Santa Teresita Termal Baths

This weekend my friends Amy, Kari and I went to "Santa Teresita Balnearios Termales" which translates to a thermal bath spa! You can visit the webpage for more pictures and information. This was exciting on multiple accounts, including the excitement of my first time driving our car for any extended period of time...


We left early in the morning on Sunday, which was good because traffic is at low tide Sundays, particularly early on before church lets out. The spa was about 45 minutes outside of the city right on Lake Amatitlan, and next to Volcan Pacaya, as seen in this picture from the spa. According to a random website,

"Lake Amatitlan is located 17 miles south of Guatemala City. Along the northwestern shore is Amatitlan from where a road with a panoramic view stretches out to the southeast along the lake and close to the sides of Volcano Pacaya. The human history of the lake is one of the most ancient in the world. Archaeological remains that date back to 2000 B.C. have been found around the lake, and jade, bone, and clay artifacts have been retrieved from its depth. High population density, over-exploitation of natural resources, and the shortage of water have caused the degradation of Lake Amatitlan and its watershed."

Kari also added that the lake is incredibly polluted, and as recent as 5 years ago people were advised even not to put their feet in the water! Yikes! But I digress. Because the spa is close to both a lake and a volcano (yep, the same one we climbed, Volcán Pacaya!), the water is naturally heated and sulfuric, hence the beautiful spa.

When we arrived, we each bought "Uno de todo" which in choppy Spanish is One of Everything, please! This included use of all of the pools and facilities, an hour massage (best massage of my life! A combination of shiatsu, relaxation, and deep muscle massage! Terrific.), a 30 minute "Reflexologia" (foot massage) and a clay facial. It was SUCH a clean and nice facility, with professional workers...I left my watch in the massage room and they actually KEPT it for me (as in, it did not "disappear" into a worker's purse).


As the website indicates, there are 16 thermal pools and 32 hot steam baths. We didn't do the hot steam baths because the weather outside was so inviting, we didn't want to stay indoors any longer than we had to! We also did not get in any of the hot/warm pools because we were already so warm from lying out and reading it didn't sound fun. It is wonderful to live in a country where the weather holds at a stead 75 degrees! Now that the rainy season is winding down, each day stays relatively clear and perfect.

Of course, lunch there was fantastic as well. We each ordered a "Smoothie Mora" (Blackberry!) and received dark purple smoothies that weighed as much as a Chipotle burrito. We were pretty sure they were made with blackberries and frozen yogurt. No one complained. While we worked on balancing tastiness and cold headaches, we ordered ceviche, which is sort of like a shrimp salsa: fresh tomatoes, onions, shrimp, and cilantro, topped with sliced avocado and doused in freshly squeezed lime juice. It was a perfect end to a perfect morning!

I cannot stress enough what a beautiful country we live in. Every single morning I get excited when I step out onto our balcony because it feels so wonderful. I keep waiting for it to get cold, and it just stays springtime. One day I will get around to posting pictures of the multitude of flowers that our campus has on it. It certainly doesn't feel like November is closing in.

Saturday's trip to the black sand beach & costume party

We got an early start Saturday morning as we were headed south to the Pacific coast with Kelly and her local friend, Roblanz, for a half day at the beach. Kelly picked us up around 7:15 and then we headed over to a zone of the city we'd never seen before to pick up Roblanz. He lived a way's away, so it took a while to get him and then to finally make our way to the highway.

Roblanz didn't speak any English, so Beth and I did our best to communicate with him in Spanish. Kelly had no trouble as she's pretty proficient with the language. Roblanz was nice enough to drive us as he knew his away out of the city and down to the coast. Surprisingly, the highway down there was really nice and new, so it made for a quick trip--just an hour and 40 minutes or so to get there. Along the way we enjoyed the radio's eclectic offerings of '80s music and reggaeton, as well as Roblanz's iPod, which also had some random '80s goodness (Bon Jovi, "pre-facelift era," as Beth would say) and of all things, Shaggy.

We paid to park our car and hang out in a mini water park next to the ocean. It was sort of like White Water in Branson as it had a few big--and fun!--water slides, wave pool, kids play area, changing areas, concession stands, tables/chairs, etc. This really worked out nicely as the ocean was much too powerful to safely swim in, so we could still enjoy some swimming in the big pool.

Me lounging in the wave pool

Not only did the ocean have the biggest waves Beth and I had ever seen, but it also had black sand! I guess it's black from the volcanic remnants. It was much softer than white sand, but also really hot! Back to the waves... These were monstrous! There was pier a few hundred feet away from us and I'd guess it was at least 25 feet up in the air, and at time the waves would be crashing in all the way up to the top of the pier! It was astounding. There was also significant pull and undertow at the shoreline. You could get in the water up to your ankles and let the big waves hit you, but it would be dangerous even to go out as far as the water level above your waist.



We all lay out on the beach for a couple hours and Beth and I both even fell asleep for a short time. It was mostly cloudy the whole day, but it was still plenty warm and relaxing. We bought a few slices of watermelon from a woman selling them and we also snacked on the lunch we brought with us.

While on the beach, we spotted a gigantic pig and two piglets! The big sow was using a palm tree to scratch itself over and over. Thankfully, it wasn't a menace! (Adam) It was so odd and funny to see them on the beach. We're not sure why there were there. It didn't look like anybody lived nearby and owned them.


Around 2 we started packing up to head home as we wanted to get back in time for the night's costume/surprise birthday party. It was the perfect time to leave as a storm was beginning to move in. The ride home was thankfully uneventful and safe. We were both a bit sunburned in spots and feeling pretty drained from all the sun when we got back.

***

That night a bunch of the staff was getting together in Zona Viva at the fun bar, Cheers (which I think I've mentioned before...great sports bar, owned by a Canadian), to throw a surprise birthday and costume party for a staff member named Campbell. With limited resources, we think we did pretty well with our costumes. It was a departure from our previous themes, but I have to give credit to Beth for the funny idea and execution. We went as our mini grocery store outside our apartment, Tiendita Mi Favorita.


Twenty+ people showed up and we had the whole back room to ourselves. We each paid a cover and then could have all the beverages we wanted. We were there about an hour before Campbell and his girlfriend, Sara (who organized it), showed up. It was a total surprise to him and a lot of fun to see his expression. There were two pool tables, so we ended up playing a lot of pool, as well as snacking on all the various goodies people brought, and chatting with everyone and marveling at certain costumes. We were there for probably four hours before calling it quits and heading home with our neighbors, Matt and Amy (who came in togas!). It was a great party and we were both happy not to break tradition and still put on a costume for Halloween (albeit a little early).

Matt and Amy as Greeks

Charlotte with her muchacha, Kris

Pimp Jamie and her 'employees'

Far East Reed

La Muchacha named Emma

In Guatemala it's very common to have a "muchacha," or maid. It's also common for family member's to refer to their maid as "muchacha" and not by their first name. Beth hears this a lot at school as children are frequently accompanied to school and picked up by their maids (so the maids can carry their bags, tie their shoes, etc.). Many faculty members pay to have their places cleaned a few times a month by a maid (as it's relatively cheap), but we hadn't planned on it mainly because I work at home, have time to clean and keep the place up, and I even enjoy being tidy and clean.

But that all changed when we learned of a maid who could cook up some good Asian style food...

Her name is Emma, and she learned to cook while working with a Filipino woman at a previous job. She's tiny, reserved, hard working, and makes some seriously tasty food. Emma came over to our place on Saturday around 10:30 a.m. and got to cleaning the apartment. We had to run out and buy some supplies she needed (namely a specific type of mop that is favored here. She simply stated she could not use a regular sponge-headed mop that we had, so we got the kind that clamps down on a folded towel.) She did a nice and thorough job cleaning and then got to work on the food. Luckily we had a good number of groceries on hand, although Beth did pick up a few extra things for her and she was able to make two separate dishes: one with chicken, potatoes, veggies, and a coconut milk/curry sauce, and one with noodles and stir-fried veggies and no meat.

Beth and I grew more and more excited as she cooked because our place began to swell with the tasty aroma of the dishes. When she finished, it was only 4:30 in the afternoon, but it looked and smelled so good, I had to have dinner right then and there. She made so much that there's been enough for leftovers up 'til today even.

We insisted that Emma take some food home with her, as how can you not enjoy food you labor over that smells so good? She protested, but eventually agreed and that made us not feel so guilty about the whole thing. Emma worked for about six solid hours and we could have paid her what roughly amounted to $13 (which we later learned was a high price...for six hours of work!), but gave her a generous tip to bring it up to a level that seemed a bit more fair to us.

Emma's going to come by twice a month and, even though it's nice to have some help cleaning up the place, it's really all about the food!

Peace Corps Volunteer for a Day

Back when we took our weekend trip to San Marcos, I met a Peace Corps volunteer named Jacob on our shuttle from Antigua to Panajachel. At the time, I offered Jacob our place to stay if he were ever in the city and needed somewhere to sleep. As it turned out, he needed to be in the city yesterday to pick up some books at the national library down on the main square.

Jacob assists the city government of Tacaná, a small town along the Mexican border. Its library has had no new books added to the collection in more than three years, so he requested some donations from the national library and they had plenty to spare. After Hurricane Stan, Spain sent about a hundred boxes full of books as donations, and these were still sitting unpacked in the library. Jacob could pick out 13 boxes at random (and they had two full with some of his requests) to bring back to his town.

So, he came into town Sunday and came over to our place around 7 p.m. We enjoyed treating him to some good leftovers prepared by our new maid/cook (another blog post to explain this coming shortly...), hearing about his job, and catching him up on the latest episodes of The Office, Flight of the Conchords, and Radiohead's new album.

Monday morning I offered to drive him down to Zone 1 to the library to pick up the books, although I was a bit fearful of A) finding my way back and B) finding secure parking for our car (the area is not as safe as our zones). After negotiating the confusing directions and one-way streets, I finally dropped him off on a corner near the library. He called back a little later after speaking with a woman in charge of the books to direct me to a parking spot near the library in a construction zone. He had to clear it with the foreman that it was OK for me to temporarily park my car there.

Being in Guatemala, of course picking up the books wasn't a simple procedure. And it was a good thing I volunteered to help as we were lead to a room full of boxes of books and told we could have our pick, but we had to unpack each box, count all the books and record the number, as well as remove any security bars pasted into the backs of them. This would have taken Jacob quite a while by himself. It ended up being as laborious as it sounds, but we hustled and worked our way through the 13. Afterwards, we had to carry each box downstairs near the front entrance; this was a workout as each box weighed at least 35-45 lbs.

Then we waited in an office, sweating, for a woman to record all of the happenings in a log book (basically who we were, when we came, how many boxes and books we took, on this day/time/year, etc.) and finally for another woman to sign and authorize. This was Guatemala's ridiculous formality at its best. They wouldn't even let us load the car with the boxes while they did this because they had to have official papers to show the front guard before we could take the boxes outside! It was frustrating. Finally we got the papers all in order and got to packing up the car.

It took four or five trips each to get the boxes down to the car, and with each trip I had to set my box down, unlock the car, open it up, load it, then close and lock it all again so no one would steal the boxes while we were inside. Once loaded we tried to navigate our way out of the congested downtown and follow what turned out to be awful directions over to the Peace Corps office (which ended up being near the hotel we stayed at our first month here). Eventually we figured it out all on our own, but by then it was lunch time traffic and everything was crawling. Worst of all, the car was nearly on empty--and it was raining--and I was fearing the car would run out of gas amongst all the traffic. Luckily we made it and it didn't take too long to unload everything at the office (the boxes would slowly be brought by other volunteers to his town any time they would come out to the area).

Once we were finished it was about 2:15 and we were both hungry. There was a Wendy's nearby and Jacob was really excited for some of their food so we headed over. He treated me to lunch and we both gobbled down our lunches too quickly. We parted ways after lunch as he had to run across the street to the bank and then cab it over to the bus station in time for his ride. Jacob had hoped to leave Guate by 1 p.m., but everything took longer than expected, so he wasn't able to leave town until the 3:30 bus. Tacaná is 8-11 hours away and he wasn't going to be able to make it home by the end of the day, so he was planning to stay over in another town called San Pedro.

All in all, it was an adventure for me to be running around in Zone 1, see the library and funny bureaucratic Guatemalan processes, as well as hang out and enjoy Jacob's company. I also got to lend a little help to the Peace Corps, so I felt pretty good after all of it, despite it being tiring and stressful at times.

Volcan Pacaya - At Night!

We had our best experience in Guatemala to date this weekend! In case you don't want to read my long-winded account, we climbed to the base of Volcan Pacaya to see flowing lava at night! It was definitely exhilarating and fascinating, if not a little scary at times.

The trip was organized by a Guatemalan school teacher at CAG, which was great because it meant that the trip would include Gringos (Americans) and Guatemaltecos (Guatemalans), which is always much more fun than just us gringos. We left for Pacaya at about 4:30 in the afternoon, and there were about 20 of us to start. Then we stopped at a mall (which we were warned to watch our bags even if we were just taking a bathroom break) to pick up the Guatemalans who wanted to go. You see, we gringos all live in Zone 15, which is a really safe and nice, but expensive zone, near the school. Guatemaltecos live in other less safe but also less expensive zones throughout the city, so the mall was a meeting place for them. Anyway, true to being in Central America, only about 1/3 of the Guatemalans actually signed up for the trip by the deadline (what is a deadline and who uses them in Guatemala, anyway?!) and by the time the teachers and all of their friends got in the previously respectable school bus, instead of the 30 people expected, there were about 65 people sitting 3 to a seat with some left to stand for the 1.5 hour drive to the volcano. This morphed school bus into chicken bus, minus the produce and poultry. James and I weren't too bothered--considering his leg length, no one wanted to sit with us, so we got our own seat.

The bus ride was fine until we started climbing up the steep hills that covered the base of the volcano, treating the bus like an ATV instead of a shuttle....after grinding painstakingly up to the tourist center at the forest base, gringos paid about $6 per person for the climb and guatemaltecos paid $3. While we waited for each person to pay the entrance fee, we watched the local young children trying to sell walking sticks taller than they were to the group for about $0.75. James and I, feeling too proud to buy what amounted to a crutch, decided to place our bet on the odds of our fitness.

Also while waiting, we were able to get a good look at the group we were about to join to venture to the rivers of lava. Some people looked born to do this kind of stuff and predictably decked out: head light/lamps strapped on, hiking shoes and tall socks, wick-able material on, healthy food and drink, lightweight packs, metal walking rods, and high-grade cameras. Others looked like they were about to go to a party and got talked into coming from their friends: jeans, walking shoes, a t-shirt, and a camera phone in hand. Flashlight optional here. James and I were somewhere in the middle. We had bought hiking shoes before coming to Guate, so we were eager to test their quality, we had on comfortable clothing and jackets/umbrellas packed, some food and water, but old-fashioned flashlights (not strappable to the head and no blindingly bright light) and we were going sans walking sticks.

Finally, it was time to climb! It was completely dark out, and there are NO lights on the trails. Because our group greatly varied from 6-year olds to fit climbers, we obviously were going to go at different paces. Our mid-fit group only felt lost once when the fast group barreled so fast we couldn't see their lights any more and the slow group meandered too slow to see, either. We had to wait for about 5 minutes before a Guatemalan guide came back to fetch us. This would have been the prime time for a mugging, but it never happened. For the first hour, we trekked up through a narrow but steep dirt trail. It was fun to do this by flashlight, but we'll definitely be going back to do it by day because you are basically climbing through a jungle, and we wanted to see the rich foliage but couldn't.

When we got to a viewpoint to see the lava below, we all would have been happy with the view -- bright orange ribbons on a backdrop of black -- but our guides were not about to let us leave without getting close enough to touch the stuff. The last part of the journey was going steeply down to the base of the volcano. The earth below us changed from dirt trail to Mars-like, porous, crunchy and slick rockage. It was more of a walking slide than a walk. You had to go down sideways and sort of let your front foot 'give' so you can slide with it or else you'll slip and fall if you try to resist!

This is a picture of the flowing lava coming out of the ground. So neat!

Surprisingly, every person in the group made it down there, even the kindergarteners. Once we were near the lava, we were walking across huge dried lava beds-turned-rock to where the lava was still hot, moving liquid. There were no signs, no ropes, and no danger warnings that you might be stepping on lava. Since it was night time, you just had to look at whether or not the rock around you was a) glowing red through the cracks, and b) really hot, in order to determine whether this was a safe place to sit or stand. The lava wasn't flowing so fast you had to watch where you were walking, but it was definitely flowing and definitely incredible to see and be so near! There were even some people who brought marshmallows to roast from the lava heat! One of the coolest feelings was your front so hot but because it was cold and windy, your back was freezing! It was great to gather warmth from the earth. The lava was also mesmerizing; we stayed and stared for about 30 minutes. It made a sort of crackling sound, also, which was the top layer of the lava cooling and hardening as it flowed.

Here is some video of the flowing lava. Worth the watch!

We tried to get some pictures but it was so black that no one got anything worth putting in a frame. On the climb back up the side of the steep hill we slid down, we turned around for the most breathtaking view. Due to the lava reflecting onto the low clouds, the sky was red and the stars were hidden, but the clouds cleared out enough so you could see the enormous solid line of the slope of the side of the volcano up to the top. At the top, the clouds were sticking to the volcano top's opening where lava was churning, so the top of the volcano was a bright red cloud cap. Then, at the base of the towering volcano, was the black field of bright orange-yellow lava ribbons. It was really incredible.

The kids got a complimentary ride of a "taxi" which was, in reality, a horse.

We got back to town without incident, and it was 1:00 a.m. before we were back in our car. The next day we felt fatigued but not sore. We will be going back during the day for a completely different experience, but this was one adventure that made us feel so glad to have the opportunity to live in Guatemala!

Our Apartment

Sorry this has taken so long... Here are some pictures of our place. We're in a building called Le Catoch, which is six stories (we're on the fifth floor, beneath the penthouse) right along a main boulevard. We're also at one of the few stop lights along this road, so we're actually able to make left turns from the intersection. It has underground, gated parking and a doorman/handiman who looks after the place. Right next door to us is another couple, Matt and Amy, who also teach at CAG. It's been fun having them so close! Our apartment gets all the morning and afternoon light, so it's always bright, and with the great weather here, we keep our sliding doors open all day so there's always a nice breeze. Needless to say, we're pretty comfortable and it's not hard for me to stay put and work from home here.

This is the front door and entry way.

From the entry way, straight ahead you pass through the laundry room and into the kitchen (off to the right of the laundry room is the office/maid's room and bathroom); off to the left is the living room and dining room.

The living room, with the main balcony off of it.

The main balcony

Another view of the living room, looking back to the front door.

The dining room, which is also serving as my office until I get a table for the office. There is a mini balcony off of it.

The view off the dining room balcony.

The kitchen, which we love because it's nice and open, and it looks out onto Vista Hermosa Blvd., as well as over to our neighbors, Matt and Amy.

The view from the kitchen window. On clearer days, you can see one of the volcanoes.

Not too exciting, but a view of the small laundry room.

This is the second bedroom, which will be used for guests (the couch has a mattress in it), but we use it for watching TV and storing shoes and clothes. The main balcony is off of it as well and connects back over to the living room.

The owner was nice enough to leave us his entertainment center, which is located in the extra bedroom. Out the door and to the right is our bedroom.

Here's our bedroom, which has its own mini balcony, too. Notice the BIG and free king size bed! We just got it and are pretty excited... There's a neat, hand-made Mayan quilt on it.

Another view of our bedroom.

Built-in storage in our bedroom, which is great as it saved us from needing to buy a couple dressers.

This view is from the main balcony looking onto our bedroom's mini balcony.

Last, a view down to the street corner below, which conveniently offers a tienda (mini grocery store offering just about everything you need), salon, pharmacy, bakery, ice cream shop, and gas station. We love our location!

I didn't show any pictures of my office as there's nothing in it yet besides broken down boxes, a book shelf, and some cleaning supplies. Likewise, the bathroom off it is holding our suitcases in the shower, so it doesn't make for the most interesting picture. But my office does look out onto Vista Hermosa and will be a nice space to work in once I have a table for it. Also, I didn't show any pictures of our bathrooms because even though they're very nice, they're not that neat to look at.

Hope you all enjoyed seeing our place!