Atitlan is supposed to be fun... right?
Friday was a nice end to the week because I had class in the morning and then spent the afternoon hanging out with Carolyn for her last day. She convinced me to buy some movies in spanish to enjoy when I get back to the States (including the Lion King hahaha). Friday night was the fiesta night where a student makes dinner for everyone. We had this awesome strawberry-raspberry cobbler (dessert first as always haha), pasta, fruit salad, and guacamole. Delicious... afterwards Dave, Carolyn, and I went out for one mojito as a good-bye party.
Saturday I woke up feeling uhh questionable. My host mother had already made me a decilious pile of pancakes, so I devoured them but couldn´t handle the thought of drinking coffee. I should have taken that as a sign to NOT go to Lake Atitlan again... but instead I jumped in the shower and ran off to catch the bus with the group. While walking to the bus, I could tell I was not feeling 100%. On the bus, I was sitting next to Dave and I must have looked as questionable as I felt, because he then tried to distract me with singing different Coldplay and Weezer songs. But to no avail. I asked Sara for her bag from Xelapan (bread store) and she found a holeless one for me. WARNING NOT FOR THE QUEASY Yes... I puked in the bus for a good hour... pancakes and all. The people behind me started asking Dave if we wanted some pills for me for motion sickness and he kindly declined. I thought it was all over, but no. When we got out to change busses at Los Cinquentros, I was puking in the middle of the street and the group scattered to try and find more bags for me. The vendors all around me were just staring at me, trying to figure out why I was in the middle of the street throwing up. When the group all returned (with black, not clear, bags), I couldn´t figure out what to do with the bag I currently had and the bag´s integrity was beginning to be questioned. No one around me answered when I asked for the basura, soooo after much debating, I left it behind one of the tiendas and ran... I felt kinda guilty, but not enough to take it with me. The sickness continued on the following two busses and then we finally arrived in Panajachel. The group was hungry, so we got lunch as I drank water... and soon discovered the water wouldn´t stay down either. Good times. After walking around a bit, we decided to head to Santiago... I felt great on the water with the wind and fresh breezes, but then we arrived and all I wanted to do was lay down forever. Which is exactly what I did for three hours while the rest of the group checked out Santiago (apparently I didn´t miss anything great). I felt better around 7pm or so and was able to eat some chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese. We then walked around the completely dead town... or so we thought until we stumbled upon a carnival in the middle of the town. Complete with a ferris wheel!! Although, the ferris wheel wasn´t really hooked up to anything so guys were pulling the wheel in a circle for the kids. I swear, we were the side show to the carnival. Greg is a very tall white guy with blonde hair, so is easily seen among these short dark haired Guatemaletecos. A kid on the ferris wheel kept his laser pointer concentrated on us the whole time we walked around the carnival so that everyone always knew exactly where we were. I felt completely out of place there but it was interesting nonetheless. We decided to just head back to the room and one of my favorite disney movies, the Sword in the Stone, was playing on Disney (in Spanish). The hilarious part was that Dave and I had been discussing that movie and the animated Robin Hood earlier that day (songs, plot, and all, as a distraction haha) so we were both pretty psyched.
Sunday I woke up feeling more myself, maybe not 100%, but better. I turned on the TV and the animated Robin Hood was on!! What are the odds? Haha we all watched Robin Hood and got going for the day once it was over. Dave was definitely not feeling 100% and people were not happy with Santiago, so we caught an early boat to Panajachel. We took a hotel right on the water and then ate some breakfast. After getting situated and finding the rest of the people from Xela, Sara, Jay, and I decided to check out what was east of Pana... which is basically the sewer system for Pana. Excellent. After walking through/over that, we found a Guatemalteco beach where we were the only white people. Some little girls came over to have us swim with them, but after seeing the sewage coming in 20 feet away, we decided against it. After watching the sunset with the group on the roof over the lake, we headed out to dinner... mmm 3 for 10Q tacos (can you hear my intense sarcasm??) I decided only to have one very very weak drink which turned out to be an awesome idea. Dave went home without eating, while the 5 of us decided to make friends with the owner of the taco stand by giving him some of our alcohol. After 3 of the people finished off the alcohol, we decided to find a disco... which doesn't really exist on Sunday nights of course. Kristen wasn´t feeling well, so she headed home to join Dave. The rest of us ended up wandering around Pana and different bars trying to find the gringos. I encountered a group of Guatemaltecos trying to talk to a group of Americans and it just not working out. After interpreting for them for like 10 minutes and fixing their communication problem, I split. I took the thoroughly wasted people home around midnight to their room and returned to mine with Kristen and Dave. Ooooh man. Dave was feeling better, just hungry, but poor Kristen was really, really sick. Dave and I stayed up with her all night as she was violently ill in the bathroom. All I could do was hold a cold compress to her neck and let her use me as a pillow when resting. Around 2am, she was starting to get worse with her breathing so I found the manager and Dave and I tried to figure out if their was a hospital or doctor nearby. Unforunately, only a public hospital existed an hour away and we didn´t want to take our chances with that (public hospitals suck and the odds of an actual doctor being their during the night is slim to none). So all we could do was wait it out.
Around 830 we decided to try and get some breakfast and head back to Xela. I took a shower there... and I can honestly say it was the best shower ever. Hot water at high pressure... omg I hadn´t had a shower like that in four weeks. Totally worth the 60Q to stay there. Anyway, back to the sicklies... Sara was sick that morning from a really bad hangover. She couldn´t eat breakfast and ended up puking all the way home on the busses. I had an interesting conversation with a man from Solola who wanted either 200Q or for me to give him my blood at a hospital. I politely declined. We had many troubles on the bus rides home... we got split up in Los Cinquentros and most of us got on a coach bus. We were stopped by the police and everyone needed to take out their passports. Some people were taken off the bus. First those without passports (who were not American thankfully since Dave didn´t have his) and then indigenous people who looked, I don´t know, like they needed to be taken off?? They were questioned for like 20 or 30 minutes and then allowed to return. I asked one of those questioned what was going on and he just said the police can do what they want. That bus was supposed to take us to Xela, but it didn't. It ended up taking us 6 busses and a taxi to get from Pana to Xela which should only take 2 to 3 max. Poor Sara was sick the entire time.
On a happier note, I have a new teacher who is just awesome. She really makes me work hard. I think these last two weeks are going to be awesome and I´ll really learn a lot =)
Saturday I woke up feeling uhh questionable. My host mother had already made me a decilious pile of pancakes, so I devoured them but couldn´t handle the thought of drinking coffee. I should have taken that as a sign to NOT go to Lake Atitlan again... but instead I jumped in the shower and ran off to catch the bus with the group. While walking to the bus, I could tell I was not feeling 100%. On the bus, I was sitting next to Dave and I must have looked as questionable as I felt, because he then tried to distract me with singing different Coldplay and Weezer songs. But to no avail. I asked Sara for her bag from Xelapan (bread store) and she found a holeless one for me. WARNING NOT FOR THE QUEASY Yes... I puked in the bus for a good hour... pancakes and all. The people behind me started asking Dave if we wanted some pills for me for motion sickness and he kindly declined. I thought it was all over, but no. When we got out to change busses at Los Cinquentros, I was puking in the middle of the street and the group scattered to try and find more bags for me. The vendors all around me were just staring at me, trying to figure out why I was in the middle of the street throwing up. When the group all returned (with black, not clear, bags), I couldn´t figure out what to do with the bag I currently had and the bag´s integrity was beginning to be questioned. No one around me answered when I asked for the basura, soooo after much debating, I left it behind one of the tiendas and ran... I felt kinda guilty, but not enough to take it with me. The sickness continued on the following two busses and then we finally arrived in Panajachel. The group was hungry, so we got lunch as I drank water... and soon discovered the water wouldn´t stay down either. Good times. After walking around a bit, we decided to head to Santiago... I felt great on the water with the wind and fresh breezes, but then we arrived and all I wanted to do was lay down forever. Which is exactly what I did for three hours while the rest of the group checked out Santiago (apparently I didn´t miss anything great). I felt better around 7pm or so and was able to eat some chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese. We then walked around the completely dead town... or so we thought until we stumbled upon a carnival in the middle of the town. Complete with a ferris wheel!! Although, the ferris wheel wasn´t really hooked up to anything so guys were pulling the wheel in a circle for the kids. I swear, we were the side show to the carnival. Greg is a very tall white guy with blonde hair, so is easily seen among these short dark haired Guatemaletecos. A kid on the ferris wheel kept his laser pointer concentrated on us the whole time we walked around the carnival so that everyone always knew exactly where we were. I felt completely out of place there but it was interesting nonetheless. We decided to just head back to the room and one of my favorite disney movies, the Sword in the Stone, was playing on Disney (in Spanish). The hilarious part was that Dave and I had been discussing that movie and the animated Robin Hood earlier that day (songs, plot, and all, as a distraction haha) so we were both pretty psyched.
Sunday I woke up feeling more myself, maybe not 100%, but better. I turned on the TV and the animated Robin Hood was on!! What are the odds? Haha we all watched Robin Hood and got going for the day once it was over. Dave was definitely not feeling 100% and people were not happy with Santiago, so we caught an early boat to Panajachel. We took a hotel right on the water and then ate some breakfast. After getting situated and finding the rest of the people from Xela, Sara, Jay, and I decided to check out what was east of Pana... which is basically the sewer system for Pana. Excellent. After walking through/over that, we found a Guatemalteco beach where we were the only white people. Some little girls came over to have us swim with them, but after seeing the sewage coming in 20 feet away, we decided against it. After watching the sunset with the group on the roof over the lake, we headed out to dinner... mmm 3 for 10Q tacos (can you hear my intense sarcasm??) I decided only to have one very very weak drink which turned out to be an awesome idea. Dave went home without eating, while the 5 of us decided to make friends with the owner of the taco stand by giving him some of our alcohol. After 3 of the people finished off the alcohol, we decided to find a disco... which doesn't really exist on Sunday nights of course. Kristen wasn´t feeling well, so she headed home to join Dave. The rest of us ended up wandering around Pana and different bars trying to find the gringos. I encountered a group of Guatemaltecos trying to talk to a group of Americans and it just not working out. After interpreting for them for like 10 minutes and fixing their communication problem, I split. I took the thoroughly wasted people home around midnight to their room and returned to mine with Kristen and Dave. Ooooh man. Dave was feeling better, just hungry, but poor Kristen was really, really sick. Dave and I stayed up with her all night as she was violently ill in the bathroom. All I could do was hold a cold compress to her neck and let her use me as a pillow when resting. Around 2am, she was starting to get worse with her breathing so I found the manager and Dave and I tried to figure out if their was a hospital or doctor nearby. Unforunately, only a public hospital existed an hour away and we didn´t want to take our chances with that (public hospitals suck and the odds of an actual doctor being their during the night is slim to none). So all we could do was wait it out.
Around 830 we decided to try and get some breakfast and head back to Xela. I took a shower there... and I can honestly say it was the best shower ever. Hot water at high pressure... omg I hadn´t had a shower like that in four weeks. Totally worth the 60Q to stay there. Anyway, back to the sicklies... Sara was sick that morning from a really bad hangover. She couldn´t eat breakfast and ended up puking all the way home on the busses. I had an interesting conversation with a man from Solola who wanted either 200Q or for me to give him my blood at a hospital. I politely declined. We had many troubles on the bus rides home... we got split up in Los Cinquentros and most of us got on a coach bus. We were stopped by the police and everyone needed to take out their passports. Some people were taken off the bus. First those without passports (who were not American thankfully since Dave didn´t have his) and then indigenous people who looked, I don´t know, like they needed to be taken off?? They were questioned for like 20 or 30 minutes and then allowed to return. I asked one of those questioned what was going on and he just said the police can do what they want. That bus was supposed to take us to Xela, but it didn't. It ended up taking us 6 busses and a taxi to get from Pana to Xela which should only take 2 to 3 max. Poor Sara was sick the entire time.
On a happier note, I have a new teacher who is just awesome. She really makes me work hard. I think these last two weeks are going to be awesome and I´ll really learn a lot =)
posted by Sarah at 4:21 PM
1 Comments:
Hey Sarah, you're having some crazy times over there! Glad you're having fun, and thanks for keeping up with the blog! It's great to follow your adventures.
Love,
Melissa
Post a Comment
<< Home