So, we hear you've been rather frantically checking for updates of our journey. Do not fear, we lived. Gandalf protected us.
"Hey Ryan! Are you gonna run for co-prez tomorrow?" -Adam "Maybe they can't tell that we're white." -Cassandra
We left bright and early on Sunday at 6 am. We drove a long ways to San Marcos. It was aboot 5.478 hours. There was not much notable activity during this journey, except the purchase of a gigantic hackeysack. Also, our driver, Mario, was unable to be present on this trip, so we got a new driver, Raoul. I think he is Fidel Castro's long lost brother. He had a sweet beard.
Once in San Marcos, we met up with the MCC worker in the region, Nate Howard. He had a sweet beard. We had lunch with him at a local diner. A crazy man came in three times to talk to Daryl. We understood nothing he said, and the last time he just nodded his head and walked away. We tried some pineapple pop called Tiky Piña. Delicious. The waitresses were in love with Matt. They kept taking pictures of him. We checked into our hotel and then had some free time to explore the region. Adam searched for soccer jersey's but failed. He had a sweet beard. Kate was walking around with a group of people and a drunk man would not let go of her hand. He kept following our group too. This said group also visited a park which will henceforth be called Couple Central. Couple Central had so many couples. Most did not have sweet beards, but had sweet kissing skills. Katie had someone practice English with her. He told her she was beautiful. Afterwards we went to mass. I almost puked, Hillary almost puked, Daryl almost puked, Katie almost puked, and Luke almost puked due to the sickness afflicting our group. It was a nice service, even though most of us had no idea what was said. Those who were not sick went to get some sweet tacos.
It was a great day on Monday. While the group was not feeling 100%, we were on the upswing. We were rudely awakened by a group of noisy hikers (Luke, Matt, Adam, Israel, and Kate), who were climbing with Nate to the community of Tonina. By the way, if Ryan Wood is reading this, Tonina means Big River in Mam. We were awakened later by a tremor. Then we were finally gently nudged awake by Jimbo. We ate breakfast, then hurried to catch the chicken bus that left at 9. Once close to Sibinal, our destination, we exited there and caught some interesting taxis into town. Eight people climbed into one Toyota Corolla, which ended up bottoming out numerous times. A kid sat on the drivers lap as well, Cassandra sat on Geraldine's lap, and four people sat on the back bench. The car was not turned on during the downwards sections. The remaining five of us climbed into a pick-up truck with some strangers with a lot of cargo.
Meanwhile, the fellows on the hike who all had sweet beards (including, but not limited to Nate, Adam, Luke [sort of sweet], and Matt) were well on their way. The Hike According to Luke owned. Their hike included waterfalls, volcanos, geckos, a snake (according to two sources), and ridiculous inclines (roughly 45 degrees).
The rest of us took a pick-up truck up the said 45 degrees to Tonina. The road was quite sketchy, but I was impressed that we made it there safely. It took 2 hours to go 12.5 Km.
Once at Tonina, we took a tour of the local agricultural projects. We lost Kate. We weren't sure where she went, but we knew she was sick. Jim, who had a sweet beard (yes mom, he's growing a beard), used his sweet detective skills to deduce her location. Kate argues she used her skills, but we all know she has none. Actually, she just went to the bathroom.
Later that night, we gathered with the community for a cultural exchange. Among notable acts were: the school kids interpretation of North Americans, Matt leading Father Abraham, Ryan, Jordan, Luke, Hillary, and Katie's rendition of Padre Nuestro (much too high), Nelson (a local schoolboy) and Israel singing a song, and eight of the kids performing a cultural dance. We could tell our visit was a big deal due to the long speeches and the singing of the 8 minute long Guatemalan national anthem. Then we headed out with the families we were staying the night with for our homestays. Ryan and I walked for what seemed an eternity uphill. It turns out that Adriana walked an eternity plus 5 minutes. Hillary, Katie and Geraldine walked 5 seconds. Wow. That must have been an exhausting trip Hillary!
After a night full of struggling to communicate and great hospitality, I awoke to a great view of a sun rising behind a volcano. We had breakfast and began our descent to the work site. The work site was in a village called La Linea. We painted and stained two buildings of the co-op that we were working with. Meanwhile, the rest worked on the bathroom and digging trenches for a concrete retaining wall. When the concrete crew came across a rock too big to move, they whipped out a sledge hammer and broke it into more manageable pieces. Unfortunately this resulted in more than a few shards of rock flying out and hitting more than a few people. Luckily, Hillary had her glasses on! We were treated to lunch of chicken, and some amazing, hand-cut french fries from the ladies of the community, who were on the job site at six in the morning getting lunch ready for us. We went back to work, but the water system stopped working, which meant that the concrete project was delayed a bit. Eventually however, the water started flowing from the top of the mountain, and we were on our way. After work, we met with Juan Pablo, the leader of the co-op in La Linea told us about the history of the community and the project. Before boarding the chicken bus out, Hillary, Luke, Matt, Ryan and I (Jordan) ran down to Mexico to take a picture. That makes three Central American countries on this trip! WOOO! We took a chicken bus on the awful roads back to Sibinal where we ate supper and spent the night in a cozy hotel.
Once again, we were rudely awakened at five in the morning, this time by a chicken bus driver who was way too fond of his horn. We lost count at forty honks. Good thing we had to wake up at six anyways to catch the next bus out to San Marcos. Due to the early morning, everyone was asleep on this ride. We ate breakfast in San Marcos, and said farewell and thanks to Nate for leading us for the past couple days. Before he left he gave us one hundred pounds of coffee for us to bring back. We boarded another bus (not a chicken bus, rather a Greyhound type deal) and rode all the way to Xela (three hours). Hillary was treated to a semi driver on the way who looked to practice his English, especially his flirting skills. We got off and were swarmed by a few taxi drivers looking to drive us. More than a few had sweet beards. Luckily Adriana had arranged taxis for us, so we walked past them to the cars waiting. These took us to the central square, and from there we walked to our hotel. Adriana gave us all fifty Quetzales for lunch. The five boys found a nice little restaurant and had sandwiches and cheese burgers to go along with our chocolate covered fruit for dessert (not as sweet as it sounds and definately not as sweet as the beards). The girls just ate ice cream for lunch. Katie accidentally screamed at a poor little Guatemalan lady at Saritas just saying "Chocolate Waffla!!!!" over and over again. Nice attempt at Spanish Katie. Us boys went through the park to a small market in Xela. On the way, we passed a man with literally the sweetest beard all of us had seen all trip (sorry Raoul). It hung well past his chest. Something all of us can only dream of. Among notable purchases were soccer jerseys (finally!) and a sweet leather hat found by Ryan, bought by Luke. Adam and Matt took the rest of us boys on a wild goose chase until we finally found the one store that sold jerseys, but due to a miscommunication error, Adam and Matt spent twenty minutes in the store while the lady there was on the phone. They thought she was ordering in a jersey from the other store in Xela, but wasn't actually and they didn't realize it. The girls meanwhile had a relaxing afternoon looking at the shops, with Kate and Katie buying Spanish DVDs. Hillary didn't because she "isn't stupid". They also bought pop in a bag because the shop wanted to keep the glass bottles. We ate supper at a sweet, old restaurant.
The evening was spent playing cards, with Ryan and I (Jordan) pulling out a clutch Kaiser win. Jordan bid ten no, but lost the first trick, yet we still won the hand by dumping the three on them. Our record is now a sparkling 10-0.
Today we spent the moring relaxing at an amazing hot spring in the mountain. The water was flowing straight from the mountain and boy was it warm. I mean REALLY warm. No one got all the way in the hottest pool. Ryan got to his thighs, but was slightly afraid to go any further. Here we noticed Daryl's uncanny resemblance to Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. We drove the rest of the way back top Semilla sadly, in a slightly smaller bus. My leg room was barely less than adequate. Luke and Kate had some interesting sleeping habits. Both involved their heads bobbing back and forth, into people, then shooting straight back into normal, erect position. Katie and Adam's shoulders are slightly bruised, but not quite as bad as Luke's head. We spent the rest of the day at Semilla being vegetables. Katie finally got her Chocolate Waffla, but sadly it did not live up to her lofty expectations. We said our goodbyes to Israel and Sylvia who are leaving tomorrow morning. Tomorrow we are headed to Antigua for our last full day here in Guatemala. Shopping and sightseeing are on the agenda.
Whew!
Jordan, Ryan and Hillary. (with comments from Adam and Katie after Hillary went to sleep)
PS. You may have noticed a theme. We mentioned a lot of sweet beards. Namely, that were grown by people from our group. That is because, as of March 20th, we decided to grow Guatemala Goatees, or Guat Goats for short. We'll be showing them off at school Monday (including Jim). Prepare yourself Canada. The Goats are Coming!
