Now I have been here a week and have settled in a bit it’s time to start a daily diary.
The world around me has changed from cold, rainy, English speaking, family, driving and coffee breaks to…. warm, sunny, Spanish speaking, new faces, walking and (of course) coffee breaks.
Antigua is called Antigua because it is old – it was the capital during the Spanish time before they built Guatemala City. It was founded in 1543 after the first two capitals had been destroyed. The streets are all of cobblestones and houses are in the old style with high walls concealing green, inner courtyards. Walking the streets is like walking through a museum. There are so many half ruined churches, convents, etc dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. Trucks and buses bump along, brightly painted recycled versions of handed down American school buses. It’s a peaceful town with many tourists and language schools. This brings me to my primary reason for being here.
The location of my school is called ‘El Jardin”, or ‘the garden’. There must be around 30 – 40 students seated sprinkled around leafy walkways and terraces. Each student sits at a table with a teacher. Its all 1 – 1 learning. My teacher is a grandmother with 21 years of experience teaching foreigners like this. She is very patient with me.
Today the two of us were joined by two other pairs including a couple of ladies from Oregon whose level is similar to mine. It was really a lot of fun. We made so much noise, all laughing about very little. In the afternoon there was a movie about people who live around a huge garbage dump near Guatemala City. Families have lived there for generations subsisting on what they can find and sell of the leavings from the city’s garbage trucks. There was a daycare centre for kids started by a hardworking young woman from the USA. Unfortunately she was killed in an accidental collision with a truck. It was very sad and left me with tears in my eyes. I found it stunning to witness the horrifying conditions under which these people live; although the human resolve, determination and strength to survive is impressive indeed.
VOLCANO HIKE
Yesterday I had no classes so I decided to try out the questionable hip on a hike on nearby Volcan Pacaya.
It took a bit of effort to locate the small agency where I signed up for the tour. I had tried to minimize walking to save energy for the hike. The big question was: can I actually DO a four hour mountain hike?
Volcan Pacaya
After a trip on a windy mountain road with views of Guatemala city and mucho trafico we approached Volcan Pacaya (modest height at 2,500 metres) As soon as I got off the bus some boys came up offering us sticks for walking. One asked if I wanted a hearse. This seemed a little pessimistic until I realized he was actually offering a horse. We set off in a group of 25 or so with an energetic looking smiling guide named Jorge. (sounds like “Hor hay”. I was probably the eldest, but not be much. Its fun to chat with people on the trail – Two young Californian guys, a French couple (Have completely forgotten all my French in deference to Spanish) a Guatemalan guy who seems to have traveled a lot, a young Japanese, a Dutch woman who has been doing volunteer work in a small village. Rapidly discovered that I have no breath for discussion. Up we went.
Some people have rented horses, which plodded past us. I discovered the Spanish word ‘excremento’. An additional guide appeared to be stalking me occasionally suggesting, “Taxi, taxi” by which she meant that I might wish to rethink my decision regarding renting a horse. I told her I had climbed lots of mountains, which got me the reasonable response that I was probably younger then. I became familiar with the Spanish word for pride (orgulloso). We did about an hour and a half of quite steep hiking on a narrow trial.
The view from the ridge, which was our goal. was of course magnificent. Looking at Pacaya you can see different shades of rock showing flows that came down the mountainside at different times; light grey for 2010, darker for 2014. Jorge showed up a photo of himself 4 months ago cooking a marshmallow in a glowing rivulet of lava. High on the volcano, near the summit we could see streaks of orange that seemed to appear and disappear. It felt very exciting, as if the volcano were alive.
After watching a spectacular sunset (another, larger volcano smoking in the distance, not the one above which is Volcan de Agua) came the most intense part of the outing – descending the trail in the dark. we kind of huddled in twos and threes because not everyone had a flashlight. I felt grateful for my Huawei mobile phone once I managed to find its light. Going down was much more challenging than ascending. I fell once, jamming my thumb into the gravel. There was some blood, so back at the parking I became the subject of some attention; although my main objective was simply to sit down. A young woman from Maine had a good look, her eyesight being much better than mine, and announced that a small stone was imbedded in my thumb. She could remove it, but it might hurt. Another saintly bystander produced a wicked-looking pin. The operation was a success and (much to my relief) I was pronounced fit to travel.
The punchline to this story is that I DID IT! Three Tylenols helped me sleep, but the next day my legs did not enjoy walking – particularly the hip. Never mind, I’ll get a new one when i get home in April.
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