Chad’s blog

Madeline had a great time dancing and hopping around!

This was the coolest volcano that I've seen so far!  the best part was that it is active and it is only like a 1.5 hour  hike up to it.  While it was light out you could see some lava and molten rocks, or lava, would roll down the side of the volcano and bust apart flinging lava into the air.  Then when it got dark you could see all of the lava rivers and that was the real show.

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Saturday, February 21
Kinda thought that I wouldn’t have much to talk about today because I just hung out at the beach all day, went to the internet place in town for a bit and then sat by the beach drinking a few beers. Things were relatively normal and I was talking with the guy next to me who knew about as much English as I knew Spanish, so was kind of challenging. He was from Guatemala City and was down just for a night. We had a few beers and were watching the locals play soccer when his friend, who knew more English, sat down and asked if I liked tequila. Haven’t actually had tequila in a long time, but I’m in Central America, so why not have some. We go back to their Bungalow and things start to get a bit strange. One of the guys always had his back against the door and I figured out that these guys were “together” and maybe thought I would join them. At this point it was very obvious what their intentions were. After 3 shots one of them started puking and the guy at the door went to help him. That was my queue to leave, I yelled adios and fled back to the bar. There was a guy from Austria that I had met earlier sitting at a table, so I joined him and told him the whole story. Eventually the two tequila guys came back to the bar and sat at a different table. One of them kept looking at me and smiling, but I just ignored him. I wasn’t really in the mood to be raped. While we were at the bar this big guy pulled up in a jeep with 2 other guys and a blonde woman and walked into the bar. Everything was fine until the fight started. Apparently the big guy was the father of one of the other guys in the jeep and the blonde was the son’s girlfriend, if that makes any sense. Well, anyway, the blonde was all over the father, so the son got pissed and a fight broke out. We managed to stay mostly clear of things but did get hit with some glass from them throwing bottles. Nobody got hurt and the police came to break it up. It’s the only time I have actually seen the Police do anything, but was grateful that they came so quickly. The interesting thing was that they let the father drive off with the woman and the other guys even though the driver was obviously intoxicated driving on the beach. At least there was a little excitement and I got to sleep alone in my room.

Sunday, February 22
A very relaxing day. Was a little hung over from the tequila shots and slept till 11. I went down to the bar had a smoothie, took a shower and headed for town. On my way out I saw the tequila guys getting ready to leave and one of them were in his underwear and asked if I wanted to join them. I just kept walking to town. Then they pulled up next to me and said get in we will give you a ride, haha, no thanks! I kept walking and they took off. The interesting thing about this town is there are like 20 restaurants on the main street, but they are almost always empty. I asked someone about this and he said that is just the way it always is except during holy week when it is packed. I stopped at a place that I had seen some people eating at the day before and had a couple burritos. They were very good and only cost me 25Q which is like 3 bucks for 2 large burritos. After that I walked around town for a while and stopped at the internet place again to post some of my journals. Sunday is when all of the people from the city go back home, so there were lots of people around. It was also the first time I had seen lots of extremely drunk locals wandering the streets. Some couldn’t even walk and were crawling around and falling all over the place. Some would just fall down and fall asleep on the side of the road; the police would pass by, but do nothing. It was a sad sight to see. That night I just watched some soccer and went back to my room when the mosquitoes came out. Not sure if I mentioned this before, but after the sun goes down and it starts to get dark, the mosquitoes come out. You can either spray yourself or just go inside for like 30 minutes because they are really bad. Then they just go away.

Monday, February 23
Got up this morning and was surprised to see one of the couples I had stayed with in Santa Cruz at the bar. I joined them for breakfast and we told each other where we both had been for the past few days. They had gone to another hotel around Lake Atitlan for a few nights and got here last night. The guy from Austria was also down there and was heading out for Antigua today. He told me of a good place to stay there that was 60Q a night and included breakfast. I’ll check it out when I go there tomorrow, but there are also lots of places to stay in Antigua. I will only be there for 3 nights before I leave to go home and will try to go on day trips to volcanoes and stuff.

Panajachel

Volcano Erupting

I left Panajachel at 6am to catch a shuttle in Antigua to get to Monterrico.  The ride was absolutely beautiful going through the mountains and through many small villages.  On the way I was thinking of the way we live in the US compared to Guatemala and how unfair life really is.  I’m sure most are very happy living the way they do, but makes me feel really guilty that I feel that I need so much stuff.  While in Santa Cruz I was talking to a couple that were celebrating their 50^th anniversary with a trip all over Guatemala.  They were telling me of a shuttle trip that they were one where they passed trucks like you would see in the states hauling cattle, but they were stuffed full of people, literally stuffed full with everybody standing up.  They talked to their driver and the driver said that they were being brought south to harvest bananas and that they would be like that from early morning to 7pm except when the truck had to stop for fuel they could all briefly get out.  The driver knew this because he said that he used to be one of those people.  They are being treated this way just so that every convenience store in the US can sell bananas for 33 cents a pound.  People have to do what they have to do to survive, but I don’t think I will ever feel the same eating a banana again after hearing that story.  Well, anyway, it was a good shuttle trip to Antigua.  My shuttle from Antigua to Monterrico was to leave at 8:30 and we didn’t get there until 8:45, so I was thinking that I may be staying a night in Antigua.  Luckily when I got there the shuttle was waiting for me because I was the only passenger.  I hadn’t eaten anything yet, so I asked the driver, who spoke no English, if he could stop at a shop so I could get something to eat.  He understood shop and pulled over at a store where I bought 2 cokes, a bag of cheetos and a burrito for 23Q which is about $3.  I gave one coke to the driver for stopping and he was very appreciative.  I figured if we were going to be in the shuttle together like 2.5 hours, I may as well keep him happy.  It worked, he even would pull over and show me things to take pictures of and tell me what they were called.  We stopped to see a volcano erupting, another one that was just cool, and this hill that was in the shape of a Mayan.  Then when we finally got to Monterrico he basically said “ok, this is it, time to get out”, at least that is what I heard in the limited Spanish that I’ve acquired.  I asked him where my hotel was and he kind of pointed down the road and made a hand gesture like I take a left.  I was trying to ask him how far of a walk, but had no idea how to say it in Spanish, so he decided it would be easier to just drive me there.  He was very nice and I gave him a nice 20Q tip for it.  He saved me maybe a mile of hauling all my stuff, so it was worth it.  I proceeded to go to the reception area which is right next to the bar and was greeted by a German fellow, but they had no reservation for me.  He showed me the book and there was one for Chan, so I said that was me and I’m sure it was because it was for the type of room I wanted and for the same length of time I wanted to stay.  The room wasn’t ready yet, so I went to the bar and had a couple Gallos and some nachos.  The beer selection in Guatemala is very limited because one family that owns Gallo basically controls it all.  They own all the beer companies in Guatemala and also control any other beer that is brought in.  Another beer Brahva from Brazil tried to come into the country and sell their beer for less, so the owners of Gallo bought half of the Brahva company.  I was talking to a guy at the bar who said that there are 16 rich families in Guatemala that own everything, so they basically have control over everything.  Well, anyway, Monterrico Beach is absolutely amazing.  It is in Southern Guatemala on the Pacific coast and the beach is a dark volcanic sand.  While I was at the bar I met a guy from Monterrico that works at a turtle hatchery and he said he also runs tours of the mangrove swamps in the mornings.  I told him I would go, so we set it up to go at 5:30am.  My room was ready, so I moved in and took a little nap.  I got up and went for a walk on the beach, I was thinking of going swimming, but the waves were huge and breaking close to the shore.  At one point I decided to watch these 2 guys try to launch a boat from the beach.  There was an older gentleman and a younger guy who were launching it and the younger guy was very ancy about getting the boat in the water, the older guy just stood there watching the waves.  There were like 8 to 10’ waves coming in, so I thought it would be pretty interesting.  About 15 minutes later the older gentleman motioned to go and they pushed it in, started the motor, and were off into the ocean.  Not as exciting as I thought it would be, but the older gentleman knew the waves and just when to go.  I went back to Johnny’s and met a guy named Bill from Uruguay who was going on the same trip as I was in the morning, Bill talked way too much.  He knew everything and wanted to tell you everything which was fine because it was some company.  I had dinner there and watched the sunset which was amazing.  I didn’t have my camera with me, but will take some pics of the sunset one of these nights.  There is a beach soccer field and volleyball court in front of the hotel, so I also watched some locals play for a bit.  Once the sun goes down and it starts to get dark the mosquitoes come out for like 20 minutes, and then disappear.  I hung out at the bar till maybe 9 and then went to bed because I had to be up early in the morning. 

My alarm went off at 5:15 and I went outside to meet our guide who was waiting outside, Bill was there as well.  We walked to another hotel to get a woman from Colorado named Sue, and proceeded to walk to the other side of town to where the guides boat is.  It was a small wooden boat with 2 benches for us to sit on, he stood up and used a pole to guide us through the swamp.  The Mangroves were cool and there were lots of cool birds everywhere, and there were these cool fish they called four-eyes that would just kind of skip along the surface of the water.  The guide and Bill were explaining everything to us as we were going through.  At one point we almost got stuck, but the guide got us through it.  He did say that it was the last time he would go through that particular area and Bill was very excited because he had never been to this area before.  He was filming everything and asked us if we minded being shot and maybe being on YouTube.  Didn’t really matter to me and Sue didn’t mind either.  We got off once to try to find iguanas, but had no luck.  The guide said that the kids shoot them with slingshots and sell them, so there aren’t as many of them around anymore.  They probably end up in US pet shops to live in a cage the rest of their lives.  He also said that they catch shrimp here and they get 5Q a pound for jumbo shrimp, that’s less than a dollar a pound.  How much do jumbo shrimp go for at Shaw’s?  Anyway, we got back and Bill invited me up to his place where I met his wife Gina.  We went and had breakfast and Gina talked me into going to Tekal next week.  She gave me some places to stay and said you can’t leave Guatemala without seeing the ruins there.  Then Bill came over and said to stay at different places and always had a reason why it was better; I’m just going to go by Gina’s recommendations.  I had a nice breakfast of 3 eggs, chorizo, beans, a bowl of fruit, and coffee.  They were leaving today, so I said goodbye, went back to my room, and here I am now.  I will be here until Monday.

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Sunday, February 15

I took a boat from San Pedro to Santa Cruz and wow, what a difference.  It is so laid back here, there is none of the crap you have to deal with that there was in San Pedro.  No hippies, do people constantly bugging you about buying this or that, no vehicles, and very nice people here.  San Pedro was nice, but bongos from 2am to 4 am get old after a while.  Last night like 50 locals came down to the intersection where my hotel was and partied till like 4, it was annoying and a bit scary.   They were extremely loud with smashing beer bottles and fighting.  So glad to be away from that!   I’m staying at probably the nicest place I’ve ever stayed at and it only costs like 25 bucks a night which is expensive by Guatemala standards, but includes breakfast.  I have my own cabin up on this hillside with the most incredible view!  It’s quite a hike to get up to it, but is worth it.  I wish I could post some pictures, but they are very limited on bandwidth because they have to use satellite.  They just got internet here 5 months ago!  I think I will stay here for 5 nights and then maybe go to Antigua or Xela for a bit.  That night I opted not to eat at the hotel and the only place I found that would make me anything was a place that nobody was in.  This place had beautiful gardens and patios, but for some reason there wasn’t anybody there.  The owner was there and she did make me a very good burrito con pollo.  After that went back and watched This is Spinal Tap.

Monday, February 16

Still in Santa Cruz and today I met a dude named Mike who is an organic farmer in Minnesota and we decided to take a hike to another village named San Marcos.  It was a beautiful hike up through the mountains and we went through 2 other small villages on the way there.  It took us 2.5 hours to get there and we had lunch at a cool place called Moon Fish.  San Marcos is a unique village that has lots of places to meditate, do yoga, and study weird astral stuff.  Kinda weird people there, but they were all very relaxed.  We went to the dock to take a boat back and when the boat came to pick up everybody, the captain and his first mate got off the boat and just left all of us sitting in the boat tied up to the dock.  Turns out they just went and sat on a bench and shared a joint.  They came back and we had a nice ride back to Santa Cruz.  that night had dinner with everyone else at the hotel and it was a very good meal.  The we watched Seven Pounds, I had the movie on my computer, so I gave it to them and they gave me a free beer.  Was a strange night to watch the movie which I will talk about later.

Tuesday, February 17

Today I did nothing, but mike and I did skip out of the hotel dinner because he wanted to go somewhere to get a Rob Roy.  We went to this place in the middle of nowhere on the lake to get it.  While we were drinking it he told me that his father had died 5 years yesterday and the Rob Roy was his father’s drink.  He told me that his father donated organs to 10 different people when he died.  I was thinking holy shit, it’s only the first date, that’s pretty heavy.  We then had a fabulous meal and he walked me home with his flashlight.  We watched The Yes Men at the hotel tonight; it was a very interesting mockumentary.

Wednesday, February 18

Today went kayaking with Mike.  We went out to the middle of the lake and along the shore a little over 2 villages over.  On the way back I found a really cool small cliff to jump off of and that was the only time I swam in lake Atitlan.  It was cold.  Kayaking was fun and after I had lunch and packed to go home.  When checking out I didn’t have enough money , so was going to pay by credit card,, but they charge 10% to use a credit card.  They told me to just mail them a check.  WTF?  I questioned how they would trust me to just mail them a check and they told me that they have my email, so they could just email me for it.  Whatever.  After I checked out, Mike and I went to Panajachel, which is the largest town on the lake.  It is very interesting because there are streets and streets of people selling the exact same thing and tourist agencies selling the exact same shuttles.  We ate dinner at this Italian place and across the street there was this girl, who was manning a store of weavings and clothing, that didn’t sell a thing for the over 2 hours that we were there.  On the way out I had to go buy something from her, so I bought a little doll for Madeline that she wanted 15Q for, but I paid her 10Q.  Stayed at Larry’s Place which was pretty good with warm shower.

Yesterday I travelled to Monterrico which is on the Pacific coast near El Salvador.  Internet really blows here and there is only one place with 4 computers to use.  But anyway, I´m staying in a nice place right on the beach sweating my ass off.  More later because I don´t feel like typing anymore.

I took a boat from San Pedro to Santa Cruz and wow, what a difference.  It is so laid back here, there is none of the crap you have to deal with that there was in San Pedro.  No hippies, no people constantly bugging you about buying this or that, no vehicles, and very nice people here.  San Pedro was nice, but bongos from 2am to 4 am get old after a while.  Last night like 50 locals came down to the intersection where my hotel was and partied till like 4, it was annoying and a bit scary.   They were extremely loud with smashing beer bottles and fighting.  So glad to be away from that!   I’m staying at probably the nicest place I’ve ever stayed at and it only costs like 25 bucks a night which is expensive by Guatemala standards, but includes breakfast.  I have my own cabin up on this hillside with the most incredible view!  It’s quite a hike to get up to it, but is worth it.  I wish I could post some pictures, but they are very limited on bandwidth because they have to use satellite.  They just got internet here 5 months ago!  I think I will stay here for 5 nights and then maybe go to Antigua or Xela for a bit.

It’s now Wednesday and my Spanish classes today were cancelled because the teacher had some family things he had to deal with. Guess I really need the classes because today at lunch I ordered a tortilla con carne and they brought me steak and eggs with toast and beans.  It was delicious, but tomorrow I may try again for the tortilla con carne and see what I get.  After that I went over to the nursery to see what Javier, the guy that runs the nursery, was up to.  Javier mostly lies in a hammock, but today he wanted to know how to grow poinsettias.  When we left to go to his house he brought a machete and I thought maybe it was in a bad part of town, but I asked him why we needed a machete and he said to take the cuttings.  Never done it with a machete, but hey, you use what you have.  We were going to go to his house to take some cuttings to propagate, but his plants were like 8 feet tall and only had flowers on the tips of the branches that were like 2 inches in diameter.  I guess that’s why he brought the machete.  He said they wouldn’t start growing more for like another month, so I decided just to show him how to do it with coleus that he had growing back at the nursery.  We took a coke bottle and made a makeshift greenhouse to propagate in and I demonstrated how to do it with the coleus.  He took notes the whole time and hopefully he has good success because he said that he could sell them to the other locals.  They plant them in front of their houses, but always have to buy them from away.  After that we walked around the nursery and he showed me what he grows and wanted to know what I called things.  He cut 2 habanera peppers off a bush, gave one to me and he said “try it, it’s good”.  I told him “no, they are way too hot to eat, do you eat them alone?”  He said “no, I cut them up with tomatoes and other herbs to make enselata.”  Glad I didn’t fall for that one!  It was cool all the stuff they can grow here, most of which are houseplants in Maine, but also coffee, oranges, bananas, avocadoes, papaya, and lots more.  For 6 months out of the year they get absolutely no rain, so he has to irrigate everything by hand.  Well, he doesn’t water, but he pays others to do it for him.  Now I’m back at the hotel and will probably take a nap after a hard days work.

It was the craziest trip I've ever been on and I'm glad that I'm finally here.  Guatemala city is totally nuts, the chicken buses are nuts, the drivers are nuts, not knowing Spanish is crazy, but it has been interesting so far.  On the chicken bus I was the only white person out of maybe 100 people packed into a retired american school bus.   I will post more when I find wireless, but I made it.  Found a pretty good place to stay www.hotelmansiondellago.com  for about 10 bucks a night, but I do have my own private bathroom, so it will do for now.

here is the view from my hotel room: