La Comida..

Food and I have an interesting relationship. I certainly enjoy eating, and sometimes have a sweet tooth or salty indulgence I sometimes eat when I am bored. But for the most part, as one of my friends once pointed out, between the types of people who "live to eat" and "eat to live," I am definitely more of the latter. A lot of times, for me, food just provides nourishment for my body and fuel for cycling. When we visited Ireland for example, I ate lots of plain bread and was actually pretty content.

Knowing this, I didn't spend much time thinking about what we are doing to eat here in Guatemala. Especially considering we are fairly picky eaters being vegetarian, and me not currently eating cheese, I might have been more concerned. But I figured that I could survive just fine on one or two things repeatedly, if need be. Maybe I'll get bored, but I'll get by.

Boy was I wrong!

The food in San Andres Itzapa has been fantastic. When we were on vacation elsewhere in Guatemala, we had the chance to eat out at restaurants that had pasta, veggie burgers, and some other imported or home-like food that we hadn't had in a while. It was good food, but I didn't quite enjoy it as much as I expected. Maybe it's because I haven't reached that point of home-sickness quite yet. Plus, the produce here is just so, so fresh.

In San Andres Itzapa, us volunteers make quite a few trips per week to the market in the main square. Tuesdays and Sundays are the biggest market days with vendors selling everything from a wide variety of fresh fruits, veggies, and beans to dried grains and spices, to plasticware, slippers, and DVDs.

We probably buy more avocados, beans, peppers, and tomatoes than anything at the market. The cost can't be beat, either. I would say for 4 volunteers an indulgent market shopping spree comes out to about 65 Quetzals, which is about $9. That food lasts all of us about 4 days of lunches and dinners. It's definitely more expensive in bigger and touristy Guatemalan towns, which was a bit hard to swallow during our week of vacation.

Mangoes! So good!

We have a fairly nice kitchen at Maya Pedal, and the volunteers generally take turns cooking - though not on any regular schedule. I am grateful that all the volunteers we have had have been really great cooks! We eat filling lunches and dinners with some combination of beans, rice, tortillas, avocados, and veggies. We usually buy some fresh corn tortillas from the tortilleria right before eating. All tortillerias say "dos tiempos" or "tres tiempos" outside, indicating how many times per day they make a fresh batch.

A batch of 20 fresh tortillas costs 4Q, or 50 cents. Again, super cheap!

Unlike the corn tortillas in the states, these are quite thick and are made entirely of corn and corn paste (no wheat or white flour). When we get them from the shop they're always warm and smell amazing.

A pretty typical home-cooked meal for us! And yes, that's a little beer in my mug.

When we aren't cooking or working, we are obsessing over tostadas. There is a tostada lady who sells tostadas just a few doors up the road. On a fried tortilla she spreads black beans, pickled cabbage and a tomato picante salsa. She comes by every day around 10am asking if we want any. We rarely turn her down. In fact, if she doesn't come to us we usually walk up the road to find her. Not gonna lie - there have been days that lunch has consisted entirely of lots of tostadas. At 10Q for 10 super tasty tostadas (about $1.50 total) they're really hard to turn down.

And then, in the evenings around 7pm we get a visit from another tostada lady! But instead of beans she spreads guacamole - and still pickled cabbage and picante sauce. She comes with her two little sons, who seem to enjoy going around town with her. She brings it all in a basket that she carries on top of her head, comes into our dining room and puts the tostadas together. She makes me smile because she always comes in happy and chatty.

Yum.

After I took this picture, I showed it to her and told her she was very pretty ("Estas muy bonita!"). She smiled and blushed and said thank you, but I don't think she believed me.

Another volunteer indulgence is the nearby panaderia, or bakery. It's become quite apparent that Guatemalans love their sweets. I have become particularly fond of one particular apple pastry..I'll have to upload a picture of that one later.

As you can see, we've been eating well. It's amazing that it's all so fresh and tasty (and cheap!). India will certainly be different, but I imagine just as good. I'll post about that when we get there, I'm sure :)

Hasta luego y buen provecho!

Tikal to Flores to Coban – Travelin'

As Shreya mentioned in her earlier post our micro-bus back to Flores was M.I.A. We woke up early in the morning and got a great view of Tikal and rainforest waking up. After our hike we headed back to the hotel collected our stuff and had some breakfast. We started talking to some of the other micro-bus drivers and they had mentioned they knew of the micro-bus company we came with and the red colored micro-bus they normally have. So we camped out near the entrance to the park and waited for a red micro-bus. After about an hour and a half after the estimated time of arrival of the micro-bus we figured that we had been bamboozled and decided to catch a ride with another driver who gave us a deal if we gave him the receipt from the original micro-bus company. I'm not sure how that worked out, but it seemed to work out.

After getting to Flores we headed out to find our hotel. We read that Flores was a small island and we found our hotel pretty quickly. Our view from the room was pretty amazing:

View from our hotel!

We decided to get cleaned up and get some lunch. As we started walking along the lake we found a place that had a “24hr Happy Hour” with rum and mango juice and mojitos for 5Q ($7 ~ 1 Quetzal). In addition they had a veggieburger and veggie burrito, we were sold:

 

Afterward we went for a walk around the island. We didn't really realize how small the island was until we came back to our hotel...It was really small :) After completing a few laps we decided to figure out something to do the next day. We read about a place called Ixpanpajul which had a few hikes through the forest and long bridges above the rain/cloud forest. It was another opportunity to try and catch a glimpse of a Quetzal so we decided to give it a try. The website for the place said it was only about 25min away and that they offered a free shuttle to get there. We went downstairs to the front desk of the hotel to ask to use the phone. They were super nice and told us that they would call for us. After talking to them they told us it would 300Q total and they could come at 2pm. We were a little confused and we asked the clerk if it is normally free. They said they weren't sure and that we should talk to a tour agent (we were also looking for a micro-bus to take to Coban). We walked over to they recommended and he also stated that it would 300Q since it is a “private facility.” He gave us a good deal for the trip to Coban but we hesitated on getting the van for Ixpanpajul. We've had this issue before and decided to call the place once again. This time when the front desk called they said that it would be free and they would come pick us up at 2pm. Lesson learned: Whenever in Guatemala, always ask twice. It's like they want to make sure you really want whatever you're asking about. Now that this post is longer then I planned (and taken way too long to write), check out these pictures from the suspension bridges and cloud forest!

Thank you

I drafted the following post in early December last year, but wasn't allowed to go public with the news quite yet. A dear friend and co-worker who was one of the people mentioned in this post, and who was so excited for me, passed away just a few days ago. I have been thinking about her and this time just a few months ago. Rest in peace, Carolyn. You will be missed dearly.

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I found out a couple of Fridays ago that I was accepted into a fellowship program at Stanford. I was absolutely floored to find out so early, and so incredibly thrilled. I worked hard on the application, and the interview was even harder. Going through the program is going to open up so many doors for my career and I'm going to take away skills I know I will use throughout my career and life. I was also humbled because I had a chance to meet the other applicants during the interviews, and they were all such sharp, talented, hard-working people. Being chosen out of that group is really an honor.

My friends were over at our place for dinner when I got off the call. They all congratulated me with hearty hugs and cheers and smiles. We opened up a bottle of wine. I texted a friend who immediately called me back and shared my excitement, too. My friends expressed pure happiness for me that I'm not sure I've experienced before. My parents and family were thrilled too, and are so proud that I overheard them talking about it to their friends before I even left for the interview.

I had also told my colleagues about the opportunity and subsequent interview. Coming into work on Monday, I quietly mentioned the good news in passing, thinking that they'd simply appreciate knowing what's coming up for me next in my career. Unexpectedly, the news was received with big smiles, big warm hugs, shreiks, "goose bumps," immediate congratulatory e-mails from the grapevine, and excitement that was just overwhelming and so warming.

I have to pinch myself when I realize that I'm surrounded by people who care so much, that my good news is their good news; my happiness makes them happy; my excitement makes them excited, too. It's a form of pure love, really. I'm not sure what I've done to deserve the good fortune of being around such great people and warm company - but there it is. I'm just so touched and grateful. That's all I can really say.

Thank you all, so much. The changes Nilit and I are making this coming year are big for us, and all your love and support means more than you realize.

Tikal Photos!

We learned quite a bit on our Tikal tour, so time for a history lesson. Don't worry, it'll be fun. And short.

Tikal was inhabited by Mayans from about 600 BC to 900 AD. Around 900 AD, the city was seemingly suddenly abandoned. The period of time is referred to as the mysterious downfall of Mayan culture. Many other Mayan ruins in Mexico and other parts of Central America indicate downfall around the same time. One theory is a loss of natural resources. The Mayans frequently ate snails, whose shells are now studied to examine the availability of water and other resources at the time. A study of the snail shells can show what water levels were like at the time. Studies of these shells around Tikal demonstrate a drought the last tens of years before the downfall. Without water, there was no food. Without food, no civilization to thrive.

It is a huge city, with greater than 3,000 ruins. The 5-hour tour we took was barely enough just to cover part of it. There are roads and a city center with pyramids. Kings and other royalty were buried in the pyramids, and the Mayands frequently held ceremonies and rituals in and around the pyramids. As you walk around, you notice huge hills of trees and grass, which just blend in to the surrounding rainforest. However, the land here is actually flat. Any elevated land indicates a pyramid or ruin structure not yet excavated. Researchers around Tikal are working on excavations, but the plans are purposefully limited. The ruins are made of limestone which isn't durable over the years. It is better for the ruins if they remain sheltered by the grass and trees.

I'm a bit lazy to write about our experiences, so here's more of a photo journal..

A tree that aspires to grow high above the rest of the rainforest..

And it grows orchids on top! So pretty.

A pyramid that has not been excavated..Looks like a tiny hill if you were just hiking through.

The ruins were built by the Mayans and then re-built when the limestone wore down. Researchers have found many layers of certain ruins - you can see the layers on this one pretty well.

The grand plaza. You can see little people down there to give you a sense of scale..

Beautiful wildlife in the rainforests of Tikal. Here's a gorgeous turkey we spotted on the grand plaza.

The tallest of these pyramids hidden in the rainforest is Templo IV. It stands at 230 ft, and you're able to cilmb to the top.

The top of Templo IV. From here, we heard howler monkeys and saw all sorts of birds including a toucan (named him Sam of course).

An image of a toucan similar to the one we spotted. Not our photo though! No zoom lens to capture the amazing-ness.

After our tour, we spent the evening hanging out at our hotel and just relaxing. We woke up early the following morning to howling monkeys. The guide the previous day told us these are the loudest land animals on the planet, and they like to hang out around the lodge. After hearing them at 5am that morning, I wholehartedly believe he was telling the truth. I wasn't awake enough to take a video myself, but here's a YouTube video. Such small bodies, yet such big sound.

Some photos from our morning hike through Tikal. We also encountered more beautiful birds including a huge flock of turkeys and woodpeckers. We climbed again to the top of Templo IV, and had breakfast to the sounds of the rainforest, howler monkeys, and the sights of more lovely birds. It was amazing.

After Tikal, we spent some time in Flores, which is a island city nearby. Nilit is planning to post some more pictures and stories of all that so stay tuned!

As far as Maya Pedal and our work here, things are going well. We are adjusting well to Guatemala, enjoying our time, and meeting more people as we go. The tortilla lady knows us, and so does the local panaderia (bakery). A few new volunteers have joined us at Maya Pedal, so we're a full house of 7 people and 3 small rooms. It works out well, and we all seem to enjoy each other's company. We cook fantastic meals and have a lot of fun. Work around the shop still consists of fixing up some old bikes and bicycle machines. All of us volunteers have lately also been joining some of the guys from the shop in the evenings to play soccer at the local court. Since we work and live in the dusty shop, it gives us a great reason to enjoy some time with our new friends and get some exercise. Speaking of which, this weekend we're also headed to a volcano called Acatenango, which apparently peaks around 13,000 ft. I am looking forward to the work out and fresh air!

Well, that's all for now..Hope you enjoyed the pictures, and adios til next time!

Tikal Bound..

If today was a normal day at home in the States, I would have called in sick. I have a sore throat, headache, and generally just feel low on energy. I tried to do some bicimaquina work in the shop (we are making a new corn thresher), but called it quits after trying to cut some material, getting tired quickly, and coming to terms that I am indeed sick. So, I'm spending the day in our room napping, reading, and lucky for you - blogging!

Last week, Nilit and I had to make a trip to Guatemala City to take care of some visa business. It was going to require a week of processing, which gave us the perfect excuse to take some vacation from Maya Pedal and visit other parts of Guatemala.

We left from San Andres Itzapa early on Sunday afternoon and took the "chicken bus" into the city. I'll get to our trip in a bit, but first I should really tell you about the chicken buses. They are recognizable by any American as our beloved yellow school buses. Apparently, the buses that eventually stop passing US highway standards are donated here to be used as transit. The size, shape, windows, seats, and sometimes even beat up US license plates are a dead giveaway. But most of them are painted over in some bright color (generally green or red), and all have installed handlebars on the inside ceiling for those who may be standing. After that, they are personalized based on owner preference. Some have a chromed-out interior and exterior and bright paint on the inside. Some have tassels hanging down from the cieling, and flashing lights all around. A few you see are just plain, still yellow on the outside, and have a simple sign in the window indicating their destination. But all - and I do mean all - have this in common: 1) a Guatemalan flag hanging from the mirror, 2) loud blasting upbeat Spanish pop music, and 3) people sitting 3 or 4 per seat (8 per aisle), and even more standing. It's quite the experience. We've actually had a lot of fun riding them and chatting with people.

Anyhow, we reached Guatemala City in the early afternoon. There's not as much to say about Guatemala City, and not much to see. It's a huge, bustling place with big malls and buildings and McDonalds' and people everywhere you look. It even has big city suburbs (we will get to why this was problematic for us later..). We decided to stay the night on Sunday, get our embassy business done Monday morning, and take the overnight first-class bus to northern Guatemala Monday night. The embassy says the visa will be done the following Monday. We quietly pray that they don't lose Nilit's passport in the next week, and hand it over.

We were most nervous about the bus terminal for the overnight bus. Guatemala city, by all accounts, can be a dangerous place if you're not careful. Although the first-class bus is itself is said to be nice and safe, we had to board it from the old city center termed Zone 1 (sounds cozy, right?). The buses left at 9pm and 10pm, and arrived in a small island village (called Flores) at 6am. Considering the long trip, and stories about how nice the buses were, we figured this would be the best use of our time. We arrived at the bus station at exactly 9pm, and watched that bus leave. Broken Spanish with the guy standing there indicated we couldn't take that one. Darn. Oh well. He said to go inside and buy tickets for the 10pm. Sounds good.

We entered the small building and found about 10 other tourist-looking people standing around presumably waiting til 10pm as well. We asked the lady behind the counter how much it would cost for the 10pm bus to Flores. She first asked us to show our tickets, and when we told her we needed to buy them, she told us "No hay boletas," ("there are no tickets") and told us to find the window outside to buy tickets. Hmm, okay. I think we need to buy our tickets and then present them to her. Walk back outside..no window where she indicated. Asking the guy we saw earlier where the window is, he tells us there is no window. We need to go inside. Confusion! When we told him she said she didn't have any tickets, he told us they must be sold out. But there's another company, around the corner, that has overnight buses to Flores as well.

It doesn't quite make sense to us...but, well, alright. Maybe we had to reserve tickets earlier here. Let's go find the other place.

Pepper spray in my pocket, we walk down around a couple sketchy dark streets and find the other bus company. There are people EVERYWHERE. A couple of small families, but mostly just men standing alone in the dark and staring. Feels just a bit sketchy. We walk in and realize the tickets are more expensive, and buses not nearly as nice. Hmm. We leave the counter. Lots of hesitation. Probably 15 minutes of hesitation. Maybe we didn't really understand the lady at the other place. Let's go back.

We head back out, pass the guy who told us to go to the other company (undoubtedly wondering what we're doing now) and approach the lady at the counter again. I sort of pretend like we hadn't been there before, mostly just as a re-boot in my head. "We need tickets for the overnight bus to Flores." She recognizes us, but gets up and checks a sheet. "Ah, yes. Two tickets will be 300 Quetzal, and these are your seats. Bus leaves at 10pm." My Spanish is terrible, but this was clear.

Nilit and I look at each other. What just happened? I have no idea. Maybe someone canceled. Maybe I didn't say the right thing the first time..my Spanish is terrible. Who cares, let's just buy the tickets!

We got on the bus at 10pm and settled in. We chatted with a few people at the station while waiting, and everyone seemed trustworthy enough - but we had definitely heard about robberies while people are sleeping on these overnight buses. We took our backpack with us instead of storing it underneath the bus, and kept it closest to the window away from the aisle. We tied our big backpack, small backpack, and my purse all together, and I tied my purse around my waist. All zippers faced downward. Nilit sat on the outside, and I kept our stuff underneath my feet. You'd have to have been pretty darn talented to rob us that night.

The seats were actually quite comfortable, but neither of us really slept much. A couple of hours of shut eye here and there, mostly woken up by the bumpy roads. We reached Flores at around 5:30am. We had planned to travel to Tikal (where there are ancient Mayan ruins) right away. Buses leave from Flores all day, and take about an hour to reach Tikal. Bleary-eyed and still sleepy, we get off the bus and immediately find a man and a minibus offering a ride to Tikal.

Alright, how much?
"$10."

Prices in dollars. We're definitely in tourist-land now. Based upon what we read in guide books, this actually seems like a good deal. We get on with some other overnight-bus riders, pay the driver, and head for Tikal. We are spending the night in Tikal, but the others in the bus are returning to Flores this afternoon. We find out that their $10 gives them a round-trip ticket. We do need to come back to Flores tomorrow, because we're spending the night there. After haggling with the driver a bit, asking for half of our money back, he finally agrees that the van will return to Tikal tomorrow afternoon and pick us up to go back to Flores. "No problems, no worries! I am here for your service!" Too much enthusiasm. We don't believe him. We get a receipt. Spoiler alert: He doesn't show up the next afternoon. But I'll get to that.

We arrive in Tikal and check in to our hotel. It's a pretty cute and small place, surrounded by lush gorgeous rainforest. Rooms are situated in an outdoor semi-circle filled with trees and plants. It's still early and you can hear birds singing different tunes. We see monkeys in the trees, too. As we're checking in to our room, we're greeted by a man who speaks to us in perfect English, explaining that he offers a tour of the ruins. It's fairly cheap, and starts at 9:30am. We eat some breakfast at the hotel restaurant, and decide to do the tour. The man then sits down at our breakfast table and tells us that he studied in the States because his family traveled a lot. His father was a paleontologist, and actually is listed in books as one of the founders of one of the pyramids in Tikal. He shows us the book, and his father's picture. Way cool!

The tour was about five hours, and absolutely amazing. But, I wrote way more detail about the travel experience than I expected, so I'll have to cut it here for now!

Look out for the next post about Tikal. By virtue of the place itself, the post is bound to be awesome.

Stay tuned...