OFF TO TRAVEL SOME MORE OF CENTRAL AMERICA!

So we are heading through Central America to see as much as possible in this last month before we return home. We will start off by taking the boat over to Puerto Barrios, Guatemala then head through Honduras into Nicaragua. We will be in Nicaragua for about 2 weeks (very tentative..) then head to Costa Rica for the remainder of our trip. We were hoping to dip into Panama for don´t think we will have time to do that. I am so excited for the month ahead, who knows what lies ahead for us!

GOODBYE PG!

We are done our teaching internship in PG and I think it is safe for me to say that this was nothing short of an experience of a lifetime. I feel like I grew so much not only professionally as a teacher, but personally by living and teaching in this amazing town. We could not have asked for a more welcoming school. There is no doubt that this was the most challenging teaching practicum I have encountered so far, but it was hands down the most rewarding. Looking at how far some of my students have come has been more inspiring for me than I can describe and has made me realize that teaching is what I need to be doing. They have become so excited about reading and some of their writing has really blown me away. I was so impressed with the scary stories that they wrote for me I complied them into a book and added it to our class library, which they were super pumped about! I see a new found confidence in a lot of them and I hope that they will continue their hard work and enthusiasm after I leave. On the same token I have never been so touched by a group of students, making leaving them so difficult. I can´t help but feel like I am abandoning some of them, they don´t really understand why I have to leave which makes it hard. One student who I was particullarly concerned about how he would deal with my departure didn´t show up for my last day and I couldn´t find him anywhere in town (which is rare). It´s so hard when I don´t even get to say a proper goodbye to some of them. On my last day I was truly touched by the staff and students of my school. The day started off with my students throwing me a surprise party which they had organized themselves. There was food, cake, music and of course, dancing! It was awesome having a whole morning just hanging out with my students and having fun. At lunch the teachers had a lunch for us girls and the principles presented us with a certificate of appreciation. At that point we thought that there wasn´t much more that they could do for us but we were definitely wrong! All of the Standard 1, 2 and 3 classes put on a talent show in our honor. There was dancing, singing, poetry and it ended up with a Garifuna dance and drum performance which was incredible! They brought us up onto the stage and we had a blast dancing with them to the drums. We were a little thrown off because they asked the three of us to start off the show by singing O Canada...yikes! Fortunately we have been hitting the karaoke in PG so we were feeling somewhat capable..
By the end of the day I was so overwhelmed by how much my students and the staff had put into my last day, I was truly touched and will miss them all so much!
And if that wasn´t enough to deal with we also had to say goodbye to all our new friends in the community. In our 4 months in PG this town has completely welcomed us with open arms. There are people you get to know and are used to seeing around all the time from the ice cream parlor, to the karaoke bar to the family that lives in our building. We became particularly close to some American volunteers that lived down the street from us and tried to squeeze in as much hangout time as humanly possible before we left. On our last weekend we hit up the karaoke bar where I got the courage to bust out Celine Dion (who is a big deal in Belize, randomly), take in the town and go see the infamous SUPA G! He is a Punta singer that is huge in Belize and we all went to his concert on Saturday night and had a blast. We were shocked that we recognized and knew the words to almost all of his songs, we Puntaed like we had never Puntaed before! One of our best nights in PG hands down!
Overall, I feel so blessed to have been able to do this amazing experience. Before I left I had people tell me that I would grow and change so much on this trip that I wouldn´t be the same person when I returned but that was so hard to imagine. But after being immersed in this culture and school for four months I can´t believe how much this has opened my eyes. I don´t feel like I can do it any justice by trying to put it into words, I don´t even know where to start. We were talking the other day how we are going to experience some serious reverse culture shock coming back to Canada, I can´t even imagine how I will deal with going to a mall, or a traffic jam, or crowds in general. I will try and not think about it for the moment. Until then I will do all I can to soak up every single moment!
BYE PG, WE WILL MISS U!!!

“Change is the essence of life.

Be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become.”

anonymous

TALENT SHOW!

All the students in Standard 2, 3 and 4 put a Talent Show on for Katie, Trish and myself. There was dancing, singing, poetry and it all ended off with a big Garifuna dance and they pulled us up on stage as the finale to dance with them! We were so touched by the effort our students put into this afternoon it was amazing!

SURPRISE PARTY!

Our last day at St. Peter Claver School was incredible. My class threw a surprise party for me in the morning and they were so sneaky I didn't have a clue! They organized everything themselves there was food, a cake, music, dancing and gifts. It was awesome to have a morning just hanging out and having a blast with my kids! We even had a little dance off which got a little rowdy, my Punta dancing is still outta control! Man, what a great group of kids, I am going to miss them so much!

THANKS STANDARD III!!!

SQUEEZE IT ALL IN!

We are squeezing as much as we can into our last moments here in PG, hanging out with our friends, swimming in the ocean and just taking it all in. On Friday we had some of the teachers over for their first chili experience, it was an intense operation. We had four pots of chili going and it we were feeling the heat (literally) cooking that up in our apartment. We are really going to miss Sara, Mosanda and Fino our pals from down the street. We have had so many good times having dinners at each other’s houses, playing in the ocean and having game nights. This is us hitting the ocean on a lazy Sunday.

SPORTS DAY

This was our school's Sports Day which included running races, egg toss, relays, potato sack races and many other activities. The students were divided into their houses and it was easy to tell where they should go because they were expected to wear their house colors. They had the opening and closing ceremonies and we were "Officials" and were in charge of all the tabulating.

Things I noticed....

VIVA GUATEMALA!
-bus divers take so much pride in their chicken buses (which we took all over the country) jazzing them up big time by painting them brightly and naming them. I was told that they are old American Bluebird school buses
-I assume that these were political parties but along the roads tons of the rocks are painted with various symbols on them, excessively done
-Guatemalan roads are WAY nicer than Belize roads. They were mostly all paved and I even spotted some freeways….who knew!?
-LOTS of garbage! I am pretty sure they grew it there. We heard rumors that since plastic bottles are new to the country recycling hasn’t quite kicked in, but in the bigger cities and along the highway I couldn’t believe how much garbage was lying around.
-since it isn’t as culturally diverse as Belize they strongly represent their culture and religion (Catholicism). The women are very traditionally dressed and their styles all together seemed a lot less modern.
-the women could carry pretty much anything on their heads it’s incredible! The men use a bag and strap it to their forehead; I couldn’t believe how much they could carry in that heat.
-Quezal is their national bird as well as currency. $1 US= 7 Q (it was super cheap there!)
-they have the best ice cream I have ever tasted and trust me I have tasted a lot! My favorite…coconut!
-as in Belize I couldn’t believe how well behaved the children are, even as babies you hardly ever hear them cry. My assumption is that it is because they are included in absolutely everything with parents, which is great to see.
-Southern Guatemala was so much colder than we expected. We were sleeping for the first time in pants and long sleeve shirts, the whole country was such a wide range of weather….Northern Guatemala was scorching hot in comparison
-I NEED to start studying my Spanish for Nicaragua and Costa Rica. I was labeled the official translator of our group but Sr. Dryfuss (my high school Spanish teacher) would have been so disappointed. If you don’t use it you easily loose it and I still have lots of work ahead of me. I am happy to say though that I improved a lot in the two weeks and gained a lot of confidence when talking to the locals (which I discovered is key). I can now carry on a basic conversation, order food and get by….one of the teachers from our school in PG offered to give us Spanish lessons so we will do a crash course before we leave. It has really made me have a new appreciation for people who have to take on English as a second language, it’s so intimidating being in a culture where you don’t speak their language, it can be so daunting at first. Something as simply as ordering dinner or finding a hotel room becomes a huge challenge, but when you are forced to use the language you can learn fast which I loved. Some tourists frustrated me when they would try and speak English to them but only louder and slower saying, “I hate that they don’t speak OUR language”. Hmmmm….maybe you don’t speak THEIR language. Just a new pet peeve, that’s all.
-we found the men in Guatemala to be a lot less aggressive and easy to deal with. They were generally very respective and as soon as we crossed over the border to Belize the cat calls began…
Overall I found the scenery in Guatemala to be breathtaking, I absolutely loved it! I can’t believe how much we were able to squeeze into two weeks and it was super cheap. What a great way to spend Easter Holidays!

FLORES, TIKAL

This was our final Guatemalan stop. We hiked up the ruins at 4am to catch the sunrise but unfortunately it was a really cloudy day, but it was still neat to watch/hear the whole jungle wake up spotting some monkeys, toucans and parrots. Tikal was one of the greatest cities in the world in its time and I believe it was the capital of the Mayan empire. Our tour guide was super knowledgable and filled us in on the Mayan culture and surrounding wildlife. For example, who new that chamomile leaf could be used to freeze your mouth...always so educational! After seeing the other ruins in Belize we were familiar with a lot of the history but were still glad we went. The next day we had 11 hours of hot, sweaty, chicken buses. We were so happy to return to PG and see so many familiar faces and crash into bed at 8:30. Back to teaching for two weeks!

CAVING BY SUMUC CHAMPAY

Part of our tour included going through the caves only by candle light. We were fortunate to have a super fun group and we all had a blast together. It was a great climb through the cave and waterfalls, our tour guide Carlos was super entertaining. This a pic of the whole crew.

SUMUC CHAMPEY

I love going to these places and not really knowing what to expect. All we knew about Sumuc Champey was that it consisted of some pools and waterfalls and was a must-see of Guatemala, some locals even claimed it to be the eighth wonder of the world. I would absolutely disagree and rate it numero uno on my list! It was about a 30 minute beautiful bus- ride from El Riterio and was an action packed day. Our tour started off by a walk to the caves and we stopped off at this awesome swing which went over the river, we then floated down the river on inner tubes, jumped off a bridge, hiked to the top of Sumuc they went to play in the pools. This is all of us girls after our intense hike up there, definitely one of the hardest climbs I have ever done but it was so worth the incredible view. Jen and I loved it so much we went to the pools the following day swinging off trees into the water and cliff jumping. We found an incredible cave under the waterfalls which we explored, we are self proclaimed jumpaholics

PERFECTO!

LANGUIN (EL RETIRO)

Wow, Languin. I feel like a description or pictures simply won’t do this place justice; it was absolutely incredible. Without hesitation I would rate this our best stop the whole trip. We didn’t know what to expect upon arrival and on the bus ride swirled through lush hills and valleys all the way to the top. Our hostel consisted of a number of tiny cabañas with thatch roofs and we slept for dirt-cheap in the hammock room right by the river. We met the nicest people there and reunited with a couple of girls who traveled San Pedro and Antigua with us. The food there was amazing, every night there were family dinners where everyone would meet in the restaurant at 7 and share a DELICIOUS candlelit dinner. We floated down the river on inner tubes one day and it was pretty easy to just chill and take in the scenery.

COBAN

After Antigua Trish, Steph and myself split ways with Katie because she went to Cancun for her brother’s wedding. It was so strange after all this time to be traveling without her, but it was fun swapping stories once we reunited in PG. The three of us stopped in Coban for the night and enjoyed this quaint town. They claimed to have the world’s best coffee and I obviously had to scope that out and realized they actually meant it was world’s strongest coffee and I was pretty much up all night. There was a magician in town and we watched him walk over glass and do some other stunts, they instantly spotted us Gringos in the crowd and starting mocking us in Spanish, unfortunately not being one of the 20 words we know….(slight exaggeration) so we evacuated that situation. But a good little stop on our way to Languin.

At the end of the night the procession ended up in the main center in front of the church where there were a number of people holding candles singing Ave Maria and the whole centre was filled with incense, it was really powerful.

SEMANA SANTA (HOLY WEEK)

We were so fortunate to be in Antigua for Holy Week because there is so much going on in this beautiful city. There was a procession that went through Antigua on Good Friday and throughout the streets carpets were made out of dyed sawdust. Each carpet took approximately 7-10 ten hours to create and all the locals sacrificed their time and energy to do so. When we went to bed there were people working on the carpet and when we woke up they were still finishing up. The procession goes over top of the carpet and immediately after it is sweep up. I can’t believe how much these people sacrifice for this occasion. They would carry around the floats all day and the women would be carrying it in their high heels. Antigua is a hugely Catholic city and it was powerful being there to experience Easter among them. The men were dressed in these purple Shepard costumes and the women wore black dresses with veils.

ANTIGUA

This was such a beautiful and unique city unlike anything we have seen in Central America thus far. It reminded me a lot of what I would imagine a small European town to look like with cobblestone streets, enormous churches and neat little cafes. I was there for my birthday and it was definitely one of the best one’s I have ever had. We climbed Pacaya Volcano, which was last active in January. There was lava flowing down the side of it and it got so hot that we could smell/feel our shoes melting! We had such a good travelling crew, we met Jen and Bre in San Pedro and instantly clicked, we all travelled the rest of Guatemala together.

After climbing the volcano we came back to our hostel, chilled on the hamocks for a little bit then played some fabulous birthday games including musical chairs…and my all time biggest birthday wish…A PINATA!!

Things escalated quickly when I accidentally smoked the dog, but besides that it was a blast. The girls got me a delicious piece of cheesecake and some fisherman pants (which I was looking all over Guatemala for). Scope out those beauties in the pic!

After we left the hostel we went to a checha bar (flavored tobacco) and tried out the strawberry flavor(no worries, completely legal my friends). The power went out in Antigua and the whole place was lit by candles, I truly couldn't have asked for a more perfect day!

SKURFING!

Man this was a blast! We became such pro stars at skurfing that Alex (the owner of the hostel) and I attempted the ultimate skurfing challenge...double skurfing! We had our skeptics but we succeeded, it reminded me of wake boarding back home, always a good time!

LAKE ATILAN, SAN PEDRO

We instantly fell in love with this place. We stayed in the town of San Pedro on the lake, which was a fun hippie- laid back town with a lot of personality. We were so content just chilling by the lake and taking in the skurfing (surfing behind a boat). It is a hollowed out volcano and surrounded by two three others, actually reminding me of Kalamalka Lake in BC.

RIO HONDO

This is where our journey began. The bus dropped us off literally in the middle of nowhere on a dirt road, the four of us girls with little Spanish speaking capabilities and our sad Lonely Planet book. Fortunately we had the locals on our side and after some cheap hostel shopping we were able to find this amazing resort looking hotel for cheap. We felt like we were living it up in this place even if it was just for one night. With our phrase book in hand we went out and ordered our food in Spanish, I became the official translator of the group but quickly realized I had a lot of work ahead of me. Even though I took Spanish in high school I was seriously rusty, but after our first night we were proud that we had food in our bellies and a nice place to sleep….