Guatemalan Adventure - Part TWO

SAFE AND SOUND
Well, I´m back in Copan after a very very crazy and long 73 hours. To finish where I left off... I left from the computer place in San Pedro Atitlan, Guatemala and hobbled back to my hotel (4 dollars) and passed out. When i woke up the next morning at 6 my ankle was a bit worse but my bug bite (forgot to tell you, got stung by some black thing and swelled up my wrist a bit) was completely healed. By 7am emily and I were on a boat headed to Santiago Atitlan. He we climed some massive hills, ate breakfast and talked to some international volunteers (OXFAM and SAVE THE CHILDREN, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS, and some others I don´t remember) we talked to everyone we could, locals and foreign in order to gage where best the money the school was raising would be best used. After an hour or so we walked several kilometers up hill to see one of the disaster sites....................... I´m not even sure what is best to say here. At first, i thought i was seeing the aftermath of a volcanic eruption, because all the mud and flatted ground was white. After wandering speechless for several moments, I saw to gringos...a man with a video camera and tripod, and a woman with a cell phone...the ONLY 2 other people there. They informed me that the white powder was LIME, and its used to try and neutralize the acid of all things decomposing beneath our feet. Turns out that the couple works for BBC and NPR and were there to shoot a short report about the devastation. They warned us about several things and told us all that they knew. After sliding around a bit in the mud and lime I decided it was best to change out of my sandals and into some good socks and tennis shoes....my best decision ever, because not even 2 minutes after i did that i sunk into a mud trap. One foot was completely swallowed up to my ankle. From here emily and I decided that we were not going to try walking up that hill any further. We went to the other side, following the couple and were very disheartended my all that we saw. It´s hard to imagine the real extent of dmage since I had never been there before, but after seeing what used ot be a school (now full of mud) and the basketball court, we realized just how much mud there was....it went all the way up to the RIM of the basketball hoops, and some houses had it up to the roof. It is safe to say that we were walking ON TOP of what used to be a lively village. One importnatn thing i should mention I guess is the smell.....Emily and I kept wondering why we kept smelling a sour maneur (i know I spelled that wrong....mah new er) smell, we aked the woman and she says ¨yeah, that...that would be the smell of decaying bodies beneath your feet) :(

The smell was awful. And in some places it was very overpowering...I wanted to cry and at times I was frozen still because I just knew that I was probably on top of somebody or something and they never had a chance. We didn´t wander for long. Some old man was trying to undig his bus some ways up the hill and I wanted to help, just to show him that someone cared, but emily could not take the site anymore. It´s sad, because even after undigging his bus, there was no way it would go any where...the ground was still very mushy and unsafe in places. Like quicksand. While we were walking out 4 puppies, about 1-2 months I would think were swarming the couple...obviously happy to see people again...and probably very hungry. We said our goodbyes, and talked a bit with the 3 police officers approaching. Once back in the city we found a church-shelter that we decided would be the best place for the money and donations. There our hundreds of people without homes now, and are living on the floors of houses and churches...they say many could be there for 6mos to a year.

We boarded a bus from here and went straight to Guatemala City. Our plan was to go to Antigua, where its safer but after taking a taxi to a very exciting area, we decided to walk around a bit and price hotels. We found one right across the street for 4 bucks each, sharing a bed. The place was clean and well kept and had a guard. We wandered the streets for awhile, admiring the amazing markets and stores then had some dinner. Knowing that we didn´t want to go far too late (seeing as the city is so dangerous) we ended up at a restuarant-dance club two doors down from our hotel.. WE TRIED to stay in the hotel, but it was only EIGHT PM and we could hear all the excitement....there was no way we were going to sit in the hotel and feel sorry for ourselves. The place was great, the lady let us in for free, and upstairs was a dancefloor, live MArimba band and DJ and a bunch of older people. We ordered a pepsi and watched. I think the lady loved us though, cuz she kept bringing up snacks and water for free. SHE EVEN BROUGHT ME THE DJ........ohhh my lord was he ever gorgeous. We talked for awhile, i momentarily fell in love, and then he asked me to dance, but i chickened out and then he had to get back to work. So i admired him from afar the rest of the night as I danced with merengue and Punta with some guy my age. After here,at about 10pm we sat across the street and talked to 2 guys for a few minutes then walked into the hotel and talked awhile. At 6 am we woke up (since the guy told us we HAD to be OUT of our rooms by 7am...thats how we got the good price...we didn´t ask why). We walked to our next bus and went to Chiquimula, Guatemala. The city was SOOOO cool that we decided to wander for an hour or so before we got on the van for Jocatan, Guatemala. The van was sooo packed. From here we took another packed van to The border, paid our dues than hopped our last van back to Copan.

All that in 73 hours and about 80 bucks.

Out of time,
miss you all!
Alissa