How to renew a tourist visa in 10 easy steps:

1. Take the chicken bus (or several) to the Migration Office in Guatemala City. It is located next to Hotel Conquistador.

2. Kindly leave all weapons in the private lock-boxes provided at the door. Exchange your ID (if you brought one) for a visitors pass.

3. Take the stairs to the 4th floor, to be sent to the 2nd floor, to be sent back down to the 1st floor next to the front door where you started.

4. Fill out a simple application and head back to the 2nd floor to make fotocopies of original visa and your credit card?!.

5. Return forms and copies to the first floor

6. Wait in line at the bank located at the next window

7. Leave and wander the neighborhood to find a ATM since the bank only accepts cash. (repeat weapon and ID exchange at the door if needed)

8. Pay bank teller about $15 per visa- make sure you have exact change

9. Return to 2nd floor to make copies of bank recipt

10. Hand in copy of recipt to window on 1st floor and wait for a confimation date when you can return and actually recover your passport ( in a few days and several chicken buses later) with big new fancy visa allowing legal access for 3 more months.

Good Times With Sarah

Overlooking Antigua Volcan Pacaya Laundry Pilla

Thanksgiving Dinner at Earth Lodge Volcan Pacaya

Well as you can see we´ve had quite a good time this last week. We met Sarah Hylton at the Airport in Guate city on Tuesday afternoon, and sadly she leaves tomorrow afternoon. We have spent lots of time wondering the streets of Antigua, window shopping, taking pictures, and trying out our spanish on unlucky antiguanians. I have to admit her spanish is pretty good, and she seems at home here. Sarah and Andrea spent the first morning here with a proyecto visiting families in a nearby pueblo. They were able to see how very poor guatemalans are fairing, and listen in as the social worker tried to assess the situation. Hopefully they can expound on this experience later either here on the web, or in person when you see them! Of course on the flip side we have used this visit to spoil ourselves as well, eating in some nicer restaurants, and the food Sarah brought from the states! I have more or less taken time off from Graduate school stuff for the past week as well, so I feel refreshed and ready to attack the final push. Also in our news, we have put down a deposit on a new apartment in Antigua! We will be moving in next weekend, so give a shout out for us that everything goes smoothly. The place is very comfortable, more or less we have our own room, and then we share a courtyard garden and large-stocked kitchen with others. Although now there is very few other guests as this is the low season for travelers. Also we will be selling our beloved red dragon scooter, which I am a little sad about. Its been good to us, and so I´d like to sell it to a good home, and of course for a good price which may take some work!

Adios amigos, Luke

Luke, Andrea, and Sarah 3 ft. from lava on Volcan Pacaya.

We have our first visitor! Andrea´s sister Sarah suprised us with a week long visit here in Guate. We´ve wasted no time seeing the sights, eating the food, and catching up. Here´s a photo of our hike up Volcan Pacaya on Friday evening. The air was freezing, but the lava was well...hot. Our shoes were begining to melt, but the view and experience was incredible. More photo´s and stories tommorrow, but for now, know she is fine and happy and on her way back from Tikal, the mayan temples 15 hours north of here.

Also, we´ve had our second visitor last Saturday! Andrea has a friend Lydia, which she´s know since elementary school. Lydia often works in Latin america and was able to swing by for a day visit in Antigua! So we had a lot of fun taking in the beautiful day with Lydia and her amigovio (which I need to look up the spelling of his name), speaking spanish, and catching up. We had a some interesting conversations, and I got to know Lydia a little more. Of course Andrea was glowing most of the day, really connecting with Lydia as they have uniquely similar backgrounds and interests. What a week...

Hasta la proxima, Luke

KIDS ARE KIDS



A day in the local school where I volunteer during the current month of summer school

7:30am The students, the teachers and myself all converge from different dirt paths onto the cobblestone road that leads to the public school. Each Guatemalan town center is a square and contains a public park. The Church is always located on the eastern side, the municipal buildings on the northern. In this town, San Pedro, the school is also on the northern side.

7:35 Each child, in silent unison sweeps the sign of the cross over their small bodies and we begin with prayer. One child leads in a call and response fashion. Today the little girl, as poor as she is, prayed for the children who live in the streets and are sick.

8:00: I take attendance to the best of my ability while the straglers wander in. It is my daily Spanish warm up: Josue Luis Guadelupe Rodreguez, Sandra Maria Hernandez Lopez, Eli Filipe Consuelo Velasquez



8:30: The bang on their squeaky, dilapidated desks in the rhythm of "we will, we will, rock you" as I hand out letters from their pen pals in the next town over. The envelopes have been hand fashioned from old newspapers and glue. Letters are a strange concept since all of their family live in the same town if not the same house. I spend the next hour helping with ideas and, ironically, spelling. They finish their cards with a drawing- the entire class shares two boxes of colored pencils and a pack of markers.

10 - 10:30 The entire nation pauses to rest. It is a chance to grab a snack or have breakfast and catch up on gossip. Daily I am escorted by most of the class to a tiny tienda on the corner of town square for a choco banano (.50Q = 7 cents). Some kids buy fruit (loquats), coconut freezie pops or fried pig skin. We eat slowly in the shade and watch the ladies wash clothes in the public laundry pools in central park.

By 10:30 the boys were turning toothbrushes into swords in their attempt to speed the drying process before returning their brushes into plastic bags. Needless to say, the girls weren´t thrilled with tiny toothpaste stars that appeared on their cloths but the guys thought it was the coolest thing that had happened all morning.

Everyone cups their hands to their faces to smell the soapy fragrance after being allowed to wash their hands.

11:00 The tin roof is now radiating heat like an oven. The teacher gives this explanation of how to play KITBALL- its like baseball but you use your feet. Then sends all 33 kids outside to practice with me- all by myself - trying to explain in my horrible Spanish all they ways that kickball isn´t like baseball... the pitcher rolls the ball instead of throwing it, fielders actually catch the ball with their hands (not your feet), you have to tag the base and in order, you can´t block people running to a base, you can´t kick the ball backwards and it goes on and on.


12:00 Everyone grabs a broom, mop (and sometimes sling shot if we aren´t watching closely) and tidies up the classroom. It is amazing how much dust we kick up in one morning.

12:30 Woops and sqeals as kids run out of the class, bang the metal gate as they leave the school and head home for lunch.



Adios, Andrea Maria Hiltonia Walinbequita.

ONCE UPON A TIME,

long ago,in the area which is now the town of Ciudad Veiga lived the first Spanish Conquistador, Don Pedro de Alvarado. Ciudad Veiga, or Old City, is at the base of Volcan de Agua. The Don, his wife, Doña Beatriz de la Cueva, and their troops settled here in an attempt to avoid further battles with "uncooperative" Mayan groups in the north. Within a short time their castle was built and the original indigenous inhabitants were fleeing into the mountains. Naturally, no mayans agreed to forced eviction and hundreds were killed as spears and arrows could not withstand Spanish swords of steal. Representing his people, one man named Tucun Uman, challenged Don Pedro to a dual to the rights of the land. Inevitably, Tucun Uman fell to the skill of Don Pedro. The faithful followers of Tecun, however, soon sought revenge in the form of a spear through the heart of Don Pedro. Doña Beatriz assumed authority with fierce anger and grief. For days she cursed the heavens. And then it began to rain. Some say the rain was in response to her petitions and others claim that it was in punishment for her curses. Either way, it rained without end for thirteen days. On the thirteenth day, there was a tremendous earthquake, strong enough to break open the volcano and release a lake of water that had collected in the crater. The inundation swept away all things living in Ciudad Veiga. Even today, when people dig wells and install drainage pipes they find skulls, bowls, and jewelry of this ancient time. The former church lays fourteen layers of silt and earth below the current structure on the same site. Only three small sections of Don Pedro´s castle are still standing. The city is re-inhabited in the shadow of what has since be named Volcan de Agua.

Corvette Dreams...

You may already know that I have very vivid dreams on a regular basis. You may also know that when I write chances are I'm feeling the blues. I must say however that in this moment I feel fine. The dream is 2 weeks old but it's so funny and sort of sums up how I feel sometimes.
So here it is...

I am looking at a "classic" corvette that I just bought. It looks sort of odd, the hood is really short, and I'm not really sure about it. All these people are telling me how its the best model of corvette to this point. Its beautiful, classy, you get the picture. So I get in to drive for the first time and I put my legs through two holes in the floorboard. My feet touch the ground and stick out a good couple feet in front of the car. I drive it over to a garage because it needs some work done to it. While driving, the bottoms of my shoes slid on the road and I'm sort of moving them side to side to help turn and stuff. The whole time I'm thinking "I know this is supposed to be awesome but I don't think I like it." I arrive at the shop and a friend happens to be there waiting for something else. The mechanics come out look at my corvette and start taking the body apart in snap-off pieces. I am watching this process feeling good, but then I realize that all that's left is a basic metal framework. There is no engine parts, no exhaust system, no tires underneath the body. I ask my friend to watch the framework as its supposedly incredibly valuable as I need to step out for a minute. When I return my friends eating lunch, he had ignored the framework and now its been stolen. Then of course I wake up........

Well, I told you I have strange dreams, put that one in your pipe and smoke it for a while.
Until next time, Luke

the adventure continues...

We have officially been "kicked-out" of the home we were staying in. Thankfully a friend bargined for us to be allowed time to find an apartment before having to pack our bags.
Stay tuned to hear about our new apartment! Forget about viviendo el sueño (living the dream- thats for you Nate wherever you are!), estamos viviendo la vida loca!

Market Day

Dia de los Muertos
o Dia de los Todos Santos

The first of November is all saints day. Families celebrate All Saints by coming close to their relatives and laying flowers on the graves, having a picnic, and writing messages/prayers on kites that they then fly.

We headed to the cemetary in Santiago Sacatepeces to watch their kite flying extravaganza. There is always that one town that goes all out for any given holiday, you know like the town that glows with Christmas lights hanging on every treebranch. Well, Santiago is that place for Los Muertos.

photos below:

1. In the foregrownd are mayan ladies resting by a grave, eating lunch and watching the kites. Their dark blue skirts indicate that they are from Santiago.


2. Graves: there are many styles of graves- and of course in vibrant colors then decorated with the brightest flowers around at this time of year. It is beautiful.
a. bare mounds- a little spooky especially the ones for children. It seemed perfectly acceptable to walk/run or even pull an ice cream cart over them.
b. cemented graves with mini gardens inside. The cheaper verson is to simply pour cement over the dirt mound.
c. mosoleums- hard to see in this picture but they are larger structures for an entire family.
d. shelves in a large wall- unfortunately not in any of these pictures


3. Sky is full of kites. Most of the ones in this picture are about 8 feet in diameter. The tail is composed of messages attached to a string. Beware when these kites fall! The oooh and ahhhhs of the crowd will usually give you ample warning to run over a few graves and out of danger. In addition to the larger kites, children and adults fly smaller kites. It is quite a sight. We were nearly clotheslined a few times too from the zig-zag maze of kite string.


4. Supersize Me
Around the perimeter were dispalyed 6-8 supersized kites. Each piece is hand cut of tissue paper and glued on like a quilt. It is hard to tell from this view but the patterns are very intricate and each shape and color have particular meanings. Often a kite like this will center around a theme. I think this one was the environmentalist kite with messages about deforestation and not throwing trash into the rivers. To give you an idea of the scale, I am 5'4" and standing at the bottom right in a brown hoodie.


5-7. The Making Of
a. lots of bamboo
b. attaching- takes at least 20 men
c. first, the kite arrives just finished and needs to be unrolled.