Xela no más

Hola,

Wow, the end of Xela is here. I can’t believe it! I remember when I first got here, scared and not sure what to think. Now it feels like home. I am truly going to miss my family (Doris/Mario) Celas Maya, and friends.

I flew from San José, CR to Guatemala City where Charlie met me. From there we spent a few days catching up and going to Café Barista (the best coffee in all of Guatemala) before heading up to Quetzeltenago.

I was a bit nervous driving up because so much had happened and I didn’t know what to expect. It is always different going back to places and I didn’t know what I would think. Plus Doris had moved into a different house, with a lot more bedrooms which meant more students. The current house has 8 bedrooms.

When I arrived to Doris’ house there was Lucy, Melissa, Sarah, Me, Deborah, and Jimmy. Then another Melissa, David and Sarah’s novio Don Juan de Marco came to stay with us. Right now there are nine of us including Doris and Mario which makes for a really fun time. It has been so great to get to know everyone better, especially Doris and Mario. Now that my Spanish is a bit better we have been able to communicate better.

School went really well for me. I was even surprised at how much more Spanish I knew than I thought I knew. I had a great teacher named Ligia for the entire time I was in school which is really great because they like you to change your teacher after two weeks. We finished up through all the Spanish tenses.

I kept a pretty low profile for this month, trying to make Spanish my priority. We went out of couple of times with friends for wine and cheese, studied over coffee, had a massage. I did go to Guatemala City one weekend for Charlie’s brother wedding which was really fun.

I got to rent a suit and get all dressed up, because they aren’t like the weddings in the States. Here it is a huge production where everyone is required to wear; for the men, suits and for the women, nightgowns. The women all get their hair done and nails…quite the production. There were about 1,200 people that attended, five different types of food (Italian, India, Japanese, Mexican and Greek), dessert table, all you can drink bar (my favorite), and a live band. We all had an amazing time and didn't go to bed until 6:30 am the following day.

The following two weeks were spent just enjoying Xela and Guatemala in general. Doris made a special good-bye dinner for everyone which was amazing. Super good food and tons of friends, in all there were: Me, Melissa, Melissa, Lucy, Sarah, Don Juan de Marco, Peter, Kevin, David, Charlie, Doris and Mario. Afterwards we played a game of Mimica which was a lot of fun. We all decided to go out afterwards and check out the street fair. They had live bands playing in the street, dancers and fireworks. It was very cool.

During my last week I shared it between Antigua and the City which was really nice. Kevin got to spend some of it with Charlie and I since he rode back with us, Charlie's grandma and her friend from Sweden. It was good to see some old friends, hang out in the park in Antigua and of course get coffee and Cafe Barista. Guatemala's only good coffee spot. I spent plenty of time hanging out there, reading and enjoying some great coffee.

Charlie through a birthday dinner at Tamarindos with some friends which was over the top. We ate and drank like kings and had a great time. I got one more amazing massage from David...absolutely incredible in Antigua and got to buy all my gifts for my family and friends.

That pretty much takes me right up to the end of my trip. I can't believe that it is finally over. What an amazing time, truly a dream come true and something that I will never forget. Thanks to everyone who supported me on this journey, cheered me on and gave me strength.

I love you all,
Craig

Panama

Greetings,

Panama, what a great time I had there. On the horrific bus ride down there I met some great guys from Sweden: their names are Olle, Johan, and Patrik.

We got into the city’s bus station around 4 pm and grabbed a taxi. The taxi driver’s name was Antonio, which we would get to see a lot more of him in the times to come. He recommended us to stay at Hotel Latino, which ended up being a great place. For private rooms; with bath, free Internet, pool, and air conditioning was only $17 a night for two people. Great we were set!

We needed a break from the whole travelling bit, so we spent the following few days taking it easy. We went out to eat, saw movies, shopped (hey I needed more clothes, right?) and went to a few of the local night spots. The first one was called “Next” and we had a great time. There was a live band and a private section that we lied to get into.

The following few days were spent touring the city. Antonio and his friend took us on a driving tour of the city. We went to the Locks, the Old and New parts of town. We had a good laugh because their version of tourism was a bit different than what we thought it should be. Like the time they drove to a deserted road so that would could look at shipping crates on the ground.

The Swedes had some friends coming in and I was waiting for my new friend Ryan to come in. When they did, they left for the islands and Ryan and I stayed in the city for a few more days. We wanted to leave right away for the San Blas Islands, but there was no available spots on the plane.

We killed the time by going to see the Bahi and Hindu Temples, which were very cool. Also we explored Panama Antigua a bit more. And the trip wouldn’t be complete without going to “The Garage.” Oh good times!

Finally, we were off for the San Blas Islands. The San Blas Islands are off of Panama’s coast in the Caribbean. There are over 365 islands and most of them are private or deserted. We stayed a Robinson’s Island. Truly amazing. For $17 a day, you got three meals a day and a grass hut to sleep in.

When Ryan and I first got to the island, there was only us and four other students from Yale (on spring break) on the island. Besides Ernesto the chef and island keeper. After the second day Ryan and I had the island to ourselves. Our days were filled with sun, relaxation and fun. I still can’t believe how incredible it was. I even ate a coconut right after it fell from the tree.

We laid out in the sun, went snorkelling, visited the other islands that hosted the Koona Tribe, played cards, read and just relaxed. There was no running water, electricity, or lights on the island. It was like camping in the Caribbean and so far away from everything. I will never forgot what an amazing feeling it was to have an entire island to yourself. It was so nice to relax, reflect and just be with no worries. This truly one of the highlights of my trip.

We had to leave after four days, getting up (or I should say not getting up) at 5:00 am. We over slept because the night before we had cockroaches crawling in our hair and crabs making clicking noises. Besides, sleeping in a hammock is pretty uncomfortable, so by the time we had to get up we overslept. Luckily, Ernesto woke us up.

It was really scary riding in a canoe-like boat in the pitch blackness, but we made it to the other “bigger” island that had the airport on it. We flew back to the Panama City, where we had a short layover before flying out to Bocas Del Toro another set of islands off of Panama’s coast in the Caribbean, only more north closer to Costa Rica.

On our first night we stayed on a little island off of Bocas del Toro because we didn’t want to stay in a real “touristy” place. The island, beach and hotels weren’t that nice so after the first night we headed back to the main island. We checked ourselves into Hotel Angela’s. It was a bit expensive, but we wanted to relax. This was before I realized how much money I had spent. Yikes, that was a depressing day.

Ryan and I went out to eat, went scuba diving, played games like “Who would you rather,” and hung out with the locals. The diving conditions weren’t that good and our dive guide was like 16 years old so we didn’t feel to comfortable. Probably one of the most fun things that we did was read the really cheesy books they had at the hotel.

One that will always be in our memories was called, “Why have the birds stopped singing.” A turbulent tale of a young girl named Paula that struggles with epilepsy while having a past life occurrence while her school trip to the Washington’s Coast takes a turn for the worst (dot, dot, dot)…

We left there in the rain and a taxi ride from hell. Stressed out that we were going to miss our bus, we made it all the way to San Jose, CR okay. I was flying out of San Jose to Guatemala City and Ryan was meeting his sister there. Ryan had a good time in San Jose and were sad when it was time to say good-bye. We had a great time and I am glad we became friends.

Uncle Sid

Hola Amigos,

I wanted to write about my trip from Manuel Antonio to San José, CR. I have been meaning to, but I have forgotten until now.

I was leaving Manuel Antonio for the city to get ready to head to Panama. This was just before I got my backpack stolen in Juko’s house. It was a hot day and there was no air-conditioning in the bus. Luckily or not, I was at the very back of the bus. Typically you get more room and don’t have to be bothered with a lot of people coming and going.

Well on this particular day, there was an old man sitting next to me. I would guess him to be in his early sixties, white hair on the sides of his head and bald on top. He was wearing a brown Canada hot, white shirt that said Vancouver, Canada on it, brown shorts and tennis shoes. Nothing to unusual I thought, just a guy who wants everyone to think he is Canadian.

We started our conversation like any other. You know, the usual greetings of, “Where are you from? What are you doing here? How long have you been here?” Sid as it turns out has been coming to Costa Rica for the last 10 years. Luckily for Sid, he gets to spend about six months in each place, here and Canada. Although after talking to him, I am not so sure he was all that happy about it.

One of the conversations (which typically happens) lead to us talking about if anything “bad” happened to us. Sid mentioned that there was an American guy that he was talking to earlier that day, that lives near Quepos who had a Costa Rican guy living with him that was helping take care of the house and the gardens. Apparently this Tico ended up stealing from him and when the guy confronted him and kicked him out of the house the guy came back and beat up this American.

Sid said, “I wish I would have known about this sooner because I could have ‘taken’ care of the guy. You have to know how to ‘take care’ problems here. I know people.”

Well, I didn’t quite know what to think of Sid. Maybe he knows the police or belongs to some sort of “block watch” group that some of the neighborhoods have to help reduce crime in the area? I found out quickly enough.

Sid was well known in town to get condoms from, give advice, and even come to for help if you found yourself in jail. “One guy,” boasted Sid, “said that he would give me a ‘special’ favor if I gave him money to post bail. I thought about it.” Sid would go into detail about his run-ins with the young locals and how they have sex at young ages and what not.

This was Sid’s lighter side because then he went back into telling me about the troubled kids that he would pay to have taken care of. “You would be surprised at what $50 dollars will get you,” Sid proudly stated. “There was this one time I found a guy stealing from the family that I was staying with. You just don’t let people get away with that. So for $50 dollars I had this guy take a baseball bat to his head. Well needless to say, we didn’t see him anymore.”

Sid continued in this fashion. Talking about his life with great pride, making sure to state that you can’t let people take advantage of you or else. I never did figure our what the ‘else’ was, but I imagined it to be pretty bad. I mean why else would you go to all the trouble to “take care” of people. He told me about his backpacking through Europe, sky diving, and doing all the things you want to in order to stay “young.”

“Wow, what an adventurous life. Is there anything thing that you haven’t done that you really want to?” I asked innocently.

“Well, I haven’t killed anyone,” Sid said with a smile on his face that said he wasn’t kidding. After more questioning on my part, he assured me he wasn’t.