WelcomeThis is my travel blog. I'm currently in Xela Guatemala studying Spanish. After couple of weeks I'll be heading down to Patagonia. Yup, I'll be taking the local chicken bus, from Central America to the end point of the continent.
June 6, 2008, 2:00pm
It´s my second day in granada after having stayed at masaya for two nights. I met some really nice people on the tica bus, specially Hiske, Ricky and his girlfriend Gal. Last night we went to La nuiche( i guess french for night club).
Awesome place, great salsa music with live band. The place is packed with foriegners and locals. Granada , to me is overinfested by vacationers and starting to get a bit expensive.
April 14, 2008, 9:10pm
okay, I hate earth quakes!!!! i am still here!
April 14, 2008, 2:41pm
Hey guys, I have uploaded bunch of photos from last year. Click on Photo Gallery and Select Xela 2007. BTW, I need a better gallery manager. The default one kinda suck.
April 13, 2008, 10:07pm
Hey guys, it has been forever since I updated my site. It's been some lazy six months. I wish I had more will power to write something. I actually returned back to NYC in Jan until later March and celebrated Chinese New Years with my folks. I truely and dearly missed them. Now I am back in Xela, Guatemala for another two months. I hope I don't get trapped in this place, since I need to make my way down to Panama.
Nov 14, 2007, 07:17pm
I´ve just got back from San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico. Pretty much, San Cristobal is a grinco infected version of Antigua, Guatemala. At least my visa is good for the next few months. I will post some photos in the next few days. Also Sebasion from El Savor de la India said Internet will be up next week, so i guess I´ll be posting videos as well.
Oct 24, 2007, 5:05pm
It's been a while since I have written. I don't live in casa internacional anymore. I only lived there for a week after moving out Milagro and Juan Carlos's place. Now I'm at El savor de la India. It's an Indian resturant with four guest rooms avaible. I pay about $80/month; it's an awesome deal since they have a clean kitchen and free water. I have to leave for mexico with my roomate; we both have to extend our visa for another three months. Yes guys I am coming back for chinese New Year. Oh I miss New York.
July 31,2007. 7:00pm
Hey guys, my new york number can now be forwarded to guatemala. Now you guys can anonoy the hell out of me anytime you want. Anyhoo, I will be in xela for another 3 more months. So If you miss me feel free to call me.     347 535 0729 .
July 8, 2007. 10:03am
Hay un perro que vive cerca de mi casa. A veces que camino al supermercado el perro duerme en la acera. Pienso que ese perro es un perro callejero. Algunas veces el perro mira a la gente que camina cerca de la acera. El perro tiene ojos grandes llena de tristeza. Tal vez el perror extraña a su famila. ¿Que es mas triste? el hombre de la calle o el perro de la calle? o ambos? una vez vi un hombre y su perro durmiendo en la calle. Aunque son callejeros, los se tienen a ellos mismos. Pero el perro vive en mi calle no tiene a nadie excepto solo a el mismo. Sus ojos grandes llenos de tristeza. Que tristeza.
July 1, 2007. 9:25pm
This video was taken last week. There are too many sad stories in Guatemala.
July 1, 2007. 8:45pm Water park at Xocomil
I got up around 6:30am(yes i goto bed at 9pm here or even earlier) in the morning. I think Johney had already awaken by then. I didn't bother to hang out in the kitchen or use the bathroom before 7am. I ventured out to the kitchen and tried to get some corn flakes and milk, but I couldn't find anything. So instead I got took some kellogs whole wheat from the kitchen instead. Johney came out and said "what the heck are you doing . the corn flakes are on the table". Yeah it was early the morning and I didn't really have myself intact.
We waited in front of Juan Sisay but nobody showed up after 8:00am. Around 8:10am everybody showed up but the driver showed up at around 8:30. I think our field maestro was kinda upset. Xocolmil Water Park is about one and half an hour from Xela. But the climate of Xocolmil is that of the tropics. While Xela with it's gentler climate feels like New York in the spring but with much more greenery.
The Xocomil Water Park is built with the Mayan decordes. It's similar to any water park back in the states. When we got there we payed Q75/person for the entrance fee. Eventhough Xocomil has all the mayan decorations but you won't find too many indigenious people there.
Overall the water park was fun. We all had a great time there. Xocomil is actually one of the few places middle class guatemalans goto. You won't find too many gringos, chinos or indigenius people there.
June 24, 2007, 9:45pm
Not much today. It rained quite a bit. Ben, Johney and I met up at caferteria.net. We did a bit of studying. I guess Sunday is always a day which you can just study nonstop for 5 or more hours. After dinner Johney and I went over to cafe Luna. It was quite pleasant. Great atmostphere with a cantante playing his guitar and harmonica. I didn't get the usual hot cacao with no sugar. Our waiter said they couldn't make another batch because it was kinda late. I just took what where they got.
June 23rd,2007.
We went to Abaj Tacalik. It is one of the oldest sites in Guatemala. It predated Tikal by about 700 years. The culture of Abaj Tacalik was a mix of the Olmec and Mayan. It is the only site in Central America where one can see the changes from Olmec to Maya.
Later in the evening the students from Juan Sissay met up in Sabor De India for a good bye dinner for both Katie and Vicky. My roommate Jonhney and I had gone to the wrong place on the same street. We were like fools; we had waited for about 20 minutes and hadn't realized it was the wrong the place. The food at Sabor De India was awesome. It was great to eat something other than white bread and tortias.
June 19, 2007, 7:40pm
So I've finally gotten it. Everyone gets it here in Xela. Including adventures Guatemalans. It's just matter of time. I think it's better for my immune system. It's better to get it here and now then while I'm in the jungle somewhere.
My new roommate has finally moved in. According to the Milagro, she said the girl from San Francisco will stay here for at least ten weeks.
Anyway, there seems to be many professors and phd. candidates in Juan Sissay. Everyone I have spoken to is getting a higher degree in one field or the other. These people are extremely focused and ambitious. neuro science, economics at MIT, and biology professors...
June 18, 2007. 9:27pm
Just got an email from Sean today. He gave me couple of pointers on organizing the website. So I have changed the order of the content. I hope this will be easier for you guys to keep up. Anyway, I need better photo organizing software, and without too much set up time.
Also earlier this afternoon, we went to zunil, about 20minutes from Xela. It was a small town and about 200M below Xela. While we waited for the chicken bus, a man with his pickup got us convinced to take the pickup instead. Soo..how many gringos can fit in a pickup?
Chichicostenango
June 16, 2007 4:00pm. It's Saturday afternoon
and there's not much to do. And it especially sucks when it's raining
outside. It's the raining season here. Most students just study but you
can only study for so many hours before your head explodes.
Today's lunch was good. I have never had a rice
tamali before. It tasted like the rice dumplings wrapped in bambo
leaves back in china(or vegetarian dimsum house). The only problem was,
it had a big chunk of pork in eat. I just scrapped that. It's not the
first time that happened here.
Tomorrow's school
field trip is going to Chichicostenango. It's a two hour bus ride from
Xela. Everyone's meeting at 7:45 at Juan Sissay. I'll bring the HV20
camera. We have been warned by Julio that we are responsible for our
belongings. God! I'm feeling for a hot cacao now. I have to
figure out how to get to Cafe Luna without get
wet!
June 13,2007 6:50pm. Around
1:30pm today while I and the family were having lunch , a small earth
quake(6.1) shook Xela for over 30 seconds. I was a bit terrified.
Luckily no damage was done to city and everyone was okay. The father of
the house said it was more like an earth burp than an
earthquake. They all laughed at the fact that I was terrified
and had wanted to run outside. I told them it was my first time
experiencing an earthquake...They all cracked up. Guatemala
is part of the ring of fire and there is a small active volcano next to
Xela. It is called Santiagito. I guess that is where the burp came
from.
June 6, 2007. 6:00pm. I took this clip a few
days ago. I didn't get the proper settings and the color looked a bit
off. The clip was taken from the roof top at Juan Sisay Spanish School.
June 5, 2007. 8pm. I am
kinda busy with school at the moment and I don{t really have much time
updating my blog. But so far I am in Xela staying with the Garcias
instead of the Higueros. I called my folks earlier and they felt a bit
at easy once they heard my voice. But a sad news from my father, my
Aunt had passed away. My father said I should have gone to Gautemala a
week after and my cousins were expecting to see me at my Aunts
funeral. I said to father to give the cousins my regards.
Today I went to a woman{s textile
organization. It was set up by the women victims of the
Guatemalan civil war. A lot of tragic stories from these people. Those
stories can put tears in your eyes. Now they offer classes in hand made
textile and volunteer programs people can sign up. I will be
uploading pictures and movie clips once I get my computer
hooked up to the internet.
May 29, 2007. 1pm. Skype is cool;
skype is convient and espcially when you're traveling all over the
place. 347 535 0729.
May 29,
2007. I have four more days here in New York. I'm really
excited and yet petrified of moving/traveling through Latin America. My
flight is Sunday(June3rd,2007) morning 8am from JFK New York to La
Auror, Guatemala City. The arrival time should be
11:30am Guatemala time(approximately central US time). It's only a four
flight and yet a complete different culture than one here
in New York.
Earlier today I
replied Juan Sisay an email about my arrival. They
said they'll have a hotel shuttle bus picking me up from the airport to
the Linea Dorada bus station for around $25. The $25 includes the
shuttle bus fee and a bus ticket from Guatemala City to Xela. It's
kinda expensive but I know I don't want to deal cabbies in Guatemala
city speaking very little Spanish and plus lugging all my stuff around.
My host family is located in Zona 1 in Xela. From
Juan Sisay's email the location is close to Cafe La Luna. Mr
and Mrs. Higueros are expecting me Sunday night. The only problem I can
think of at the moment is I have to figure out how to get from the bus
station in Xela to the Higueros.
May 13, 2007.
Insanity has finally gotten a hold of me last night. I went on
amazon.com and ordred myself a canon hv20 camcorder. hopefully this
camcorder will shoot better night videos. I guess I will bring both
camcorders on my journey, the Sanyo hd2 and the
hv20.
April
28, 2007 03:32. My God, I'm still mucking around with
templates. I need to get this work!
April 27. 2007
19:11. Going to salsa at empire dance tonight.
Jenny text earlier and saying she's not going.
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