Merry Christmas! (again!)

Christmas was great here in San Pedro. It was a two day extravaganza involving big meals, relaxing, laughing, fireworks by the water and in the streets, and a cup that runneth over...

Andrea, Chris and I did stockings. If you look under Andrea's Christmas tree, you can see our three stockings on the right. In my stocking I got a package of gum, a mandarine orange, cough drops, used lipbalm, some ¨rubbish¨, a few starbursts, and a key chain. Not bad, huh?

I gave candybars, worrydolls, antibacterial wipes, little drink mixes, a few Sudoku puzzles, and I think that's it.

The three of us had a mimosa brunch at Alegre Pub with about 15 other people...many who we had already met. It was a great time, the food was good, the company was good.

After brunch I went for a siesta, and then Christmas dinner started back at Alegre at about 6:00. It was an enormous plate of food which I could hardly put a dent in, but the wine went down easy.

After dinner, we shot off fireworks. There was probably a crowd of 10 or 15. We went down by the lake and took turns shooting off little ones and ¨big¨ones. It was a good time.

Most of us headed back to Alegre for a couple more, and I ended up calling it an early night.

Today has been very, VERY, lazy...but it is the day after Christmas after all!

Merry Christmas!

I'm in San Pedro La Laguna again at Lake Atitlan and will be here for Christmas. The shuttle I was in was nearly hit by a chicken bus yesterday, so that was a little exciting and mostly scary!

I've made a few traveler-friends while I've been in Guatemala. Most of us have been traveling in and around Guatemala for the past few weeks, and it looks like we are all going to meet in San Pedro for Christmas...a place that everyone, including me, really seems to enjoy. Nick-the-Brit will be here and Andrea from Golden, Chris-the-Australian.

Anyway, I finally made it to Monterrico which was my original planned destination. I spent about a week there with an Australian travler, and we met up with two American guys in there mid-20s traveling that we shared a bungalow with on the beach.

There was a little living area and kitchenette and a fridge that we mostly used for coconuts and beer. And we had a little pool right outside the bungalow. There was a nice bar beachside that served food, and from there you could watch beach soccer (yep, in the sand!) and volleyball. I even saw a couple of whales way out in the ocean blow up water and flip their tales!

We got to know a couple of "amigas" who were ten and twelve - Erica and Selena. They were best friends and basically knew each other since birth. Their families owned restaurants, and they were always trying to usher us in to their restaurant. We ate at their restaurant several times, and my Spanish is at a level where I could chit-chat with them a little bit.

They were fascinated by Chris the Australian, who is blonde haired and blue eyed and who also has quite a bit of blonde forearm hair. Several times the girls sneaked a quick tug at his arm hair or neck hair and shyed away and laughed. They told me secrets "that were just for women." It was pretty amusing.

We set off fireworks with them one night as well. It attracted a crowd of kids, and we all had a great time. At Christmastime apparently, everyone here sets off fireworks...including us!

After the American guys moved on, we moved over to another hotel with an awesome pool, and I basically spent 4 or 5 days just relaxing by the pool, drinking beers, having a dip in the pool, another beer... There was also a tree pruned like a chicken. How bout that?!

There were some nice people staying there and one not so nice German lady that we liked to call Inga-bitch. Her name was Ingaborg. She was probably in her late 50s, early 60s and had definitely spent too much time in the sun. She seemed to hate us everyone and everything- music, conversation, smiling, laughing. What the hell is she doing on vacation?!

There was also Jon, a Brit, who was something like 6'4" and had a nice round hairy belly that he seemed quite comfortable with. He was always in his bright yellow swim shorts with this colorful cotton scarf around his neck, that served as his towel. He was a riot and loved to talk shit under his breath about people under the assumption that they couldn't understand English well or at all or at least not his heavily British-accented English.

Jon introduced us to a group of Canadians who had driven a caravan all the way down from Canada with a stop at Burning Man. They were probabaly in their early 50s. They were a lot of fun.

A group of about 10 of us went to the local cirus, which was fairly bizarre, but entertaining. 2 scrawny little monkeys had been chained up outside of the circus tent for a couple of days as advertisement for the circus. They were cute, but of course I felt sorry for them.

Anyway, I think we all checked out the circus for lack of any thing else to do. There were a couple of contortionists, a few skits with a lot of sexual undertones, a couple of dancers dressed in bikinis with beads draped around their waists, and there was an acrobat bar and rope that was never used, and the monkeys sat on the bleachers at watched the whole performance. Well, what do you expect for $3?

There are tons of guns in Guatemala and lots of problems with alcoholism. Everyday in Monterrico, you could spot several men carrying a guns in holsters on their hips and it was never uncommon to see a man passed out along the sidewalk with his buddies just sitting around him.

At one bar we liked to frequent, one night the bartender/owner's nephew was walking around with a laptop back slung across his chest all night. He was mixing drinks and serving beers and changing the music on his laptop which was blaring full blast. Finally, I asked him what was with the bag. He keeps his gun in there. Interesting. He hadn't carried a gun around the last few times we were in there. He explained that he didn't have any staff there that night, that he was alone, and that it was just a safety precaution...as if it were perfectly normal.

--The gun-wielding bartender.

I really had a great time in Monterrico...got eaten alive by mosquitoes, but I managed to decrease my whiteness a bit so I'm not quite so blinding.

I'm looking forward to relaxing in San Pedro for several days with my friends and then I will be heading to Tikal.

I'll try to send more pictures soon.

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving!

I don't know where the time goes. I thought I would have tons of time on my hands once I FINALLY left on my trip, that it would no longer be go-go-go for Mo, that I would be tanning (or burning) on a beach somewhere... but I guess I'm a person that goes-goes-goes and somehow I struggle to find time for Spanish homework, emailing, posting to my blog, etc. Maybe on this trip, I can learn to slow down, to do less and relax more. Hard to say. Too early to tell.

Today I'm feeling a little lonely, I'll be honest.

Several people I've met while I've been here and around Guatemala have asked me what it's like to travel alone, if I'm ever afraid, if I get lonely, etc.

What I usually say is that I haven't really been afraid and sometimes I get lonely, but not very often and sometimes it's okay to feel lonely anyway, but that usually I'm good at meeting people so it's not so, so often that I find myself alone.

On this trip when I'm feeling lonely or depressed, I really try to nip it in the bud before it gets out of hand. I think, "Why I am feeling like this? What can I do to change how I'm feeling?" or "It's okay that I'm feeling like this, and it'll pass." Sometimes writing in my journal helps. Sometimes calling home to friends or family helps, but sometimes I can't because I don't feel like talking about how I'm feeling. And sometimes an extra dose of fish oil is all I need!

Today I took the fish oil, called my Grandma, and now this post is kind of like writing in my journal, but I'll spare you the real journal entry for today! What I thought I'd do is respond to some questions about my Thanksgiving and share with you an excerpt from my journal on Thanksgiving. (I'm feeling better already.)

Thanksgiving day, I had my usual Spanish lesson in the morning. Oliver and Becky stopped by in the early afternoon to retrieve some stuff they had left with me. We lounged around my room for a while chit-chatting, which I really enjoyed. Doug popped by quickly. Nancy popped in and out a few times. It was lazy and casual and felt like Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving dinner may have been the least traditional one I've ever had. I ate in a little Guatemalan restaurant in the back of a "tienda" (a little convenience store, but not like 7-11. Think way smaller, dingy-ier, no slurpees, etc.). I dragged Oli and Becky (who were recovering from food poisioning, bad water, who knows?) along with me to meet Nancy (my Canadian "mom") at the tienda restaurant with no sign or any indication of a restaurant. Nancy was there with an 80 year old gentlemen named David.

David has been living in Guatemala for the past 19 years or so working with the indiginous poor here in a village somewhere outside of Antigua. He was fascinating, hard of hearing, and thoroughly enjoyed his boxed red wine. I think he's married, but he's wife doesn't want to live in Guatemala with him.

There was no menu at this place, so when I was tried in my best Spanish to politely order something that didn't contain meat (or chicken for that matter!), David suggested I order the "caldron" or something like that. It was basically a vegetable soup - made with a chicken broth, I'm sure - but I ate all the rice, potatoes, and other vegetables out of it and pretended that one bite I had with something weird and rubbery in it wasn't a little piece of chicken, and I left most of the broth in the bowl for fear my stomach may not receive it lovingly.

It was a mellow Thanksgiving. Turns out David didn't know it was Thanksgiving until this week. Nancy is Canadian, so her Thanksgiving was in October. Oliver is German, so no Thanksgiving and recovering. And Becky, who is American, was recovering as well. So those two weren't all that jovial, and even so, Oli was kind enough to go back to the hostel twice to retrieve the boxed wine I had left. First to look for it outside of their room door where I told him I left it, and a second time to get it from the kitchen where I actually left it, which I remembered once he returned the first time and told me it wasn't there.

So although the evening and the food weren't exactly exciting, the company was great and in any case, I was thankful. From my journal:

"...in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I think I need to list and explain some things and people for which/whom I am thankful..it's really more people than things.

1. Doug - my first friend in Antigua who is sort of like my Simmel of Antigua.
2. Nancy - my "mother" who feeds me regularly, checks in with me daily...and likes to talk about men, Guatemala, yoga and the magic of Antigua, etc.
3. Victor - my Spanish teacher who is fascinating, knowlegeable on a very wide variety of subjects, and most importantly a firm believer in God and the miracles he has experienced. I could write a whole book on Victor's experiences with miracles.
4. Becky & Oliver - who have really been my best friends here. I care for them greatly and they for me. They have been a constant source of companionship & entertainment, and I will really miss then when we finally have to part ways. They have become like family to me.
5. I'm thankful for Nick-the-Brit and Nick-the-American who both individually and separately gave me insight on life and love and travel and relationships, from two very different perspectives...and very different than my own.
6. I'm thankful for my nice room (with the occasional big spider or cockroach) and the hot shower, which could never compare to the U.S., but I'm thankful nonetheless.
7. I'm thankful for the safe & uneventful travel I've experienced.
8. And last, but not at all least, I am thankful for my family and my friends who support what I'm doing, for those who check on me regularly as well as those who think of me often.

I am so very, very blessed."

So, although my shirt was on backwards most of the day today, at least I don't have my undies on inside out! I succeeded at feeling better and am looking forward to meeting up with Andrea from Golden, CO in a couple of hours!

As always, thank you so much for your emails and comments!

An Earthquake and an Active Volcano

A week ago yesterday there was a tremor in Guatemala. It originated by the west coast and the magnitude was 4.9. For those of us who don't know anything about earthquakes and tremors, anything with a magnitude less that 6 is considered a tremor.

It was about 9 a.m. I was an hour into my Spanish lesson. It was the strangest sensation and hardly anyone seemed to notice. I thought maybe a HUGE truck was rattling over the cobblestone streets outside...but I've never really seen a semi (as we know them) in Antigua. My teacher kept talking. Finally, I had to interrupt. What the hell is going on?! (Okay, I don't know how to say that in Spanish, but that's what I wanted to say!)

It was a tremor. He said he thought he was feeling dizzy. I was too...that's because the earth beneath us was swaying back and forth! The building rattled a little bit. The light bulbs in my room have been a little temperamental ever since. And apparently the reason so many people didn't notice (again, for those of us who know nothing about earthquakes) is that if it's a little tremor and you're up walking around, you can't really feel it.

The last major earthquake in Antigua was in 1976, and people here lived in tents at the market for about two months following the earthquake because the houses were too unstable. Victor, my teacher, says that Antiguans appreciate small tremors because, he says, when there are long periods without a tremor people begin to worry that there will be another major earthquake.

Last weekend I was surprised and fortunate to have a visitor from Colorado. Chris's girlfriend's brother, Marcus (who I'd never met) was in Guatemala and he met up with me in Antigua after visiting Tikal. It was great to have a traveling companion, if only for a weekend, and we had a fantastic time together. We hiked one of the active volcanoes here with Becky and Oliver. I think all four of us probably thought from time to time, ¨Is this a good idea to climb an active volcano??¨

Well...there were a 100 other tourists doing it...and it was a guided tour...but if everyone else jumped into the fiery lava, would I?

Anyway, the volcano is called Pacaya. It's about an hour and half outside of Antigua via bumpy shuttle bus that seems to only have one speed - WAY TOO FAST - and moves quickly and recklessly through the windy and narrow roads that lead to the volcano. If you're proned to motion sickness (or recovering from a hangover), this will not be your ideal trip.

I don't think any of us realized how far away the volcano was, so we were relieved when we saw signs leading to Pacaya. The running joke when there was any confusion or delay was, ¨And now we get robbed.¨

There was a brief delay when we entered the national park. ¨And now we get robbed.¨

We made it through the entrance in our shuttle to the trailhead where we were met by a hoard of children selling sticks. They insisted these sticks were necessary. (Are they weapons or hiking aids?) In any case, we passed. ¨Es necesario! Es necesario!¨

Our guide was named Samuel, and he reminded me a little of Carlos from the Rover, both in appearance and demeanor. He was great. Cheerful, patient...he spoke Spanish clearly and slowly and would repeat himself if need be so that we understood. He showed us different plants along the way and told us about the volcano. I think the last erruption was in 1996. I can't remember for sure.

Anyway, it was quite an experience. We took the afternoon trip, so we arrived near the top right at sunset. There was one stream of lava flowing that begun flowing about two months ago. It was absolutely amazing. You could walk right up to it. It was awesome to seeing it glowing...and flowing and glowing. It was mesmerizing. AND VERY VERY HOT. I smelled burning rubber. I checked my shoes. Mine were fine, but I suspect someone returned with melted soles.

As I approached the molten lava, it seems like I crossed some kind of threshold into the heat. I cautiously felt the lava rocks beneath me. They really weren't that hot, but I guess the heat was radiating from below. I imagine closer to the molten lava the rocks were hot to the touch, but I didn't check. I have some awesome pictures to post whenever I get that figured out.

The other really cool part about the hike before reaching the top, we had to hike down an ENORMOUS incline that was basically a huge pile of lava dirt or teeny tiny lava rocks. It was so steep, you could only go fast. There was no going slowly and cautiously. Basically you had to run down it and dig in with your heels as you go, go, go! I can't express how fun it was. I felt like a little kid. Sheer joy just bubbled up and out from inside me and all I could do was laugh all the way down. It was so dirty because with every step you stirred up a giant dust cloud and I don't think my shoes will ever be the same, but it was so much fun!!

Oliver made the point that we crossed the barrier of trying to stay clean because now we were so dirty it didn't matter any more.

It was dark for our hike back. (And now we get robbed.) But we had the moonlight and a flashlight for every two of us, and we managed to make it back down without too many stumbles and only one major freak out over a gigantic spider that turned out to be a shadow.

For me it was a hard climb up. Hiking on loose volcanic rock isn't exactly easy. I huffed and puffed and struggled quite a bit with my asthma on the way up. Marcus and Oliver took turns hanging back with me (so I didn't robbed), and I really appreciated them doing that. It's a drag to be the slow one, but I'm so glad to have experienced hiking an active volcano and seeing molten lava in the dark and the belly laughter on the downhill run. It was definitely an experience like none other for me.

By the way, we didn't get robbed.

Welcome to Antigua!

If you haven't stumbled and fallen in the streets of Antigua, my teacher says, then you don't know Antigua.

In that case, I was introduced to Antigua yesterday evening. There I was walking along, trying to take in the sights of a new street, and SPLAT! There I was lying on the sidewalk. Oliver helped me up, and he and Becky and I assessed my wounds in the dark...I would live.

For the record, I only had one beer and the streets and sidewalks of Antigua are hazardous. And my I really did make a SPLAT as my forearm hit the pavement.

The sidewalks are really narrow. It's awkward for two people to walk side by side. Many of the windows are like giant bay windows and hang over the sidewalk. Depending on how tall you are, the windows will either hit you in the head or your shoulder. Here, it seems to be more gentlemanly to take the inside and let your lady walk on the outside so she doesn't have to dodge the windows every few feet. The sidewalks are a mix of concrete and cobblestones, with no rhyme or reason to the mix, and they will suddenly drop of 2, 4, 6, 8 inches to give way to a driveway of sorts...I think that's what got me...or maybe it was a missing cobblestone or a missing utility access cover or a big hole. Who knows?

The worst part is that I tore a hole in my jeans (one of two pairs of pants I have here). Just ask Ryan O how I feel about tearing a hole in my jeans!

Okay on to more exciting things...

I'm taking 4 hours of Spanish a day (okay, I guess that's not more exciting). I switched teachers so now my teacher is Victor, and I will be here for almost another month learning Spanish. Victor is really fun and a great teacher. The time goes by quickly.

Some brief facts & figures (courtesy of Victor at my request) about Guatemala and Antigua, and then I promise to move on to something more exciting:

There are 13 million people in Guatemala. 5% of the population is considered rich, which translates into 80 families.

Of the remaining 95%, 20% are middle class, 25% are poor and 50% are living in extreme poverty.

56% of Guatemala's entire population is indigenous. 23 different groups make up the indigenous population.
5% of the entire population are Criollos (of Spanish descent). This is the same group as the 5% of the population that's rich.
The rest are ladino/mestizos, which means they have a mix of Mayan and Spanish blood.
And there is a small population of blacks that come mostly from the Carribbean.

Now about Antigua... There are 70,000 inhabitants in Antigua and the surrounding villages. Anitgua proper has about 22,000. During the high season (July - Sept), there could be approximately 5000 Spanish language students here.

Antigua proper covers 1 square km, so it is very easy to walk from one side of town to the other several times a day, if neccessary.

Now some fun stuff...

Yesterday afternoon, I tagged along for a field trip with Becky and Oliver and their teachers (Martin ¨Marteen¨ and Elvira ¨Elveera¨). They took us to a village outside of Antigua called San Andres Itzapa to show us a type of Pagan rituals performed by mixed descendents of the Maya.

We went by chicken bus which was an adventure all by itself. When I first arrived in Antigua, I asked a local about traveling by chicken bus to another location and he advised against it saying, ¨Well, it depends how much you like your life.¨ So, they can be dangerous not just because of the risk of robberies, but because tons of people cram into them, the drivers may sometimes be drunk, etc., etc. (Not to worry Mom & Dad...)

To give you an idea of how overcrowded they can be, on a bus where the maximum capacity is 48, you might have 65 people. For a maximum capacity of 54, expect 75. For 64, expect 90. I guess that's why I've been advised several times since I've been here to ¨pray a lot.¨

Okay, back to the Pagan ritual. There are basically 3 common saints here that the Catholic church doesn't recognize. The most famous being Maximon, who you can often see as a little statue (or maybe more like a voodoo doll) on display in bars and restaurants smoking a cigar. We went to see San Simon who I can only assume is related to Maximon. San Simon is kind of the Pagan saint of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. According to my teacher, he is the saint for homosexuals, prostitutes, criminals and for people who wish bad things on other people. But he also heals health problems.

We watched about 6 or 7 women (young and old) come to be blessed by the shaman (Victor says he's not a shaman, but a witch!). I'm sure men could and are blessed too, but here's what happens: The women come with bouquets of greenery and little bottles of holy water. The shaman takes the greenery and basically beats the women over the head with the greenery, beats it on her back, her chest, her stomach, her bottom, down her legs while saying some kind of blessing. (It's not at all sexual, by the way.) He then drinks a little from the bottle, and then SPRAYS her head and face with a fine spray of the water from his mouth. (Yes, he's basically spitting on her.) He does this twice, then he tears the greenery in half and tosses half of it aside, beats or rubs her some more with the greenery while blessing. Drinks a little more water and spits it towards San Simon, and I think that's about it.

The holy water, it turns out, is Guatemalan rum.

After watching this ceremony, we stood outside of the ¨church¨ and witnessed a continuation of the ceremony where the shaman smokes a cigar as big as a cucumber (called puro) and directs the smoke towards parts of the body that are ailing the recipient of the blessing.

Wow.

If I understand correctly, these saints and rituals developed after the Maya were freed from Spanish rule. During the Spanish rule, the Maya were forced into Catholicism. Once they were free to choose their own religion, they developed saints and ceremonies that were nothing like what Catholicism would approve of.

If anyone knows more about this, please feel free to correct me or add to my post by posting your comment. I can't always get all the facts straight!

Well it's almost 5 o'clock somewhere, so I'm going for a beer.

More to come on the active volcano I climbed and the earthquake, which was actually only a tremor.

Thank you all for your emails and for posting your comments!

Mi Casa

Today was my second day of Spanish lessons. For those of you who know Spanish, yesterday was spent learning "ser, estar y hay." Today we focused on regular verbs ending in "-ar."

My teacher's name is Sheny...short for something like Eugencia. She's a sweet woman in her mid-50s who lives just outside of Antigua on a small farm (from what I can gather in Spanish!). The lessons are one-on-one which is the standard here in Antigua, and I have lessons Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to noon.

The Spanish school also offers accommodations, and I rented a room there for a week. If I like it, I'll probably stay there for the next month. My room is huge with two beds (if you want to come visit me), a desk, a bookshelf, a little wardrobe, and a bathroom (toilet paper and towels not included). There's a communual kitchen and dining area available too.

One interesting aspect of the shower...the water pressure affects the temperature. So you can either have lots of pressure & a cold shower OR a little pressure & a hot shower (which is also kind of cold because you aren't getting a nice strong stream of hot water on you). My teacher told me this is a problem throughout Guatemala. It's not unique to my shower. I guess your neighbor could turn on their water and the water flowing out of your shower head will stop or trickle off for a 30 seconds or a minute and then continue...happened to me today.

My room looks out onto a nice courtyard where many of the Spanish lessons are held. My lessons are on the terrace right outside my door.

I will post pictures soon, I promise!

There are a lot of interesting people staying there...some have been there off and on for years...like 8 years!

Nancy is one of those people. She's from Canada, probably in her 50s, and from what I understand basically lives in Antigua now teaching yoga and giving massages. Her boyfriend, Doug (American), has a sailboat in a nearby river/bay (not exactly the right term) that empties into the Caribbean, I think. In the summer, he spends most of his time on his boat.

Fred (probably also in his 50s) is my next door neighbor, an American who is involved in multiple volunteer projects here. In fact, if my Spanish improves quickly enough, in two weeks I might be able to volunteer reading Spanish books to kids in a nearby village. Many kids here aren't interested in reading because their parents don't read to them, their parents don't know how to read, their teachers haven't been educated on how to make reading fun, etc. On Sunday, the program director (I think) is coming to our guesthouse to meet with some of the other volunteers, and I've been invited to join them.

Some younger people I've hung out with are Becky (American) and her German boyfriend, Oliver. They are a fun couple, and it's nice to hear some German again. And there's Ana from Paris, who (if I understood correctly) has an Italian dad and French mom...something like that. She speaks French, Italian, some German and English and is now learning Spanish. She's moving to another guesthouse of sorts in Antigua, but we are planning to keep in contact to meet up for coffee and practice Spanish, etc.

These three invited me out with them on Tuesday night to watch the election results. Since all four of us don't have a common native language (or even a common language that we can speak semi-fluently), you might be able to imagine what our conversations sound like: a little English, un poco Español, ein bisschen Deutsch. At times the conversation moves slow and it can be exhausting to listen and communicate. But it's always entertaining!

What else...? How does drying off from your shower with a bandana sound?

I took my laundry to a "lavandería" yesterday with the impression that I would use their internet and wait for my laundry. Nope! It wouldn't be ready until today. Of course, I didn't realize until I was on my way back home that I wouldn't have any pjs, a hoodie, or a bath towel. I survived the cool night, and after my shower this morning, I patted somewhat dry with a bandana and dried my hair (somewhat) with my shorts!

I wonder what tomorrow has in store...?

Go Obama!

It's Election Day...even in Antigua! There is an "election results party" tonight at an American-owned bar here called Monoloco (crazy monkey).

I'm in Antigua, not the Antigua in the Caribbean but rather the one that is just southwest of Guatemala City.

My guidebook says, "In all the long, boring conversations about where the real Guatemala is, you can be certain that Antigua never came up."

But it's real enough for me, for now. Antigua has an international draw for people wanting to learn Spanish. There are literally hundreds of Spanish schools in Antigua and even more Spanish teachers since nearly all the schools provide one-on-one instruction.

Today, I'm visiting schools and hope to find one I like and get settled in here a little bit. I will probably stay about a month here in Antigua learning Spanish is the morning and doing some volunteer work a few afternoons a week.

I've been told that Antigua is a great jumping off point for other things to see and do in Guatemala.

So far, I haven't seen or done much since I've been in Guatemala (6 whole days!), but hell, I have a year, so what's the hurry?

I've been slowed down a couple of mornings thanks to nausea caused by my malaria pills. They are supposed to be taken on an empty stomach. The drug instructions say that some manufacturers state the pills may be taken with food if nausea occurs, but this may hinder absorption. I have a suspicion that puking up my stomach bile after ingestion in my private-down-the-hall bathroom might also hinder absorption. So I finally have that worked out. MUST TAKE WITH FOOD!

Aren't you glad I'm sharing all the details with you?

Hola from Guatemala City!

Well here I am...in Guatemala City in an internet cafe.

This city is OVERWHELMING! It's scary just to cross the street. There is tons of traffic, people, vendors, smog...I've probably already developed black lung in the one day I've been here.

You may be thinking, "Wait a minute! I thought she was going to be relaxing on the beach first."

So did I.

I discovered en route to Chicago where I changed planes for Guatemala that good ol' Lonely Planet was not entirely clear on how to get to Monterrico. There were several vague options to choose from and not many details on how to get there from the airport, for example which bus terminal to go to to find the bus company that goes there. At at 2:00 a.m. in Chicago O'Hare, I decided a change of plans was in order. Suddenly, a 3 or 4 hour bus ride (depending on which page of Lonely Planet I was looking at), and a ferry ride after being up for a full 24 hours no longer sounded so appealing.

So I took a taxi to a hotel in Guatemala City's Zona 1.

The hotel is okay...probably not the best deal for the money ($20 for a private room with bath and cable TV).

For my friends at James C. Karo Associates, there was also an "infestation" of roaches or beetles (2 bugs to be exact). I did not closely examine them to determine if they were cockroaches or beetles. To me, a "bug" is better than a "cockroach." I did consider sleeping with the lights on so they wouldn't come out at night and crawl in bed with me. We'll see what tonight has to offer. I am changing hotels, by the way. I scoped out a new one today, but I have a feeling the bugs may be unavoidable. But as my friends at James C. Karo Associates know, bugs I can handle. And just for the record, I am not fond of bugs in my room.

Last night for dinner I decided to eat at the hotel's cafe since I had slept most of the day and it was already dark. I ordered two chile rellenos. They were not crispy like the rellenos I've had in Colorado...probably because they were microwaved. The breading was soggy. This may have been a commerically made and frozen relleno, who knows. But much to my dismay, when I cut into it cheese did not come oozing out of it like I had expected. Oh no. It was some kind of meat. Major bummer. So I disected the small little chile from the meat and put in a tortilla with a tiny bit of salsa. I had two small corn tortillas with my chile creation and two with liquified black beans - maybe they were instant? And that was my first meal in Guatemala.

Today I sought out a vegetarian restaurant for lunch.

Tonight it's dinner again at the hotel, but I think I'll try the eggs and beans.

I've stayed pretty close to my hotel so far, but tomorrow maybe there will be more in store for me. There is a Day of the Dead celebration that I'd like to go to if I can find out more about it, like where it is exactly.

I think I'll be here one more day, then head to Antigua, then to Monterrico (my original destination).

It's nice to just take it easy, rest, people watch, watch CNN election stuff - go Obama! I figure I have plenty of time to see it all, so I'm letting myself relax at the hotel while I acclimate to this fast pace. The scene just outside my hotel makes Colfax and Marion seem like a nice suburban neighborhood.

I am happy to be here, and while it takes some self-coaxing and nerve to just jump out there alone into the chaos of "Guate," I know this is just the beginning and my confidence should grow the longer I am here.

Gotta get back to the hotel before dark now for eggs and beans for dinner!