Kaia hits the road

As my time here in Guatemala is running out, I´m trying to do those things I haven´t done so far. Last weekend Sanne and I went on an organised trip to Semuc-Champey, which is a really beautiful place with natural pools of water above a river. A complicated formation, but really cool! We spent 9 hours driving to Lanquin on Friday, and on Saturday we went to Semuc-Champey (it means "where the river goes under the earth") where we first walked up to a viewpoint to look down at the pools. Then we walked down to the first one and started swimming down them all. At the bottom one we rapelled down a stream and we were able to see where the river came out.

After that we went to some caves where we spent 2 hours in total dark. It was necessary to wear clothes to swim in and clothes and we were all given a candle at the entrance of the cave. We walked, swam, climbed ladders, jumped 2 metres into the black water. It was nervewrecking (especially because we spent more time than supposed and at the end only had our guide´s torch and 2 small candles to light our way out...), but a lot of fun!

The group we were in consisted of 3 Danes (included Sanne), me, an American called Zack who smoked weed and played the guitar for us, a Swiss called Kevin and an Australian called Dominick. It was a cool group to go on this tour with and we spent Saturday night drinking beer and playing cards.

On Sunday we spent 2 hours eating breakfast (Kevin liked his "food") and afterwards we went to some sacred Mayan caves. It looked like a big, strange hole in the ground, but it was a huge cave with Mayan altars around.

Going out in Antigua soon, so adios for now!

After spending a couple of days to recover from the great journey, I have now settled in to the life in San Juan again, washed my clothes, spent time with my family and last, but not least; finally found a project to volunteer at. As I've previously mentioned, my plan was to work for 6 weeks, but because I went travelling it's been shortened down to 2 1/2 weeks. I think it's a shame that I don't have more time to get properly into the project and get to know the kids, but on the other hand it really was worth spending 2 weeks for travelling.

So, to my project. During my travel, more and more people have left Antigua and San Juan, leaving me in a situation where I at the moment only know 3 people here; Sanne, Mette Marie and Peter (and he's now travelling for 2 weeks...). Sanne and Mette Marie both work at a project in a village called Santa Maria de Jesus, which is located near the top of the volcano Agua. It takes 10-15 minute to get there on a camioneta from San Juan. I went to visit the project on Wednesday and as I liked what I saw, I had my first day the day after. The project is called Jardin de Amor, and it is a school for local Maya children who've never gone to school before. Most of their parents work in the fields around Santa Maria, and it's pretty much inevitable that the children will do the same in the future. However, that doesn't mean they shouldn't get a chance to receive some education! I suppose it's necessary to say that the public schools here in Guatemala supposedly are free, but what prevents people from sending their children to school are the costs of school uniforms, school books, stationary, etc. Especially if the family has 4 children who would like to go to school. Therefore this school was started in order to provide basic education to children of families who cannot afford sending their children to school. The school is called Jardin de amor - Garden of Love, and it has a small building with 3 classrooms and 3 classes. 2 of the classes are mixed with children between 5-9, and the oldest class has children between 10-13. So far, I have been helping out with the smallest children. They don't have a regular time table and subects, instead they learn the very basic- such as the alphabet, numbers, shapes and formations, etc. The project seem good and the children are lovely, so I'm looking forward to get to know them better over the next weeks.

If someone reading this has been considering travelling to another country, learning the language, living with a family and volunteering at a project, I only have one advice; DO IT! It's so interesting, especially really getting in to the culture through living with locals. At the moment we are only 3 students (hence probably only 3 white people) living in San Juan, and it's great being able to participate in the village life. Yesterday night there was going to be a ballet show on the plaza in front of the church, and curious as we are, we went to see what it was all about. It turned out it was a celebration of a writer and poet who used to live in San Juan, but was killed by the government 20 years ago after having criticised it on paper. The dance show (which wasn't a ballet show, but I guess thats just the name they used for it) was a collection of various local Guatemalan dances, and the costumes used were very colourful and typical Guatemalan. They played the marimba (the most typical musical instrument) and flute, and the dances were a lot of fun. The church in San Juan has a Plaza Central just in front, and it was nearly filled with people during the show, so we really got to participate in a local event. At the end of the show we got to learn that the dancing company in fact was the National Ballet, so that was pretty cool as well.

Tomorrow it's exactly 2 weeks until I'll be leaving this wonderful country, therefore I'll now leave you to be able to go out and enjoy the little time I've got left! Take care!

WHAT TO SAY?

I have travelled around Guatemala, Belize and Mexico for the last 2 weeks, but it feels a lot longer. I've seen so much and experienced even more.

Friday 2 weeks ago, Sanne, Sara and I left San Juan and headed for Guatemala City where we stayed with our friend Lissy for a night. The following morning we left for the village Rio Dulce east in Guatemala. There we met up with Audi, a Norwegian girl who used to live in San Juan, but who had been working at a project in the north of Guatemala for 3 weeks. We decided to stay in Rio Dulce for a night (it ended up being a really stormy night, and storms down here are pretty heavy stuff) in order to spend the following day going up river to Livingston. Livingston is a village in the east of Guatemala, and it's only possible to reach it by boat. We got a lancha in the morning, and on the boat ride we stopped at a fortress and some hot springs where we went swimming. It was really an amazing boat ride, and it felt like the river could have been a part of Jurassic Park and we were just anticipating to see some dinosaurs around the river bends.

Livingston is a very special Guatemalan village because of the unique mix of Garifuna, Maya, Indian and Latino people and cultures. The Garifunas descends from a group of slaves who came to spread throughout the coast of Central America when they were liberated. They have their own language, culture and music, and it felt strange being in Guatemala, yet seeing mostly black people and hearing so many different languages. I must say that Livingston was one of the coolest (and most chilled-out...) places I've ever been. Many of the locals seemed to be stoned most of the time, and we were considering whether someone had set up a big fire of weed close to the town, because we all seemed to be quite sedated whilst being there. Also, I've never before seen as many rastas, dreads and hats in Jamaican colours before. As the majority of the people didn't seem to have regular working hours (many were trying to get a day's work out of the tourists), they were just hanging around the main street and it made it easy to get to know people. On our first day we met a guy called Fisico, and he took us to the local beach and in the evening he introduced us to his friends and we all went to a place with live Garifuna music. To put it mildly; some of the people we met were very original (i.e. strange). For example, being there for 3 days gave us the opportunity to oserve weird things that people wore on their heads: a lamp screen, a towel, something looking like a frisbee, buns, a cardboard box and a lot of strange types of hats. On the last day in Livingston, we went on a tour to the most beautiful beach in the area, Playa Blanca. There we were enjoying the sun to the max and also the great sensation of swimming in the Caribbean! Unfortunately, at the end of the day it turned out that white Scandinavians and a strong sun was a lethal mix, and all 4 of us looked like grilled tomatoes and weren't able to neither sit nor lie down in the evening. And what's more is that both Audi and I threw up in the night and we felt really weak and tired whilst riding the bus on the very bumpy road to Placencia in Belize the following day.

In order to get to Belize, we had to go with boat to Punta Gorda and thereafter with bus to Placencia. Since we were all feeling tired when we arrived in Placencia, it felt like we'd died and gotten to heaven when we got a room with 2 fans and a TV with cable! It was exactly what we needed there and then, and we stayed in our room watching soaps and films the whole day. I guess I should also say that Placencia was a nice place and it has the largest natural sand beach in the whole of Belize. After recovering in Placencia for 2 days, we made our way up north to Belize City and an island closeby, Caye Caulker. Luckily enough, we were feeling more active and up for some fun, so we spent a whole day snorkeling and diving (which Audi was the only one doing out of the 4) by the second largest barrier reef in the world. It was a great experience, and we got to see many different types of fish. And not to forget, in some way the trip ended up with the theme of pirates and in Caye Caulker we bought rum and took pictures of ourselves as pirates on the beach. The only thing missing was Johnny Depp. Or Kaptein Sabeltann, as we were listening to his theme song the whole way.

As things are more fun whilst complicated, we decided to head to Flores in the north of Guatemala after Belize, resulting in having to pay the fee for leaving Belize 3 times altogether... In Flores we wanted to visit ther project where Audi had been working and we also wanted to take a trip to Tikal. Audi had been working on a project called ARCAS, which is a Rescue Centre for animals that have been illegally caught and tried exported. We spent a day visiting the project which is located in the jungle. ARCAS is working with a great variety of animals, and we got to see a jaguar, wild cats, tucans, turtles, spider monkeys, howler monkeys, racoons, loros, guacamayas, etc. The day after we left our hotel at 3.00 in the night, setting off to see the sunrise at Tikal. As many of you probably don't know what Tikal is (I didn't at least...), I can say that is was one of the major cultural and population centers of the Maya civilization. Some of the ruins there are more than 2000 years old. Going from the bus to the temple, it turned out that we had the fastest guide ever, and nearly half the group got left behind. Hence we were walking around huge temples in the jungle trying to reach seeing the sunrise. It all worked out and we just made it to the top of temple IV before the sun rose. It was a magical feeling sitting at a 2000 year old temple whilst seeing the sun rise, hearing the wildlife in the jungle wake up and howler monkeys howling in the distance. Truly magnificent and so worth it. The following hours were spent walking around and seeing the other greatest and most significant temples at Tikal. Some of the temples have apparently been shown in different movies, a Star Wars one and Acopolypto by Mel Gibson. Later that day, Audi left us and headed to Antigua to spend her last days there.

On Wednesday, Sara, Sanne and I continued our journey east to Belize and then north up to Playa del Carmen in Yucatan in Mexico. It took us a whole day on the bus (and a lot of money at the borders...at least in Belize there's an official tax every time you leave the country, but what pisses me off is having to pay to leave and enter Guatemala when we know it's illegal and that the money just goes in the pockets of the idiots sitting at the border- grrr!), but we got there in the end. The reason why we decided to go to Playa del Carmen is because Sara's twin sister's friend Valeria lives there, and Sara really wanted to see her whilst being on the same continent. Playa del Carmen was totally different from anything I've seen in the last couple of months. The first thing we saw when arriving was a HUGE Wal Mart, and it felt like we'd just gotten to a warm part of the USA. Still, it was a nice place with a gorgeous beach (crammed with people of course...), and there were actually decent shops. On Friday we went snorkeling in cenotes, which are underwater caves and very special in the Yucatan region. We went to two different ones, and it was so cool to know that we were underneath the surface of the earth, yet some light filtered through holes in the ground and we were able to admire the stalacites (which I believe is the name of things hanging in the ceiling, formed by dripping minerals) and the intricate formations of the caves.

Upon till this point in Mexico, the trip had been a blast and we hadn't really experienced any problems (apart from Sanne losing her camera and having to pay at the Guatemalan borders), but then Murphy's law started to strike. It all started with us going out on Friday night with Valeria and her boyfriend Enrique. We soon came to realize that Enrique had some money and he also liked getting people drunk, and he ordered shot after shot after shot. In the end of the night we had probably consumed 10 shots and 6 drinks, and seeing as the bus we had planned on taking was leaving at 6.30 and we arrived at the hotel at 5.30 (without having finished packing) completely wasted; guess what happened?!? Yeah, we didn't take the bus, that's right. Instead, we slept the whole day went to say goodbye to Enrique and Valeria once again in the evening. The reason why we HAD to be back in Guatemala on Sunday was that Sara's flight was early Monday morning, but as the situation turned out, she booked a flight from Cancun to Guatemala City on Sunday, and Sanne and I got on the bus the long way home... It was a crazy journey where we always missed the best connections. We took 4 buses, 6 taxis and crossed 4 borders just to get to Flores. We were dead tired when we arrived there in the evening, and we decided to treat ourselves with a good night sleep at an hotel, and we continued to Guatemala City yesterday morning. After having spent 13 hours and taken 2 buses and 3 taxis (and managed to delete all the pictures from Tikal and Mexico...I said so; it's Murphy's law!), we FINALLY returned to San Juan del Obispo yesterday evening! Stumbling out of the taxi outside my house, I really felt like I'd gotten home and it felt great sleeping in my own bed again!

This has most definitely turned out to be as long as a looong essay, and I hope you're not bored to death if you're actually browsing through my blog from time to time. I don't know if I have been able to portray my warm feelings about this trip, because I've written it all before (when I was more enthusiastic, and then it got deleted) and I am a bit tired at the moment. Nevertheless, I REALLY enjoyed travelling around and I can assure that the heading of this blog has been fulfilled, because I have most definitely experienced mindblowing adventures!

Here's a link to the photos from the trip: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=744&l=7c417&id=337700047

Here I am, sitting at an internet cafe in Playa del Carmen in Mexico and finally managing to update my blog. And then it all gets deleted. I hate it! So now I´m just pissed off and not able to tell you about the FANTASTIC time I´ve had whilst travelling around for 2 weeks. It´s been fun and I´ll re-write everything I´d written earlier as soon as I can when I get back to Guatemala. We´re leaving early tomorrow morning, and it´ll probably take us 2 days before we get back to San Juan, so don´t hold your breath whilst waiting for the update.

¡Hasta luego mis amigos!

As the heading indicates, the weekend was very eventful.

When I last wrote, I said that we were going to have a party last Friday. As always, we ended up doing a lot of the preparations just before, eg buying mint and ice cubes for the mojitos. Thus the party started late (Guatemalan time!), we drank mojitos and tequila quickly, went to Antigua, ate at Riki´s and got sobered up. The group from San Juan is a really nice, and we ended the night with going to a shisha bar, so it was very chilled out.

On Saturday it was the birthday of Anne Sofie, so in the afternoon the family made a big and tasty lunch and later she got a birthday cake. In the evening Sara, Sophie and I were invited to a birthday party in Sanne and Peter´s house. The party was supposed to start at seven, so naive as I am, I turned up at seven. When I arrived there was no food in sight, no guests, no decoration, no tables and only a stack of chairs. It did not look like a party for 40 people. But then again, it´s Guatemalan time, hence we ended up helping out with the preparations; carrying tables, arranging chairs, putting on table clothes, etc. People started turning up at around eight, then huge plates of food were carried over from the neighbours´ house and the party was ready to begin! Over here it´s a tradition of getting a piñata for the birthdays, and even though Monica turned 17 she still got one. Sara, Sannne, Peter and I had bought the candies for the piñata, and since we´d never done it before we ended up overestimating how much candy we needed... The piñata was really, really heavy and it was difficult to put it up on the line becuase of it´s weight. Everyone was really excited about hitting it, but because of the amount of candies it took quite some time, so in the end they got the big, buff guys to hammer on it. It worked, but we still fought for the candies!

The end of the party was rather sad, because the news arrived that the grandmother in the house across the road had died. Her granddaughters were at the party, so we wrapped up and everyone went over to the family. When people dies here, it´s a tradition that family and friends visits the family of the person who´s died, and it´s usual to bring gifts or money. This is to help cover the expenses of having people over the whole night and also with the funeral. The coughin (with the person in it) was placed in a room in the house, and the room was also filled with flowers. I didn´t really know the family that well, but Sophie (a girl from Austria) lives there, and Sara and Sanne both went over in the night. I went with them the next day, and we helped carry the flowers in fron of the coughin going to her old house first (she´d lived with her daughter for about a year because she was ill), thereafter to the cemetary. The traditions here really are a lot different, but the nicest about it is that people really share the sadness of the family. And most people have such a positive outlook on things, and it´s always okay to give a smile.

You might now wonder about the other 2 birthdays. Well, the birthday party was also celebrating the birthdays of 2 cousins of the family. And on the day of the funeral was the birthday of the granddaughter of the woman who died.

I´ve now been on the Internet for more then 2 hours, so I will love you and leave you. Hope you´re all doing well, all my love.