Dos Quetzales

2007-06-26T16:12:00.000-07:00

Rawleee, NC Ya'll

This may be the last post on this blog, I make no promises. I have been kicking around the idea of starting a new one however. Any thoughts on that? I'll be buying a new computer very soon! Andrea and I are well, enjoying our squeaky clean lives here in Raleigh and settling in.
We've got a nice apartment, good jobs, and we're starting to get to know people little by little. I've been landscaping (no surprise) with a cool little landscaping crew. Its hot as hell here and generally worse than DC in August...blah. Andrea is working for the catering branch of the NC Museum of Art and preparing for teaching this August. She was just offered a job at a killer public charter school here called Exploris Middle School, she'll be teaching 6th grade! Thank God for social networking...that seems to be how things work down here for good housing, work, etc.

Well until next time take care, you probably know other ways of getting in touch with us! If we start a new blog I'll post it here as a link. Much love, Luke

2007-05-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

Today I've made available some photo's from our time in Guate. Please feel free to click over to imagestation.com and check them out. I broke them up into three separate files, companeros (friends), experiences, and details (which are like close ups and sort of arty).

So go to imagestation.com then do a member search for lukewallenbeck. Click on me (shown in a hammock) and continue on to the photo files.

Sadly we lost the photographs from our first 3 months or so due to a memory chip f&*% up. Also many times we went to places to dangerous to bring anything valuable like a camera. Thirdly indigenous people perceive photography from strangers as rude so we rarely photographed people, and when we did we asked first. The last disclaimer here is that we are notorious for forgetting to bring our camera places and take pictures.

If you have great pictures you'd like to pass on to us please do, I can add them to our collection.

Enjoy, Luke

2007-04-30T08:42:00.000-07:00

Update long overdue...

Hello friends,

Andrea and I have been very busy since we left Guatemala April 12th. Everything went reasonably well and it was quite a shock to arrive in Charlotte, NC for our short layover. Immediately we were faced with angry customs officials, and ushered into the land of the giants. We were all of a sudden average people, in height, language, looks, and culture, etc. On the other hand, hot water from bathroom faucets and clean drinking fountains were welcome comforts.

Since arriving we have visited with many friends and family starting in Washington DC. An amazingly comfortable apartment kept us rested and warm (frickin freezing outside), and housed my parents while they visited. If you ever need a furnished apartment right near Union Station we know the best option, thanks John and Andy! It was great seeing my sisters and parents and wandering around our old neighborhood, speaking Spanish even!

Since then we've gone to Lancaster City, Pa - Fredricksburg, VA - Philadelphia, PA - Buffalo/Niagara Falls, NY - Rochester, NY - and now we are in Syracuse, NY with Andrea's family. Whffeew, the fun never stops.

I have confirmed my intention to attend NC State beginning July 2nd and we plan to visit Raleigh this week for a look around. We hope to line up an apartment there by June 1st if not sooner. So now you have people to visit in NC, we'll be a short drive from the Mtns and ocean!

Of course this is the cliff's notes version of our last month or so, but we saw lots of good friends, ate some of my favorite foods (Viola's Subs), drank really good beer, and caught up with family.

Check in again soon as we are putting the finishing touches on our best Guatemala photos. We be including a link to another site which should allow a better viewing experience.

I hope your all well, we miss you guys from Guate, and can't wait to plan our return.
Abrazos a todos, Luke

2007-04-03T15:43:00.000-07:00

Utila Island, Honduras
April 12 - 17

What turned out to be the last major destination of our trip was the smallest of Honduras' Bay Islands, Utila. You may be able to picture this Caribe island if you can imagine what the entire Caribbean was like 60 years ago before "club meds" and cruise ships took over. We arrived by ferry into the one small harbor, and found our way to the one main street. The majority of the buildings we found here are ramshakle wooden things up on stilts. In recent years Utila has become famous for its incredibly cheap scuba diving courses and thriving corral reefs. We had an amazing time soaking up the natural beauty and intriguing local culture.

If you have time definitely check out the bizarre history of the Bay Islanders. Utilians are primarily descendants of English and Spanish pirates. They speak a rhythmic English creole almost impossible to understand. Yet most people speak Creole, Spanish, and often English. As you can imagine the pace of life here was ultimate chill. Shirts and shoes were optional, and even road construction, beer delivery, and cycling was done in flip flops. Most things close at lunch, and or between 2 - 6 pm, which drove us crazy a few times. We ate Baleada's, the Honduran typical food, at least twice a day, although one night splurged on fresh grilled tuna and maji maji.

Nearly everyday we swam in the warm clear waters close to shore, and 3 times snorkeled around the reefs. We could literally jump in or swim to the reef in a matter of seconds! We even did a night snorkel with a small group off of Corral View point. Being novice reef ecologists I won't bore you with our findings other than to say it was full of life, day and night. We were definitely bit with scuba fever and almost took the three day license course. Theres just so much under water, who knew!

The main highlights were the octopus, squid, phosphorescence, moray eel, puffer, and flounder that we saw. Not to mention the scores of vibrant fish and corral too numerous to recount. On land we loved chasing the blue crabs and iguanas that line the roads and paths there. Plan your trip soon as of course over-fishing and over-development are ruining both the corral reefs and the islands unique forests.

2007-04-03T10:26:00.000-07:00

my heartfelt ode, although not Neruda

Ode to my Sunglasses

Oh wondrous form!
Forty pesos of rhinestoned glory;
White rose of Chiapas.
What honored fabrica lovingly tattooed "hecho" on your ample arm?

Guardian of iris and pupil
Deflector of UV
Veil of Obscurity
Biolab goggles
Pick-up riding, mosquito splattered windshield
Unscratched, unbent, unfashionable
Perfect companion
Frosting on my cake
My temple's adornment

When I slipped you on
(tenderly over nose, cheeks, ears and brow)
Shimmering in the sunlight
My inner Latina sa-wa-ayed
her bronzed hips in the rhythm of a sultry tune

Oh! but I let you go!
I underestimated the current of the river!
In an instant
(like an arrow through my heart)
You were snatched from my crown
Swept from my grasping fingers
And sank
Beneath the aquamarine ripples.
Gone.

Yesterday I was Ready For Anything
Now I am simply Blinded Traveler,
Squinting.

2007-03-20T13:22:00.000-07:00

Hey peoples, we are on the road traveling right now and can´t wait to tell you our stories and show you our pictures! We left March 14th and will return to Antigua the first week of April. Our first stop was Semuc Champey, then Flores & El Remate, Peten. We saw Tikal and Lago de Yaxhá and arrived in Rio Dulce last night. We plan to stay at Denny´s Beach while we are here. After exploring a few days in this area of Guatemala we will likely head to Utila, Hondurus to take in the beauty of the worlds 2nd largest barrier reef located here on Hondurus´north shore. We will see how much time and money we have left at that point and God only knows what tomarrows adventures will bring. We have had the best of times and a few- wow i´m on the brink of hating this place for ever- times! But we are learning, this traveling on the cheap takes some specific skills and little by little we are figuring it out.

By the way I got into the NC State grad program for landscape architecture, Wahoo! I knew I wasn´t a complete value-less slug! My self-esteem took a few hits being rejected from UBC, UW, and Berkeley! Only waiting to hear from two more, but for now I´m enjoying this victory.

Adios, te vaya bien. (mom that means ¨goodbye, and go well¨)

2007-03-09T13:36:00.000-08:00

A La Gran Puta...

Here's a little story that outlines a very common experience for travelers and citizens of "developing" countries. Not that it doesn't happen in "developed" countries, but it happens here all the time. So a couple of us have been wanting to hike the nearly 14,000 ft. volcano Acatenengo for some time. We did our research, made a plan, and met this morning at 5 am near the "bus terminal" to catch a bus/taxi to the town La Soledad, where the trail head begins. It seemed wise to allow some extra time on both ends, public transport is unpredictable and we wanted to be up and back before dark at around 6pm. La Soledad is only about 15 minutes away by car, but hey ya never know.

I will list our morning in bullet points to speed up the story telling process. Like the show "24" right!

- 5:05 am, met Pete and Allison in the COLD dark near the market.
- 5:30 walk up to Central Park to look for taxi's after finding no buses to Duñas.
- 6 am Scrap public transport plan altogether and go get Allison's car "Fidel."
- 6:20 am parking attendant wakes up from our yelling and banging on the outside gate.
- 6:30 am leave Antigua, (as old Fidel needs time to warm up), pass through San Miguel Dueñas, and find our way blocked by two Tractor Trailers on an up hill dirt road less than 5 minutes from La Soledad.
- 6:40 am Pete and I go see whats the problem, being manly men and all. Basically the trucks are full of coffee cherries and the lead truck is unable to get traction up the hill. The good news is that the second truck is the only one blocking our way. The one that isn't stuck, so the driver says oh no problem I can move over for you.
- 7am now we are a line of 5 cars, as the other buses and cars have since turned around, the 2nd driver never moved the truck, and the first truck decides to give it another go, this time being towed with about a 1" thick metal chain! Yikes...dangerous.
- 7:25 am Dumb ass, pee for a brain, truck drivers decide to let all the traffic pass after more than 45 minutes waiting... lots of cursing at that point unfit for the children that read this.
- 7:30 we "arrive" and find that La Soledad seems to be a coffee farm, the road became a footpath, and we are unsure what to do with the car. A few people confirm its possible to hike Acatenengo from that point but its much "easier" to go a different route. Running out of time and in a weakened mental state we choose to follow their advice.
- 8:15 am finds us on another endless dirt road climbing and climbing. Fidel starts smoking a little bit, and we decide its time to reevaluate our situation. We believe the easier way was most likely an actual road that leads nearly all the way up the freakin mountain, typical. So defeated and without enough time to attempt the summit anyway, we head back to Antigua.
- 9 am finds us sitting down in a nice restaurant awaiting hot tipica breakfast and coffee. The sort of food that really, really, tastes good after a tough hike.

Damn you Acatenengo. You alluded us this time, but we've lived in Guate long enough to shake off these mind-blowingly stupid set backs, and will return with a vengeance!

2007-02-28T19:17:00.000-08:00

Water + Metal + Electricity

I have a love hate relationship with taking showers here. The love comes from the ability, with very few exceptions, to enjoy a hot-ish shower on a daily bases. The hate comes is really more of a constant fear of the shower otherwise known as the death trap.

See Picture:

Directions: Turn on water with enough pressure to riase a sometimes hidden metal piece in order to create a complete circut able to heat water passing by. I admit, despite my fear, I have actually only been electricuted once although it was memorable. While raising my pink, slightly failing apart loofa to be rinsed, those pesky charged electrons jumped through the wires, suds, into my fingers and surged out through my elbow.

For all I know, showers opperate in the same or similar fashion in the US- the difference is that the web of wires running from the shower head to the power source are nicely hidden behind a wall so that I can lather in ignorance.

The best (or worst) specamin showerhead yet we encountered on our most recent trip to Xela. It is clearly an older version.

Luke had to duck under it. The metal faucet was next to the frayed wires so that you had to get right up into its business of flowing electrified water just to turn it on & off. The best part was the huge spark that flashed indicating that the circut was indeed completed.

2007-02-24T14:43:00.000-08:00

Favorite memories from our trip to Mexico and Xela.

- Eating kick arse tacos in Tapachula, Mexico! The peso is very weak even compared to the quetzal. In fact my memories of Tapapchula are good food, wedding dress stores, VW bugs, the fleet of public minibuses, and they are much taller people than guatemalans. And oh do they love their neon paint!

- Xela Natural History Museum's floor to ceiling collection of stuffed, pickled, and dried animals. They had everything from the shocking 8 legged baby goat, dozens of corn snakes in jars, a chow chow dog on top of two lions, and many large birds held together with conspicuous amounts of tape. Not to mention the holy Quetzal bird in a gold-leaved show case, (if only the living ones were this protected.)Does it get any better! I had tears in my eyes I laughed so hard! I guess I'm sort of a freak as well...

- Incredible views while riding through the western highlands of Guate. Rolling fog, small farming villages, new beautiful textiles and faces, the occasional forest, and shear drops of hundreds of feet inches from our ferocious chicken bus.

Andrea's new fashion sun glasses rhine stones and all made me laugh as much as anything this trip!

- Xela has a great local brew called "Cabro" started by german migrants in the late 1800's. There is an odd german influence in Xela as many germans fled there before and after the war years. It has since been bought out by Gallo sad but true.

- Our hotel in Xela had a "shockingly" hot shower in it! Eventually we had the courage to actually try it Luke first of course, and some how survived.

- In Xela we visited a modern mall in order to see a movie, and we were suprised that the majority of people were traditional mayan women shopping and working there. The scene provided many ironic moments ie a group of traditionally dressed mayan woman balancing huge piles of cardboard boxes on their heads while window shopping at the pet store. Mixed feeling with that for sure... Memories of Ï Heart Huckabees¨ and I quote ¨You don´t think Steven and his family couldn´t use some suburban sprall?¨

2007-02-19T15:22:00.000-08:00

Around Town

statue of Maria at night

a favorite entrance

looking down

looking up at the birthday cake church

f is for frio

texture

conche stairs

who goes there?

2007-02-19T14:48:00.000-08:00

Subimos Agua

After months of staring 12,240 feet up at our beloved Volcàn de Agua, we finally climbed the volcano, albiet last minute and a bit hung over. With our friends Pete and Kevin caught the trail in Santa Maria de Jesùs and slowly picked our way over a rocky and trash strewn path. There were so many memorable parts. It was a windy day so at times the clouds were zooming past us at incredible speeds. About half way up, the landscape changed from a green canopy to rocky cliffs covered with fuzzy tuffs of ornamental grass. There is one great scar of a canyon to cross that reminded me of the eternal abis from "Garden State". We came across plants that we had never seen before including a really cool dragon-foot flower. The views absolutely were amazing from that high up and it was entertaining to pick out familiar places below. The crater is sadly trashed with litter and broken bottles around a rocky soccer field (where better to play soccer?) and a little chapel that is home to squatters. We were, however, too pooped at the sumit to climb the other rim to see the Pacific Ocean on the other side. I fully realized how long the climb was only when we ran back down hoping to catch the last bus and beat sunset. Bus long gone, a group of eleven of us jumped in the back of a pick up and speed back to Antigua, squealing around blind turns and holding on for dear life (definately the most dangerous and scary part of the journey).

Home is always a great return . We aren´t too sore today but definately looking forward to tomorrow and the opportunity to sit all day on the bus to Mexico.

luke chillin´at Jean Luis´ incredible house with Volcàn Agua ever in the background

2007-02-17T14:35:00.000-08:00

Thank you for smoking
We are far removed from smoking bans in bars and restaurnats! On the contrary, I am often fighting over ash trays with the waiters (we try to keep at least two on every table). I was watching a health and beauty show the other day on tv warning viewers that your skin absorbs whatever is in your envirnonment! Yikes- I have fried chicken fingers and marlboro reds building castels in my pores! I enjoy quite a hearty chuckle at the cigarette holders that have been afixed atop toiltet paper dispersers all thoughout this country- Heaven forbid you have to put out at light before you "shake out the spiders". It is a sad sight when you encounter a shriveled up and melted toilet paper dispenser, or countertop for that matter, that was not given the gift of an ashtray. I once had a very good friend (unnamed) drive me home (don´t worry mom- not very far), in his five speed, with a open can of Gallo beer in one hand and a cigarrette in the other- and all the while warning me that drinking coffee was bad for my health. I´ll stick to coffee- make it an expresso.

Tuk Tuks
Tuk Tuks are little motorized tuna cans that, for a small fee, rattle you all the way home. They have only recently been imported from Thailand into Central America. Six adults sharing one tuk tuk my personal record to date. The squish factor is actually a zillion times more comfortable than riding solo and being tumbled as in a dryer against every interior surface as the driver races over the cobble stones. I also prefer tuk tuks with actual metal doors even if it is only to my waist, also for the anti tumble out effect. The velcro plastic flap can only resist so much bouncing. Our good friend Pirate Pete has a dream of making an ultimate tuk tuk video game. Apparently, in Thailand, these bad boys are hooked up with car engines and become monster truck tin cans. Pick your color and race around town, picking up passangers and other odd tasks while dodging packs of stray dogs, chicken busses, or other pedestrians. There could be the night time series or rainy-season level for the more advanced players. Most tuk tuks are also equiped with a siren of some sort- not too loud and along the lines of video game. Talented drivers can start and stop the siren so that it whistles at the pretty girls they passby. Now is that hot or what!

Duck tape has 101 uses.
If it was more readily available in Guatemala, an additional 1001 uses would be discovered in the first week and it would grow nine lives to boot. Instead, plastic bags fill the void of the "use for just about anything" and "you´d better not leave home without it" category. Plastic bags are used with ingenuity and absudaty alike. Like most places in the US, everything you every buy is put in a bag but a day at the market means that I visit 20 stalls and recieve a bag from each. At Chritmas time, plastic bags were used to make wreaths, bows and other adornments on buildings. I´ve seen them as hair ties, wallets, signs, hats, rope, flags, holding live wires together, soccer ref flags, and kites to name a few. It is an art to drink soda from an open plastic bag, thankfully with the aid of a straw especially while driving a chicken bus, doing paperwork, or even nursing your baby. Oh- and side note- I have yet to see the use of a SLIP KNOT with any of the bags tied firmly shut before handed across the counter- so little chance of actually using the bag as a bag another time. The bag must be transformed into another creation with each use.

2007-02-16T18:22:00.000-08:00

More Proyecto Photos

Those are my fellow Gardeners Benedicto, Anderson, and Nelson in the top left. The rest are pictures of other parts of the grounds including a tile mural and my favorite iguana.

2007-02-16T18:01:00.000-08:00

Nuestras Aijhados Photos

I took these photo´s late in the afternoon when most people had already left for the day. All these areas are accessible to the children and if you look closely you can see my fish ¨Lucas¨in the bottom left corner of the fish tank photo!

2007-02-14T12:58:00.000-08:00

Nuestros Ahijados

Andrea and I began volunteering at a "proyecto" (as we call them) at the beginning of January. The name is Nuestros Ahijados, in English it translates to "our godchildren." It's primary vision is to provide comprehensive education to the children who would normally be unable to pay to attend a quality school. A group of people from Bismark, N. Dakota started the proyecto and seem to be the primary supporters. Its been going for quite a while and has continued to expand into other pueblos bringing education, housing, and family health facilities. We volunteer at the main "campus" which is just a short walk to the northern outskirts of Antigua on the road to San Felipe. What is attractive to us is the really incredible gardens they have and maintain for the children, as well as the after school reading programs in their large library. The gardens are a wonderful mix of natural play areas, water falls, murals, quite spaces, and even terrariums with reptiles and fish. Hopefully the pictures do it justice. Incredibly the place is bursting with blooming trees, vines, and tropical foliage even in this dry season. I have enjoyed working with the 3 full-time gardeners Nelson, Benedicto, and Anderson. Although I can hardly ever understand Anderson as he comes from a Mayan village and barely speaks Spanish. Generally we talk about how much money they can make if they emigrate to the US and whether or not so and so is gay and what I think about Guatemaltecas. Limited thus far, but its still in Spanish ya know! Also I have started stocking the beautiful fish pond with koi, as it has been empty for 5 months. Naturally they named the first one "Lucas" after me, and on a side note "to be lucas" also means to be crazy in slang here. Always a good laugh.

Andrea has been volunteering in the large library reading to children three afternoons a week. She has really enjoyed this individual time with the children as well as practicing her spanish. She will have to include some of her stories soon, as she is taking a break from Nuestros Ahijados and working for PLFM as the substitute Director! When does she sleep! Not much actually, but she's hanging in there.

2007-02-14T12:38:00.000-08:00

Feliz Dia del Cariños!

Andrea and I want to say happy St. Valentines day to all you friends and lovers out there! The one...OK the first day of each year where your permitted and indeed encouraged to enjoy classy chocolates and fine wine. This of course is the mandate for all of us, whether we are F.L.A.F.F. (foot-loose and fancy free- shout out to Nikky Naf), married, dating, or have 39 cats and an "I live to knit" bumper sticker on our car.

So may this day bring a large measure of "spicy food and spicy amor."

2007-02-09T18:58:00.000-08:00

Toasted

After more than two months without leaving the ten block grid of Antigua, we headed for a day of hammocks, sun and naps on the Pacific coast. As much as I love the skyline of mountains in their steadfastness, I relished the movement of sand beneath my feet and the magic of the tides.

The ferry to MonteRico beach is its own marvel.

Model Luke
Gleeful Andrea

The tequilla sun set as the full moon awoke above the palms, as if in perfect balance with each other.

2007-02-05T19:39:00.000-08:00

Another Earthquake...

I sat down a few minutes ago excited to check email, take care of some online business and most of all write a new blog entry! Just as I was about to begin my new post another earthquake (or tremble if your tough and have lived through major destruction). IT REALLY FREAKS ME OUT!!! Seriously I can´t remember what I was going to write before, and honestly its been 5 minutes and my eyes are still sort of swimming off-balance. I shutter every 30 seconds becuase I´m sort of jumpy...aghhhh. I know there is a reason so much of Antigua is in ruins. I like to think some terrible war or bizarre one time thing happened hundreds of years ago never to return. Of course the truth is there has been countless earthquakes here- many which have leveled Guatemala over and over, the last one 40 years ago. In 6 months, Andrea and I have easily experienced 6 little shakers and 2 others that registered around 5.5 on the scale of shakes. I cling to a dilusional belief that the government has strick ¨earthquake proof¨building requirments in place. Well I will try to write a more coherent post soon updating our volunteer efforts and general comings and goings. Much love to my people. Luke

2007-01-12T18:41:00.000-08:00

This, the cathedral of San Francisco, is one of my favorite churches in town. In addition to its interesting architedture and art, you are able to view its extensive ruins. This place is holds the tomb of Santo Hermano Pedro, the first cannonized saint from Central America (2002) as well as a hall of miracles, crutches and all, attributed to him. This is the view from outside the incredible gate, one of 12+ that surround the property. Don´t let hunger interfere with your prayers, buy a hot dog or peanut brittle before entering.

This view is of the front of the chuch- complete with statues of saints and patrons. It is really lovely when it is adorned for sacred days.

These prayer candles are beside the tomb of Santo Hermano Pedro. If you look closely, you can see his image that appears on some of the candles here. This is one of four metal tables in this area. It was early in the day, so there were not many candles- at times there are flames swimming in rainbow colored pools of wax. Beneath are huge vats to catch the wax.

Candles are bought right on the premises in all shapes, colors and sizes.
white - purity
black - against envy
pink - against illness
blue - for getting work
light blue - for your studies or travel
yellow - protection
green - good business
red - love
purple - to stop vices

The second level of the hanging bundles are wax replacas of body parts, hearts, heads, arms, legs or (for good measure) the whole body. I've never seen these lit but they are tied to the figures of saints or to the protective gates/altars surrounding these saints that line the sides of every church. I've witnessed people in knelt in fervent prayer tapping the candles or wax forms against the tombs/statues.

I repect their faith that their specific requests are being heard. The hall of miracles is litterlly cluttered with gifts of thanks to Hermano Pedro< certificates of graduation, abandoned crutches, paintings, picutres of famiy members, embroidered textiles etc.
I don't know if it is my being American, but there are so many missing or fuzzy details surrounding religion, faith and prayer that I would like to get to the bottom of. Ususally I just observe and am content living with the mystery.

I went to an art gallery last month with a friend Mauro. He isn't an every Sunday catholic to say the lesat but he was raised in the church as is most of the populaion. According to him, Mary is God the Mother, the femine face of God the Father just as the Holy Spirit is the female face of Jesus the Son. Instead of a trinity it is a four sided figure or even a coin with two sides. Mary never died and that is one reason why we can pray to her, she is God after all. Mary has many names or personalities- there is the suffering Mary who is always shown with the sword piercing her heart, the ascending Mary, and the Mary of Conception. My personal favorite is Mary as Guadalupe - the Indiginous Mary, dark skinned, traditionally clothed and speaking a Mayan language. She is celebrated as part of the Christmas festivities but that is another story.

2007-01-08T14:14:00.000-08:00

The New Year Finds Us

busy! but happy. We worked nonstop thru the holidays and just celebrated our first day off together up at our favorite little lodge up in the mountains. I started my day off with a portion of melt in your mouth bacon while taking in the view then soon moved on to nap number one. Luke started a fire in the suana and soon we enjoyed a swelternigly wonderful detox session. Then another nap. Evetually settled into an Adorandack chair with a new book by Tom Robbins with some of the best writing I´ve come across in a long time. Next family style veggitarian dinner from heaven. After watching the Big Labowski, we spent the next hours beside a campfire under a full moon. Woke up the next morning for more of the same before decending back to Antigua in the back of a ricketty pick up just in time to catch a cappuchino and head to work. Fabulous.

New Years was another unexpected blast of a time. We both had to work until 1:30 am but the last hour was a ruckus group of people we knew fairly well all dancing on the bar and having a good time. We spontaneously left with two of the waiters and were led all over town into different danceclubs where we shook our asses until moving on to the next one. New Years is the one night that businesses can stay open past 1 so it was a party everywhere. The street was littered with confetti, empty rum bottles, and remains of firecrackers, and happy people. We ended our night early with tacos from our favorite window somewhere around 4 in the morning. We climbed into to bed content albiet a little sore and slept in late.

2006-12-29T12:02:00.000-08:00

Andrea hard at work at the downstairs bar

Wallenbeck's Bar & Grill

Well the time came for me to join the land of the working joe. Now when you visit Antigua's most gringo bar/restaurant you'll have the option of being served by Andrea upstairs or by me at the downstairs bar. I've worked just about a week and a half and have enjoyed it as well. Like Andrea said we speak a decent amount of Spanish between the waitstaff and customers. Its a nice change from classes as well, because not only do people not correct me, they praise my "really good" Spanish! Ok so maybe they are buttering me up for stronger drinks, or just don't expect extranjero's to speak Spanish at all.

Favorite memories thus far:
1. Every time I make a White Russian I smile and think of The Dude.
2. I've met the "star" soccer player for the local team, jungle biologist from Peten, Canadian film maker, and lots of other nice people from everywhere in the world.
3. The strange "I need a bag of ice to keep my insulin cold" man whose been visiting recently.
4. Singing "Sweet Caroline" at the big down stairs bar with a rowdy bunch.
5. All the free food I get to eat everyday....yum. I've even been eating lots of delicious salads which can cost travelers dearly if they aren't lucky. Our restaurant is super clean and safe though.
6. I don't know if this is a good memory, but it certainly was crazy, I worked the "ladies Bar" on ladies night where ladies cocktails are only 3 Q. It was mayhem, hundreds of women yelling, sometimes angry, pushing and I might add not tipping at all. But I was hit on by a very old Guatemalan lady which was kind of sweet.

Adios, Luke

2006-12-26T13:24:00.000-08:00

We treated ourselves to a Christmas dinner at Panza Verde a famous little hotel and restaurant. Unfortuanatley the guys from Buena Vista weren´t playing but we were nevertheless serenaded by a violin

menu: shrimp bisque, sundried tomato bread, salad with arugala and goat cheese, salmon with beats and cream sause, chocolate mouse, pinot noir!

I forgot food could taste this good! Besides delicious, it is the most beautiful place I have ever dined. and I was in great company. Merry Christmas to us . . . and to all of you, our friends and family in whatever corner of the world this message finds you.

2006-12-26T11:30:00.000-08:00

A Merry Chapin Christmas Eve

Nearly 4 months have passed since we moved here to Antigua, the Christmas holiday was a sort of half-way mark for us. However, as much as we talked about potential christmas plans, the day more or less snuck up on us. Maybe there is a little xmas virus or dna strand that suddenly wakes up two days before, i don´t know? As you can see in our pictures Antigua was beautifully decoracted for all of December, parties and fireworks in central park every weekend night, and thanks to children here endless ¨bombas¨in the streets making me go deaf. God forbid some traumatized vietnam vets visit antigua! We´ve also been lucky to avoid the typical hyper-commercial christmas we´ve come to expect and loath in the US. For all this, maybe because of this, I wasn´t feeling the ¨christmas¨spirit building up here.

Then out of the blue Christmas Eve day we decided to change our plans last minute, and stay in Antigua. We ended up having a great time that evening. We started by walking around the park, taking pictures, and drinking capuccino´s with baily´s, yum. We ran into some good friends, got our shoes shinded, and watched all the people young and old enjoying the warm evening.

Then my inner-voice told me I needed to eat some tacos. We made our way to our favorite taco stand, located adjacent to La Merced church, and ended up arriving in time for a party and midnight mass. The party was complete with marimba music, dancing giant heads, sparklers, lots of tacos, a posada, and lastly a 30 minute fireworks display directly overhead! At 10pm everyone filed into the cathedral for a standing room only christmas mass. I was suprised to hear really beautiful music, understand the homile, and leave full and content.

It all felt right, like Andrea and I were meant to be there. That feeling doesn´t come along very often, and so I am thankful for my love of tacos.

2006-12-17T12:45:00.000-08:00

Ve Los Bills!

I just wanted to say "Go Bills" from guatemala as there probably not getting enough support from central america and there kicking some serious booty!
Peace Luke

2006-12-17T11:35:00.000-08:00

Student by Day
...Bartender by Night

After not working for how many months?, I took a night job at and American sports bar called Crazy Monkey. It definitely wasn´t my first choice of work but convernient and I am actually having a good time . I´ve made the transition to staying up until 2am and then trying to sleep in over the sound of the construction crew in the morning.

I make a woping dollar and hour plus dinner and $4 credit for drinks or food on my days off. Conveniently for Luke, he can eat a free meal while watching NFL tickekt. I speak Spanish more that I thought I would even if it is the same ten phrases over and over: On the rocks? I´m 27. I´m from NY. No, I´m married. Here´s your bill. What no tip?

It is really entertaining work. I meet so many different types of people from tourists, peace corps volunteers, crusty long time residents and partying locals.
Among my favorites have been the American gemologists (the inspected every piece of my jewlery with a mini flashlight), the 2 Pepsi guy, the man that growls, the Irish documentary crew, the Nicaraguan selling prosetheses, the blue- shot girl, and Hector the perfectionist waiter

Luke usually waits up for me and I recount my nightly stories as we finally drift to sleep.

2006-12-11T13:13:00.000-08:00

Burn the Devil, a tradition to kick of the Christmas season in order to discourage all evil from interrupting the festivities. The bottle of booze in his hand and the cigarette in his mouth were the first things to be incinerated- let that be a lesson to you laddy! Piles of noisemakers stuffed into little devil pinatas were stuffed all around his feet and under his evil throne- the explosions when they caught fire lasted nearly forever. Did I mention he wasthoroughlyy doused with gasoline to help along his demise.

This tradition always falls on the day to celebrate the Virgin of Conception. Nearby, was displayed a statue of the Virgin, surrounded by angels, candles and colored Christmas lights (thankfully not the ones that squeak a version of "Jingle Bells" or "Santa Claus is coming to Town" that are so popular in the market!). The ground was covered with pine needles for merriment and the best of festival foods were available.

Actually, Santa Claus and his mini-shirted hooter girls were seen in town at least two weeks ago along with a parade of dancing huge-headed puppet men (its a hard to explain). All the trees in Central park are lit with white lights and the famous mermaid fountain is now glowing an erie red. Luke and I are scheming a bit of snowy fun for that fountain but I might have already said too much.

2006-12-11T12:51:00.000-08:00

Gabriella the Adorable
This is the daughter of our friends Carlos and Fabiola. We had a picnic together the other day and couldn´t help but pull out the camera. Gabie has spent several weeks sick this fall but is growing stronger and learning how to walk. I think she made sounds to mean dog (chucho) the otherday so word are right around the corner too.
She is a cutie.

2006-12-08T08:12:00.000-08:00

Pequenia y cómodo y encantado

Ah...so this is our chiquita little habitaccion, very cozy and comfortable. We´ve been living here for a little under a week and we are feeling more at home every day. Besides the room we share a nice and spacious common kitchen, bathrooms, and chilled out courtyard area. Once we are making a little bit of money we will probably move up to a larger room on the upper level which is more private and much quiter. We will still have to deal with the roosters singing all night, and the workers who only hammer and yell from 6am- 10am. Also in other news looks like we have a buyer for our scooter! A huge blessing, as we haven´t actually even advertised yet. More on that later. Also grad school stuff seems to be falling into place these last few weeks here with much help from you all! Muchas gracias para todo. Check out the links to friends webpages on the side as I´ve listed a new one, putteringgreen.

Much love, Luke

2006-12-06T14:41:00.000-08:00

Food Glorious Food
Tamale wrapped in banana leaf with at side of fresh bread and a hot cup of punche (boiled tropical fruit with sugar and spices). Perfect way to start the Christmas season

Divine capuchinos from FernandoÂ´s cafe. Fortunately, our new apartment is less than one block away! I also want to add, that our team came in first place in last Saturday nightÂ´s quiz competition (thanks to SpencerÂ´s fuzzy navel) and we all won free breakfast, coffee and liquados.
Late night tacos (Mexican style) sold from a window for party-goers. My favorite is pastore- seasoned pork wipineappleple. The far windowsill holds the numerous salsas and condiments to pile on top. 3 for 10Q / 3 for $1.25

Ceviche- fresh (hopefully) seafood "cooked" in lime juice with tomatoes and a bit of worshishisauceuse. Eaten with saltines and beer. Ceviche is a favorite food here (also considered an aphrodisiac) and is sold on the street by vendors like this one.

2006-12-06T14:38:00.000-08:00

2006-12-06T14:26:00.000-08:00

Public Pilas (wash areas) are one of the most endearing things about this area. The are often beautiful and multifuntional. They are often located in even the smallest town´s central park area. The one in San Pedro las Huertas is the largest I´ve seen and can accomodate at least 50 women at the same time. As laundry takes hours of hard work, this is a place for ladies to be together, talk, be in the shade, and have access to water. It is a great develpment project in extremely poor areas. The pila above is located in Antigua at the end of a small, palm lined park. At night, the moon and arches reflect in the fountain. We used to pass it every night on our way home.

2006-12-03T16:32:00.000-08:00

Terremoto!

We have experience our first major earthquake and have lived to tell about it!

The newspaer reported it as 5.3 on the Richter scale. According the our neighbors, the tremblo has to register above a 6 or destroy buildings for it to actually be considered an earthquake. The owner of our house claims that there was no damage yesterday becuase the earth moved back and forth sideways instead of up and down. Hmmm....comforting.

It lasted less than a minute and was unnerving and thrilling all at once.
It started with us looking at each other trying to detirmine if lunch wasn´t sitting well, or if there was a huge gust of wind or semi trucks rolling through the valley (becuase of the rumble noise)

With the realization that it was indeed an earthquake, we joined the other freeking inhabitants of our guest house into the courtyard . . . where it was safer?
I can only alike it to that junior high game when you spin around with your head on a bat and then try to run while your perception of the world shfits and sways and your legs feel all shakey
- or riding a boat over a waves caused by another boat (i think called a quake, yeah?)

with all the ruins in town, it was just a matter of time :)

2006-11-30T15:25:00.000-08:00

How to renew a tourist visa in 10 easy steps:

1. Take the chicken bus (or several) to the Migration Office in Guatemala City. It is located next to Hotel Conquistador.

2. Kindly leave all weapons in the private lock-boxes provided at the door. Exchange your ID (if you brought one) for a visitors pass.

3. Take the stairs to the 4th floor, to be sent to the 2nd floor, to be sent back down to the 1st floor next to the front door where you started.

4. Fill out a simple application and head back to the 2nd floor to make fotocopies of original visa and your credit card?!.

5. Return forms and copies to the first floor

6. Wait in line at the bank located at the next window

7. Leave and wander the neighborhood to find a ATM since the bank only accepts cash. (repeat weapon and ID exchange at the door if needed)

8. Pay bank teller about $15 per visa- make sure you have exact change

9. Return to 2nd floor to make copies of bank recipt

10. Hand in copy of recipt to window on 1st floor and wait for a confimation date when you can return and actually recover your passport ( in a few days and several chicken buses later) with big new fancy visa allowing legal access for 3 more months.

2006-11-27T09:10:00.000-08:00

Good Times With Sarah

Overlooking Antigua Volcan Pacaya Laundry Pilla

Thanksgiving Dinner at Earth Lodge Volcan Pacaya

Well as you can see we´ve had quite a good time this last week. We met Sarah Hylton at the Airport in Guate city on Tuesday afternoon, and sadly she leaves tomorrow afternoon. We have spent lots of time wondering the streets of Antigua, window shopping, taking pictures, and trying out our spanish on unlucky antiguanians. I have to admit her spanish is pretty good, and she seems at home here. Sarah and Andrea spent the first morning here with a proyecto visiting families in a nearby pueblo. They were able to see how very poor guatemalans are fairing, and listen in as the social worker tried to assess the situation. Hopefully they can expound on this experience later either here on the web, or in person when you see them! Of course on the flip side we have used this visit to spoil ourselves as well, eating in some nicer restaurants, and the food Sarah brought from the states! I have more or less taken time off from Graduate school stuff for the past week as well, so I feel refreshed and ready to attack the final push. Also in our news, we have put down a deposit on a new apartment in Antigua! We will be moving in next weekend, so give a shout out for us that everything goes smoothly. The place is very comfortable, more or less we have our own room, and then we share a courtyard garden and large-stocked kitchen with others. Although now there is very few other guests as this is the low season for travelers. Also we will be selling our beloved red dragon scooter, which I am a little sad about. Its been good to us, and so I´d like to sell it to a good home, and of course for a good price which may take some work!

Adios amigos, Luke

2006-11-26T16:16:00.000-08:00

Luke, Andrea, and Sarah 3 ft. from lava on Volcan Pacaya.

We have our first visitor! Andrea´s sister Sarah suprised us with a week long visit here in Guate. We´ve wasted no time seeing the sights, eating the food, and catching up. Here´s a photo of our hike up Volcan Pacaya on Friday evening. The air was freezing, but the lava was well...hot. Our shoes were begining to melt, but the view and experience was incredible. More photo´s and stories tommorrow, but for now, know she is fine and happy and on her way back from Tikal, the mayan temples 15 hours north of here.

Also, we´ve had our second visitor last Saturday! Andrea has a friend Lydia, which she´s know since elementary school. Lydia often works in Latin america and was able to swing by for a day visit in Antigua! So we had a lot of fun taking in the beautiful day with Lydia and her amigovio (which I need to look up the spelling of his name), speaking spanish, and catching up. We had a some interesting conversations, and I got to know Lydia a little more. Of course Andrea was glowing most of the day, really connecting with Lydia as they have uniquely similar backgrounds and interests. What a week...

Hasta la proxima, Luke

2006-11-20T17:18:00.000-08:00

KIDS ARE KIDS

A day in the local school where I volunteer during the current month of summer school

7:30am The students, the teachers and myself all converge from different dirt paths onto the cobblestone road that leads to the public school. Each Guatemalan town center is a square and contains a public park. The Church is always located on the eastern side, the municipal buildings on the northern. In this town, San Pedro, the school is also on the northern side.

7:35 Each child, in silent unison sweeps the sign of the cross over their small bodies and we begin with prayer. One child leads in a call and response fashion. Today the little girl, as poor as she is, prayed for the children who live in the streets and are sick.

8:00: I take attendance to the best of my ability while the straglers wander in. It is my daily Spanish warm up: Josue Luis Guadelupe Rodreguez, Sandra Maria Hernandez Lopez, Eli Filipe Consuelo Velasquez

8:30: The bang on their squeaky, dilapidated desks in the rhythm of "we will, we will, rock you" as I hand out letters from their pen pals in the next town over. The envelopes have been hand fashioned from old newspapers and glue. Letters are a strange concept since all of their family live in the same town if not the same house. I spend the next hour helping with ideas and, ironically, spelling. They finish their cards with a drawing- the entire class shares two boxes of colored pencils and a pack of markers.

10 - 10:30 The entire nation pauses to rest. It is a chance to grab a snack or have breakfast and catch up on gossip. Daily I am escorted by most of the class to a tiny tienda on the corner of town square for a choco banano (.50Q = 7 cents). Some kids buy fruit (loquats), coconut freezie pops or fried pig skin. We eat slowly in the shade and watch the ladies wash clothes in the public laundry pools in central park.

By 10:30 the boys were turning toothbrushes into swords in their attempt to speed the drying process before returning their brushes into plastic bags. Needless to say, the girls weren´t thrilled with tiny toothpaste stars that appeared on their cloths but the guys thought it was the coolest thing that had happened all morning.

Everyone cups their hands to their faces to smell the soapy fragrance after being allowed to wash their hands.

11:00 The tin roof is now radiating heat like an oven. The teacher gives this explanation of how to play KITBALL- its like baseball but you use your feet. Then sends all 33 kids outside to practice with me- all by myself - trying to explain in my horrible Spanish all they ways that kickball isn´t like baseball... the pitcher rolls the ball instead of throwing it, fielders actually catch the ball with their hands (not your feet), you have to tag the base and in order, you can´t block people running to a base, you can´t kick the ball backwards and it goes on and on.

12:00 Everyone grabs a broom, mop (and sometimes sling shot if we aren´t watching closely) and tidies up the classroom. It is amazing how much dust we kick up in one morning.

12:30 Woops and sqeals as kids run out of the class, bang the metal gate as they leave the school and head home for lunch.

Adios, Andrea Maria Hiltonia Walinbequita.

2006-11-20T17:11:00.000-08:00

ONCE UPON A TIME,

long ago,in the area which is now the town of Ciudad Veiga lived the first Spanish Conquistador, Don Pedro de Alvarado. Ciudad Veiga, or Old City, is at the base of Volcan de Agua. The Don, his wife, Doña Beatriz de la Cueva, and their troops settled here in an attempt to avoid further battles with "uncooperative" Mayan groups in the north. Within a short time their castle was built and the original indigenous inhabitants were fleeing into the mountains. Naturally, no mayans agreed to forced eviction and hundreds were killed as spears and arrows could not withstand Spanish swords of steal. Representing his people, one man named Tucun Uman, challenged Don Pedro to a dual to the rights of the land. Inevitably, Tucun Uman fell to the skill of Don Pedro. The faithful followers of Tecun, however, soon sought revenge in the form of a spear through the heart of Don Pedro. Doña Beatriz assumed authority with fierce anger and grief. For days she cursed the heavens. And then it began to rain. Some say the rain was in response to her petitions and others claim that it was in punishment for her curses. Either way, it rained without end for thirteen days. On the thirteenth day, there was a tremendous earthquake, strong enough to break open the volcano and release a lake of water that had collected in the crater. The inundation swept away all things living in Ciudad Veiga. Even today, when people dig wells and install drainage pipes they find skulls, bowls, and jewelry of this ancient time. The former church lays fourteen layers of silt and earth below the current structure on the same site. Only three small sections of Don Pedro´s castle are still standing. The city is re-inhabited in the shadow of what has since be named Volcan de Agua.

2006-11-15T16:14:00.000-08:00

Corvette Dreams...

You may already know that I have very vivid dreams on a regular basis. You may also know that when I write chances are I'm feeling the blues. I must say however that in this moment I feel fine. The dream is 2 weeks old but it's so funny and sort of sums up how I feel sometimes.
So here it is...

I am looking at a "classic" corvette that I just bought. It looks sort of odd, the hood is really short, and I'm not really sure about it. All these people are telling me how its the best model of corvette to this point. Its beautiful, classy, you get the picture. So I get in to drive for the first time and I put my legs through two holes in the floorboard. My feet touch the ground and stick out a good couple feet in front of the car. I drive it over to a garage because it needs some work done to it. While driving, the bottoms of my shoes slid on the road and I'm sort of moving them side to side to help turn and stuff. The whole time I'm thinking "I know this is supposed to be awesome but I don't think I like it." I arrive at the shop and a friend happens to be there waiting for something else. The mechanics come out look at my corvette and start taking the body apart in snap-off pieces. I am watching this process feeling good, but then I realize that all that's left is a basic metal framework. There is no engine parts, no exhaust system, no tires underneath the body. I ask my friend to watch the framework as its supposedly incredibly valuable as I need to step out for a minute. When I return my friends eating lunch, he had ignored the framework and now its been stolen. Then of course I wake up........

Well, I told you I have strange dreams, put that one in your pipe and smoke it for a while.
Until next time, Luke

2006-11-09T15:56:00.000-08:00

the adventure continues...

We have officially been "kicked-out" of the home we were staying in. Thankfully a friend bargined for us to be allowed time to find an apartment before having to pack our bags.
Stay tuned to hear about our new apartment! Forget about viviendo el sueño (living the dream- thats for you Nate wherever you are!), estamos viviendo la vida loca!

2006-11-04T15:13:00.000-08:00

Market Day

2006-11-04T14:31:00.000-08:00

Dia de los Muertos
o Dia de los Todos Santos

The first of November is all saints day. Families celebrate All Saints by coming close to their relatives and laying flowers on the graves, having a picnic, and writing messages/prayers on kites that they then fly.

We headed to the cemetary in Santiago Sacatepeces to watch their kite flying extravaganza. There is always that one town that goes all out for any given holiday, you know like the town that glows with Christmas lights hanging on every treebranch. Well, Santiago is that place for Los Muertos.

photos below:

1. In the foregrownd are mayan ladies resting by a grave, eating lunch and watching the kites. Their dark blue skirts indicate that they are from Santiago.

2. Graves: there are many styles of graves- and of course in vibrant colors then decorated with the brightest flowers around at this time of year. It is beautiful.
a. bare mounds- a little spooky especially the ones for children. It seemed perfectly acceptable to walk/run or even pull an ice cream cart over them.
b. cemented graves with mini gardens inside. The cheaper verson is to simply pour cement over the dirt mound.
c. mosoleums- hard to see in this picture but they are larger structures for an entire family.
d. shelves in a large wall- unfortunately not in any of these pictures

3. Sky is full of kites. Most of the ones in this picture are about 8 feet in diameter. The tail is composed of messages attached to a string. Beware when these kites fall! The oooh and ahhhhs of the crowd will usually give you ample warning to run over a few graves and out of danger. In addition to the larger kites, children and adults fly smaller kites. It is quite a sight. We were nearly clotheslined a few times too from the zig-zag maze of kite string.

4. Supersize Me
Around the perimeter were dispalyed 6-8 supersized kites. Each piece is hand cut of tissue paper and glued on like a quilt. It is hard to tell from this view but the patterns are very intricate and each shape and color have particular meanings. Often a kite like this will center around a theme. I think this one was the environmentalist kite with messages about deforestation and not throwing trash into the rivers. To give you an idea of the scale, I am 5'4" and standing at the bottom right in a brown hoodie.

5-7. The Making Of
a. lots of bamboo
b. attaching- takes at least 20 men
c. first, the kite arrives just finished and needs to be unrolled.

2006-11-02T10:44:00.000-08:00

2006-11-02T10:20:00.000-08:00

2006-10-28T15:06:00.000-07:00

Accion! Cortela!

Some one needs to say a few Hail Mary's for breaking her vow of silence...(andrea). Although I realize my embarrasment shouldn't smother a good story. So how can I sum this up... Well one day before we were allowed to leave our school all the students were forced to be shot (with a camera) and give info to this lady from a Modeling Agency. When 2 weeks passed I recieved and accepted a "job offer." The few details I understood in spanish informed me where to met for a shuttle, and that we were going to the beach for a photo shoot.

When beach day came Andrea, myself, and 2 other models were wisked away to Puerto San Jose. About a 2.5 hour drive. We ended up spending the day in this incredible resort/conference center. We were provided with 2 fabulous meals, drinks all day, and access to pools and beach.

Yes there were beautiful girls, but the most interesting part was the camera crew and process. They were shooting a tv comercial for the tourism industry. The title of the ad campaign was something like "taste the fruits of Guatemala." This crew shot a dozen locations with different models, hoping to sell it when its finished. My role was to look happy drinking coconuts with my "sweet heart." They shot photo stills, and movie film. So I smiled for about 2 hours, which was easy believe me, and made bank! It was a long 12 hour day, but other than losing feeling in my leg for an hour or so no complaints! Stay tuned for Andrea's turn modeling...

Luke

2006-10-19T14:29:00.000-07:00

HOWEVER

yeah, so luke has reason to gripe as we deal with difficult people or watch everything break - and in truth we feel more vulnerable here with less cushions, barriers and thin safety nets

however, the good and bad come hand in hand

just as we found out that our rent was going to be doubled again and for no fault of our own, we were spept off to a georgous black sand resort for luke´s latest photoshoot.... now that is a story you need to ask him about. I´m suprised he didn´t mention it! Sitting in a hammock with a blonde German girl, drinking coconuts, being fanned with a gigantic palm leaf and making crazy money just to smile

absurb blessings

2006-10-19T13:35:00.000-07:00

Buenas Tardes Chicos,

Porque no photos nuevos? Because now our memory card has turned its back on us. Let that be a lesson to all you bargain hunters out there. When you see a 2g memory card for $40 it is to good to be true. However, I am crossing my fingers it wakes up muy pronto.

I have to admit I was planning on writing a big run-on sentence complaining about how freaking sick I am of dealing with a new pain in the ass each week and/or how something that seems so easy to do ends up being nearly impossible to do. Ahh.... i feel better already. Thanks for listening family and friends, if you know me well you realize how much I love to gripe! Interested in the nitty gritty, lets have a vote. I'll wait and see the count. Although I am fairly sure you all will tell me to shut up.
Sincerely, Luke

2006-10-12T13:22:00.000-07:00

The Long-Short of It

Hello friends.
How nice to feel like I am temporarily sharing the same cyber space as you

I have just recently achieved a new contentment as I imagine our next five months here in Guatemala. It has taken me these six weeks to calm down and slow down. I think I am learning patience more than anything- from laundry drying time and language learning to my idealistic expectations. For our first month it felt like we were dealing with a different catastrophe everyweek but even those situations have calmed and we are growing tiny roots. Still no fix for computer of yet but thankfully computer geeks all speak the same language. We also experienced nearly 10 rainless days which was really nice in retrospect. I think I actually used lotion twice last week. We are still in hurricane season and the clouds seem to be making up for lost time. They say only one more week and then we will be wishing it would rain. I doubt it.

Waves of stuents come and go every week but our first and closest friends will all be leaving this week. I was really dreading it but am actually at peace about it now and looking forward to inviting the new crew over to our place for BBQ this Sunday. Funny note: there are a lot of DCers here in language school. I even met a girl that knows Rivendell and common friends. Sometimes it is a small world (but thankfully without the corney disney music).

Antigua is a city of 30,000-ish but we haven´t outgrown it in the least. A few times we have been identified as the gringos with the red scooter. Everyweek we make new discoveries including: Dyslexia bookstore for the reading black market, the worlds best banana bread and granola mana from Doña Luisa, focaccia bread from Y Tu´Piña Tambien, and last but not least- the monkey´s *ss smoothies (banana, chocolate & pbj) at Cafe No Se. I am keeping my eyes open for job options but most places pay about a dollar a hour. There aren´t really Starbucks like jobs floating around. It has been recommended that we consider the hostal route as a way to have jobs for food and lodging with travel to boot. Hmmmm...

Luke and I both have dropped down to four hours of Spanish class a day. We have drained dry every pen we brought from the states and are each on a second notebook. We are progressing bit by bit. Last week I looked over at luke´s class to see him banging his head on the desk. Today was my brain wilting /resolve crushing day with the perfect tenses. There are those fleeting moments when the clouds roll back, casting Thomas Kincade rays of light upon my efforts. Then, Spanish flows in a land of milk and honey. Alas, in the next moment, it is all lost and I am once again only a sputtering wooden doll. I estimate that I have reached the age of 5 in Spanish years. Horray!

Loads more- but another time
thanks for listening.... and feel free to write

2006-10-12T13:05:00.000-07:00

#27. luke

Luke´s 27th birthday found us standing 8 deep in the back of a beatup pickup chugging aouround switchbacks above Antigua
to Earth Logde- rustic hostal /avacado farm / three dogs / natural sauna/fab-o food-o
Stayed the night in a tree house- the outfacing wall was glass allowing spectacular views the entire time. I woke up from a nap to have clouds swirling inside the cabin - at night silloutees of the volcanoes with the flikering lights of the towns below
Celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with a feast and ragtag group-o-expats complete with stuffing and to-die-for apple pie. I am already counting down to American Thanksgiving.
Campfire cumbyaying until it rained then played worst case senario (I hope I never have to use the infomation I learned).
Hot chocolate, books, and candlelight wrapped in a Christmas themed comforter- of course!
Slept in and skipped class in the morning
Browinies and drinks at Monoloco with friends at night. We enjoyed another round at the bar waiting for the rains to subside
Soaking awesome ride home- huge cobblestone puddles, no traffic, just us, laughing

2006-10-12T12:49:00.000-07:00

Spanish Lesson 101.b

fun to say
acabab- to have just
juzgue- [who´s gay?] - I judged
¡ojala!- [o.ha.la]- I hope so!
desafortunadamente- unfortunately

of interest
the place of purest poo- a remote location
inundacion- a flood (lit or fig)
albondiga- meatball
paraguas- (for water) - umbrella
flexed bicepts (guns) = cats (gatos)... as in, if a rat crawled up my arm it wouldn´t get past this cat!

proceed with caution
no tenga pena- a common phrase similar to ¨de nada¨meaning no pain taken but if you change one letter you omit an important body part

el dia vs. la dia- the day or the human parasite that lives where the sun don´t shine. Don´t be fooled! even though dia ends with an "a" it is a femanine noun and needs to be proceeded with the artlicle "el".

2006-10-02T17:26:00.000-07:00

2006-10-02T17:24:00.000-07:00

2006-10-02T17:01:00.000-07:00

Por al fin de semana pasada Andrea y yo fuemos a la playa!

So we left our house last friday morning with bags packed ready to have an incredible weekend roadtrip! It was going to be an unusual day in general. It was the "Day of the Children" holiday so our school had planned a fun filled morning for 2 primary schools in nearby towns. After lunch we were going to leave town with 4 friends up to Rio Dulce. We were invited up by someone connected with our school. Well i'll cut short the details, lets just say...motor-cross, ocean, kayak, giant river, wicked cheap. You get the picture. We arrived at our school only to find out terrible news. The travel agency we booked our shuttle through for Rio Dulce didn't seem to remember booking us at all. As a matter of fact the lady we spoke to face to face swears the conversations never took place, and she doesn't know us. Ahhh! Whats that all about? Luckily we hadn't payed yet.

The day of the children was an exhausting, fun, and smashing good time! I wish i had pictures, but i forgot the camera. We decorated the school yard with balloons, posters of cartoons, and tons of pinata's! There were lots of games played, and of course the climax of the day was the destruction of Sponge Bob, Pink Power Ranger, and 2 dozen random animal pinata's! I love this tradition. Pinata's at all my parties in the future i promise!

So i'm coming around to the beach photos. 4 of us made a spontaneous decision to reclaim our weekend. We booked a shuttle for Monterrico! Its a black sand beach on the Pacific, approx. 2 hours south of Antigua. Corey, Mat, Andrea, and I arrived at the beach saturday morning, found a great crumby-but-good hotel right on the beach for $6 and settled in. It was the weekend we all needed. Body, soul, and mind. Perfectly hot weather, crushing waves with a wicked undertow, and incredible tasting cheap food! We also took a boat trip in mangroves to bird watch at 5 am sunday! Thats how you do it, thats how you show your love for nature!

The volcanoes/ mountains sit beautifully on the horizon behind the beach. And every beach front hotel had a grass roof area with hammocks to beat the heat.

Come visit! Luke

2006-10-02T16:54:00.000-07:00

A lovely glimpse of the iconographic arch here in central antigua.

2006-10-02T16:43:00.000-07:00

We finally bought a scooter! Isn´t it pretty, bright red with all the trimmings. Its a 125cc 4 stroke little thing, but perfect for cruising the cobble stone streets of antigua. The biggest advantage of haveing our own wheels is of course flexibility with our schedule, and sleeping in... Now we can meet friends out at night, and carry ice cream home before it melts, its fabulous!

Don´t worry moms, we are extremely safe! Its the other psycho´s we have to worry about. My first night out was a God send, i remember thinking ¨I´m driving my own scooter at 1am in Guatemala!"
Luke

2006-09-29T17:16:00.000-07:00

Buanas noche,

It has been a while since last we've posted a new entry. Lo siento. The biggest reason is that the screen on our laptop has bit the dust. Rudely with no warning. So no new photo's until we figure out another way! Check back though because we have some sexy photo's of me (Luke) on our new scooter!
Hasta luego,
Luke

2006-09-19T12:10:00.000-07:00

Iglesia Merced. Typical of the 20 churches in Antigua. This is a functioning church. You are able to visit the ruins of its ancient, pre-earthquake edifice located just to the north. Our language school occupies a garden that is bordered on one side by the ruins. It is lovely.

This is the fountain outside Iglesia Merced (above). 200+ pigeons make a temporary flight though the open square when the church bells sound at key hours durring the day. It is worth being a few mintues late to see the 8am spectacle.

a typical fountain. this one is from a walkway near central park - on the way to cafe condess (see below!)

umm... good coffee.

2006-09-19T11:21:00.000-07:00

The view of Volcan de Agua from our roof. We climb the ladder and sit on the shower vent for a little escape.

Our Guest House

Luke taking a much needed break from fighting with verbs.

2006-09-18T13:19:00.000-07:00

It’s been a very eventful week (9/10-17). Andrea and I started and survived our second week of Spanish classes. A three or four day, (who’s counting), festival celebrating the Guatemalan independence from Spain ended the week. There was a quick trip to the capital city to see friends on Friday afternoon, and a really fun but difficult mountain bike trip on Sunday. Keep reading for a few details

Monday morning jitters accompanied us on our commute to class. I guess there are several reasons: New teachers, higher expectations, and we’ve begun to realize that the more they reveal about this language the more impossible it seems to ever learn. As it turns out neither of us loved our teachers this round. My teacher spoke at full speed, spoke no English, and seemed very distracted all week. His favorite holiday was Independence Day and he had something like pre-Christmas excitement. Andrea had an…eccentric teacher but she can write about that!

Independence Day (Friday) was cool. Tons of people crowded downtown for marching bands, concerts, food venders, fire-works, kids drinking in the street, and the whole shebang. We saw some definite shady things, but that goes on everywhere on such holidays. Here no one tries to hide so it’s more in your face.

On Sunday, our German friend from school organized a mountain bike trip. There were six of us total including Andrea and I. We had great equipment and very friendly/skilled guides. However it’s possible they over-estimated our abilities! The first half of the ride was an extremely technical single-track climb. Apparently all the rain we’ve had lately really washed out much of the dirt leaving endless miles of trenches filled with rocks and roots. All the hard work paid off, however, as the second half of the trip was filled with wicked down hill runs and enjoyable cross-country sections with fantastic views. It was the most exhilarating time I’ve had in a while. So good to be out of the city, riding through forests & farms, and breathing fresh air!

I think we can make it through another week of mind numbing classes now. It will be tough to sit down all day, butt for a different reason!

Luke

2006-09-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

Andrea's Unintentional 10K (9/14)

This evening, while passing the time waiting for the bus, we chatted with a Guatemalan guy named Henry. At one point he exclaimed, "What! You donÂ´t run on Independence Day? No torch? No running? Really? What do you do?!!"
So tomorrow is Independence Day for Central American Countries, the day Spain officially withdrew control over their former colonies. The celebrations have been buildingwith fervorr all weeks. Flagsare drappedd on the hoods of cars and are flying from every building. The day beforeindependencee is the day of "antorcha"- groups of people run with a banner with the name of their school or business and they run with a lit torch (think Olympics) around town or in our case, from one town to another. We haven't been able to getdefinativee answer on how this custom began or its significance. The best that I can gather is that the torch, a symbol of light and freedom, is carried between towns all over Guatemala uniting the country. Oh, I forgot to mention that the runners carry whistles that sound with every breath and that the spectators cheer and throwwater balloonss (made of plastic bags), buckets of water, or just open up hoses at the runners. It is an entertaining event for all. The roads are filled with people of all ages running and, oddly enough, traffic is kind on this day of all days- drivers honk enthusiastically and wait patiently to passthe hoardss of runners.

So I thought our Spanish school was going to run around the nearby town of SanMiguel becausee it would be less crowded that our town of Antigua. What actually happened is that we were dropped off in San Miguel and had to run back to Antigua! The details were lost in translation- or perhapsthey didn'tntellel us on purpose! A surprise but fun nonetheless. We were a ragtag group of little boys, some of our aging teachers full of pride determined to finish. In the picture you can see our school banner PLFM and the torch (a gasoline soaked rag stuffed inside a tin can on a stick). I'm in there somewhere sucking air at 5000 feet and of course, with watebottlele! A hello to my running buddies. Needless to say I was thinking of you all.

2006-09-10T13:11:00.000-07:00

This is our first post but there is no way to include all that we have seen and experienced. A summary seems insufficient but it will have to do until you come and visit us. We spent the first few days in Guatemala catching up on sleep, buying groceries and exploring the picturesque town of Antigua. The buildings open directly to the narrow sidewalk through ornate, often arched, doors. It is only when you are standing in the doorway that you can peek inside to find a pharmacy, bookstore, bank, restaurant, hotel,or tropical garden. The sign outside is no indication to the mystery within. It is a constant adventure. The city is surrounded by mountains so it is cool jean weather every morning and evening. The afternoons are sunny but end with a rain. In a country the size Ohio there are over thirty volcanoes although only 16 or so are active. Three, Volcan de Agua, Fuego and Pacaya, are the constant backdrop to our life here. They remind us of our small size and lack of control- as if we needed the reminder! There are gorgeous ruins of churches around town from previous earthquakes. These plus the arches and columns give the town a Italian/Romanesque feel. The stucco is reminiscent of Southern California but the Catholic influence makes it is uniquely Central American.

Our feet are sore from trekking for a week on the cobble stones in flip flops. Our guest house is a few km outside town so we commute by chicken bus then walk from one side of town to the other to class. How these converted school busses were named I have no idea but it does evoke a bit of the feeling. 80 people with goods for the market and sleeping children are "easily" stuffed inside. It is fun trying to squeeze between people sitting four to a seat. I feel like I am given birth everyday. We are looking into a vespa or motorcycle for our commute- it will save our feet but also let us safely stay in town in the evenings.

We have completed our first week of Spanish classes. It is overwhelming but so good. Our brains were fried by Friday- so we played soccer instead of conjugating irregular verbs. Of the hundreds of new words, here are some of my favorites:
el rompecabeza (a break your head) = puzzle
la tierramoto (an earth motor) = earthquake
los anteojos (before your eyes) = glasses
igriega = the letter "y"

It has been great being here but we have had our bouts of homesickness. On Friday night, we shared a blanket on our damp sofa and watched Pelican Brief which is set on Capital Hill. It was both a cure and a disease for our state. On Saturday I started nesting a bit, which was a good sign and am on the lookout for a nice blanket and a coffee press. We are gaining speed on being able to cook for ourselves in a healthy and cheap manner which helps too. Full bellies make happy people. Life is good. Life is rich. Life is crazy. We are holding on.

More later.
Andrea