Roads go through towns. Homes with rusting tin roofs. Tall hillside mountains. On the right these tall magicians make way for a road winding like a river. Some tall and white with dusty lime stone bolders piled for truck-load removal. Some deep earthen red swallowing this bus with its dusted heat. No trees for what seems miles as we stop off at a restaurant in the middle of somewhere, but no-where I know.
I fall asleep and again the climate changes. The road wet with puddles on either side, lush trees bursting with green. Mountain-sides at angles of up to what looks to be 90 degree are cleared of trees and farmed for maize (corn).

Back To Pana

We went to Chichicastenango, bought minimal amounts of stuff and stayed in our hostel for the remainder of the night after buying kids icecream and eating it ourselves.

Chichi is named to be the biggest market in all of Guatemala, and when we got there we were a bit dissapointed at the same things that we saw one booth after another.

I was mainly buying for people that I never get presents for (mom, dad, sister, brother, friends) when it is Christmas time. But other than that, there were things that you could get where we had already been. plus a lot less. So then we decided to come back to the town that we had been before (Panajachel) to buy the things that we thought that we could get for cheapo in chichi.

Chichi.

We came back. Got on Kayaks and paddeled around the lake like pirates for a few hours. I bought something large for Hillary. Oops. And a few things for Lisa. Oops. It is funny how you think you have so much money and then it is all gone. One more OOPS!

Shoool es fin

This shall be the forth day in school and staying with a lovely family en Panajachel. Jabel Tinament being the name of the school and Maribel being the name of my one-on-one teacher. I´ve been blessed with a most patient teacher and student who learns from me the practice of drinking more water para su cuerpo-for her body. Better for health. We´ve talked about racism, politics, places around Guatemala, raising children, family, history, my friends, each other, alternative health practices, plus more and it all being in Español. She´s quite an awesome lady with teaching skills to be jealous of.

Our school: you enter through the fence with a small limp on the right foot. (In the mornings you are finished with breakfast in less than five minutes, brush teeth, make hair look like you have taken a shower in the last five days, put on new underwear, shorts, shirt, homework, rub arnica on fat foot, and rub Burt´s Bee´s bug spray-if you remember.)

Through the fence you walk after passing venders left and right under tin roof structures selling back-strap woven clothes, earings, necklaces, belts, shoes, bags, hats, dresses all with a bright techni-colored-indigenous-cultural-flare. There are tin roof structures where I have stopped, had a look and bought, not without thinking, for the sake of consuming, things with a most beautiful warmth to them you swear that they were made for you.

Walking through the blue painted fence, after lifting the latch, eating breakfast and saying goodbye to your family just two blocks away. Your limp takes you past more tin covered houses to your left, bamama and cacao trees, philodendron plants with leaves so explosive in size you could wear each one as a dress, you stare you walk and you sit in a plastic patio chair at a plastic table equipt with an umbrella and you say hola to your teacher.

Laughing and ill eqipt without my journal.

These pictures are of my teacher and I. The girls and I before hiking to a cave where sacrificial chicken roasts were made, our feet at the same place and Carlee Ann at the lake before going kayaking today. Which was a blast and I got drunk off of two beers (maybe more!)

Mua

SCHOOL!!

Did I mention that on our way to the school to figure out if we spent the night with our families or not I fell with my large backpack and twisted

my foot? Well I did and it is swollen and I limp with a crazy sexy suaveness! Let me not be shy to spell everything wrong.

This is school. Carlee Ann and Jose and Vita and Maribel!

Maribel said she´d like to put on make-up, so there might be one more foto of us to come.

We practice for 5 hours, breakfast at 7 (this morning corn flakes, bananas, toast and salsa...mmm) I passed on the salsa because I know my belly all too well.

Aubrie and I, just to give an update of the times....we have both taken Chinese medicine to stop the outflow of stuff from the bottom region. At our house you have to turn on the water before pooing or else you are stuck with full toilet as Aubrie was last night at 4am, pobrecita! Sorry Aubrie, I´ll tell amazingly embarrassing stuff about myself as well.

I am going to take a few pictures of things and if you read this like a good person, like Hillary, Bijou and Jackson, maybe you could tell me what you desire of el mercado???

Mucho amor y aloha.

My feet made it in these most awesome shoes!

Caree Ann and Emilie by the red-hot-flaming lava.

Mountain and belly

My belly slightly hurts, but I took good measure just incase the cause is an icky creature inside. Grapefruit seed extract, tumeric, papaya enzyme, B12 just for added pleasure as well as calcium, Spuralina and chamomile tea. Master blaster this thing out.

This morning at 6am, well actually waking at 4 because another shuttle man came rapping at our hostel door, we got confused, thought it was ours to Pacaya, got dressed in 10 seconds and then realized we were able to sleep 2 more hours. Grand!

I rode a motorcycle in my dream.

We got up at 6, rode a bus two hours to a volcano town called Pacaya and then walked up steep cinder-like beads of cooled lava through drizzling rainforest green. Luckily I was convinced to buy a rain coat -bright yellow- from Goodwill before going. Thanks J, Bon and Kit.

At the top of one mountain the tree line stopped and short legged dogs and short haired grass started. This was also the transitional place where lazy American teenagers got off their ill fed horses. As that ended a new a new mountain of lava boulders started. In the fog we entered the domain of another world with everything sepia toned, except for my yellow jacket and colorfull marshmellows some U.S. people took to roast over the lava. Good idea? Perhaps, but after hearing and watching these people, we believed they were a classic example of why Americans are thought of so poorly in other countries.

Anywho, back to the lovely fog. As we neared the next increase of mountain and ravines of endless depth to the right we saw fresh, red-hot lava seeping and creeping right in front of us. Steam vents to the right and left we sat and ate our lunch of nuts and Cliff bars infront of the dry sauna called volcano. The heat was so amazing after being wet and cold, two women took their tops off and hung them over the heat with their walking sticks they bought for 5 quetzales, roughly equaling 75 cents.

Imagine the heat of this thing, like the portable heater I would fall asleep infront of while living with Bonnie and Jalima. Red splotches formed over my chest, I loved it and made an offering of a salted cashew to the volcano goddesses.

After our guide blew his hurding whistle to leave and walking carefully over the lava boulders, Carlee Ann and I ran all the way down to the bottom of the mountain to get to a bathroom that didn´t work, which Carlee Ann already took care of at the top with the aid of a few leaves.

We took pictures in front of a stunning blue wall and just as I was to put away my camera a boy asked me, ¨Una foto de mio?¨ A smile on his face, covered with two bright eyes, I stared snapping away at my new model se llamas Desjuardo.

Back in town, we ate quickly at an outdoor stand of tortilla, cheese and cabbage, a jaunt into el mercado for dry pants and then caught a shuttle to Panajachel, on lake Atitlan.

So, here I am, went out to dinner with the girls, wasn´t able to eat anything but mis vitaminas and tea, even though I ordered a salad.

In bed, girls are out on the town dancing with sweat and boys. On the way back here I saw plenty of shops with loads of goodies that I do not want to weigh down my pack for the rest of the trip, but I just may.

Tomorrow we start the language program for five days and live with a family only speaking spanish to us for one week. On Thursday we may go to the largest market-an hour away-in all of Guatemala in a small town called Chichicastenango.

This here is de women of how I spend mi time wit in Guatemala. First night in.

Emily, Aubrie, Vita, Carlee Ann.

This is the view from the church.

I am Guatemala

Here in Guatemala! Yay.
We made it to Guatemala after a long wait in the Mexico city airport of over 6 hours. I laughed, I cried, I napped. We caught a $10 shuttle to Antigua which is a little city that might need to utilize a smog check. All the cars are blasting out black clouds of smoke, but everyone is smiling, so we live on.
Last night we drank a little beer and a wee bit of tequila and tried to find a good place to socialize and what we came up with was a bar where I was (apparently) inapproprately telling people that they wanted to make out with my friends. We went to a "dance club" across the street and wound up caring for a drunk girl who just wanted to dance dance dance. It was her, the workers stairing over the balcony and us...oh yes, and the music. Thursday nights are infact a night to hang out on the cobble stone streets with old men and their mustaches and rum that happens to be the local cheap fav.
We (Aubrie, Emily and Carlee Ann) went on a little walk-about today and saw beautiful avo trees, high mountains covered with poofs of grrrrreen, colors beyond the rainbow and checked out the billowing clouds from the roof-top of a church that I left my metal water bottle at!!! It's okay. I've made peace with my losses and I am moving forward.
Walking to the market through piles and piles of clothes and shoes from second-hand stores in America/Italy/Russia I felt old temptations of wanting to find something I NEEDED. We bought avocados, cucumbers, tomatos, potatoes, onions, squash, carrots, bananas, oranges...and more for a dinner and a lunch only costing about $12 in total.
As my little story becomes more boring as the letters type I will end this.

It's my birthday~!

Today is my birthday and I am typing on the computer! What a treat. Yesterday we all celebrated Bonnie's entry into this world with a most fabulous pool party. Today, I'm taking it eaaasssay! Packing. Packing. and a little treat at the poolside perhaps.

picking the appropriate foot wear!

I need a sturdy pair that would hold up in many types of situations involving
backpacking with goats in mountainous terrain, wading through vine covered rivers,
sliding down hills of mud and fruit, and climbing ancient ruins of the Aztec.
After trying many pairs of footwear one reigned supreme!