Mexico part dos - San Cristobal

I have just returned from 6 great days in Mexico. As I mentioned in my previous Mexico blog, I went to San Cristobal de las Casas and then up to Palenque, the ancient city, to see some ruins. I was first impressed by how organized, clean and seemingly well run things were in Mexico compared to Guatemala. I left Xela early Sunday morning and made it to San Cristobal at about 4pm. I met up with Marissa and her friend Clare at the hostal and that evening we went out for a great "comida economica." For about 30 pesos (2 dollars)a plate, we had chicken with mole sauce and a form of nachos with chicken, vegetables and a tomato sauce. Although I think I´ve realized the mole isn´t my favorite, it was still pretty good.

The next day, we explored the city. San Cristobal is a really cute city that reminds me of a mix between Antigua, Guatemala and Xela. It is a colonial city, so has spanish style buildings and tons and tons of brightly colored and intricate churches - like Antigua. At 7.000 feet, a little more then Xela, it´s mountainy and a little less toristy then Antigua. The next morning we rented bikes to see some of the areas outside of the city. We didn´t go very far, but had a view of some of the fields and residential areas away from the touristy parts. The surrounding area is beautiful and lush.

We then walked around town and visited Cerro San Cristobal, and the church on top of the hill - with a good 300 steps to get to the top. The church wasn´t open for us to enter it, but we had a nice view from the top. Next to the church on the side of the hill, was the largest Mexican flag I have ever seen. I think if you had laid it on the ground it would have been at least 1,000 square feet. In case you ever got confused, there was no mistaking that you were in Mexico! That afternoon and evening we explored the market and went a little shop crazy. Everything in Mexico is a good bit cheaper then in Guatemala, so we felt completely justified in all of our purchases. And, given that it was Semana Santa, when everyone is travelling in Mexico, there were markets galore.

After Marissa and Clare headed back to Guatemala, I stayed in San Cristobal another day and went to the Canon del Sumidero. The canyon is 42 miles long and over 1,000 meters high and ends at Mexico´s largest hydroelectric plant. The canyon was beautiful and the two hours on the boat just taking in the amazing natural wonder was great. I couldn´t believe it though, there were even sellers on a boat at the end of the 42 miles (before you turn around and head back) selling the usual nuts, jicama, mangos with lime and chili, "aguas", etc... They´ll really take any opportunity to sell you things, even in a beautiful canyon where you thought you were free of such scemes. Our boat driver/guide really liked to drive fast, and into waves, so there were some cold and wet (but fun) moments. Since I had been hoping to see some crocodiles and there didn´t appear to be any, I couldn´t help but wonder if he was really able to spot them because he was driving so fast...














In the canyon there were also some interesting rock formations like this on - the christmas tree. Apparently during the rainy season it´s an stunning waterfall.




The rest of my time in San Cristobal (that night and then a day when I got back from Palenque) was spent wandering around, enjoying the coffee shops, restaurants and relaxing. On Thursday night and friday, the easter festivities were in full swing. The city was packed with toursits, mostly from Mexico, Italy and France, who were there to watch the easter processionals and enjoy the easter festivities. There was a food fair, like the one at Carnival in Xela, in the main square with taco, quesadilla, churro and tamale stands.

I went to the traditional Mayan Medicine museaum, where I learned about various tradition healing methods, including certain animals like chickens and squirrles that healers will hold over you to heal certain ailments. There was also an entire room dedicated to the end of "biopiracy" - the patening of traditional medicine by western companies. There was a list of all the medicines that had been used for thousands of years and the companies and doctors that had taken them back to the US (primarily) and patented them. They had biographies on explorers and doctors over the past 400 years that had been biopirates. I was really fascinated with this, as I had never heard of biopiracy, much less even thought of it as problem.

I was really surprised with the number of european tourists in Mexico. I felt like everytime I turned around someone was speaking french. I actually spoke spansh 90% of the week, as I met very few americans or people that spoke english. When I explained to the europeans I met that I was living in Guatemala, the usual response was "oh, isn´t it dangerous there??". It made me wonder what sort of international PR guatemala is getting, or if it´s just word of mouth after someone reads a story about the dangers in Guatemala City.

One final anectode before I leave this blog entry, to write one more about Palenque... The number of young children street vendors in Guatemala has always struck me. Children wander around selling nuts, food at soccer games and on buses. However, San Cristobal seemed to have about 10 times more child vendors then any place i´d been before. The boys, who looked between 7 and 12, were mainly selling little wooden animals. The girls, would sell bracelets and scarves, often with their mothers along side them selling other items. I was surprised as to how many Mexicans purchased items from them and how accepted they were in the culture - eventhough I know i shouldn´t be. Sometimes they were left to man a market stand, which made bargining more difficult as you could tell they were only authorized to go down to a certain amount. The children vendors bombard you when you are eating in restaurants or drinking a cup of coffee, standing right by your table saying only a few words "scarves, nice scarves, 30 pesos, for you 25." When you ignore or say no, they would walk away and move on to the next. This happened to me when I was eating dinner one night. I was done with my meal and a few avocado slices, chips and refried beans were left on my table as I was reading. 2 girls came up to me and I ignored them as is my general policy. They persisted for a while and then instead of leaving, they pointed my leftovers and asked if they could have them. When I quickly nodded my head, the two girls scooped it all up quickly and ate it right there, picking away until it was all gone. I was worried the restaurant owner was going to say something to me. They then asked me for some napkins, put whatever was left on the napkins, wiped their faces, and said thanks. This 5 minute interaction made me pause and put their night´s work into perspective.

Buenos dias Guatemala. A guest blog by Steve.

Eight days in Guatemala is hardly enough. What can you see in eight days? What can you do in eight days? A lot in fact, but hardly enough. There is too much to do and too much to see. It won’t surprise me a bit if Laura leaves thinking she did a lot, but not enough. I suppose that’s the sign of a lovely country.

I’d by lying if I said I came for Guatemala. If Laura had been in Mongolia, I would have gone there instead. Despite my personal motives, Guatemala kindly decided to take me in, feed me well, provide me with countless adventures, seemingly endless beauty and, quite conveniently, affordable prices.

Arriving in Guatemala, after approximately 16 hours of travel, and several weeks of planning before that, Laura rewarded me with hugs, kisses, and a long bus ride up to Cobán. To be honest, I didn’t care. Having not seen Laura for well over two months, we could have been anywhere, doing anything, and I would have been happy as a clam. On the ride up we decided that we would stay in Cobán for the night rather than continue on to our next destination, Lanquin. The town was a nice introduction to Guatemala. Not too busy, not too touristy, some good cheap food at a small café in the center of town, and a simple, clean room with an innocent looking bedside table with lamp.

Lanquin was a short three-hour bus ride away, and early the next morning we set off. Arriving in Lanquin we set off for Semuc Champay. That is to say, we sat in the middle of Lanquin waiting, and waiting for a bus to take us the 20 minutes to the park. Everyone we asked assured us we were in the right place and that a bus would be by any minute. I don’t know how long we waited, but it was long enough to convince us that getting ice cream wasn’t just an idea it was a necessity.

When we finally arrived at the park, it was well worth the wait. That day, and the next, we swam in turquoise pools made by geological event things, hiked to the Mirador, and looked over the stunning green-blue valley below, explored pitch black caves holding candles for light, and went tubing not once, but twice. I even had the opportunity to jump off a bridge into the river below. The key, I found, not to think but do. Don’t ask questions. Just take the plunge.

The hostel we stayed in was picturesque, the all you can eat buffet was ohh so nice, and the hammock in front of our private hut was essential. And the thrown-like toilet, several steps above the bathroom entrance, made me feel at times like a King, at others like a child.

Antigua was next. Colonial, pretty, overpriced, but fun. Big churches, a variety of food options, and another cute hotel. This was Antigua. Our room had quite a few mosquitos, normal we were told, that our host kindly killed with enough toxic chemicals to make both of us miss our little bloodsucking friends.

From Antigua we hit up ‘the lake’. I guess there is only one. Surrounded by volcanoes, with water vast and deep blue, we stayed at a hotel built into a cliff-face, accessible only by boat taxi, and completely absurd. For significantly less than the crappy Motel 6 would have cost me at the Houston Airport, Laura and I stayed in probably the nicest hotel either of us has even been to. There we met a crew of interesting people, drank wine, ate well, and were merry. Speaking of eating well, although the typical Guatemalan fare is probably inadequate for those staying for a long time, I was overwhelmed by the tastiness of the food we ate. Chicken, guacamole, eggs, blackberries, liquados, street food, and the best Mediterranean style tapas I have ever had, the food quality of our eating was a very pleasant surprise. I could say more about the hotel, but it wouldn’t do justice to our stay. Go and see it for yourself. That’s my recommendation. Laura will be more than happy to bring you there and give you the tour.

Our final destination was Xela. Seeing Laura’s town, spending time in her home, and just relaxing and walking around, I felt like I could stay indefinitely. It was a wondrous mix of our typical Laura/Steve routine and life in a foreign country. It made me realize that Laura and I could do this international thing no problem. Europe, Central America, wherever. I didn’t want to leave and I want to go back now. Sadly for now I’ll work in D.C., but very soon we are going to blogging together, and telling all our friends and interested readers about our adventures in new places with new faces. We just have to do this NYC thing real quick. I can’t wait.

Mexico

I´m in Mexico! You are only allowed to stay in Guatemala for 90 days on a tourist visa, and getting any other kind of visa is a pain, so most people do a Visa in Mexico run every 90 days (El Salvador, Nic, and Honduras don´t count because they are part of the Central American Federation - i think that´s what it´s called.) So, since I had to come to Mexico, and it´s Semana Santa, where everything is closed down anyway, i decided to make a week of it. Steve left Sunday morning (more about that in a bit) and I came to San Cristobal de las Casas, a very very cute town. This region used to be part of Guatemala, so many say that it isn´t really Mexico, but is more of a Guatemalan-Mexico mix. It feels very colonial, and is touristy, but at least most of the tourists are Mexican too. And, the tacos are nothing like what you would find in Guatemala, so in that sense it´s definitely Mexico. That

Since I can´t seem to load any pictures right now, I will just give a brief rundown and then show you all the cool places when I get back to Xela. I met up on Sunday with my housemate Marissa and her friend Claire, who got here a few days before. We spent yesterday wandering around town, rented some bikes, and doing lots of shopping at the local market. Today I went to a Canon and went on a boat all the way down and back, 84km! I had been told that I would see lots of Crocodiles, but only saw one baby one, so was a little sad about that. But, it was really beautiful regardless. Tomorrow I´m headed to some Mayan Ruins about 4 hours up north called Palenque. They will be my first ruins ever and I´m really looking forward to it. Then, I´m back to San Cristobal for a day, and sadly, then back to Xela.

In other news, for those of you who are curious, I will be attending Columbia in the fall. I have been accepted to both the MPA and MPH programs, and will start with the MPA at SIPA. I´m still getting used to the idea of living in NY, but increasingly getting excited about it. You can all start planning your visits now.
Adios and more blogs and lots of pictures when I get back into Guatemala.

Final Week at Primeros Pasos

My time working at Primeros Pasos has come to end. I can't believe how quickly the 2 months have flown by! It was a great last week, as we were able to go into the schools and teach 6th graders Sex Education and STD prevention. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I, and 2 other Primeros Volunteers, went to three different schools with classes that ranged from 20 to 45. Like in the clinic, the 6th graders were very interested and, for the most part, well behaved. There was the occasional chuckling and giggling. We passed out cards at the beginning so that they could write anonymous questions that would be answered at the end. Many of the questions were "Why?" questions. Such as "Why do boys voices change?" and "Why do girls grow bigger hips?" as well as "Why do people get HIV/AIDS?" Interestingly, even though we explained how HIV/AIDS and STDs are transmitted, there still seemed to be the conception that you could just "get it", from one day to the next. Some of the questions also asked us to reexplain basic concepts that we had just covered. This leads to me to wonder what we take for granted in teaching this information. If they haven't had any education on the human body or how or bodies work, I can imagine that being thrown all sorts of Sexual Education can be overwhelming and difficult to comprehend. I also think this was the first time these students had heard the birds and the bees. While I am excited to move on to my next adventure, I am a little sad to not be able to teach anymore.

Some of you have also asked me what I do for fun during the week or around Xela. So... I generally try to leave Xela every other weekend. When I spent the weekends here, I like to do one of the day hikes right around the city or go to a neighboring town. During the week, I hang out at night with my housemates quite a bit. We cook together one or two times a week, or other Primeros Pasos volunteers will have a dinner at their house. Given the amount of foreigners in Xela, there is always something to do, whether its a movie, a benefit party for one of the NGOs, going to get a drink or listen to music. I also like to just hang out at home during the week and read or watch a movie. I have discovered how wonderful sleep is here, and try to get as much of it as I can!

In other news, Steve is arriving tomorrow and we are headed to Semuc Champey, north of Guatemala City and then the Lake and Antigua. I will be sure to write all about it and post many pictures. I'm then headed to Mexico for some beach, ruins and a Visa run. So, it might be a while but I will blog again soon!

Relaxing times and traditional healers in Xela

This past weekend I hung around Xela and revisited some relaxing places. It was my friend Emily's last weekend in Xela, so on Saturday she and I did one of her favorite hikes to Los Vahos (the natural steam rooms). Even though I don't love steam rooms, these are a great retreat. The hour walk/hike gets you out of Xela and into farmlands within 10 min and is a great escape. Additionally, since my shower here is more of a hot trickle then an actual shower, it's wonderful to feel really hot for once. On Sunday I went back to the hot springs, the Fuentes Giorginas. These are up in the hills about 30min outside of Xela. This time though I went with a housemate's family (Guatemalan) who brought food to grill. We spent most of the day there coming in and out of the hot water, eating food off the grill and even did a little hike above the Fuentes. Next time I go back, I'm going to do it this way again!

This past week I started volunteering a few afternoons with a new organization, PIES del Occidente. They have a variety of projects, but primarily focus on Nurse and Midwife training, have 2 clinics in small towns outside of Xela, have a domestic violence program, have radio shows and also work on other various other projects related to women's health. They are much more in line with my interests. This past week, I went with the Communications Director to help her film a documentary on traditional Mayan medicine. The documentary is for Med students at the local university in order for them to learn about and understand traditional medicine. Unsurprisingly, traditional medicine is widely used (mainly everwhere but larger cities) but not taught in the University or valued by modern medicine folk. Here are the people we met and interviewed...

Chayero: One day we drove to a small town, Puesto del Aire, looking for the local Chayero - a blood healer. He was this adorable 70+ year old man, (but who looked much older). Finding his house, and his not so friendly wife, was pretty easy. But finding him was a whole other story. He decided that he would come and meet us, so went for a "walk" right around when our appointment was. We proceeded to spend the next 1.5 hours driving up and down the one road into the town looking for him walking. We had driven 2 hours to meet him, so were not going to give up easily. We called his cell phone, and he didn't pick up and his wife just waved her hand in the direction she thought he had gone. We did eventually find him, as we were just giving up hope and doing one final drive by. He said he picked up his phone the first time it rang, but no one was on the other line and he had decided to go for a walk... Nevertheless, 2 hours later, we were able to avoid another drive out into the town and interview him. The Chayero only cures "external" illnesses or pain - meaning, no stomach aches, coughs or anything of the sort. He has a piece of glass attached to a stick that he essentially flicks at your arm vein to let some of the blood out. This is supposed to ease the pain and cure you when chemical medicine, as they call it, doesn't work. He has far fewer patients now then he used to, and hasn't trained anyone to be a Chayero. I'm not really sure what is going to happen when he is no longer able to work.

Curero - a bone healer. This man was easier to find, and was there when he said he would be. We saw him make his cream that he uses to heal muscle soreness and problems. Using sheep lard, leaves, incense, and some berries he makes this potent smelling cream. Let me tell you though, I've never smelt something as terrible as the melting of the sheep lard, it is nasty! For the bone healing, from what I could tell, he essentially pops bones back into place if they've been dislocated. Or, he can tell through feeling if you've broken something. He is still pretty popular and has a number of patients a week.

Comadrona - midwife. I don't think we consider midwives traditional healer, but in Guatemala they aren't respected as they are in the US. This probably has to do with them not having any formal training here and many guatemalan's thinking that only western medicine is real medicine. This Midwife started when she was 18 and is now 69. She estimated that she had attended over 4,000 births! During her exam of a pregnant woman (obviously), she used her hands over the belly to estimate how many months along the woman was. She also pushed the fetus around to see if everything was ok and healthy. I'm not really sure what she was looking for, but hopefully will find out in the near future.

Doing these interviews was a really interesting adventure! Unfortunately I don't have any pictures, but hopefully will have a copy of the documentary for all who are interested!

El Volcan Tajumulco

This weekend, I hiked the tallest mountain, which also happens to be a volcano, in Central America - Tajumulco. It was an absolutely amazing trek. It's 4,223 m (13,854 feet) high and some claim it is still active, however none of those recent eruptions have been documented. (A volcano has to have had no eruptions for 500 years to become officially dormant.)

My housemate and fellow Primeros Pasos volunteer, Marissa, and another friend Fernando and I went together on the trek, guided by Quetzaltrekers. Quetzaltrekers is a non profit that leads trips with volunteer guides. All proceeds of the treks go to Escuela de la Calle and Primeros Pasos. We were all really impressed with the guides, the food and the organization of the trip. (this picture is of Marissa and I with Tajumulco on the right and the other peak on the left, base camp was in the middle)






We left Saturday morning at 4:45am at the Quetzaltrekers office and then took a pick up truck to the bus terminal. We then took a chicken bus ride to San Marcos, had breakfast at a small comedor, and then got on another bus to the trail head. At the trail head, there was another group getting ready to trek up - they had mules to carry their water, tents, food and sleeping bags. We called them slackers. They also had a police escort.

At around 10am we started hiking up and after a few breaks, a nice lunch (homemade by the quetzaltrekers) and a snack, we arrived to base camp around 3. There were 8 other participants, 4 guides and 2 11-year olds from the school that Quetzaltrekers supports. We were all extremely impressed with the 11-year olds, and extremely jealous with the amount of energy they appeared to have! The guides kept telling us that our group was one of the fastest they had ever had and I loved how we all stuck together. The weather was pretty cloudy, so we couldn't see any of the views around us and had no idea how high up we were or where we were.

(This a pic of Fernando and I on the way down, a little out of order, but you get the idea) Base camp was on the saddle in between the top of Tajumulco and another peak to the side of it. After setting up the tents and having some hot drinks, because it was getting quite cold. The plan was to then see the sunset from the peak that is to the side of Tajumulco. We hiked up there around sunset, but the peak was completely covered in clouds, so we didn't get to see a thing. Nevertheless it was a nice hike, and nice to be without our packs. We then had dinner, and were all in bed around 8:00pm!

The next morning was another early one, but well worth it. We all woke up at 4am and hiked to the summit to watch the sunrise. This was the most challenging part, because we were all still half asleep, the terrain was the most challenging and it was pitch black dark. As we started hiking up, for the first time we saw how high up we actually were and it was incredible. The cloud was breaking over the towns in the valley below us and you saw the city lights and a blanket of cloud cover.

We got to the summit, pulled out our sleeping bags and watched the sunrise over the clouds. Words can't describe how amazing it was, so here are some pictures. You might not be able to see it in the pictures, but in the background is the tip of Santa Maria (the volcano near Xela), Sant'Agito erupting next to it, and Fuego (near Antigua) erupting in the distance. It was an incredible hike, and I didn't want to come back down! At the top with the shadow of Tajumulco and Tacana in the background:

Pictures!

I love all the different foods that new places bring. A few weekends ago I went to the beach, El Tulate, with the other "Posada" Residents. Other than being a great weekend at the beach, in the sun, getting tan (jealous yet?) I also had some amazing seafood.




Here is Marissa eying our food. We were starved! The food takes at least an hour to make after you order it. They make everything to order, because they never know how many customers, if any, are going to come for dinner. It didn't seem that the restaurants had any of the food before you got there either. We would see someone - sometimes the 14 year old looking child (or someone) of the chef - disappear into "town" for a little while and then run back with what appeared to be a part of our meal. Either the vegetables, tortillas, or even the fish... The "town" iscomprised of a strip of restaurants, one hotel, and a few tiendas, so I wondered if they just borrowed foods from the other restaurants. I think we were the the only overnight vistors we saw all weekend. The fish, ceviche and shrimp was all amazingly good and well worth the wait!


Back in Xela, these are the infamous chocobananas. I'm not sure where it comes from, but a favorite snack is chocolate covered fruit. The Primeros Pasos staff do have a favorite place to purchase chocobananas, chocomango, and chocopina. There is one store near the bus stop where the woman dips them to order, so they are always fresh. Plus, you can choose one dip or two, white or dark chocolate (or a dip of each.) It is a favorite breakfast for some too...


This is a common sweets table at the market. Just about everything coconut and everything candied you can imagine. The most common intense looking sweets are candied sweet potato, squash and pumpkin. I will most likely not try those.



Ok, this isn't food, but it is a raccoon looking animal on a leash - in one of the restaurants at the beach (where we chose not to eat). It was rather bizzare, so I decided to share, as a good blogger does.