Sunday, November 27, 2011
La Ciudad, Monterrico y THANKSGIVING!
Saturday, I woke up relatively early to get all of my stuff together for the beach and made sure everything was charged and ready to go. We met at 8:30 and were off to Monterrico. After a little over two hours in the bus, we arrived at our ‘hotel’ where we changed, ordered our lunch and then hit up the beach. I left time to lay my towel out and set my camera down before taking off my flip flops and making a break for the water. Sand is hot when the sun shines on it, but black sand is even hotter. I think the bottoms of my feet burned! We played in the waves for awhile…or rather, the waves played with us. Then we walked along the beach to dry off a bit before lunch. After lunch, you guessed it, we hit up the water again. After a few hours of being tossed and turned by the waves, I called it a day and showered off so I could lay out and dry off a bit before we headed back to Antigua. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so close to death before in my life. The Pacific Ocean is a beast and quite a fantastic adventure!! LOVED IT.
[Black Sand!] Today, we had our Thanksgiving celebration and meal at Paul and Bev’s. It was delicious! This week, I’m not really sure what’s in store, but I’m sure it will be great. I hope to get to interact with my host family some more as I have been the past few days. It’s fun to just sit and talk with them. I’m going to miss nights like last night: being told I look like a tomato and talking about what I want to do with my life. These days are flying by and I don’t wanna miss a single moment!
Monday, November 21, 2011
La Ciudad, Canopy Tour and Earth Lodge!
[It’s been a long time since I’ve had Taco Bell, but here was my amazing meal!- They need to get all the new desserts in the states!]
[A group of us before the longest one!-Jen, Jenna, me, Cassie] Yesterday, we went to Earth Lodge and had our Sunday meal there where we just got to sit around soaking up some sun and getting burnt while waiting for our burgers, guacamole and chips, and smoothies to be prepared. It was a beautiful place for a meal outside of Antigua with a great view! It was a bit of a drive and a little hike, but definitely worth it! My favorite part may have been the ride back to Antigua standing in the back of pick up truck riding down the mountain.
Meseros?!
I had my last three days of Spanish Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. My lessons ended well. We worked on subjunctive more and just talked about random things in Spanish to practice. It was a great last few days! Wednesday, we went to Parque Central with a few other students and their teachers to watch a race of sorts. A bunch of waiters lined up in Central Park and had their trays loaded with a few unopened beverages and the race began. It was a little crazy and quite strange, but oddly enough, it fun to watch! Before I left class Wednesday I gave my teacher a card (with a tip) and she gave me a purse that she made. We said goodbye, but only until Monday (today) when we planned to meet again.
[Waiters all lined up]
[Waiting for the action to begin...me, Ashley and Cassie]
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Volcán Pacaya
Saturday, we had a little adventure on our own as some of us (apart from the University) decided to go through a travel agency and climb a volcano…Volcano Pacaya. This is the volcano that erupted a year and a half ago, in May 2010. It was an exciting experience to say the least! The climb up took about an hour and a half and then we were able to explore a little on our own for an hour towards the top. We weren’t allowed to go to the very top and see the crater, but we got pretty close! We saw lots and LOTS of volcanic rocks and got to go in some steam holes and such, so it was worth it. When we got to the top, a girl who hiked up with us, but was from a different group fell and she broke or cut her leg really deep, cut her head and hurt her hand, so we took a different way down the volcano. A more direct route, but it also happened to be a bit scarier and much steeper! I was stepping in volcanic rocks up to my mid-calf every step down the volcano at what was probably a 60 degree decline. It was crazy, but after I got the hang of it, it was kind of fun and not scary! All of the guys took turns carrying the injured girl down the volcano until we got to the ambulance. From there, we walked down the windy road to our bus at the bottom of the volcano. Then, we hopped in the bus and headed back to Antigua and we got home around 1:40 and ate lunch a little before 2.
[During the climb up the volcano..we could see other volcanoes in the distance, the ones that surround Antigua. This picture doesn't show them all as the others are off to the left]
[Me on the volcano!][the volcano...part of it anyway][The decline one our way down the volcano...this picture doesn't quite do it justice.]
Once we all had taken showers and cleaned the ash and dust off of ourselves, Aleia and I went to the market to do a little shopping and bartering before coming home a little bit before dinner. It was a great day! I’m definitely sore today, but I expected to be.
Today, we went to church and then out to lunch with the whole SAU gang. I’m excited to see what the remaining weeks have in store for me here! A little over a month left and there’s so much more I want to do. Hopefully, having mornings off starting Monday will allow me to have enough time to accomplish all of the things I want to do!
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Tikal
[Our plane…much bigger than the ones we take in Alaska, but small enough to be enjoyable, though not quite as adventurous] We drenched ourselves in an aroma of bug spray and then headed out to see the temples and ruins. They were amazing! Our guide spoke in English and allowed us time to stop, look around, take pictures of wildlife, climb a temple every once in a while, and explore the ruins of the main center. We saw lots of amazing things including, little animals that looked like raccoons, but had longer noses, spider monkeys and howler monkeys! I tried to take pictures of some, but they didn’t all turn out.
[Little critters right on the side of the trail] [Spider monkey in the tree…look in the middle of the picture] Our treks up the temples were really cool. The tallest temple, Temple IV, had a massive amount of wooden stairs that took you up to the actual temple where you could climb about 10 more to get to the top. It was hot and tiring, but the view was worth it! It was really cool to just sit up there and see the tops of trees and other temples off in the distance and picture how life was back when those temples were in use. We climbed another temple too, but I forgot to bring my camera up it, so hopefully I’ll be able to snag some pictures from other people on that one.
[On top of Temple IV. You can see other temple peaks in the back ground.] At the end of the tour we got to the main center and had 40 minutes to wander around and explore on our own. It was so much fun! We wandered through tunnels not knowing where they’d lead and up steps that were over a foot tall each until we could see the entire landscape from the top. It was gorgeous! I really enjoyed the time with my friends, just climbing, exploring and having tons of fun together.
[The main center] [The temple that Tikal is most known for (and is on lots of postcards)…we couldn’t climb it though as it was recently struck by lightening and considered unsafe] After we finished exploring, we met up at 1 and headed back to the inn to eat lunch. We made it back and got our food a little before 2. I had steak- which was way better than I expected- rice, mixed veggies, beats (that I shared) and tortillas. It was a good meal! Then we loaded on the bus and headed back to the airport, waited at the airport for a little over an hour for our plane, then hopped on the plane to the City and then got on another bus back home to Antigua. We made it home before 8 last night then, showered and were in bed at 9. It was a long day, but good!
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Día de los Muertos
Feliz Halloween
[Me and Aleia...as Athena and Helen of Troy]
Fotografías
[My teacher, Delia, and me]
[Solomon's Porch]
[My Mayan teacher and me with the finished product! (I'm not sure why she wasn't smiling. She was extremely friendly and smiley during the process!)]
[The hotel we stayed at in San Juan...GORGEOUS!]
[Map of Lake Atitlan- arrows point to the places we visited...in case it's too hard to see the orange is Panajachel, the green is Santiago Atitlan, and the purple is San Juan]
Panajachel y Más
Amigos, sorry it has been so long since I’ve posted a new blog, but it’s been a crazy week and weekend! I have lots to talk about so brace yourself for a long blog. I’ll separate it into sections to make it easier to follow.
Spanish- Week Seven
As you know, last week was my seventh week of Spanish (and my last week with a test)! It went really well! I worked on a lot of the perfect tenses (present perfect, past perfect, future perfect) and present progressive. I also learned lots of vocabulary during the week related to Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), which is today, November 1st. I will be going with a group from my Spanish school, La Unión to a town that makes HUGE kites for a few hours to get the full experience in a place filled with less tourists and more natives, unlike
*I will be posting all of the pictures from this weekend on a separate blog post since there will be so many and this post is already going to be massive.*
Weekend Away…
Panajachel
Friday at
Saturday morning we woke up early and met in the lobby/courtyard area to leave for three different breakfast locations at 7. We ate early and split up so we could be sure to make it to our boat ride across the lake to
Sunday morning we ate breakfast at 8 at the hotel (oatmeal, pancakes and fruit) and then departed at 10 for Santiago Atitlán. When we arrived there we walked to the church, but because church was in session, we couldn’t look inside. Instead we wandered through the market just for the experience and then headed to a restaurant for lunch, Restaurante el Pescador. I had a chicken sandwich, French fries, papaya, pineapple, melon and a Coca-Cola for just Q52. It was really good! Then we wandered through the side shops and did some browsing/bartering and I actually made a purchase there that I’m pretty proud of. [You’ll have to wait til I get home to see what it is.] Actually I had a few proud purchases that day, but the others were at night back in Panajachel! At
Monday, I woke up at
**See pictures for this post on the next blog: Fotografías**