Last school day in Parramos

Today we had the last day at Colegio Santos Niños Inocentos. Tomorrow there is no school because it's Dia de Los Niños (Day of the Kids).

We have added some class photos here:

Shiu-Jene and 1st grade.
Shiu-Jene and 2nd grade.
Rasmus and 4th grade.
Rasmus and 5th grade.
Rasmus and 6th grade.

Tomorrow we leave Parramos and head to Lago de Atitlán .. but more about that later....

A weekend at The Pacific

(Sunrise at Monterrico, The Pacific Ocean)

This weekend we went for a trip to The Pacific Ocean. After a week of English classes we wanted to get a bit out.

Saturday morning we got up at 7am at got on the bus to Antigua. Parramos, where we live, is only a stop on the bus route towards Antigua, so we had to go to Antigua. In Antigua we were just in time for the 8am connection to Escuintla, but desides to wait for the next one a hour later, or else we wouldn't have to stand up all the way in a totally crowded bus.

So we went for a cup of coffee and got some money out of the ATM. And then we met Oscar, a dog we named so after the Guatemalaen president. See, the funny thing about Oscar was that he follow us all the way from the bus station until the Parque Central, always staying just 2-3 meters behind us. At the Park we desided that if he would follow us all the way back, we would buy him something to eat. He did, so we bought him a hot dog. We met him a couple of days later, but he seemed to have forgotten us. A short, but good, friendship!

Our first destination at The Pacific was Monterrico. We had to go from Antigua to Escuintla, change bus there and go to Porto San Jose and then to Monterrico. Or so we thought...
In Escuintla we got of the bus and change to another one, which would take us on our way to Monterrico. Next time we got of there didn't seem to be any buses, so we ended up taking a "taxi", which was actually just a pickup truck were we had to sit on the back. It was great until it started to rain :-). Later when we checked the map it turns out we went a completely different route than we thought... But the trip had been beautiful. You drive down from the highlands where Antigua is and you enter a part of Guatemala were the natur seems so rich and fertile. And it is! Big trees and huge grass areas on both sides of the road..

The last part of the trip to Monterrico you have to take by boat. Monterrico is in the middle of a swamp area. It's seperated from the mainland by a km or so of water. When you sail into Monterrico you feel like some of the first people on the continent sailing to unknown destinations. When you get into Monterrico it looks completely different than the rest of Guatemala. Palms everywhere and all the houses seems to be build for a place where it will never be cold, which is properly the case here. And it's wet! There seem to be water everywhere. Maybe we thought so because we arrived in the raining season - something we hadn't thought about before we left to Monterrico - and it was raining a lot when we got there.

We walked up through the main street in Monterrico - the only real street there - and eventually got to the water. The Pacific Ocean! We were not really that amazed thougt because we were hungry, wet and just wanted a dry place. So we found a hotel - they all seem to be a bit pricy - and we had some food at the hotel. We then stayed in door the next hour and a half. It had started to rain A LOT! Around five it finally seem to stop, at least for a while, and we went out for a walk.

We found one of the things we wanted to see in Monterrico: the seaturtle nursery. It's a place where they take care of the turtleeggs until the small turtles come out and then they help them into the sea safely. Most small turtles don't make it out of the eggs at all, because they are eaten by other animals. At five every Saturday the nursery sets out around 10 small turtles, thereby giving them a better chance of making it all the way to adult life.

We ate dinner later on at Johnny's, a foreigner place. Not only foreigners, actually. There is at least as many Guatemalean turists at Monterrico as foreigners.

Sunday morning we got up at five. We had booked a boat trip of the rivers, channels and small lagunes that make Monterrico so famous. It's a special kind of natur here, which is not found anywhere else in Guatemala. They have a tree here called a Mangrove. It's really special. The tree is living in water. From the branch of the tree many smaller branches shoots out and goes back into the water, thereby giving the tree multiple roots. We took a picture of it. Maybe that can give you a better idea. Apart from this mangrove tree, it was an experience to sail around here that early in the morning. We got the sunrise, we could see vulcanoes in the horizone, a lot of birds and a really, really big spider!

After our boat trip we went for a quick swimp in the Pacific. Then we packed up, ate breakfast and got on the boat back to the mainland.

From here we acted upon a tip from a friend and went to Las Lisas. We got there after 2 hours busride. Its basically the same as Monterrico, just without all the people. There are many locals, but only in the weekend. We arrived on Sunday. It was raining a lot, which was a bit annoying, so we stayed at the hotel most of the evening. I'm pretty sure we paid overprice for the place, but it was within our budget. Still annoys you though. The good thing about the place was that they had a huge balcony and since there was no other guest at the hotel, we had the place for ourselves. Great! We had dinner there, watching the Pacific.

Next morning we had breakfast, I had a quick swim in the Pacific and we saw some huge turtles at Las Lisas' seaturtle nursery.

We then packed up our stuff and with first boat and then bus we went all the way back to Parramos, which by the time we arrived seemed more than home than we could ever have thought.

No we have a week more of English and then we travel on to new adventures.

Pictures from the trip to The Pacific are here!

All for now.

Good morning!

... is the first thing we hear these days, when we step into the classrooms at Colegio Santos Niños Inocentes, the local school in Parramos, where we are teaching English.

Our first day at the school was Monday. We went there in the morning at 8 with Efraín - our contact person in Parramos, whos house we are also living in - and we met with the school director, the same lady that we met with last Saturday to arrange the English classes. We agreed that the first day we would teach together, Shiu-Jene and I, and we started out with the first grade students. 30 small kids were waiting for us and we spent the next 45 min teaching them sentences like My name is..., I'm ... years old, etc. The first graders were maybe a bit too small for these sentences; they were just learning to write. But they tried really hard. We had the 2nd, 4th and 5th graders that day as well. At the end of the day we had been introduced to all the classes but the 6th grade (there is no 3rd grade at the school) and we knew a bit more about what they could do. After the classes we met with the director again, and we made a schedule for the next to weeks, were one of us would teach the 1st and 2nd grade and the other the 4th, 5th and 6th grades. Shiu-Jene really likes the small kids - they are really cute! - so she got the small once and Rasmus took the big ones (the annoying once, according to Shiu-Jene).

Now we have had classes for three days. Every morning we met in at the school at 8. Shiu-Jene then has the 1st graders for 45 min and then the 2nd graders for 45 minutes as well. The last two days she has tought them simple words - dog, sun, mother, father, etc - the numbers and today they learned a song and the basics of the clock.
Rasmus has the 4th graders at 8, followed by the two others. He has tought them sentences like What is this? (and they should then answer: that is a pencil.), the clock, the numbers, greetings and for the 6th graders, Rasmus has been trying to teach them that when you have English class you speak English, no habla Español!!! There are these four kids who talk all the time during the class!!!

In the afternoons we prepare the classes for the next day, study a bit Spanish, read a lot, and take walks in Parramos, looking at all the people .. and dogs! There are dogs everywhere!!! More dogs than in the Pikey camp in the movie Snatch!!!

It's a completely different kind of world than Antigua. We try to blend a bit more in with the locals, which they really don't seem to mind. We get by with our limited - but existing - Spanish vocabulary. Most of the times it works, although we are sometimes left guessing...

We don't really have any pictures yet, but as soon as we do, we will upload them for you all to see.

All the best from here.

...And then we left the civilized world of Antigua.

Yesterday we left Antigua. We've been here a bit more than a week. We finished Spanish class Friday. We don't know everything now, but a lot more than before, and already we feel a bit more comfortable talking.
The last week has been nice, but we were ready for something new. After the relaxed week in Antigua, we were ready for something a bit more wild.

So we left for Parramos, a city just 1/2 hour from Antigua, but a wold apart. When we got off the bus, we were without doubt the only foreigners in the city. In Parramos we have the contact at the NGO where we want to do volunteer work. We met with him and he showed us around his project. Unfortunatly, it turned out that most of the work he had these days involved construction work. This is great if you are a school that comes with a money donation that can be spent on buying material and then build for a week of so, but we are just two people and have no money to help out with. But Erfrain - that is his name - was really helpful and appriciated that we wanted to help out. We asked if it was possible to teach English in the city for a week or two, and within an hour he had arranged classes for us; morning classes in a primary school Monday to Friday, and afternoon classes in a middle school Thursday and Fridays. There you go: tomorrow we have to teach English in front of some 50-60 teenagers!!!

It's really cool, though. Everybody seems to be so happy about having us there. We are staying at Efrains house, something he never even seem to question. He is living with his wife and his youngest son; his other 7 kids have all moved out. It's not luxurious what we have, but it's nice place and a nice family.

There is a internet cafe somewhere in Parramos .. we think. So we will try to write. Take care all of you. We updated the picture page and put some pictures from the last days in Antigua in.

All the best from here.

Dia de independencia en Guatemala

Today is the Independence day in Guatemala. It seems to be a really big thing. They have been preparing ever since we got here. Maybe Indendence days are a much bigger thing in countries that had to fight for it within the last 2-3 centuries. It seems to be big in most Latin- and South American countries where freedom haven't always been something you took for granted.

No mather what, hoy es un grande fiesta. Yesterday there was fireworks and they were playing the Mirimba, national instrument of Guatemala. Fantastic music!

Later today we will go to the Parque Central and see what's going on there.

Happy Independence Day!

A small update

Just because we aren't climbing volcanos this week doesn't mean we can't write something.

We started Spanish class yesterday. La class de espanol es muy bien. (Can't do the special Spanish characters on this keyboard, and properly misspelled something anyways.)
But it really is a lot of fun and so useful. We learn some basic things, which is great because they speak Spanish here, and that's it!! Almost no English.

This week is a bit more easy-going. We do Spanish homework in the morning and in the afternoon we have 5 hours of Spanish. Really intensive...

Today we did a salsa course. It was for free when you study at the school we are at. It was actually quite fun, even Rasmus thought so :-)

Erica asked what we are eating. We cook a bit ourselves because it's cheaper (and nicer) than always eating out. We eat A LOT of advocado. They almost throw it after you here. And it's so good. Also lots of fruits. The pineapple is great right now and costs less than a 1$ for a big one.

The weather is amazing these days. The sky always looks different and in the evening there is often lightning, which lights up the sky in the most beautiful ways.

Everything for now. Hope you are all well...

Un volcano activo

Yesterday we had an amazing natural experience. We climbed the volcano Pacaya, at 2552m, and here’s the catch: the volcano is active!!! Yes, as in alive, hot, running lava, the possible sudden eruption (okay. Maybe not! They have it very well under control. But still…)! It was thrilling!

We drove from Antigua to the foot of the volcano, entering Pacaya National Park. From here we would walk to the top with our guide. Before we started we knew that we would climb an active volcano, but still you expect the same “wild” experience that are offered so many other place, where it often turns out to be a safe tourist attraction. But this was different…

We started out walking through something that could look a bit like rainforest. On our right-hand side we had a nice view to the other two volcanoes in the area.

As we got higher up, most of the big trees were gone, and only a few bushes and grass was left. It then got really foggy, and we realized that we were walking in a cloud. A bit further and all the bushes were gone and we were completely gone in the skies.

And then came the wind. See, the wind is normally blowing at a lower altitude than the height of the volcano, but the only place for the wind to pass was over the top of Pacaya. This created an extremely hard wind blowing upwards, just a bit over the ground. You could literally see the clouds flying towards you. And trying there best to carry you along.

At this point there was only black sand left; no trees, bushes or grass.

Then we started to climb the last part. The winds were so strong that you would fall over sometimes. Sand was blowing everywhere (something we would find out when we cleaned our ears later that day!).

When we finally got to the top we got our prize. At the top of Pacaya there is a small hole and once every couple of minutes red, hot lava would flight out, meters up in the air, turn to a black mass once it gets contact with the cold air, and then land somewhere around the hole.

We were only 10-20 meters away, but the strong wind made sure that the lava always flew in the opposite direction. Still it was exiting to be so close. It was hot up there, despite the winds. If you stuck your hand into the sand it would warm up right away.

The climb down was really fun, because having the wind in our faces now you could run down the side of the volcano, but never getting to much speed like you normally do; the winds would keep us at a slow speeds.

It was difficult to capture the amazing views and the hot lava flying around, but we took quite a few pictures and hope you can see a bit of what we saw!

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/rgrunnet/album?.dir=5de5

(If you read this right away, check back again later. Then we'll add some more pictures and put some proper titles for the pictures)

(There is also a few pictures at our dinner, which we ate together with a lot of guys from Israel. They all stayed in the same hostel and did a complete Kosker meal, complete with prayer. Quite interresting...)

Bienvenidos a Guatemala!

We are now in Antigua, Guatemala, writting this from the nicest little hotel, at which we are sleeping tonight. And it is fantastic here!!!

But let me back it up af bit...

Last time we wrote we might not have been in the most positive mood. Our luggage was gone, the weather was bad and Miami turned out to be, well, disappointing. I don't know what we expected, but it's at "fancy hotel, lie on the beach, spent a lot of money" kinda place. And that is not necessarily bad, it's just not what we wanted, or could afford, anyways.
And, on top of that, when we finally got our luggage, it was wet. The bags and everything in it were simply wet. Bummer!
We did manage to find all the local white people. They were all in a mall, Aventura Mall, up north, shopping in JC Penney, Marcy's and all the other shops. So, downtown Miami is basically all Latin Americans and everybody, who is a bit well off, live up north, in Suburbia.

Well, as you maybe can imagine, we were just a bit tired of the whole thing yesterday. We wanted to leave! With out backpage and luggage - which was now relatively dry - we went looking for the public bus to the airport, where we wanted to spent the night (saving the 50 bucks for hotel). Public transportation is really not convenient, and the whole situation was really annoying, but then we met Sofie and Juire(?) from Belgium. They had the same plan as us: find the cheapest transportation to the airport, sleep there and save a good 70-80 dollars. And they were really, really nice. We had a great evening/night in the airport with them, sleeping just a few hours on the floor close to Mexicana Air's checkin counter.

And then, finally, this morning, really early, we checked our baggage in with American Airlines, and waited the last couple of hours until flight AA983 left Miami Airport. Last note on Miami: it was fun to be in The States, but we will probably go somewhere else next time!

A few hours later we landed in Paradise. Well, not excatly. We landed in Guatemala City airport. This wasn't anything special, except they have a welcome band, and already here Miami Airport was left trailing behind.

We got our luggage (which arrived this time ... Hurrah!) and got on a shuttlebus to Antigua. It was a good idea to get out of Guatemala City, because it was mostly slum (or so it seemed from the windows of the bus).

But then we got to Paradise, which in these parts bear the name Antigua (alright, we migt over-do it a bit, but it's close). Antigua is in the bottom of a valley made up of 4-5 vulcanoes, maybe more. You kind of drive down to it. And then we got to the most lovely city. We checked in at the Yellow House, a small hotel with cheap rooms, small patio on the roof, lovely little garden and free internet. We had a small walk, took a few pictures. And it's just great here.

Tomorrow we will try to make a small plan for the next couple of days, which will properly involve some Spanish lessons, because every body here speak .. well, Spanish!

Check out the update pictures from Miami and our new ones from Antigua:

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/rgrunnet/my_photos

And take care for now.

Clouds in the "sunshine state"

We are now in Miami, but without our luggage. British Airways forgot to send it with our plane.

Besides that, we are fine, although it really cloudy here. And if any of you thought that Miami was in United States, you were mistaking; we still haven't met a single "normal" american. But we have met tons of tourist and lots and lots of Latin Americans. They speak more spanish here than English.

It's fun to be here and see the place, but we are quite happy we are only staying a few days.

Here's some new pictures you can look at:

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/rgrunnet/album?.dir=/369a

And when we have more time later on, we write a bit more, also about Hamburg (which was quite fun).

All for now. We are in good moods and having fun, even though we are with out baggage and sun :-)

Almost...

Can't get much closer now.
Our bags are packed .. we are ready to go .. we are standing here .. outside the door (hmm .. sounds familiar!)

We made a new picture album here: http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/rgrunnet/album?.dir=5cc8

Back later...