where oh where did my 1000 pesos go

i am missing 1000 pesos or 100 dollars. my guess... the police confiscated it during a search of the vehicle and my purse (twice) when traveling into mexico. i was distracted by all the questions they were asking me and i was worried because i had just gone to the atm. hopefully, i have misplaced it. whatever happened. it´s gone. :(

and i need to stop thinking about it and just be more careful, as i have been a little careless like not always locking my stuff. but it still sucks. :)

playa is a lot bigger and touristy than i thought it would be. i am afraid of what cancun is going to be like. i´ve heard such bad things about the place being too americanized and commercialized.

playa was a fishing village. playa has only been developed over the last 15 years, cancun 30. that it crazy! playa is now overrun with hotels and shops, but supposedly nothing in comparison to cancun. but if you´re into amazingly blue/clear waters, white sands, resorts and luxury- come to mexico. it´s great. not cheap, but the waters are breathtaking. best beaches i´ve been to!

swimming with sharks off la isla bonita

i am so thrilled! i had the best day yesterday. i continued my adventures in the water. i went to caye caulker and ambergris caye aka la isla bonita aka san pedro.

Last night I dreamt of San Pedro
Tropical the island breeze
All of nature wild and free
This is where I long to be La Isla Bonita
(madonna)

i went on a full day snorkling trip off of the two cayes! it was wicked!! we did three dives. the first dive i got to swim with sharks!! i actually touched one. whaat? the fish were so huge! the sharks even bigger. the second dive was off of the barrier reef at this place called hol chan. it´s where there is a break in the reef. the coral was so cool to see. i felt like i was living a discovery channel/nova program on underwater life. there was brain and fire coral, baracuda, yellowtail.... the third dive we tried to see manatees, but there weren´t any in the water, but while in the boat we saw dolphins!! bellisima.

i say bellisima because there were these two italian women on the same tour. they were so much fun and it turned out that they live in playa del carmen, mexico. guess what my next destination was supposed to be? guess where i am and how i got here? i am now in playa del carmen and i got here by hitching a ride with sara y lori. i was actually planning on leaving for playa on tuesday. i had already bought a bus ticket and everything, but i couldn´t pass up their offer. it also turns out that sara is moving back to italia tomorrow. they were spending her last weekend in caye caulker. she has an apartment in playa del carmen that is paid for until the end of the month. guess where i will be staying tomorrow until the 30th? at sara´s super nice condo. sweet!

the only bummer was that my camera was busted for the last two days, so i have no pictures of the cayes. but it´s working properly now. also, i posted a few new pics sent to me by another volunteer. i will also post new pictures soon because they can burn my pics onto disk here.

i can swim!

waterfalls and more waterfalls... today we rented a van and went to big rock falls and five sister falls. after this small repel down to big rock falls, i thought "i'm so gonna be kawawa because i'm afraid of the water." i never really swim in water where i can't touch the bottom. i was sitting for 15 minutes next to the pool of water near the waterfall while everyone was swimming and diving. i finally got the courage to get into the deep water with the encouragement of one of the volunteers who was a lifeguard in a past life. and i was swimming!! i didn't panic. i was so proud of myself for conquering my fears that i decided to dive off of this rock!!! this is huge for me, you don't even know! it's only the second time i've dived into the water. the first time was part of my final exam for a beginning swimming course i took in college, but it was off of a regular plank right on the pool. i dived off of a pretty high up rock. i still can't believe it.

after big rock, we went to five sister falls. it is this amazing place with 5 plus waterfalls that all lead to one pool of water. it was so dope! i used the momentum from the last waterfall to challenge myself to climb the rocks so i could sit right under one of the falls.

woo-hoo!! i'm really proud of myself. eventually, i may feel comfortable swimming in the ocean...

speaking of ocean... i am leaving cayo, san ignacio and heading to caye caulker and san pedro, la isla bonita tomorrow morning. i'll probably go snorkling. the barrier reef here is the second largest in the world. i miss the beach. i miss the waves.

wadda gwan?

wadda gwan, gaal? i don't know how you spell it, but that's how people say 'how are you/what's up?' in creole. 'am straight, boy,' is how you reply. i've mastered saying 'wadda gwan'...

yesterday was belice's independence day. what's funny is that belice's flag is red, white and blue, so independence day here looks like fourth of july. on the eve of independence day, people celebrate downtown and fireworks go off at midnight. people are ready to party!

during the day there was a parade. i helped put together the cornerstone foundation float for the parade and decorate t-shirts for the children to wear. i got to march in the parade with the cayo aids committee and pass out condoms and candy to the crowd in the sweltering heat. it was fun. we ended the parade in the park where i ate tacos!! taco truck like tacos that were the bomb.

when we were marching, we were behind these huge speakers blasting punta music and aids public service announcements. punta music is the local music and punta is the local dance. punta is the shaking of the ass! just the ass and hips, super fast. i mean super-duper fast! it's tough and tiring! little girls can control their individual butt cheek muscles to move in different ways. gringas like me look hilarious trying to punta, but i think i might be starting to catch on.

today, i'm going to a local school to do an aids presentation. tomorrow, i'm going to try to go to the ruins close by. saturday is a trip to some reserve with waterfalls and rivers to swim in. sunday i leave for caye caulker and the beach. then a few days after that i'm off to mexico.

the green house

i live in "the green house." it is the volunteer house that is actually GREEN. there are 5 girls... lisa, from sf and she totally reminds me of eileen (so errie, doppelganger errie!); diana from michigan (learning about natural healing remedies), emily, a physical therapist from austin working with people that have disabilities; nicole from amarillo texas (relief and aid) and michele from new jersey (a teacher). the gals are great. they remind of types of women i have met before. there are other volunteers that have been here for months already and don't live in the house- dominick (this peace corp guy, 15 months), libby (new yorker, 5 months). there are long term volunteers 4mos plus and short-termers like me who stay for 2 or 3 weeks.

there are so many volunteers in and out of the organization that it initially seemed like people were a little too apathetic about my arrival. when i first arrived, it was after a huge wave of summer volunteers left. i think like 16 girls left before i arrived. after crossing the guatemala border and getting to the house, people were just like 'hey'. period. wanna eat? period. then i saw the back house i was suppose to sleep in (let's call it the shed with bunk beds!!) luckily, because there are not too many long term volunteers, i was moved into the front house, the green house. i get my own room, and it's been fun living with all the girls. but my time is flying by in belice. before you know it, i'll be back in the states! i'm trying to squeeze in a three day trip to cuba before i get back!!!

Atun Tunichil Mukal Cave y Rio Macal

this weekend i went to the Atun Tunichil Mukal Cave. about an hour outside san ignacio, (the town i'm staying in) i hiked 45 minutes in the jungle, across two rivers to get to this cave. it's partially underwater and inside the cave i had to climb, swim, and crawl for 2 hours! the caves are amazing. they are full of mayan artifacts, skeletons, rock formations, stalagtites, and bats. i'll just call it batman's cave. it was so crazy. the caves are so dark. so dark you can't see ANY light, you can not even see your own hand if you pass it in front of your face. we had helmets and headlights to use, but during part of the tour, our guide made us turn off all the lights and find our way through the cave, imagining what it must be like for mayans to venture so deep into the caves. they performed human sacrifice and different rituals in the caves. it's crazy to see pots and artifacts intact and untouched. only a few guides are allowed in the caves and they have only been open for 7 years to the public. soon they will probably close down the caves to protect the artifacts from looting and destruction. it was an intense experience. probably the most adventurous thing i've done.

on sunday, i canoed the macal river. 4 hours of canoeing upstream, 13 miles! and on the way downstream it started pouring and the wind made the river current go backwards, which meant basically going upstream again. my arms were tired! i got to see a toucan, visited a blue morpho butterfly farm and museum.

volunteers rock

dangriga is a part of belice where mainly garifuna people live. (it's a three hour bus ride away) it also has one of the highest rates of hiv/aids in the country. on friday, unicef and city officials declared dangriga the first hiv friendly town to helped end stigma of hiv positive people. i went to dangriga with a few other volunteers to pass out info and do activities with the youth at the event. same health education stuff i would do in the states.

and today i volunteered at a local family planning clinic and did pap smear, breast exam and contraceptive presentations including a condom demo for the women in the waiting rooms. AND i did them in spanish! well as much spanish as i could manage with the help of some women who translated words i didn't know. pecho is breast. tezo is nipple, matriz is uterus and la boca de la matriz is the cervix! and i had to remember to say sida y vih instead of aids and hiv.

oh, i'm paying a local woman to teach me spanish a few hours a week, so i'm starting to learn to conjugate in the PAST tense and future tense!! woo hoo.

oh, more about belize- i'm getting eaten alive by mosquitos!!!!! like all over. i'm so itchy and scratching ALL the time. it's terrible!!! and it's so HOT here!

belice

my arrival at my volunteer site was interesting. i walked into the house where i was going to be staying and they were just like "oh hi," no big deal. they get so many volunteers in and out of the place, it's no big deal. i introduced myself to everyone and started to eat lunch with the group. i just tagged along with other volunteers the whole day, volunteered with special needs kids, walked around town, bought groceries, checked out a spanish class... and i just got my orientation today. the volunteer work is really self directed, you get what you put into it and you have to be very independent and initiate everything. which is just fine by me. it was just not the introduction i expected. the last few days have gotten easier, as their getting stuff together to orient me and other women are arriving to volunteer as well. i'll tell you more about that... there's too much to write about.

belice is not what i expected. it's more diverse than the other countries i've been to, lebanese, chinese, creole people. everyone speaks creole. it's french creole, which reminds me of hawaiian pidgeon. all the words are connected and shortened and spoken with carribean accents. i try to talk to people in spanish, but they like speaking in creole or english. i've met a few people i'm making talk to me in spanish and they say my spanish isn't bad.

more luego... boo-hiss, my college posse is off to chicago without me. i planned that trip! have fun my peeps!

hasta luego guatemala

my last days in guatemala were bitter sweet. my host family threw a party for me and another girl who was leaving. it was also a family friend's birthday. we had a pinata, drinks, bbq, and dancing. i went out with my housemates to a salsa club for my last night. i had about 2 hours of sleep before my shuttle picked me up at 4am the next morning to take me to the airport. i flew to tikal, where the mayan ruins are because it's a 9 hour drive. it's one of the biggest sites for ruins. i hear it's difficult to go to other ruins after seeing tikal. part of star wars episode I was filmed at tikal. it is so indian jones like. there are huge temples, and areas where the mayans would sacrifice humans to the gods. the mayans had it going on with science and technology.

i met a really cool swiss girl named carine. we were the first ones at the airport in guatemala city before it even opened at 6am. she speaks some english but prefers spanish, so the whole weekend we hung out and i talked primarily spanish with her. it was great to practice my spanish! i was okay. the hotel we stayed at was set right next to the park with the ruins and in the jungle. the hotel is made up of cabins and does not have electricity after 10 pm. all night you hear all the animals in the jungle right outside your window- howler monkeys are loud. it was kind of scary, cool.

the next day i stayed in this little town of flores. right off of this lake and close to the buses. i stayed at this hostel that cost me 25 quetzales, between $3-$3.50, to sleep on a bunk bed. completely different than the jungle lodge with pool where i had my own room. i figured it was a good way to get back on budget and meet other travelers. the hostel was set up well, had a cool little restaurant and decorations, but i was too old for the crowd. lots of israelis, they travel after their mandatory service in the military, and australians. they all were like 21 and just wanting to party and drink. not my scene after sleeping the night before in the jungle at 10pm. i'm old. :)

the next morning i took a shuttle bus across the border into belice, into the town of san ignacio. it took about 4 hours and i didn't get sick! i take dramamine all the time now! i was most concerned about this part of my trip because i had heard of buses getting hijacked in guatemala. it was totally fine.

mochila

blogger issues

i keep losing my blogger postings when i try to post pictures... i've spent the last hour typing out stuff and i lost it. this is the second time this has happened! when will i learn to save!

recap... i leave sat for the ruinas de tikal. i saw a motorcycle run into a car, 3 yards from me. my spanish is starting to come along, i have to prepare a speech for the whole school in spanish tomorrow because i get a certificate, my house is having a fiesta manana por yo y mi otro campenero de mi casa. we will have a pinata, the students are preparing drinks and dessert... it's also pedro, a family friend's birthday... i'm sad to leave! i helped my roomie with a presentation that was similar to the work i use to do and it went really well... it will be job application time when i get home... job in antigua? hmmm.... i walk the streets a lot slower, taking it all in. this last two weeks has flown by!

i'm sick, flu season, possible sinus infection. i'm taking 5 different types of drugs. thank goodness for foreign farmacias that don't need perscriptions! i was so loopy, goofy today in spanish class. i almost fell asleep. darn blog issues. my other posting was much more entertaining and detailed. next blog...

santiago zamora

last week i went to this puebla called santigo zamora. i got to make tortillas, weave textiles and baskets. they also prepared a traditional meal called, pepian. it´s this spicy sauce that´s difficult to make and you serve it with chicken, rice y tortillas.

self actualization

i found out about new orleans the other day. i am so disconnected from the rest of the world... it felt bad to know that i was so oblivious to such a huge disaster.

but it made me realize that i am truly happy and living a dream. i realized that for the last few weeks, i have had no worries, no stress, no self-doubt, no funk, no overthinking, no fear about the future... it´s weird to realize because last year was so difficult for me and right now i feel like i haven´t been happier. i feel like i´m just being me. be. no questions about what i´m supposed to be doing, who i am supposed to be, no questioning my choices, no doubts or regrets or fears. you know what i mean... because i feel like i´ve talked a lot about twentysomething crisis stuff in the last few years and it has been weeks, feels like lifetimes, since any of that stuff has been on my mind. and it´s more than just being on vacation and in another country. i feel like i´ve grown so much. corny.

like... this weekend traveling with my housemates at lago atitlan made me realize that i love traveling alone. i´m confident that i can travel by myself anywhere and i prefer it in a lot of ways. not that i´m against traveling with other people, there´s just something special about it. i feel really good about how i´ve handled challenging environments and situations, navigating with little language skills, not getting hustled, not being afraid, and having so much fun no matter what i´m doing. i feel like i can do anything... things i never thought i could do or would even want to do. and i feel like i can make fufilling connections with people that are so different than me... i don´t know it´s that self actualization stuff. blah blah... i can´t believe it´s only been 4 weeks!

hasta luego mis amigos

the students that i got to know best this week, spencer y nikki, left antigua. it was like the end of summer camp because we were all kinda sad. we had really clicked and spent so much time together. so last night, we all went out to a salsa club to practice all that we had learned in class. it was fun, but also sad. weird, since i´ve only known them for a week. i´ve been meeting such great people during my travels. people that i would actually like to keep as friends.

lago atitlan

went to lago atitlan for the fin de semana. i was amazed by the natural beauty... lago atitlan is a lake surrounded by 3 plus volcanos. i think the lake is actually a volcanic crater or something. touring the lake and the surrounding traditional pueblos was like being in a movie. everything is lush green and the volcanos/mountains are enormous. there are markets to bargain for typical guatemalteco souvenirs. the country is known for its textiles. i bought some stuff that i don´t know how i´m going to get them back to the states.

we went to these thermal pools (spas) today and i had a massage for 10 dollars! yesterday we went to these truly natural thermal pools, water naturally heated by the volcano. the water was pouring out of the rocks, and there were mayans washing there dishes and taking baths in these pools.

we almost missed our shuttle back to antigua tonight. we got lost on these tiny paths through corn fields ( i always end up in fields of corn!) , it took us forever to find the right dock that would take us back to the shuttle back to antigua, then the boat drivers tried hustling us into taking a private boat or paying to make the boat leave before the 12 min passenger limit was reached. we had a 30 min boat ride back to our shuttle and we only had 15 min. we were so late. luckily, when we got to the other side of the lake and were hurrying to find the shuttle it passed by, about to leave without us. when we got home to antigua, we found out our host family was called when we didn´t show up to the shuttle on time. they were so worried about us especially because we´re girls.

scared shitless

funny... i went to this pagan worshipping ritual. where you are not allowed to take pictures (people have been killed), witches burn black candles to wish bad luck on people, shaman tell your fortune and cleanse your body, chicken are sacrificed... it was so interesting... but i was scared to get my fortune read. scared is miedo in spanish. i said, ¨yo mierda¨. mierda means shit! i shit.
me encanta. antigua, antigua, antigua... i´m living a dream!

pictures!

i found an internet place that could download my pictures from my camera and put them on cd! i started with nicaragua, but they take so long to download, i'll do the rest later. and i'll learn to rotate them!!
pictures tell the story better than words...