May 2010

May 2010

It has been an interesting couple of months. We have traveled to remote mountain communities in north- western Guatemala, had our first emergency room visit in Xela, chartered a private flight to Belize, raced in a couple of races and witnessed ash falling from the sky from a volcanic eruption. Life here is not boring!

Vacation for Semana Santa brought us to the famous (and crazy) ChiChi market and then to the remote Cuchumatanes mountains. I personally have had enough of markets with their hordes of people crammed into small streets and alleys. But, this was the first time Haviland had been to this particular market and it is supposed to be the biggest and best in the country. We saw lots of traditional weaving, fresh flowers, fresh honey poured into old whiskey bottles, the normal fruits and vegetables plus just about anything else you could want – machetes, plastic goodies, paintings, etc.
After the crowds and chaos, we were happy to get out of ChiChi and head for the mountains. We drove steadily North for hours and climbed and climbed until I was sure our car would just overheat and die (this is one of my major fears about living here – a dead car in the middle of nowhere is not a good situation). We eventually arrived at our destination – Acul. We stayed in a cute little cabin that was part of a diary farm that produced a special cheese. Our goal was to enjoy a beautiful mountainous spot outside – hiking and exploring. However, our one full day there was chilly and rainy. We still walked into the closest little town and admired the pigs, chickens and goats that were in everyone’s yard, in the road and out in the fields. The rest of the day, we hunkered down in our cabin with a nice fire going in the fireplace. Haviland was blissfully cold while reading her books – what could be better?

We left the dairy farm for a horse ranch in the same mountain range, but several hours west. Our destination was a ranch called the “Blue Unicorn”. It was located at about 10,000 feet on a high plateau – very different from the rest of Guatemala. It was dry, windy and comfortably chilly. Our time there would have been great, but Sam got hurt. While hiking around and playing on some boulders, Sam “forgot” that he was on top of a big rock and decided to step backwards. The next thing I know, he is out of site and I all I can hear is him screaming. I do not know how he missed bouncing off the side of the rock on the way down, but he luckily hit feet first on some grass. Sam was in a lot of pain and I was not sure if he broke something or not. Usually, when the initial shock wears off, he stops crying and all is well. This time, he cried for a long time and it was clear that he was more than mildly hurt. After a couple of hours rest, he did seem ok – well enough to go on our scheduled horse-back ride. We ended up going on a beautiful afternoon ride through remote villages that only the occasional truck could make it to. Since Sam just had to sit, he enjoyed the ride and forgot about his leg. That night and the next morning the leg got worse – we packed our bags and headed to the nearest town with an x-ray machine. It was 3 hours away.

I like emergency health care in Guatemala. We walked into the clinic in Xela, within 5 minutes a doctor was checking Sam and asking him questions about the fall. It turned out that he stressed some muscles in his leg, but no x-rays were required. The doctor prescribed a cream to put on it, wrapped it and charged us about $12. Two weeks of hobbling around and now he is good as new.
For mother’s day, Haviland took a solo trip back to Colorado to see friends. This left Sam and I on our own for 5-6 days. We decided to join a group of friends heading to Belize on a private chartered flight. It is a quick 1 ½ hour flight to Ambergris Caye in Belize. The 17 people on the flight all pitched in for a house on the beach for a nice 4 day vacation. The highlight for Sam was NOT swimming with Nurse Sharks or seeing amazing Sting Rays, Lobsters, Eels, etc. He had fun learning to drive a golf cart and swimming in the swimming pool with his friends. I enjoyed the amazing clear waters and the incredible marine life. I could have spent hours watching the giant Rays gliding gracefully through the water. The whole under- water world is so foreign to me that everything is new and remarkable. Sam unfortunately is a hard man to impress!


May was the month of races. The biggest race in the country is a ½ marathon in Coban. Many people love the race because so many people are there participating and cheering you on. For me, it was the hardest race I have done because of the heat, the hills and the number of people that are there. I love to run trails – get me in the mountains with one other person or alone and I am happy. In Coban, the number of people was a bit crazy. Supporters line the streets cheering and runners clogged the race course. I got to use my skiing training by doing the human slalom course to get through the pack. Near the end of the race I felt like I was in the Tour de France as the people cheering you on narrowed the road to a space just big enough to run through. Claustiphobia at its worse. The second race was more my style. They call them adventure races – this one was an urban adventure race. They are super fun because they involve many challenges – there is orienteering as we have to plot our course on a topo map, there was about 25 km of mountain biking, a little rock climbing and rappelling and 25 km of running. The first adventure race I did earlier in the year, our team did not finish – we were too slow. This time, we were still slow, but we finished!

The end of the month has brought yet another new experience – raining ash from the volcanic eruption of Volcan Pacaya! I have seen volcanoes in this country. I have seen flowing lava up close and have seen both smoky eruptions and relatively violent eruptions with rocks and lava flying through the air. However, the eruption of this week was big! Ash was falling from the sky like rain for an hour. It covered the entire city with a layer ½ inch thick to 3 inches thick closer to the volcano. Who needs snow days? We have ash days. The city will be digging ash from the streets and homes for the next several weeks. To make it worse a large hurricane off the coast is pounding us with rain. Trees are falling over and mud slides are starting, it is a mess!


The end of May means the end of school. We have two weeks to go before vacation begins. We can’t wait!

-Ken

Check out more photos at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/GrobGuat

March 2010

The one major problem with living in Guatemala is the lack of outdoor opportunities. I can’t wake up in the morning and decide to take a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park or choose to go skiing or drive at the last minute to Boulder and go climbing. Those opportunities do not exist here. However, after a year, I have found a handful of people that crave outdoor activities and we have banded together with the mission of finding any way of exploring the beautiful natural areas of Guatemala.

So far, 2010 has treated us well. We started the year with an overnight hike to visit Vocan Santiaguito. It is the most active volcano in Guatemala. Like most experiences in the country, getting to the trailhead is half of the adventure. In this case, we had to take several “chicken busses” and the back of a pickup truck to get to the starting point. One chicken bus was the nicest I have ever seen, fully equipped with a flat screen television mounted above the driver. We were unfortunately forced to watch a horrendous movie about a midget that escaped from jail and pretended to be a baby in order to avoid the police. It was completely inappropriate and not family friendly, but the guy sitting next to me thought it was hilarious and several times elbowed me in the ribs while laughing hysterically. As far as public transportation goes, it was fairly painless.

The hike brought us to open grass land that local people hike through to gather firewood, fruits, vegetables and who knows what else. Women balance loads of goods on their head while men carry heavy loads on their back and support it with a strap around their forehead. We walked all day with our borrowed, basically modern backpacks to a site that was safely away from the volcano but with good views of the “show”. We were hoping for some nice eruptions at night so we could see the hot lava and hot rocks being shot into the air. Although it did rain in the afternoon, as soon as dinner was done, the stars started coming out and the volcano came out of the clouds. For the “most active volcano” in the country, we waited a long time for it to do anything and eventually went to bed, disappointed. However, within an hour we heard the whoosh of steam and the rumble of a rock slide as the volcano came alive. We saw 6 great eruptions over the next 12 hours as molten rocks got shot into the air and caused massive, blazing red rock avalanches. Luckily, they were not huge eruptions like the ones that destroyed several towns in the area 50 years ago.

My second outing was a trip to the western portion of the country to go climbing. One thing I love about climbing is the beautiful spots that you get to see. This trip was no exception – it was beautiful, but it had an added bonus of being a holy site as well. The volcanic area was a strange mix of religions - old Mayan and evangelical Christian. Preachers have cleared away rocks on the side of the hill or even built rough shelters with a roof and open sides. People were scattered all over these clearings to pray. Hiking up to the rock was…kind of weird. People were chanting, singing, screaming - I think people go there to be healed, devils removed, etc. Let’s just say it was a little distracting while climbing and it was certainly not the peaceful wilderness experience that I enjoy. Even with all the extra commotion, the rock was beautiful and it was fun climbing with people that were excited to be there. Eventually the people stopped praying and left us alone. We were the only ones remaining in a beautiful spot with a full moon – that was what I was looking for.

And then there was the adventure race. Normally I do not like organized races; you pay a bunch of money to spend a few hours with hundreds or thousands of other people. This one was different. There were only about 100 people and it lasted a day and a half. The race was a combination of trekking, mountain biking, orienteering, rappelling and some mystery challenge events that they would not tell us about. We had a great team and had lots of fun racing all day through beautiful countryside surrounding the town of Antigua. We raced for 8 hours, running and biking on trails; we carried tractor tires, shot paintball guns and tried to solve Sudoku puzzles. We didn’t finish this race because it got too late. Next time we won’t stop to eat lunch – now we know.

Everything else is going well. Sam is doing fine; he is working hard at school and trying his best every day. This earned him a special recognition of “Top Dog”. The award goes to one kid each week and is a big deal. We are very proud of our “Top Dog”, he definitely earned it. Besides the academics, he is taking an origami class, playing soccer, climbing, swimming and playing with friends. We feel very lucky to have a great little guy.

As for me…don’t ask about school – it is feeling like work right now since we are a mere four days away from our spring break. I think it is safe to say that Haviland is in the same place as me. Let the count-down begin! For our vacation we are heading to a mountainous part of the country. We are staying at a dairy farm and a horse ranch – both places should provide even more opportunity to get outside and enjoy a quieter vacation out of the big city.

We hope that all is well with you. Please know that our doors are open and that visitors are always welcome.

If you are interested in pictures, you can go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/GrobGuat

-ken