July 2013

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Shawn here. Having a great trip so far. I almost didn’t make it on this trip but when I saw pictures of the nearby volcanoes, I had to make it happen. The Agua volcano dominates the skyline, and on my second day here I took off with the plan to hike to the top of it. Although it looks like it is right next to town, you actually have to walk miles before you even get to the base. I enjoyed hiking through some little villages and then on to the amazing corn fields grown on a 45 degree incline. After half a day of hiking I was only at about 8000 ft and the top is at 12,400! Two days later I returned with a scooter and thought there was a road up the back side. There is not. After some serious scooter abuse I reached the trailhead above the town of Santa Maria. I was already exhausted form pushing the scooter up trails it just couldn't do. There a guide flagged me down and said going any further was not possible. He offered to take me up the trail. I was not planning on doing a brutal hike! I had water and the right shoes but I was wearing jeans, thin socks, and no sunscreen or my hiking hat. But hey, it was early in the day and I figured I could turn back if I got too uncomfortable. The guides are not really sherpas showing you the best way to go. They’re just there to make sure you don’t get robbed! He hiked with me to about 9000 ft than he motioned that he was going to wait there for my return.
The next 3500 ft just got harder and harder. It took all my mojo but I made it. At the top you can walk a loop around the top of the crater. Epic views! Amazingly it is covered with transmission towers built with helicopters and some crazy people. 5 hours later I met my guide again and continued back down. My foot had some awful blisters and I had a nice sunburn but mission accomplished.
Since then I have been mostly exploring with the scooter. I logged some serious miles with that 150cc chinese piece of junk. But it just could not take me where I wanted to go. I was able to upgrade it to a real dirt bike on Sunday. This country is a maze of trails and an absolute blast on the bike. Baylie likes the freedom of the scooter/bike and we have done some fun exploring together.
One week left for me. I hope to hike the Acatenango Volcano next, then maybe the Pacaya. Also want to ride the bike to an amazing sounding lake called Lago de Atitlan. Cheers!

Shawn and I had dinner without Baylie tonight because she had better things to do. She decided to take a cooking class at the Spanish school and apparently had a lot of fun cooking pepian with some of the other students. Shawn and I ate at Frida's - a Mexican restaurant dedicated to Frida Kahlo's artwork. Of course our standard for Mexican food is pretty high, but like everything else we have eaten in this town the food was very good. This place has a great variety of restaurants - we haven't been disappointed yet!

A couple of days ago Baylie and I paid a dollar to walk through the ruins of the original cathedral from the 1500's. There are a lot of sights packed into this small town and we are still finding new things to do each day. I have to confess I have taken some time off from my intense Spanish lessons. Don't judge me please! It is my summer vacation after all I'm super proud of Baylie for sticking with it!

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I really didn't think a tropical beach was in the plans for this trip, but we heard about Monterrico Beach at our language school so I started checking it out. Everyone we asked seemed to have slightly different information about how far away it is...1 hour?...2?...2 1/2? The language school offers a shuttle for $30 per person ($90 for a bus ride?!) so we checked with some of the other tour companies but they were even more expensive. Shawn thought renting another scooter was a viable plan (ummm...no.) And Baylie was all for renting a car. The tour salesman in the park of course gave us dire warnings about trying to drive there ourselves. They painted a frightening picture of terrible roads and assured us we would get lost. So...we rented a a car for $47, pulled up a GPS map and drove there in 2 hours.

The beach was HUGE and almost completely empty. Palm trees swaying in the breeze, a pleasant mist from the powerful crashing waves, and black sand so hot it was like walking on coals! We found some shade right in front of a vacant house for sale and had a few great hours just soaking up the tropical vibe. The water was very warm, but the waves would suck you under and thrash you against the volcanic sand, so maybe not quite "perfect" - but pretty close!

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Yesterday we hung out at the Mercado de Artesanias. Shawn bought a mask to add to the small collection we have. I had to pull him away with just one. Baylie is in search of a cool bag to use for school this year, no ordinary backpack for her, so we will be going back I'm sure.

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Yesterday was a holiday (honoring St. James - I think). There was a parade in the park that lasted ALL day. Music groups playing, fire crackers going off randomly (and LOUD), just a spectacle everywhere you looked. Baylie and I went in the morning with our teachers. I'm sure they had very good intentions of explaining everything to us about the festivities, but it was so loud and crowded that really couldn't happen so we all just watched the parade. After class Baylie and I ate lunch at a little stall with some plastic tables outside that finally seemed to be the most local food we have eaten so far. No menu - just a couple of choices from what they were cooking at the outside kitchen. We had a dish called pepian and some very thick tortillas we watched the lady make. Very good! Like we have encountered in other places where tourists are found...you can get italian food, pizza, sandwiches, thai food, chinese, "continental" cuisine...but good luck finding a restaurant that serves a truly local menu.

We finally managed to all eat together for dinner. Shawn has been off exploring every day so we end up doing our own thing, but yesterday we all were home in the afternoon so we went back to the park and watched more of the festival. The greased pole climbing contest was especially entertaining! After some sandwiches and the one local thing that is easy to find - Guacamole (YUM!), we grabbed some desserts and sat in the park for a while. Some of the most amazing boysenberries grow on the hillsides around here and Shawn and Baylie made the best dessert choices, mine was ok but I should have gone for berries.

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So I sit for four hours a day across a small table from a very nice woman named Paulina and for the entire four hours I concentrate harder than I have ever concentrated before. Every bit of the very involved and complicated conversation is in Spanish. When she goes over rules of grammar or some new expression, the explanation is in Spanish. When I'm done for the day I discover that I can't think successfully in EITHER language. I really can't identify any one specific new thing that I have learned. I have definitely practiced every scrap of what I already knew, but I think this total immersion thing is for those people with some sort of natural knack for picking up languages. I need books, lists, organized lessons, Mrs. Charlesworth's verb conjugation worksheets from my high school Spanish class would be a welcome relief...this method of just magically absorbing knowledge simply because I am drowning in it is killing me!
On the other hand, Baylie sits on the beautiful rooftop with her nice young teacher and plays games...she's having a lovely time