Photos for Updates.

Ahhh. Yes. Pictures. I DO have some of these, though teh rate of picture takng has dropped dramatically since January.
Nonetheless, here are some from the past...oh, 2 months.
TIKAL! Tikal was beautiful and majestic and hidden and jungle-ous and simply wonderful. Hot and muggy, but wonderful. Pictures seemed like a lame way to capture this place, but we tried. It was HUGE.
For a few weeks, Sarah and I found our blond counter parts, Justine and Liz, who we managed to find or drag to 3 different countries. Here we are playing banana plantations unsuccessfully looking for the beach.

Like Sarah said...there seems to be no way to capture Bocas del Toro and Mondo Taitu, but this was Sarah and me promoting for the upside down, inside out and backwards party, hence the shoes on the head.

80s power hour at Mondo. Few other places can you go to where this is acceptable dress.

this week we had the pleasure of sharign our time in Central America with Jessica and Meredith!! While their time here was short, and I have to keep looking at my pics to ensure that it was reality, it was such a blessing to have them here and SOOOO fun. We bussed to remote national parks and walked to waterfalls, and swam in the Pacific, and bronzed ourselves, while being happy to be together.

As our time comes to a close, i am feeling ready, but simultaneously wishing i could stay longer. Am trying to soak in these last fwe days of sun and rain forest before flying back to the good ole US of A.

PURA VIDA.

do we really have a blog??

heyyyy everyone!
so we know its been a while, and that kaia joye is coming home sooner than either of us would like to imagine, but we know by now that a blog update is probably way overdue...
Today finds us in Dominical on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, basking in the sun/simply appreciating being a real person after being rather sick for a couple of days. BUT sun´s up and so are we and Dominical´s a fun little surf town with lots of Semana Santa-ers and crazy waves and funny surfers. Jessica and Meredith just left an hour ago... crazy how fast their time went by!! We spent a few nights in Uvita (BEAUTIFUl coast town just south of here... "costa rica before the booming building orgy") and then a few days here in Dominical. Pretty laid back ¨spring break¨ for all... we were super excited for them to be here and had a great time.
Bocas was a little too much to describe in a blog entry-- let´s just say it was crazy, we met lots of really fun people, the owners of Mondo Taitu are amazing people, the vibe was great, the beaches were beautiful, and we had enough good times to last us for a while. There´s a chance one or two of us might end up back there for a spell.. but I guess we´ll have to wait and see.
For now we´re just enjoying Costa Rica while it lasts... only about a week left here for the two of us together!! Its hard to believe that two and a half months is nearing its end... we´ve done so much and seen so many things and met so many people... I don´t want it to end! But soon enough you´ll be able to talk to Kaia Joye as a real person in real life or on real telephones and that will be wonderful. As for me April is an open book so we´ll just see what happens!!
Coming right up.... get excited(!) for some sweet pics, courtesy of KJ--

icing on the cake

If it's even possible to top the excitement of our latest adventures... to put some icing on the cake that was our last few days....somehow it has happened:
For the first two weeks of March, Kaia Joye and I will be working at a hostel in Panama!!!\
Us, working! At a hostel! In Panama!
What do we mean by 'work'? you ask... well, we plan parties, stay for free, eat for free, drink for free, or maybe even get cash for free.
And what do we mean by 'plan parties'? you say next... well, we have no idea.
But one thing is for certain: PANAMONIUM!!
get excited.

we LOVE today.

Everyday seems better than the last causing us to run up and down the streets yelling "I LOVE TODAY!"

The lack of posting can really only be blamed on three things: constant movement, $6/ hr internet, and perhaps laziness. But here we are, out of Guatemala, through Honduras for a week or two, and now in Nicaragua at El Zopilote, a permaculture farm on Isla de Ometepe. Being a permaculture farm, there is always work to be done, so for 4 hours of work, you get 20% off your stay, be it a camp site, hammock, what have you. We are paying $2 a person, so the 40 cents is really important to us...
ANyway. Ysterday we worked, the manual labor feeling good compared to the lazy days of the Bay Islands where we sat and walked and sat and sunned and went diving and drank some brews... We carried some cement, picked beans, shelled cocoa, ground cocoa into chocolate, and shelled beans. At 1 fresh bread, cookies, and muffins appeared bringing joy to all those who were near (a spread of fresh baked goods, marmelades, and rums are produced daily) making us hard workers feel like our blood, sweat, and tears were justly rewarded. A late afternoon walk through a fairytale land banana plantation with small baby animals at every turn illuminated by that perfect 4:00 light that makes things appear more magical than you could imagine, finished our afternoon. And by finished, I mean it got us ridiculously lost leaving us 4 or 5 miles past our destination and pooped to say the least. Having already walked 4 miles, and it turning to dusk and being lost, I could only hope that a truck full of palm frawns would drive by offering us a bed of leaves to sleep on to drive us back to our farm. Not 5 minutes after having verbalized this to sarah, a plantain truck drives by. We stick out our hands and with the shout of "ARRIBA!" we climbed atop and met Javier, a nice 17 year old boy who loved sarahs blue-green eyes, and made conversation as we dodged tree branches and the possible clotheslining by telephone wires. This is NOT a dream. I LOVE THIS ISLAND.
Today we even managed to find a school to volunteer at, so we walked up and down the streets looking for birds and drawing them, teaching the kids to say "I LOVE TODAY!"

more pics

piñas at the lake. delightful

please note: this picture has been altered in no way. both teachers are also wearing 2-3" heels. We are GIANTS here.

watermelon spitting seed contest

family at the Mountain School

morning sunrise hike.

lago de Atitlán. 360 view like this of mountains and volcanos. BEAUTIFUL.

Market Pics

What continues to surprise me about Guatemala is its topography--its wild. If you get a chance, you should check out a topographical map.
San Francisco Market, where we went with our teachers last week, was appropriately named due to its hills, making the experience, besides overwhelming, tiring. But it was worth it. Check these out.

colors here are awesome. even with trash its still cool. feels like an anthropologie ad, doesnt it?

at the top of the hilly market mess we found ourselves in the animal district. sheep. cows. dogs. chickens. roosters. goats. cats. ducks. you name it...

knives? machetes? tools? anyone?

two great pieces of information

1. the discovery of 3 for Q 10 tacos has changed our lives.
ten quetzals (Q10) is about 1.20.

2. the piece of glass lodged in my thumb for the past 2 and half months weasled its way out. great news.

back in (pseudo) society...

Having now finished our three weeks of Spanish school and descended from the mountains, Sarah and I have found ourselves in San Pedro, a small lake town on Lago de Atitlán in a hostel that costs us a whopping $2.50 per night. A hippie haven, San Pedro has proven itself to be a fake reality of people who don´t know how long they have been here, what time is, what they are doing here, or when they are leaving. In reality it really feels like a parody of what hippie life is in a place where people try too hard to not shower and ignore the concept of time, while simultaneously acting stupider than previously known possible (a direct quote: "those Mexicans living in Guatemala....or do i mean Guatemalans. to be honest i didnt know that Guatemala was its own country before i came down here, you know what i mean man??").
Yesterday we went to what can only be described as a cliché of a hippie´s ideal restaurant. OUr table was a tree cut in half and we sat on grass mats and colorful pillows on the floor. I consider myself a laid back person, but after 65 minutes of waiting for a sandwich, I finally asked the hippie chick who was serving us how much longer our food would take. Big mistake, apparently broke the charming marley-zen atmosphere of the place and am fairly certain that we are physically, emotionally and spiritually shunned from the place.
All of this said, our pseudo reality is actually quite perfect after having fried our brains for 3 weeks with more studying that I think I did in college. Days consist of walking down small winding back streets to find fresh bread and tortillas, kayaking, studying our Spanish, all the while looking over the most stunning panoramic views of paradise. And i secretly love the vibe and way of life. It sucks you in here.

The mountain school was more like summer camp, tucked away down a cobble stone road with coffee plants, shaggy dogs, and communal kitchens--that or a musical, soundtrack provided by the 4 chords sarah and i know on the guitar, one out of tune harmonica, and a creaky old marimba...it´s a toss up. But it was wonderful. We each ate with a family down the road for every meal, and studied with teachers who, besides having all of their teeth, were funny and more laid back than those in Xela. While this may have deterred us from learning a little, we still left a legacy behind us, captured by a song at the "graduation" written by our teacher (Sarah and i happened to have the same one at la escuela de la montaña...) with the chorus: "never have their been two students to make a school quite so crazy..." but in Spanish. They loved us. Maybe not as much as Sarah loved the mangy dogs that lived at the school, and whose fleas may be loving on/living on Sarah right now. On the down time, we hiked waterfalls, laid in hammocks that were perfectly molded to the curve of your back, and read aloud Anna Karinena, the longest book we could find to carry us through all of our trip :) We love it. The air their was dry but heavy in honey and greenery and made you want to be there forever if it weren't for the mosquitoes. I couldn´t help but feel like I was swimming in all of the simple joys of this word and God´s creation. Smells of mountains and never ending stars and true hospitality were wonderful to experience.

We cant update pictures here as email is slow as JUNK, but we will undoubtedly have gobs to put up just as soon as we can!

two weeks gone by

This past week has definitely flown by, kinda making us wish we could stay in Xela longer before we move on! But in a few hours we leave for la escuela de la montana, which has a little farm and three dogs and some hammocks so it´s really going to be excellent. our Xela family hasn´t gotten much crazier, except that Tina (the grandmother) think there´s a cat in the house and makes us close the doors and windows to the kitchen at night. Edna has confirmed that the cat is all in Tina´s head. I will miss coming home and seeing little Tina sitting in the car out in the street because she´s cold, watching little Irena play with her food and make crazy faces at the table, and listening to Edna talk about all her bodily functions and how all the exotic food she buys is very expensive... "muy caro, muy caro".
We went on two little trips this week... to the beautiful agricultural community of Almolonga where we had hot baths in little concrete rooms, and to the insane market at San Francisco. The market was like an hour away and we took the bus with our teachers. (As it turns out, our maestros this week were best friends, and KJ and I studied in the same little side classroom with just the four of us. At one point we were all doing yoga on the floor, and as as our teachers are both about 5 feet tall, 50 years old, and were wearing heels, it was pretty hilarious. Rosario -KJ´s teacher- is also missing her front four teeth). Anyways the market was great, completely overwhelming and huge, and full of squealing pigs, chickens in baskets, turkeys in sacks, and cows sheep, goats, puppies, and bunnies for sale. The animal market looked like complete chaos but somehow sales were going on all the while, and the little balls of piglets huddled together and the large sheep attempting to mate with each other were all going home with nice families to be eaten.
We also had two awesome women speak at school this week. One was a midwife in a rural community and she just talked about the birthing methods they used and the natural plants and the problems with health care, etc. I volunteered to be the "demonstree" for the post-birth massage, and not only had my breasts rubbed in front of the whole room but was forced to sit on all fours while she slapped my rear with a handful of plants. Other than that awkwardness it was really interesting. The other woman talked about ¨La Voz Popular", the underground radio station that she worked for during the war and it was awesome to hear her story.
And yesterday we went to help with a reforestation project outside of Xela where we collected seeds for tree planting. KJ almost got caught with her pants down in the woods but other than that it was just a nice morning outside of the city with our little green seeds.
Anyhoo its off to the mountains for us, so we´re just hoping for no parasites and no amoebas and that the mosquitoes are small and the days are warmer!!
Adios--

Electricity

And we wonder why the lights, microwave, washing machine, etc. aren´t as reliable as one would hope...

Altitude

It´s a bi-atch.

Yesterday we climed laguna chicabal--a magical lake nestled in the crater of the (now inactive) volcano Chicabal. Mind you I don´t use the term "magical" lightly--it actually is consered a sacred and holy place for the Mayans who come here for meditation and to perform Mayan ceremonies. No one is allowed to enter the lake for any purpose, as it apparently, besides having magical powers, has somehow connects to the Pacific Ocean... (because we are foreigners, we just tend to belive anything we hear)

Minus the feeling of lack of oxygen and possible imminent death, it was spectacular, and was worth the effort, as it always is.

Kaia Joye and Sarah

an interesting translation...

an excellent translation by one of the nicer first class bus companies in guatemala:

Who we are

We are a company of transport f service first bonus, we unite to city Guatemala with Tikal, Island of Flores that are the heart of the Maya word, has the vehicle fleet but modern model 2008.

Guaranteed to our passengers the only service first bonus, in the route of

GUATEMALA-FLORES.

Settling In...

After what I am surprised to say has only been 3 days (!) we are finally settling into our new life in Xela. Back on track, and out of Antigua, we have begun school. Waking up earlier than I have since highschool, I am learning to see daylight in the 6:00 hour--granted it´s 6:45, but still--probably to the delight of my father. We are living in a little yellow casa about 4 blocks from school with Edna, who has become our new mom, and her mom (unable to be in the picture with us), as well as her daughter, Viki, who is 16. Much to the dismay of her mother, who is a retired sex-ed teacher, Viki is pregnant and due the same time as Bronwen. Edna now only cries occasionally. It made me wonder if she cries a lot, or particularly if she cried when our first night with our new family, Sarah and I slept through dinner by mistake, having traveled 6 hours on 3 different busses through the mountains with the only hope brought by the heaven-sent Dramamine we took. Edna´s granddaughter has also taken a liking to us as I think we have the same vocabulary. She may actually have more.

But the city is wonderful--all that the guidebooks said it would be and more. The streets are stone and simple, but busy enough that I daily think I am going to die either from the speed of the mini buses and mopeds, or from asphyxiation from their deisel engines. ITs amazing how quickly we are picking up the language. EIther that or people are very nice because currently I speak in only broken sentences comprised of the present tense. At the dinner table people seem to speak louder when directing questions to sarah and me, I suppose because they think that this helps, when in fact we simply don´t know what they are saying...yet.

Our classes are all outside and one-on-one. Its the learning environment I have always wanted. We sip coffee and sit in the sunshine, and laugh at my poor knowledge of spanish vocabulary, but I can ask as many questions as I like!! Not to mention the school offers a PLETHORA ("Would you say that I have a plethora of piñatas?" "A WHAT?" "A plethora.") of activities--hikes, trips to hot springs, movies, lectures, parties. The mentality of the school is awesome--they really want us to learn and be educated, as opposed to leave having some new vocabulary.

We are now off to perhaps plan some more of our trip, because as of now we are here for two more weeks, and then have no further plans. Hopefully we will also make it to our yoga class, which it turns out is similar to flogging, as my muscles are still sore from Monday´s class which kicked our booty. I am hoping that our teachers hair will still be unwashed and the 5´x 12´room will still be packed with 20 people, creating a perfect mix of sweat and incense that makes you both light headed and sort of want to vomit. It´s all wonderful.

Paz y amor.
K

a day in Antigua!!

so after a lovely sweaty six hours at the beautiful guatemala city airport kj finally arrived with her matching backpack and our adventure begins...
somehow we found ourselves in antigua for the day/night... a crazy little colonial town surrounded by mountains/volcanoes and covered in cobblestones that almost looks too cute to be real. in just a day we´ve probably already consumed seven hundred delicious avocadoes each (now i see why they nickname people here ´green bellies´)
anyhoo antigua is adorable but pretty gringofied so we´re excited to get to xela tomorrow.
hopefully we´re actually enrolled in spanish school... i guess we´ll find out!
till next time ....

we're guatemala bound!

In 5 hours I will be Guatemala bound--or at least Atlanta to Guatemala bound. Sarah is already en route via LA, in what i last heard was a small plane that we are hoping can accommodate the rather large backpacks that give the perception of us "roughing" it. We are. One backpack for three months...impressive.
Now I wish I could answer all the questions I have been asked about what we are doing and where we are going and the places we will see, but for right now I can only tell you bits and pieces--and by that I mean what tomorrow will bring. Tomorrow I will fly into Guatemala City where I will meet Sarah (see side picture). Ideally, because Sarah will have been there for 5 or so hours waiting for me she will figure out how to get us from Guatemala City to the Highlands of Quetzaltenango and perhaps if I am even enrolled in the school (a last minute detail that apparently slipped through the cracks...)Described as what "may be the perfect Guatemalan town--not too big, not too small, enough foreigners to support a good range of hotels and restaurants, but not so many that it loses its national flavor...Xela attracts a more serious type of traveler--people who really want to learn Spanish, and then stay around and get involved in a myriad volunteer projects. It also functions as a base for a range of spectacular hikes through the surrounding countryside--the constantly active Santiaguito and highest point in Central America Tajumulco volcanoes, and the picturesque, fascinating three-day trek to Lake Atilan to name a few."

In Xela (city's abbreviation, pronounced shell-ah), we will be going to "school" to learn Spanish and hopefully do some volunteering. We are fairly certain that we will be living with a family and attending classes, which are described as 5 hours of tutoring. We will also be spending a week up in their Mountain Again, we don't REALLY know what any of this means, but you can check it out for yourself at: http://www.hermandad.com/

Beyond this we will be playing it by ear, which may make some of you nervous but don't worry. we will keep you updated and if nothing else, you can know that we will end up at the Yoga Farm in Costa Rica. It's going to be WONDERFUL.
Will miss all of ya'll! Check back and we will keep you updated!
XOOX!!

KJ
(ie-- Kah Jota en espanol)