Super Long Post Part 2

Jess- No, I definitely did not have dengue. People in the office and clinic are kind of overprotective and don’t want anything bad to happen to us while we are here.
I had some cold and just took it easy at home for a few days. By the end of the week, I was all ready for my next adventure.
Wednesday (6/30) was a holiday in Guatemala (Military Day), so Lindsey, Jana (another gringa in the office) and I decided to take a long weekend. On Friday (6/25) we took an overnight bus from Guatemala City to Flores, which is about 9 hrs northeast of here. The crazy driving made me feel like I was on a night bus from Harry Potter (maybe also because I was riding a bus at night….). Despite my fears that we were going to die- either from the driving or from people with guns taking over the bus, we made it! We got to Flores, dropped our stuff at our hostel (Hostel Casablanca) and headed to the great ruins at Tikal. Tikal was AMAZING! There were neat “templos” to explore, and we even saw monkeys. They have been doing a lot of work on uncovering the ruins there, and I got to talk to a guide who had been working there for the past 25 years. It was really humid in Tikal, but not too hot. When we got back to Flores that afternoon, the rain started. It rained A LOT. Apparently there was a tropical storm (hurricane?) in the area which we read about in the paper the following day. On Sunday, we headed out to Rio Dulce town (about a 4 hour bus ride). We were met at the docks by the owner of the hostel we were going to stay in, and took an hour boat ride to the hostel in the jungle. The hostel, Finca Tatin, is located on Rio Tatin, a small branch off Rio Dulce- a big river which runs from inland Guatemala through the jungle to the coast.
My favorite part about my trip to Rio Dulce/ Rio Tatin was our kayaking trip. We decided kayak from our hostel to Livingston (about 2.5hrs)- a Guatemalan town on the Caribbean Coast. It was soooo cool. For the most part, the water was calm, and we got to kayak through this beautiful gorge. Anyone want to go kayaking when we get home?
After the heat in the jungle, I was really looking forward to some air conditioning. I was also looking forward to staying somewhere where babies and birds did not freely use the bathroom on the floor and where I wasn’t followed by really stinky dogs. Also, since I didn’t have a flashlight with me, some electricity after 10 PM would be a plus. Getting back to the mainland however did not quite meet my expectations. We stayed in the dorm room from hell. Not only did we not have air conditioning or even a fan, we couldn’t keep one of the windows open because the bugs would get in, we didn’t really have power, and our room was guarded by some big crazy bird that wanted to get into the room. The bird sat in the sink by our door and would flap like crazy when you walked by. Did I mention that I really REALLY don’t like birds? Oh, the other thing about our hostel was the restaurant was overrun with really old, really drunk Americans who lived on boats. Very weird.
Oh well, we survived, and the next day, we took a super nice bus home (complete with AC!). Unfortunately though, when we got home a) I was locked out of my room and b) we were out of gas (which we use for cooking/ hot water/ etc). We also found lots of “anger turds” left by our roommate’s dog Lucy. At least she was happy to see us. I had a pretty uneventful week/weekend to follow my long weekend trip.
Lindsey decided to head to Antigua, but I wanted to stay in town and explore the city. I went to see two really neat museums: Museo Popol Vuh (archeology) and Museo Ixchel (Mayan textiles). I was really impressed with the styles of painting and sculpting. The hieroglyphics were rectangular and had a lot of faces. All the incense burners, jars, plates, etc seemed to have multiple layers of imagery. The textile museum talked about different weaving and embroidery techniques and displayed a lot of the different “huipiles” and “su’ts” that are traditional clothing. The color schemes and designs vary greatly depending on where you go, so it was pretty cool.
On Sunday, we headed to a 4th of July party hosted by a co-worker and I took Julia’s wonderful key lime pie. Though my pie was not nearly as good as hers and it suffered from adverse cooking/ ingredient conditions, the pie was a success! There was a (stork) piñata at the party which was a lot of fun. Seeing as how people set off fireworks all the time, I was surprised that we couldn’t find any. Rumor has it that people have been buying them for the World Cup Finals.
Tomorrow is my last official day of work (I have a feeling I will be finishing some stuff via email). I’m not sure how this month is already over. It’s been a pretty interesting and incredibly busy week. I got to shadow more in the clinic (clinic post coming soon), hear the director of the CDC talk, and tomorrow, Lindsey and I (mainly Lindsey) are giving a talk to the Ministry of Health about how to improve patient flow, data collection, etc.
Also, tomorrow, Lindsey, Ibardo (her bf) and I are packing up our stuff and heading to Honduras with a co-worker. We are going to go the Bay Islands to go snorkeling, and then we are taking a bus to Panama (which should take about 4 days). We will be stopping in Managua, Nicaragua and San Jose, Costa Rica along the way. We’ll get a couple days in Panama, and then on July 19- I fly home and Lindsey and Ibardo fly to Columbia. I would love to hear how everyone else is doing, and I definitely want to see everyone who is home when I get back! Miss you guys!
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