Here we are again, back in the city with internet and hot water. We are staying with Hubs' sister at Monte Flor, the home of Pray America. It is beautiful here on the compound, with great food and the softest mattress I have ever slept on. Not to mention better internet service than we have even at home.

Chichicastenango is famous for their huge market- supposedly the biggest outdoor market in Central America- on Sundays and Thursdays. If you followed my Antigua posts, you know that I love markets. It's okay if I don't buy anything; I just like looking at all the stuff. My name is Bethany and I am a [recovering] hoarder. 

Here in Chichi, they have taxi service like they do in the States. Well, maybe not like they do in the States.

On our way back from the city (a 10-minute walk from Monte Flor), we found some free-range sheep. I took this picture just for my mom. Here in Guatemala they have given up on trying to keep sheep from escaping. To bad we can't do this at home, right?! 

Besides walking through Chichi and around the compound here at Monte Flor, we've been pretty lazy. The weather here is spotty- if the sun is shining, it's warm. Real warm. But if the sun's not shining, it's in the 40-50 degrees F range. Because of this, we spend a lot of time indoors making use of the internet, Netflix, and cooking great food. The other night we had brick-oven baked pizza with everyone else here. A good time was had by all. I even got to help be a "runner", running baked and unbaked crusts back and forth to the oven.

Til next time,
-Bethany

For the past few days, we hung out in a small town called Chijoj, to visit some of Hubs' friends. We spent Thanksgiving with some missionaries there. It was a great meal and some good fellowship. One girl who was my age had just married into missionary life and relocated from Switzerland. It's one thing to be an American and relocate to Guatemala... probably an entirely different thing to be a Swiss marrying an American and relocating to Guatemala. Talk about culture clash. We also got to talk with a couple from South Africa and of course, people from the States. It was good to be with English-speaking people again.

Chijoj is just past a town (more likely to be on a map) called Canilla (cah-nee-ya). It's not a touristy place at all, with nary a claim to fame. However I enjoyed seeing the local agriculture and businesses. 

Many farm animals in Chijoj walk around free range. Not just the chickens, either! Pigs, cows, sheep, goats and geese walk alongside the road and in people's yards. Some have leashes, but some just roam. 

We saw a bit of new construction also. Construction in Guatemala is a little different than the way we build things at home. There is a lot of cement or brick involved.

In addition to a brick factory, cows, and new construction, Chijoj has its own set of Mayan ruins. 

Another one of the highlights was trying my hand at making corn tortillas. Unfortunately, I learned that my hand was not skilled at making tortillas. I told the cook, "Neccesito practicar." I can't wait to try corn tortillas at home- the only ingredients are corn flour, water, and limestone. The corn tortillas here are SO much better than packaged corn tortillas in the states, plus they don't require rolling pins or extra flour. Just dip your fingers in water and shape with your hands. A common sound here in Guatemala is the pat pat pat pat pat of women shaping tortillas.

Thankfully we're now in Chichicastenango, staying with Hubs' sister who has internet. Yay!
-Bethany

As you read this, I just might be on a long bus ride. Here in Guatemala we have had many long bus rides. It can be difficult to pass the time, but I've found a few tips and tricks along the way. 

Tip #1: Chikys!

Tip #3: Gas station food. Hubs got himself a "Texas Burger".

Tip #5: Try to find plants and trees that you recognize. Coffee and cacao trees, corn, tomatoes. If you can't recognize it, try to guess what it is and pretend you are right.

Tip #6: Find different ways to sit. Feet on the floor, feet on your backpack feet under your butt. Knees on the seat in front of you, head on the seat in front of you, head on the window, head on your own seat, head on your husband's shoulder, head on your sweatshirt, head under your sweatshirt.

Tip #7: Look for cows, pigs, chickens, ducks, donkeys, and other animals that you recognize. I get really excited when I see cows because I grew up on a dairy farm. Except here they have Brahmen cows, which I hope to post pictures of soon. Hubs gets tired of me saying, "Look, there's a cow!"

Tip #8: Read... only when the bus is stopped.

Tip #9: Try to read the Spanish signs and billboards.

Tip #10: If you feel sick, try to fall asleep.

Keep using these tips until you have reached your destination.

-Bethany 

My legs are SO sore! You wouldn't believe it, considering that I spent this entire day riding a bus.

This weekend we went sightseeing to Semuc Champey, supposedly the most beautiful place in Guatemala.

It was definitely the most STRENUOUS place thus far! First a long bus ride up from Antigua, then a hike down the hill (and up the hill) to our hostel. The next morning we got into the back of a truck for a 45-minute ride through the mountains, from our hostel to Semuc. There were 18 of us standing in the back of the truck, out in the fresh open mountain air. Don't worry- there were rails in the back that we could hang onto. It was  pretty awesome to see real cacao trees and pods growing, especially after all we had learned about the chocolate-making process at Choco Museo and Chocolate Antigua.

Once we got to Semuc, the tour guide let us taste fresh cacao seeds. They were sweet and yummy, but we were cautioned to only suck off the outer part and not chew or eat the actual bean. Many of the locals make drinking chocolate to sell for extra money. Some houses had blankets spread on the ground with cacao seeds in various stages of processing.

After tasting the cacao seeds, our tour guide Jose took us through one of the caves. Each of us got a candle to light the way, though some people rented headlamps as well. It was not a normal cave tour, because a lot of swimming and rock climbing was required. We kind of had to feel our way through, because a candle doesn't give much light. There was lots of slipping, some falling, many cuts and scrapes and candle wax. Because you can't climb a slippery ladder or slippery rocks with only one hand. The candle, obviously, goes in your mouth at those times (and drips wax on arms and other body parts). It was definitely adventurous, and definitely something they would not allow in the States.

After the cave tour, we went tubing down the river, where some Guatemalan boys tried selling us beer. Even after we had left, they grabbed their little coolers and a tube, and followed us down the river. Some people bought the beer and tried to tube and drink. Don't tube and drink- your tube will float the wrong way and your beer will end up in the river.

After tubing, we had lunch. Some of the backpackers had bought a "lunchbox" which consisted of a sandwich, granola bar and a piece of fruit (25q, or $3.50). Hubs and I opted for the local food, which cost 40q ($5.75) but was infinitely better. Superb grilled chicken with beans, guacamole, salad, corn tortillas and rice. Yummy.

Next up, we went to the park to see the pools. The guide asked us if we wanted to go to the lookout (where Hubs and I are in the picture). We said sure, we'll go to the lookout. So our whole group headed up the stairs. And up, and up, and up. We thought it would never end. The beer drinkers started lagging behind, and there was one comment of, "Whoever said we should do this deserves a punch in the face!" Being the speedy quick medal-winning runners* that we are, we made it to the top first, though I was too tired to really enjoy it. The way down was a lot easier.

Then we swam in the pools. This was pretty fun. At the last pool, the tour guide took some of us through an underground cave. Unlike the last cave which had more air than water, this cave only had enough room for your face. Not your whole head, just your face. Not for claustrophobic people and again, not for tourism in the United States. 

After swimming, everyone was dog-tired and ready to go home. One backpacker had bought some cardamom (a big Guatemalan export) candies and shared them with everyone. It was my first time every having cardamom candy.

Back at the hostel, we changed out of our swimsuits and grabbed a bite to eat. It was superb. We got a different room- a private one this time- in a loft above one of the rooms. It was absolutely beautiful and perfect, sleeping under a thatched roof. I also saw an enormous cockroach that was 1 1/2" long, but that only added to the charm.

The resort we stayed at, El Retiro, was picture-perfect with thatched-roof bungalows, hammocks and swings everywhere, and even sidewalks paved with glass bottles. It had a "hippie" flair to it, with big colorful paintings inside the bathrooms and decidedly American/European music playing at the bar. We found a board game that someone had made- Monopoly, but themed for Star Wars. Unfortunately it had no dice and some missing cards. 

While it was indeed a beautiful place, there were no towels or paper towels in the bathrooms to wipe our hands on (...?), and we found out last night that that one of the girls (who slept in our 10-person room the first night) had been robbed of a ring and an expensive wrist watch while we were touring Semuc Champey. Luckily Hubs and I had taken our stuff with us to the park. 

Here's to surviving caves, thieves, and excruciating hikes!

*Hubs and I have indeed both won medals running 5Ks, but I wouldn't call myself the speediest runner.

Today was my last day of Spanish school. I've mentioned the school a few times in the past two weeks, but wanted to save most of it for this post.

My experience with the school was a good one. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. My first day, I sat down and the teacher started her lesson- speaking nothing but Spanish. The first two hours were a little rocky, with my trying to understand what she meant with my extremely limited vocabulary. There was a lot of "como se dice __" going on. By the end of the first day though, I got the jist of what she was trying to tell me, and our lessons had a predictable format.

Each lesson would usually start with some chit-chat and review of my homework, which consisted of writing 10-20 sentences and, toward the end, completing a worksheet or two. There were a lot of corrections. After homework, she would have me conjugate verbs. In English, for example, you can say "run", "ran" or "running". In Spanish, there is a word for each of the following: to run, I run, you run, we run, he/she runs, they run, I ran, you ran, we ran, he/she ran, they ran. And that is only in present tense and "preterit" tense, which is basically past tense. There are 12 more tenses that I have not even learned yet. My teacher Aura would alternate verb conjugation exercises with new concepts- things like pronouns, adverbs, and articles. Most nouns in Spanish are masculine or feminine. A masculine noun like "book" goes with the article "el". The feminine noun like "house" goes with the article "la". Therefore it is not simply "the house"- it is "la casa" or "el libro". Remembering which gender a thing is can be hard. Most of the time when talking to my teacher, I would use the wrong gender. It's something you just have to memorize, like the verb conjugations.

At 10:00 am, two hours into our lesson, all of the students got a 30 minute break where we could get a cup of tea or coffee, talk with the other students, go for a walk outside or buy something at the pastry shop across the road. This was SUCH a relief for me. I did not realize how hard it would be to sit for two hours talking and trying to understand only Spanish. A popular comment from the students (including myself!) was "my brain hurts". Using a language you don't understand well requires a lot of concentration. 

After break, we would go back to verb conjucation exercises and writing grammer rules and new concepts in my little notebook. Toward the end of the lesson, Aura would read a paragraph and have me tell her what I remembered about it. Then she had me read the paragraph, as she corrected any pronunciation mistakes that I had. After that, oftentimes she would read me vocabulary words and I would write down the ones I didn't know. Finally at the end of the lesson (and it always seemed like a loooong lesson) she would give me homework for the next day.

In the 40 hours that I spent with my teacher, I felt like I learned a lot. But I had to laugh at this chart we found in one of the classrooms. Notice my level after 50-60 hours of study and Hubs' level after speaking Spanish for eight years. 

There is definitely a lot more to learn! It felt like I learned a lot in the past week and a half, and I did learn a lot considering the time frame. It's crazy to think about the fact that I spent 40 hours learning from someone in a language that is not my own. I actually understood and learned. After school I could tell Hubs "my teacher said this" or "my teacher said that".

Spanish school here in Antigua is a great deal, in my opinion. My 40 hours of instruction cost $232.50. That comes out to $5.81 per hour for a private Spanish tutor. Here are some things I learned about Spanish school and things I would do differently in order to get the most bang for your buck.

1. Learn as much as you can before you go. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to memorize vocabulary words and make flashcards. I would recommend going through the book Easy Spanish Step-by-Step by Barbara Bregstein. It has a ton of vocabulary words, grammar rules and exercises to give you a good (cheap) foundation. Best of all, it explains everything in English- which you won't get at Spanish school. Reading this book will help you understand and start conjugating verbs, which is what I spent a lot of time doing at school. If I would have memorized my conjugations well before coming down here, I would have had more time to learn new things instead of practicing verbs over and over. 

2. Bring your notes from home and a Spanish-English dictionary. I spent weeks going through the above-mentioned book and taking notes- writing vocabulary and grammar rules. If I would have brought these notes with me, I could have saved a lot of writing time and could have studied better. Similarily, a dictionary would have been helpful as well. My husband makes a pretty good Spanish-English dictionary, but not everyone has that. Without notes or a dictionary, you will be limited to what vocabulary you learn at school.

3. Bring an unused full-sized notebook with dividers. I brought a dinky half-used notebook to school with me, and spent a lot of time flipping through pages trying to find stuff. When I get home I'll have a Spanish-only notebook with dividers for vocabulary, verbs, grammar concepts and homework.

The best part of Spanish school was not learning grammar or new words. A book can teach me that. The best part was having my own personal teacher to have conversations with; someone who talked back to me and corrected me when I made mistakes. I got to ask questions about making tortillas and why prisoners ride around in "cages" on the back of pickup trucks. I learned that if you have problems you have "nails", and that "taking the thread" means you are finally starting to understand an idea. These are things I never would have learned out of my book.

The other valuable thing about school was learning correct pronunciation and being forced to speak Spanish. Books attempt to describe pronunciation, but it is not the same as hearing it in person. About halfway through my classes, I noticed that Aura pronounced "n" sounds so that "en" sounded like "eng". I had never read about this or noticed it in other Guatemalans until I spent half a day listening and trying to repeat. Likewise, in my home study I never had to explain what homeschooling was or how far away I lived from my parents.

You may be wondering, "what if I pick up bad habits trying to learn on my own?" I wouldn't worry too much about bad pronunciation if you are trying to learn Spanish by reading and writing. 1) Because you aren't TALKING a lot, and 2) because a teacher does not guarantee good pronunciation. We heard plenty of bad pronunciation at school, from students that had been there three or four weeks. There were a few words that I habitually mispronounced, but after a week of correction I had broken the habit.

Spanish school is a great opportunity, but don't waste it learning grammar or writing down vocabulary words. Start with a good, cheap book and learn by yourself until you think you are ready to have a half-decent conversation in Spanish.

-Bethany

Today our Spanish school went to a local coffee farm for a tour. Our guide took us through the whole process of making coffee, from starting the plants in a nursery to harvesting the beans and processing. 

This variety of coffee is planted beneath avocado and/or banana trees in a very perma-culture-y way. Insect traps were made with pop bottles and a mixture of alcohol and kerosene. The spray they used on the plants was made with red pepper and other natural ingredients.

The coffee beans come from sweet red berries about the size of a thumbnail. Inside each berry are two beans facing each other. These red berries are collected by hand or by machine. At this farm, they were picking the berries by hand. Often the children of the workers are free to play or help their parents pick.

The sweet red pulps of the beans are removed and used for either 1) compost, or 2) making Kahlua. Our tour guide let us taste different roasts of beans (as well as some coffee-flavored chocolate!) and we learned all about the history and progress of coffee. I thought it was interesting that the farm had never been owned by a Guatemalan, only foreigners. It was a very interesting trip and I'm glad we got the opportunity to go.

This morning Hubs bought me a pastry from a reposteria across the road from our school. It is similar to the bakery I mentioned yesterday, but smaller.

So many desserts, so little time left in Antigua!

-Bethany

As is our custom in the afternoons, today Hubs and I took a long walk through the city. Many interesting things can be found on the streets of Antigua.

The cars in here are extremely varied. Beaters mixed in with new Mercedes, BMWs, restored classics and hippie vans. 

In Antigua, the streets are cobblestone. This makes a pooper scooper worthless. Instead, the horse poops in a bag behind him. How convenient!

Today we took some new streets and found a pastry shop that is OFFICIALLY my favorite bakery of all the bakeries I have ever been in. The display cases were filled with absolutely intricate pastries decorated with chocolate and fruit, beautiful and perfect full-size cakes and fancy bread rolls. Hubs bought me a nice creme-filled croissant for $0.75. It was perfect; sweet like a pastry, but not sickly-sweet like donuts I am used to eating in the States. Even my favorite custard-filled long johns could not hold a candle to the pastry I ate today. If I could have my own bakery, it would be exactly like the one we visited this afternoon.

We've got only two more days of Spanish school, so I'm studying hard to learn in as much as I can before we leave Antigua. Yesterday after school I kept replying "si" ("yes") to Hubs after spending my five hours with Aura. I think the Spanish is getting to my head.

-Bethany

When I first read about hostels, I pictured a big jail cell with a lot of bunk beds, where you had to sleep with your stuff so people wouldn't steal it. However, our hostel in Antigua is much different than that. While it is definitely no Marriott, it's worth the $12 a night. We have our own room (no bunk beds...) with a door padlock so nobody steals our stuff. Many of the guests here are other backpackers who have their own laptops and are not likely to steal ours even if they could. There are two shared bathrooms/showers, and a shared kitchen.

Our room is pretty old and dingy compared to mid-range hotels that I've stayed at before. The bed linens look 15-20 years old, and our tiny room has one electrical outlet and a cement floor. But it has served us well for the past week.

A strange thing about Antigua (and Guatemala in general) is that you can't flush the toilet paper. All dirty toilet paper must go in the wastebasket. The old pipes here have cracked from various earthquakes, so the paper catches on the rough edges and builds up inside the pipes (which obviously creates issues). Do you know how hard it is to break a habit? Try NOT dropping your toilet paper in the bowl. 

Today after school today we went to Hocotenango, a neighboring town of Antigua. We walked around town, stopping at the local cemetery. Instead of being underground, the caskets are placed in family boxes (I'm not sure what they're called), most of which can fit six or seven caskets. We only saw a few ground plots.

I'm always surprised at how resourceful Guatemalans can be. I might try this next one at home.

Now that we've been here in Antigua for a few days, we've developed a kind of routine. It starts with eggs for breakfast (nothing new there), and then we go to Spanish school.

The school is called La Ensenanza (The Teaching). There are five or six teachers here, with one teacher per student. This school caters mostly to Mennonites and/or other related religious groups. Hubs and I are taking five hours of class per day, from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm, with a half-hour break at 10:00 am.

After school we pick up some fresh tortillas at a tortilleria. Each 6" tortilla costs about $0.04. 

Most days, lunch consists of several mini egg/tortilla wraps with fruit on the side. Hubs likes to put black refried beans on his tortillas, and I like avocado on mine. After lunch I do my Spanish homework and we walk around the city. Today it's raining outside, so we're staying in our room; Hubs checking his email and me blogging.

In the evenings it gets dark quickly; normally by 6:00 pm. We eat dinner around that time- sometimes at a local restaurant, sometimes at McDonalds, or we might have "street food", made by local Guatemalans. The street food costs $1-2 per sandwich (or serving). McDonalds or Burger King costs as much or a bit more than in the United States, $2-3 per person (we usually get the Dollar Menu). Restaurants cost between $5-20 per plate.

After eating, we head back to the hostel. Sometimes we watch a movie on the internet, or if we have spent the afternoon in town we do our blogging and email-checking or reading at night. I prefer vacations to be relaxed, but yet not boring. This vacation has been all of that, in addition to being educational yet still affordable because of our cheap accommodations, food and transportation. A great balance.


Do you like vacations to be more relaxed, or packed with activities? Why?

We spent Saturday touring the ancient Mayan ruins of Tikal and celebrating eight months of wonderful wedded bliss. 

Tikal is every hardcore homeschooler's dream. It was an ancient, prosperous Mayan city built in the middle of a jungle, a center of culture, economics, history and politics. And on top of all that, Tikal was filmed in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

It really did feel like we were in a movie, with strange plants and trees, spider monkeys hanging around and ruins all over. At Tikal it is estimated that there are around 4,000 ruins, but many of those remain unexcavated.
As a 10-year-old archaeologist, I fascinated myself with "excavating" old trash dumps and "ruins" around our farm, so you can imagine how excited I was to visit a real historical site with undiscovered remains in my midst. It was pretty awesome.

Our tour was led by Carlos.

I didn't take many photos at Tikal. There are plenty of pictures available online and a photograph is nowhere NEAR the same as seeing it in person. The Mayans were very sophisticated in their architecture and structure of society; this is easy to say but hard to believe until you actually see what they built in person.

After visiting the ruins, we spent the afternoon at the island of Flores, strolling the streets eating ice cream and enjoying the backpacker world. We met one guy who was in the process of biking from Argentina (the southern tip of the Americas!) to Alaska- a four-year journey. During the day we also talked with two Israelis, three Spaniards and also three girls from Norway, in addition to our tour guide who was a native Guatemalan and probably some other people I forgot about. If you know my husband, this should be no surprise.

Before we left, we celebrated our 8-month anniversary with dinner at a restaurant over the water. We ordered barbecue chicken pizza, which was very good but nothing similar to what we eat in the states. On our way to find a taxi, we stumbled into the local beer/ Christmas tree-putting-up festival. It was pretty packed, with food, live music and lots of people.

After an overnight bus ride, we were very happy to get back to our hostel and sleep for a few hours. As I write, Hubs is making friends with a Frenchman. Go figure. :)

-Bethany