One Lucky Girl

Leading up to spring break (aka Semana Santa) I was hesitant to tell anyone that I was excited about going. From my sister I have learned to plan trips before you get to your destination and pack them full of things to do (it is a great way to travel), but none of that was happening. I had my flight to and from Nicaragua and a hotel in Granada as well as hostels reserved in Leon. I also had two hikes tentatively (they needed others to sign up as well) set up for my solo time in Leon. But nothing was planned for Granada. This caused me stress. I was afraid we would spend the days trying to decide what to do, or drinking, or eating four hour meals, or walking around and around the city.

This is not what happened at all. The first day did resemble my fears a little, but even that was not bad. And we used that time to plan adventures on a volcano and kayaking around the islands in lake Managua. During my time in Granada I saw amazing views, did activities that I love, and spent time with some good friends, what more could I have wanted in a vacation?

Volcan Mombacho 

Kayaking with Ashleigh

And, as it turns out, having things planned out does not always lessen my stress about things. For the second half of the week I was unable to find anyone wanting to do what I wanted to do (hike!) so I went out on my own. I had heard that people in Nicaragua are friendly and willing to help and that it is a much safer country than Guatemala. But I was still nervous.

I am this weird combination of being extremely independent and yet not overly confident. I am willing to do things on my own if I need to, but it takes encouragement or psyching myself up and always involves a lot of stress. So when I am able to do things that I want, but am afraid of, I get a boost that I wish I could hold onto every day of my life. Three big things (at least big to me) that I was able to accomplish on this trip were: eating alone, speaking Spanish, and riding the buses alone.

I have friends who are good at eating alone. I am not. When I was traveling Europe alone (only a week) I would buy things at the store and eat them in my hotel/hostel room rather than eating out. I even went to McDonalds when I was in Switzerland because it was easy and everything else scared me. In Leon, I only ended up eating two meals alone, but I was proud of myself for it (bringing a book helped). My Spanish is pretty decent, so I don't know why I have issues using it, but I do. I worry about making a fool of myself by saying something dumb. In Leon I had to use it as many people didn't speak English. I even had someone ask me for help because they didn't speak Spanish, that felt good! And the transportation is pretty easy, I was just worried I would end up on the wrong bus. It was actually really easy.

But, in the end, my biggest lessons came during the last adventure of the week and after returning home. The second hike I did involved sledding down a volcano (similar to the Sand Dunes only gravel, not sand), backpacking up and around other volcanoes, and swimming in a crater lake. Regardless of anything else, it was going to be a lovely two days. What made them into two days I will not forget were the people. I don't easily click with people. I don't know if my interests are different, if I am too picky, if I missed some important day in middle school where that was taught, or what, but it rarely is it simple. This time it was. The first part of the hike, that included eight others who were just volcano boarding, was great: conversations flowed, and fun was had. It became even better when five of us put on our packs and headed up volcano number two. The rest of our two day hike I rarely questioned what I was going to say, or how I was going to act, or any of those annoying things I tend to do on a daily basis. It was just simple and, for me, that makes it amazing. I don't know if the others felt the same way, I hope they did since they game me so much more than the views and time outdoors could have alone.

Hiking up Cerro Negro so we could sled down!

Hard to not enjoy days that end this way

The great hiking crew: Me, Gabriel, Mike, Talia, and Aymie

When I got back to Guatemala, I was excited to share my stories of Semana Santas, hear others' and, of course, to share my photos on facebook :) On those photos, my dear friend Denise Gosciejew left the comment "You sure are one lucky girl!". It brought tears to my eyes. Despite heartaches I have experienced, the stress in my life, my confidence struggles, I am an extraordinarily lucky girl. I am having adventures I never thought I would, I have family and friends that support me in those adventures and I am meeting new people who continue to help me grow. I gained a lot from my time in Nicaragua, remembering to be grateful for it all is the best lesson I could have received. I will forever hold tightly to that.

Hikes I did, incase you are interested:Full Moon Hike and El Hoyo backpacking 

Floating and another volcano

I have always been a floater. Through different stages of my life I have had one or two friends from each part of my life and only one or two total that I felt really close to. In high school I had sports friends, IB friends, dance friends, and the friends I was closest to who did not end up fitting into any of these groups. I got along with most people and would bounce from group to group but never felt as though I fully fit into any of them. Here in Guate that floating has not changed. There are people here who have their group. They go to dinner every Friday, if one is going out, they all are, if there is a break, they know who to call. At least this how it appears from my end. And in a place where most people don't stay for more than three years, it makes sense. For me, when I do hang out with these groups, it is great, but I never feel like I fully fit. I'm not being critical, it is just how it is. I don't think I am the only one who feels like a floater here, and I am starting to think that being a floater is not a bad thing.

Last weekend was a three day weekend and a group of us took advantage and hiked up Volcán Tajumulco which is the tallest peak in Central America. The trip was through a group called Quetzaltrekkers (www.quetzaltrekkers.com) and was amazing. It was initiated by a few teachers at CAG and I was happy to receive an invitation. They are all people that I knew and many of them I regularly play ultimate frisbee with; but it is a group of people that I had had very few conversations with prior to the trip. They knew I liked to hike so invited me along. This is were floating is a good thing: I know a lot of people and they know enough about me to know when I would enjoy something and 88% of the time they invite me to come along. Here is my trip report of the hike and then I will come back to the floating topic for my grand conclusion :)

Tajumulco

Sun setting over the clouds

Sunrise

It was a my favorite kind of weekend; one that involved hiking and getting out of the city. There were seventeen of us on the hike, nine teachers, three guides, and five others who are traveling through Central and South America. Of the nine teachers, only one of them had I been hiking with previously and only two that I had had spent much time with. The trip started in a town called Quetzaltenango (Xela for short - not sure why though) and we rode some "chicken busses" (old school buses that get packed way past capacity and take you where you need to go for very little money) to the trailhead and then headed up the peak. It was slow going as we had full packs and Guatemala doesn't really understand the concept of switchbacks, so got pretty steep. But we made it up to our campsite at just over 13,000' in just over 4 hours. And then headed to the top for the sunset. I had been looking forward to watching the sunset and rise from the top. The sunset was nice, but not as spectacular as it had been in my head mostly due to clouds, but the sunrise did not disappoint. It was freezing (literally) at 5am, but I was so excited about taking pictures and absorbing any and all views that I barely cared about my fingers not working as well as they usually do. Once the sun was up, we started our hike down.

Cleaning up trash :) 

All hikes I have been on in Guate have been trashy. Others have been worst than Tajumulco was, but I decided to do my part and bring down some trash. I made the suggestion to the others on our hike that if they picked up just one bottle it could make a difference. I was thrilled to then see a pretty big clean-up effort. Trash bags were pulled out and filled, extra pockets in backpacks were stuffed, and many people hiked the last few miles carrying three and four bottles in their hands. I did not expect it and was very happy.

Once we got back down we took two more chicken busses before arriving back in Xela. My OIG (only in Guatemala) moment of the trip was on the first of those two chicken busses. They truly pack as many people in as they can. I was sitting in the very last seat (luckily I had taken dramamine). Sharing my seat were a Guatemalan couple and their two children (yes all five of us on one seat) and on the seat to my left were three men. But that does not fill a bus, so there was also a man standing between the two seats. Well, toward the end of the ride, the man standing between the two seats started falling asleep and every five or so minutes his head would nod enough to slam into the top of my head (he was pretty short). Had I not been wearing a hat, it may have been a horrible experience, but it was so ridiculous that I find it hilarious.

Campfires - good place for a chat

Despite the crazy chicken busses, I enjoyed the entire trip. What shocked me is that the most enjoyable parts of the weekend were the conversations and getting to know the people I was with. I like people and love hearing stories, but this surprised me; I usually enjoy the hike more.

Lunch - another good chat time

So, I did not find a new best friend on this hike, nor do I feel like I found my "group," but I had an amazing time and got to know some interesting people better. I am making some good friends here and they are, once again, from different pieces of my life here which means no close group of friends. I like the idea of having a group of people I am close to and can count on, but that has never been who I am; probably someone I never will be. I think this weekend helped me understand the benefit of being a "floater," though. If I stuck to the same people all the time, there would be a lot of people out there that I would not get to know and learn from. Hopefully I am starting to grasp that floating might just be an okay way to live.    

Home?

Today I was asked (for about the 10^th time) “are you glad to be home?” Not only does that question have me pondering where I would rather be at this time, but it also make me think a lot about the word “home.” Where is that exactly? Is it where you live? Is it where you grew up? Is it where your family is? Hard to know. If I always refer to Colorado Springs as home, I feel as though I am not investing in my time in Guatemala. It is as if I am just visiting for a while while keeping my heart and all that is important back in Colorado. But at the same time I would never question that Colorado is my home. It is where my family is, it is where I grew up, it is a large part of who I am today. As I was getting ready to head back here for Christmas, I keep saying that I was going home. But when the immigration officer asked if I was going home to stay, I said “No, I live in Guatemala.” So now I wonder: is it possible to have more than one home?

My first day in the US in four months felt strange. I didn't have to think about how to say things when I went to the store, I can read the menus, I can have conversations with strangers. It is great and yet strange. Is it possible to get so comfortable in a place in less than four months, that the place you lived for 31 years feel strange? At the airports, I found myself surprised when I heard people speaking english (even though I speak english every day) and keep catching myself saying “con permiso,” “gracias,” etc.

A few weeks ago I was talking to one of the other teachers from the US and he was complimenting me on a 21K race I ran (I was the third female overall!). He has been in Guate for four years and told me that he thinks it is great that I am finding a way to do things outside of school and meeting other people. In his four years he does not believe he has done that. Although I like the idea of becoming a part of Guate and not just a part of CAG, that was not my intention. My intention was to get involved in the things I was doing back in the US. For my sanity I need to hike, I need to run, I need to dance. As it turns out, doing those things not only makes me feel more at home in Guate, it gives me a chance to be meet and spend time with locals. At the race (Desafio de Lava) I saw a number of people who I had met when climbing Acatenango. It was exciting to be able to say hi, good luck, etc to others at the race as I had always done in Colorado. But, during the race, I did miss chatting with other runners. During races like the Ascent and Barr Trail Mountain Race (steady uphills where non-superhumans are speed hiking rather than running), I tend to talk to others. I know enough Spanish to where I was able to ask to pass and cheer others on, but rarely understood what they told me in return. Despite that it was still a ton of fun, I really felt “at home” during that race.

There have been many instances where I really felt comfortable and completely happy doing what I was doing; I did not want to be back in CO, I did not miss the safety and convenience of the US.  And, I love telling people at the market “no soy un torista, yo vivo aqui en Guatemala.” But there are also times where I miss Colorado and think “I can not wait to get home." And right now, I am thoroughly enjoying being in Colorado and with my family. Does that mean I am not fully invested in my time in Guate? Or does it simply mean that I have more than one home?  

Country #13

Okay, so technically Honduras is the 14^th country I have been in, but my time in Germany was less than 12 hours (plane landing and train into Austria) so I don't count it. And this past weekend's experience in Honduras fits with it being good old unlucky #13.

So, we had a four day weekend (All Saint's Day) and I was joining the Staggers/Grob family for an adventure in Honduras. The plan was to drive to Graicas on Saturday, hike Cerro Las Minas (tallest mountain in Honduras) on Sunday, drive to Rio Hondo (part of the way back) on Monday, and a mini water park and home on Tuesday. Pretty awesome adventure if you ask me. Well, that is not what happened.

We took some of the less traveled roads because it was more direct, unfortunately they were mostly unpaved and washed out (Melissa, think wrong turn road in Costa Rica). Initially the roads just took longer and caused Ken (the driver) stress, and it was a beautiful way through the countries. But the back roads and potholed main roads ended up causing a flat tire. No big deal, unless you break two of the bolts while changing it. So, rather than hiking a mountain and enjoying a water park, we spent the weekend reading and playing games in hotel rooms (weather was crummy), waiting for mechanics to open (all are closed Sunday) and fixing the tire and replacing the breaks (need was discovered when fixing the tire). The mechanics were great and I had a good book with me, but it just felt like such a waste of a weekend; dumb is the best word for it.

Despite everything, I actually managed to, initially, be thankful for some extra sleep and no major car damage, but that all went out the window when I saw photos of the Mayan ruins and kite festivals that filled the weekends of many other people. It would probably help to not compare my experience to anyone else's; I have a hard time doing that in general (I'm working on it) and it was extra hard in this case. I think part of it was that I was really wanting/needing a break from city life in Guatemala and just did not get it.

In three weeks I am planning to head back to Honduras to spend Thanksgiving on the island of Roatan. Hopefully the country will treat me better the second time around, I am sure I will really need it by then!

BTW, if you are curious of my other 12 countries (in order): US (yes it counts), Canada, Mexico, England, Scotland, Ireland, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Guatemala.

Happiness on a volcano

This post was going to be written the night I came home from the hike. That was the plan. But I have not been able to put what this trip did for me into words. Something changed, or I did. I don't know what it is or how significant it is, but I definitely feel different after coming back. It is not just the dead quads or the people I met. I wish I was more elequant. Oh well, here goes:

To spend the weekend away was a very last minute decision. On Thursday, Ken Grob (7^th grade science teacher, husband of my classroom's neighbor, adventure seeker, nice guy) casually asked me if I was interested in going with a group from a local climbing gym to hike a volcano (Acatenango). My initial response was that I already had plans (I had signed up to help at a CAG service day), but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to go. So I made it work. I found someone (thanks Brian) to watch Sidney, informed the person in charge that I would not be attending the service day, and called Diego who was in charge of the trip (thank goodness he speaks English). At this point I just thought it would be a fun weekend away from the city.

At about 12:30 on Saturday, Ken and I walked from my condo to the climbing gym. I was a little nervous about walking there with a big backpack, which felt like a “please rob me” sign, but we make it with no issues. We hung out for a while waiting for everyone to arrive, and I found a magazine in their shop that had an article about the Colorado Running Company store in C/S. Crazy! I took it as a good sign :) We loaded on the bus about 1:30 and headed out to the hostel. Much of the ride involved us talking to a guy who was a graduate of CAG. He is now working for the UN as an interpreter (Spanish/French) for the Guatemalan army stationed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A very interesting guy.

We arrived at the hostel around 4 and spent time throwing a frisbee, attempting a slack-line (I managed three steps!), and getting to know people (at least the ones who spoke English). We had a pre-hike meeting around a camp fire where I managed to understand all the key points; thankfully their Spanish was slower than most :) After the meeting we ate a “tipica” dinner (eggs, refried black beans, toast, fried plantains) before we headed to bed. Bed was in a room of 10 bunk beds. It felt and smelled a lot like camp and was perfect!

Our wake-up call came at 3:15 and we were on the road by 4. Our transportation was a “chicken bus.” I do not know why they are called that, but they are these crazily decorated busses usually covered in playboy symbols and naked ladies. This particular bus also had flashy lights that came on when the driver used the breaks. At 4am, on a windy, dirt road, such lights are absurd and hilarious. We arrived at the trailhead about 5:00 am. At the trailhead I realized that my camera was missing (I had hooked it to my bag at the hostel and it was no longer there). This is a new camera I was given as a gift before I came. I am annoyed that I did not take better care of it :/

The "lead" group

We started hiking and split into three main groups. The entire group had 35 people and there was a wide range of fitness levels. I hiked in the front group with Ken, another guy we know from ultimate named Vince (he works for the UN), a number of Guatemalan men, and one other female. The morning was beautiful and I was soaking it all in. I spent a lot of the hike listening in on conversations and figure out what was being said. Whether or not I was successful was mostly dependent on who was talking and how steep the trail was.

At about 11:00 Ken, Diego, Vince, and I reached a false summit. We caught a glimpse of the true summit, and took a few photos before the clouds arrived. We did not see the sun again until near the bottom. In fear of worse weather arriving, we headed for the summit. The last part was steep with little to no trail, but our group of seven made it to the 3,976m (13,045 ft) summit with few issues. We enjoyed the “cumbre”, walking around the caldera, eating some snacks, waiting for everyone else to arrive, and hoping for the clouds to clear. Everyone that started, made it to the top, including two eight year olds. One eight year old was a guide's son; he has hiked Acatenango over 20 times, the first time at age 6. I was impressed.

One of the 8yr olds

The whole group on the cloudy cumbre

A break during the decent

After about an hour, we headed down. Towards the top, the ground is covered in a thick layer of soft, volcanic rock. It is sand like, and the best way to descend is to run and ride the slides. It was a blast and when I starting realizing how great this trip was. For some reason, when the ground got harder, the running didn't stop and it became the way to descent the entire volcano (I blame Ken). I was not wearing running shoes and had a decent sized pack, but was not about to let the boys have all the fun. So I just kept running. It was amazing. I spent most of the decent chatting with a guy named Julioandre who is another CAG graduate and the manager of the local North Face store (they were a sponsor of the trip). He is a very interesting guy who has been involved in trying to get more trail running and adventure races in Guatemala. It was a fun way down. We then headed back to the hostel, ate some soup and headed back to the City.

So, the trip/hike was really not unlike ones I have done back in CO, but it felt so different. Maybe it just meant something different. It has made me more confident in the fact that I can do what I want to here. It makes me more excited about being here and the adventures that my time here could hold. I have made some good friends at CAG, but I really wanted to find people that love what I love.; people who want to explore the area outside of the city, who want to sleep on old uncomfortable mattresses in a room with 20 other people, who will get up at 3am to climb a mountain. Maybe it is just the possibility that I have found these people. Whatever happened, it is now up to me to keep it going. I need to go outside my comfort zone and find more adventures even if I don't know anyone else going. It is not easy for me. I worry too much, and jump too rarely. I guess it is about time I fix that... :)

EARTHQUAKE!!

Woo Hoo, another post. Well, today was a special day so I could not resist. Today was the first day I felt an earthquake. It was not only the first time I felt one while in Guatemala, but the first of my life. Crazy I know. 

Here's how it went down:

I was with the students in a class called X-Block. X-Block is this fantastic 30 mins twice a week where we get to teach whatever we want. All of the teachers picked a topic and the students signed up for what they wanted. I am doing no-bake cooking! Some of the other teachers are doing broadcasting, knitting, crafts, and card games. So this is another class that would never go over in the US, but we think is fantastic!  And today was our first day. I was having the students sign up for the day when they are in charge of bringing the ingredients, recipe, etc when my projector starting swinging like crazy. I recall a few students pointing at the projector and hearing a number of “whoas” before I felt anything. What I felt was mostly dizzy, sort of like the feeling you get when you are back on land after being on a boat for a while. My students asked me if it was a real earthquake (not sure why as I am sure they have all felt many more than me). I told them “yes, now get under your desks.” They did so quickly and then counted to 60 as we practiced a few weeks ago. After the 60 seconds, we evacuated to the baseball field. After waiting out there for 10 or so minutes, the students were dismissed to lunch.

I went back to my classroom and looked up the earthquake (www.usgs.gov) to see what magnitude we just experienced. It was a 4.8. I am sure it is not the appropriate response, but I found the whole thing exciting and was quick to tell the teacher next door everything I had read. A minute or two after entering her classroom, she exclaimed “oh shit, here we go again” as we started shaking again. Not only did this one shake a lot harder (5.8), but it lasted longer. It probably only lasted 20 seconds rather than 10, but it felt a significantly longer. As the students were still at lunch, we only had to evacuate ourselves (much easier). We met and lined up our students and then waited somewhat patiently for the administration to give us instructions. While waiting my students told me that if there is a third it is usually really big and called a terremoto. I thought I was learning some cool Guatemalan lingo or at least a legend that had a great back story. Nope, terremoto is just the Spanish word for earthquake, whereas most of what happens they just call tremors!

In the end the administration decided to dismiss the students at 2 rather than 3, mostly because there were already a number of parents waiting outside the school to pick up their children. So that left an hour in which I was supposed to teach class. Well, lucky for me, I teach earth science! It was a great teachable moment. So we looked at maps, talked about why earthquakes happen, etc. About 20 mins into class, the students claimed there was another tremor. Well, I did not feel it, thought they were just making it up, and at this point it was pouring outside. So we did not get under our desks and we did not evacuate. Turns out the students were correct, there was another quake (4.8 again) and I am a bad teacher.

There have been two more since (4.5 at 2:30 and 4.3 at 6:30) that I did not feel, but my house is pretty solid and low to the ground. So, it is interesting that my post from yesterday was about routine and then I have a very un-routine day. I do find the whole thing interesting which I know is probably not the best reaction. Maybe it is the scientist in me, maybe it is that it is a brand new experience, maybe there is some human nature in the excitement. It does make a great story after all :)

The USGS map of today's tremors and "terremoto"

Routine

As expected, I am not very good at keeping this up. I am not sure why, but I will work on it as some of you have asked (that makes me happy because it means people are reading!). So I have been here in Guatemala for almost six weeks! That is crazy. Generally it does not feel like I left Colorado all that long ago. And yet I feel like I have a found a routine that you can only get in after being in a place for a while, and, somehow, it does not feel all that different from what things looked like for me in CO (minus the dance which I miss so desperately). 

My weekdays usually start with a short (20 mins) run with Sidney around my gated area. I usually do five laps which I think is about a mile and a half, but I don't really know (see green circle on map below). I then shower, eat breakfast, etc. I leave for school at 6:30 and walk up the hill with a first grade teacher that lives in the same condo complex (it is called La Hoya). It takes us about 10 mins to walk (the school campus is outlined in white, I hear it is huge for an international school!). I then get all my stuff ready for the students who come at 7:30. After school I always have something. Mondays are volleyball practice, Tuesdays are professional development days, Wednesdays I run, Thursdays I have volleyball games against the other international school in Guate (InerAmericano and Colegio Americano Maya), and Fridays are also running days. Exciting huh?? I would like to fit some sort of fitness into my Mondays or Tuesdays. We have a pool on campus so I could swim when it is not raining, or there are some people that do a Jillian Michael's work-out video on Mondays at 4. I'll figure it out.

Even my weekends have become routine-ish. Saturdays usually involve shopping at the market (they have great fruits, veggies, tortillas, etc for really cheap) and then the grocery store for everything else. Food is generally good here, I am just adjusting to not having all my fake meats :) But that is probably good for me, I just need to watch my protein intake a little more carefully. I will then often meet up with friends for dinner or hanging out on Saturday night. Then Sunday is a lazy morning followed by ultimate frisbee at 11. We play anywhere from 2-3 hours and then I will often stay at school to get some work done.

There you have it; my Guatemala life in a nut shell. It is nice, comfortable, predictable, and pretty good. I guess that is the problem. Things are not supposed to be comfortable here, I am supposed to be challenging myself, I am supposed to be having amazing new experiences, I am supposed to be growing every day, I am supposed to be learning Spanish! When I first arrived I was told that it is easy to get in routine. That really is the truth! And routine is nice! I guess my next goal will be to get past that routine. I like the comfort and predictability of it, and who doesn't? I think it is human nature to like knowing what is coming, what to expect.  But that is not what I came here for, and I don't want to leave wondering where the time went. I don't even want to go home for Christmas wondering that. So that is what I am going to do, and you all are going to be there to hold me accountable. I am going to explore more; I am not going to not take a taxi somewhere because they seem like the only people here who don't understand my Spanish; I am going to find someone to watch Sidney so I can go away for the weekend (should probably be high on the priority list); and I am going to come home with amazing stories, pictures, adventures, and minimal regrets. At least that is the goal :)

Green circle - the large area around my house.  White circle - the even larger area of the school