Karin's Guatemala-trip
17th Nov 2006Monterrico & Lago Atitlan again, and an "interesing" trip to El Salvador Holaaaa! Okay, so it has been a while since I`ve written..there has been a lot going on as usal with work, planning for trips etc and, ofcorse, keeping the social part of my life going=) Now Im on my last week here in Antigua..so saad=( Cant believe how fast the time has flown by! This week is very busy, firstly Im trying to plan a lot of fun activities for the kids in my class, because its my last week with them (Im going to miss them a lot!) Yesterday, for example, I took them to Antigua, bought them Ice cream and went to visit one of the really nice ruins here..they were so excited! They truly enjoyed getting away from Jocotenango (where I work) for a while and do something special. Tomorrow is my last day at work..its going to be difficult to say goodbye to all the kids & to the people working in the project, Ive really gotten attached to many of them. Anyways, since its been a couple of weeks since I wrote an entry last time, I guess I should let you know whats been going on! Its a bit hard to remember everything that has happened now, but Ill do my best to retell it Okay, so one of the weekends I went back to Monterrico, again with my good friend from here, Jonas, his friend Rodrigo and a girl who is working in my project as well. It was just as lovely & relaxed as the first time we were there. So we just spent the weekend chilling, lying on the beach, going out partying saturday night (one of the best beachparties Ive ever been to!!=) and then returning to Antigua sunday. On saturday night we experienced something very special, when we were admireing the beautiful sunset we saw a lot of small animals crawling in the sand. When we looked closer we saw they were actually tiny seaturtle babies, popping up from the sand and running towards the sea..they were adorable!! It was a good, relaxing weekend..as you can imagine I didnt at all feel like returning to Antigua on sunday.. The next week-end we decided to go to Lago Atitlan again, me and some friends from the project & from the house. This time we went straight to San Pedro, where we found a nice, supercheap hotel with a rooftop with an amazing view of the city & the lake (and the surrounding volcanoes, ofcorse) We spent a wonderful week-end there, walking around in beautiful San Pedro, visiting some of the smaller villages around the lake and going to the beautiful, white sand beach on sunday before we left. We visited one very special village, San Marcos. This place is world famous for its quantity of spa-places, people go there for a couple of weeks or sometimes just a weekend when they are stressed out from work, family problems etc. There are loads of small hotels, offering different types of treatments, relaxation excercises etc. When we got there we soon understood why this place is so famous. Firstly, its cituated on a cliff with an AMAZING view over the lake. From the small village there are paths down to the lake & beaches and up to the mountains, and ofcourse along the way you see hundreds of adverticements for spa-hotels, hiking trips, body treatments, stress courses etcetc. On Sunday, before returning to Antigua, we went to one of the beaches in San Pedro. It was a beautiful, white sand beach. Because it was situated a bit outside of the actual city and you have to walk for about 30 minutes to get there, we were the only people there..at least for a while, until a boat loaded with Guatemalan people, all dressed in traditional clothing arrived for their baptism-ceremony, all staring at us as if we had dropped down from the sky. I guess they werent used to seeing foreigners at the local beaches.. After a couple of relaxing hours at the beach we returned to Antugua, where another week of working was awaiting. However, there was some kind of holiday friday, so we had the day of from work. Since it was a long weekend I decided to go visit my friend Camila in San Salvador, where she lives with her family. My friend from there, Martin, who is living in the same house as I and working in Antigua decided to make me company and go visit his friends and family. So Thursday after work we set of, took a shuttle to Guatemala where we were going to catch the bus to El Salvador. While sitting in the bus station I realized I had forgotten something somehow important - my passport! The only thing I was NOT allowed to forget, typical me.. We wouldnt have time to go back to Antigua to get it and then catch the bus to El Salvador, so we asked the busdriver if there was any chance I could pass the boarder without my passport, and he said I would be fine with just a photo ID. However, this bus driver didnt know what he was talking about, because after a drive of about 2 hours we arrived to the border, where they informed me that there was no way that I could pass without a passport. So, there was nothing else to do than returning. Back in Guatemala City Martin called his friend who is a shuttle-driver and asked him to bring the passport to me the next morning. That night we slept in a hotel, and early the next morning we met up with the shuttledriver who delivered me the passport. So, once again we headed of to the border, we arrived and I got rejected once again! This time because I didnt have the visa-stamp in my passport. The thing is that I have two passports, one for sweden and one for the US. I entered Guatemala with my american one, but I brought the swedish one to the border..grrrrr, you can imagine I was a biit frustrated heading back once again to Guatemala city, where Martins friend met up with us after getting my other passport. What a mess! I think Ive never been that angry with myself. Martin did his best not to make me feel to bad though, he`s a sweet guy. So, finally, on the third try we entered El Salvador! We were both exhausted from the bustrip(s) when we arrived to the capital. Upon our arrival Camila called me and said she was feeling really ill, but that her mom would come and meet me. However, I decided to stay that night with Martin and his family, so that camila could get some rest. That night we met up with some of Martins best friends, really nice people! A bit difficult to understand everything they said though, since people in El Salvador have their own special slang, but it was good! Learned some El Salvadorian slang as well, pity though that you can only use it there in El Salvador. It is difficult to keep apart the slang from the different regions and countries, even here in Guatemala you dont use the same kind of slang in the capital as in Antigua! Anyways, the next day I met up with Camila and her family, and they took me on a round tour in San Salvador. Its a huge city! Some parts more beautiful than others. We also went to try all the specialties from El Salvador, they have a lot of special foods that dont exist anywhere else. The popusas, made with tortillas, cheese, beans and sometimes chicken are very popular in El Salvador, and very delicious! I know I am going to miss the food from here a lot..it is so special and different from what Im used to eating! After lunch we headed of to the beach, where some friends of the family has a house, right on the beach. It was beautiful! The climate was just perfect, and the beach was beautiful! We stayed to see the sunset, and once again I felt as if I were in a fairy tale. On the beach walk there were several pools with differently temperatured water, we headed of to the "hot tub" to admire the sunset from there. When the sun had set, we headed back to the city to go to a graduacion dinner of one of Cami`s friends. It was a huge party, with all family and friends. I got introduced to cousins and uncles and stepfathers and I dont know all, a huge family! Everyone was really interested in hearing about sweden and what I was doing in Guatemala, ended up with me giving a speach similar to the one I gave at the rotary club in Georgia, a bit random, but it`s nice that everyone was so interested! After that we were planning to go out, but we ended up just staying in chatting and catching up, I was still tired after the trip and the beach, so it was nice. The next day Cami and her family took me to a nice restaurant to try out another speciality from El Salvador, cocteles! Made on different kinds of seafood mixed together accompanied by some kind of sauce. I had schrimp with red salsa sauce, delicious! After that it was time to go back to Antigua..I would have liked to have more time to spend in El Salvador, go to the montaņas and some of the other cities around, but that will have to wait. Im coming back some day for sure, when I have more time for traveling around. Anyways, this time we got through the border without any troubbles, thank god! Okay, I have to get back to the house and pack all my stuff. The shuttle to San Christobal, Mexico, leaves tomorrow at 4am (!!) Yesterday we had a big goodbye party with all the friends, some of the teachers from school and the family. It was really nice to have everyone gathered for once! I had everyone write on my guatemalan flag, a nice memory from here. After the pre-party in the house we went out to dance, and then we went by car to the mountains (only about 15 minutes from the city) to chill and enjoy the beautiful view of Antigua. We stayed up until sunrise, it was the perfect moment, spending my last night at a beautiful place with some of my best friends! Anyways, now I really gotta get back. Tomorrow we are leaving to Mexico where we are planning to spend about a week and after that we are planning to continue to Tikal to see the famous maya ruins, and then to the coast of Belize..I hope we will have time to do all that, two weeks is not much, but we`ll see. So, the next time Im writing I will probably be back in the US where I will spend more or less a week visiting family close to Washington DC and friends & hostfamily in Georgia before heading of to my next adventure, Colombia! Im very excited!!=) Okay, take care my friends!! Hasta luego
|
| 1962 Words | This page has been read 46 times | View Printable Version |