Author: alyssaleigh

Ecuador

Universally Speaking

‘The usual by-passer is a woman sauntering slowly down the road with bundles upon bundles balanced on her head. These woman are pillars of wonder, defying gravity while wearing the ho-hum aspect of perfect tedium. They can sit, stand, talk, shake a stick at a drunk man, reach around their backs to fetch forth a baby to nurse, all without dropping their piled-high bundles upon bundles. They are like ballet dancers entirely unaware they are on stage. I cannot take my eyes from them.’

I am currently reading The Poisonwood Bible, and this quote describes far better than I ever could the way I felt every time I saw the Mayans in Guatemala walking down the street balancing all kinds of crazy things on their heads. I really do miss it.

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Ecuador

Scarlet Begonias

I was woken up this morning by what I would have sworn were gun shots, and the eruption of car alarms that followed… And thus begins the next three months of my life in Ecuador. Yep, after my whirlwind three week tour of California, I am already back in Quito. My time in California flew by, I managed to pack in Coachella, U.C. Santa Barbara’s All-Gaucho Reunion, and a visit to the north to see almost all of my extended family… I think I only slept five nights in my own bed, and now I am really looking forward to staying in one place for longer than a couple days.

Turns out, the ´gun shots´ I heard this morning were part of a celebration they have during the month of May for the Virgen… I didn´t really understand all of the explanation my family gave me, but the more time I spend in Latin American countries, the more I love how celebrations don´t just last for one day, they really know how to draw out a fiesta over the course of a week, or in this case, a full month.

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Don’t Rock My Boat
Guatemala

Don’t Rock My Boat

This weekend, like a good little tourist, I went to Antigua to see the processions for Semana Santa. Before I say more, please note what is happening with the statues in the picture of the fountain above. Amazing. Anyways, I had no idea that Semana Santa was such a big deal in Guatemala, in Xela all the schools were closed, and most businesses took a holiday as well. When I was walking to school on Thursday morning it was like an atomic bomb had gone off, there were no cars, no people, no open tiendas… for the first time ever even the beer factory had closed its gates.

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Duppy Conqueror
Guatemala

Duppy Conqueror

This weekend in Xela was a good one. Probably the highlight was getting to live  my dream of breaking open one of the fabulous piñatas that I wrote about in my last entry.  One of the maestros invited my friend Laerke and I to her son’s first birthday party, and it was quite the fiesta. They had probably around 50 guests, an endless stream of games for the kids, four (!) different piñatas, and really delicious food. Laerke and I felt like super gringas, we were definitely the awkward interlopers watching everything unfold, but it was really fun. Side note, today I was walking past one of the many piñata stores, and I actually went in and poked around a bit, and some of them are as tall as I am. How awesome would it be to be a five year old and break open a piñata more than twice your size? And so my fascination continues….

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Long May You Run
Guatemala

Long May You Run

Once again, I’m not sure where to begin. The time in Xela is really flying by, I can hardly believe I have been here for six weeks. Last weekend I took my first long trip via chicken bus out to Lake Atitlan. Aldous Huxley was famously quoted as saying that this lake was the most beautiful in the world, and I’m convinced that he was right. I felt like I had discovered the Garden of Eden.

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Queen of the Surface Streets
Guatemala

Queen of the Surface Streets

This post should be titled ‘1001 Reasons Guatemala Will Turn Me Into a Gordita.’ This past week I have discovered many food items that have significantly improved my quality of life. Let’s start with the tamalitos de chiplin that I discovered at a little restaurant called Cafe Luna. The photo above is all that remained of my tamalitos, because I scarfed them down before I was able to remember to take a photo, but, they were increible, cheesy and savory and yum.

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Idle Ties
Guatemala

Idle Ties

Last weekend I took a trip organized through ICA to Semuc Champey, Tikal, and the Rio Dulce area.   A group of 14 of us, including our school director Enrique, two maestros, 6  Danish girls, an older Danish couple, and two other middle aged women from the states left Thursday at 5pm in our luxury tourist mini-bus for dinner in Guatemala City. I had just been talking all that day with my maestra Claudia about how dangerous Guatemala City is, she told me about this gang called 18 that frequently kills bus drivers as they enter into Guate, and this other maestra put a crumb on the desk and told my friend Signe that the desk represents Guate, and that the crumb represents the part of the city that is safe… sooo, needless to say, I was a little apprehensive about heading into the city in a big bus with ‘TURISTAS’ printed on the back, but, I guess we went to the crumb, because I felt like I was in any other major city in the world.

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Weird Fishes
Guatemala

Weird Fishes

Ugh, I’m terrible at this blogging  thing. It’s only because I caught a nasty cold that I am now taking today to try and update. Where do I even begin, there is so much packed into every single day, it’s hard to find a good starting point. Just a disclaimer, any information I put in here, now or in the future,  might be incorrect, since usually people are telling me things in Spanish, and it is very likely that I misunderstood.

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