Tuesday
The mornings around here have been pretty much the same. We wake up, eat breakfast, go to class, return to the home, and then eat lunch. In the afternoons we do different activities depending on the day.
On Tuesday we went to the Volcano Pacaya. It is a popular trip around here. We left Antigua in a tourist van around 2pm There were 12 people total. Two other Americans, two German guys and two Swiss gals, a guy from Peru and a guy from Uraguay. I had to be the translator for the trip! Me! Ha Ha!It was about a two hour drive to the place were we started to climb. The second we got out of the van we were surrounded by kids offering to rent us sticks for Q5 apiece (about 80 cents) We were also offered horses for Q200 each (about $30) The other two Americans got horses (they were in their 60’s or so) but the rest of the group got sticks. I am so glad we did!
For the next 2 hours (!) we climbed and climbed and climbed At first we were in a lush forest full of interesting trees and vines. Too bad we didn’t get to look at them much because we had to watch the ground for tree roots and horse droppings. The climb was very difficult and I was afraid Tate was going to lose it at some point, but both kids hung on and we made it to the top. On the way up the forest changed into a dusty landscape with some small scrubby bushes. Everyone was covered in dust. Once we got to the top, we turned to the other side of the volcano and it was like a whole different world.
This was the lava and ash side. From lush green to scrubby dust to black ash. The ground was soft with small volcanic rocks. There was a huge plain of them that slanted down. We went “skiing” down the plain on the rocks by jumping and scooting. It is very hard to describe but a crazy experience. One we crossed this plain we started walking on the large volcanic rocks. They are very hard and large and full of small holes. Walking across them was difficult and somewhat dangerous. It would have been easy to twist an ankle or cut your hands up if you fell. The rocks we were walking on at that point were from lava in 2006. As we were walking across them it was very cloudy and since we were up so high we were walking through the clouds. It was truly like an alien landscape. Up ahead we could see the lava flowing down the side. Not fast at all, like a slow tumble. It was red hot and there were about four different “rivers” of it. It was also obvious that we had some more difficult climbing to do.The last bit of climb was over some steep, large, sharp, black volcanic rocks. The closer we got to the lava they hotter they became. You could also see the heat shimmering in the air. We got about as close to the lava as we could, for safety and because of the heat. At that point you could only put your feet in one place for about a minute or they would start to get too hot. We saw large boulders of lava tumble and roll over each other as they made their slow journey down to form new rocks.After about 20 minutes it was time to eat some food and then head back down.
We did some more “skiing” in the small rocks and then climbed the plain back up to the green area at the top. At this point it was a little after 6 and starting to get dark. The lava was a brilliant red. The sun had already set, but the sky was still a light pink and we were above the clouds and could see the tops of four other volcanoes in the distance. It was fantastic! We rested at that point for a while. When it was time to go it was totally dark and we could really see the lava glowing. Wow!We had to use flashlights for the walk back down. It was completely dark and we could see so many stars. I had one of those “I can’t believe how awesome this is” moments. Here we were, walking down the side of a volcano that was erupting, in the dark, with people from 6 different countries. What a life!
Wednesday
I don’t even know where to begin today. This morning we got up, a little sore from the climb the previous day, but doing ok. We went to breakfast and Tate freaked out. “Don’t drink the water, don’t drink the water, she filled it from the sink!” The housekeeper (the one that hates me) put a jug of water on the table. I asked her if it was agua purificada and she said yes. Tate said “No it is not, I saw her fill it.” I grilled him a bit more about the situation and would not let anyone drink from it. When we were done eating I asked her again and she evaded my question. I explained that it was very important that we not drink the water from here and she said “So buy it!” (all of this in Spanish) I told her that we did pay for purified water in the house and she said something too fast for me to understand, went and got a glass that was broken and told me that my kids did it. They said they didn’t, but they admitted that they had left it on the porch. Fine, I told her, I will pay for the glass, but that I need to know if the water was from the sink. She said Yes! I then asked her if had been in the past and she started talking too fast for me again. I kept grilling her and told her that I needed to know so that we could take medicine. She kept evading me and finally smiled and said Yes! I was very angry from my confrontation at that point. It was time to go so we took our school stuff and left.
When we got to the school I was crying at that point that someone would be so openly hostile and dangerous to my children. I told the director of the school what had happened and he said we would change houses immediately. He arranged for a new house for us, got us a taxi to go back to the house, we packed up our stuff, and moved it to a new one. The teachers were horrified that she would do that. Not even the people of the city drink the water from the tap. At this point we don’t know what the Senora of the house was told, if the housekeeper was fired (because La Senora definitely lost money since we moved—also the director told us he would never use her again unless she fired the housekeeper) or what was said back and forth. I don’t know if it we should try to go say goodbye to them, I am sure the Senora didn’t know what was going on, or just leave it all behind. I also don’t know if we did drink any water from the tap at some point or not. It is possible she was just being mean when she told me that we had in the past, it is also possible that she had made our juices for lunch from tap water. What we do know for sure is that she did put a jug of unpurified water on the table for us to drink, that she knew it was wrong, and that she put the health of my family in danger. I hope I never see her again.
After lunch we went to an organic macadamia nut farm. The tour was very short; “Here are the trees and here is where we sort the nuts” It was in Spanish, of course, so I’m sure we got a better explanation that that, but we probably only understand about 25% of what was said. Crazy enough, we haven’t learned the Spanish words for “cross-pollination”, “sustainable farming practices” or “irrigation” yet. I got a short little macadamia nut oil facial (all of the women did) and we bought some macadamian nut butter and some macadamia nut cookies.
So, we have moved into our new home. The house is nicer and more comfortable. The family has a mom and dad, two children, ages 7 and 11, and a grandfather living in the house. Today is the grandfathers 75th birthday so there was a fiesta in the evening. About 8 other family members were here as well. It was a full table. One of the uncles looks like a Guatemalan version of Steve’s Uncle Bob, right down to the glasses. The dinner was chilies rellano. They are meat stuffed chilies. For the kids, they use green peppers. For the adults, it was made with jalapenos. Dang they were hot! The food tasted great, but was very spicy for me. My mouth was on fire and my nose was running, but I ate it all anyway. Then, I noticed that most people had picked the jalapenos out and left them on their plate! The cake was like the ones we see in the pastry shops here, a vanilla double layer with fruit in a light gel on top. For the birthday song, they sang Happy Birthday in English! This has been one crazy day.
The mornings around here have been pretty much the same. We wake up, eat breakfast, go to class, return to the home, and then eat lunch. In the afternoons we do different activities depending on the day.
On Tuesday we went to the Volcano Pacaya. It is a popular trip around here. We left Antigua in a tourist van around 2pm There were 12 people total. Two other Americans, two German guys and two Swiss gals, a guy from Peru and a guy from Uraguay. I had to be the translator for the trip! Me! Ha Ha!It was about a two hour drive to the place were we started to climb. The second we got out of the van we were surrounded by kids offering to rent us sticks for Q5 apiece (about 80 cents) We were also offered horses for Q200 each (about $30) The other two Americans got horses (they were in their 60’s or so) but the rest of the group got sticks. I am so glad we did!
For the next 2 hours (!) we climbed and climbed and climbed At first we were in a lush forest full of interesting trees and vines. Too bad we didn’t get to look at them much because we had to watch the ground for tree roots and horse droppings. The climb was very difficult and I was afraid Tate was going to lose it at some point, but both kids hung on and we made it to the top. On the way up the forest changed into a dusty landscape with some small scrubby bushes. Everyone was covered in dust. Once we got to the top, we turned to the other side of the volcano and it was like a whole different world.
This was the lava and ash side. From lush green to scrubby dust to black ash. The ground was soft with small volcanic rocks. There was a huge plain of them that slanted down. We went “skiing” down the plain on the rocks by jumping and scooting. It is very hard to describe but a crazy experience. One we crossed this plain we started walking on the large volcanic rocks. They are very hard and large and full of small holes. Walking across them was difficult and somewhat dangerous. It would have been easy to twist an ankle or cut your hands up if you fell. The rocks we were walking on at that point were from lava in 2006. As we were walking across them it was very cloudy and since we were up so high we were walking through the clouds. It was truly like an alien landscape. Up ahead we could see the lava flowing down the side. Not fast at all, like a slow tumble. It was red hot and there were about four different “rivers” of it. It was also obvious that we had some more difficult climbing to do.The last bit of climb was over some steep, large, sharp, black volcanic rocks. The closer we got to the lava they hotter they became. You could also see the heat shimmering in the air. We got about as close to the lava as we could, for safety and because of the heat. At that point you could only put your feet in one place for about a minute or they would start to get too hot. We saw large boulders of lava tumble and roll over each other as they made their slow journey down to form new rocks.After about 20 minutes it was time to eat some food and then head back down.
We did some more “skiing” in the small rocks and then climbed the plain back up to the green area at the top. At this point it was a little after 6 and starting to get dark. The lava was a brilliant red. The sun had already set, but the sky was still a light pink and we were above the clouds and could see the tops of four other volcanoes in the distance. It was fantastic! We rested at that point for a while. When it was time to go it was totally dark and we could really see the lava glowing. Wow!We had to use flashlights for the walk back down. It was completely dark and we could see so many stars. I had one of those “I can’t believe how awesome this is” moments. Here we were, walking down the side of a volcano that was erupting, in the dark, with people from 6 different countries. What a life!
Wednesday
I don’t even know where to begin today. This morning we got up, a little sore from the climb the previous day, but doing ok. We went to breakfast and Tate freaked out. “Don’t drink the water, don’t drink the water, she filled it from the sink!” The housekeeper (the one that hates me) put a jug of water on the table. I asked her if it was agua purificada and she said yes. Tate said “No it is not, I saw her fill it.” I grilled him a bit more about the situation and would not let anyone drink from it. When we were done eating I asked her again and she evaded my question. I explained that it was very important that we not drink the water from here and she said “So buy it!” (all of this in Spanish) I told her that we did pay for purified water in the house and she said something too fast for me to understand, went and got a glass that was broken and told me that my kids did it. They said they didn’t, but they admitted that they had left it on the porch. Fine, I told her, I will pay for the glass, but that I need to know if the water was from the sink. She said Yes! I then asked her if had been in the past and she started talking too fast for me again. I kept grilling her and told her that I needed to know so that we could take medicine. She kept evading me and finally smiled and said Yes! I was very angry from my confrontation at that point. It was time to go so we took our school stuff and left.
When we got to the school I was crying at that point that someone would be so openly hostile and dangerous to my children. I told the director of the school what had happened and he said we would change houses immediately. He arranged for a new house for us, got us a taxi to go back to the house, we packed up our stuff, and moved it to a new one. The teachers were horrified that she would do that. Not even the people of the city drink the water from the tap. At this point we don’t know what the Senora of the house was told, if the housekeeper was fired (because La Senora definitely lost money since we moved—also the director told us he would never use her again unless she fired the housekeeper) or what was said back and forth. I don’t know if it we should try to go say goodbye to them, I am sure the Senora didn’t know what was going on, or just leave it all behind. I also don’t know if we did drink any water from the tap at some point or not. It is possible she was just being mean when she told me that we had in the past, it is also possible that she had made our juices for lunch from tap water. What we do know for sure is that she did put a jug of unpurified water on the table for us to drink, that she knew it was wrong, and that she put the health of my family in danger. I hope I never see her again.
After lunch we went to an organic macadamia nut farm. The tour was very short; “Here are the trees and here is where we sort the nuts” It was in Spanish, of course, so I’m sure we got a better explanation that that, but we probably only understand about 25% of what was said. Crazy enough, we haven’t learned the Spanish words for “cross-pollination”, “sustainable farming practices” or “irrigation” yet. I got a short little macadamia nut oil facial (all of the women did) and we bought some macadamian nut butter and some macadamia nut cookies.
So, we have moved into our new home. The house is nicer and more comfortable. The family has a mom and dad, two children, ages 7 and 11, and a grandfather living in the house. Today is the grandfathers 75th birthday so there was a fiesta in the evening. About 8 other family members were here as well. It was a full table. One of the uncles looks like a Guatemalan version of Steve’s Uncle Bob, right down to the glasses. The dinner was chilies rellano. They are meat stuffed chilies. For the kids, they use green peppers. For the adults, it was made with jalapenos. Dang they were hot! The food tasted great, but was very spicy for me. My mouth was on fire and my nose was running, but I ate it all anyway. Then, I noticed that most people had picked the jalapenos out and left them on their plate! The cake was like the ones we see in the pastry shops here, a vanilla double layer with fruit in a light gel on top. For the birthday song, they sang Happy Birthday in English! This has been one crazy day.
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