Introducing Guatemala

Desculpe amigos! It´s been a while and many adventures have taken place :) Finally an update to let you know I´m still having a great time, immersing myself the intriguing and beautiful culture and country of Guatemala!

Walking out of the airport in this new country, one that´s so very different from any other place I´ve ever been before, could not have been any better: Anne was there to pick me up!! Being friends for a couple of years in Utrecht, Anne ´happened to be in the neighbourhood´ and lit up my heart by deciding to pick me up :) We traveled down to Puerto Viejo together, so we could catch up (oh my, where to start after several months!) and check out the It´Skool project together. 

Arriving at It´Skool, I was amazed by the beautiful place, located just outside an authentic little fishing village (Puerto Viejo litteraly means ¨old port¨): black sand - it´s a volcanic beach, coconuts everywhere, big waves, two white houses (the livingcommunity house and the Ashramschool), hammocks, lovely volunteers,´rescued´ street dogs, colours, paintings, inspiring decoration. Just as amazing and interesting was the trip TO the project... with Anne as my personal guide, translator and walking dictionary, we jumped on some chickenbusses (the old & ´pimped´ American schoolbusses,see pictures) and I started absorbing all new impressions possible, falling in love with the country immediately, but more about that later.

Waking up the next morning (friday March 11) was quite a trip in itself: ¨Goodmorning! Slept well? Oh, there might be a tsunami coming, around 3 pm. Coffee?¨ 
With the idea of better safe than sorry, we packed our bags again and left for Antigua together with 3 other volunteers (Sarah, Alan, Megan). The other volunteers stayed a little longer, trying to persuade the local people to go inland as well, at least a little... without succes; we were all really happy nothing happened in the end! Although I must admit we were kind off hoping there was at least a little wave, just a tiny one! That way our trip across Guatemala would´ve felt a little more ´the right thing to do´ ;) Anyway, thanks to these unexpected events I had a crazy, amazing, fun, crashcourse-tour of Guatemala together with Anne and the other 3 volunteers.

Hold on tight, because it´s a fast ride! Chickenbussing it to Antigua, we figured it would be more fun and relaxed to ´wait´ for news at Lago de Atitlan... the most amazing lake of Guatemala and deepest in all Central-America (approx. 340m), located in the highlands and surrounded by volcanos and Mayan villages. Having to wait a couple of hours before taking a shuttle bus (minivan) to Panajachel (the biggest town at the lake), we walked around and absorbed the vibe of beautiful, colonial, lively and very touristy Antigua. Introducing me right away to ¨Guatemalan time¨, the shuttle left 2 hours later and took a very long time to drive up the bad, bumpy, windy (bochtige) road; slowing down with every hole in the pavement to prevent some rumbling thing at the bottom of the minivan from falling off :)
We arrived to late in Panajachel to take the lancha (small boat) so ended up spending the night there. The next morning we enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the lake during the boat trip to San Marcos, another little town at the lake. Here we spent 2 days before saying goodbye to Alan and Sarah, who went back to It´Skool after the weekend. On monday Anne, Megan and myself had a very interesting shuttle ride to Quetzaltenango (try to pronounce that!), also known as Xela (pronounced ¨sjela¨). The local busdriver told us about his country, Xela, the surroundings, the politics, his perspective on recent developments etc. It was the first of many interesting conversations I had about this intriguing country.
Anne wanted to visit a volunteer project close to Xela where she worked for a while, 5 years ago. I decided to come with her to Xela before going back to It´Skool, to explore the city and enjoy her company :) Bussing back to Antigua on wednesday and spending a fun night there together, it was time to say goodbye on thursday morning (exactly one week after I flew in from New York!).

Anne went to Costa Rica and I made my way down to the beach again, this time to spent a good 10 days at It´Skool. Working and playing with the kids, living in a small community with the other (6 to 9) volunteers, chilling and enjoying on the beach and especially getting a glimpse of Guatemalan life in a little village was a great experience! The kids were fantastic, and I even gave a workshop about the Option Process to the other volunteers. However, the project didn´t match as much as I thought it would with what I was expecting and what I´m looking for. Also, connecting with the kids was really amazing, but I found myself getting limited by the language barrier more then I was hoping for. Last but certainly not least, I really wanted to spent a good deal of ´alone-time´ as well... more then turned out to be possible at the project. Working and living intensely with other people since January 1st was absolutely amazing, but now it was time to regain some balance! You know, just sitting down and do nothing for a change (because I´m so good at that ;) ), just me and my own thoughts, books, meditation, staring at my surroundings :) 

Anne was going to be in Antigua again on sunday March 27, throwing a goodbye party to conclude her journey on this side of the world after 5 months of traveling. Presenting itself as the perfect opportunity, I chickenbussed it again to Antigua on sunday. I was so happy to spent a bit more time with Anne again! I cannot say how awesome and strangely familiar it was to enjoy this country together :) It was also really cool to see some of the processions in Antigua that sunday. Thanks to the Spaniards, Christianity is huge is Guatemala. I´ll tell you guys more about that another time. For now: Antigua is, among other things, famous for it´s extensive religious celebrations during Lent, beginning on Ash Wednesday and leading up to Holy Week (Semana Santa) and Easter. Semana Santa (and all the related festivities) is as much a religious event as it is a cultural expression and happening, celebrated in the whole country. Each sunday in Lent, there are processions through the streets of many cities and towns. Antigua is especially famous for the elaborate and beautiful artistic ´carpets´ that are made in the street, for the procession to walk over. These carpets are made of dyed sawdust, flowers, fruits, vegetables etc. It´s pretty impressive to see many men (and women,to cary the Maria statues) form a ´collective body´ (stand really close to each other and walk in the exact same pace) to cary the big floats on their shoulders during the processions. On the floats are a big variety of statues to be seen; mainly Jesus (in many different ways), Maria, angels, sometimes desciples, and many many decorations. Every church has it´s own floats and there are different floats for the different days (Palm Sunday, crucifixion, resurrection etc.)