La Muela

This afternoon the girls from the initial group that arrived with me two weeks ago went to take salsa lessons and everyone in the second group that just arrived this weekend had to meet with our in-country coordinator Jessica, so I was left to my own devices.  I decided to go on our school-sponsored trip to La Muela, a local hike just outside of Xela.

The group was pretty small: myself, two other students, our guide Kevin (who also teaches at Celas Maya), and two of his friends.  Sadly, there has been an increase in armed robberies on the outskirts of the city.  Since we were so few in number, we decided against walking and opted instead to take a camioneta (a converted school bus from the United States) to the base of the mountain.

I enjoyed the hike much more than I had expected.  It was really less of a walk and more of a rock scramble, much like Old Rag back in Virginia.  And you guys know how much I love Old Rag.

The vista lived up to the hype: we were able to see most of the valley and many of the surrounding mountain chains.  The crazy rock formations created by previous volcanic eruptions also let us get insanely close to the precipice.  We were pretty cavalier (hiyo!) with how close we came to the edges of the mountain, and I am truly glad that none of us fell to gruesome and untimely deaths.

To finish off the day, I video chatted with my parents when we got back from the hike.  I tried to talk to Titan, too, but he couldn't figure out that I was actually in the computer screen.  Bah, I miss you, you stupid dog.

Una Compañera de Cuarto

My host family has two guest bedrooms, but for the past two weeks, I've been the only student staying here.  Well, no longer!  I have a new roommate, and she is none other than... Nina.

What are the chances that my host family would be assigned another UVA medical student?  It's crazy, I tell you.  But it's definitely nice having a roommate around, and it's kind of cool that it's someone I already know.  I just hope my host family is prepared to have two hungry, hungry chinitos to feed this coming week.

El Volcán Santa María

Another weekend, another volcano.  This time we hiked up the Santa María, which was no easy feat.  Our adventure began at 5am, when our guide Gustavo (the same one who took us to El Volcán Chicabal) picked us up from our houses.  The hike to the peak took a good five hours, but the view at the top was totally worth it.

The air at the top, which is about 3,772m above sea level, was extremely thin.  But I kicked that mountan's butt and lived up to my new nickname, Samazo (the suffix -azo indicates that the noun is large).

The coolest part of the day was getting to see other volcanoes along the mountain chain erupt, like the Santiaguito, which is one of the ten most active volcanoes in the world.

The trip was physically exhausting, and I'm extremely proud of our entire group for hiking it.  Sadly, it was our last full day with Steph, as she is leaving to work at her site in Panajachel this afternoon.  On the bright side, the rest of the UVA group arrived today.  I can't wait to start showing them around Xela!

El Subalicilato de Bismuto

Whenever I travel, I make sure to bring Pepto Bismol along for the ride, and I never end up having to use it.  Of course, the one time I forget to bring Pepto Bismol with me to Guatemala, I suffer from gastrointestinal issues.

Luckily the pharmacies here carry the pink nectar of the gods, and I now swear by the medication.  As soon as I started taking it, my symptoms began to improve.  Plus, the cherry-flavored oral suspension tastes so good.  It's kinda like amoxicillin for adults.

Pepto Bismol: don't leave home without it!

La Chocolatería de Doña Pancha

Yesterday evening the school sponsored its best excursion yet: a trip to a local chocolate shop.  We learned all about the discovery and evolution of chocolate since the time of the Mayans, which was exciting and all, but the real highlight was of course eating the chocolate.  Not surprisingly, chocolate fondue with fresh fruit was part of the tasting.

Towards the end of the visit, we were given balls of chocolate dough and had the opportunity to make our own customized chocolate bars.  The owner then froze them for us to take home.  We all made desserts of different shapes and sizes, but I think Steph's fat baby chocolate was by far the most memorable.

In fact, her creation was so ugly that it broke my camera.  Just kidding.  Sort of.  Sadly, after taking the above photo, my camera did in fact break, although it had nothing to do with Steph's handiwork.  The 18-70mm lens that came with my Sony α-200 just started making a really weird grinding noise whenever I turned my camera on or off.

I did a thorough internet search when we got back to Celas Maya, and it turns out the infinity-stop on the lens is not strong enough for the camera's autofocus motor and will at times break with normal use.  My options now are to take the remainder of my pictures on the trip either using the manual focus on my regular lens or switching entirely to my wide-angle lens, neither of which is ideal.

On the plus side, now I get to start shopping for a new camera lens.  Hooray for the inappropriate use of student loans!

La Tarea

Each week at Celas Maya we get a new tutor, and this week I'm working with Jessica.  I really enjoy her teaching style, because she focuses less on going over the grammatical rules and really spends time practicing with me.  This is perfect for me, since I am pretty comfortable with Spanish grammar (it's really not all that different from French grammar), but I forget how to use it in the context of a conversation.

The downside of having Jessica as a tutor is that she also loves giving homework.  I mean, LOVES giving homework.  On the first night, I had to do two worksheets, watch a video about pediatric cardiac surgery in Guatemala and summarize its content, and write three essays.  Lolwut?

Luckily last night I only had to do three pages of exercises on the subjunctive and write two essays, which meant that I actually had time to exercise as well.  Steph and I continued our run towards the Santa Maria Volcano, this time making it all the way to the town that sits at the base of the mountain.  The run was probably about six miles long, which I'm really proud of, because the longest I can ever recall running in my life is eight miles.  On top of that, the first time I had run since May, when I started P90X, was two weeks ago.

Let's hope I didn't push myself too far and give myself shin splints.  Warst.

Los Vahos

Yesterday afternoon's school-sponsored trip was to Los Vahos, a set of saunas heated by the volcanoes near Xela.  Sadly, Tracey had been unable to join us for our trip to Las Fuentes Georginas, so the two of us set on the trek towards the saunas with several of the other students at Celas Maya.  The hike provided us some pretty good views of the entire city, which is actually much more expansive than I had originally imagined.

I didn't actually enter the saunas when we got there because I had been having stomach problems all day, so I ended up hanging out and talking with some other students who also didn't want to go in.  On the walk back, I saw a brown cow.  BROWN COWS ARE AWESOME!  I tried to get a picture with it, but it literally sprinted away from me as fast as it could.

It's nice to finally get to know other people here, especially some of the other guys.  The five of us had pretty much just been doing things exclusively with ourselves the first week, and consequently, I have been surrounded by a lot of (too much?) estrogen.  Evan, you need to get over here as soon as possible.