Month: June 2019

Antigua!!!

Friday, June 7th 2019

It was a sad last few days. Donovan and Jorge left last night after dinner and it has set in for the group that we are coming to an end. We ate a total of three times at the crepe place down the street from the hostel. The food is AMAZING and its not too expensive either. I could eat there 100 times and order something different every time.

Thursday, while we were exploring Antigua, Frances suggested that we go to this overlook she had remembered from when she had visited before. I’m glad we went! It was a beautiful view of the entire city with a massive volcano right in the backdrop. The other half of the group ended up doing it the next morning. The city is pretty touristy, but we enjoyed it. It was a nice break from Xela. I love all the bright colored buildings and the cool shops.

Friday we went to a chocolate making class in the morning. We went to the chocolate museum and had a class with Orland. He was the absolute BEST! He made the class so much fun and taught us all the must knows about chocolate. We made three different types of drinks and then made our own chocolate bars. The first drink was water, cacao, honey, and Chile. It was my personal favorite. Next we had a drink with milk, cacao, sugar, and cardamom. It was like a hot chai chocolate milk! And lastly, we had a tea brewed with the cacao shells. I liked it a lot too!

  • A complete look at the process of making Chocolate.

In the afternoon, everyone went to a Coffee farm except Frances and I because we had already been to one. We spent the afternoon wondering around the city and stopping anywhere that looked good. We watched a bit of the FIFA Women’s cup in an Irish Pub, had some snacks in a BBQ smokehouse, and tried the sample from Antigua’s Brewing Company. My favorite was the Fuego IPA. The Coffee stout tasted like a barista accidentally poured a Budweiser over some coffee grounds.

And of course, we didn’t leave Antigua before claiming our night out on the town. We had the entire gang (minus Donovan and Jorge) for the entire night, which was quite rare. We stayed up late in the room, telling stories and sharing our last memories together because the next morning people would start leaving for the airport at 4am. We said our goodbyes and hugged it out.

Graduation Day

Wednesday, June 5th 2019

The group with our Spanish teachers.

Today was graduation day! We met at the school and then chose how to get to the restaurant. Two teachers took their students on their mopeds, most people took a chicken bus, and Frances and I walked with our teachers. We actually got there faster walking than the chicken bus people! We were all called up individually by our teacher and we all gave a short thank you, in Spanish of course. Afterwards we had a nice meal and got to showcase our non-verbal skills that we had picked up in Guatemala. Frances, Nate, and I had been practicing for about four or five days on two songs. We played Sunday Morning by Maroon 5 (although a much faster rendition) and Soledad y el Mar by Natalia Lafourcade. Afterwards, DQ (Dr. Quinn) asked the four best dancers to show off some moves. After all, our Salsa teach was also one of the Spanish teachers in attendance. We went outside for 5 minutes and threw something together quickly. I added all the videos to the bottom!

As it was our last night in Xela, we got everyone to go out together as a group. We started out at Kasa Kiwi, the local hostel rooftop bar. Sergio, the bartended, helped us celebrate our last night! Afterwards, we all went to Pool & Beer for our last salsa night in Xela.

T-1 Week

Monday, June 3rd 2019

Today was my second to last Spanish class 😦 It is pretty sad. Alma and I have become really close. We spent almost the entire day today just chatting, and it was so fluid! My Spanish has improved so much. After lunch we had our presentations. Each group presented on their paper. It took 4 hours! It was super long, but everybody did such a great job. I learned so much, and really enjoyed the different angles and topics that everybody contributed. After the presentations we all went to an Italian restaurant for pizza, yes PIZZA! It was pretty good! Im trying to enjoy all my last few days here, so we’ll see what’s in store for tonight, but hopefully something fun! Tomorrow’s our last Spanish AND last Salsa class 😦

Volcán Tajumulco: The Mountain of Disappointment

Sunday, June 2nd 2019

Well. . . it sounded like a good idea beforehand! Don’t get me wrong climbing the highest peak in Central America was an amazing hike, I just wish the visibility was a bit better than 20 feet. Allegedly, when you reach the top, you can see the Mexican border! I can’t attest to that fact, but I can certainly say I’ve climbed the tallest peak in Central America! Man the altitude got to me. I have gotten altitude sickness in the past, so I brought Diamox in preparation for the submit. I had one night of paresthesias in my hands as expected, and some sudden nausea while submitting, but I did pretty good otherwise! The peak is at a whopping 13,845 feet, and we started hiking at about 9,000 feet. The hike wasn’t too long, but I felt every foot of elevation gain through the oxygen deficient air. We were supposed to bring sleeping bags to the summit and watch the sunset, but the rain prevented that. We decided to summit anyways, knowing we wouldn’t see the sunrise. The summit was cold, but very doable in the morning without a pack. On the way down, we got a good two thirds of the way down the mountain with decent weather(only some fog). We called in our lunch to the local comedor, and almost instantly a massive rain/thunder/lightening/hail storm came through. The trails turned to rivers and nobody was safe from the water. Walking into the comedor, an hour later, we looked as if we had just jumped into a swimming pool with all of our clothes and shoes still on. Boy am I glad to be back in my warm bed. It was a trip that I will NEVER forget. One day I might do it again if I’m ever back in Guatemala. I’ll post a video when I can get some time to edit all the footage. I’m still backed up on the Atitlan video!

  • Some photos from day 1 in between the clouds!
  • Above the clouds!
  • This pup followed us all the way up to the summit! His name is Ceniza (Ash).
  • Me at the summit on day 2.