Henny-Bee-Aby y Eesa-Bella - Páseme por favor el vino

Chichicastenango

2010-02-01T17:35:00.001-08:00

Dear Followers,

Firstly, we can only apologise for the lack of fantastic fiesta photos. We have yet to upload said photos, thus this joy is still to come.

This past weekend, Libby, Genevieve, the infamous Jane, Stephanie and Aeriel made the two-hour journey to a little place they like to call Chichicastenango. This is a bustling market town situated in the neighbouring province to Sacatepequez - which we call home, and you know what they say - there is no place like home. Indeed, Chichi was quite a different vibe from the sweet streets of Antigua, though we loved its hustle-bustle all the same. But only for a day.

What you will find here is a photographic exhibition, of the finest quality might we add, of our day at the famous markets of Chichicastenango. We trust that you will enjoy it, and will pop back soon to see the photos of our fun-filled Friday fiesta up at ol' Santa Maria de Jesus... did we mention there were piñatas?

Stephanie, Libby, Jane & Aeriel... complete with candyfloss halo. Libby would like to point out that the strange protrusion from her tummy is not the result of muchos burritos, but is in fact an oh-so-discrete moneypurse.

Though the market is predominantly handicrafts, there was also a wide range of fresh produce. Look at the colour on those babies.

This photo does not adequately portray the gorgeous, glowing tan that Gen has genuinely generated in Guatemala... but does show some of the market-goers and their neat fashions. Check out the sweet hat and bandana combo on the dude to the right.

On the steps of the church we found a fresh flower market. We were mesmerised by the bright aqua blue of these jazzy numbers. Might we also mention that the heady aromas of the incense wafting from the Sunday church service combined with the fresh flowers in the warm sun made for a pleasantly exotic atmosphere.

This lady really enjoyed having her photo taken.

This vegetable, with a name we cannot pronounce nor spell, is a staple part of our Guatemalan diet. Such green must be good for you. It tastes, and has a similar texture to, zucchini.

Probably a tad bit less good for you - fried chicken from a roadside stall. Mum, can we've Chicken Tonight, tomorrow?

The market was a flurry of colour. Probably the nicest things were the textiles: the handwoven bolts of cloths and the heavily embroidered blankets and wallhangings.

Shortly after this photo was taken, the amigo in the background to the right pelted those black beans he was fondling with some force at Gen's head. A friendly chap, it seems.

And to end, a fine selection of unrefridgerated carcasses swinging in the warm, humid breeze. Mum, scrap the chicken - we want this instead.

To conclude, a fun day had by all. Except maybe Señor with the beans, it seems.

Muchos besos,

Gen and Lib xxx

Monterrico

2010-01-25T16:23:00.001-08:00

After a bit of a hectic week, including a bout of food poisoning for Gen, we set off to Monterrico for the past weekend. Monterrico is a beach about 2.5hours from Antigua, on Guatemala's Pacific coast. We took a shuttle from Antigua early Saturday morning, arriving in Monterrico at 10 am. We spent Saturday swimming in the bath-water-warm sea and lazing about in hammocks. After dinner at a beachfront restaurant, we went down to the beach where we lay on the warm sand and looked at the clear starry sky. We saw the most amazing shooting star - very very large and bright. Incredible!

We went to bed very early (about 8.30) after a full day of sea and sun.

The next morning, we woke early at 5.15 am to take a tour on the canals of a nature reserve to see the sunrise. We were punted along the river by our guide, who pointed out various species of egret and heron - and the famous four eyed fish which jumps along the surface of the water.

The sunrise was very beautiful - the sun was huge and very red as we saw it creep up from behind the trees.

Gen befriended one particular white egret, who she named Bernard, and felt she had a special connection with as he followed us along the river for the entire tour.
Here he is in all his glory!
Her eis our hotel - right on the beach.
The black sand (ex-volcanic rock) was super super hot, and you had to be ver yquick running from the sea to the safety of the hammocks.
Speaking of hammocks, we made good use of them over the weekend, for reading, or, more accurately, snoozing in the shade - it was very hot!

Another successful trip, and we felt ready and refreshed for another big week at school. We are looking forward in particular to the school birthday celebrations on Friday - doughnuts, piñatas, dancing and presents - expect an update on that soon!

Love to you all,
Lib and Gen
xxx

Lake Atitlan

2010-01-25T15:50:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went on an adventure weekend trip to Lake Atitlan, about 2 hours from Antigua. We went with a few other volunteers from GVI: Anne - an Irish opera singer, Robyn - an Australian school teacher, Joelle - a British school-leaver, Andrew - a med student from New York and Jane, an alumni from the illustrious Cambridge University (she has promised to take us punting on the river there someday!).
It began with a three hour down-hill bike ride, from the top of a mountain range down to Lake Atitlan itself. The bike ride was both scary and exhilirating, and we both rather hooned down toward the end (daredevils that we are).
During the bike ride we were treated to some pretty neat views of the lake. This one was taken where we stopped for a delicious picnic lunch en route.

Here is the group: Lib, Gen, Robyn, Wilber - our guide, Anne, Joelle, Andrew and Jane.
Wilber was great fun - and very very small.
After the bike ride, we arrived in the town of Panajachel, which is home to many expat hippies and a great artesinal market. From Pana, we took a boat to our hotel in San Pedro. The ride was a little wild - we were in a smallish fibreglass boat driven by a bit of a maniac, and as our bottoms were already a little tender from the bike ride, it was a rather uncomfortable but nonetheless fun experience.
The hotel we stayed at was wonderful. Since we`d paid before we arrived in Guatemala, it was a lovely stress-free treat to stay somewhere with plush double beds, and beautiful showers - both hot and with pressure AT ONCE!!!! A real rarity in Guatemala, at least in our experience so far. The hotel was set in lovely lush gardens, with hummingbirds and squirrels - we even saw a scorpion! We enjoyed a wonderful meal cooked by the Danish owner of the establishment too.
The next day, we went for a kayak on the lake.
This is us, pre-kayak.

The kayaking was great; the lake was very still and tranquil - and very beautiful.
We shared a double kayak which was neat.
We stopped toward the end of the kayak, to scale a 5 metre rock face and jump off a small cliff. It is hard to make out in the above photo, but you can see Libby on the left and Gen slightly lower down on the right. (P.S. Gen's grandparents - Gen made sure the depth of the water was safe before jumping).
After the kayak, we hiked back to the hotel (about two hours in the middle of the day - a hard, hot endeavour). We had lunch at the hotel before re-embarking on the little boat and heading home.

All and all, it was a splendid though exhausting weekend at the lake.

More soon!
Besos,
Gen and Lib
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Day 15 - Quick School Update

2010-01-12T18:06:00.000-08:00

We thought we would take a moment to post some photos we took today on our second day at the school in Santa Maria de Jesus.

We have at least fifty new friends! While we teach specific classes, in the break times we get to meet all the children in the school. This week it is only the little ones, the grades 4-6 don't come back until next week.

Gen with the only niña to cry today - as you can see even that didn't last long!

Three amigas de Libby's third grade afternoon class.

Chiquitas bonitas!

Our monos locos (Crazy monkeys!)

Gen's five and six year old first graders at work.

Sonia, wearing the traditional embroidered pattern of Santa Maria.

We hope you enjoy the pictures, and we will update you in more detail later in the week.

Abrazos,

Gen y Lib

Day 14 - There and Back Again: Dos Hobbits´ Tale

2010-01-11T18:57:00.000-08:00

¡ Hola Amigos !

What an eventful week we have had! Today was our 8th day in Guatemala, and our first day at the escuela in Santa Maria. We have been super super busy, so we are sorry it has taken so long to update the blog.

Here are some more snaps of us and life in Antigua taken over the last week. This is our walk home everyday, along the cobbled street of Calle de Candelaria. You can see the slope of Volcan Agua, which is where the Santa Maria community is, in the background.

Here is Gen by an intriguing gate with a medusa carving that we see everyday also. Nos gusta mucho. (P.S. our Spanish is improving!)

Another curious sight on our way home.

The Chicken buses are crazy painted old American school buses that roar through Antigua going to neighbouring villages (pueblas) and the bigger cities. This one is actually very tame, some are bedazzled with lights and chrome and very bright colours, and they all have names. One is called Norma, for example.

Gen is proud of this picture (Julia) - it is of Agua behind ruins of a church.

This is the Catedral on the main square. It has been restored many times after being near destroyed in earthquakes.

This is the Palacio de los Capitanes, which borders one side of the square. A similar building borders the opposite side. Gen asks that you notice and appreciate her capturing of the bird in flight. Very skillful.

This is a photo of Libby and our new British friend Jane up on a terrace of a cafe near to our Spanish school. The Palacio is in the background, and though you cannot see it, Volcan Fuego ("Fire") is in front of us.

Thar she blows! This was the view from the terrace. Fuego has been particularly active for the past few weeks, and these eruptions are very frequent.

In this picture, Fuego is on the left, and Volcan Acatenango is the larger on the right.

Yesterday (Sunday) we set off to climb Volcan Pacaya. This is an active volcano, about an hour´s drive from Antigua. We went with our friends Jane and Andrew. We didn´t really know what to expect, and I think it is fair to say that had we known what we were in for we may have reconsidered the trip. That said, it was probably one of the most amazing experiences either of us have ever had, and we are very glad (now, home safe) that we did it.

This is the view from Pacaya, about 1/3 of the way up, of the surrounding landscape.

This is when we rounded a corner, and Gen, having thought we had reached the summit, nearly cried.

Libby and Jane at the bottom of the main ascent. We climbed almost to the very top.

Acatenango and Fuego (erupting) from Pacaya.

We opted for the evening climb, which made for pretty spectacular sunset views.

The climb up was initially like climbing a giant black sand dune, because of all the ash, but as we got nearer the top, we started to climb up what had been a molten lava flow only two or three days ago. The rocks became very warm under foot. You can see bits of lava-ish rock in this photo.

View from the top! Fuego and Acatenango in the background. The apparent serenity of Gen is a total illusion, in reality she was a mess - she says it was the scariest day of her life and Libby came unsafely close to being punched in the face for roping Gen into climbing the Volcano. Gen is scared of everything. But she is now forcing Libby to partake in Open Mike night at Rainbow cafe to make up for it, which Libby thinks is a cruel and unusual punishment not just for her but for the innocent people of Antigua. But every time Libby raises this objection, Gen reminds Libby of the very real risk of death by fall into molten lava that she suffered on Pacaya and Libby has to admit defeat.

While Gen was petrified, Libby was having the time of her life, and was thus rather unsympathetic - Gen resented being asked to take photos while she felt she was struggling for her life. She was not too frightened to partake in a bit of Lord of the Rings roleplay however - the quotes came rather thick and fast in fact. We made Jane be Gollum and Andrew, Sauron.

DESTROY IT, ISILDOR!

Here is Libby roasting marshmallows - and we can vouch for the fact that marshmallows roasted over lava at the top of a volcano are rather tasty indeed. This cheered Gen up - a little bit. ( Plus, he said, ¨Don´t you leave her, Genevieve Ferrier¨, and she didn´t mean to, Mister Frodo, she didn´t mean to. )

Sunset - just before we started our descent down the volcano in near total darkness. If Gen had been scared before, she was TERRIFIED now.

However, the incredible views were some comfort.

After basically skiing down the loose and razor sharp volcanic rock and ash in the dark, we walked through the forest where we were met by our ´guide´. To properly comprehend Gen´s fear up the Volcano, she was not even concerned by the prospect of snakes in the pitch-black Guatemalan forest - something those who know her well would have once thought inconcievable!
Today was another exhilirating and exhausting day, though quite different in character as it was our first day teaching los niños de Santa Maria. However, since it is just about our bedtime, that story will have to wait till another day.

My friends, we bow to no one.

Besos,

Seño Geni y Seño Libi

xxx

Day Seven - Antigua and LA catchup

2010-01-05T13:26:00.000-08:00

Hola muchachos y muchachas! We are writing to you from El Portal Cafeteria, Antigua, Guatemala. From the cafe, we can see out across the Plaza Central, where tuk tuks, horses and carts and the old Catedral all make for a very interesting scene.

We have just finished out second day at spanish school, and had some time to kill this afternoon so we thought we could finally update our blog! You will find two videos, one from LA and one from just now in Antigua, at the bottom of this post.

First, we have some photos from LA that we could not upload from Gen's camera, but we bought a card adapter (very hard to explain in our very mediocre Spanish!) and have managed to finally get them onto the computer to share with you.

These first are from the Getty Centre, where we went on our second day in LA. As you can see, we did not get much of a view. We didn't mind though because the thick thick fog was really magical and eerie. You could hardly see your hands at the end of your arms.

We were extremely lucky that a fantastic exhibition was on, of Rembrandt and his students' drawings. So it didn't matter that we didn't get much of a view, as we were spoiled for landscapes!

The centre itself is fantastically beautiful, and it is completely free. A 'must-do' in LA as it were.
Here is Gen under a banner from the Rembrandt exhibition.
As you can see, it was a happy day.
To top it off, we went to a diner and treated ourselves to milkshakes and......
...Possibly the foodstuff with the highest percentage of saturated fat in the world - cheesy fries. We have since got back on the healthy-eating-wagon. (Don't worry madres!)
Ok, so you are back up to speed. On the day we left LA, the 2nd of Jan, we got up at around 6am to get our shuttle to the airport. Travel all went smoothly, and we were picked up by a GVI staff member, Adam, at Guatemala City Airport at about 9pm. We spent the first night with the other new volunteers, and in the morning were taken to our new home for the next six weeks, with the lovely Christina and her elderly father, Adrian.

Our house is on the same street as all the other volunteers which is nice because it makes walking to and from the centre of town very safe.

Antigua is a phenomenally beautiful town. It is the old capital of Guatemala, which was largely deserted a few hundred years ago after a devastating earthquake. It has been gradually repopulated, mostly by the Guatemalan middle class and expats and tourists. The entire city is a UNESCO World Heritage site, so it is very well preserved. The streets are cobbled, and the buildings have to be painted in traditional colours. There are no tacky signs or advertisements in the town. Many of the most grand structures are now in ruins, but you can get an idea of how impressive the city must have been in its prime. Gen says that the fact that they are in ruins merely adds to the romance!
This is the edge of the Catedral and Parque Central. We walk across this main square every day to get from our house to the Escuela Espanol.
This is the front facade of the Catedral.
Antigua is particularly beautiful because it is nestled between three very impressive (and active!) volcanoes. The volcanoes are constantly having very minor eruptions which apparently releases the pressure and eliminates the risk of a big one. This volcano is Volcan de Agua.
This is Volcan de Agua again, looking down one of the main streets.

The Catedral is on the left, and the Parque Central on the right. Ahead is one of the old palaces. Our school is nearby, as is the coffee shop where we will meet with the other volunteers to take the shuttle up to our communities where we are working from next week. This week we have just had intensive Spanish lessons, one-on-one, with the lovely Silvia and Maria.

We are a bit apprehensive about the teaching, since we have been told by Doreen, the Guatemalan project director, that we will each have a class of our own of about 30 kids: Libby six and seven year olds, and Gen four and five year olds. The only comfort is that the indigenous children don't speak Spanish either, so they won't notice our bad grammar!

Well, we had better go now but we are thinking of you all, and wishing you were here!

Adios,

Elisa (Eh-lee-sa) y Jen (Hen) - Our Guatemalan names!

Besos (kisses)
xxxx

Day Four - Happy New Year

2010-01-01T13:12:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone! Happy New Year! It is about 1 pm on the 1st of Jan 2010 for us here in Hollywood. We went to a big party in a Hollywood club last night - Epic NYE 2010 at Vanguard - and had, appropriately, a night of EPIC proportions. This is us 'before' - about as swanky as we could manage with our meager traveling possessions.
After grabbing a massive slice of pizza each from a little place around the corner from the hostel, we headed out to our party at around 9 ish. We had fancy VIP tickets, so we got let in by a separate entrance, and could go to two special VIP areas with open bars and party favours. Here is Gen in one of them:
In true Gen style, she was asked to dance by the one late-middle aged creepy dude there out of over 2000 people.
It was pretty cool, the club was divided into separate sections - an upstairs with a bit of a retro vibe, the main club with a huge dancefloor, and downstairs which had sort of urban/r & b music. We spent a bit of time in each section.

Before midnight, they had Michael Jackson-esque dancers up on stage, and played an MJ medley- ending on Thriller ("Its after miiiiidnight..").
The main countdown happened in the big club bit, with this huge lit-up LED wall with a countdown on it, and a big confetti drop at midnight.
2010! You can see from our slightly elevated vantage point in this photo that we were not down on the D-floor moshing with the plebs but rather hanging with the rich and (potentially) famous in the VIP section adjacent.
Thus, we got sweet glasses.

And nifty headbands!
See? Pretty!

We left the party at around 2 or 3 am, and headed back to our hostel. Hollywood Boulevard had a very festive atmosphere.
When we got back to the hostel, we were pleased to find quite a few other backpackers still awake. We joined in the sing-a-long they were having. Then, at around 5am, we headed out to our favourite little late-night diner place (from the first day) and had a deep-fried poptart tower with icecream and chocolate sauce, and played connect four. It was super.

All in all, a truly fantastic evening. We met a bazillion people, danced, sang and celebrated in style. And got home in one piece!
Happy New Year everyone! We love and miss you all, and send you all our best wishes for 2010.

Our Big Adventure: Day One -And we're off!

2009-12-29T19:08:00.000-08:00

Video Diary - Day One

Hasta la vista

Today, we set off half-way across the world on our big trip. It was a reasonably early start with Gen getting a last-minute rabies shot in Wellington this morning and several odd-jobs to be done before our flight to Auckland and onward to LA at 4.

Nonetheless, we got away to the airport with plenty of time to spare.

Because of the recent terrorist activity, we were worried that we might be held up for ages in security. Now although security was tight, bodies were examined, shoes violated and love-handles patted, it wasn't all fun and games. Well yes it was, there was wine too... being the swanky V.I.P travelers that we are.

We arrived without any dramas at all at LAX at around 10 am on the 29th which was earlier than we'd left so we got to live the whole day over again, totally like Groundhog Day. Only cooler. So we used our second chance at Tuesday 29th December 2009 to see the big ticket sites of Hollywood. Our hostel is only one block from Hollywood Boulevard, so we set out to find some tacos for lunch. Sadly we (to our immense surprise) did not see any celebrities at Baja Fresh but we enjoyed our meal all the same.
After lunch we took some of the obligatory 'Hollywood Sign' photos, seen here. The fuzzy white line in the background is the Hollywood sign. Don't blame us, it was hazy. A wee bit.
After that, we strolled down the Boulevard, and tried fitting our hands and feet into the imprints left by the movie stars outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Here is Gen with Judy Garland - a perfect match. Coincidence? I think not. (Gen adds that, furthermore, they both like painkillers. Libby adds that Gen is joking. Gen adds that she is not.)
Here is Libby with Dean Martin. They are nothing alike. P.S. See Ma? My nail-polish has nearly grown out, just like I said it would.
The lookalikes parading around were quite creepy. It was quite surreal to see two Charlie Chaplin's chatting together, and Michael Jackson wandering off with Marilyn Monroe.
We cruised the Walk of Fame looking out for some big names. Patrick, this one's for you: Gen poses here beside the star for Judge Judy. We got some funny looks stopping for this one, but we see nothing humorous about the greatest legal mind on earth. All class, Judy, all class.
We found a really neat diner for dinner. We played Guess Who while we had some drinks. Libby won. (It was Carl).
Here is our feast. Delicious.

After tea we wandered back to our hostel. Tonight will be a quiet one, recovering from the journey and preparing for further adventures tomorrow.

WATCH THIS SPACE!

xoxo Gen and Lib