Patrick's Journal from Guatemala

April 1, 2009

5:15 Central time
- Arrived in Houston, very overcast, kind of humid, looking out while landing.
- It is amazing how FLAT Texas is! You can see all the major cities just on the horizons!
- Mr. Lance had tickets to the Presidential Club. It was very crowded and snooty, not very kid friendly. We could not find a place to sit or anything filling to eat. So we grabbed some snacks and coffee and left in search of nourishment!
- We found a Ruby’s Diner to eat, and promptly divided up the tables 5 and 5 - the healthy and the quarantined. (Giorgiani, Addi, Christina, Fiona and I)
- Christina and I both ordered a Chinese chicken salad. When it arrived, we realized we should have just shared. Everything really IS big in Texas!
- Plane flight from Houston to Guatemala City filled with trashy magazine reading and MASH games.

9:15 Guatemala Time (1 hour ahead of San Mateo)
- Descending into Guatemala City, it is crazy to see how modern and illuminated it is. Looks just like flying in back home!
- The atmosphere is very nice, cool, humid inside, much nicer outside.
- I’m having a little trouble breathing; Victor says it must be the altitude.
- I’m going to feel like more of a giant than ever. The ceiling heights are SO LOW!!!!
- Customs and Luggage is quick and easy. :)
- Met Kristen and piled into a van to travel a few blocks to our inn, the streets looked very clean.
-We turned the corner into a dark alley and came across two men holding two VERY LARGE SHOTGUNS! All of our hearts skipped a beat, I think. Turns out they are on our side. *Whew!*
-Kristen explains that there has been some violence in Guatemala City recently. Related to recent narcotics bust, there has been some killing on red buses. She assures us that the incidents are not occurring we are going and we will be traveling in private vans and will have security with us. Feeling pretty safe so far, never felt in any danger the whole trip.
- Bed and breakfast is very cute, cozy. Looking forward to tomorrow after debriefing.

April 2, 2009

-Addi woke everyone up at 5:45 in the morning, Guatemala time! (4:45am San Mateo time!)
- Crazy bird sounds today, we are all trying to figure out what type of bird it is.
- Weather is very nice, clear. A bit too cold for Malini.
- Shower is very nice; facilities are not bad, pretty moderate.
- After a nice breakfast of fruit and toast, INTENSE game of Hearts started. Malini and I, the beginners, did surprisingly well!
- The group then left Guatemala City to head towards some villages and the Namaste office in Antigua.
- The city is pretty modernized; everything is made of mortar and metal.
- We drove by many of the red buses that were being attacked recently. Kind of like the BART transportation at home. Kind of scary.
- We saw the BIGGEST McDonalds, Burger King, and Chuck E. Cheeses here! They’re HUGE!
- Lots of people driving, walking around doing their daily thing. Dresses vary from traditional to casual.
- Drove up into the hills to visit the small village of San Mateo, the same name of the town we're from. :)
- Met with Nelly and Jim, two Namaste employees, who gave us a tour of the town and introduced us to Domingo, a Business Advisor for the local women who receive microcredit.
- Got to visit a local woman who Domingo advised. She had 5 children and was a string bean farmer.
- Fiona got the best picture of Addi communicating with one of the little girls.
- Kristen stressed the importance of not taking too many pictures; we didn’t want to make the women feel exploited.
- Drove from San Mateo to Antigua to the NamasteDirect office, climbed to roof for great view.
- Had sandwiches for lunch and had big discussion for how microloans work.
- The group then drove into Antigua and visited a community center for local women, got to see them in action learning how to sew, make cakes, pizza dough. Malini, Fiona and Jackie got involved and kneaded dough.
- All chilled in the back rooms and outside on the lawn in the sun
- One of the donors who traveled with us that day came and offered us tortillas from street vendors, which we happily devoured. Unfortunately, Kristin came and gave us a big lecture on the importance of not eating street food, scared the CRAP out of us, that we were all going to get sick. Luckily, no one was ill.
- Had yummy yummy ice cream at Marco Polo in downtown Antigua.
- Arrived at Black Cat Inn in downtown Antigua, a hostel for college students traveling in Guatemala.
- Smelly, small, rooms and facilities, but other than that, a very fun time spent with college students from across the world.
- Played cards with Matias, who was born in Argentina and now lives in Israel, who was visiting Guatemala, very nice guy. His next big trip is to New York City.
- A little bit later, Jared filled in the forth spot for Hearts, a friendly funny guy from Virginia. Had a great time playing while waiting for Kristin, James to come back from the office, ended exactly at 6:00 PM after he foiled my attempt to shoot the moon on the last card!
- Went on a nighttime walking tour of churches, lit up at night and being prepared for Semana Santa (the Holy Week).
- Ate dinner at Cafe Skye, fancy restaurant on balcony, huge menu selection. I went with the BBQ chicken, because the BBQ sauce is SO different here, little more spice and natural sweetness.
- The group recognized the music playing as Simon and Garfunkel and -get this- a techno remix of Smells Like Teen Spirit.
- At about 9:00, the group walked back to the hostel. Even though it was pitch black down narrow, empty streets, we never ONCE felt in danger. Very safe.
- Once back into the hostel, the music was VERY loud y muy borrachos! (Many drunks!)
- The entire group came together to play cards with two decks, lotta fun!
- As the group went to bed, Jared showed up again to slap into an intense game of Egyptian War.
- Fun way to end the night.

April 3, 2009

- Couldn’t sleep most of the night with the mosquitoes buzzing around me! Scary!
- While waiting for everyone to pack up, another Hearts game began. Mr. Lance got in on this one, and he really kicked my butt. :( He gave me the really mean cards.
- Black Cat Inn restaurant was probably the biggest, best breakfast on the trip. Christina, Jackie, Giorgiani and Emily all ordered pancakes, and had to cancel TWO orders due to their insane sizes!
- They played “Come On, Eileen” on the soundtrack! I had this feeling that they would, and if they didn’t, I’d have been really disappointed. Woohoo!
- Boarded the “sick bus” and tied the bags to the computer to travel out to rural villages and Panajachel.
- Big yummy breakfast + bouncy car ride = not fun. :P
- On the drive there, we passed numerous smoggy towns with mechanic shops back to back to back. It seems to be those places where you’re born into the job. Doesn’t look like there are too many educational opportunities or good health in these towns.
- Visited a woman and her family in their very rural town, she showed us her beautiful huipiles (traditional woven cloth) that she has been trying to sell.
- Apparently, Semana Santa is the best time to sell her goods, but for some reason, not as many people are buying them this year. (Shows that the global economic crisis is not only affecting just the big countries and cities!)
- The group offered to buy one, but the price was just way too much. Nelly told us that the workshops we visited yesterday were to teach people like her other skills that she could use to make money in the off-season.
- We visited another village that received microloans, this one made up of two families. The conditions seemed very poor, dusty, but the women seemed very happy and optimistic.
- The children were very shy, but this one cute girl was a total ham for the cameras. She loved to get her picture taken.
- We found a lonely turkey that was pining for its mate. Poor thing…everyone sympathized, lol.
- We traveled with a husband/wife business advisor team to the villages who spoke Spanish and the indigenous Mayan languages.
- After hours of driving, the restaurant we were going to for lunch had been CLOSED for a week! Augh! We ended up going to a very touristy, but very yummy, roadside restaurant.
- During lunch, Fiona had a very nice conversation with the husband/wife team. I could catch a bit of the conversation. They were very friendly, and often took in travelers who were visiting Guatemala in their rather large house.
- After a short drive, arrived at the Iximche Ruins, the remnants of an ancient city. The place was not as super famous, or super touristy, as Tikal, but it was a quiet, local spot. Very large spread out buildings and dirt mounds to climb, run around.
- The group reenacted the Soulja Boy on top of the huge temple, very embarrassing.
- Drew the attention of another group, a group of young adults from all over Central America who were part of an economic support group. The guard who was trying to get us to leave ended up taking pictures of the groups together.
- Drove high over the mountains and across gravely, mid-construction roads down to Panajachel and Lake Atitlan.
- We stayed at an AMAZING hotel! The best one on the trip. Like a tropical resort in the middle of a bustling city.
- We have been blowing through out funds, so we decided to order pizza and eat at the hotel instead of going out. Sat on the balcony walkways to have our feast.
- Intense Spoons tournament included everyone in the group, ended up with lots of funny quotes.
- We ended the night with a late night discussion on what we had seen today, and how our loans might help the people we met. Today was the end of the “official” microlending business on our trip.

April 4, 2009

- After a nice shower and breakfast, we walked to the closest bank to exchange American dollars to Guatemalan quetzales.
- Walked up the Panajachel streets to Crossroad Café, the BEST coffee in the world! The man who ran it was a Bay Area resident who moved down to Guatemala to be closer to the business.
- Shipped all across the world, even to the U.N.
- Was very devout, had a very inspiring life story and “live life to the fullest” philosophy.
- Had the best-iced mochas EVER, and got to visit his secret room in the back where he stored HUGE bags and bags of coffee from all over the world. He also had a gigantic grinding machine for cooking and making coffee. So delicious!
- Our next trip was to the Nature Reserve for Zip lining. We were planning on getting a ride for a tuktuk, the local method of travel (small motorized scooters with a backseat covered in canopy for passengers) When Kristen leaned out to hail a ride, a guy pulled over in his pickup truck and told us to hop in! We held up traffic and loaded all thirteen of us into the back for the REAL local way to travel.
- Arrived at the Reserve, and met a small group of boys all begging to sell us things. (Key chains, postcards, jewelry, etc.) This was a very touristy spot, so they hit up the foreigners there almost every day. It was very hard to say no to them.
- We had to convince both Giorgiani and Melissa to go on the zip line with us. After a bit, they finally gathered their courage and decided to try it.
- Hiked through miles of dense rainforest, guide called out monkeys for us to see, walked past coffee plants, and crossed rope bridges. Very Indiana Jones. ;)
- Slid down 8 zip lines across the jungle canopy, had the time of my life. Took pictures of everyone zip lining down. Fiona was very scared, almost ate it against a flat rock wall on the 5th one.
- Returned to Panajachel in truck to eat at a nice hotel next to the lake.
- In efforts not to get sick, Malini ordered the Immunity Booster shake, made of pineapple, ginger, and garlic. Tasted like drinking a pineapple chicken dinner. I helped her finish it, as it was pretty disgusting.
- We were planning on taking a boat across Lake Atitlan to the island of Santiago to visit another village, but there was not enough time. Instead we went to the coastal village of Santa Catalina, and spent the twilight time walking the streets.
- Got to watch the sun set behind the mountains on the boat ride back. Magnificent. Got some great photos.
- A volleyball game was going on between some local men, and Christina and Mr. Lance joined in. Both groups had a lot of fun watching the game.
- After frequent stops to stores and fabric stands, arrived at the hotel for some sandwiches for dinner and some massages from Malini for all of us.

April 5, 2009

- Woke up early to walk to Internet café with Kristen to use computer, buy pastries.
- Christina braided my hair and put it into a ponytail. Pictures were added to the feminina section.
- Hudson gathered all of our empty water bottles and remade Stonehenge in the middle of the hotel walkway. Quite impressive for a three year old.
- Took a VERY long car ride from Panjachel for Chichicastenango for the famous market. Fiona and I talked to Michelle about food for almost the entire time. :)
- Got caught in a huge traffic jam in the middle of the mountains. Trucks, buses, and tour cabs were stuck and honking, while the police guided us around a delivery truck that had broken down.
- Arrived in Chichi to walk a bit to market. It was incredibly important for us to stick together that day, as it was insanely crowded and we were easy targets for pickpockets.
- Rows and rows of stands, canopies, and tent villages selling everything you could possibly think of. I bought a mask, belt for Erin, cloth from an old woman who was walking around for my grandmother, wallet for my mother and a shirt for my dad.
- Had to barter to get a good deal for gifts. They raised the prices a lot for us because we were tourists, but I still felt really bad lowering the prices. I knew this was probably everyone’s primary source of making money.
- In the middle of the market was a great white church. The inside was full of incense and displays blending Christianity with the local Mayan religious customs.
- After hours of shopping, we met at the Hotel San Tomas for sandwich lunch and to wait for the others. The hotel was very touristy, had macaws and parrots on perches that squawked and talked to the visitors.
- One had crawled off its perch and camouflaged itself within the bushes. Very pretty. Got some great up close shots of it.
- We arrived in Antigua to find the roads completely blocked off for Semana Santa, and had to walk our luggage from the Namaste Office all the way downtown to the Black Cat Inn.
- We saw tons of alfombras artwork on the streets, and men dressed in purple and white ropes for the first procession for the week that night.
- The whole group cheered up when we had a delicious dinner at Las Palmas, a fancy restaurant across the street.
- By the time we got out, it was very late at night, and we were only able to catch the tail end of the procession. We watched the huge statues of Mary, Jesus, and angles file into the main church surrounded by a large brass band and a sea of people filling up the plaza.
- Spent the rest of the evening playing cards.

April 6, 2009

- Woke up even earlier in the morning to the haunting melody of a nightingale. I wish I could have remembered the tune.
- Started the day off with another yummy Black Cat breakfast.
- Drove from Antigua to the Volcano Pacaya for a day of hiking. The trail looked pretty daunting, so all the women except Jackie rented horses to ride on. I thought is was a tourist trap, but they only rented them for the hike up, and would walk the way down.
- The hike was BRUTAL! Hiked hill after hill through a dusty forest until we finally reached the lava plain beneath the volcano. Looked exactly like the surface of some distant planet.
- The horses stopped a safe distance away from the bottom of a ravine. We could see huge dust clouds kicking up when red-hot rocks would tumble down the hill. And we were climbing up there!
- Crawled up a nearly vertical slope of crumbling, loose rock to the near summit of a hill. We weren’t going up to the very summit, but up a pretty high hill, with a flowing river of lava at the top!
- Unfortunately, Christina, Addi, and Giorgiani did not make it all the way up, but everyone else got the magnificent experience of standing about 20 ft. away from molten rock! Awesome!
- Our lunch eaten, water bottles drained, and already hot and aching, we hiked all the way pack to the base camp, miserable, thirsty, tired, and we could not stop until we reached the end. Once we downed bottle after bottle of water, every member of the group slept the whole way back.
- The whole car woke with a start as we passed the Semana Santa procession just beginning with a huge drum! Within thirty seconds, we all had our cameras out. :)
- Huge statues of Jesus, Mary, and other saints carried by men dressed like Roman soldiers, large brass bands, and devout followers marched down the street, right over all the beautiful alfombra art. An amazing spectacle to see.
- Devoured pizza at the Namaste office, and took cold showers to clean up from the hike.
- After collecting everything, left for our last long car ride back to Guatemala City for the last night at Patricia’s.
- Mr. Lance introduced us to a fun new game called Psychiatrist, SO much fun to play with a large group, and watch Addi get all flustered.
- After a long, emotional reflection, the group stayed up late for one final fun night of cards.