Advice on taking a trip like this

From Iain: We traveled in Peru, Guatemala, and Belize for six months with our daughters, ages 9 and 11, and had an absolutely wonderful time. If you have the opportunity to do something similar I recommend that you do whatever you need to make it happen. Here are a few words of advice based on our experience.

• Give yourself enough time to get to know a few places at a deeper level than the casual visitor. We were able to spend extended periods in a number of different destinations, which slowed the pace of the trip to something more manageable, allowed us to explore more fully, and made it easier to connect with local people. We were able to reduce our costs considerably too by taking advantage of long-term accommodation rates and cooking for ourselves more often than you can when you're continually on the move.
• That said, there were times when it made sense to keep moving, when traveling overland across large distances, for example. We generally interspersed long travel days with rest days so that we would stay in some locations just one or two nights. On a trip like this, traveling becomes an integral part of the whole experience and in some cases the cliche is true, it is often more about the journey than the destination.
• To keep our travel costs down and to get closer to the authentic heart of South and Central America, we often took local transportation but not exclusively. It can be pretty grueling traveling long distances in local buses, so as a treat or when feeling a little under the weather we sometimes went for the costlier tourist transportation option (the main advantage being the guarantee of a seat). We ended up striking a pretty good balance overall, so I suppose I would advise mixing it up like we did and using both local and tourist transportation options as needed.
• A major part of our trip was taken up with food, not just the eating part but also finding places to eat or food to buy to cook ourselves. And when we weren't doing this we spent a lot of time thinking about food. As with transportation we mixed it up a little and ate at both local and tourist restaurants (although more of the former) and cooked for ourselves using both local ingredients and more familiar global ingredients. We also ate food prepared in local markets, which in hindsight was perhaps not the best decision we made. On a trip this long it was perhaps inevitable that we would have stomach problems, but we may have been able to avoid them by being even more careful about what we ate. To minimize your chance of getting sick, eat only at restaurants where you're certain that basic food safety practices are being followed and make sure that any food you prepare yourself is safe (e.g., use a biocide solution on fresh fruits and vegetables). We didn't always follow these suggestions at the beginning of the trip, but by the end we certainly were.
• We were much better about consuming only purified water, however. Including for brushing our teeth. To avoid buying and lugging around an endless supply of bottled water, we invested in a high quality water purifier before we left. In places where we had access to a kitchen we also used water that we'd boiled and then cooled.
• Make sure you have adequate medical insurance and be prepared to deal with medical problems as they arise. We were fortunate to find good English-speaking doctors even in remote parts of Guatemala. We were also able to make changes to our travel schedule when one of our daughters got sick.
• Consider doing some voluntary work while on your trip. There are organizations crying out for help everywhere and it is easy to make a large, positive change in many places with just a little effort.
• Try to connect with local people wherever you travel. It can be easier on one level to experience a place as a tourist - taking the organized tours, staying in the tourist hotels, eating at the tourist restaurants, talking with the other tourists - but you'll get a whole other experience of a country by breaking out of the tourist bubble and engaging more intimately with local people. It isn't hard to do this either, whether through eating at local restaurants, visiting local markets (not the big tourist ones but the smaller ones the locals go to), taking tours with locally-owned operators, volunteering with local organizations, and interacting with local people (three brief examples from our experience - the girls often played with the children of the managers of a hostel we stayed at; Tanya traded English and Spanish lessons with a local market stall owner; I played pickup futbol with some local taxi drivers).
• Don't assume that you'd never be able to do something like this. Many employers can probably handle you taking a leave-of-absence. Most schools can probably handle your children taking a long break and most children would be fine with this too (if not, do as we did and find a school for them to attend in the country you're visiting). A trip like this needn't be that expensive - we spent about the same as we would have spent staying at home (and that includes the cost of the flights). To make it more affordable consider renting out your home, as we did. And if you give them this opportunity, your children may surprise you - they can handle new foods, long journeys, unfamiliar surroundings, and challenging situations far better than you might think.

It's good to be home

From Iain: We arrived home on Saturday after a two-hour ferry and ten-hour drive from Vancouver Island.  The drive was particularly long because we'd forgotten to put our winter tires on our car before we left (it was June!), so we had to drive particularly cautiously over the snowy passes.  We carried chains as a precaution but didn't end up having to use them.  It's strange to be back in Nelson again after being away for so long, but it sure is nice - we wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

If you've been a regularly reader, I hope you've enjoyed our blog.  I'll make one last post with some thoughts and words of advice for anyone feeling inspired to do something similar.  I'll end now with a plea for donations.  Please consider making a monetary contribution to either Kusi Kawsay, the Peruvian school that Bethany and Sierra attended from August to October, or Grupos de Mujeres y Hombres por la Paz, the Guatemalan community organization that we volunteered with in November.  As a suggestion, one way to honour the incredible work being done by either organization would be to make a donation of $1 for each of the 60 or so blog entries we've written.  Your generous donations can go a long way in Peru and Guatemala.  Of course, if you've been amazed and astounded at the sheer literary genius of our writing and swooned at the gorgeous photos, donations of more than $1 per blog entry would be very welcome too.  Details of how to donate are available at both the websites linked above.  If this is something you are able to do, thank you!

Some Questions Answered

Q: Who would win in a race between bus drivers from Peru, Guatemala, and Belize?
A: The Peruvian bus driver since he is able to make his bus go a little bit faster by honking his horn every few seconds.

Q: How many people can you fit in a collectivo (public minibus)?
A: One more than there is currently, no matter how full.

Q: How much does a taxi cost?
A: Twice as much as the guidebook says.

Q: Which are itchier, mosquito bites or bed bug bites.
A: Bed bug bites since they typically come in threes.

Q: How can hostels best annoy their guests?
A: By charging extra for children not needing an extra bed, claiming lukewarm showers are hot, and serving fruit loops, freeze-dried toast, and instant coffee for the included breakfast.

Q: What is the most annoying late night/early morning noise?
A: Tie between barking dogs, crowing roosters, fireworks, and pounding stereos.

Q: What is the most well-known quality of Canada among Latin Americans?
A: It's cold.

Q: What is the hardest thing to readjust to on returning to Canada?
A: Tie between being able to rinse your toothbrush under the tap and remembering to chuck used toilet paper in the toilet instead of the trashcan.

The Best and the Worst

Top Threes:

• Meals: Squeaky cheese, sweet finger potatoes, and broad beans (Peru); Fried plantains, frijoles, and tortillas (Guatemala); Bean and cheese pupusas and coconut empanadas (Belize)
• Restaurants: Trattoria Escondida (Pisac); Hearts Cafe (Ollantaytambo); Rainbow Cafe (Antigua)
• Drinks: Hot chocolate in Chivay; Pisco sours in Pisac; Fruit smoothies in Pisac
• Accommodations: Virginia's house in Arequipa; Pisac Inca Hostal; Lebeha Cabana in Hopkins
• Accommodation breakfasts: Virginia's house (Arequipa); Hotel Pukara (Puno); Hotel Nuestro Sueno (San Antonio, Lake Atitlan)
• Fruits: Chirimoya; Maracuya; Guayaba
• Journeys: Boat to Uros Floating Islands; Train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes; Lancha (boat) across Lake Atitlan from San Pedro to Panajachel
• Places in Peru: Colca Canyon; Lake Titicaca; Machu Picchu
• Places in Guatemala and Belize: Antigua; Tikal; Hopkins beach

Bottom Threes:

• Foods: Cau cau (cow stomach stew); Papitas (hairy pig's feet in a sauce); spaghetti with spicy tomato sauce for breakfast
• Journeys: Bus from Puno to Cusco (with violent movies playing and street protestors throwing rocks at the windows); Collectivo from Nebaj to Santa Cruz Del Quiche (jam-packed, crazy driver, covered widows you couldn't look through); First-class bus from Guatemala City to Flores (late, cold, and disfunctional toilets)

Flowers and Fish Heads

With acknowledgement to Nelson's Express newspaper Fish Heads and Flowers column, here is our take on the good and the not-so-good aspects of our trip.

• Flowers to Nelson Waldorf School faculty for agreeing to Tanya's leave of absence.
• Flowers to Carron Mulligan for helping make our trip possible (by taking Tanya's class while we were away) and giving us good travel advice.
• Flowers to MaryAnn and Rick for transporting us to and from Victoria Airport and looking after our car while we were away.
• Flowers to Christine, Michelle, Sean, and Veronika for taking care of the house and Shadow while we were away.
• Flowers to Max, Juana, Fabricio, and Pedro at EDEAQ Spanish Language School in Arequipa, Peru for helping us get started learning Spanish.
• Flowers to Virginia for giving us a gentle introduction to Peru.
• Flowers to Delfin on Taquile Island who helped us so much while Bethany was sick.
• Flowers to Pisac Inca Hostal for nice people and cheery, clean rooms and a lovely garden.
• Flowers to Lili at Pisac Inca Hostal for being our friend and working hard to make our stay so pleasant.
• Flowers to Kusi Kawsay school for welcoming us and giving the girls three months of immersive Andean culture.
• Flowers to Rosaura, Yessica, Fielding, Roman, Hugo, Rene, and everyone else at Kusi Kawsay.
• Flowers to David, Abraham, Patrona, Jacinto, Miguel, Gaspar and all the other members of Grupos de Mujeres y Hombres por la Paz in Nebaj.
• Flowers to accommodation managers everywhere we went for helping us with arranging tours and other accommodation.
• Flowers to Tripadvisor for consistently providing better information than our guidebooks.
• Flowers to the makers of sea bands for helping to limit travel sickness on the speeding buses.
• Flowers to the doctors in Guatemala and Belize who helped us when we got sick.
• Flowers to the makers of the medications that made us better and kept us well.
• Flowers to the makers of the gizmos and gadgets that smoothed our path and kept us entertained, in particular our netbook computer, iPod Touch, Steripen hand-cranked fluorescent light water purifier, digital camera, moka pot (caffettiera), hand-cranked flashlight, Swiss army knife.
• Flowers to Nelson Public Library for providing us with an endless supply of free audiobooks and ebooks.
• Flowers to Tanya for arranging the focal points of our trip - going to Kusi Kawsay school in Pisac for three months and volunteering with Grupos de Mujeres y Hombres por la Paz in Nebaj.
• Flowers to Iain for organizing all the trip details.
• Flowers to Bethany and Sierra for being good sports and their enthusiasm every day of our trip no matter what we were doing.

• Fish heads to amoebas - you make us sick.
• Fish heads to bedbugs for making sleep itchy night after night.
• Fish heads to the stray dogs all over the place (although they'd probably just scarf them down).
• Fish heads to the Tikal tarantula for ambushing Sierra.
• Fish heads to speeding bus drivers.
• Fish heads to the handful of scam artists we encountered (although there really weren't too many).
• Fish heads to locals trying to touch Sierra's blonde hair, which was cute at first but got old quickly.
• Fish heads to ultra sensitive guests of Pisac Inca Hostal complaining about the girls making too much noise while they played in the middle of the day.
• Fish heads to western hippies trying to sell their junk at local handicraft markets.
• Fish heads to Lonely Planet for publishing disappointing guidebooks with outdated information and misleading advice (when traveling 20 years ago Lonely Planet books were the gold standard and worthy of their reputation, now not so much it seems).
• Fish heads to Hospedaje Beho in Pisac for dark, dingy rooms, cold showers, and scary decorations.
• Fish heads to U.S. Immigration at Fort Lauderdale Airport for being rude to visitors and making the immigration process as miserable as possible.

Return to Canada

From Iain: On the 23rd we spent a comfortable night at a bed and breakfast near the Guatemala City airport (despite the presence just outside our room of, remarkably, our first cockroach on this trip).  We then flew to Fort Lauderdale, anxious about our onward connection to Las Vegas, particularly since the plane ended up departing an hour and a half late.  On landing, we fairly whizzed through immigration (a complete contrast to our previous experience here), baggage claim, customs, baggage re-check, and security (where we had our explosive peanut butter confiscated), making it to our connecting gate with time to spare.

An uneventful flight got us to Las Vegas late on Christmas Eve, then a high-tech taxi (TV playing in the back and metered!) took us to our hotel, where the girls laid out their stockings (actually a pair of my hiking socks).  Incredibly, Santa Claus managed to track us down in Las Vegas, filling the girls' stockings with edible Guatemalan goodies.  We then spent a rather odd but fun Christmas Day - picking up some groceries for an unusual Christmas dinner, wandering around a few of the hotels and casinos on the strip, and relaxing in the outdoor pool and hot-tub (despite an outside temperature of about 10 degrees Celsius or 50 degrees Fahrenheit).

On Boxing Day, we woke up early for our dawn flight to Vancouver and I sent my stress level sky-rocketing when we tried to check in and I discovered that we'd left our passports in our hotel room safe.  A frantic taxi-ride back to the hotel, then back to the airport, and we got to our plane on time.  It seems as we get closer to the end of the trip that my brain is reaching its limit for processing organizational details and by the time we're back in Nelson I'll be capable of little more than crawling into bed and sleeping for a week.  Not quite there yet, however.  After a connecting flight from Vancouver to Victoria, we're now staying with Tanya's friend, MaryAnn, near Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.  Home in a few days!

Back to Guatemala

From Iain: After spending a pleasant night at Hanna Stables near the border, we crossed back over into Guatemala on Thursday 20 December.  We stayed at Casa Amelia in Flores again, which was busier than it had been two weeks previously, due both to tourist season ramping up and the gathering of all manner of new age mystics for the "end of the world."  Mayan sites like Tikal and Caracol were allowing people to camp out overnight to communally experience the astronomical alignments signifying the ending of a particular major cycle in the Mayan calendar and the beginning of a new one (known as the 13th b'ak'tun). So, not so much the ending of the world as a kind of millennial new year's eve with some astronomical phenomena thrown in.

We made our way down to Poptun on the morning of the 21st, traveling in relative comfort in a remarkably laid-back microbus that wasn't crammed to the gunnels with people. They dropped us off at Finca Ixobel, a self-described hotel ecologico, where we stayed for two nights in a "deluxe treehouse," essentially a cabin on stilts. Bethany and Sierra were excited to have a large, furry tarantula camped out just beside our treehouse for the duration of our stay, and also to see the two large resident parrots.

Parrots at Finca Ixobel

Then on the 23rd we caught a 1st class Linea Dorada bus to Guatemala City, which proved to be less grueling than the reverse journey had been due to fewer delays and less extreme use of air conditioning, but perhaps also because we knew we were on our way home now.

Horseback trip to Xunantunich ruins

From Iain: On Tuesday we went on a horseback trip to the Xunantunich Mayan ruins with Hanna Stables.  We rode with our guide, Dominic, along forest, farm, and riverside trails, including a short hand-cranked ferry ride across the Mopan River.  Bethany and I were lucky enough to have super-responsive horses, but Tanya's and Sierra's were a little more independent-minded.  After a few attempts trying to get us all lined up, Dominic managed to get a photo of us all together:

Bethany, Iain, Tanya, and Sierra on horseback trip to Xunantunich

We reached the Mayan ruins at Xunantunich after a couple of hours and then spent about an hour wandering the site, the most impressive part of which is the Castillo.  In contrast to the ruins we saw at Tikal, there are well-preserved carvings visible at Xunantunich, which are very impressive:

Castillo at Xunantunich Mayan ruins

After another two hours riding back to the stables we were happy to dismount, cool off, and rest our weary bones.

Iguana Conservation Project

From Iain: After the cave tour, we went to the Iguana Conservation Project in San Ignacio.  Here they "grow" iguanas until they are about two years old, after which they release them into the wild.  Before they are released, the baby iguanas get to hang out on tourists' heads:

Is there something crawling on top of my head?

Cave tour by canoe

From Iain: On Monday we went on a tour to Barton Creek Cave, traveling about a kilometre and a half underground by canoe.  Sierra was a little nervous about going in a cave, but was reassured by the fact that we were traveling by canoe (rather than by foot or swimming or by inner-tube as in some of the other nearby caves).  Our guide, John, was also really good and deliberately toned down his descriptions of Mayan sacrificial rites in the caves so as not to overly alarm Sierra.  She ended up being so brave that once we'd gone as far as we could by canoe, we all jumped out of our canoes and into the water to do a little exploring by foot:

Tanya, Iain, Sierra, and Bethany in Barton Creek Cave

Apparently, Bethany and I came very close to putting our hands on a giant centipede while climbing up out of the water onto a part of the cave that wasn't submerged.  Although both Tanya and John saw the centipede they decided to keep quiet to avoid unnecessarily alarming us (and spooking Sierra who was just about to follow us).  We then all went for a brief swim (the water was a tad chilly so far underground) before heading back in the canoes.

Jungle lodge

From Iain: We've been staying in the jungle just north of San Ignacio for the past four days, at Parrot Nest Lodge.

Tanya, Sierra, and Bethany at Parrot Nest Lodge

The no-frills lodge is in a large patch of semi-cleared jungle and consists of about ten different-sized cabins and tree-houses, as well as a larger building housing a communal area for eating, reading, playing board games, etc., and the living quarters for the friendly family who run the place.

The jungle was, of course, hot and humid, but not unbearably so (it was even a trifle chilly early in the morning).  We didn't see or hear too much exotic wildlife during our stay, although we did see an agouti (like a giant guinea pig) hopping around and scores of fireflies winking on and off at dusk.  We also saw more than ten huge iguanas sunning themselves in the trees along the river when we went tubing.  Most of the iguanas we saw were orange males, some up to about four feet long, although we spotted a few less brightly coloured females too.  Tubing was great fun once Bethany, Sierra, and I, as first-timers, got the hang of steering.  There was one particularly exhilarating part where we dropped down a few feet through some narrow rapids, all of us somehow managing to stay upright on our inner-tubes.

We also went on a couple of tours during our stay here, a canoe trip to Barton Creek Cave, a visit to the Iguana Conservation Project in San Ignacio, and a horseback trip to the Mayan ruins at Xunantunich.

Snorkeling trip and nocturnal river tour

From Iain: Our week on the beach is coming to an end and we've had a great time - swimming, eating fresh coconuts, reading in hammocks, digging in the sand, generally chilling out in and around our cabana, and trying local Garifuna food.  [Garifuna people are descendants of Carib, Arawak, and West African people.]  We've also been on a couple of tours - a half day snorkeling trip to Belize's barrier reef and a two-hour boat trip along the Sittee River at dusk.  We went with Happy Go Luckie Tours for both trips and they were wonderful.

Getting back to our beach after snorkeling

For the snorkeling trip, Luckie and his boat mate picked us up right outside our cabin early on Wednesday morning.  We zoomed off to Bird Caye, about thirty minutes away, where we saw frigates and brown-footed boobies.  The male frigates were puffing up their red breasts to alarming proportions.  Then we made our way to South Water Caye, where we snorkeled first from the beach and then directly from the boat.  Luckie proved to be a great guide and was really good with the girls on their first time snorkeling.  They both managed just fine.  Visibility wasn't stellar and the fish were playing a little hard to get, but we still managed to see quite a few different types of fish, including lots of rays, which were the girls' favourite.

For the river tour yesterday evening, we met Luckie at the marina, a short taxi ride from town, and he patrolled us up and down the Sittee River as the sun set and for about two hours afterwards searching out wildlife.  We all had flashlights to help us spot things, but we were all pretty hopeless other than Luckie, who managed to locate all kinds of critters (all while driving the boat too).  We saw various birds, a two-foot long baby crocodile, bats, a moth almost as big as my hand, and even a giant spider (whose eyes Luckie spotted from a few hundred feet away).  The highlight of the tour was a stop in a large lagoon, where we shut off our flashlights.  The lagoon water at first just appeared inky black. but then as we circled and looked back at our wake we could see the water shimmering and shining with an iridescent turquoise-blue colour.  We then noticed streaks of the same bright colour darting and streaking past the boat, which Luckie said were fish trails.  He encouraged us to move our hands in the water and as we did so we were able to conjure up the streaks of shiny water for ourselves.  The colourful light we were seeing comes from bioluminescent plankton in the water, which produce the light in a similar way to fireflies.

To end our stay in Hopkins, this morning we spotted some dolphins while swimming and this afternoon the girls had an hour's drumming lesson with Jabbar (whose wife, Dorothy, manages the cabanas).

From Sierra: It was just me and daddy going swimming this morning, and as we swam further out we noticed what looked like large fish jumping.  But then we noticed that they had big fins and they were really dolphins.  They were so amazing and they were huge!

From Bethany: We learnt a few different rhythms on Garifuna drums made from mahogany with deer skin tied on with vines and some rubber bands acting like snares.  To make lower notes, you put your whole hand on the middle part of the drum and to make higher notes you put just your finger tips closer to the edge of the drum.

Hopkins beach, Belize

From Iain: We finished up our stay in Flores in style with a great meal at La Villa del Chef.  Then on Friday we caught a shuttle to the border with Belize.  Crossing the border was easy - a brief stop with Guatemalan Immigration to exit the country (which, for some reason, involved an unofficial 40 quetzal "fee") and then a short walk across the border to Belizean Immigration and Customs.  After five months of Spanish immersion, it was an abrupt change to hear English again (mixed in with some Spanish and quite a bit of Kriol, an odd-sounding, almost slang-like English variant).

After spending a night in San Ignacio at the very pleasant Western Guesthouse, we had another epic bus day, taking three separate buses to Belmopan, then Dangriga, and finally Hopkins, a small town on the coast.  And now we're spending a relaxing week at Lebeha Seaside Cabanas in a large, self-contained cabin right on the beach about 50 metres from the Carribean.  It's about as perfect as you could imagine and there are very few other people here so we've pretty much got the beach to ourselves.

Outside our cabin on the beach in Hopkins

The sea is ideal for swimming in - the water is warm, it's shallow for a long way out, and most of the time it's incredibly calm due to the reef just on the horizon.  And the air temperature is just right too - in the low 30s (Celsius) or high 80s (Fahrenheit).  Next up is a snorkeling trip out to the reef on Wednesday.

Attack of the amoebas

From Iain: To provide a complete account of our trip we should include the bad along with the good, so here's a brief account of our ongoing battles with amoebas while we've been away.  Despite our best attempts to avoid ingesting contaminated food or water, somewhere along the way we managed to pick up some microscopic parasitic amoebas.  We've all been sick from this at various times over the past few months, although not enough to seriously disrupt our trip.

While Tanya and Sierra managed to fight off the amoebas by themselves, Bethany and I haven't been so lucky.  While we were in San Antonio by Lake Atitlan, Bethany wasn't doing so well.  The people at the hotel where we were staying took us an American surgeon who lives nearby.  He referred us to a colleague at the hospital where he volunteers who specializes in intestinal problems.  He was able to prescribe medication for Bethany that seems to have done the trick.

I was fine until we got to Nebaj, when I went downhill quickly.  We managed to find a good doctor in town who tried to fix me up with various medications.  Although I felt a little better after a few days the stomach pains soon returned, so I returned to a second doctor for a round of alternative meds.  This managed to keep me going for a little longer, but when we got to Flores I started feeling rough again.  So, now I've seen a third doctor (in San Ignacio, Belize this time) and I'm on yet a new cocktail of meds (I think I've taken ten different drugs now).  Apparently part of the problem is that the meds I took previously were probably getting rid of the live amoebas but were not killing the eggs, so the cycle would just start over again after a few days (eeuw!).  Hopefully I'll be all good again soon.

While on this trip we've tried to take all the recommended precautions - drinking only purified water, avoiding uncooked salads in restaurants, etc.  As a result of our amoeba encounters we've even started to soak all our raw fruits and vegetables in a biocide solution.  But on a trip of this length in countries where the water is not safe for us to drink, it was always unlikely that we'd manage to make it through the entire six months scot-free.  A restaurant might generally use safe food handling techniques, but even a single drop of water on the dish they use to serve your food can make you sick.  Similarly, a juice bar might use purified water to make its smoothies, but the blender might be rinsed with plain old tap water in between uses.  Or, an avocado might seem perfectly safe to eat since only the inside flesh is eaten, but when you cut it in half you could transfer contaminants from the outside of the skin into the flesh.  And although the high-priced tourist restaurants might appear to have more stringent food safety standards than the cheaper local restaurants, that need not necessarily be the case.  Besides, trying out local restaurants is a part of our trip we don't want to miss out on.  All we can do is strive to reach a good balance between staying as safe as we can while also enjoying as many local food experiences as possible.

Flores and Tikal

From Iain: We left Antigua on Tuesday for an epic all-day journey to Flores in the north of Guatemala.  We took a shuttle from Antigua at 7:30 am, which got us to Guatemala City around 9 am.  We then caught the 10 am Linea Dorada "first class bus" to Flores - this bus was much like a regular old long distance coach with the air conditioning cranked to the max and the toilet barely functioning.  Traffic coming out of Guatemala City was dreadful and then there was an interminable section with endless road construction, so we ended up rolling into Flores about 3 hours late at around 9 pm.
After resting in Flores - a very pleasant town on a small island in a large lake - on Wednesday, we spent Thursday at Tikal National Park, which is to Mayan Guatemala as Machu Picchu is to Incan Peru.  The park is a vast area of jungle dotted with a wide variety of Mayan temples and other ruins.  Some of the ruins have been fully excavated and exposed, while others remain partially or fully covered in the jungle undergrowth that hid them from the world for hundreds of years until the mid to late 1800s.  One of the highlights of our visit was climbing to the top of the tallest temple-pyramid, Templo IV, where you can look out over the jungle canopy below you and see the tops of some of the other pyramids poking up above the tops of the trees.

View from the top of Templo IV, Tikal

This view is also famous for appearing in Star Wars (ep. IV).

While we were exploring the ruins, it was hard not to compare them with the Incan ruins we'd seen in Peru.  The Mayan ruins here are generally much older than, for example, those at Machu Picchu, and the stonework certainly looked and felt older.  It tended to be darker and more crumbly-looking and discoloured.  Tanya described the ruins as feeling more sinister and foreboding than those in Peru.  The style of the buildings is completely different too, for example, Templo I (Temple of the Great Jaguar):

Sierra and Bethany in front of Templo I, Tikal

Another fun aspect about Tikal was hiking along all the jungle trails between the clusters of ruins.  Since we were there from about 9 am to 2 pm, much of the jungle animal life was probably asleep, but we still managed to see quite a few interesting critters.  The cutest was a koatymundi, like a slimmed down raccoon with a pointy nose and a long striped tail.  We saw about seven or eight spider monkeys swinging through the trees and heard the ferocious sounds of howler monkeys (although we didn`t catch sight of any of these).  At one point while Sierra and I stopped to look up into a tree to see what we thought might be another spider monkey, a tarantula fell down from the tree branches onto the ground, missing Sierra's head by inches.  It spanned about four inches across and was furry and pale brown.  After I'd taken a photo of it while it remained motionless, Tanya chucked some leaves and a twig at it to see if it would move, and sure enough it did, running and jumping (!) away.  Finally, as we were waiting for the bus to take us back to Flores, we saw some iridescent occelated turkeys.

Koatymundi, spider monkey, tarantula, and occelated turkeys at Tikal.

Antigua coffee tour

From Iain: On Monday we went to La Azotea Cultural Center just outside Antigua for a tour of a working coffee finca (farm), along with museums covering coffee production and indigenous folkloric musical instruments, dress, and dances/festivals from all over Guatemala.  This was all done remarkably well with guides and signs in flawless English.  We got a pretty good insight into the coffee production process and had a pleasant stroll around the shade grown coffee plantation.  It is the beginning of harvest season just now, so this is what the coffee cherries look like.

Azotea coffee cherries ripe for the picking

If you pick one of the cherries and squeeze it, some sweet-tasting pulp comes out along with two coffee beans.  Once harvested  the beans are then fermented, sun-dried, and roasted, all on site.  The resulting coffee is pretty darn good - we all had a small sample after the tour and then bought a pound of dark roast beans to take home with us.
When we got back to Antigua we treated ourselves to an extravagant lunch at Rainbow Cafe.  I've never seen Bethany and Sierra eat so much food at one sitting before.

Chichicastenango market mayhem

From Iain: We left Nebaj yesterday so that we could spend Saturday night in Chichicastenango and then go to the famous Sunday market today.  To get here we first took a micro (public minibus) to Santa Cruz del Quiche, a rather uncomfortable journey of about two and a half hours.  It wasn't uncomfortable because of the crazy speed that we whipped round corners or bounced over speed bumps - although this was plenty crazy - but rather because of the insane number of people crammed into the vehicle.  Although it had seats for roughly 10 passengers, at times there were about 30 people crammed inside, so many that the guy who collected the fares and put luggage on the roof ended up spending part of the journey up on the roof himself.  We probably would have been better off in a chicken bus, so this is the option we took for the next part of the journey from Santa Cruz del Quiche to Chichicastenango, which thankfully was a mere half an hour trip.
We checked into a wonderful little guesthouse, Posada el Arco, where we had a large, nicely decorated room with a working fireplace and warm showers, both of which we made good use of.  We also enjoyed the extensive garden at the posada, with lots of exotic flowers and fruit trees (including lime, orange, and avocado).

Sierra and Bethany at Posada el Arco, Chichicastenango

We spent this morning at the Chichicastenango Sunday market, along with about a zillion other tourists and some locals.  This was quite a bracing change after Nebaj, where there were barely any tourists.  At times, it was a struggle to squeeze through the narrow gaps between stalls, thronged with a mass of tightly packed bodies gradually moving in one direction and then another.  Despite the hoards, we managed to successfully buy a few presents for people.  We were even able to bargain on all the things we bought.  After five months in places where nothing seems to have a fixed price, we're finally getting the hang of settling on a price well below the first price given.  We're probably still paying over the odds, but we figure that if we're paying a reasonable price for something, paying more than a local might really doesn't matter.
In the afternoon we took a private shuttle minibus to Antigua.  Although the vehicle we rode in was essentially identical to the vehicle we rode in between Nebaj and Santa Cruz del Quiche, the differences between a private shuttle and public micro are the price (about five times as much), the number of passengers (everyone gets their own seat), there is no stopping along the way to jam more passengers in, and the driver will stop if anyone needs to use the toilet.  However, both private shuttles and public micros drive at alarming speeds, so they have that in common.  We made it to Antigua safe and sound, so we're now snugly ensconced in our room at Posada Dona Luisa, where the girls are taking turns reading a story to each other.

Nebaj Farewells

From Iain: Today was our last day in Nebaj and we went with the Grupos for a farewell excursion to "Boxbolandia," a hotel resort with recreation facilities that is open to the public.  I played futbol with some of the hombres, while Bethany and Sierra played basketball with some of the mujeres.  Tanya watched and took some photos.  I'd also played futbol with the guys at the indoor field that is opposite the hostal on Tuesday and Wednesday too, so I was pretty dead on my feet by the end of today's game.  There were various outdoor pools and slides at the resort too, but it was way too cold to think about going for a swim.  Although we're not too far from the equator here, we're high enough up that it's pretty chilly here just now.
After being treated to lunch, the Grupos had a ceremony to thank us for our work while we've been here.  They also gave us some gifts - traditional, brightly coloured, woven bags for me, Bethany, and Sierra, and a beautiful, hand-woven shawl for Tanya.  Here's a photo of us with the Grupos taken just after the ceremony.

Grupos de Mujeres y Hombres por la Paz, Nebaj

From Sierra: In the three weeks that we have been here, we have helped around the hostal by teaching English, cooking, and computer classes. It was fun.

From Bethany: I liked the English classes best because it was fun watching everyone learn some English words. We also taught them some songs like "head, shoulders, knees, and toes" and "round and round the village."

Volunteer Teaching

From Iain: We're in the thick of three weeks of volunteer teaching in Nebaj now.  I'm doing computer and cooking classes while Tanya is doing English classes for both children and adults.

Simon Says "Touch Your Nose"

The cooking classes are for the restaurant that the group will be opening shortly.  A chef is coming from the U.S. in a few weeks to teach them to prepare Indian main courses so I'm showing them some simple baked goods.  Two challenges are the limited ingredients and equipment available here, but so far we've successfully made bread, cookies, and carrot cake.  If we can find chocolate we'll try brownies tomorrow.  Bethany and Sierra have been helping in the English and cooking classes.
I've also been helping to update the group's laptop computers and to eliminate the plethora of viruses most of them are infected with.  I wonder if the bozos that write these viruses would be at all bothered by the knowledge that their actions have prevented this organization - who cannot afford to pay for computer assistance - from being able to use their computers to help their community.  It's dispiriting how long it is taking to undo the damage to those computers that I can fix, while some of the computers are beyond my limited ability to repair them.  Thank goodness for freely available antivirus software.

Arrival in Nebaj

From Iain: We chickened out of taking a chicken bus from Xela to Nebaj and instead arranged to be driven by car.  With our luggage, the buses sounded just a little too daunting since they would have involved at least one change, possibly more.  Since Nebaj is a little off the beaten track, taking a shuttle van didn't seem to be an option, but after trailing around a series of travel agencies in Xela we managed to knock the price of a private car down from US$200 to US$130.  So, on Friday a friendly chap called Jorge drove us to Nebaj in his Toyota Corolla (about 90% of the vehicles in Guatemala appear to be Toyotas).  I'm not sure he didn't bite off a bit than he'd bargained for since he evidently hadn't driven to Nebaj before (he asked for directions from bystanders on five or six occasions).  He also had to drive over about 23 million speed bumps on the way and with each one scraping the bottom of his car his grin got more and more strained.  The already throaty sounding engine of his car sounded noticeably rougher when we finally rolled into Nebaj about four and a half hours after setting off.
The main reason we're in Nebaj is to do some volunteer work with Grupos de Mujeres y Hombres por la Paz, an independent community organization of Ixhil Mayans.  Some of the members, Abraham, David, and Miguel, met us when we arrived and showed us into our home for the next three weeks, their recently acquired and renovated hostel.  It's very basic and it looks to have been a struggle to make the building that houses the hostel habitable, but the members of the group are all very friendly and eager to make things work for us while we're here.  It appears that we'll be helping them with English and computer classes and also with learning to do some baking for the new restaurant project that they have.  This is all still a little up in the air as we've only been here a few days , so we'll post more details on this later.  In the meantime, here's a quick view of Nebaj and some of the group members who accompanied us on a walk yesterday:

Nebaj

Guatemalan earthquake

From Iain: We left San Antonio early this morning on a chicken bus bound for Quetzaltenango (nicknamed Xela) in the Western Highlands.  After about two and a half hours we arrived safe and sound and found a taxi to take us to our hostel, Casa Renaissance, near the city centre.  About 10 minutes after arriving we heard some low rumblings and then felt the floor beneath our feet and buildings around us begin to rattle and shake quite violently.  At first I held the girls close to me under a door frame but then we quickly scurried to join Tanya in the open courtyard of the hostel.  The ground seemed to be moving around as we stood there with the other people in the hostel, almost like being on a ship in rough waters.  The movement lasted probably 30-40 seconds.  The power went out right away and has just come back on about an hour or so later.  Fortunately the hostel kitchen has a gas cooker so we were able to make some tea while we waited for the power to come back on.  One of the other hostel guests went out to the street and heard from a taxi driver that there has been some damage in Guatemala City, perhaps even some people killed.  There was minor damage to the hostel, with some plaster falling from a wall and a light fixture breaking in one of the rooms.  Apparently the earthquake had an estimated magnitude of 7.4 and was centred just off the Pacific coast of Guatemala, about 115 km from where we are now.  There is more information on the BBC News website and pictures here.

From Bethany: Did you hear about the huge earthquake in Guatemala? I was in it. We'd just arrived in this new hostel and like 20 minutes after we arrived the earth starts shaking. Me and Sierra are like, "big deal, an earthquake." Then mommy tells us to get outside, so we do. It was really cool because the windows were all rattling and it felt like we were on a boat. The ground was actually moving!!! Later it was all on the news and everything and apparently it was the biggest earthquake since 1976 or something like that. It was strange because I wasn't actually scared while the earthquake was actually happening but afterward I was when I realized that while Sierra and I were laughing and having fun that other people in Guatemala were dying.

Chilling by Lake Atitlan

From Iain: I was wrong, the bus we took from Antigua to Panajachel on Lake Atitlan was a chicken bus.  The chickens had to ride on top of the bus, however.  Not only do the extravagant paint jobs brighten up and differentiate the old school buses, they also make them go about ten times faster.  Ideal for zipping round blind bends on mountain roads.  The driver tries to keep the bus moving at all times, even while passengers hop aboard or jump off.  There are also no delays while the ticket guy puts the larger items of luggage on the roof with the chickens - he simply climbs onto the roof with the luggage while the bus is still moving and then climbs back down into the bus through the back door.  In fact he kept popping up to the roof - maybe he was feeding the chickens too?
We're now spending a lazy week on the eastern shore of Lake Atitlan in a small town called San Antonio Palopo.  Since the tourist season hasn't really picked up yet, we're the only guests at what would probably be called a boutique hotel in North America, the Hotel Nuestro Sueno.  Unfortunately the shower head in our room broke the first time we tried to use it and, after a heavy rain shower on the first night, the roof leaked a little.  So, we're now in a grander room with an even more impressive view of the lake.
So far while we've been here we've eaten some fine breakfasts and dinners at the hotel, explored the town, gone kayaking on the lake,  eaten chocolate-covered frozen bananas and strawberries on a stick, and flown kites along with half the town during the All Saints' Day holidays.  Some of the kites flown by the townspeople had a diameter of at least 10 feet.
Today we ventured out of town and rode in the back of an open pickup truck to Panajachel, where we caught a public lancha (small motorboat) to San Pedro on the opposite side of the lake below the volcano of the same name (one of three volcanos ringing the lake).

San Pedro Volcano, Lake Atitlan

It turns out that San Pedro isn't much of a place to visit unless you're an aged (or not so aged) hippie or are looking for a Spanish language school.  Still, it was a good day out and we had a great, very filling lunch at Cafe La Puerta, where we sat outside right by the lake.  Whereas the boat out had taken an age, the boat back to Panajachel fairly whizzed though the water at a tremendous speed, giving the girls quite a thrill.  We had a bit more trouble catching a pickup back to San Antonio as a sudden downpour seemed to dry up the supply of pickups going our way.  We finally managed to find one and squeezed into the back with another twenty-odd people (who knew little Toyota pickups could haul so many people at one time?).  The sun was setting as we made it back to our hotel.

Antigua

From Iain: Today we spent a relaxing day wandering around the markets in Antigua.  We bought some interesting fruit, including lychees, some small oval green/red/yellow fruits with a thin skin, large pit, and sweet, slightly chalky yellow flesh, and some large brown fruits that resemble a potato from the outside but have a texture like a ripe pear on the inside and a very sweet taste.  We also bought some freshly made tortillas (both regular yellow corn ones and black corn ones), refried beans, and salsa.  For a dessert we bought a selection of hand-made candies and cookies, including some great fudge.
No-one felt too inclined to visit any specific tourist sites but we're planning to return to Antigua in a month's time when we can be a bit more adventurous.  Tomorrow we're catching an early bus to Lake Atitlan, although not a "chicken bus" (old, repainted U.S. school bus) like the ones below (at least, not as far as we know).  So it's early to bed now.

Chicken Buses and Volcano, Antigua

Two lines

From Iain: Our unpleasant experience at U.S. immigration a few days ago is still bothering me, so perhaps if I write about it some more I can purge it from my system...
We - all the passengers coming from Peru - were happy to land, surprised to feel so fatigued having been sitting for so long.  We'd all diligently filled out our landing and customs forms on the plane and we walked expectantly to the immigration hall.  We came to signs dividing us into two groups, U.S. citizens and residents one way, visitors another.  Since the girls and Tanya are U.S. citizens but I am not, we had to follow the visitors' sign.  Beyond the signs, the citizens and visitors from our flight entered the respective mazes winding their way to the border agents in their booths.  The signs above the booths indicated that half were allocated to citizens and half to residents.  Another flight's passengers were already in the lines and there looked to be about twice as many passengers in the citizens line as the visitors line.  All seemed well.
As the lines began to move, we in the visitors line began to take in the finer details of our situation.  We noticed that the citizens line was moving much faster than our own.  We could also see that while every citizen's booth contained a border agent, many of the visitor's booths were empty.  In fact, we could only see two agents processing visitors.  As we glanced around at each other to seek confirmation in each others' faces, one of the visitor agents left his booth and went into an adjoining office.  We kept looking for him to come back out again.
Soon all the previous flight's citizens and residents had been processed and many of the citizens and residents from our flight had also gone through.  The visitor's line had barely moved and the agent who had left his booth had not returned.  We began muttering quietly to ourselves, wondering why this was happening and how much longer we might be here.  Some of us had connecting flights and it seemed more and more unlikely that we would make these connections.  A man in a uniform at the front of the lines seemed to be directing people to the agents in the booths.  We assumed he was a border agent.  When some of us tried to ask him for help he ignored us and we realized he was only helping the citizen's line.  We then noticed a similarly uniformed woman in front of our line but she would not help those of us with connections either.  She soon appeared to tire of being asked for help and wandered away somewhere.
Another agent entered one of the visitors' booths so that we now had two agents processing us again.  Still our line crept forward while the citizens' line raced through.  As we looked more closely at those lucky visitors at the booths who were being processed, we noticed that after questioning some did not walk through to the area marked "customs" but were instead lead away through a separate door.  We became anxious about their fates, but not as anxious as we were that we would also be lead through that door when our time came.
Despite having been replenished with U.S. citizens and residents from other flights, the citizens' line had now dwindled to a handle of people and the uniformed man turned his attention to our line.  Perhaps now he would help us, we thought.  However, he did not permit us to now go to the agents in the citizens' booths.  He entertained himself instead by shouting at anyone who put their bags on the ground while they waited.  We were too frightened by what might happen to us if we did not comply to refuse his unreasonable demand.
Soon the citizens' line was nearly empty and and our spirits raised at the thought that the agents in the citizens' booths might soon start to process us.  All of a sudden the two visitors' agents left their booths and disappeared into another room.  As we looked to the uniformed man for an explanation he taunted us by saying they'd finished their shifts and we would have to wait here all night now.  We refused to believe his taunts but then we looked over to the citizens' line, which had now filled with new arrivals from another flight.  As they began to go to the agents in their booths, a man in our line could restrain himself no longer and called out, "That is not fair.  We have been waiting for a long time and they have just arrived.  We do not treat visitors like this in my country."  As we all murmured our agreement, a woman working for our airline suddenly began directing those of us at the front of our line to go to agents in the citizens' booths, alternating with the newly arrived passengers.  The agents in the booths did not object.  The uniformed man disappeared.  The woman from our airline gestured for us to move as quickly as possible.  She told us another flight was coming and we would have to move back to stand in front of the empty visitors' booths once those passengers reached the immigration hall.
Before this happened we reached an agent in his booth.  He did not welcome us to the U.S.  He did not apologize for our wait.  He processed Tanya and the girls, as U.S. citizens, in a minute or so.  It took a while longer to fingerprint me and take my photo.  Once processed we asked to speak to a supervisor.  One came and we described our experience to him.  He did not appear to hear us, however.  He told us he allocates an equal number of his agents to the citizen and visitor lines.  He did not wish to discuss with us that today the numbers were unequal.  He was unmoved that all the U.S. citizens and residents from our flight had been processed within 20 minutes while nearly two hours later there were still visitors from our flight who had not been processed.  He told us he had no responsibility for the uniformed man at the front of the lines.  He aggressively told us that budget cuts meant that he did not have as many agents as he would like.  He did not apologize for our wait.  He did not welcome us to the U.S.

Onwards to Guatemala

From Iain: We've spent the last few days making our way from one continent to another to begin the Guatemala portion of our trip.  We left our Pisac home of three months on a bus driven by a crazed driver up to Cusco at an unfathomable speed.  We then spent a pleasant day wandering around a few museums in Cusco, none particularly worth writing home about, however.  The highlight of the day was an evening performance of Andean dance and music that we attended.
The next day we got a flight to Lima - just over an hour crossing the Andes.  Once there we were picked up by a taxi arranged by our hospedaje for two nights, the B&B Tradiciones in Miraflores.  With everyone feeling a little fatigued by the activities of the last week we decided to simply visit a single museum during our time in Lima.  We settled on the Museo de la Nacion, which turned out to be a good choice as it was interesting and informative without being overwhelming.  There was a photo exhibit on Machu Picchu, a good display covering the history of Peru, a couple of more in-depth displays on an archaeological site in Peru and the extensive road system constructed by the Inca, and, finally, a photo exhibit on the internal conflict of the 1980s and 1990s (the girls did not view this last exhibit).  I don't have too many photos from our time in Lima, but here's one from inside the Museo de la Nacion:

Museo de la Nacion, Lima

We left Lima yesterday on a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  The less said about the day the better, since it ended up being one of those grueling travel days when just about everything seems to go wrong: a late taxi, check-in problems, boarding delays while everyone was searched, a humiliating hour-and-a-half wait in the visitors line at U.S. immigration while 10 agents processed U.S. citizens and residents each in well under a minute, while 2 agents processed visitors, each taking upwards of 5 minutes each while we were fingerprinted and had our photos taken.  We finally got to our hotel and made the best of it by having a late night swim in the pool and two large decadent pizzas delivered to our room.
Today we had a much better travel day (why is it so much more pleasant these days to leave the U.S. by plane than to arrive in the U.S. by plane?) and a much more positive welcome when we arrived at Guatemala City.  We whizzed though immigration and customs in a jiffy and were then driven at high speed to our hotel in Antigua, Posada Dona Luisa, where we are all now, very tired indeed ...

Saqsaywaman, Q'enqo, Puka Pukara, and Tambomachay

From Iain: Today we went on a day trip to the four Incan ruins closest to Cusco: Saqsaywaman, Q'enqo, Puka Pukara, and Tambomachay.  We caught a bus to the site closest to Pisac, Tambomachay, and then walked towards Cusco from one site to the next.  With exploring the ruins, picnicking along the way, and taking a little bit of an unnecessary detour, this took us most of the day. After all the Incan ruins we've seen during our time in Peru, some tourist fatigue must be setting in because we were all a little jaded with today's sites.  That's not to say that parts of Saqsaywaman weren't pretty impressive.

Saqsaywaman

Wiñay Taki Performance

From Iain: Last night we were invited by Fielding and Roman (one of the founding families of Kusi Kawsay) to a performance by Wiñay Taki, a traditional Andean musical group of families and friends who are all connected in some way or other with the school. The performance took place at the Pisac Inn and we were part of a small, select audience of supporters of the school.  Roman introduced and explained each of the pieces of music and dance, which followed the Andean calendar through the seasons and various local festivals and celebrations.  The instruments included all manner of flutes as well as some drums and stringed instruments.  Each new piece involved changes of costume and interchanging roles of playing instruments, dancing, or singing.  It was all thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable.

Wiñay Taki

After six or seven pieces spanning the Andean year, the audience members were invited/cajoled to get up and dance with various members of the group.  In the spirit of the evening we were duly persuaded and even managed to enjoy this part too.  To round off the evening, Fielding and Roman acknowledged everyone's support of the school, including Bethany and Sierra's participation over the last three months, Tanya's guidance on painting through the grades and hands-on assistance with the kindergarten, and my technical help with the recent redesign of the school's website.  You can see the results of my efforts at http://kusikawsay.org/ (while you're there, please consider making an online donation to the school since many of their start-up funding sources have dried up now and they desperately need your support for their growing operating costs).

Moray and Salineras

From Iain: Today we went on a day trip to the agricultural Incan terraces at Moray and the salt pans at Salineras. We've seen a lot of the Urubamba bus terminal lately as we had to take another bus here today. Then we hopped on the Cusco bus and jumped off at the junction for the small town of Maras. There we negotiated for a taxi to take us to Moray and Salineras (and to wait for us to take a look around at both places before returning us to the junction to catch a bus back to Urubamba).
At Moray there are three massive, deep bowls inset with perfect concentric terraces. Apparently the Inca used the terraces as a kind of agricultural experiment station to determine the best crops and varieties for growing at different elevations.

Agricultural Incan Terraces at Moray

At Salineras there are thousands of salt pans built into the steep slopes dropping down to the valley floor. The pans are fed from a spring with a very high salt content and worked by a large extended family, who rake up the salt crystals into conical piles where it dries before being bagged. The overall visual impression of the site is very strange, all the more so for being so unexpected in this environment.

Salt Pans at Salineras

Chinchero

From Iain: Today we went on a day trip to Chinchero, which is a small village on the road between Urubamba and Cusco.  The landscape here looks very different to that of the Sacred Valley - very high (Chinchero sits at 3,762m or 12,340 ft) with grassland, trees, bushes, and agricultural fields of red, brown, yellow, and green and endless vistas to still higher snow-covered mountains.

Chinchero

The main places of interest in the town are a large Sunday market (with much the same items as the Pisac market) and a historical area with some Incan terraces and ruins atop which sits an ugly, decaying colonial church.  When we arrived many of the town's inhabitants were attending a Catholic service inside the church, so we couldn't go inside. Given the history of the Inca and the Catholic Church it was a little discomfiting to see all the local people dressed in their traditional Andean clothing coming out of the church at the end of the service.

Ollantaytambo

From Iain: Yesterday I went on a day trip with Sierra to visit the Incan ruins at Ollantaytambo.  Bethany wasn't feeling up to snuff so Tanya stayed with her at the hostal.

Incan Stonework at Ollantaytambo

From Sierra: When we got there [after a bus to Urubamba and then a collectivo to Ollantaytambo] we went up some steps to the ruins. The ruins here have more stone carvings than the other ones. After we went to The Coffee Tree restaurant where we had banana cream pie for dessert.

Last Day of School

From Iain: Yesterday was the girl's last day at Kusi Kawsay.  More details to follow but here are some pictures in the meantime.

Sierra and Profesora Rosaura

From Sierra: I brought cake to share with my class, and cards. Everyone also made cards for me and four people brought presents for me like: a doll from Noria, a necklace from Ruth, a watch from Miska, and a llama and a sheep from Washington. After lunch we took a taxi up to the Pisac ruins. There are probably more ruins here than there are at Machu Picchu. After we wanted to walk down another way but when we got to the end of the trail it ended in someone's yard and it had a locked gate. A man saw us and told us we had to go back up where we had come from but instead when he went away we climbed over his fence. Then we went to a restaurant where I had pumpkin ravioli in browned butter and walnut sauce.

Kusi Kawsay Open House and Food Festival

From Iain: Yesterday Kusi Kawsay held an open house and food festival. There was a very impressive display of school work from all the classes inside one of the classrooms, while outside each class set up a table laden with various local Andean dishes that parents had helped to prepare. The teachers and children explained the ingredients, preparation, and nutrition properties of each dish, after which we all got to tuck in. Pretty much everything was vegetarian as far as we could tell and quinoa and kiwicha was much in evidence. Bethany and Sierra liked the torte de quinoa the best. There was an interesting display on the nutritional content of coca too.

Sierra's Class Performing at the Food Festival

Many of the children dressed in traditional clothing (including Sierra who wore clothing kindly donated by the owners of our hostal), and some classes gave musical performances. There was also a rendition of the Kusi Kawsay school song performed by the whole school, which I captured on video:

In the evening we, along with the other long-term residents of the hostal, were treated to a wonderful buffet dinner by the hostal owners and their extended family. They also plied us with Pisco Sour, made with pisco (grape brandy), lime juice, and egg whites. Not wishing to miss out, Bethany and Sierra got to try what we thought was a non-alcoholic variation. Since Bethany was more bright-eyed and goofy than usual on the walk home, we're thinking their drinks were no different to ours.