Bed Bugs, Fleas, and Poison Ivy

Now that it is pretty much over and done with I’m ok blogging about it, but for a while there I was freaking out! The weekend we went to the coffee finca I contracted a bunch of bug bites, as did everyone else. A few days past and everyone else carried on, but I was still scratching away, all night and all day. Seriously I wasn’t sleeping because I was so itchy and my cortisone cream wasn’t cutting it. My teacher put a bug in my ear (no pun intended) that I might want to consider the idea of “bed bugs” OH, NO! Immediately my thoughts went to a friend of ours who had to move out of her apartment in Denver because she couldn’t get rid of bed bugs. Great, just what we need. Of course I hurried home after school to raid the bed and sure enough, a found a little black bug. Just one, but I was convinced.

Bravely that afternoon, Ben brought to our family’s attention that there might be an issue with our bed. Of course they didn’t believe it – 15 years of students and this had never before happened. Convinced that I picked up a flea on our chicken bus excursion to Totonicapan earlier in the week, they revealed that they found one in the house after we returned from the trip. Maybe it was from all the street dogs or the way we were packed into the bus like sardines? Who would ever know! Nevertheless when we returned from our weekend in Pana, our room was cleaned and the bedding was changed. But my itching persisted. We began to wonder if I had come into contact with a poisonous plant of some sort at the finca.

Finally Tuesday morning I paid a visit to the ICAmigos free clinic at our school. The doctor wasn’t sure of the cause, but advised me to purchase Calafar cream (the same as calamine lotion I think) at the local pharmacy. For the remainder of the week I alternated the calfar and cortisone and I am happy to say, that today is my first official day without itching in 2 weeks!!!! Gracias Dios!

While I was miserable for quite some time, this whole experience has taught me a lesson. Just because you might be the “clean girl”, you’re not above catching a flea! Now I walk the streets with the gift of fear – fear of every dog, every crowd, and every little itch I have! Is that paranoia or what? And here’s the kicker. I have earned my sobre nombre (nickname) at school – Pulgita (little flea). Endearing, huh?

Gross photo, I know, but it got even worse than it looks!

Now showing.....

Today we feel a bit like we have stepped back in time to our high school days..................and we can´t find our way out!

a whole lot of hot air

Over the weekend we stayed and played in Xela. Saturday was a gorgeous day with lots of sun and absolutely no rain! For awhile now we have been curious about the hillside right above Parque Central. There is a church on top of the hill with a Hollywood style sign above it that reads “Cristo Viene” (Christ is coming). We had heard about vapor caves and a restaurant up there as well, so after lunch we took off on our first real adventure without a guide – just a few directions from Gato, Ben’s teacher, and a brief description in Lonely Planet. It wasn’t quite as easy as we expected (the hike was ridiculously steep), but definitely a great escape from the noise and exhaust of the city.

Along the way we stopped a few times to take in the view and ask the friendly locals for directions. We encountered a few obstacles too. First there was the house with a pack of dogs - the guy here said it was 30 more minutes. After a wrong turn, we were redirected by a family harvesting onions. Back on track, but now there was an empty truck blocking the path……and after the truck, there was a cow blocking the path. Next there was house with a swarm of bees – this guy said 30 minutes too! A little further down the road we ran into some water delivery guys who offered us a drink of soda – they said 20 more minutes...or we could ride back to town with them! We carried on. Then we took a break near a plot a land where cabbage was growing so our friend Roger could catch up with us. Past some giant eucalyptus trees, and we finally arrived at Los Vahos!

Build around natural steam vents, Los Vahos is a steam room, heated by the activity of a volcano. It isn’t very fancy, just 2 little rooms, some eucalyptus leaves, plastic stools, and a lot of steam. We stayed in for about 10 minutes before taking a break and then went back in for another 10 minutes or so. Even though we weren’t in there long, it sure cleared out all the crap from our systems! The hike back out was much more refreshing than on the way there. There were some sights back down the hill as well – dogs digging in trash, kids throwing a deflated football, a group of guys playing soccer, and some kids who wanted there pictures taken (and then begged for Q1).

Before heading back into the city we swung by Panorama, a Swiss restaurant with lots of good cheese and fondue, to watch the sunset and have a snack. The perfect end to a beautiful day.

Chicken Bus of the Week #2

       This one is the Mack Daddy of all Chicken Buses!

Shower at your own risk!

So, one thing that has been an adjustment for us has been hot showers (in some cases, the lack of).  We have taken some cold showers (read no hot water) and others with tepid water.  We've learned to appreciate a warm shower and good water pressure, when we do have one.  The typical shower in Guatemala looks like the one at our homestay below.

Most Guatemalas have a calientador to make hot water in the shower, similar to the one pictured below.  Yes, that is electrical tape on 220V 1 phase electrical service to a hot water heater that you stand under - that's why they are nicknamed "widow makers".

Actually, they are not that bad when they work.  In our house, the calientador stopped working the second week.  Our family had to have it fixed by a handyman from another Town outside Xela, so this took a couple days to fix.  In the meantime, Ben played a soccer game and the host family, being mothers, heated up hot water for him to hand bathe in.  Krista was jealous.

Anyway, hot water (and electricity) is a luxury usually found only in urban and semi-urban areas of Guatemala.  This places many rural areas without what we consider basic needs.  The engineers at AIDG (or enginerds according to Krista) are working on a solar hot water heater for rural areas.  The system heats water in small diameter pipelines on the rooftop of a house during the day, which then can be used at night for showering, etc.  More to come on AIDG in future blogs...

McDia Feliz

Yesterday, October 6th, was McDia Feliz here in Guatemala. I´m sure the US has this same ¨holiday,¨ but since we had never celebrated it before we just had to participate. All proceeds from Big Mac sales at Micky D´s got toward the Ronald McDonald house. Here in Guatemala, la casa de Ronald McDonald is in Guatemala City. Who doesn´t want to support a good cause? Plus it was a buen excusio (good excuse) to eat some familar food! We hit the McDonald´s near the centro in Xela around 1pm, and it was bumpin! We may have even been on the local news, but since we haven´t really watched television since we arrived in Xela, who knows! Thanks for lunch Ronnie!

Sorry the photo won´t import larger!

Chichi or Bust

We finally made it to the infamous market in Chichicastenango on Sunday on our way home to Xela from Pana.  It's everything they say it is....and more.  Our fearless guia (guide) Miguel "El Perro" made sure we saw the 2 other attractions Chichi has to offer before letting us loose in the market.  

There's an expensive hotel ($110 USD) directly across the street from the outskirts of the market. It was nice but, the most interesting part was the man who was playing a marimba made out of gourds in the courtyard.  We stood and watched him for a while among all the other tourists with cameras permanently attached to their eyes.  For a funny photo of all the tourists check out our amigo Mike's Flickr page.

After we had soaked up enough of the music, we headed into the heart of it, first stopping by the main church that the market is centered around.  Another good meeting place for a group of gringos!

We spent an hour of so browsing the mercado, stopping to talk with any of the vendors who weren't shouting out "good price for you!" at us.  A hand sewn Mayan calendar caught my eye and I started in on the bartering game.  You know how they say if you walk away, you'll get the price you want?  Well it's true.  We had this poor lady following us halfway through the market and we continued to play hardball, walking away once again.  After looking all over and not seeing another just like it, I hung my head in shame and went back for more.  In the end we both walked away happy,  me with my calendar and her with Q210.  Maybe I could have gotten a lower price with better Spanish skills, but knowing that it took her 1 month to complete, I didn't really have the heart to go lower!  Actually, speaking with her was probably the best part of the day.