Tuesday, June 27, 2006
not quite all it´s cracked up to be
| well hello again. on friday i was planning on writing more and putting up more pictures, but i didn't because kirsten was really sick. i walked into the house at quarter to five, and she had thrown up on the floor and was wrapped in a blanket, shivering. she told me that she had a fever of 104 and could i please find a doctor or something. i hurried back to ica and got the doctor who works there to come with me to the house, and when we returned dulce had arrived and cleaned up the floor. the doctor got a urine and blood sample, and about an hour later determined that kirsten had a urinary tract infection and gave her antibiotics. now, she's still sort of feverish, but is feeling a lot better. we were both really scared, because it's not actually good for your body to have a fever that high, but i'm super relieved that she seems to be on the mend. on saturday, i went on the school trip to the lago del atitlan, which was an experience. we rode in two 15 passenger vans, and on the way there everything was fine. when we got to the hotel in panajachel (which is right by the lake), things started going wrong. first of all, they were asking who wanted to share a room with who, which we had not been warned about in advance. i ended up in a room with josta (that's how you spell yosta, apparently) and sonja, which was fine... however, our room had not been cleaned yet, so we were directed to leave our bags in the reception office. then we had an opportunity to use someone else's bathroom, and we were off for our tour of the lake by boat, or lancha. at this point, it started to rain pretty hard. luckily, our boat was shrouded in plastic, but this also meant that we couldn't see out of it, and neither could the guy who was driving it. i mean, i guess there's not really anything to hit out in the middle of the lake, but it made me sort of nervous and seasick, not knowing where we were boldly going at like 30 mph. after a good 45 minutes of blind sailing, we arrived at our first destination. we learned that there are twelve pueblos around the edge of the lake, all named after saints. i don't remember what the first place was called, but it was wet, that's for sure. we hung out in the rain for a little while and then had a whirlwind tour of the market there. just as we were about to leave, the rain stopped. we climbed back into the boat, rolled up the plasic cover, and set sail for our next port of call. by this time, it was about 1:30, and we were all getting really hungry and seasick. however, the teacher who was accompanying us, elisa, assured us that there was a really great restaurant in santa caterina, our last stop, that was worth waiting for. we continued on to the second pueblo in peace for awhile, but then we noticed something funny on the horizon. "is that a cloud?" aaron, a musician from memphis asked. "no, it looks like rain" mused quinn, a recent college grad. indeed it was rain (there's a picture of it in the following entry), and we were headed straight for it, without any sort of protection. within a couple of minutes, i was soaked through (i had been sitting in the first seat, enjoying the view). someone suggested that the people in front open their umbrellas, which helped a little, but by the time we got to our second pueblo, most of us were really not interested in being there, especially since we weren't allowed to eat. "wait for the restaurant in santa caterina!" we were encouraged. "it had better be good" the 30 of us collectively grumbled, as we waded our way out of the boat. we were quickly escorted to the church, which was apparently the first catholic one in guatemala, and then to the current resicence of san simon, who is apparently a little wooden man with quite a following who travels all around the highland pueblos. after seeing him, we trudged back to the boat, to embark on another soggy half hour joyride across the lake. by the time we reached our lunch destination, it was 4:00 in the afternoon. we were all hungry, cranky, thirsty, seasick, and damp. must have been a really attractive crew. at any rate, we sat down in the restaurant and tried to find out how we could get some agua pura, which is clean water. "i'm sorry, we only have gallo" the waitress informed us, in spanish of course. for those of you who don't know, gallo is the national drink of guatemala. remember the beer factory i can see out my window in xela? that's gallo. some of the participants decided to have it, but i didn't think that putting alcohol in my already queasy stomach was the greatest idea, so i stayed thirsty. then we had the menu read to us. they had enought shrimp for 7 people to have that, enough fish for 5 people, and then the rest of us could have chicken or cheese sandwiches. i opted for the chicken sandwich, which was a mistake. anything else would have been a mistake too, though, so we were all dissatisfied together. the shrimp came out first, and the woman across from me started in on them. you know how shrimp look in the u.s., like a cute little pink comma, sometimes with a tail attached? well, not only did these shrimp have a tail, but they had eyes and legs as well. and the fish? more of the same - it was an entire fish, eyes, gills, fins, tail, bones, everything. my chicken sandwhich had lettuce, tomato, mayonaise, and like three little eraser size pieces of chicken, buried somewhere in the depths of the mayo. needless to say, i didn't eat most of it. luckily, once that was done, it was time to go back to the hotel. we spent another 45 minutes careening around the lake with the rain plastic down, blocking everyone's view. it was sort of like being in one of those virtual reality rides, where you're sitting in a box and it moves around, like star tours at disneyland, except our virtual realiy box was real and there was no tv screen inside. we got back to the hotel around 6:00, and planned to meet at 8 for dinner. i showered and then josta, eriko, camila and i decided to go take a look around panajachel. i bought a duffel bag sort of thing for 45 quetzales, which comes out to something like $6.50 (the guy first wanted me to pay 85, so i was pretty happy with my bargaining). then we all went to dinner together at this really pretty restaurant that served pizza, pasta, and a variety of hispanic foods (i had nachos with beans and cheese and they were really good). at dinner, there was a guy who was playing the keyboard, but he was singing all songs from the u.s. in the 60's, in english. i didn't know most of them, but he did do "tambourine man", which i liked. also, smoking is allowed in restaurants in guatemala, and one of the guys in our group, a german named daniel, ordered a carton of lucky strikes with his dinner, which i thought was really odd. i'll write more later, but now i've got to go pick up my clean clothes (hopefully they're done... i miss laundromats) and have lunch. |
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Hi Sarah from Auntie Karen,
I'm really enjoying the photos and journal of your trip. I bet you'll remember that boat tour for a long time. I hear you're wondering what color cloth I'm hoping for. Well,you know that picture of the fabric hanging up? I'd take any of those. Bright colors and interresting patterns would be best. I like blues and greens but I think bright colors would be really pretty too (orange, red, yellow, purple). I'm not planning on it matching anything. I'm thinking of it more as art. If you can't decide get two or three and I'll pay you for them. I heard you aren't feeling too well. I hope you get better soon. It's not fun being sick away from home. (I vividly recolect Harrod's bathroom in London.) I can't wait to see more photos and read more entries. Love, Auntie Karen
Hi Sarah,
I forgot to ask you ... Why doesn't the toilet paper (and everything else) get wet when you take a shower? It looks like the water would go everywhere.
Love, Auntie Karen