Take two of all my entries from Central America
-----Original Message-----
From: Tyler Walker [mailto:sondaybludysonday@hotmail.com]
Sent: February 10, 2006 10:32 AM
Subject: MP is da place ta be
So here's the long-awaited spheal on Maya Pedal, although its not as long as
I origionally wanted. (www.mayapedal.org) Maya Pedal is basically a bike
shop that takes thrown-out bikes, uses volunteers to fix them up, and then
sells them.
My experience: I was really intimidated in the beginning, but Ive managed
now to have my own little bowl of confidence here. The other volunteers
here are really well-rounded, well-centred people. Many of them are
currently in the middle of bike tours of Guatemala.. I think this could be
something I might do before I leave. One pair of volunteers just arrived
here from India on Wensday. They were riding around in India for 3 months..
another pair of volunteers, brothers, are doing a loop from Oregon, and
are riding around all of Guatemala. Its really, really awesome to talk to
these people. Its really inspiring. Now I just need to find someone crazy
enough to tour the world on bicycles with me... .......
The food we eat here in Maya Pedal is definately a memorable and noteworthy
part of the Maya Pedal experience. Clearly, it is the people that live here
that make Maya Pedal what it is, but what MP is right now is an emporium of
fiendishly extravagent and delicious meals, 3 meals a day.
Most of the volunteers at MP are vegitarians. In addition, most of the
volunteers at MP are rediculously good cooks. In additionaddition, fridges
in San Andreas Itzapa dont really exist all that much (due to energy costs),
so almost all food is picked fresh daily.
Most of our meals here are preceeded by a "Dear god this looks/smells/tastes
fuckin' fantastic."
The building we're living in is upkept by us, and we clean it almost daily.
We all share the tasks of cooking, cleaning, and working. Its really cool
seeing how much respect we all have for one another, the maturity of the
whole group definately lets things work more smoothly.
The bikes. Theres currently around 250 bikes here at MP, most of which are
in a state of disrepair. They were all either thrown out or donated by
their previous owners, so theres a lot of work that needs to go into each
one to get them ridable again. Its a really cool experience bringing life
back to these things that were origionally trash. We spend usually about
6-8 hours a day fixing bicycles. As volunteers we are allowed to comendeer
the bikes we want, and use them until they are sold, or keep them until we
leave MP. Its a pretty sweet arrangement, and Ive actually befriended a
couple of serious BMXers living here in Itzapa from riding around some of
the old BMXs. They're my first spanish friends!!! ITs pretty sweet, but I
need to learn more spanish. I taught them some sweet BMXing trials stuff.
So, Id have to say, overall Im having a pretty frickin amazing time. I
really, really like the people Im living and working with, I love the people
of the town we{re in because theyre really friendly and accepting, and I
think its amazing that I get to spend my days in a absolutely beautiful
country, helping out with something that I really love to do.
On to other stuff. Last weekend, I did a sort of weekend excursion about
200km (took 7 hours or so) north to a place called Coban, and Semuc
Champey/Lanquin. I mentioned this in my last email...but this time I have
pictures!! Snap it was pretty. The forrest was beautiful and very
different. There was a lightening storm both nights I was there.. it was
kind of magical. What an awesome trip. Semuc Champey is basically a 400m
limestone bridge over a roaring river, most of the river goes under it. we
went caving there too and saw bats so thick that it was similar to being
covered in honey in a swarm of bees (but its toxic honey so they dont
actualy land on you, but you could probably breathe one in if you tried.
They were really, really thick.) This weekend, Im going to a place called
Lago de Atitlan, which is a fairly large lake, which Ive heard is pretty
fantastically pretty.
Oh, and before I forget. I can recieve long distance phone calls here!! 1
502 7832 0860. But I wont be getting back to this number till next monday
night, its a lot better to call in the evening too. I feel bad for not
calling back home regularly, but I have been really busy, and I now have to
go to a different city to do so..
I dont really have time to talk about each picture, but they{re of maya
pedal, and semuc champey. I came to a different town to use the internet,
but its still relatively slow, and Im running out of time.
I also included one picture from a whole set of pictures we took during a
fun night in antigua. We went into the shadiest bar we could find, bought a
bottle of rum, and started from there. It was a long night.
Anyways. Im alive! a little sick, but alive..
Love you guys.
Tyler
-----Original Message-----From: Tyler Walker [mailto:sondaybludysonday@hotmail.com] Sent: Sunday, February 05, 2006 8:40 AMSubject: Ola
I havent had a chance to write a group email lately, I have been really
busy. And tired. And kinda sick.
Im still having an amazing time though. Slowly adjusting more and more to
Guatemala. Its hard, Im still having a tough time with spanish. The
communication barrier is making things tough for me, but Im still trying.
A little on Maya Pedal..
I actually want to write a full out email on Maya Pedal, soley. Its been an
absolutely amazing experience. Its everything I could have realistically
hoped for. The fact that Im volunteering with 7 other really amazing
people, eating these amazing meals (most of the people there are wicked good
cooks, and vegitarian, we do 3 group meals a day that cost overall 70Q or
about $14CDN a week. Cheap living indeed.) ... and building bikes for 8
hours a day is frickin fantastic. Im also teaching some of the other
volunteers about bikes, which is really awesome, because Im the new guy!!
I have lots of pictures, but Im not sending them right now.
I did some travelling this weekend. I made it up to the city of Coban
(which is beautiful), and Lanquin and Semuc Champey. I went on a cave tour,
that mostly involved swimming in warm water through underground caverns with
candles... it was amazing. There were some kind of sketchy parts where the
guide told us to slide down a couple tiny little holes where the water was
rushing through..
Got to swim in two different caves yesterday. Both were amazing.
Anyways, gotta catch a bus. Letting you know Im still alive and kicking.
Tyler
-----Original Message-----From: Tyler Walker [mailto:sondaybludysonday@hotmail.com] Sent: Saturday, January 28, 2006 4:43 PMSubject: ! more (2)
Guatemala - The land of obnoctious, completely unecessary, continuously
present unstopping noise.
Its a custom here to celebrate people´s birthdays with fireworks at dawn.
People in general seem to just be bored here in addition, fireworks are a
common background noise at all hours of the day, on all days of the week.
Especially on weekends.
As I stated in an earlier email, there arnt any real traffic rules here.
That means, people seem to act like.. sheep. With horns. Purely and soley
in the sense, that if one person honks, everone around them honks, as if to
communicate that they too have horns.
Its not quite like this. But drivers have to be very agressive (people in
general are very agressive here due to the crowded situation.. another story
kinda) and so horn use is about as common as using brakes (which is also
very common. Just to clear up my point making).
This rule also applies to the ´public tranist' aka chicken busses here.
But, it applies two or three fold.
The public transit system here is amazing. Its very low cost, very left
wing (am I using that right Jenn?) and could be considered unsafe (they're
likely extremely unsafe, if not the bus then the style of driving), but
amazingly effective. The busses are all old bluebird school busses, but
painted very extravagently. There are usually busses heading in pratically
every direction, leaving every 15 minutes, from most locations. These
busses are made to contain about 40 or so school-sized children, but they
are very regularly full of around 60 or so adult-sized persons. There are
no bus stops either, you just have to wave the bus down as they drive by.
This works amazingly well, because there is no overseeing Public Transit god
that all the bus drivers answer to (there might be). The busses WANT your
business. The drivers yell to you where they´re going, and if they think
that you atleast MIGHT be wanting to get on, they´ll slam on their brakes
just to get your business.
Back to the point. They advertise their business by honking, almost
constantly. They also honk to eachother, and there's a lot of eachothers.
Its a lot of honking.
Car alarms. Due to the amount of poverty in guatemala, the people who can
afford to have a moderately decent car want to protect them. These car
alarms seem to all be super sensitive, as many are usually triggered by the
passing of a bus (a public bus.. there´s a lot of busses.. you can see the
chain of happenings). Even some of the little 80cc scooters, of which there
is a large amount of here (in Antigua), have alarms. Also, since the
majority of cars here are barely drivable (litterally held together with
tape, on the verge of falling apart), mufflers and other such unecessary
things are usually neglected. More noise.
To top it off, besides the noise of being around a lot of people all the
time, I slept in a hostel last night. To which, it would appear, they were
doing heavy construction work to until about 3am. I forgot my earplugs.. it
was hellish.
So yeah. For those wondering, life is good. Im looking forward to going to
San Andreas Itzapa next week (TO WORK ON BIKES.. sorry), because Im starting
to see just how touristy Antigua really is (I havent left antigua too many
times yet). Time to see the real Guatemala (endless agriculture, efficient
and cost-effective ways of life, no consumerism). I got to climb some 300
year old spanish colonial ruins today too, it was sweet.
Pictures:
A few pictures of the friends Ive made here, some from Britian, some from
the US, some from Germany, one from Switzerland.
A beautiful spot overlooking Antigua with more of above friends, and the
volcano behind the town.
A shot of Ronald Macdonald in the large garden-laden courtyard of the
McDonald´s in antigua, its fucking huge, and is very nearly the nicest
looking restaurant in Antigua.
Im off, dinner time. So tired. Time to get ready for a saturday night in a
shady Guatemalan bar (no joke)
Cheers
Tyler
-----Original Message-----From: Tyler Walker [mailto:sondaybludysonday@hotmail.com] Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 2:04 PMSubject: A few more words than last time (2)
I went to San Andreas Itzapa yesterday, where Maya Pedal is. The village is
virtually the opposite of Antigua. Antigua is a very artsy looking tourist
town with a small tinge of Guatemala. There are forieners everywhere, and
you dont have to walk more then 2 or 3 minutes to find someone who speaks
english. Itzapa has a similar population (Antigua has 40,000), but, there
are only around 10 or so white people that live there. That means, no
englih. No friendly tourist lady who speaks fluently to you and makes you
feel so relaxed (and much more willing to purchase items in her tent). And
a whole lot of Guatemalans that make it very obvious to you that you´re not
from around there.
I visited Maya Pedal, and it is everything I wanted it to be. The main
floor is pretty much entirely a workshop. Various devices for welding,
machining, and fixing bicycles crowd the walls. There are some of the
bicimaclinas (I cant spell it.. or say it for that matter) sitting around,
but the shop is moderately clutter-free. There´s a kitchen with a gas(?)
stove and few other things, but no fridge. Which means I cant cook a bunch
of junk and eat left-overs for an entire week.
The second floor has the showroom (a cleanish open space) and the rooms for
which volunteers can live in. Ill be staying in a room with a bunkbed and a
window (horray!).
The third floor is open, like many of the multi-story buildings in guatemala
(I havent seen one that wasnt.) It has a bunch of racks with bike frames
and stuff hanging from them, and offers an amazing view of Itzapa.
Itzapa is a little higher than Antigua I think (in regards to the ocean),
but its still fairly warm. The temperature these past few days have been
similar to early fall, although it still heats up a lot around noon till 2
or 3pm. (Sweet note about Guatemala.. common buisness hours are from 8
till noon then 2 till 6 or 8. They break for two hours, because it
regularly gets too hot for people to work. 2 hour lunch breaks rock.) The
city is pretty hilly its self, the centre of town being more or less the
bottem with hills going up on most sides. Maya Pedal is on such a hill.
Past Maya Pedal is a dirt road that apparently goes all the way to Antigua.
Im looking forward to making the trip on a bike. The road heads up into the
mountains (more just like very, very big hills by canadian standards), which
are pratically entirely culivated for agricultural use. Its really cool
seeing ´fields´of cabbage and stuff on these rediculusly steep hills. A
friend of mine (from Germany, he happily acted as a frickin translator for
me most of the time while we were there) and I decided to hitchhike further
up into the hillmountains in the back of a pickup truck. It was pretty fun
hitchhiking in a direction where we had absolutly no idea of where we were
going. We passed a large group of ´farmers´ all carrying various kinds of
rifles (note to self, I need to find out why they were carrying rifles), and
the pickup truck stopped to pick them up and drive them back to town. We
kept walking higher and ended ùp coming across some large manmade caves (dug
into compacted sand), a lot of really pretty butterflies, and some AVOCADO
trees (I learned that avocados grow on trees..).
After many hours of hiking random trails in the mountains, we headed back.
Didnt get back till late last night.. slept for 11 hours. It was awesome.
Anyways, I know I said Id write a journal. But definately most of my energy
for that kind of thing goes into these emails.. so maybe.. NATALIE (or
someone else?) could keep a record of them, as hotmail doesnt easily have
that capability.
Including couple of pictures. They´re from our treck in the mountain.
And.. one of my dinner table in Antigua, with the three other students Im
living with (from Switzerland, US and England), and my host father.
My coca necklace tastes like wood.
Talk to you guys later,
Tyler
Yes, yes Im still alive.
The pictures included are mostly of the crazy trees in Miami. They were
really near the airport, where I had to wait for 6 hour, I cant even imagine
what the actual forests would be like. The trees were amazing. The ´roots´
that are ´hanging´off of the branches are actually as strong as the branches
them selves.. I climbed a couple, but the fact that I hadnt slept for 30-40
hours kept me from doing too much of that. (When Im tired I feel kind of
drunk, and do things with out paying enough attention to what it is that Im
doing. I have a few scars from such things).
The weather in Miami was really humid, it felt very very much like Butterfly
World (super humid) and smelled like Id imagine a jungle would smell. Super
awesome place to see a sunrise (I was there from 6am to 12pm.
The pictures of Guatemala include the yellow church, the yellow arch over
the street, and the ones of the strange wooden animals. The one on the
street shows what the streets look like in Antigua. Super bumpy
cobblestones. Behind the yellow arch is one of threee volcanos that are
visable from Antigua. The streets outside of Antigua look a little more
north american, but because of the surroundings you´re till very obviously
in Guatemala.
StewartAndyDarien - remember those masks in Jen´s pictures, I found a store
with an enormous collection of them!!! And those crazy wodden animals! The
masks cost about $10 CDN each.. hmm..
There was something else I was gunna say but I dont remember.
Hasta lluego
Tyler
January 16th
So yeah. Letter one of many. I made it!!!!!! And I spent a total of about
..12 minutes in customs. That includes the states, guatemala, and airport
security.. things went really smooth. I coulda easily smuggled things in in
both occasions (except for the airport security.. sheesh). I have been
awake for a very long time. Far too long.
On to more important things. Guatemala is the most beautiful and amazing
place, its so.. incredible. The flight in was amazing, everything I could
see from it was so beautiful, so different. I was so nervous and ancious
through my whole trip through the states..
The forrest.. is like jungle. I havent ventured in there yet, but it is
eons different than BC forrests. And the people, and the city I landed in,
and the.. driving. The driving is basically like having absolutly no road
rules at all. It would seem that the country constantly assumes the police
are on holidays. Even the police (who were weaving in and out of traffic
doing 30-40 over with AK-47s on their backs) are pretty confident that they
donty have to do anything. The only rules are the ones that are (seemingly)
common sense, such as, dont turn across a lane of traffic if theres a wall
of traffic coming at you.
The place where Im staying is also unbelievable. Most of the house is
outdoors. I have my own room (has a ceiling and a lock), thankfully.
Although Id trust Delcia (mother whos house Im at) with my life and all of
my belongings I think.
Anyways. I want to go back and help out with making dinner. I have taken
some pictures, but Ill work on sending them another day (maybe tomorrow).
Maybe Ill even have time to send a few individual emails.
Im smiling so much it hurts.
Denada
Tyler
From: Tyler Walker [mailto:sondaybludysonday@hotmail.com]
Sent: February 10, 2006 10:32 AM
Subject: MP is da place ta be
So here's the long-awaited spheal on Maya Pedal, although its not as long as
I origionally wanted. (www.mayapedal.org) Maya Pedal is basically a bike
shop that takes thrown-out bikes, uses volunteers to fix them up, and then
sells them.
My experience: I was really intimidated in the beginning, but Ive managed
now to have my own little bowl of confidence here. The other volunteers
here are really well-rounded, well-centred people. Many of them are
currently in the middle of bike tours of Guatemala.. I think this could be
something I might do before I leave. One pair of volunteers just arrived
here from India on Wensday. They were riding around in India for 3 months..
another pair of volunteers, brothers, are doing a loop from Oregon, and
are riding around all of Guatemala. Its really, really awesome to talk to
these people. Its really inspiring. Now I just need to find someone crazy
enough to tour the world on bicycles with me... .......
The food we eat here in Maya Pedal is definately a memorable and noteworthy
part of the Maya Pedal experience. Clearly, it is the people that live here
that make Maya Pedal what it is, but what MP is right now is an emporium of
fiendishly extravagent and delicious meals, 3 meals a day.
Most of the volunteers at MP are vegitarians. In addition, most of the
volunteers at MP are rediculously good cooks. In additionaddition, fridges
in San Andreas Itzapa dont really exist all that much (due to energy costs),
so almost all food is picked fresh daily.
Most of our meals here are preceeded by a "Dear god this looks/smells/tastes
fuckin' fantastic."
The building we're living in is upkept by us, and we clean it almost daily.
We all share the tasks of cooking, cleaning, and working. Its really cool
seeing how much respect we all have for one another, the maturity of the
whole group definately lets things work more smoothly.
The bikes. Theres currently around 250 bikes here at MP, most of which are
in a state of disrepair. They were all either thrown out or donated by
their previous owners, so theres a lot of work that needs to go into each
one to get them ridable again. Its a really cool experience bringing life
back to these things that were origionally trash. We spend usually about
6-8 hours a day fixing bicycles. As volunteers we are allowed to comendeer
the bikes we want, and use them until they are sold, or keep them until we
leave MP. Its a pretty sweet arrangement, and Ive actually befriended a
couple of serious BMXers living here in Itzapa from riding around some of
the old BMXs. They're my first spanish friends!!! ITs pretty sweet, but I
need to learn more spanish. I taught them some sweet BMXing trials stuff.
So, Id have to say, overall Im having a pretty frickin amazing time. I
really, really like the people Im living and working with, I love the people
of the town we{re in because theyre really friendly and accepting, and I
think its amazing that I get to spend my days in a absolutely beautiful
country, helping out with something that I really love to do.
On to other stuff. Last weekend, I did a sort of weekend excursion about
200km (took 7 hours or so) north to a place called Coban, and Semuc
Champey/Lanquin. I mentioned this in my last email...but this time I have
pictures!! Snap it was pretty. The forrest was beautiful and very
different. There was a lightening storm both nights I was there.. it was
kind of magical. What an awesome trip. Semuc Champey is basically a 400m
limestone bridge over a roaring river, most of the river goes under it. we
went caving there too and saw bats so thick that it was similar to being
covered in honey in a swarm of bees (but its toxic honey so they dont
actualy land on you, but you could probably breathe one in if you tried.
They were really, really thick.) This weekend, Im going to a place called
Lago de Atitlan, which is a fairly large lake, which Ive heard is pretty
fantastically pretty.
Oh, and before I forget. I can recieve long distance phone calls here!! 1
502 7832 0860. But I wont be getting back to this number till next monday
night, its a lot better to call in the evening too. I feel bad for not
calling back home regularly, but I have been really busy, and I now have to
go to a different city to do so..
I dont really have time to talk about each picture, but they{re of maya
pedal, and semuc champey. I came to a different town to use the internet,
but its still relatively slow, and Im running out of time.
I also included one picture from a whole set of pictures we took during a
fun night in antigua. We went into the shadiest bar we could find, bought a
bottle of rum, and started from there. It was a long night.
Anyways. Im alive! a little sick, but alive..
Love you guys.
Tyler
-----Original Message-----From: Tyler Walker [mailto:sondaybludysonday@hotmail.com] Sent: Sunday, February 05, 2006 8:40 AMSubject: Ola
I havent had a chance to write a group email lately, I have been really
busy. And tired. And kinda sick.
Im still having an amazing time though. Slowly adjusting more and more to
Guatemala. Its hard, Im still having a tough time with spanish. The
communication barrier is making things tough for me, but Im still trying.
A little on Maya Pedal..
I actually want to write a full out email on Maya Pedal, soley. Its been an
absolutely amazing experience. Its everything I could have realistically
hoped for. The fact that Im volunteering with 7 other really amazing
people, eating these amazing meals (most of the people there are wicked good
cooks, and vegitarian, we do 3 group meals a day that cost overall 70Q or
about $14CDN a week. Cheap living indeed.) ... and building bikes for 8
hours a day is frickin fantastic. Im also teaching some of the other
volunteers about bikes, which is really awesome, because Im the new guy!!
I have lots of pictures, but Im not sending them right now.
I did some travelling this weekend. I made it up to the city of Coban
(which is beautiful), and Lanquin and Semuc Champey. I went on a cave tour,
that mostly involved swimming in warm water through underground caverns with
candles... it was amazing. There were some kind of sketchy parts where the
guide told us to slide down a couple tiny little holes where the water was
rushing through..
Got to swim in two different caves yesterday. Both were amazing.
Anyways, gotta catch a bus. Letting you know Im still alive and kicking.
Tyler
-----Original Message-----From: Tyler Walker [mailto:sondaybludysonday@hotmail.com] Sent: Saturday, January 28, 2006 4:43 PMSubject: ! more (2)
Guatemala - The land of obnoctious, completely unecessary, continuously
present unstopping noise.
Its a custom here to celebrate people´s birthdays with fireworks at dawn.
People in general seem to just be bored here in addition, fireworks are a
common background noise at all hours of the day, on all days of the week.
Especially on weekends.
As I stated in an earlier email, there arnt any real traffic rules here.
That means, people seem to act like.. sheep. With horns. Purely and soley
in the sense, that if one person honks, everone around them honks, as if to
communicate that they too have horns.
Its not quite like this. But drivers have to be very agressive (people in
general are very agressive here due to the crowded situation.. another story
kinda) and so horn use is about as common as using brakes (which is also
very common. Just to clear up my point making).
This rule also applies to the ´public tranist' aka chicken busses here.
But, it applies two or three fold.
The public transit system here is amazing. Its very low cost, very left
wing (am I using that right Jenn?) and could be considered unsafe (they're
likely extremely unsafe, if not the bus then the style of driving), but
amazingly effective. The busses are all old bluebird school busses, but
painted very extravagently. There are usually busses heading in pratically
every direction, leaving every 15 minutes, from most locations. These
busses are made to contain about 40 or so school-sized children, but they
are very regularly full of around 60 or so adult-sized persons. There are
no bus stops either, you just have to wave the bus down as they drive by.
This works amazingly well, because there is no overseeing Public Transit god
that all the bus drivers answer to (there might be). The busses WANT your
business. The drivers yell to you where they´re going, and if they think
that you atleast MIGHT be wanting to get on, they´ll slam on their brakes
just to get your business.
Back to the point. They advertise their business by honking, almost
constantly. They also honk to eachother, and there's a lot of eachothers.
Its a lot of honking.
Car alarms. Due to the amount of poverty in guatemala, the people who can
afford to have a moderately decent car want to protect them. These car
alarms seem to all be super sensitive, as many are usually triggered by the
passing of a bus (a public bus.. there´s a lot of busses.. you can see the
chain of happenings). Even some of the little 80cc scooters, of which there
is a large amount of here (in Antigua), have alarms. Also, since the
majority of cars here are barely drivable (litterally held together with
tape, on the verge of falling apart), mufflers and other such unecessary
things are usually neglected. More noise.
To top it off, besides the noise of being around a lot of people all the
time, I slept in a hostel last night. To which, it would appear, they were
doing heavy construction work to until about 3am. I forgot my earplugs.. it
was hellish.
So yeah. For those wondering, life is good. Im looking forward to going to
San Andreas Itzapa next week (TO WORK ON BIKES.. sorry), because Im starting
to see just how touristy Antigua really is (I havent left antigua too many
times yet). Time to see the real Guatemala (endless agriculture, efficient
and cost-effective ways of life, no consumerism). I got to climb some 300
year old spanish colonial ruins today too, it was sweet.
Pictures:
A few pictures of the friends Ive made here, some from Britian, some from
the US, some from Germany, one from Switzerland.
A beautiful spot overlooking Antigua with more of above friends, and the
volcano behind the town.
A shot of Ronald Macdonald in the large garden-laden courtyard of the
McDonald´s in antigua, its fucking huge, and is very nearly the nicest
looking restaurant in Antigua.
Im off, dinner time. So tired. Time to get ready for a saturday night in a
shady Guatemalan bar (no joke)
Cheers
Tyler
-----Original Message-----From: Tyler Walker [mailto:sondaybludysonday@hotmail.com] Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 2:04 PMSubject: A few more words than last time (2)
I went to San Andreas Itzapa yesterday, where Maya Pedal is. The village is
virtually the opposite of Antigua. Antigua is a very artsy looking tourist
town with a small tinge of Guatemala. There are forieners everywhere, and
you dont have to walk more then 2 or 3 minutes to find someone who speaks
english. Itzapa has a similar population (Antigua has 40,000), but, there
are only around 10 or so white people that live there. That means, no
englih. No friendly tourist lady who speaks fluently to you and makes you
feel so relaxed (and much more willing to purchase items in her tent). And
a whole lot of Guatemalans that make it very obvious to you that you´re not
from around there.
I visited Maya Pedal, and it is everything I wanted it to be. The main
floor is pretty much entirely a workshop. Various devices for welding,
machining, and fixing bicycles crowd the walls. There are some of the
bicimaclinas (I cant spell it.. or say it for that matter) sitting around,
but the shop is moderately clutter-free. There´s a kitchen with a gas(?)
stove and few other things, but no fridge. Which means I cant cook a bunch
of junk and eat left-overs for an entire week.
The second floor has the showroom (a cleanish open space) and the rooms for
which volunteers can live in. Ill be staying in a room with a bunkbed and a
window (horray!).
The third floor is open, like many of the multi-story buildings in guatemala
(I havent seen one that wasnt.) It has a bunch of racks with bike frames
and stuff hanging from them, and offers an amazing view of Itzapa.
Itzapa is a little higher than Antigua I think (in regards to the ocean),
but its still fairly warm. The temperature these past few days have been
similar to early fall, although it still heats up a lot around noon till 2
or 3pm. (Sweet note about Guatemala.. common buisness hours are from 8
till noon then 2 till 6 or 8. They break for two hours, because it
regularly gets too hot for people to work. 2 hour lunch breaks rock.) The
city is pretty hilly its self, the centre of town being more or less the
bottem with hills going up on most sides. Maya Pedal is on such a hill.
Past Maya Pedal is a dirt road that apparently goes all the way to Antigua.
Im looking forward to making the trip on a bike. The road heads up into the
mountains (more just like very, very big hills by canadian standards), which
are pratically entirely culivated for agricultural use. Its really cool
seeing ´fields´of cabbage and stuff on these rediculusly steep hills. A
friend of mine (from Germany, he happily acted as a frickin translator for
me most of the time while we were there) and I decided to hitchhike further
up into the hillmountains in the back of a pickup truck. It was pretty fun
hitchhiking in a direction where we had absolutly no idea of where we were
going. We passed a large group of ´farmers´ all carrying various kinds of
rifles (note to self, I need to find out why they were carrying rifles), and
the pickup truck stopped to pick them up and drive them back to town. We
kept walking higher and ended ùp coming across some large manmade caves (dug
into compacted sand), a lot of really pretty butterflies, and some AVOCADO
trees (I learned that avocados grow on trees..).
After many hours of hiking random trails in the mountains, we headed back.
Didnt get back till late last night.. slept for 11 hours. It was awesome.
Anyways, I know I said Id write a journal. But definately most of my energy
for that kind of thing goes into these emails.. so maybe.. NATALIE (or
someone else?) could keep a record of them, as hotmail doesnt easily have
that capability.
Including couple of pictures. They´re from our treck in the mountain.
And.. one of my dinner table in Antigua, with the three other students Im
living with (from Switzerland, US and England), and my host father.
My coca necklace tastes like wood.
Talk to you guys later,
Tyler
Yes, yes Im still alive.
The pictures included are mostly of the crazy trees in Miami. They were
really near the airport, where I had to wait for 6 hour, I cant even imagine
what the actual forests would be like. The trees were amazing. The ´roots´
that are ´hanging´off of the branches are actually as strong as the branches
them selves.. I climbed a couple, but the fact that I hadnt slept for 30-40
hours kept me from doing too much of that. (When Im tired I feel kind of
drunk, and do things with out paying enough attention to what it is that Im
doing. I have a few scars from such things).
The weather in Miami was really humid, it felt very very much like Butterfly
World (super humid) and smelled like Id imagine a jungle would smell. Super
awesome place to see a sunrise (I was there from 6am to 12pm.
The pictures of Guatemala include the yellow church, the yellow arch over
the street, and the ones of the strange wooden animals. The one on the
street shows what the streets look like in Antigua. Super bumpy
cobblestones. Behind the yellow arch is one of threee volcanos that are
visable from Antigua. The streets outside of Antigua look a little more
north american, but because of the surroundings you´re till very obviously
in Guatemala.
StewartAndyDarien - remember those masks in Jen´s pictures, I found a store
with an enormous collection of them!!! And those crazy wodden animals! The
masks cost about $10 CDN each.. hmm..
There was something else I was gunna say but I dont remember.
Hasta lluego
Tyler
January 16th
So yeah. Letter one of many. I made it!!!!!! And I spent a total of about
..12 minutes in customs. That includes the states, guatemala, and airport
security.. things went really smooth. I coulda easily smuggled things in in
both occasions (except for the airport security.. sheesh). I have been
awake for a very long time. Far too long.
On to more important things. Guatemala is the most beautiful and amazing
place, its so.. incredible. The flight in was amazing, everything I could
see from it was so beautiful, so different. I was so nervous and ancious
through my whole trip through the states..
The forrest.. is like jungle. I havent ventured in there yet, but it is
eons different than BC forrests. And the people, and the city I landed in,
and the.. driving. The driving is basically like having absolutly no road
rules at all. It would seem that the country constantly assumes the police
are on holidays. Even the police (who were weaving in and out of traffic
doing 30-40 over with AK-47s on their backs) are pretty confident that they
donty have to do anything. The only rules are the ones that are (seemingly)
common sense, such as, dont turn across a lane of traffic if theres a wall
of traffic coming at you.
The place where Im staying is also unbelievable. Most of the house is
outdoors. I have my own room (has a ceiling and a lock), thankfully.
Although Id trust Delcia (mother whos house Im at) with my life and all of
my belongings I think.
Anyways. I want to go back and help out with making dinner. I have taken
some pictures, but Ill work on sending them another day (maybe tomorrow).
Maybe Ill even have time to send a few individual emails.
Im smiling so much it hurts.
Denada
Tyler
posted by Squid at 1:03 PM
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