Home again

It's so nice to come home after traveling solo thru Guatemala and Honduras.

3 weeks of living out of a backpack, sleeping in hostels, forgoing hot water, and riding crazy chicken buses gives you an incredible appreciation for the luxuries of home.

I'm grateful for the incredible experiences and the lovely friendships I've made along the way.

Not only will I always have a family in Guatemala, I now have friends to visit in Columbia, Argentina, and Mexico.

Miles away from the Upheaval in Honduras

I am SAFE in Honduras and NOT near Tegucigalpa or the Honduran/Nicaraguan border. I visited the Copan Ruins in Honduras despite a travel adivsory. There have been some conerns given the protests and riots brought on by supporters of the ousted President Zelaya. That includes attacks on journalists and even the Red Cross.

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL3722931

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106767232

I head back to Guatemala today.

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Following the coup in Honduras on June 28th and Honduras President Zelaya being ousted from his country, there have plenty reports of unrest and riots in the capital city of Tegucigalpa. The US State Department put out a travel advisory.

In Guatemala, several travel agents I approached about booking a bus to Honduras to visit the Copan Ruins told me they cancelled their trips. But, after a few attempts, I found someone who would take me. I'm so glad I made it here to Honduras. Thousands of miles away from the unrest, it's a quiet place here in the town of Copan. People continue to work, go to school, travel.

They follow the news but it's hardly affected their daily life.

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But I did bump into a few American volunteers living in the more interior parts of Honduras. They consistently had a curfew. House arrest often lasted from 8pm until 6am which often made travel very difficult. Those volunteers where just happy to get to Guatemala.

The road from Chichicastengo to Xela is one long rollercoaster ride

Monday...

Heading home to Xela from Chichicastengo was frightful in the rain. Fast and furious driving, exceptionally curvy roads, and lots of passing on blind curves. I don´t understand why there aren´t more crashes the way they drive. I´ve decided NO MORE chicken bus rides in this Western Highlands area.... after this past weekend.

Thru Antigua or other parts of Guatemala might be an entirely different story.

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Sunday...

The bus drivers up here in the mountains are CRAZY. I say a little prayer, close my eyes, and hold on tight whenever I sit up front behind the driver. Often times, it´s like a roller coaster ride because the windows are open, the front door is NEVER closed and the wind whips through that school bus as the driver drives super fast on the curvy, narrow roads. Oddly enough, there aren´t any crosses and rosaries hanging from the rearview mirror or anywhere in the buses like in Mexico to ensure a safe trip.

Everytime I get off a chicken bus, I tell myself that I won´t do that again, but then I think about my budget and there I am back on another darn bus. It´s the difference of paying $1-$2 for a 3 hour ride on the chicken bus or paying $35 bucks each way on a tourist shuttle.

The price of getting to the U.S.

A bottle of water costs 5 Quetzales in Guatemala ($.62).

You can get to the U.S. illegally on foot with the help of a ¨coyote¨ aka smuggler for 50,000Q. That´s about $6300.

From Mexico, you can cross the border illegally with help from a coyote for about $4000.

I can´t tell you how many people I´ve talked to on the chicken bus who are back now in Guatemala after being deported from the US. And, they´re willing to make that costly and dangerous journey again to the U.S.

How much can you survive on?

The minimum wage in the U.S. is $7.25 hr.

In Guatemala, as mandated by law, the farmworker makes a minimum of 60Quetzales per day. That´s less than 8 bucks for 8 hours of work.

Now, try feeding a family of 6 in Guatemala if you only make 8 bucks a day as a farmworker. A pound of meat costs $2.50.

Chicken buses and day-long highway shutdowns-- a way of life

What was supposed to be a one-hour trip one-way on the chicken bus ended up taking 2-3 times as long. Loved the chicken bus the first time. Maybe even the second time....that is, if we didn´t stop for everyone, their mother, and grandmother. And, if I wasn´t sitting on someone´s lap. On the way back, someone was sitting on my lap...until it was time to change buses. (more on that later).

It was good ride and a good experience. When I could see out the window, it was an amazing view. And, when somebody´s chest wasn´t in my face and I wasn´t balancing on the edge of the seat (meant for 2 people but instead seated 4), it was a good time.

I did hear animals on our bus... not chickens, but dogs.

SO, mi maestra and I headed to the San Francisco de Alto Market an hour away from Xela. 30 minutes in, we soon learned that we had to stop, get off the bus, hike it for about a mile to another bus.

A major nationwide protest had cut-off a major intersection called Cuatro Caminos. Traffic was backed up 15-20 big rigs deep in each direction. People were protesting the government´s decision to cut health benefits to the indigenous population. The President had taken the equivalent of $50,000 from the Department of Health´s Budget. People were also protesting the exorbitant price of electricity that residents in the rural villages had to pay.

So we walked and walked and hopped on another chicken bus which then proceeded to stop every 5 minutes until we got to our destination. It was about the same on the way back. Many many stops and a crazy ride in between.

Thank goodness for the back door on that school bus--the emergency exit--- and all the drills we did in grade school.

The very first Catholic Church ever built in Central America

It had to be here... The very first Catholic Church ever built in Central America.
The San Jacinto Church in the tiny town of Salcaja was started in 1496 and finished in 1502.
It´s an unasuming little place with some original paintings and an ornate altar. But, that´s it. No inscription, no mention, no posting indicating its historical signifcance. Even stranger, no one is outside selling postcards, miniture models, or trinkets....Gotta work on that p.r.