Friday, Feb 13
Today is our last day in Antigua. We started the morning in class. My teacher and I worked right up until the last minute. I think Steve did too. We gave our teachers some gifts, took a few pictures and said goodbye. It was sad, but too much. After lunch we spent the afternoon visiting our favorite places again, taking a lot of pictures and finishing up some last minute business. Steve is in the process of getting us repacked to leave at 7:30 in the morning.Tomorrow we are taking a small passenger van to Panahachel-about 2 hours away-then crossing Lake Atitlan on a boat to reach San Pedro. Once there we have to find our school and then they will take us to our homestay. I am nervous about moving to a new homestay. You just never know if it is going to be better or worse. I don’t think it will be better than where we are now, but perhaps there will be more for the kids to do. Here they just play their video games at night because there is nothing else to do.
Saturday
OK, so here we are in San Pedro. We had no problems getting up and ready for the bus. Breakfast was at 7 and for some reason the eggs Olgi served this morning were AWFUL! She is a very good cook, but these had some kinda sauce on them that made them taste like puke. Tate wolfed them down (he thought they were great), Steve passed ½ of his off to Tate, Cora ate about four bites and I choked all of mine down. When the van arrived to pick us up it already had 7 people in it. Steve and Cora sat in the front seats and I sat squished between some guy who needed a shower and Tate. I’m glad we had Cora in the front because she gets car sick and this was a crazy ride. It was like being on one of those virtual reality rides at theme parks. We were crossing mountains so there were long, curvy switchbacks down and long, curvy switchbacks up. All of that was interspersed with speed bumps that would send you flying out of your seat, gravel at the side of the roads that we would spin through, and various trucks, bicycle, cows, people with baskets of food on their head, etc. that would serve as obstacles. At one point I seriously thought how sad it was that we were going to plunge off the side of one of these mountain roads and I didn’t even know the name of the guy sitting next to me.
When we finally arrived in Panahachel we were immediately surrounded by guys trying to get us on their boat to cross the lake. I misunderstood them about the price-or the deliberately told me the wrong price-so we ended up paying double what we should have. Oh well, I consider these times that they get the better of me as putting some money into the Guatemalan economy. It doesn’t happen too often so I don’t get upset about the times it does. It is still very cheap to travel here and when you see how people have to live here you don’t mind paying a little more.
Anyway, we got across the lake and into San Pedro and found our school right away with help from Nicholas. He is a guy who met us at the docks and walked us up to our school. I have him Q10 for his help even though we really didn’t need it because the school was directly ahead of us. I love the set up of our school. All of the table areas are outside in a beautiful garden setting so we will have nice, tranquil class times. I am excited to start on Monday. The father of the family arrived within about 15 minutes and we walked to our house in about 5 minutes. Again, the set up of this house is nothing like anything we have seen before. I liken this to a very small motel. Each room is separate and opens to the yard. The bathroom is the last room on one end, the kitchen is last room on the other. The dining area is another room as well. There is a gate that closes off the yard from the street outside.This family also has kids, Marvin, age 11, Abigail, age 8 and Ana, age 5. None of the names are pronounced the way you think so it took us a while to figure out the actual spelling of the names. All of the kids got along from the first 5 minutes and have been playing all afternoon. At this time they are playing hide and seek. Tate and Cora are very happy with this situation. Steve and I are too. This will make the nights go better. Also, Tate is using A LOT of Spanish now. Cora, not so much, but Tate is really trying.
We had lunch with family today and because we are on a lake, of course it was fish. Fish fried with the skin, eyes, head and tails still attached. The kids did not say a word, just ate the fish like it was something they do every day. My guess is that by the time we are done dragging them around the world someone will be able to put something purple and squirming in front of them and they will eat it without batting an eye.
So, after lunch we walked around the town and I got a queasy feeling that we had made a mistake. There was nothing here but tiendas (small corner stores) and street sellers. We had been told that this was a pretty touristy town so I thought it would have the services we needed-internet, laundry, travel agents-we saw nothing like that. We went back down by the dock, bought everyone a soda and sat to contemplate what we were doing here. Then Nicholas came by again (our “guide” from the morning) and we talked to him about the town. That is when he told us about the other side of San Pedro. After some more conversation we found the San Pedro I had been thinking of. Restaurants, wi-fi places, ice cream shops, lots of bars, etc. We are just not ready for the real Central America. We still need the security of the familiar.
Today is our last day in Antigua. We started the morning in class. My teacher and I worked right up until the last minute. I think Steve did too. We gave our teachers some gifts, took a few pictures and said goodbye. It was sad, but too much. After lunch we spent the afternoon visiting our favorite places again, taking a lot of pictures and finishing up some last minute business. Steve is in the process of getting us repacked to leave at 7:30 in the morning.Tomorrow we are taking a small passenger van to Panahachel-about 2 hours away-then crossing Lake Atitlan on a boat to reach San Pedro. Once there we have to find our school and then they will take us to our homestay. I am nervous about moving to a new homestay. You just never know if it is going to be better or worse. I don’t think it will be better than where we are now, but perhaps there will be more for the kids to do. Here they just play their video games at night because there is nothing else to do.
Saturday
OK, so here we are in San Pedro. We had no problems getting up and ready for the bus. Breakfast was at 7 and for some reason the eggs Olgi served this morning were AWFUL! She is a very good cook, but these had some kinda sauce on them that made them taste like puke. Tate wolfed them down (he thought they were great), Steve passed ½ of his off to Tate, Cora ate about four bites and I choked all of mine down. When the van arrived to pick us up it already had 7 people in it. Steve and Cora sat in the front seats and I sat squished between some guy who needed a shower and Tate. I’m glad we had Cora in the front because she gets car sick and this was a crazy ride. It was like being on one of those virtual reality rides at theme parks. We were crossing mountains so there were long, curvy switchbacks down and long, curvy switchbacks up. All of that was interspersed with speed bumps that would send you flying out of your seat, gravel at the side of the roads that we would spin through, and various trucks, bicycle, cows, people with baskets of food on their head, etc. that would serve as obstacles. At one point I seriously thought how sad it was that we were going to plunge off the side of one of these mountain roads and I didn’t even know the name of the guy sitting next to me.
When we finally arrived in Panahachel we were immediately surrounded by guys trying to get us on their boat to cross the lake. I misunderstood them about the price-or the deliberately told me the wrong price-so we ended up paying double what we should have. Oh well, I consider these times that they get the better of me as putting some money into the Guatemalan economy. It doesn’t happen too often so I don’t get upset about the times it does. It is still very cheap to travel here and when you see how people have to live here you don’t mind paying a little more.
Anyway, we got across the lake and into San Pedro and found our school right away with help from Nicholas. He is a guy who met us at the docks and walked us up to our school. I have him Q10 for his help even though we really didn’t need it because the school was directly ahead of us. I love the set up of our school. All of the table areas are outside in a beautiful garden setting so we will have nice, tranquil class times. I am excited to start on Monday. The father of the family arrived within about 15 minutes and we walked to our house in about 5 minutes. Again, the set up of this house is nothing like anything we have seen before. I liken this to a very small motel. Each room is separate and opens to the yard. The bathroom is the last room on one end, the kitchen is last room on the other. The dining area is another room as well. There is a gate that closes off the yard from the street outside.This family also has kids, Marvin, age 11, Abigail, age 8 and Ana, age 5. None of the names are pronounced the way you think so it took us a while to figure out the actual spelling of the names. All of the kids got along from the first 5 minutes and have been playing all afternoon. At this time they are playing hide and seek. Tate and Cora are very happy with this situation. Steve and I are too. This will make the nights go better. Also, Tate is using A LOT of Spanish now. Cora, not so much, but Tate is really trying.
We had lunch with family today and because we are on a lake, of course it was fish. Fish fried with the skin, eyes, head and tails still attached. The kids did not say a word, just ate the fish like it was something they do every day. My guess is that by the time we are done dragging them around the world someone will be able to put something purple and squirming in front of them and they will eat it without batting an eye.
So, after lunch we walked around the town and I got a queasy feeling that we had made a mistake. There was nothing here but tiendas (small corner stores) and street sellers. We had been told that this was a pretty touristy town so I thought it would have the services we needed-internet, laundry, travel agents-we saw nothing like that. We went back down by the dock, bought everyone a soda and sat to contemplate what we were doing here. Then Nicholas came by again (our “guide” from the morning) and we talked to him about the town. That is when he told us about the other side of San Pedro. After some more conversation we found the San Pedro I had been thinking of. Restaurants, wi-fi places, ice cream shops, lots of bars, etc. We are just not ready for the real Central America. We still need the security of the familiar.
Comments
I'm so glad that Tate saw the tap water incident back in Antigua!! I sincerely hope that it doesn't make anyone sick. Sounds like the housekeeper really has some problems.
I'm looking forward to hearing more about your new school!
Karen