Thanksgiving!
My time here in Xela since Thanksgiving has truly been a time to give thanks, through some ups and some downs. Starting with Last Thursday, Thanksgiving, when I had a wonderful potluck dinner with some other American folks away from home and a few locals as well. Eating chicken (not turkey but almost), potatoes, gravy, FRESH salads, and baked mac’n'cheese was really incredibly after subsisting off of a cheap Guatemalan diet for a while. The dinner was with some nice folks affiliated with a volunteer organization here in Xela called Entremundos and I really did feel quite at home. The next day, I moved out of the local family’s house and into a rental room in search of a little more privacy and my own (relative) choice of food. This was just in time to get my things ready to go on an overnight backpacking trip to the volcano Tajamulco, which is the highest point in Central America.
I Went with a local group called Quetzaltrekkers, made up of volunteers who donate money to a local school for street children. The trip was with two friends from school and about 20 other people. We woke up at 4:30 am on Saturday morning to take a pickup-truck ride to the bus station, where we took a chicken bus to a halfway point. There we ate breakfast and continued on another bus. We started hiking around 10am and arrived near the top of the volcano around 3:30. It was really an ideal situation; there was an Israeli guy with us who brought a whole coffee kit onto the mountain & I had a little scotch. We did some yoga on the mountain while a rainbow was visible below. Afterwards, we hiked up to slightly below the peak and watched what was truly the most magnificent sunset of my life. Being so high above the clouds was spectacular; the shapes and the colors mind blowing. Afterwards was a nice night of card playing and we went to bed at 7:15 in anticipation of waking the next morning at 3:30 for the sunrise. Another spectacular experience, though incredible cold on top Central America at 4:30 in the morning. I really enjoyed the opportunity to hike up there and Quetzaltrekkers did a great job of leading the trip.
Since then I have been studying and enjoying my time here in Xela. Its very easy to feel at home here and I definitely feel the pull to stay here for some time, though am not at all sure how long that is yet. I will be doing some volunteering, which started today with a trip to a computer lab in a rural community just outside of Xela. The school was inaugurating the lab which had been setup by Partners in Solidarity which is the organization that I’ll be working with. Its amazing to see the technological junk of the US relished by communities here which would otherwise not have computers to learn on or about. The community the school is located in is only 1.5 km outside of Xela but lacks paved roads and potable water. Quite a contrast to the city I’m living in now so close by.
I am going to take a week off of school next week to relax and hopefully do some traveling. After three weeks of 25 hrs studying I’m ready for a little break from learning and would like to continue building my Spanish through practice with local speakers. I will probably continue with private lessons (which are SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper) when I get back to Xela and before I set off again. I’ve been on-again/off-again sick and have spent a lot of time looking for good places to live – but otherwise things really are nice here.
You are all in my thoughts and I look forward to being in touch and hearing about how things are back home.
Bob says:
The sky pics are great. We missed you for thanksgiving. Carry on and Talley Ho. Bob
November 29th, 2007 at 5:03 am
jon says:
great shots of the sunrise. It sounds like you are having a cool experience. Enjoy. See ya bro~j
November 29th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
david says:
awesome.
November 29th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
neil says:
man, those pics are phenomenal. i need to take a trip with quetzaltrekkers…
December 9th, 2007 at 5:46 pm