Guatemala #3

Walking home tonight from the super market was somewhat surreal. Uneven streets made from rough rocas. (rocks). I'm feeling not so much a stranger anymore even though I am. The bustling people and traffic going home for the day. Women carrying baskets of goods on their heads and babies in their arms. The clouds roll in as the afternoon progresses and as I sit here in my room I can look out the window and see yet another light show behind and above the volcanoes. Horns honk and eventually I'm sure music will be coming from somewhere. Life here is simple. When you want fresh tortillas you look for an open door and you can find young girls making them fresh right inside the door. At night when you see a red light above a door you can find fresh tamales. Life is simple for most people. Family, food, and work. Friends and church. There are those who have become caught up into the electronic world but not nearly as many as our country.

The wash hangs to dry above the roof lines after it is washed outside in a bucket or maybe inside with the one large sink. Cars are washed in the street. The lights flicker from power surges. Most people greet you with genuine smiles as you walk along the street. Buenos dias, Hola or just the simple buenas. The women who do not where traditional clothing all wear heels of some kind or another. Very daring from my western perspective. As I said above, the streets and sidewalks are a bit precarious. Young people openly show affection for one another. Old men pull carts full of goods down a side street. While chicken buses roll down the larger streets putting out fumes of diesel. Young men stand in the doors of these buses. I realized after a ride in one yesterday they are simply there to help navigate. There are very tight roads and bus mirrors will sometimes literally be an inch from one another after a group effort of young men directing each bus to enable them to pass one another.

I enjoy the tranquility and the odd craziness so different from our surroundings. Soak it up I tell myself soon enough it will be a memory.

Guatemala #2

What a day. I was woken up at midnight by what sounded like fireworks. Again and again. I finally went outside but was disappointed to not see anything. Then I went back to bed and 6am more Kaboom! Luckily I was getting up anyway to start school this morning. My instructor definitely does not speak much english. However, I think she will do a good job. We covered a lot in 3 and a half hours. Many of the other students here are much younger. They seem to be very adventurous people and will be fun to talk with. There are a lot of students. The area we study in has a beautiful garden in the middle and at our break we have yummy traditional food. Eventually I will know what it is called, the food that is,  for now I can say that is mini tortillas with meat inside. Then they fry it and cover it with guacamole and some sort of cabbage like mixture. It's good.

 After class I finally met with my host family. I think it will work out very well. The "mom" is a year younger than me and is very patient when we talk. She has a son and a daughter. The daughter is on vacation from school so is away visiting family. The husband works in a sugar factory far out of town. I believe I will meet him on Saturday. I have a nice little bedroom upstairs with my own bathroom. Very private. The roof is right beside my room and has a great view of the mountains. Hopefully all the clouds will leave eventually so I can actually see the view.The locals are saying it is unusually rainy for this time of year.

After meeting with my family I went back to the school. They have an activity each day for the students. Today we went to a macadamia farm. Very beautiful. All natural process. A long time ago someone invented a very rudimentary machine that would shell the nuts. They have brought this to many indigenous people so they can have better nutrition and a way to make money. Since they usually have no electricity it uses a small gas motor. I wish I could post pictures to better explain. It was a neat little tour. The owner, Lorenzo, a retired fire fighter from New York moved to Antigua in the 70's and started the farm. He was quite the character.

So far I have met one couple from PA. We went to dinner on Sun night. Mon I met this great Aussie lady. She's a riot. I think we will see more of each other. It is nice to be in school where I know it will be easier to meet people.

On Friday, which is there day of the dead. The school buses us to one of the villages where there is a large kite festival. I'm excited to be able to see that and sample many traditional dishes.

I have now had several conversations with my hostess suheidy. We talked about the culture and the differences from our two countries and we even spoke about religion.  I have also been able to talk to my instructor about several interesting topics, divorce, culture and I have tried to help her not have as much pain after she irons for 2 hours. Trying to explain what Taylor does for a living is somewhat difficult but it is fun to try. All this in just 2 days. I'm having a great time!

Nos vemos, mis amigos! mas pronto.

Guatemala #1

I'm finally going to use this again. It's been forever. It's a fun way to share my adventures. My trip began with a long afternoon and overnight trip to Guatemala City. Luckily, I was wisked away by my taxi driver Larry.  Being that it was 5:45 in the morning we were able to leave the city very quickly. I was able to talk to Larry a little even though he spoke no english. I was happy to make some small talk. He was very patient. Guatemala City was cleaner than I would have imagined. Although, I did not see a whole bunch of it. It is so green here. Lots of happy foliage. Large mountains of green all around it. Nice roads.

 I arrived at my B & B at 6:30. Fortunately one of the guests was able to let me in. I was not very excited about cruising around with a backpack that early in the morning. Especially on only an hour of sleep in a 26 hour period. But it all worked out. The little spot I will spend the first two nights is lovely. Beautiful spacious room and free wifi!

I was able to explore a little today. It is a very friendly walk around kind of town. Lots of Buenos dias as I walked to the bank. It was a very small bank that had two security guards. One even had a shotgun. Somehow they seemed friendly even with bullet proof vests and guns.

The streets here are made it seems from river rock. They are very bumpy. I believe it is cobblestones though. Being that it was founded in 1543 they are holding up very well. There are about 35,000 people here. I have only seen a small portion but it does not seem that crowded.

For a first day in a foreign city I'm feeling very relaxed. I had a great lunch and there I was reminded how happy I am to be here learning more spanish. The waitress got a few blank stares as did the super market clerk. I'm making along well enough though. Thank goodness for my spanish teacher the last 3 months. I would be a deer in headlights when talking with people if not for her.

Until next time...

I wear black socks

Earlier today as I got dressed for a bike ride I looked in the drawer and made a choice between several different sport sock colors. I chose black. Why? Well, many years ago I read an article in Outside magazine (or maybe it was a mountain biker mag) that wrote about being passed by some old geezer wearing black socks. So does choosing the black socks make me an old geezer? Not by a long shot. I am a woman in her prime training for her first tri-athalon and did I choose the simple distance, the sprint? Nope, I went for the big guns and chose the Olympic distance. Doesn’t that just sound cool? As I was donning my super comfy black socks for some reason that article went through my mind. I think it reminded me that perseverance pays off and if you keep trying hard you will one day be the person that you think you can be. Training for a tri isn’t as bad as I always envisioned. In fact, I think I like it more than training for a marathon by a long shot. Always something new, never getting tired of the same old thing.

So now that I have that under way I think of my other goals. Mainly, writing a novel. Yep, I still have that kindle of a dream burning in my brain. Do I have this strong propensity to write at every spare moment, no. However, the spark still stays alive and I choose to believe that with this tiny spark something great will happen. It’s like the old cave man days when they had to carry the coal from home site to home site. I will carry my kindle of fire until one day it can become a bonfire and burn for a good long time. This will require a lot of hard work but it will be worth it. So as I write this with a little help from a bit of white wine I look forward to the time when I can put that kindle to a small stack of wood and watch what blossoms out of it.

Good bye 2010

What a year 2010 was. We started the new year wondering what it would bring. Wondering what it would end up looking like. Taylor had an opportunity of a lifetime but we weren't sure it would even happen. Now I sit here with amazing memories of what that opportunity brought to us. I learned so much about another culture, even not being in a little remote village in southern Sudan, I learned we are blessed with so much here in our country. That we are lucky to be able to have opinions, have water in our homes and have the freedom to explore.


I learned that even being 10,000 miles from the person you love that the love you have can continue to grow. I learned many new things about several different cultures that makes me yearn to learn more. I learned that you can make it through hardship and grow from it. That friends are everything to me. That I love the little town I live in. Mostly, I learned that it's all supposed to happen. I don't know what the big picture is but I sure like all the little pictures I get to see on the way.

Am I excited for 2011? Hell yea!. I am excited to sit on this very couch with my amazing husband and live again under one roof even if it's for a small amount of time. To treasure all the little moments and plan for the big ones. I know that this will be an amazing year because life is simply amazing. I feel so lucky to live the life I live. So I welcome you 2011 and look forward to what you have to show me.

Here are some of my favorite photos from 2010 on our adventures that only happened because Taylor was willing to leave all he knew and loved behind to go on a huge solo adventure. So much good came of it. Thank you, Taylor. I love you so much!

Happy new year everyone! I hope this new year brings you all sorts of happiness and fun adventures. Take a moment one of these future days and say thanks for the wonderful world we live in. We are all so very blessed. 

Hello again

Well, for the few of you that actually follow this blog you will have noticed that my whole "going to do a small segment of Cape Town each week" has been a flop. I am blessed with lots of work and not much time to be creative with the whole blogging concept. But there are certain moments that I experience throughout my days that I feel I should write about. Simple things like:

As I left the coffee shop the other morning a smile slowly grew on my face as I thought about that very moment in time. It was a brisk morning and my spicy Chai was slowly warming my insides. Down town was just waking. I walked by a stranger and we shared a smile. "What a wonderful little town I live in" I thought to myself. My work day was just beginning and I was hoping the snow would begin to fall again.

It's these little moments in time when I truly feel blessed to be here on earth. To live in a time and place where I have the leisure to grab a morning tea and then amble to work with a smile. No rushing around, just enjoying each moment.

Cape Town 1st entry

In my attempt to get my creative juices flowing and to get a lot of photos out for everyone I am giving myself a writing assignment. I am going to break our Cape Town trip into several vignettes. So here goes.


Taylor and I planned to stay at a guesthouse the whole time in Cape Town. The day I was leaving I get an email from the innkeeper and it turns out that they have had a huge sewer problem come up and they had to re-locate us to a different location. Not only did we get a new spot, but for 8 of the 10 nights we were upgraded to the suite for no extra charge.

view from balcony

view from window

view from balcony

Our guesthouse was located in a darling section of town named Tamboerskloof. We were able to walk right out our door to the popular shopping district of Kloof and Long St. After a really yummy breakfast in the sun room and two pots of tea we set out to explore this new city. People along the way were of every color and so spoke different languages. We curiously watched parking attendants direct people to parking spots and wondered how that worked. The system here does not rely on meters but people. For a mere R2 or R5. (really cheap parking) you could get a spot and the attendant was always watching your car and even helped you park by directing you into the spot. We never did brave the driving on the other side of the street thing. We walked through the city centre and down to the V & A waterfront. Lots of large ships, neat  foot drawbridges that pivoted out of the way when boats needed to pass. We found an outdoor lunch spot and listened to xylophone players and then an acapello group.

looking back at the city centre and Table mtn

 

 

 

After a bit of shopping. (Taylor has been seriuosly deprived of this) we headed back up the hill to find a good place to grab a bite in the neighborhood. It looked like this was going to be a wonderful place to hang for 9 days. It was so nice just to be together again.

Cape Town

Well, folks you only get this one cute photo of Taylor in our suite. Be happy that your internet speed is the bombdiggity, I just waited over 15 min to get this one photo. I will happily post all sorts when I get back to the states.

Hello, from Cape Town. First, I have to say that this place is everything that everyone said it would be. It is so beautiful. After over a day and a half of travel, Taylor and I were reunited in the little airport. It was so great to see his gorgeous sunburnt face. It was late at night so not much to see on the way to our guesthouse but I met a very nice local on the plane and he explained that where we were staying we would have great views of Table mountain and the city itself below us. He was very right. Our little guesthouse is set beside a small mountain named Signal Hill and behind us in Table Moutain. It is an absolutely great location. We have been able to walk to all our meals and all the way down to the V&A Waterfront.

 It’s kinda funny, but the first few days we did a lot of shopping. Taylor was in need of several things and of course those of you who know me well, know I didn’t mind in the least. Cape Town is known to be the shopping capitol of Africa for goodness sake. Along the way we took it all in. So many different colors of people. Very beautiful, I love all the variety of language, you have Afrikaans, English, Xhosa, German, French. It’s wonderful. Of course, I wish I knew them all but for now it is really easy to get around with English. People are very friendly. It is fun to learn the nuances of how they speak language. Here are some examples, a to go box is a take away, all buildings for lease say “To let”. I keep thinking there are toilets everywhere...It’s not a check it’s a bill, it’s a booking instead of a reservation. This may seem kind of silly to explain but it is one of the many things I enjoy when as we get to see more places in this world. The other thing is the bathrooms. Weird, I know? But it’s fun to see different latches, sinks, what kind of hand dryers they have, etc. There are so many different ways things are done. Mostly here, you only have hand dryers. No paper towels at all. Where as in Spain, you had papertowels but it was like using a kleenex to dry your hands. The coolest sink so far was a tilted granite slab the water ran into a reservoir you really couldn’t see. Neato! 

In the first two days, we did 6 of the 10 most favorite things to do in Cape Town. We still have to see a sunset from Signal Hill, ride the cable car to the top of Table mountain and go to Robben Island to see where Nelson Mandela was held for so many years. Fortunately for us we still have plenty of time to do this. 

The biggest adventure so far has been the paragliding. On Monday morning Taylor asked our innkeeper to book something for us and BOOM, we were set to go in only 45 min. For me this was probably best. I was a bit nervous to jump off a perfectly good mountain side. Our two pilots picked us up, Jacque and Steph. They were great from the start. Super funny with a little cheese ball twist, but it was fun. Jacque is the 2nd best paraglider in all of South Africa and I think Steph is right up there. He just returned from 3 months in Germany, paragliding. These guys are making a living off doing what they love, it’s great to see. They drove us up to the launch spot on Signal Hill and explained what we needed to know on the way. They have an assistant named Irma who is doing an internship with them. What a crazy group to do that with. She was very sweet. When we got to the launch site there was another person ahead of us. It was nice to see them take off first. It set me at ease a little. So Jacque and I were set to go first, you get into a big old harness and they prepare the paraglider. When the paraglider goes up initially you are swept back a little so someone is in the front of you to help with that. Then you run, run ,run until you are airborne. It’s really amazing. We fortunately, did not have to run in the bushes. Taylor and Steph had to do a little of this. Once you are up in the air it is very relaxing and exhilarating at the same time. Jacque and I had a small paraglider so he had to work a little harder to get us up higher in the air. Man, was it FUN!! You truly do feel like a bird. We had great views of the Atlantic and the area in Cape Town called SeaPoint. You could also see the stadium where the World Cup was played. Taylor and Steph were in the air maybe 15 minutes after us. So Taylor and I were able to see eachother flying thru the sky. It was awesome!! I’m so glad that Taylor is an adrenaline junkie. I probably would never have done that on my own. Taylor of course is hooked and at this very moment is walking to the bookstore to buy a book on the subject while I blog. Will I ever learn to do it on my own? Probably not. I thought it was awesome but near the end I started getting kind of nauseas. Never did hurl, but kind of made the last bit of the ride a bit less enjoyable. Jacque and I soared over the stadium and gently landed in a big field. Irma, came over and said “You were gone for a long time” Some people only go for 10-20 min. I think that Taylor and I were up for about an hour. It was so great to rush near the tops of the trees and to be above the birds. It’s all about finding the thermals to get you higher. The rest of the afternoon we were both on a bit of a high. We went for coffee with the guides and then strolled back up the hill to our little room and thought “what the hell do we do know? It will be hard to beat that morning?” We ended up going back out for a great little lunch and had a mellow evening at home. It’s great to be on holiday.

Anticipation

It's a Sunday evening and I am sitting on the couch with a curled up kitty and classical music in the background. All I can say is "ahhhh" I love these days that just go by slowly. Getting a few things done, but no real agenda. I find myself getting up from the lovely purple couch to continually write things down in preparation for the big trip ahead. Yesterday I went on the most epic mountain bike ride I have ever attempted. It was beautiful. It's up near Mt. Bachelor and after just 4-5 miles of climbing you get all the rest in an awesome downhill ride all the way into town right to 10 Barrel brewing. It's funny how I always seem to end up there after these day long mountain bike excursions. I think mountain biking is quickly becoming my gravity fed sport of the off winter months. But back to the real reason I am bothering to write on this here blog.

In a just over a week I will be traveling 10,400 miles to South Africa where Taylor and I will rendezvous in Cape Town. Oh how I hope this week to come flies by. This has been one long year but man oh man, do I love the travel that it has allowed Taylor and I to do. It has almost been 6 months since our last trip to Spain. Can't believe it's been that long. In some ways it has gone fast and others it has just drug on. But soon we will be hanging out and enjoying a whole new scene on yet another continent. Wow, is all I can think in my head. I hope to soon be getting a few blog posts up from Cape Town. So keep your eye on the blog and hopefully there will be some good stuff to come.

Hopefully soon I will be relaying my own photos here but until then you can daydream a little with me too.

Another day inmersed in beauty...

Casey, I and the the dog troop once again set out for a hike into the wilderness. This time the Three Sisters Wilderness to one of my favorite spots, Golden Lake. It's nestled right below one of my favorite mountains, Broken Top. We set out early and got to the newly moved trail head much to my dismay. This added on a mere 2.4 miles to the hike, but I definitely felt them at the end of the trek. We all had a great time meandering along the wide trail that once was a road and got to the old section where you used to be able to park only to realize that we were down one dog, mine. Crap?! So we split up and I ran towards the car and Casey went a bit up the trail. Well, eventually I realized that I just had to run all the way to the car since no dog was in site. Sure enough, there was Yeti all smiles laying at the car. I guess he thought we were done or he thought we needed to add even more miles to the day. Sure, I wanted to run an extra 2.4 miles. Thanks Yeti!

 We once again set off at a jog to meet up with Casey. We lost both other dogs that day but for not nearly as long. Needless to say the leashes came out. The hike seemed fast and it was beautiful. We had a quick lunch at Park Meadow and then got to Golden Lake.

It's a beauty. The Sisters got snow just last week so they were especially picturesque. From the lake you head up another mile to two small tarns.

Jefferson

 Casey and I shared a PBR and had lunch at this spot. So beautiful. Yeti engaged in his favorite activity, digging in water.

The day was stunning. Here are some more shots of the gorgeous day.

Casey and headed out of this great spot and attempted to find the right trail out. We found a trail and at first it felt right. Then as South Sister got closer than I remembered we hesitated. We had spoke with a guy near Golden Lake and he had mentioned he also came up from Park Meadow since he was just a bit behind us we went and asked him to verify we were heading the right way. He had a GPS yipee! So we turned back and continued on the trail. It still just felt wrong. I swear we only about 20 minutes from Green Lakes. Well, GPS works great if you are headed to the same spot. Turns out that the guy had messed up and missed the turn to Golden and went all the way to Park Meadow, but he had originally come from Green Lakes. So, Casey and I turned around and were so happy to have added on more mileage to the day. (Ha-Ha) Didn't I mention earlier that I was looking for more miles or was that Yeti? I was still a bit unnerved and didn't feel better until we passed the point on the trail where you head in to Golden. It was all downhill from there, well you would think, but it's not. I swear the trail was longer on the way out. The dust was thicker and the hills just kept coming. But we made it and headed straight for the Three Creeks Brewery for an adult beverage and some grub.

Overall it was another awesome day in the mountains. Below is a testament to the dirt on the trail.