Managua
The first night, Tica Bus stopped in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, which was much different than the second night in El Salvador´s capital city, San Salvador. In Managua I bartered for a room from $25 to $15, and I later found out other tourists were paying $5 across the street. But I know that it´s kind of the way things go sometimes, and I realized I needed to get back into the backpacker mode, and shop around first before chosing. Although we seemed to be in a quiet suburb of the city, I was told not to leave the hostel after dark, as an Argentinian tourist had been killed for his camera not two months ago. Even locals on the Tica bus warned me not to spend too much time in Managua.
San Salvador
On the second night in San Salvador on the other hand, I felt completely in control of my surroundings, and got a $4 hostel without bartering, with an English girl named Reena I met on Tica bus. We walked around the city center, saw the park, cathedral, and fruit markets, and returned to the hostel well after dark without fear. Because El Salvador doesn´t see many tourists, the locals aren´t jaded, and as a result, there seems to be less crime than in other capitals, like Managua. I´m not saying crime doesn´t exist there, in fact San Salvador is known for being quite dangerous, so it could perhaps be the location of where Tica bus stops in each capital. El Salvadorians seems to be very proud of the fact that their country has a lot to offer, and will explain that they have just as many treasures to enjoy, like mountains and beaches, sadly unbeknownst to manytourists.
Antigua
We arrived in Gutemala City early the next day, 2 dead rocker movies later (La Bamba and Selena), and Reena and I decided to team up with an English guy named Jamie. We all ¨got on quite well,¨ as the Brits say, and decided to take a Chicken Bus about 30 miles outside of the city, to a town called Antigua. What´s a chicken bus, you dare ask? Costa Rica doesn´t have them, but they´re basically highly decorated, and highly colorful American school buses, that are used as public transport. There are not seatbetls, and certainly no shocks, as you can feel every bump in the road (and there are a lot of those), and as most of the roads in Guatemala are cut through mountains you're constantly dancing your way through your trip, and bumping into your neighbor.
We arrived in Antigua and spent one day exploring the city, and another day hiking Pacaya Volcano, where we almost burned the soles of our shoes off
. I´m not kidding. Here´s a pic of the whole Volcano crew. Jamie and Reena are on the left next to me. The other photo is of one of the local dogs that makes the daily trek with the guides each day. What a cutie.Ok...Antigua...How do I describe it? Antigua is what Liberia could be, but I´m almost glad that it´s not. It´s a quaint, colonial city with cobblestone streets butt up against spectacular mountain views. There are charming cafes, and plenty of international cuisine from Korean barbeque to German Shnitzel, and you can enjoy a beer at your token artsy fartsy bar, called Kafka or Che. Aside from the Guatemalan women lining the Central Park in their traditional woven skirts selling jewlery, Antigua really is like a slice of Spain, or even bears a lot of resemblance to posh Santa Fe, New Mexico. In some ways it can be hard to leave this little European paradise in the middle of Central America. We even got to attend an art opening with free wine on the first night.
While you can find just about anything in Antigua, it was difficult to immerse yourself in Spanish, because everywhere you turned there was an English speaking tourist, and even the Gutemalans couldn´t bother to practice with you. The expats are a little strange, as expats can be, like the Texan who owned the little coffee shop on the corner, who brewed his own honey chocolate, entertained us with his political poems, and slept on the burlap coffee bags when he was tired. It´s really hard to describe how beautiful, yet very odd this town is.
We had trouble finding typical hole in the wall bars or restaurants; everything was expensive, and almost too comfortable, and the more you stayed, the more those Guatemalan women in their typical dress were starting to look like paid decorations for the tourists. It was hard to walk anywhere without someone trying to sell you a tour, a taxi, or a bracelet. While we didn´t get to experience much of Antigua´s night life, most of the streets were dead after 10 anyways, and the lack of street signs constantly led us astray. Everything tends to look the same in colonial towns I suppose.
Xela
Reena and I parted ways with Jamie on Friday who was heading up North to Mexico for some good surf time, and we headed about 4 hours West to a city called Quetzaltenango, known to everyone as Xela. I posted earlier that the whole plan of coming to Guatemala was to come to Xela to learn more Spanish, and perhaps find work. The hostel owner in Antigua expalined that we had to take a chicken bus from Antigua to Chimaltenango, and there we would have to change buses to Xela. She expalined that in Chimal the buses pass by quickly and we would have to keep an eye out. Well, she wasn´t kidding, and this is why. As we approached Chimal, the money collector on the bus (every chicken bus has a paid money collector), screamed at me with wide eyes ¨Xela!¨ ¨Xela!¨ ¨Atras!¨ He pointed to the bus behind us that was still moving, which was the connection to Xela that we needed. ¨Ok, what do we do now!¨ I said in Spanish in a panic. ¨Come on!¨ he yelped, and grabbed mine and Reena´s hands, picked us up, and tossed us out of the back of the bus door. This was like a version of an emergency bus drill in elementary school, only this time it was real. He threw our bags from the roof, and ran with us towards the other moving bus. We sat down out of breath, and Reena said to me ¨I didn´t quite like that!¨ in an English accent.
Three hours later, many winding turns through the valleys, and ascents into Xela, the temperature got a bit colder. We were so entertained throughout the ride by food vendors, bible belters, and even a guy selling home remedy recipes, that you couldn´t think about how nautious you were.
When we finally reached Xela, we had a difficult time navigating the streets, so we took a taxi to the address of the Spanish school that my friends had recommended . The driver took us about 10 minutes outside of downtown Xela through narrow alleyways up into the highlands of the city, where I could see a gorgeous view. I knocked on a door of what I though was the address, and a little old lady answered the door, and was either deaf or could only speak a Mayan language, which is often the case with the older indigenous people, because she couldn´t understand my Spanish. (Maybe my Spanish still sucks). I eventually found the right door, and nobody answered, but another woman next door, who was a sister of a teacher at the school helped me call the family that had been arranged for me. The family came 10 minutes later to pick up Reena and I.
Reena and I spent a nice night with the host family, and with a well deserved hot shower. The mother is a little Guatemalan spit fire, but very generous. The house has pictures of previous students, and coffee mugs that say San Francisco and Emory University. They´re quite the entreprenours, as they not only host three or four students at a time, but they also have a little shop in their house where they sell candies, beans, and rice, the father is a tailor, and the younger sister sells makeup.
I´m starting to really like Xela. Although it doesn´t have the beautiful fascade like Antigua, the narrow streets are very charming, and it has more of a city feeling. I´m also slowly getting accustomed to the more conservative culture of Guatemala in general. I have to remember not to lift my fork before we say grace, and to respect even certain ways Spanish is spoken. It´s a bit hard to explain, but Gutemala, as I´m sure anyone can imagine doesn´t have that spicy Latino culture like Costa Rica.
I´m also getting used to the cold, but I prefer it to Liberia´s heat. I´ll have to buy a jacket for the early mornings, and late nights. The lack of oxygen can be tough, as Xela is really high up, almost 8,000 feet, and I even feel it even when I go up and down the stairs. Reena and I will start Spanish school on Monday, and spend the weekend enjoying the city. I posted a few pics of Antigua and the volcano, and I´ll try to post some more tomorrow. Unfourtunatly, I lost some great photos of Africa Mia, but you can view some of them and others of Liberia from the link. (One link is for Guatemala and the other is for Africa Mia, Rincon, and Liberia). Enjoy, and become a follower so you can track my changes!
http://picasaweb.google.com/laurenb1981/AfricaMiaRiconDeLaViejaAndFriends#
http://picasaweb.google.com/laurenb1981/Gutemala#
