I love Santiago

Ah, I am thoroughly enjoying Santiago! Jeff already gave you a preview of the beautiful pueblo by the lake that we recently relocated to after 3 weeks in Xela. Santiago is incredibly charming everywhere you look. The little town of 40,000 people sits right under San Pedro Volcano and has mucho lake front property. The dormant volcano is now a lush, majestic mountain guarding the town and Lake Atítlan. I love going to our rooftop to admire the awesome view that feels an arm lengnth away.

Santiago is the least touristy of the towns along Lago Atítlan because it sits a little removed, in a finger of the mostly round lake. The town's main economies are agriculture and art. It's avacado season so the main market is constantly bustling with venders and buyers and people loading cases of avacado into big trucks. Coffee plants are everywhere, in front yards and shading major streets; warming Jeff's heart daily. There are also many talented painters and wood sculptors here. Their work fills the tourist streets of nearby towns. In Santiago, their gallories display more unique, personal projects. I am very excited to buy some paintings to bring back to the U.S., just waiting to befriend the artist that people at Hospitalito rave about.

Walking to Hospitalito in the morning is definitely my favorite part of each day. During the rainy season, mornings are almost always sunny and cool. The sky is deceivingly cloudless and the perfect shade of pale blue. San Pedro greet us as we leave the house. Then we walk through town, along the lake, and towards another valcano, San Lucas. The sparkling lake contrasting with the rich green mountains even inspires in me an urge to paint.

San Lucas greeting us right before work

We also see these pups every day on our walk to work


I also love that in the mornings, streets of Santiago are filled with children walking to school at the same time and looking absolutely adorable. Even girls as young as 3 or 4 wear the traditional dresses and thick shiny braids. 40% of the Guatemalan population are under the age of 18. In Santiago, small children are every where! I didn't truly appreciate the traditional dress of Guatemala until I came to this pueblo. Maybe because tradition is better preserved here, and maybe because the artistic locals raise the bar for asthetics, women and men here are much better dressed than in Xela and Guatemala City. At first glance, the mix of colors seem random and overwhelming. But upon closer look, the beautiful embroidaries of birds and flowers are fascinating. Even the men here are proud of the extensive embroidaries on their pants.

snuck a photo in while walking behind them

we hike lots of hills every day, bueno ejercicio. Yeah tuk tuks!!!

Other side of the pueblo from our rooftop

Land of Tuk Tuks

What about the tuk tuks, you ask. You've all seen the Pixar movie "Cars" and love the character Guido as much as I do, right? Santiago taxis, called tuk tuks by locals, remind me exactly of Guido!!!

These compact, tri-wheel vehicles zip around pueblos of Lago Atítlan all day long. They emit almost no stinky exhaust, don't cowd the streets, and can smartly maneuver around almost everything in the road. Most tuk yuks are bright red and often decorated with familar logos or symbols in various colors. I have already pick out a favorite member of the fleet, one with green cat eyes and puma symbols. Jeff loves the tuk tuk that shows little neon lights all over at night and plays reggaeton loudly. Each tuk tuk channels a unique personality and proudly wears 3-digit liscense plate. Jeff and I play a game to see who can spot the tuk tuk with the highest plate number. So far, I win at 196!

Trip to Lago Atitlan

Three weeks came and gone so quickly. It felt like ayer when Jing and I filled out an arrival slip for a Guatemalan lady hard of sight as our plane made a rocky landing in Guate ciudad. After one uneventful bus ride, three weeks full of espanol escuela, two volcans conquered, million pounds of pan consumed, and only two alcoholic beverages drunken, we arrived once again in a new land albeit still in the same country......Santiago Atitlan. It is here we begin the second leg of our trip, "patient care." What makes this experience novel, even after more than year of patient experience in Virginia is the relative dearth of medical resources in Guatemala (competes with Haiti in this hemisphere).

Early Sunday morning, Jing and I awaited with some sadness and anticipation for the Altiplano private minibus that was to take us to Panahachel, a town on Lake Atitlan, where we are to hop on a boat and cross to Santiago, on the OTHER side of the lake. Before the shuttle arrived, we took the opportunity to visit our Xela Pan for a last minute goodbye and two snacks: foccacia and apple pie-uffin (looks like a hybrid of both). The ride there took us 2.5 hours on the :gasp: well paved InterAmerican Highway. For a second, you think you are driving along the blueridge parkway high in the Appalachians with well marked roads. Then, trash, dogs, remanents of mud slides, and you are quickly reminded again you are not home....yet. Twists, turns, yaw, roll, you feel like you are on a very slow jet as the age old shuttle tries to climb the steep roads. Chicken buses, old US yellow school busses sent to Guate for a make over to hold more people within and above the car, were leaving us in the dust...to eat their carbon monnoxide. Finally in the distance towering mountains with a ring of fog enveloping the sumit. And alas, Lake Atitlan in all its blue shimmering beauty between two volcanos and countless other hills. Slowly, closer, the minbus crept. We finally deboarded in Pana. We had a good breakfast at a beautiful outdoor restaurant which seated us in its garden filled with tropical appearing flowers of unusal hues: magenta, off white, neon orange. The most impressive part of Pana was its large number of tourist driven shops. Beautiful tiendas lined the streets with brilliant Guatemalan paintings of people and nature often under a setting sun that casts an orange glow over the painted landscape. Sizes ranged from HUGE to pequeno. We will definitely be taking some home. Other stores were less inspired and unoriginal selling goods ranging from jewlery to scarves, to woodwork. After a short walk down the street, you soon begin to realize the goods begin to look the same, that's because they are. Probably all hecho en china.

Our boat ride across was intersting. As previously mentioned, Guatemala rains daily and the lake was no exception. As the dark storm clouds rolled in, we decided it was time to vamos. Carrying a large 40L traveling backpack each, a regular backpack, and a duffle, walking the streets was not easy. Not to mention, the streets of Pana leading to the docks where the boats depart for other pueblos on the lake were teeming with sneaky natives waiting to rip off foreigners. Q50 for ride across the lake, they'd shout?! After a while, they didn't even deserve the mal ojo i gave them. At the end of the docks was where the legitimate prices were and you bet we were heading that way. As we got closer, a disheveled man tried to start a conversation with me, selling me his boat and services. At this point, I've begun to be accustommed to walking and ignoring pesky noises following me and that's just what I did. "My boat is public", he'd shout trying to legitamize his deeds. "Where are you goinng my friend", he inquired as I continued to ignore him and head toward the end of the docks. Finally, another man approaches us near the appropriate location to board a boat to Santiago and asks for Q25 to cross the lake. We agree and follow him to his boat and proceed to board. To our dismay, the disheveled man was aboard and offering to help us! The lake was becoming less tranquillo and the boat began to rock back and forth. Stepping from the pier onto the boat was a challenge and that man was there with a lending hand. We began to think maybe this was his boat the whole time. We sat in the front row (MISTAKE!) of the boat with our many bags closely beside our legs for security. A minute after we sat down, the disheveled man who so kindly helped us onto the boat said we had to pay now. I asked how much, hoping to get a better deal than Q25. He said, ¨Q30¨. I scoffed. ¨Q25 is all,¨I said. He said ok. I gave him a Q50 and thought, phew almost got scammed. I never really noticed when he left the boat but he did and we never really saw him again. Halfway through our trip on the turbulent lake, Jing asked me, ¨um why did we pay before hand?¨Then it came to dawn on me that we may have been scammed.....I scanned the boat and didn´t see the man ANYWHERE. I started to panic. Oh no, what if we were really scammed! I just lost Q50 ($6.5) which wasn´t much but it was really all about dignity and principal. Damn native scammed us. What if we have to pay again?¿?¿?¿

At this point, we were half way between Pana and Santiago. The boat was flying across the lake with water splashing in our face every few minutes as the boat hit a rough wake or point. People around us knew what they got themselves into. Some had rain jackets covering their faces. Jing and I sat stupidly, wet, and pissed. 25 minutes after finally departing Pana, we arrived in Santiago. Luckily, as we deboarding the boat, no one asked us to pay more. Perhaps the other man was legit, perhaps we just got lucky and scammed the boat owner by not paying him. However, who knows.

More adventures to follow in the next post...The Land of Tuk Tuks.

The gang in Pana with a beautiful lake and mountains in our background.

View of the lake from atop our homestay in Santiago. Absolutely brilliant!

View of the lake and the mountains from Jing and my daily walk to Hospitalito Atitlan where we are working for 3 weeks!

Adios, Xela. Hasta Luego!

Que extraño! Jeff and I showed up at our go-to coffee shop, Café Blintz, and the place was packed
because the local TV station is interviewing all the beauty queens from last week’s pageants. We
shamelessly came here everyday, so that the owner lady quickly ushered us to the only table left
upstairs, giving us the perfect view to the filming process. All the little girls were absolutely adorable
and so well spoken. What a fun experience for us and great opportunity for Blintz!

Jeff and I began our process of saying good-bye to Xela today, muy triste… ICA held a little graduation
ceremony for us today and our teachers gave a mini-speech and handed us stiff, colorful diplomas to
make it official. Jeff, that gunner, also surprised us by preparing a wonderful speech. He really worked
hard these last few weeks and his speech incorporated a variety of grammar and vocabulary. The proud
look on Carlos’ face was unmistakable.

I promised my teacher that there’d be no drama on our last day. He taught at ICA for 8 years and
apparently had seen a range of emotions, lasting relationships, and of course, forgotten promises. We
went on our daily business of grammar and vocabulary lessons. We sipped our hot beverages (courtesy
of ICA) and shared a delicious baked goodie. We shared stories about families, relationships, his past
students and my patients. Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, and at the same time, everything was
absolutely perfect.

Last Cena International with fellow students and teachers. Danish lasagna was amazing, thanks Julie and Jacob!

Xela really has grown on us in the last 3 weeks. We’re doing many routine things for the last time and
we want to remember everything! The stores and shops we frequent have been very kind to us. Café
Blintz, for example, is our 3rd home outside of our house and school. We will miss the lovely family who
runs the place and take such good care of us. Walking down the familiar streets now means so much
more. Jeff even waits patiently while I obsessively take photos of little pretty thing that I remember
liking.

Tapas night with Jon and Sarah. Please note the beautiful shakes the men ordered.

typical stand in the market

eating an ice cream cone in front of one of my favorite doors in Xela

typical colors on a Xela street

Our daily hike to and from school

frustration with Xela streets

flowers at my school

While taking photos of doors around town, this family of children jumped in and asked for a photo.
Too darling for words.

Central Park

Old Palace on one side of Central Park

Inside of the Palace

!!!PAN!!!

Xela has been good to us, especially in terms of its plentiful cafes and bakeries. Since the cafes played such a large part of our lives, I wrote a separate post for them previously. This post will be dedicated to what is simply termed PAN (or bread in espanol). People here eat a lot of bread or carbohydrate like goods. It makes sense since the soil is so rich and so much of grains and corn are grown here. Every night, tables fill with bread, rice, or beans and meat is a plus, not a must. I miss meat. BUT, the bakeries in Xela are definitely something I will miss once we leave.

Our favorite bakery in Xela is conveniently termed, The Bake Shop, a tiny establishment run by a family of Mennonites. Yes, there are Mennonites in Guatemala, Swiss ones. We see different groups of them everywhere, even at Walmart. The establishment is open every Tuesday and Friday for our patronage and we have gone, without fail, every Tues and Fri we were in Xela. The tiny store has all sorts of delicious goods ranging from our ultimate favorite, Banana Bread, to croissants filled with ham and turkey, cupcakes, gingerbread cookies, whoopee pies, bagels etc. They even made fresh cow cheese, yogurt, and milk. This was LEGIT. We frequently brought goodies for our host parents, teachers, and friends. It sustained us on our LONG hike to Santa Maria. Thank goodness for bake shop. I would convert to Mennonite-ism if you will teach me your secret ways.

The BAKE SHOP

Delicious Goodies

MAS delicious goodies.

Security guards with HUGE shot guns protecting the bake shop

On the days the Bake Shop owners are milking the cows, baking the breads, and recuperating from making so much kaching on Tues and Fri, Jing and I fall back on the chain, appropriately termed, Xela Pan. There are over 20 in the city of Xela alone and a handful of them have a restaurant on the 2nd floor serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner. From every store, you can take a peek behind the glass as bakers hurriedly make the next warm batch of delicious breads. Flour powder fill the air; a glob of unrecognizable goop quickly becomes a shapely delicious invention. Options include Focaccia (Jing´s favorite), Piedras (rocks in espanol), apple turnovers, apple tarts, cookies, croissants, dinner rolls, all-purpose cakes, etc, etc, etc. The store selection is HUGE and cheap. We go DAILY during breaks in Spanish school and often after to grab a snack.

Xela PAN

Us with our maestros outside of Xela pan one break. We really spend ALL of our time during class breaks there.

Santa Maria 0, Jing&Jeff 1

After we hiked Laguna Chicabal a week ago, Jeff declared it his last hike. Yet today, we conquered Santa Maria, Central America's second highest peak. Today was definitely one of the most physically demanding days of my life.

We began the hike at 5 am this morning. Our trekking group consisted of Senor Miguel, our supersonic guide; Karmen the French micro-financer turned traveler; Jacob our fellow ICA student from Denmark who is taking a year off between schools; Jon, a fellow UVA medical student, and Jing&Jeff. Our ICA jefe was kind enough to take us to the foot of the mountain in his pick-up truck. The drive was surprsingly only 20 min. When we neared our destination, Santa Maria loomed straight ahead, with a thin halo of dim clouds, awesome and intimidating even in the dark night.

We started up the mountain in the dark, not really seeing what was underfoot, concentrating on our steps and pushing quickly past the steep altitude. Though not a morning person, I was wide awake and alert with excitment. Soon after, the sky turned bright and we became much more aware of our surroundings and of each other. Our path was a narrow, muddy trail full of jagged small rocks that made each step a calculated decision. We alo realized that the path was peppered with large yellow excrements from cows and horses. While we must have sludged right through the poop in the dark, now we step even more carefully.

An hour into the hike, we entered an open, green field where Miguel signaled for a break. Boy was I relieved. We were all breathing deeply and showing beads of sweat at this point. Everyone dug into their food supply and ate a quick breakfast. For this hike, Jeff and I brought a loaf of delicious banana bread, 3 ham and cheese croissants, ritz crackers, oreos, oranges, 4 liters of gatorade, and 2 liters of water. You can imagine that we readily consumed our food and drinks througout the hike to get it off our backs. We ate our food while enjoying the already beautiful view. We could see the city of Xela and feel its wakening energy.

The rest of the climb showed us a different terraine and vegetation every 45 minutes. The open field and farm land ended very quickly. After which was all rich black soil that turned into slippery mud since the last night's hard rain. Parts of the trail were constantly sunken lower or washed away completely. The shrubs and trees here made me feel like I was walking through a jungle. Then we came upon rocks mixed witb thin soil and the vegetation thinned out. The most fun part of the hike was climbing up big rocks near the top where wild flowers were in full bloom and tipping gentlely in the wind.

The quick altitude increase meant we constantly got better and better views. We were only half way up Santa Maria when we surpassed all the neighboring mountains. The view of Xela in the valley blanketed by morning fog was incredible. Then when we climbed above the clouds and saw their movement in relation to the mountains below, everyone just stared in wonder. Of course the best view was the absolute top. We climbed to the highest rock on the peak, exhausted and content, and looked to the Pacific Ocean!!

Ater group photos, we heard a constant roar that was nearing very quickly. Our friend Jon, always the most alert and observant, shouted some profanity and pointed in the distance. My first thought was that a nearby volvano erupted. But looking at in the direction that Jon pointed to, it was actually a jet approaching us. How cool that we were sitting at the altitude that jets flew . Within seconds, we all quickly became alarmed as the jet was flying directly AT us!!! Jon was yelling at us to take a photo... as he was scrambling off the rock for shelter. I felt the rock tremble, sat there in awe as the jet glided within 20 meters (felt like it nearly skimmed my face), and only managed to snap a photo slightly too late. The six of us screamed in fright and delight and bonded over imaginary scenarios of what could have happened.

Did I already mentioned how challenging the hike was? OH. My. God!! I´ve never had to concentrate so hard just to make myself continue to walk. Granted, each step was more like a lunge for me pretty much the whole way up. We started to take breaks more frequently, but as soon as we started again, it felt like we hadn´t rested at all. The trekk down was just as hard. Jeff and I were slipping and sliding the whole way down, much slower than the rest of our group. At times, we would encounter the local women, wearing heavy traditional outfits, carrying flowers and gifts up the mountain and climbing the same trail wearing flip flops or kitten heel sandals. I looked at my own muddy hiking boots, felt my emerging blisters, and stopped my internal whinning for a little while.

The entire trip took 7.5 hours (4 up, 1 at the top, and the rest down). Jeff and I looked pretty dogged by the end of it all, but we felt very accomplished having finished the climb. Once again, Jeff declared this his last hike, EVER.

Couldn´t resist...

The next morning, already slighting Santa Maria.

En la Montana

This is most definitely another catch-up post, lo siento. In the last couple of weeks, we hiked some breathtaking mountains around Xela (breathtaking in both the views and the challenging steepness). I am very excited to share our pictures!

The first hike was to see a natural lake formed at the mouth of an ancient volcano. Laguna de Chicabal was much more challenging than I anticipated, as hikes around Charlottesville are pretty respectable. Alas, mountains here don't have the frequent switch backs to create the artifically gentle inclines. We followed a slippery muddy trail straight up the volcanic mountain. Breaks were short and rare as we were not fooled by the cloudless sky and wanted to beat the inevitable afternoon downpour. Triumph was shortlived though we finally cleared the treeline. 500-or-so steep downward steps still remain between us and the laguna.

View of Langua de Chicabal at the top of the volcano

a look back at the path of stairs

Oh but Laguna Chicabal was worth every drop of sweat and second of muscle ache. The tranquil beauty of the lake made me forget bustling Xela and appreciate Guatemla. After some time just relaxing by the water, eating delicious banana bread, and shooting the breeze with our group, I dragged the very reluctant Jeff to walk around the lake. Not at all like the romantic stroll you jumped to conclude, this was a completely wild and flooded trail. When I wasn't scared for our lives or calming Jeff down, I saw lots of colorful insects, fungi, and flowers. We also came across many well protected, sacred Mayan ritual sites. We only took 30 minutes to speedwalk, and at times lunge, around the entire laguna.

As we carefully made our way down the mountain (well really it was straight up first then straight down), we came across a man and his two sons, oldest no more than 8, also on their way down... each carrying a large bundle of wood strapped from his forehead down to his back... each also carrying a large machete! The children greeted us cheerfully in excellent English, then continued to RUN down the mountain. For the rest of the hike, we were much more reflective and efficient.

Despite their load, leaving us in the dust

El Baul was another fun experience. This was a much shorter but only slightly less challenging hike very close to Xela that offered an amazing view of the city. We found many families already at the top (they cheated and drove up the other side of the mt.) grilling and enjoying a beautiful Sunday. We also saw many couples necking in the woods... Best part of El Baul has to be this giant slide!

Jeff leading the pack, singing the mario world theme song while coming down the slide.
Jon, Sarah, and I a little behind, being much more . . . careful.

Can you spot the warrior?

Our school organized a trip to Fuentes Georginas one afternoon. We rode on the back of a pick-up truck, in the pouring rain, for nearly two hours. Half of that time, we were actually not moving at all, stuck in a political parade. The other half of that time, our truck maneuvered around landslides and giant holes in the already narrow mountain roads. The 4 of us on the back of the truck did not think we would actually survive the trip. Luckily, the hotspring pools were absolutely beautiful and toasty and oh. so. relaxing. Due to the rain, we only got pictures from the changing room. We definitely enjoyed ourselves there and recommand this excursion to other students.

Even with our reservations about riding on the back of this truck, little did we know what we were in for....

I have to post this again just in case you missed it a few blogposts back. After residency interviews, this will surely become his fb profile pic.

Thinking positively, at least we had the place to ourselves.