Illicit Activities

Part of what makes the Guatemalan experience enjoyable is the overall more relaxed nature of their rules. We find ourselves really appreciating the opportunity to hike up and actually touch lava (if we're stupid enough to do it), ride crammed in the back of a pickup truck (if we're desperate enough for the transportation), jump out of tall trees into pools of water, and jump off of high bridges into the river (if we're crazy enough). Here's a collection of our amusing illicit activities.

Roasting marshmallows on Pacaya:


Pickup truck transport:


Larissa jumping out of a tree (it was HIGH - about 35 feet!):


Kelsey jumping off of a bridge that was even higher:


Riding backwards in cars:


Riding unbuckled in cars:



Jumping out of tree swings:



In an age when every city park has been sanitized and sterilized to the point of being dull, I'm glad we can break out a little bit and do some thrilling/risky things without anybody stopping us because they're worried about being sued!

Visitors

We've had visitors for the past week (my sis-in-law Nancy & niece Allison) and have been busy showing them the sights of Antigua and Guatemala. Climbing Pacaya again was a must and we were glad we did because we got some great views of the lava. The volcano can be different every day as the lava shifts and the eruption points change. On this excursion, we were able to get right up to the lava, roast our marshmallows, and really toast our skin.


K&L have been having a great time messing around with their cousin too:

Back in Antigua

We just arrived back in Antigua yesterday. It feels great to be here after Mexico! We just spent a week at my timeshare near Playa del Carmen and although it's not the crazy party town Cancun is, it was crazy enough for us. The resort was full and by the time we left, I had seen enough lobster back drunken tourists!

Plus, there's another odd quality...I was complaining to Ben that my experiences in Mexico have always been challenging because mysterious, inexpicable and capricious things happen there. Sometimes good things happen....sometimes bad - but one never really knows how it's going to turn out. For example, this morning we were picked up at 5:00 am by a shuttle for the airport. At the next stop, 6 people with paid reservations were waiting for our shuttle that now had only 2 seats left. The answer? "Sorry - you can wait and another will come soon." Or you can take a taxi (and pay more money). It can be infuriating!!

But so far, I've never seen anything like that happen here in Guatemala. Perhaps it's because it's not a resort area and doesn't deal with herds of people? Perhaps because we're accustomed to working one on one with people we know? I dunno...it just sure was a breath of fresh air to see our friendly taxi driver's face at the airport arrival area!

Yucatan

We’re enjoying our time in the Yucatan. Yesterday we took a tour with a group called Alltournative Travel. We travelled with them a few years ago and really enjoyed the excursion. Their trips usually include a visit and lunch in a Mayan Village, some fun outdoor activities and some archeological or cultural tour. The tour group size is always small, and if they have multiple groups in an area, they do a good job of spreading them out so you never feel like you’re in a cattle herd. And they work in partnership with the Mayan Villages to ensure the villagers’ lives improve in some way and that they provide some sustainable income.

This year, we went canoeing, hiked through the jungle, rappelled down into a cenote (underground lake),


and took a zip line across a crocodile infested lagoon (later we learned that although the lagoons sometimes have crocs, the one we saw was a cute little fake!).




After eating a delicious lunch of chicken, tortillas, vegetable soup, and rice, we travelled to Coba. Coba was an ancient Mayan city built in 400 BC. At one point, more than 100,000 people lived there and they had a paved road that led 100 km to another important Mayan city in the north, Chichen Itza. The most impressive feature left is Nohoch Muul, the tallest pyramid in the Yucatan.


We walked through the ruins, climbed the pyramid and were tuckered out after our very full day. None of these pictures were taken by me because they didn’t allow cameras on the trip. Not only are cameras potentially problematic during the ziplining and rappelling, but one of the money making schemes for the villagers is taking photos. Alltournative tour group provides them with nice digital SLR cameras and the capability to make CDs of the photos. These Mayan-paparazzi follow the tour groups around all day snapping photos. At the end of the day, they provide the opportunity to buy a CD of the days pictures. So, our contribution for the day was a highly over-priced disk of photos….but with some fun shots of us on our little adventure!

Are we going to get out of here?

We’re on our way back to Guatemala and decided to stop at my time share in Mexico to spend a week (since I have to pay the blasted maintenance fees every year whether I use it or not!). So, we got to escape winter in Driggs (snow, cold, clouds, etc) for winter on the Mayan Riviera (sun, ocean breezes, green). Yippee!

But, we almost didn’t make it out of Driggs! The day before we were scheduled to leave, one of the girls had a meltdown, and while that occurrence is not completely unusual for those undergoing widely swinging hormone levels, this particular meltdown took me by surprise. Unnamed daughter was stomping around, slamming doors and responding with monosyllabic answers to our questions. Again, not completely unheard of, but when I probed about what was going on, she burst into tears and yelled, “I’m trying to be as nice as I can but I just really miss my friends and want to go see them in Boulder and I don’t want to travel!” Huh? After I recovered from my initial shock, the following thoughts were racing through my head: How could anybody NOT want to travel? Why would she rather go to grey/dreary Boulder rather than to beaches and sun and adventures? Why would a daughter of mine be having such ideas? I love to travel…shouldn’t she love it every bit as much as I do? As I bit my tongue attempting not to project all of these emotions onto her and instead asked some probing questions, I discovered that the major concern was not necessarily the travel in and of itself, but the open-ended nature of the travel. Ben and I are accustomed to traveling spontaneously, and by the nature of flying space available with his airline benefits, our travel is by necessity spontaneous and flexible. We have to wait until the last minute to check the passenger loads and make sure there will be room to carry a coupe of space available non-paying passengers. So we never have reservations and this lack of a concrete return date was troubling Miss Hunt. After some discussion, we resolved that we would not be just hanging out in Antigua for months, agreed that we would go to Mexico, then travel on to Antigua at least until after Nancy and Allison visited us in February, and re-evaluate as we go. And under no circumstances would we spend any birthday away from friends!!!

So, we headed out early Monday morning for our flight out of Jackson Hole…….where we were nearly foiled in our departure attempt once again. We’re typically pretty relaxed about checking in for flights out of Jackson since it’s such a tiny airport. So, we arrived 45 minutes before our flight only to find the airport CRAMMED with people flying out on American, United and Delta. The little security gate was overwhelmed and the gate agent fussed at us for cutting it so close. But, we sweated through the long security line and managed to board our flight without even being last on! This little adventure thoroughly bothered the other daughter so despite my best intentions, we started out the trip with both offspring slightly annoyed!

Turkey Day in Guatemala

We were thankful for many things this year:

- Not being in India (our thoughts go out to the victims of the terrible tragedy in Mumbai)

- The opportunity to travel and study Spanish

- Lovely new friends in Antigua

- Continuing good health!

- Support and friendship from friends & family at home

We had a fun time hosting a Thanksgiving lunch at our little apartment. We were able to find almost everything we needed: turkey, canned pumping, potatoes, etc. The actual cooking part was a little bit like a modern day version of Stone Soup. We invited our neighbors for lunch, and they were kind enough to loan us pots, baking dishes, blenders, plates, utensils, and cups so we could pull off the feast. We had a lovely meal with our neighbors Oyvind & Christin and there sons Benjamin & Leander; Gretchen with her beautiful daughter Ana, our friend Linda, and our Spanish instructors. It was the first time I've celebrated Thanksgiving as an outdoor meal and it was quite memorable. Most of our guests had never tasted pumpkin pie before and were quite skeptical about whether a vegetable could make a good dessert. They were amazed at how yummy it was. Kudos to Larissa for making great pies from scratch! I'll post some pictures soon.

Atitlan

(Note:  I'm just a bit behind on blogging....this trip actually happened a few weeks ago!  Will be doing some catching up soon!)

El Lago Atitlan is truly one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. It is formed by the caldera of an very ancient and very large volcano and is blessed with a steep shoreline that prevents construction of structures and habitation in all but a few areas. The result is lush green hillsides running into beautiful fresh lake water and very few structures. One very lovely structure is La Casa del Mundo where we stayed when we visited last weekend.

Our journey started with us receiving a flyer from a travel agency advertising great fares to Panahachel on a "Modern Pullman Coach with air conditioning, individual seats, and direct service". We should have known it was too good to be true. We arrived at the designated meeting spot at 6:30 on Sunday morning and found a few other gringos waiting for the bus. I was inside eating breakfast when the girls came in saying, "the bus is here and the driver says he needs more money from us". When I went outside, I found that not only was the driver demanding we pay more than our pre-paid ticket, but that he was driving a chicken bus! Chicken buses are old school buses that are brought down from the US, painted with lots of great colors, used as public transportation, and generally crammed with twice as many people, animals, and baggage than would ever be legal in the US! This was not exactly what we had in mind. After refusing to pay additional money, and many phone calls back and forth between the driver & the travel agency, we finally threw our luggage on top and boarded the bus. The only A/C was open windows, the so called "individual seats" were benches made for 2 but shared by 4, and the "direct service" meant that we stopped every 100 yards or so for additional passengers! What should have been a 2 hour trip took 3 hours, and the good news is that we got to see lots of colorful local characters. And we arrived safely. As I said to the kids, "sometimes you get to go first class...and sometimes you get to go chicken class!"

Our time up at the lake was fantastic. Casa del Mundo has incredible gardens, lovely rooms, and fantastic food. Dinners are served family style and we visited with groups from Britain, Australia, Belgium, Guatemala, and the US.  We spent the days lounging in hammocks, reading, playing card games, swimming, and eating.  It was a delightful respite.