This is my unedited Journal from my 2006 trip to Guatemala. Maybe I'll use it as a basis for a few stories in the future. Any Ideas would be helpful.
June 19th......so this will be my last journal entry, i will be coming home in just over a week, but to my temporary home in Florida. This journey has been very rewarding to me, and will share many observations and stories with whomever will want to hear them. Looking forward to my visit to NYC. I don�t have any great earth shattering revelations about life changing travels, but i know that this trip has been a very good and important one for me and i am looking forward to continuing on my life journey. here are the last bunch of my photos. The lake really is beautiful, !!!!!!!!!!::::......Ultima San Pedro............Later in the day June 2nd So this lawyer got gunned down in the street right outside one of the other schools a couple of blocks from my house. a friend of mine heard the gun shots. then i went to get a haircut, and the Barber told me that he had been robbed at gun point yesterday and is now thinking of closing up shop. I have heard of a lot of crime here in Xela, but have never witnessed any myself, nor does the place feel dangerous. the town that i am going to for the next three weeks is in the state of Solola. Last week the governor and his driver were gunned down on the highway. doesn{t make me feel real good about this place, more reason to stay up in the hills.......June 2nd........Well did my last hike in Xela yesterday and it was on on the best. there is this one set of mountains on one side of Xela that is som spectacular with such a variaty of hikes, that i don�t think i would ever get bored with, and the important thing is that the air is clean up in the hills and they are upwind of town. this town is so poluted that while it can be fun at times, the roads are so full of vehicles spewing black smoke that bike riding is really an unhealthy activity in guate and while in ny it is now my favorite activity, here hiking is the way to go. i take local buses and vans to get up in the hills. check out my latest photos here. !!!!!!!!!!::::......Last Xela Photos So i am heading back to Lago Atitlan tomorrow for 3 weeks before heading home, to Florida on June 27th. will just be chilling and of course studying more in San Pedro.........May 31, so this is my last week in Xela and i am catching up on my studies and doing some hiking and biking. Here are my latest photos, some may be a bit repetative, but i really enjoy hiking in the hills above Xela and it they are one of the most beautiful places that i have ever been too. When i go hiking, i take a bus to a village in the mountains and hike from there. To me the town seems right out of Tibet, and if feels that way too. So click on the link to view the latest, and check back after Friday for my last link of photos from Xela. On Saturday i am going back to Lago Atitlan for 3 weeks before coming home!!!!!!!!!!::::......Latest Xela Photos.................................May 11.........so life is fine for me here in Xela, but of course still a bit lonely, but learning a lot. I didcovered this walk on the outskirts of town, that is truly one of those special places that i really want to share with you. It is called Cerro Candelario and it is so incridibly beautiful. i walking thur it . i feel like i am a million miles from Xela when i am there, but it is just up in the hills above town. Since i dont fell like walking up the mountain, only thru it, i take a bus from near the school to a place part way up the hill and then a pickup or micro bus to this pueblo that seems right out of Tibet to me. from there i walk thru the mountain for about 2 hours to another pueblo and take a bus from there back to Xela. They dont{ get many gringos up in the hills and i cause quiet a stir when ever i go. Some of the photos are a bit repetative, but they all have there own unigue charm to me. i even took some videos, that i can email to anyone who wuold like to see them............Cerro Candelaria...........April 20....so the friday before Good Friday is a time for the leftist students to hold a protest parade in the Capital and here in Xela. Of course i went......................Desfile Bufo.....Semana Santa, or holy week is very special here too and here are some photos of that too.......................Semana Santa....So here are some more photos. the photos from the country are from class trips, the views of a large city, are Xela, i live somewhere down there. these i took one afternoon from one of the hills that surounds the city, the young women are students at the school, lots of pretty women!!!!! and one is of the Directora de la escuela, mi amor...................Xela Photos .................March 27 so didn{t feel like writing for a while, was feeling a bit isolated, but am doing much better now. I am now volunteering as an English teacher. I work at a school for kids that need to work during the day, so they go to school at night. My class has about 30 students, and not one of them is a problem. We are doing some basic grammer work, but i feel they are learning and that it is a good experience for the kids. They vary in age, but are all around 12 to 14 years old. I teach the class in Spanish, so it is good practice for me and I like that in some way I am contributing to this country. I am only in my second week of class with them, but it is comething that i look forward to. I conduct the class in a very interactive format, going around the room often and having students practice pronunciation. As far as my learning Spanish, I feel, I am doing well and it is coming along and i know my ability to speak is improving, but i still have a long way to go.........March 12th....so the return of the SGS...So the school building has a center enclosed court yard and classrooms on the second floor. Last week, my classroom looked out onto the courtyard. i was taliking about something with my teacher and we were using the Director as an example in our grammer lesson and for some reason i got up and looked out thru the window down to the courtyard. The Directors office is in an area of the courtyard. So there was the Director of one of the finest Spanish Schools in all of Guatemala, sitting at her computer.....playing soletaire!! .....Last night I went to a soccer match between Xela and a team from the Capital. The enthusiasm was amazing. Lots fo the fans brought fireworks and there was one group with instuments that they played almost the whole time. The stadium was kind of a wreck. the stands were jsut rows of concrete slabs with almost all the seats at one end of the field. There was no public address system and the place was full of private vendors selling food. I sat right between 2 women and their families who set up a stand to make and sell tacos. One had a stove to heat the sauce, the other one just brought the sauce in 3 liter coke bottles.................March 8th..So have really settled into my new place, i am very comfortable there. Discovered Monday night that Telemundo does telenovelas all night long during the week and they are all closed captioned, so since i have a closed caption tv, it is a great way for me to study.. this country has some amazing contrasts. For instance the supermarket that i went to and sells meat from refridgerators is just around the corner from a traditional market where people practically sell chicken out of the back of pick up trucks.... Since i now know the prices of lots of things, i am doing well with the bargaining over the price of things like avacodos and red peppers!!!!!! Starting to feel at home here and know that i am learning a lot here. I hope that you are all doing well and look forward to seeing you soon.........Am taking some pictures around town and should have some photos to share in a week or 2........March 4th Well one week of school is gone and i learned a lot. This is really a good school and I am happy to be here. i went out with some of the others students friday after our school dinner that we have every week. so you know all the students get along well here, even though we are all different ages and come from all over the north america and europe. some students even come from Japan, but none in the school right now. I am doing well. Lots of the students here are major idealists, which i have little patience for. They seem to have lots of answers to the world problems, and many want to get jobs in very interesting fields, but don't think they should have to get a degree to get the job. I just listen and nod my head, but have no desire to get into any major political or other descussions, but that s not what i came here for anyway. I am surprised how difficult it is too find students to talk to who want to speak Spanish, not English, so the reality is i will learn more from my spanish programs on TV then by going to boring smokey straight bars with them,..now i did go to this bar last night that is supposed to be 'open minded', the closest thing to a gay bar that can be found in this town, i walked in this drunken woman grabbed me we danced for a few minutes and then i felt it was time to leave, which i did. there were two other guys there, and they were dancing with each other. hopefully tonight there will be more people. I will give the place a shot, since it is the only place in town. it is also right below the bar that most of the other students go to , so i have decided to be out and not worry about it......But really good news, i actually found a big super market, that doesn{t look like it is a 40 year old Grand Union, that has received no maintenance. they have lots of food products from the us, but of cours for more than you would pay in the US, but i don{t care, they take credit cards and now that i am doing my own cooking i need some good food. the store even has a deli counter!!!!!! which is so unheard of here, so i can start making sandwiches to bring to school for lunch.....March 2nd...So tomorrow i will finish my first week of school. the feelings of contentment of being with a family lasted less than 24 hours and i spent a lot of time looking for new place to live. After some searching i found a nice private room with outdoor entrance, a nice window, cable tv, my own bathroom, maid service once a week, use of a washing maching, a very nice communal kitchen, with a microwave (first one that i have even seen in all the time i have been here)and filtered water.....all for $160 a month...and i am probably overpaying....negotiation is not one of my strong points. i move in tomorrow. my new place has a nice big table to study at and is quiet and very comfortable for studying. One of the other places that i looked at was such a pit, dark walls, bad lighting dirty unbelievably old kitchen, horrible bath (communal) and of course had a junk yard dog out front that barked at me on the way in and the way out. there was a war that raged on in this area and the peace accords were only signed 8 years ago, so i guess that explains a lot about the conditions here. The concept of a difuser or shade over bulbs has not made it here yet. over 90 percent of the lighting consist of a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling by its electrical cord. You are doing real well, if you actually have a light fixture attached to the ceiling, but still bare bulb. The family that i am staying with is probably better than most, but doorways that are chin level, an actual parade of relatives thru the house, dirt, ......it kind of feels like Vietnam, the woman of the house always seems to wear the same clothes, those Chairman Mao ones (yes i know thats China). the paint is so old and dirty that i thought she must have been living in the house scince she was born, there is even graffiti on one wall .....and then she tells me that she has been living there less than a month......They took the kitchen, put the cheapest partion wall that i have seen down on side of it to create another bedroom, and ....instant student housing. of course the horror stories about holes in ceilings, bad food, not enough food, below third world living conditions in most of the students families have been circulating thru the school and a lot of the other students are becoming intrieged with the idea of getting their own place. one student just told her family to not even bother giving her lunch any more, that she would go to a restaurant.....and now they don�t talk to her. The school is great. i have a nice young beautiful girl for my teacher this week and next and the Director, Olga, and i are chums. If I were straight, I would ask her out on a date. So here are some photos, the huricane stan ones, are photos i found on a computer at the internet cafe in san pedro and are some good shots of the really wicked storm that came thru here in October. the San Pedro photos are just some more photos.....the indigenous people are teachers at the school, the young people are other students and the old fart is me!!! 2005 Hurricane Stan Photos ............ 2006 More San Pedro photos February 26th... Estoy in Xela ahora. I am in Xela now, got here this morning. Had a great 6 weeks in San Pedro. Was sick for a week with stomach amebas, but took 4 tablets of this medicine and 2 hours late I was fine. it is made in Guatemala and says that it is to be sold under presciption, but i just bought it over the counter. I went to the drug store with my teacher and I told the guy there the symptoms ( diarhea, no energy, dull pain in my stomach). First he suggested herbalife, which i thought was rediculous, then this thin called an intestinal antiseptic, which i have no idea what that is, then this anti ameba, anti giardia stuff which worked great. i learned a lot of spanish in San Pedro, but want to study here for a while. I think that i can get a better education here because espanol is the primary language that everybody speaks here while in San Pedro the primary language is Tzutuhill and espanol is a second language. I remember that the school i am in now, Sacribal, had really great teachers. We shall see. This cold just be a case of the grass is greener on the other side, but I felt it was important to come here and study awhile. I am living with a family now. They are very nice....a woman, her sister, and 2 other guys who i am not sure who they are. i met one of them and he seems very easy going. So even though the house is a (expetive deleted), they are nice and i will not abandon the situation too quickly and see if this works out. i also have a lead on a house share and will check into that too. I start class tomorrow and since i spent 3 weeks in this town last year, I feel like i kind of know my way around. So at this point i am open to studying here for a while, but have pretty much decided that i do want at some point to return to San Pedro to the Caban�s on the lake. I will get my latest photos up within a day or 2. Look for the link labeled New San Pedro photos. Hasta Luego. Adios. 2006 San Pedro photos So the photos are just random shots around town, some people are students at my school, others are the teachers and the woman getting the award is Rigoerto Menchu, the Guatemalan Nobel Peace Price winner. she was in town for the opeinging of a new Proyceto. Last year I was wondering if she was another Robert Kennedy or another Al Sharpton...now i realize neither. She seems very pleasant, but doesn�t seem to have that political drive that I expected, I liked her and would have wanted to spend some time with her........February 6th..So, I have a nice routine at this shcool, where I will be staying another 3 weeks. I get up around 6, take a shower, make breafast, cleanup and study a little down by the lake before my class starts at 8. After class ends at noon, i make lunch, study more, go shopping at the market, use the internet , hang out , study more, eat dinner at home or a restaurant, go to bed early. there is a rock at the school that i wash my clothes on. I would take them down to the lake and wash them on the rocks in the water, but I really think this is a practice that should be discouraged. It all may sound very boring, but it suits me well right now. I start at escuela sacribal in 3 weeks. It is in Xela, and I studied there last year. It is very structured and I like La Directora mucho. I will be spending the rest of the time here really studying, so, I don't plan on updating this website till I after I get to Xela, which will be at the end of Feb, and it may take me till the beginning of march to write here again. Until then here is another SGS....So we have a dinner at the school every other week. the students pay for it, and help make the food, which seems to be some kind of meet and vegetables, tea and some hard liqour. There is this one girl at school who has been around the block a few times, and the culture shock has been a bit much for the family that runs the school. So at the dinner this girl was wearing her dress, pulled down past her shoulders. Not sure what that style is called, but if you have a nice body, it looks great, and it did on her. She also had her hair tyed up, so the style was pretty revealing. When she opened the bottle of the local whiskey, or what ever it was, you could tell it wasn't her first time that you opened a bottle of liquor. So she was sitting at the end of the table with one other student and a bunch of the female teachers. The teachers at the school dress very modestly, almost all in the traditional indigenous outfit, which does not reveal much. The school staff also speaks mostly the local indian language between themselves, not Spanish. So it turns out, they spent a good part of the dinner talking about this young woman, who was sitting right across from them, but none of us knew it at the time. I was sitting at the other end of the table, which made for a great place just to see this scene................Hope you can visualize it. OK one more little story. So I went to the market on sunday morning to buy some fruit and vegetables and also bought some chicken. Now nothing seems to be refrigerated in this country, so the chicken normally sits out all day on the counter, flys and all. It was early in the morning, and i felt, Why not?, so I bought a pound to make some stew (it turned out great) When I got back to the school, one of the guys who run the school asked me what i had bought, and I showed him some of the chicken. He said: 'Hombres no compran pollo en el marcado' (Men don't buy chicken at the market), I replied "Si' ahora" (they do now).............January28.....So i just realized that of all the 11 students at the school this week, I am BY FAR THE OLDEST..agghh....sgs no 4So we went on another school trip to a San Pablo for the festival of San Pablo on Jan25th (my birthday too) and it was very crowded with lots of vendors selling food and various stuff, and lots of durnks. So another student and I decided to kill some time at a bar (all the bars where doing a great business) So we�re hanging out there and then all of a sudden there was this huge flow of people coming out from the back room and then we started hearing sounds like smashing of chairs and then smash smash.....the sound of bottles smashing...lots of bottles and more people flowing out right past us....then there was a pause and then guys with blood all over there faces were being thrown out by other guys...of course just about everybody seemed to be drunk. The place was being run by two women, who seemed to handle the situation as if they had experienced it before...then a little later the cops show up, but by then the excitement was over, but we did notice that one cop had a machette.... January 24th sgs no 2. so the school is right on the beach and when it is warm enough, i go swimming. so the other day i head to the beach and then go down about to a sanding part and there are a bunch of topless women there, i thoughtis was at sandy hook. well they were bathing and washing clothes. lots of people us the lake for bathing and washing clothes. well i have kind of figured out now that this section of beach seems to be for the women and way to the right and left is for men to go bathing. men do not wash clothes. very few people use the lake for 'swimming', only bathing. so the women didn{t seem too happy to see me when i walked by them and have now learned to stay to the right.......but i learned that a long time ago <:-)) sgs no 3: so i bought some things at a store and gave the guy a Q50 bill. when i went back a few days later, he tells me that the bill i gave him was counterfiet!!! He showed me how to tell, and i took the bill back. never passed a bad bill in my life, till now.........i< figured out the restaurant that i got it from and will unload it back on them........ January 23rd So this is my life right now. I am living in a Caba�a right at the school and have a view of the lake. I get up at six, shower, make breakfast and then study a little before my class with my teacher starts at 8. He is very good looking and i enjoy working with him, of course. Most men here, i would not classify as good looking, and very few of the women, so i lucked out. So I spend 4 hours a day in class and then then rest of the day studying, cooking, shopping, hanging around, swimming in the lake......that is what it should be like for the next month or so. My life is fine here, except of course it is lonely, which I knew before I decided to come here.After that, I am planning on moving to Xela for a change and a new school, where the instruction will be more intense. So in the mean time I will try and update this site with stories, i will call them StupidGuatemaleanStories (SGS)because most of them will just be some little stories about things that happen to me. So SGS 1: I wanted to get a haircut. I paid Q15 in Antiqua last year and Q10in Xela. There are about 7.5 Q in one $..So i go to a barbaria and ask the guy how much and he tells me Q25, which was a complete rip off because the guy that runs the school, said it should be Q5. Now, yes we are not talking about serious money here, I know. So the owner of the school finally hooked me up with a place that would give a gringo a haircut for Q10, even though the locals pay Q5. In this part of Quatemala, they seem totally justified in charging Gringos higher for losts of stuff. Any store that i go into and ask how much a carton of eggs is, they have to take out their calculator before they can tell me. At first i thought this was because no one bought a whole carton, which is 30 eggs, but then i figured it out: they don�t know the gringo price at the top of their heads. Now this area is almost entirely indigenous and they have experienced a lot of discrimination from Ladinos, the people who are a mixture of local and Europeans, or Latinos....and so it really pisses me off that they go around and practice discrination themselves........ As I get more stories, or what ever i will edit this site. January 17th Will be moving to my school tomorrow. They have cabins rigth at the school. So far I have had 2 classes with a very good teacher, one of the best that I have had in both trips. His name is Juan. I am planning on staying in San Pedro thru March. Once I get settled, I will update this journal more, probably this weekend January 11th 2006 I am in San Pedro la Laguna on Lago Atitlan. It took 4 buses, one van, 2 boats and one rip off taxi driver, thus the additional boat, to get here from the airport in the capital. I had read a lot about the destruction in the area from Hurricane Stan last October, and I saw a lot of rebuilding of roads on the way here. This town is doing well though. Lots of hippies about, which the town is famous for, and so far no noticable destruction. Tomorrow, I will be looking for a school and some housing. I am staying at a Hostel right now, that is OK, and real cheap, only about $2 a night. I found out about it from some people that I met on the boat across the lake. I am feeling really glad to be here and so far have had mostly a good time, but it has been a long day. The chicken buses seemed more comfortible than i remembered. So the flight here was great and felt good especially after the wonderful party that Gautam gave last night. I will write more when I got settled, but wanted everyone to know that I am still alive :-)) Thank you for taking the time to read my journal. Pablito 2005 photos