Hi readers! Sorry its been so long since an update - me and the other students all took a weekend trip to a lot of cities and had a lot of fun. So let the stories begin!
Friday, June 6:
So after a half day at the clinic the other students and I decided to head out to San Pedro on the other side of the lake. This place was described to us as a "hippie hangout" and it kind of showed when we got there. A lot of Europeans were around and they all seemed to be high or were talking about getting high that night. But anyway - it was actually a little dead since its not tourist season so we kind of had the city to ourselves. We walked around a little, found some churches, had a drink at Niq's Place (the cappuccino's look like lava lamps) and then set out for dinner. Oh before I forget - we saw a gym there and they had a bunch of equipment while playing upbeat 80's music. Pai decided to show off her ripped body in one of our pictures entitled "The Gym Is Over There". Check it out. After navigating through sketchy alleys we found this place known as the Buddha Bar. They had an Asian cuisine there and although the food sounded good on paper...it wasn't so great in our bellies. But that's okay - cuz the drinks were super cheap (For you old enough try rum, grenadine and lemonade...its great). Then we set off a couple of hot air balloons which was really cool (and we have great pics of) and went off to go Salsa dance at a place called Chile's (no...not the Chile's we've all grown to love in the States). We sat down in the restaurant for a couple of Cuba Libres (Rum & Coke) and Mojitos and waited for dancing. That is when we met our lover...Abna. He was graceful, beautiful and pretty much an overall nice guy. He taught us how to salsa and there are just hilarious pics of it all in our album. Maybe I'll show you ladies out there a couple of moves when I get back to the States. Oh - and Christina totally had a dream about Abna and so we tease her a lot about him haha. But after dancing we were tired and ended up going to sleep in our $3/night hostel. It sucked. A lot. Foam mattress, wool blanket, pillow full of dust mites and all the mosquitoes and loud noises you could ask for. Shannon and I have decided we're doin 5-star hotels from here on out haha.
Saturday, June 7:
So we wake up in the morning with the intention of heading out to "La Nariz" to check out the beautiful lake...but it wasn't so beautiful in the morning with clouds and drizzle. So instead we had a wonderful breakfast at Le Jardin (I got awesome pancakes with fruit and yogurt) and then set off for Santiago. Let me just start by saying I suck at bargaining with the boatmen here. They want 25Q a head to take us from one place to another and use gasoline as the excuse as to why its so much. We just gave into them because we suck at bargaining. The good news is that it cleared up though and it was REALLY sunny and we were in a boat with no top so we got AWESOME pictures of the lake at its finest. In Santiago - we were immediately bombarded by kids and vendors who were trying to sell us everything and anything. It was basically a market town and a lot of the girls bought things like purses, pirahanas, paintings, jewelry and other merchandise. But the main attraction at Santiago was Maximon. This is some Pagan god that gets passed around from house to house in the village so you have to find someone to show you where it is. A group of med kids know better - we asked the guard at the bank to tell us where it was and he did it for free haha. Maximon was...interesting. Its basically a god that they pray to and worship by giving him cigarettes, liquor and beer. He's dressed in a cowboy hat, has a beard and looks exactly like the Marlboro man on the box of cigarettes. It was...weird. They make him smoke cigarettes and when he's done they make him drink liquor. We only got one pic since they were charging 10Q a pic...but its a good one. After Santiago we left and went to Pana for some grocery shopping. Then we took the late boat back to Santa Cruz (where we almost drowned from there being too much weight on the boat) and PASSED OUT in our hotel rooms in Santa Cruz.
Sunday, June 8:
Today is the day that we headed out to Chichi - the GIANT market outside the lake. We woke up super early to hop on a shuttle to the town that left at 8am. Along the way we got to see more of Guatemala's beautiful countryside including a couple of waterfalls that got created from the rain that we've been getting. We got to the market at around 10am and it was INSANE. Words cannot explain the amount of people and things that you could see there. We immedately dived into it and started bargaining with vendors and getting deals on stuff. They tried to price things 3-4x as much as they should cost but if you're good at bargaining then you can get them down low. I took Shannon's approach to the whole thing where you stick with a price and if they don't give it to you ... walk away. Ok - it didnt work all the time but I got some gifts outta it! After shopping for a couple of hours we met up with Pai's friend Jess who teaches in Chichi. She took us to this wonderful buffet for lunch where we ate to our hearts content and then did last minute shopping before heading back to Lake Atitlan. When we got back to our hotel rooms - we were tired and just watched movies, played cards and relaxed until we fell asleep. But before I forget - time to introduce more characters to our vacation. We had 4 more people join us this weekend:
-Laurie: that UNC girl that we saw kayaking in the rocky waters of Atitlan cuz she's crazy.
-Lisa: 4th year pharm student at University of Maryland - Baltimore
-Chris: 2nd year pharm student at University of Maryland - Baltimore
-Mitch: still haven't gotten to know him but we know he's a dental student?
Phew - that was a hell of an update but its very detailed for your enjoyment! If you guys want any gifts or postcards or something let me know and I'll try my hardest to get them as soon as I can. Oh and to those that think that I'm in paradise..try again. It's raining and I eat alot. I'm getting more pale and fat rather than tan and skinny. Go figure. Anyway - hope everyone's enjoying their summer so far, I miss you guys!
Hasta Luego,
Neil
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment