedelic music, 80's classics, and Spanish hits (the Spanish numbers are my favourite 'cause him and his buddies break out the moroccas for these).

The best part about this place is our hotel room is nothing short of part of the bar. Open the bedroom door and you are standing at the bar counter (as shown in the picture above, that black door on the right side is ours. Oh and yes, those ARE gaps in the roof). And these guys sure know how to party. They'll have the moroccas going until the wee hours of the morning, which makes a funny situation when you get up to pee in the middle of the night and have to excuse yourself through a crowd of people in your pajamas and are offered 3 beers before you can make it to the bathroom. And I still can't figure out the purpose of their breakfast menu because his cook often doesn't wake up until the PM, and this morning I was the only thing moving at 9 am and was answering their front door of the hotel for them. Pretty comical experience I must say.

Over the past week we've been hanging out a lot with our Guatemalan buddies. On the first night back in Antigua, Jose white-washed the bar counter at Saul's to create a blank canvas for a crazy night of arts and crafts. Things got a little messy, especially when the paint wars progressed from water to oil based paints...

(A beautiful starfish and maple leaf by Alyece, accompanied by a very artisitic heart by Erin)

I've also spent a few afternoons helping Jose with the massive mural he is currently painting for the children at a little elementary school in town. I feel my artistic abilities of 'staying in the lines' were put to good use. It's been an interesting and fun side project for when I'm not busy studying Espanol.

(Jose hard at work) Last Tuesday, the only day Saul closes the restaurant/bar, we had the joint to ourselves and Saul and Jose made a MASSIVE dinner for us - veggies, eggs, beans, stuffed tomatoes, cucumber cheese boats - followed by an excessive amount of chocolate covered bananas, strawberries, grapes, and ice cream.

Again, I out-ate everyone, and of course ended up with food all over my shirt, which offers a reasonable explanation as to why I'm wearing a table cloth in the photo below...

but unfortunately after this night of glorious food, the next morning Erin was so sick she couldn't even make it out of bed... and she is only just recovering now, 5 days later. We had signed up for more Spanish classes, but the pain in her stomach/back and the nausia pretty much kept her bed-ridden and royally out of service. I attended classes solo and we've been laying low. On Thursday we we went to a doctor who was fairly certain her illness is either an intestinal infection.. or even more appetizing.. parasites. Apparently it's not uncommon to catch parasites from fruits like strawberries here. Erin was put on antibiotics for both scenarios and some of her local friends here have attempted to cure her with tree leaves and her new best friend "Pedialyte" (discusting elixir for rehydration). Last night Erin ate her first real meal in 5 days (and kept it down!) when we joined up with some friends from school for dinner. I am happy to report that things are looking up and she is feeling better now. After we celebrate her birthday for our last night here in Antigua, we'll be headed to Lago de Atitlan for some lake fun. That's all for now, we send our love to all of you :)

Erin is wondering if Dr. G can explain this random coincidence to me

Caves, Cockroatches and Israelis

Erin Says...

Well our last night in Antigua was amazing! It was (obviously) spent with the crew at the bar which we think are worth mentioning being that we spent the better part of three weeks with them. There is Gerson, the adorable and extremely helpful Salsa teacher. Alex, the loyal friend and co-bartender. Maria, the cook and person who cleaned up after Saul (and everyone for the matter) and kept us all in line - a very very wonderful woman. Then there is Jose, the very beautiful painter who has been spending his time working for free to paint a super cool mural for a little school of young kids just outside of town and recently used Alyece´s leg as his canvas. Last is Saul - the 22 year old entrepeuner - one of the most generous people we´ve met on our travels who would do anything to help anyone, which made it easy for us to help out when we could at the bar. From Left To Right. Jose, Saul, Alyece, Maria, Me and Alex...Gerson, Too Busy Dancing

Our last night was spent sleeping on potato sacks on the bar floor (we reached a whole new level of cheap already) and waking up to make (most of) the crew a big breakfast at the insane hour of 6am. There were very sad goodbyes, BUT we´ll leave it at that because we´ve decided to go back for one more week of lessons.

Anyway, then it was off on the very suprisingly actually comfortable shuttle bus, with a very nice driver, good music and extremely friendly israelis who kept us fed the whole trip. (the little things have become very exciting). The drive was beautiful and we actually enjoyed the extremely bumpy unpaved roads for the last two hours.

We arrived at El Retiro Lodge in Lanquin to claim the very last thatch hut and be welcomed by a couple cockroatches and other critters. The lodge and thatched bungalos were set at the bottom of a huge valley on the river. There are no words to describe the beauty of this place and the pictures don´t begin to do it justice. It was a serene place to relax and reccuperate in the hammocks. However, at El Retiro we had pretty much joined team Israel. There were about 30 Israeli people staying at the place which was a little overwhelming and our ears have probably been trained to hear more Hebrew than Spanish at this point.

I feel the events of our day in Semuc Champey are worth mentioning in detail. We started by being loaded like a herd of cattle about 20 people each standing in the back of a pickup truck for a 40 minute drive on the edge of a cliff on a narrow dirt and gravel road where before each hill and sharp turn the driver had to stop and prepare for the uphill struggle. When we did arrive, we were greeted by one of our three guides Elvis, who swiftly had us swinging off rope swings into the rushing river to get us warmed up for the day. Then we went on to our next adventure which was THE CAVES. Dave Scaling The Cave Rock

Right as we entered, candles lit, Alyece noticed the spider the size of her face and was ready to call it quits. However, I dragged her on and we continued in, CLOSE CALL! We waded deep into the caves with our candles, then had to swim where the roof of the cave descended nearly to the water level. We entered huge caverns of stalegmites and stalactites (Alyece made me put this in...geography major). We climbed, we jumped, we were taken into a waterfall only to be sucked in a spit out by the current, all the while trying to keep our heads and candles about water - an awesome way to start the day. Picked Up A Machete Along The Way - Watch Out

Then it was on to tubing down the rapid river in a threesome of Elvis, Alyece and I. We got the easy ride with Elvis and his pure muscle, while everyone else suffered alone in the strong currents. Me and Alyece Getting A Free Ride From Elvis The Guide

This leads me to the very tall Israeli gentlemen who complained of being too tired to walk back so Alyece proceeded to piggy back him until his embarrassment was too much.

Then, off to Jump off the 40 foot bridge into the rushing river. I needed a friendly boost of confidence from Alyece but didn´t back down and it was well worth it.

Finally, we were taken to the Semuc Champey reserve where we climbed (the wrong side, which meant twice as steep and twice as long) up the mountain to the lookout point with our new American friend Dave, the comic. From the lookout point we could see down into the massive canyon where huge turquoise natural pools flowed one by one. It was indescribable Me, Dave and Half of Alyece....A Little Red From The Hike
The climb down to swim in them was even better. We swam for a couple hours and played in the mini waterfalls until Elvis took us on our last adventure. What was interesting about this day was everything we did was introduced as ´extremely dangerous´ and Elvis continuously repeating ´you don´t have to´, ´you don´t have to´. The last adventure though did leave us slightly nervous as we proceeded to climb down a powerful waterfall on a small rope latter, attached by a skinny rope and a rock where one slip up would send you on a very long fall into the unforgiving rapids - i felt like Indiana Jones ha ha. This turned out to be a pointless endeavor, other than looking underneath the waterfall, but it was hard to hear even our own voice over the surge of the water. Anyway, the weather had made the river much to fast to make the 50 foot jump into the rapids and so proceeded to climb UP a waterfall on a slippery rope latter, using our guides unstable thigh as the first step.

It was clear now that the guide had taken quite a liking to me, when he asked me to have a drink at the El Retiro party that night. Unfortunately for him, it turned out to be a three hour Spanish lesson, where he bought the drinks and did the teaching.

I failed to mention the huge buffet, which was incredibly delicious. I find it hard to understand how they pulled it off with no power and a completely flooded kitchen. However, they did, and Alyece out ate all 60 or so people, including large israeli men and then went for seconds. I´m pretty sure Dave was a little grossed out by us. After a totally amazing day for the record books Alyece and I headed to bed.

In the morning, over breakfast, we decided what bus to get on for our next destination. We chose Rio Dulce, which it so happened they forgot to book the shuttle for. This led us to a 5 hour drive, becoming 11 hours, filled with very very overcrowded and very very sweaty buses packed with guatemaltecos. It´s funny because I got what I was asking for when I had complained about how every bus ride felt like we were observing Guatemala but completely blocked off from it. So i figured I better not complain when I was actually travelling the way Guatemalan people do.

When we did finally arrive the 60 something American dude named Steve running the hotel, shuffled us off to a party full of old rich white yachties in Hawaiian shirts - the true Guatemalan experience ha ha. We stayed for a couple drinks with Uncle Willie and then headed to bed, at which time it torrentially down poured all night and is flooded out here, and so we´re canceling the boat trip we were going to take and heading back tomorrow. Which leaves us with lots of time today to write our blog and study!

That is it for now, Hugs and Kisses

La vida en Antigua

Alyece Says:
Hola! So the past week has been amazing... it started with a trip out to a little beach town on the west coast called Monterrico, which is about a 2 hour drive in an overly full mini-bus meant for about 12 or 13 people but crammed 18 in (we were glad we werent the girls in the back of the bus who had a big sweaty guatemalteco man sitting on top of them). We went with other students from our spanish school and we all stayed in a luxurious hostel on the beach, and at least one of our beds had sheets that were possibly washed within the past few weeks so that was a bonus. It was super hot and we spent the day enjoying cervezas at one of the beach pubs. (the restaurant we ate at with a giant pelican about two feet from our table)

Later in the afternoon we took part in a preservation program for sea turtles. This organization hatches sea turtles and then releases them on the beach so they can make it to the water safely; so we each got to have a baby turtle and set it free on the beach! They were so cute running with their little flippers down to the water... but with the thought that only one in every 1000 turtles actually survives to come back and lay eggs, Erin started tearing up and Alyece had to explain the circle of life to her.

En la noche, we went to the local discoteca where we were the odd ones out who didnt bring their 2 year old child to the bar... We woke up before dawn to take a guided boat tour through a mangrove reserve which was gorgeous and a very tranquil way to wake up in the morning. We spent the rest of the day sleeping on the beach and playing in the waves... ... and yes us students nerded it up with a study session in the afternoon. The bus ride back was even better... because it was Guatemala`s independence day --- which turned a 2 hour bus ride into 4 and half hours due to the massive celebrations in every town and village we passed by. Everyone was out in the streets eating, drinking, dancing, setting off fireworks, and throwing buckets of water or hosing down all the traffic and people passing through (which meant we had to keep our windows closed in the sardine packed bus in tropical heat!). Its also their tradition for groups of kids to run from town to town with torches so the highways were also packed with people. As long as it took to get back to antigua, we were really lucky to be able to see all the excitement and experience the buzz of their biggest holiday.

The celebration continued on Monday (the actual holiday) so we convinced our profs to take a break from the espanol and we wandered the swarming streets and watched the masses of school and college students parade through town. The music was awesome and some of the costumes were amazing. Every street was decorated with flags and lined with food vendors cooking all the traditional dishes such as corn tortillas, beans, and snow cones with spicy peppers..! The evening was crazy with fireworks and firecrackers and we hung out with our buddies in the bar/restaurant to show our love for guatemala.

On Wednesday we took a little field trip in the afternoon instead of spanish lessons... We hiked up an active volcano just outside of Antigua, Volcan Pacaya, with our professors, on the agreement that we would speak in espanol all the way up the mountain, which may or may not have happened. We had a wicked tour guide who was super pumped because on this particular day the lava flow was extraordinary and he had us flying up the mountain! At one point when we got to the clearing where we could see all the old lava flows and see the top of the smouldering crater, we stood at the top of this enormous slope of volcanic ash/rock about the consistency of thick sand (but super crumbly) and our tour guide started running down it yelling Vamos! and we all started sliding, running, and for some, falling and rolling down this massive hill. At the bottom while we emptied the volcanic crumbs out of our shoes and clothes, we noticed the nice flat path carved down the side where the other tour guides were leading their groups... Our tour dude definitely had some fun with us. When we got up to the river of lava we were pretty much in a state of shock.We walked accross the slightly hardened over lava from where the flow was the night before, which was still smouldering hot! As we walked across it we could hear the crackling underneath us and every few feet there were cracks in the rock where we could see the lava flowing underneath us. We had to keep our feet moving cause if you stand in one place too long your feet and legs start to feel the burn! Melted shoes are a common occurrence up there. Our guide took us right up to the river of lava which was just mezmorizing to see. He stuck a big stick in it and grabbed a chunk so that some of the people could light their cigarettes off of lava. We headed down the mountain as it started to get dark and the flourescent lava looked amazing against the black mountain and dark sky. Definitely the highlight so far... sorry baby turtles.
(And.....What else do you expect to see at the top of an active volcano.....but a man with a machine gun standing on the lava rocks)

Today was our last day of spanish school and this morning we took (yes another) field trip to a Mayan village just outside of Antigua to learn about and take part in their traditional wedding practices. They had volunteers act out the wedding ceremony in full costume... and to make a long story short... Erin is now married to a German boy and they already have a child together ;) Our favourite part of the demonstration was when the Mayan woman was explaining their traditional way of life and her cell phone rings in her pocket. Oh the 21st Century.... After the wedding they prepared us their typical food that is served at weddings and taught us all how to make the corn tortillas. ----- Which brings us to now: three 20-day-old puppies just threw up on Erin and we have to go home to our family to get cleaned up and have dinner!! (Alex and Alyece working at the bar... )

Buenas Noches Niñas! (as grandma says to us everynight)