A Lull in the Action: Feliz Ano Nuevo! Happy New Year!

1/1/2013

"Have the courage to lose control. Have the courage to feel useless. have the courage to listen. Have the courage to receive. Have the courage to let your heart be broken. Have the courage to feel. Have the courage to fall in love. Have the courage to get ruined for life. Have the courage to make a friend."
- Dean Brackley

"Fall in love, have your heart broken, and return, ruined for life."
(While in El Salvador, we often used and talked about this phrase, which is adapted from the Dean Brackley quote above. It is a common quote that is used by people on mission trips in El Salvador to talk about and understand their experiences living and working in the country.)

Today we woke up at 3am, and were on the road to Guatemala by 4am. Most of us hadn't gotten much sleep the night before because of the New Years celebrations that raged on throughout most of the night, so we slept for the first few hours in Joleman's bus while we drove to the border. As we got closer to Guatemala, the sun began to rise. It looked so beautiful coming up over the mountains, and was a great way to start the first day of 2013. At the border we got out of the bus and waited in line to have our passports stamped by both El Salvadoran and Guatemalan border security, and then we continued on our way.
Guatemala looks a lot like El Salvador - lots of poverty, farms, coffee plantations, sugar fields, etc. We passed three giant volcanoes, all of which were throwing ash at the top. The largest, called Volcan del Fuego (Volcano of Fire) is above the city of Antigua, where we were headed. We drove first to an overlook, where we could see the whole city below and the volcano rising up in the background. We took lots of amazing pictures, and then headed back down to explore the city. We went to the market first, and bought some Guatemalan goods to bring back to my family. Jade is a very popular stone found in Guatemala, and it is also pretty rare, so many of us bought some Jade jewelry to take back home. The shopkeeper demonstrated for us how it can't be scratched or chipped. Then we spent the rest of the day walking around the town.
Antigua is an old town, built in the 1500's. There are many beautiful old colonial style buildings that are artfully combined with the Mayan culture that is still very prevalent in this part of Guatemala. We saw many Mayans dressed in their traditional brightly colored clothing walking the streets and selling handmade products. Many of the Mayans are very poor, and make their living off of the thousands of tourists that flock to Antigua every day. The city has a very heavy Spanish influence, and reminded me a lot of the towns and villages I visited when I went to Sicily and Mallorca. The contrast in the cultures as well as the starkly different economic backgrounds of the people that live in and visit Antigua was interesting to observe. We met lots of other Americans walking the streets, and they gave us great tips on places we should make sure we see before we left at the end of the day. The entire city was within walking distance, and made up of mostly low buildings, that were decorated with bright colors and intricate molding and details. We saw the main plaza, the archway, La Merced church, and several smaller markets before we headed back to the bus to begin the 5 hour journey back home. I was really glad I got to go to Guatemala and see Antigua - I had no idea what to expect and seeing the town just for half a day certainly made me fall in love with it and add it to my list of places to go back to some day. When we finally got back to the volunteer house in San Salvador after singing to our driver Joleman for 4 of the 5 hours on the bus, we fell asleep pretty much right away. Going to Guatemala was a long and exhausting day, but an experience unlike any I have had before. The opportunity to see another city in a different country while I was already in Central America was really great, and having a day to do some sightseeing was an excellent way to break up a week of hard physical labor at Ciudad Arce!

Hasta luego,

Julia Marie