Semana Santa (Easter Week) Adventure!

            The week of Semana Santa (Easter Week) is very important in Guatemala.  There are huge celebrations and processions.  Most people have most of the week off, to travel and be with family.  For our program, this week was our week off/ Spring break.  Some of the people in the program went home to the states, others had visitors come to Guatemala and the rest of us went traveling all over Guatemala together.  Myself, Bailey, Lizzy, Snow, Amish and Neil spent the week together traveling to Rio Dulce, Livingston, Flores, Tikal, Lanquin and Semuc Champey.   

 Friday April 15^th

         We left Xela at 4am on Friday morning and arrived in Guatemala City around 8:30am.  Our next bus to Rio Dulce didn’t leave till 10am so we grabbed some breakfast at McDonalds.  About half way through our next bus ride we stopped at a little restaurant and store to buy food and snacks.  As soon as we stepped of the bus it was very evident we were not longer at 8,000 feet and closer to sea level because it was hot and humid.  The bus ride to Rio Dulce, the town, was about 5 hours and we passed the time sleeping, reading and playing games like 21 questions.  When we got to Rio Dulce I couldn’t believe how hot and humid it was…such a huge difference from Xela.  Rio Dulce is located right at the junction of Lake Izabal and the Rio Dulce (a river) which flows into the Caribbean Ocean.  We had reservations to stay the night at a place called Tortugal, so we called Jorge, a guy who works there, and he came and picked us up on a lancha(small boat) and took us to the hotel.  Rio Dulce is absolutely beautiful and our hotel was right on the water.  A lot of people with yachts dock at this hotel to stay the night and grab some food.  Our “room” was awesome!  It was right off the dock and sort of like a treehouse.  It had a wooden spiral staircase up to the level with the beds.  There were 4 wings of the treehouse, with a bed in each wing and an opening to the outside.  That night we ordered the hotel special of pizza and salad and sat around talking, playing pool and watching a movie in the hotel’s little library since we were all exhausted from the days’ travel.  

Tortugal - First night Hotel in Rio Dulce

My bed in the "Treehouse"

Hanging out in a hammock

Me, Lizzy, and Bailey on the dock of Tortugal

Saturday April 16th

            I slept pretty peacefully the first night, knowing that the mosquito net would keep away the wonderful bugs.  I woke up with the sunlight coming into the opening right at the head of my bed and I have to say I wouldn’t mind waking up like that every morning.  We ate breakfast right on the dock and then went swimming in the Rio Dulce.  We spent several hours jumping of the dock, diving, teaching Amish and Bailey how to dive, racing, and taking crazy jumping pictures from a tall ledge on the dock.  We ate lunch at the hotel and then caught a lancha to Livingston which is a town on the Caribbean side and is know for its Garifuna culture, which are descendants of Carib, Arawak and West African people.  The lancha went by a castle called Castillo de San Felipe and by a bird island that was covered in all sorts of birds.  The boat ride was about an hour and half down the Rio Dulce and was absolutely beautiful.  When we got to Livingston there were several Garifuna guys trying to get commission by taking us to a hostel.  We didn’t have any reservations but luckily they said there were openings at a hostel called Casa de la Iguana.  They walked us there and collected their commission.  We ran into Marco, who is from Germany but studied for a couple of weeks at the same Spanish school we all studied at.  It was pretty ironic seeing him and he told us he had been working at the hostel for a couple weeks.  We checked in and only had to pay 40 Quetzals a night (which is about 5 dollars). Its nice that things are so cheap here!  We then walked around the town which took all of about 20 minutes because there are only three main roads….the river side road, the beach side road and the road connecting the two.  For dinner we ate at the hostel and they had an all you can eat Mexican Buffet which was quite good.  After dinner the hostel held a talent show.  Most people didn’t have a talent so they just did goody things or told jokes.  I showed them that I could flip my tongue both ways.  It was pretty fun watching everyone come up with a random talent.  Later that night we went out to the discotecas (bar/nightclubs) along the beach.  There was one place that played salsa music and another place full of Garifuna people dancing the Punta Rock which is this kind of dance where only the hips move.  

Jumping off the dock into the Rio Rulce

Arriving to the dock in Livingston

Main street in Livingston

Snow, Me, Bailey, Lizzy on the beach side of Livingston

Sunday, April 17th

            The next morning at 9:30am we got on another lancha that took us to Playa Blanca (White Beach) which was a very bumpy 45 minute ride. We met a couple from Switzerland and 3 other girls from the states that were working in the Peace Corps.  The  beach wasn’t all the great because for some reason there was a bunch or trash on the shore and in the water.  The owner kept apologizing for the trash and was trying to pick it up and was telling us that it was very uncommon for trash to gather on the shore but there most have been a storm or some weird current.  We just lounged at the beach and I read a little and then we tried entering the water but it was gross from all the trash and kelp that had accumulated and Amish got stung by something so I didn’t stay in for very long.  After about two hours we got back on to the lancha and they took us to the Seven Altars which is a large series of waterfalls.  It is the dry season right now so there wasn’t much running water but we hiked about 10 minutes up through the river bed to three different waterfall pools.  We swam around in them and jumped off the cliffs.  It was fun watching the locals play a game of tag around the rocks and pool.  I couldn’t believe how fast and agile they were on the pointy rocks and slippery surfaces.  When we got back to the hostel we showered and rested a bit and then went out to dinner at a restaurant called Tilingo for Snow’s birthday.  I got a quesadilla and the others got a typical dish called Tapado which is a fish soup in a cream sauce.  The dinner took forever and day because the poor waiter was also the cook.  At one point we saw him run up the hill to the store to buy some ingredient that he must have needed.  We went back to the hostel and played Trivia for awhile.

Playa Blanca

Bailey and I hanging out at Playa Blanca

Beginning of Seven Altars

Walking through the river bed up to the main pools

Monday, April 18^th

            Today was mostly a day of travel. We caught another lancha back to Rio Dulce (the town) at 9:30am so we could catch a bus to Flores.  When we got off of the lancha in Rio Dulce there were many men trying to sell tickets to travel to different places.  One guy approached us and said he could take us to Flores for 125Q (about 15 dollars) a person which was a really good deal because we hadn’t yet bought tickets on the first class buses and there was a possibility it was already full, and we would have to wait about 4 hours until it left from Rio Dulce.  We ended up taking his offer and the 3 other American girls in the Peace Corps joined in on the deal as well.  The drive was about 3.5 hours and the driver was nice enough to drop us off at our hostel called Dona Goya in Flores.  Flores is a really neat place because it is a tiny island in the Peten Itza Lake, with nice cobblestone streets and neat little cafes and restaurants.  About every 50 yards or so around the lake there were really nice docks that people were jumping off of and relaxing on.  We decided after we checked in and rested a bit we would go out and explore a little and we went swimming in the lake.  That night we ate at a pretty nice restaurant called La Villa de la Chef.  I had a nice large salad and a delicious mango drink.  Some of the others had the Pescado Blanco (White Fish) which is caught every night around the lake.  They said it was delicious and although I believe them, I definitely am still not a fan of seafood.  

Riding the lancha on the Rio Dulce

Lily Pads

Castillo de San Felipe

Bird Island

Tuesday, April 19^th

            Today we woke up at 4:30 am to catch a 5am shuttle to Tikal National Park.  We had bought granola and yogurt the night before so we could have breakfast before we left.  We got to Tikal around 6am before the heat started to arrive.  Tikal is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centres of the pre-Columbiam Maya civilization. It is located in the archaeological region of the Peten Basin in what is now northern Guatemala. Situated in the department of El Peten, the site is part of Guatemala's Tikal National Park and in 1979 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  We spent about 5 hours in the park walking around to the different temples and ruins.  We were able to climb three of the temples with Temple 4 being the largest and you could see the top of the jungle for miles. We were able to see wild howler monkeys as well swinging in the trees.  It started to get really humid as the day progressed so we took the noon shuttle back to Flores.  We then changed into our bathing suits and went to a nearby hotel to grab some lunch and swim in their pool for a little while.  After we had cooled off we walked around the island to see what other restaurants and cafes there were.  We found a really neat café called Cool Beans that had Taboo and Pictionary.  We ended up spending the rest of the night playing the games and having a good time being our competitive pre-health professional selves. The owners of the café even let us take Taboo with us back to our hostel so we could continue playing since they closed at 10pm.

Map of Tikal

Howler Monkey

Tikal

Courtyard of Tikal

Temple

Temple IV - Tallest, and yes we climbed it

Amish next to a gigantic tarantula

Wednesday, April 20^th

            Today was our relaxing day where we didn’t have to do any traveling so we took advantage of Flores.  For breakfast we had granola and yogurt to save some money since Flores seems to be one of the more expensive places since it is more touristy.   We then walked around the town some more and bought fresh banana bread, which seems to be very popular in Guatemala because I have eaten it several times here. When then ended up back at our favorite place, Cool Beans to play more of Pictionary and Taboo.  We all were pretty entertained by the fact that these games were so fun to play and we wished we had them back in Xela.  After we played for several hours we decided we just try and schedule a bus from Flores to Lanquin so we could leave the next day.  We asked one man at a hotel but he didn’t seem very helpful so we went down a few blocks and found a really nice man and a travel agency that had the cutest kittens roaming around.  He was able to book us on a bus from Flores to Lanquin and book the rest of our tickets home at the end of the week from Lanquin to Guatemala City and then from Guatemala City to Xela.  I was a little sketched out at first that he was able to book all three tickets with it being Guatemala and everything, which means nothing really works out as planned but we had confirmations for everything so I figured if worse comes to worse we would just have to change our travel plans.  We then went swimming and diving again in the lake.  It was nice to mingle with all the Guatemalan travelers as well that were hanging out on the docks.  There were also several travelers from Europe who were fun to talk to.  After we did that for an hour or so we went back to the hostel, showered and went to dinner and a nice restaurant called La Luna.  I had a really good vegetable curry.  We walked around to some of the bars and discotecas but didn’t stay in any of them because they were either too packed or the music was blaring so we went to the main square where some people were playing basketball and we joined in on a little game of 4 on 4, and then just went back to the dock and sat around talking for awhile.  It was a very nice, relaxing day.

Flores!

One of the many docks in Flores

Our favorite cafe, Cool Beans!

Eating at La Luna

Neil, Bailey, Lizzy, Me, Amish, Snow

Thursday, April 21^st

            We left Flores on a 9am shuttle.  Luckily it was a bigger shuttle and each seat had a decent amount of leg room because the entire trip was around 7 hours.  The beginning of the trip it was really hot on the bus and uncomfortable, but as we climbed higher into the mountains when we got closer to Lanquin it started to cool off.  It was no wonder the bus ride was 7 hours because a majority of it was on steep, dirt, mountain roads and the bus couldn’t go that fast.  We got into Lanquin around 5pm and it was pouring when we got off the bus.  Luckily the bus driver had put a tarp over our bags that where on the roof, but they still got pretty soaked when he was unloading them.  We checked into El Retiro Lodge which is right on the Lanquin river.  I thought it was a decent place to stay.  We had our own dormitory on the hill side and the bathroom was close by.  After we did a little bit of exploring, or at least what we could in the rain we ate dinner at their restaurant since there isn’t much to the rest of the village of Lanquin.  Every night El Retiro has a different buffet night and tonight was Italian night.  After dinner we sat around talking to other travelers.  We met more people who are in the Peace Corps and some people from the states.  I was pretty tired from traveling all day so I went to bed relatively early.

Ride to Lanquin

El Retiro Lodge - our little bungalow

Friday, April 22^nd

                  We woke up early so we could go on a guided tour to Semuc Champey that left at 8am.  We ate breakfast at El Retiro and got our packed lunches of sandwiches, cookies and a banana.  We rode in the back of a pickup truck with about 20 other people to Semuc Champey.  Semuc Champey is a natural monument in the department of Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, near the Q'eqchi' Maya town of Lanquín. It consists of a natural 300 m limestone bridge, under which passes the Cahabòn River. Atop the bridge is a series of stepped, turquoise pools, a popular swimming attraction.   When we got there, our guide, Elvis, explained what we would do throughout the day.  We started off with doing a tour through caves by candlelight.  It was a really neat feeling being in complete darkness with only the light of your candle in front of you.  There were parts of the caves that were completely submerged in water and we had to swim part of the well while holding our candles.  There were also spots we had to climb up ladders, climb a waterfall, and a part where we could jump of a ledge and slide down a natural rock slide.  My favorite part of the cave though was a spot where we could slip about 2 meters down through 2 rocks into a pool below.  It was a little nerve racking because you could not see anything but it was also exhilarating.  I kind of felt like the guy in the movie “127 Hours” when he was sliding through the rocks into the pools below, but luckily I didn’t get stuck and have to cut my arm off.  We also saw a few bats flying around.  Overall the caves were a really fun experience and I’m glad Guatemala allows these sort of activities because they are definitely not allowed in the states to do liability.    Afterwards we went tubing down part of the river and had fun trying to flip eachother over.  We then ate our packed lunch and then went to the Semuc Champey pools and swam for about 2 hours.  There were tons of Guatemalans there because of Semana Santa but it was fun seeing all different types of families enjoying themselves and having picnics.  We were able to start out the very top pool near the waterfall that rushes under the pools, and swim down to each natural pool.  My friend Snow, had taken some really neat photos throughout the day because she had a waterproof camera case but as we were walking over a 30 ft bridge, it fell out of her hands and sadly plummeted to its death in the river below.  Around 4pm we headed back to the hostel, showered, relaxed and ate a yummy chicken buffet dinner.  We went to bed early since we had been in the sun and water all day.  But as we were going into our room, Bailey was stung by a gigantic wasp thing and then I continued to kill another bee,  a few beetles and tried to kill a cockroach.  Although I like warm weather, I’m glad Xela is colder and we don’t have to deal with these nasty bugs on a daily basis.

This picture is sadly not ours but you get the idea of swimming in a cave by candlelight!

Semuc Champey!  We slid on our butts down those waterfalls!

Bird's Eye view of the natural pools

Saturday, April 23^rd

            Today was another day just to hang out and relax before our big day of travel back to Xela on Sunday.  We slept in, enjoyed a nice big omelet and then read in the hammock outside our little bungalow.  In the afternoon, after the short rainstorm passed, we paid 35Q for a pickup truck to drive us up the river so we could tube down it for about an hour.  The river was pretty cold, and because it was the end of the dry season the river was pretty shallow and at certain points we had to clench or butt cheeks and straightened our backs so we didn’t run into the rocks.  That night after a delicious Mexican Buffet a few of us ventured out in the muddy roads to find chocolate at a tienda(small convenient store).  It was pretty funny because we all kept slipping in the mud and finally some Guatemalans who were also staying at our lodge helped us and ended up showing us magic tricks when we got back to the hostel.

Favorite reading hammock outside our bungalow

Cows that crossed the river to munch on El Retiro's grass

Sunday, April 24^th

            We woke up early to catch our 6am bus to Guatemala City.  However, being Guatemala they over booked the bus and therefore we had to cram 15 people onto a small microbus for a 6 hour bus ride.  It was the longest bus ride of my life but I guess I can’t complain because it was better then a chicken bus.  We got to Guatemala city with about 3 hours before our next bus to Xela.  Some of the group wandered around the city and I just stayed with Lizzy and Bailey in the station watching our bags and reading.  We finally got to Xela around 8pm because there was some pretty bad fog in the mountains and the bus had to go slow.  Needless to say, as soon as I got back to my host family's house I went straight to bed because I was so exhausted from traveling for 10 days. 

            Overall I had a really great trip and I am so glad I had the opportunity to travel throughout Guatemala with 5 good friends I have met in the program.  I know it will be an experience I will never forget and it was a great beginning to the last month I have left in Guatemala before I start physician assistant school in June in Arizona!

Surgery with Cruz Roja

      While I am still writing about my travels throughout Guatemala (which I will post later this week) I wanted to post about a very neat surgery I got to see two weeks ago while volunteering at Cruz Roja.

Outside of Red Cross

       Every Tuesday and Friday afternoon I volunteer in Cruz Roja (Red Cross).  Every afternoon Dr. Hernandez comes in to do consultations with walk-in patients.  While examining a patient with pain in her leg, he received a phone call from another doctor saying there was a surgery at Hospital El Angel.  He quickly turned to Jessica (another student in the program) and I and asked us if we would like to go and see the surgery.  We of course jumped on the opportunity to see a surgery and learn as much as possible.  We luckily got a ride from another doctor that works in Cruz Roja in the morning and didn’t have to take the bus.  The whole way there we were wondering what type of surgery it was going to be.  We thought maybe it had something to do with a femur fracture that got infected but boy were we surprised when we scrubbed in and walked into the operating room and saw a man lying there with burns all throughout his body from being electrocuted.  I had never seen anything like this before and I first didn’t think he was real. 

Operating Room at Cruz Roja

       We were told that he had been working construction on the second story of a house and had somehow accidentally grabbed an electrical wire.  He was severely electrocuted and during it he had fallen from the second story to the ground and fractured his leg.  He had originally gone to the general hospital where he wasn’t seen right away and a greater infection started to develop.  The doctors at the general hospital had amputated his right arm below the shoulder but when he came to the private hospital (where we were at), the infection had spread even further.  One doctor then amputated above his elbow to make sure all the infection was gotten rid of.  Dr. Hernandez examined his fractured leg.  As soon as he opened up the stitches there was a horrible stench that filled the room.  He began looking at the tissues and muscles, which were all black and clearly dead.  The doctors together made the decision that they would have to amputate his leg above the knee. 

Ambulance

            They cauterized the skin around his leg and then cauterized his muscles, exposing the nerve and bone.  They had wrapped the bottom half of the leg in a black bag so they could take it to pathology when it was completely cut off.  It was pretty creepy when they started cutting the nerve because his foot started twitching and was a very weird thing to see.  They then had only the bone left to cut.  They drilled four holes into the femur to make it more brittle and easier to break.  As he was drilling one hole, blood sprayed everywhere onto the ceiling and into the doctor’s eyes. (Yes its pretty gross that the doctors don’t wear eye protection here).  They then used a chisel and a hammer to break the femur and a file to smooth out the rough end.  They then began stitching up his muscles and skin, so only a stump was left over.  It seemed so surreal at times.  The procedure seemed to be very quick and easy but I couldn’t help but to constantly think about the poor man who would wake up missing his leg and more of his arm.  Although surgery is very fascinating I don’t think it is for me.  I’m definitely not a blood and guts type of girl and I see myself working more in a clinic where I can see patients regularly and can build a rapport with them. I am really glad though that working at Cruz Roja in Guatemala has given me the opportunity to experience different things that I would never have been able to in the US.   

Jess and I at the Nurse's Station

Volunteer Projects!

          During the past three weeks I have been volunteering in Cruz Roja (Red Cross), teaching a women’s health class at an organization called PEILE, and volunteering in a daycare with very minimal resources called Caritas Feliz.  The volunteer projects run through the end of april but we can choose to continue them if the places allow.  A few of us from our Somos Hermanos program go to the daycare to read to the kids, play with the kids, teach them simple things like the alphabet and washing their hands.  It is quite an experience because the kids range from about 3 years of age to about 9 years of age and all want your attention at the same time.  It is also heartbreaking because many of their families are extremely poor and therefore there is no cost to attend the daycare, and also why the daycare practically has no resources for the kids because the woman who runs it out of her house is also very poor.  Many of the kids haven’t bathed for days, only get small quantities of food, and every piece of their clothing have huge holes in them, however they are the sweetest kids and so eager to learn, play and compete for your attention.

            The class at PEILE, I help teach with two other students, Jen and Michelle.  Every Thursday afternoon, for two hours we help teach rural women about Salud (Health).  About 8 women show up each Thursday and we have different topics for each day.  The first Thursday we talked about nutrition and health in general.  Most meals here consist of a lot of carbohydrates like tortillas, rice, potatos, etc and we tried to convey the importance of eating plenty of vegetables and fruits.  I found it very hard to teach this stuff, because to most Americans all we have to do is hop in our cars, drive to the nearest supermarket which is probably in walking distance, spend as much as we want on any kind of food and have it readily available at anytime of day.  Here, many people are barely lucky enough to get one meal a day, let alone trying to worry about if they are getting the proper nutrients.  I definitely felt like a little bit of a schmuck afterwards because we had forgotten to take into account their culture and the opportunities that they were not able to have.  On a better note though, there are several outdoor markets that sell the freshest fruit I have ever seen!!!  Throughout the weeks we had taught a little on diabetes, hypertension (the two most common illnesses here), tuberculosis, gastritis, osteoporosis and in the future they asked us to teach them about breast cancer, migraines, stress, anemia, and menopause.  So far it has been a great experience and the women are extremely kind. This past Thursday we used half of the class as a cooking class.  We tried to show them the importance of washing their hands before cooking and washing their fruits and vegetables with a little bit of chlorine to get rid of the parasites and amoebas on them.  The women were all very eager to start cooking and they all took charge, and in no time we had a delicious chicken salad with pepinos (cucumbers), brocoli (I bet you can’t guess what this vegetable is in English!), tomates (same with this one!), cebollas(onions) and zanahorias(carrots).  We used a mix of lime juice, olive oil, pepper, salt and oregano for the dressing and it was delicious! 

            My time in Cruz Roja (Red Cross) has been absolutely wonderful!  I go twice a week to the clinic to shadow Dr. Hernandez.  Every afternoon from 4-6pm he holds consultations for the public to come in with their illnesses.  Dr. Hernandez is a great teacher and is constantly questioning us on what we know and don’t know.  The patients come in with a wide variety of illnesses ranging from a headache all the way to an amputated leg, femur fracture or gangrene in their foot due to diabetes.  While the Doctor is examining all the patients he always allows us to see, hear or touch what he is examining.  He always is saying “Venga” and “Mire”  which mean to mean to come closer and take a better look.  The clinic is mostly open for emergencies and the consultations in the afternoon, but they also do regular surgeries as well.  Last weekend I was able to see an abdominal hysterectomy of a young women.  They asked if I wanted to scrub in and get in on the action but since it was my first surgery, and I know how I can get a little queasy I just said I would watch the first time.  In no time, the women’s abdomen was open and they were digging through fat layers(which the adipose tissue was very visible) and they got to the uterus and ovaries.  They cut the tissue away from the uterus and took it out.  It kind of looked like a little pear and it was amazing to think that, that small of an organ is so elastic and can expand enough to allow a baby to grow.  The doctors left in her ovaries because they explained that if they took them out, she would essentially be going through menopause at 30 years of age because her ovaries could no longer produce hormones.  The experience was really awesome, and I only had to step out of the room 3x to get some fresh air and stop from feeling a little light headed.  I hope I will be able to see more in the future!

            This weekend we are going to a small town called Santa Anita to give the community a health fair with nutrition classes, yoga and dance classes and also a general class on health.  Sorry I don’t have pictures of my volunteer places yet but soon hopefully!