NOTA #1: FROM LONDON TO GUATEMALA and EN LA FINCA.
Hi there, everyone.
As you have just started to read these lines I assume you have both a little time and some decent desire to find out about what I'm up to these days. First of all: as you might already know, I am not alone here, but accompanied by my wonderful and very patient friend, travel companion and Spanish teacher Rita.
Alright, where exactly is _here_? Well, the two of us are right now living and working in a Guatemalan community called Nueva Alianza (www.comunidadnuevaalianza.org). This community, located close to the city of Retalhuleu (1,5hrs by chicken bus) and in turn not too far from the country's 2nd biggest city Quetzaltenango (better known as Xela), is more or less selfsustained by some 40 families who work together on various projects and farms and it's pretty much a very enchanting place to spend one's time in. Still, why are we here? While Rita is slowly preparing her investigations for accumulating material for her Ph.D thesis, I am getting down into various talks with locals and gringos alike, speaking Spanish from dawn to dusk while at the same time preparing my upcoming backpacking trip that is about to get started in some two weeks from now on. (I am writing this first blog note offline, while sitting in front of the posada/guesthouse, still wondering how I could add some photographies for the internet connection is rare, slow and strenuous to work with; it is Wednesday afternoon on August 3.) Both Rita and I spend half of our days with working on the finca, that is: while she is getting wet and chemicalized at the water purification area (Agua Pura) I am getting to know a nut called Macadamia (Hands up! Who has ever eaten a macadamia nut?), working with locals in the end process: skinning and separating the nuts, then washing and drying them in the sun before further separating and packing. My day looks basically like this: I get up at between 6am and 6:30 (after a hell lot of sleep), then getting down to the macadamia stall, waiting for my fellow-workers to arrive (they are mostly late and I usually use the time for taking pictures of nuts and baby hens, tan bonito). At 8am I return to the guesthouse for breakfast (with Rita), then back to work until 12pm. It follows: sunbathing, showering, cooking lunch. In the afternoon: reading and learning Spanish and Lonely Planet guides about neighboring countries. Playing football and UNO cards with the farmers' kids (all around 10 years old), taking more pictures and doing some writing. Some time dinner, socialising and eventually heading to bed at around 22pm, not before watching two to three episodes of "The IT Crowd" wirth Rita which is highly recommendable and kick-ass-fun. ("Ahaa! A stress machine!")
Sounds boring? Honestly, it isn't. Hell yeah, this is Guatemala and we're surrounded by a 3,500m volcano and hectars of tropical forests that once were entirely Maya territory. Also, apart from a million strange animals that randomly visit us daily (I recently encountered my first armadillo ever which definitely had had a wow-effect to it. Then, on our first day here, it made BUFF in front of the community kitchen and a huge, pretty, erm, special-looking bug had been falling from the sky. Oh, and I just (apparently) killed quite a big dragon fly who just used my left arm as a landing-platform (she is fine and somehow managed to fly away before I could take a picture, sadly). Oh, and I didn't drink any alcohol for almost a week now (last time in a London pub). Wow!
Anyhow, what else is there to say? And how did we actually got here in the first place? Well, Rita had been in this community before (pretty much two years ago) and I decided to accompany her this time. We flew via London where we stayed with a friend (who cK and I got to know last year via Couchsurfing, cK? Best greets from Marco!). After changing planes in Dallas we eventually arrived in Guatemala Ciudad and immediately left for Antigua (Guatemala's older capital), not far away. Those two cities couldn't be any more different nowadays and a short quote from the central america LP shows how:
GUATEMALA CIUDAD: "Depending on who you talk to, Guatemala's capital is either big, dirty, dangerous and utterly forgettable or big, dirty, dangerous and fascinatíng."
ANTIGUA: "This is fantasyland - what the country would look like if the Scandinavians came in and took over for a couple of years. It's a place where power lines run underground, rubbish is collected and stray dogs 'disappear' mysteriously in the middle of the night."
We spent one day and two nights in the latter and then headed on to the community on July 29. (I just realized that there are now insect blood trails on my journals. How nice.) Ever since, apart from working and watching amazing British TV series we went to a football game in town (i.e. Retanhuleu, short: Reu). The local team contra Guatemala Ciudad. Funnily we didn't actually figure who was who until the game ended. That said: we were sitting right in the apparently local fan area, surrounded by craze and red steam. Yay, red! The Reds, or Rojas, were in fact the capital equipo. Who won? Neither: a rather boring draw of 0:0. Also, we were hiking to a nearby cascade. _We_, by the way had been four people, in fact. Rita, I and two U.S.-American girls. One of them is working here as two-year volunteer (Tara), the other more or less just traveling through (Kiva), but still staying for some two weeks on Nueva Alianza). Kiva had been leaving this morning, and I will long be gone before Tara. Interestingly, Tara had been through quite some traveling along Central America's coast line, e.g. to las Islas de la Bahía (Bay Islands) on Honduras' Carribean coast which is also on my list (in case I don't get robbed and/or murdered before, e.g. between Tikal and Belize City).
And, as I am approaching the end of this first blog, it is starting to rain again. Well, it is basically raining here every single day, but pretty predictably: virtually only after 2 to 3pm (with loads of heavy sun in the morning up to lunch, so I am getting quite baked also). There is a hurricane predicted somewhen the next days (that would mean: about a week rain and storm non-stop, heavy as hell; hurricanes come by fairly often, though, about five times a year). That would also mean: no macadamias anymore. BUT: I would be working with the bamboo guys who do create wonderful owls out of bamboo. Anyone interested?
Anything else? The showers are cold, and the food is fantastic. I am really getting into maize tortillas. Being a vegetarian is easier than presumed, at least until now. Also: I am taking pills against malaria now (every Sunday before going to bed 500mg of cloroquina fosfata (Aralen) for the next 12 weeks, as a precaution for the Carribean coast along Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica). I will try to get some pictures added. It's just half the fun without.
And now I want to greet my Mom and Dad. Hi, Mom and Dad! XD Silke, I love you and I miss you. Donnie, cK, Fine, Sabi, Sarah, Kathi, Katja, Phil and Miro - I just felt like mentioning you guys, you are the kewlest kids in my world and I think of you! Claudi, Dinah, Lena, Marko, you're on the postcard list! Keep tuned, I'll write more if I get any resonance on this one. Lara, do you think of the plants? (: Keep on enjoying my mattress and call Fine when encountering important-looking mail. Two last things: I did drink coffee here and, for the first time ever, I actually LIKED it. Still, I miss mate (tea). And: My German cell phone is switched off; you can text me on my Guatemalan one on the following number: 00502 4978 0243. I'll be back way too quick and then I will meet YOU, after all. So exciting.
PICTURE TIME!
In London.
Antigua.
Some of these incredible bugs.
Vista del techo.
The vulcano next door.
Starring at and from waterfalls.
Human vs. Nature.
Los Rojos de Guatemala Ciudad.
Catching an armadillo.
Pollitos!
Más pollitos.
Kitchen photo session.
In the macadamia shelter.
