Guatemalan mishaps

So I ended my last blog hoping I would have some good news to share and out of the things I listed two of those happened! First of all, I found spinach in the market, which is great and brings me happiness. Secondly, the strike has ended - hooray! We found out about a week ago that the government and teachers had finally reached an accord. However, since this past week was Semana Santa (Holy Week), which is so heavily celebrated here I feel like it is bigger than Christmas, there was supposed to be no school anyways for this past week. That meant strike over but classes resume tomorrow (April 25). So needless to say I am way excited about about finally being able to begin work and visiting my schools.

Since Semana Santa is such a huge holiday here a lot of Guatemalans go on vacation. As a new volunteer still in my first 3 months of service I could only travel within my 3-hour rule. Luckily for us Baja folk, there are so many beautiful places to visit that our within 3 hours of us! So we took a couple personal days and went out to Lanquin and Semuc Champey. For those of you who do not know what Semuc Champey is, it is the 8th wonder of the world - it has to be! I mean, that's been stated before, but really after seeing it I believe it. It is an area of the Cahabon River where a natural bridge of limestone forms where most of the river flows underneath but forms turquoise pools above the "bridge" formation. People go swimming from pool to pool and you can jump off big rocks into the deep parts or just sit in the shallow part and soak it all in. There is a hike you can do up to the Mirador where you are way high up and can see all of Semuc Champey and it is breathtaking. Let me say one thing though...man am I out of shape! It's embarrassing almost how fast one can get out of shape - it sucks. So in hot and humid conditions and with a still healing sprained ankle we were struggling up this hike. Warning: it is really steep and people with longer legs have an advantage here. Every step is worth it though so I'm happy I did it.  

Semuc Champey

So some other highlights of my trip. We paid to do this rope swing a guy we met had told us about. We paid before we saw it and I had assumed it was like a small tarzan type swing that you held onto and jumped in the river. Oh nooo...I was quite mistaken. It was a giant swing made of rope that you had to sit on and would throw you high up in the air, about 15-20 feet, into the middle of the river. It was so scary looking! Not to mention that there were huge rocks at the edge of the river so you had to jump when you were at the highest point because you needed to make sure to be far in enough. So, naturally, I freaked out at first and didn't know if I could muster the courage to do it. But after watching everyone else do it, it made me really want to do it because it did look fun. So I did it and screamed and it was awesome! So exhilarating. So everyone was repeating it and I wanted to do it again. So here I go, feeling brave and comfortable, didn't even scream this time. But, oh wait, here comes my moment to jump off the swing and I don't know what or how it happened because it all happened too fast but somehow when I pushed off the swing I kinda went more to one side causing me to flail towards my left side. Well, I landed in the water all on my left side rather than straight up. Falling from that height felt like a steel train ran into my entire left side. Think like belly flop extreme all on one side of your body. The hit was so hard that it knocked the wind out of me. So here I am surfacing to the top trying to swim to the edge of the river but I couldn't breathe from the impact. At that moment I was like, "Oh my God, ow, I can't breathe, I'm gonna drown!" I was trying to so hard to breathe but I just couldn't and obviously this led me to swallow water. So, yes, I was essentially drowning. Thankfully the Guatemalan instructor guy ran down and grabbed my hand to pull me out which saved me. I coughed up the water and was fine and alive but MAN my entire left leg and left side of me torso was killing me! It turned really red and swelled up. I now have a giant bruise up my entire leg on one side and it still hurts to walk. Haha It is laughable, I admit it. I'm still glad I did it because it was really fun aside from almost dying. 

My treacherous fall

My other highlight of the trip: the caves of Lanquin. So there are these large set of caves that are close to Semuc Champey that the same river flows through. There's a tour you can do through the caves by candlelight that you can pay to do. So I went and did it with two other volunteers, Kata and Maggie. No one really explained the tour to us except that you used a candle and that the river ran through it. Well, let's just say that I don't think any safety regulations were really used here, I mean I understand it is Guatemala but I was still shocked. The caves are pitch black, I'm talking total darkness. And the only light you have is the candle you are holding plus a crappy head lamp the guide wears that hardly lights up. The caves were cool and really amazing to check out, but it was hard to see much of them because of the darkness. We had assumed there would be maybe some candles along the way to illuminate a bit more in order to see what we paid to see. Nope. And then came the parts where you reached the river. It was deep and we had to actually swim holding a candle in one hand. Obviously mine went out after the first swim. I had my Keen sandals on and man are they heavy when they get wet! I didn't think we would actually have to swim since we had candles but I was wrong once again. So swimming in the dark with sporadic rocks surprising you in the middle of the river while holding a candle is no easy task. So there was a lot of climbing of sketchy Duct taped wire and ropes. It was all good until we reached the end and you could jump off a big cliff into a deep small pool. After that we were like, "Okay where is the exit?" And the guide goes, "Oh there is no exit here. We have to turn around and go through the whole thing again." This would have been fine if it weren't for the fact that our candles were about an inch big and would go out soon - very soon. And did I mention, our lovely guide forgot to bring more candles. Awesome. So I hadn't mentioned this before but we were doing the tour with this big Guatemalan family. They weren't the best people to do the tour with but we were dealing with it. At this point in the tour, they INSISTED that we continue and see more of the caves and then turn around. Clearly, they were not putting two and two together and realizing that our candles were about to go out and we still had to return the way we came. So this quickly turned into a long and unnecessary argument between me (along with Kata and Maggie) andthe Guatemalan family. I was telling them we should just go it made no sense to continue and risk being stuck in these huge dark caves with no candles. They just did not seem to get it. So we argued back and forth for probably twenty minutes, all the while losing precious candle time. Meanwhile, the tour guide is just standing in the middle saying nothing. I was utterly confused as to why he was not taking initiative in this situation. I kept asking him why he wouldn't do something and he kinda just stood there saying he didn't know what to do...are you kidding?! We were freaking out and this was quickly turning into a nightmare. Finally, after all of us being fed up with the situation, we all asked the guide to make up his mind and just tell us what to do. After brief hesitation, he said, "I think we should go back." Wow, at last. So even after he said that the Guatemalan family still wouldn't budge. Talk about stubborn. At this point we were just so frustrated and tired of it all we just started walking and they eventually started, SLOWLY, moving. We ran into the next tour group halfway through and thank God and our angels they had an extra candle they gave us (by that time we had already lost some candles). So we made it out. We spent 2 hours and 15 minutes in that cave and it was only supposed to last 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. That's why we ran into the next tour group. I was just happy to get out and see sunlight. 

So I know it kinda sounds like the trip was a bit disastrous but it was actually really great and I had so much fun. That place is truly beautiful and it just makes you feel so thankful for the beautiful planet we have been blessed with. Such a natural wonder. So after my mini-vacay I was happy to be home and to relax because I was exhausted. Instead, however, I was greeted by a continual series of D-storms. Yup. I've had diarrhea since getting home yesterday morning and still do. But that's just what life in Guatemala is like. I can't be mad or upset because it wouldn't be Guatemala if it weren't for all these little mishaps that occur throughout my days. So Happy Easter to me as I spend my day in bed and/or on the toilet. At least I'm home and have my own bathroom. Hopefully next time I write I will be unbruised, with normal bowel movements, and working happily ! Happy thoughts...