Yesterday, I had my blog entry all mentally planned, and even knew how I wanted to start it. But then today, I was in a pickup riding behind a bus, and a crate of chickens fell off the top of the bus and crashed onto the ground. Obviously, the ayudante (bus driver assistant) did not do too good of a job (or at all of a job) tying the crate down to the top of the bus. The chickens were squawking like crazy and feathers were flying all over. It was a rather comical and disturbing scene. Yet, typical Guatemala. Nothing ever really goes as planned, but it does all work out okay!

It has been an extremely fun-filled and adventurous past few weeks. First, with the 10-day visit of my parents, which was very fun. They arrived in Guatemala City and we spent the weekend enjoying Antigua, including a tour of a coffee farm coincidentally called “Filadelfia”, visiting a butterfly conservatory, trying traditional food, seeing pre-Easter/Holy Week processions in the street, enjoying restaurants I’d never normally have money to eat at, and marveling at the McDonalds’ beautiful gardens and tableside service (fast food in Guatemala is expensive to eat, unlike in the states, and it is a status thing to be able to eat food here, hence why the nasty greasy establishments are super high class here). Then, they spent five days in my town, which was a great experience. The Chiantlecos and Chiantlecas that I’ve come to know in my 4.5 months here embraced them warmly, and my parents were able to get a taste of my daily life: buying produce in the market, working at the muni, dodging crazy drivers, washing clothes in the pila, napping on my rooftop hammock, taking the bus up the cumbre, bucket bathing when the water gets cut off, etc. Finally, we spent the last leg of the trip at beautiful Lake Atitlan, where we stayed at the most gorgeous hotel I’ve ever been to in my whole life. It is cut right into the mountain on the lake, and up a steep hill – every room has a spectacular view of the lake and volcanoes, and the food was awesome. I really appreciated my parents’ visit and effort to come to Guatemala, and how open-minded they were about everything they saw here. It was definitely a test of my patience at times, and I felt a complete parent-child role reversal…I’d constantly be like, “where are you going? Who are you talking to? What are you saying? Why are you getting off the bus? Sit down right here!” Plus, having to read the menus, translate everything for them, I feel like it was definitely an interesting dynamic.

Right after my parents left, we celebrated International Women’s’ Day. This day is something I barely knew about in the US, but throughout all Guatemala there were celebrations for women – and with good reason. The women here have it TOUGH – not only because their lives are difficult in their daily labors, but also how they are so devalued in society. Here in Chiantla, we did a parade through the streets, a motivational talk to our women’s groups leaders, and had a nice little concert. The following day, there was an event in Huehue city that was also really nice. In the US, I take my liberties as a woman for granted and most of the time, barely even notice a gender difference or inequalities in gender. But it is really important to recognize that most women in Guatemala, and the world for that matter, do live with tremendous discrimination and deserve a day (or every day, for that matter) to celebrate their gender, and contribution and importance in society.

Two weekends ago, I visited one of the most incredible places I’ve ever seen in my life: Volcan Tajamulco, which is the biggest volcano in Guatemala and the highest point in all of Central America. Seven other friends were also crazy enough to want to hike the thing and spend the evening on the top (and three of the seven were crazy enough to be doing it for the second time!). As much as I love the outdoors, I have very limited camping experience, but this will be hard to beat. We hiked from the base of the volcano up to the top, reaching an altitude of 13,850 feet. I felt like I was literally gasping for air the entire way, and could barely take more than baby steps the whole time…probably the reason that it took us 5 hours to hike what is the equivalent of two miles. However, the views at every single point during the hike were absolutely breathtaking. Seeing the surrounding mountains and villages, and finally reaching a point where we were looking down on a layer of puffy white clouds, and FINALLY, at four in the morning, when we woke up to hike the rest of the summit in the pure dark, we saw the sunrise and the entire landscape of Guatemala and the neighboring part of Mexico, and a dozen of Guatemala’s spectacular volcanoes off in the distance. Perhaps it was the lack of oxygen to my brain, but I could feel tears forming when I thought about where I was standing at that moment and how opportunities to do things like climb the highest place in Central America make the whole Peace Corps experience totally worth it when I am frustrated with work, missing home, and craving some good pad thai.

In fact, there are many times that I am still surprised about how different my life is here and how I’ve changed with respect to that. An example: recently, a neighboring PCV’s brother was visiting, and she wanted to make a trip to a spot in my municipality called Laguna Magdalena. This lake is situated in the mountains, three hours from my house in the centro urbano of my town, on a very steep and rocky unpaved road. We drove three hours there and three hours back in the back of a pickup truck, and spent a total of 1.5 hours at the actual lake. Now, three hours is the distance driving between Philadelphia and Washington DC, a trip I did very often, and I would get so antsy and impatient to just “get there already”. I cannot imagine ever having driven home to PA from DC just for a 1.5-hour visit! But here, it feels like not a big deal at all.

I have a lot to look forward to in the next few weeks, including the arrival of my best friend Becca next week, then Fiorella and Alex soon after, the beginning of rainy season which means my water probably won’t get cut off so often, work being rather busy lately, and a half marathon which I just signed up for in the city of Coban. It is a nice 700 meters below my town in altitude, so hopefully it will feel rather easy despite the fact that I’ve been a huge exercise slacker lately.

Finally, I’d like to make a shoutout to Tricia, another Huehue PCV who just returned to the states to have knee surgery. Tricia – we miss you and can’t wait for you to recover and get back soon!



Mayan ruins in my town that I recently saw for the first time
The bus ayudante putting the fallen crate of chickens back atop the bus

International Womens Day celebration
School girls in the Chiantla International Womens Day parade
My mom with my counterpart Rosario's adorable baby boy

Mom and Dad at the luxurious gardens in...the McDonalds in AntiguaaView from halfway up Volcan Tajamulco

On the top of the volcano, watching the sunset. The view shows all of Guatemala's volcanoes in the distance, surrounded by a sheet of clouds
As the sun rose, the shadow of the volcano on which we were standing was cast onto the sky below
So glad to finally be at the top (and freezing!)
After a bit (or few hours) of hiking, we were above the cloud line looking down below on it

At the base of the mountain, about to begin the adventureAnd at the end, exhausted and excited for a shower, but thrilled to have finished it and spent the weekend on top of the highest point of Central America!