Guatemala

Finally made it here last night. Woke up early yesterday, 1 hour flight to Lima, 4 hour flight to Costa Rica, then another 2 hours or so to Guatemala. I was picked up along with 3 other volunteers, one of whom is my roommate T, and we went to our city base of Antigua.

Antigua is a beautiful town with some Spanish style architecture. The roads however, are extremely bumpy cobblestone.

When I first arrived at my house, honestly, I was quite disappointed. It is extremely basic. The front door is about 3 feet off the street and you enter into an empty room. From there is the dining area with the kitchen off to the side. Out back is a nice little courtyard. There are 3 rooms for 5 volunteers and a bathroom for us to share. Off the front empty room is a small, dark room I haven't seen much of. Apparently, my host mom Marta and her two children all sleep in there. Luckily they have a bathroom of their own, so it's not too horrible. There is no TV, no internet, and I'm not even sure if she has a phone. She doesn't speak English either. Come to think of it, there isn't a couch or sitting area, just the dining table and chairs. It's extremely different from Patricia's.

I was a bit homesick for Cusco for the first while, although dinner was delicious. It was rice, beef, and other stuff but very tasty.

Breakfast this morning was corn "pancakes" and strawberry yogurt. I went to orientation and had my suspicions confirmed that Guatemala isn't quite as safe as Cusco. I returned home to a lunch of soup and a pasta dish with beef and vegetables asian style.

After that, I had to go on a hunt for a safe ATM. Everyone walks here which made things a bit more difficult. No more easy taxis. Apparently ATM skimming has been a problem, so I walked a little ways to one that was recommended as quite safe. I then went to a grocery store for some necessities which was quite fun.

The local currency is the Quetzal. 1USD is about 7.8 Quetzales. It was difficult to shop because everything felt expensive, even though it wasn't. a good size bottle of bug spray was about 45 Q, which blew me away but then I realized that's about 6USD for good bug spray. Mind you I don't know how much it goes for in the US, but the price was fine. I also got two big bottles of body wash for 17 Q, or a little more than 2 bucks.

I like cheap stuff.

I start my placement tomorrow at the dog rescue. I'm very excited. I do feel like I lost a day today. Why couldn't I have had my orientation yesterday? But that's ok. I've booked a trip to Tikal for this weekend. 3d/2n going up by bus and seeing some other areas as well. It's my only full weekend in GUA so I booked it quick before time ran out.

There are several mountains around the city, so hopefully one afternoon I can hike up one. There is a tour tomorrow for only $15, but I'm not sure how I'll feel tomorrow, so I'll save that one for later. But what a good  price!

So, back to me being disappointed about here. Just before I went shopping, it began to rain pretty good. Luckily the shopping place also had clothing and I purchased a rain jacket for about 35Q. I walked home with my other goodies and reached the narrow sidewalk near the house. Unfortunately for me, a chicken bus (public transportation, will take photo later) was coming up the road with a giant puddle in between us. There was nowhere for me to go. I ended up getting soaked from the knee down. If I hadn't have found the rain jacket, this would have been a whole nother story. But silly me found this all amusing, so I'm happy here.