Lapskaus lapskaus, torillas go to...

We had lapskaus (meat, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, stuffed together and boiled, very Norwegian dish) yesterday! It was a fantastic end to tortillas and beans! And that was it actually, the last finca stay is over and done with. It was a good week, we didn't do too much work except for the regular bananacarrying, but had a nice time with the family. Now we've had two quick debriefing days in Xela, and arrived in Antigua tonight. We're heading to Copan, Honduras tomorrow to check out some appaerantly awesome Maya ruins. If you get hold of National Geographic from October 1989 you can check it out, great article on the Ruta Maya (I've still got the mag, dad, it's slightly crumbled and has been soaked twice due to the transportation method on chicken buses, but it will soon come home. And it is kinda cool the Copan-magazine actually has been to Copan...) The photo is from the ruins, and if you can see a missing statue, it's just because the USA took it in the late 19th century as payment for archeologists they had sent down. The Honduras government had no money, and whoever the President of the Free World was at the time decided it was a decent piece of payment instead...

Other than that Guatemala is treating us well except for the lack of high-speed internet connection so those photos are still not out, but the ones who wait for something don't wait forever...That sounds so much better in Norwegian somehow. Take care and have and absolute lovely time, I am!

Photos coming soon!

Hola hola! That was it, last finca stay is over and done with! I promise there will be some new exciting photos here the upcoming days and a longer update, so keep in touch!

Cheers!

ps...Photos are now up and running!! These ones show the fabulous chicken buses we've spent way too much time on, and the other one is an ex-school-bus from the states, still with it's comments-phone-number intact. How are they driving? Absolutely terribly!

Meeting with the army

The start to our last finca stay was not so bad afterall, after the drunken bum had moved away we took a tuk-tuk and met Marte who drove us up to the finca. She had some good news, we were going to a demonstration in the capital on Thursday! The next two days just disappeared and Thursday morning at 03.30am we're on a pick up on our way down to Patulul. We met the others who lives at Vera Cruz and drove in to Guatemala City. About half an hour out of the city, just before morning peak hour demonstraters ran out three cars in front of us and blocked the road. The army was on the spot five minutes later, but there was a hour and a half holdup before anything happenened. We're just sitting in the car, sleeping, relaxing when a man came running and yelling "Wind up your windows, the worst is about to happen!" We closed doors and windows, but after a few minutes it got too hot and we opened them all again. Then, BOOFF, teargasbombs went off, the demonstraters started running and were soon scattered all over the road while the police and army re-opened the road.

We came in to the city and spent most of the afternoon chilling in the main square. There were lots of speakers, but no real action, although we later found out the demonstraters from earlier that morning had been working for the same cause as us. Then suddenly heaps of people came and gathered in front of the building where the presidents and his mates had a meeting. The army and police was extremely present, they had blocked off the entire street and stood fully equipped with anti-demonstration-gear. The day before the police had recieved 17 million quetzales worth (NOK 15 mill, AU$ 3,5 mill) of anti-demonstration-gear, and we're guessing they were keen to try it out...

At one stage the whole street started running frantically and that was rather scary but we soon figured out nothing was going to happen. So, after a few more appeals we headed back home to the finca. It has been some good days there, very hot now, the rainy season is about to kick in and there are lots of mosquitos. Other than that nothing is new, I'm looking forward to come home, and just have to tell everyone who's been sending me emails with tips on jobs - thank you very much! I really appreciate it, and if anyone sees a job that might be interesting, feel free to send me a link! Or if you're planning a trip and need a buddy, I might be interested in that too!! Take care, so long!

Annoying start to finca stay

I'm stuck in an internet café in Patulul, an ugly little town fifteen minutes from the finca. The car we're supposed to catch after Marte dropped us off has broken down, so we had to call her back, begging her to drive us up after she was done at Vera Cruz, another finca which today will recieve three new Norwegians after some drama on their previous plantation. It is hot, it is extremely humid, it's about to rain which will make the drive up La Lucha a living nightmare and we have the most annoying drunk and disorderly and smelly person standing behind us on the internet café.

The photos are of Morten and Tonje Camilla on the way to my house on the finca, and my hostmum making a bananabundle for me to carry all the way from Montesuma.

Other than that everything is well. It's crazy it's the last time we're heading out in the bush, but we're coming home soon. Had an absolutely great time here, and it has been such an experience. Next update and some photos (I have tried to upload them earlier, but the internet connection in Xela isn't as broadbanded as I wish it was) in a weeks' time. Until then, take care!

Jesus, brought to you by Pepsi

The Easter parades yesterday were just spectacular and slightly creepy to be honest. I went out to get some water and snacks about 9pm and was caught by the night parade which I then had to watch. It was full moon, the air was thick with burning insence (rokelse) and hundreds of men clad in black, almost KKK-looking ropes. You could hear the drums in the background while 80 men carried a float the size of a medium sized truck with a coffin on top. If I hadn't known it was a show for and by the people I would have been petrified and wondered what crazy religious sect I'd just run into. Quite an experience!

Today we're supposed to climb Volcan Pacaya (previously notoriously dangerous, both for robbers, and natural wonders. A Canadian tourist was struck by lightning here in 2002. Now a specially designed tourist police have made it slightly more safe for machete wielding locals, but you still have to watch out for thunderstorms and lava, as Pacaya is one of Guatemala's three active volcanoes.) Anyway, I woke up this morning feeling rather sick, and Sara joined me later in the day, so Kristin is at the moment climbing the volcano all by her self (and the tour guide). We are rather jealous, but I'll steal some photos from her, think they will be quite fantastic.

Other than that, Antigua has quieted down after the masses of people that were here yesterday, only scattered flowers in the gutters and Pepsi commercials posting Jesus is reminding us of that one big holiday that happens to go on at the moment.

Still no signs of the Easter bunny...Take care!

Happy Easter, all!

Some people love it, some people hate it, but you'd be silly to miss it! That's how Lonely Planet describes Antigua, and I belong to the former group of people. We came here yesterday and was met by the biggest crowd of people I so far have seen in Guatemala. There are loads of locals, Guatemalan and international tourists here, and today, Good Friday is the most spectacular day of the year. We went out last night, and in good faith and wanting to make a good documentary for our information work we "had" to stay up til 3am when the first of many parades started infront of a massive church next to our hotel. It was just surreal, Guatemalan cities usually die out after 8pm, and now the square was packed with people and Roman soldiers on horses imitating Jesus's last hours and days. There was a parade this morning at 6am, which we accidently missed, but they've continued all throughout the day and with some amazing flower and sand paintings on the streets. People spend hours and hours on making them, only to see them being wiped out in two seconds as people tramp all over them. Well, well...it's been really good regardless, and although this is appaerantly Guatemala's gringo town number one and Maya Disneyland, it's been really cool to see, and really get to be a tourist (not something that happens on the finca). On that different note, it's back to the plantation again on Monday, and not long til we come back to Norway now. Wow, it has gone quickly, but oh, what fun!

Happy Easter to you all and hope you'll get loads of easter chocolate. I've realized I'm about a kilo and a half away from my normal chocolate consumption during this week of the year, but all good, all good! Tata!

Hot shower

Yess! Finally, after more than eight weeks in Latin America have we finally come across a hot shower with a decent waterflow. You can actually wash your hair and get all the shampoo out afterwards! San Cristobal is a really cute, quite big town, with some amazing buildings shattered around everywhere. The bull fighting arena is only a block away from the hotel, but I think we just missed a match yesterday (no, Cristina, I promise, I wouldn't have gone anyway), and there's some pretty big churches around.

This is Sarah on the way to immigration, note the sign saying please leave all your arms on the outside. Just a hint...

Other than that, we went out last night, had lovely dinner and tried out the only nightclub open. Lots of salsa and good fun, got back home around 2ish and saw Roald Dahl's Matilda on the English movie channel. Slept til noon, which is ridiculous, and have just had breakfast (it's 2.30pm). Now we're about to go shopping, I need some new jeans, I'll get a photo of my old ones, they are virtually non-existent and I'm scared they're going to fall apart any minute. And there's supposed to be a great market here too!

Fun!!

Bundles of beetles

We arrived late in Xela last night, and unfortunately missed a soccer game where Xelaju ended up beating their competitor 2-0. It was an early start this morning, we paid a ridiculous amount of money (nevertheless, not more than what it costs from Skien to Oslo) to get a shuttle from Xela to San Cristobal De Las Casas in Mexico. Some people had been up all night checking out the night life at Kokolokos, and it was a tired bunch of people boarding the minibus at 7am. It was a fairly long drive to Mexico, took nearly 7 hours, but a lot better than on a chicken bus.

And it's good to be in Mexico! I was supposed to go to Tijuana more than three years ago with Astrid, but she'd left her green card at the hotel in Los Angeles, so we ended up in San Diego Zoo instead. Everything seems to work slightly better here than in Guatemala. First of all there are road signs. There are lots of speed bumps and areas where you are prohibited to overtake, and on the three hour trip from the border I only saw one chicken-bus-style overtaking, and it was not even our car doing it. The ATMs are open 24-hours, an issue which is absolutely hopeless in Guatemala. I don't know any other place it is so hard to get money outside normal business hours. And it is clean here. In Guatemala everyone uses the bus-window as a rubbish bin. It's a big no-no here, so don't even think about it. Now we've found ourselves a lovely little hotel right smack in the city centre, we know a bar where the coctails are free tonight, and I think we'll have a few good days here!

Ohh, and yeah! Mexico is one of the last places where they produced the old VW Beetle (or "boble" as it's called in Norwegian), meaning there are loads of them bumming around on the roads here. They are so adorable and if I ever get my license (which I will this summer, and now it's official, so you can all make fun of me if I don't get around and do it) I want such a little car!

Anyway, take care and enjoy!

Moving Maya ceremony

We left Guatemala City early yesterday and went to Panabaj, near Lago Atitlan with Conavigua, the widow organisation we had a meeting with on Friday. Panabaj is the village that was worst struck by Stan. A mudslide at 3 or 4am in the morning totally buried an area the size of a few soccerfields. The houses in the area were made of sugar canes, and the people living there had no hope of survival. 400 people are still missing.

We met a group of widows and a local Maya priest and had a memorial service on the grounds at the start of the mudslide. It was very disturbing standing on top of what used to be a village and know so many people were still there. The area was hit bad in 1992 as well. The government massacred many villagers, and as a result the people there now have been very negative towards aid from the government. We saw parts of the local hospital which had been completed in early 2005 to provide better services for pregnant women, only to be destroyed on October 5. It was sad to see the women cry for the loved ones they lost, one lady lost 14 family members, and it felt kind of intruding running around with a film camera and taping it. On the other hand, they begged us to spread the word, tell our friends and families about the situation there, and they were positive to the information work we'll do when we get home.

An update from Mexico is next...

School for life

We're now in our second debriefing-period in Guatemala City. We spent two days at Kab'awil's People's College, an amazing experience. It's a school run by the earthreform organisation and has 14 kids from the plantations around Xela who live, work and learn at the school for a year. These kids were incredible, 14-17 years old, some of them have had a few years schooling and yet, they were discussing the consequences the Free Trade Agreement with USA and Mexico will have on their economy, people's health etc. They were talking about how they wanted to learn more skills to become leaders in their communities and improve education, health, leadership and so on, and it was just inspiring to hear kids talking about such important issues. So, sorry to say, but Norwegian and Aussie children, you suck! Get off your arses and get involved in something - anything! Other than that, we've just had a meeting with URNG, a leftish, socialist party that fights for what's right, and this afternoon we're meeting Conavigua, an organisation of widows after the 36 year long civil war. Should be very interesting. I didn't get the job as assistent for the Brigade this autumn, so a bit, no very annoyed actually, but I'll go and find the biggest ice cream in Guatemala City and be happy again. I've heard there is a place with cauliflower and beer-flavoured ice cream! But, I think I'll go for triple choc-oreo-mint-caramel-dream-swirl-heavenly-flavour instead maybe...

Bananatrouble

Oh, and yeah. There has appearantly been a cyclone in Queensland, Australia which has wiped out most of the bananacrop. I feel sorry for all Australians, but if you ever feel like bananamuffins, or bananamilkshake, or bananacake or bananas feel free to come here, because we've got plenty!

I miss Australia

Because in Australia everyone always asks you how you are doing, and it is a great feeling to constantly walk around and declare you are having an absolute ball. Because I am.

I arrived back in Xela this afternoon after a short week at the finca and it has been great! It was dark and wet when we arrived on Monday night, and we had to push the ute up one of the hills, it was so slippery. But, gone was the nervousness of a new family, we knew the toilet facilities would be different and beans would be a part of every meal, and we were welcomed straight back into Guatemalan farmer-life from the word "go".

It was bananapicking the third day we were up there, and I went with hostmum Roselia to Montesuma at 6am in the morning. We gathered 13 bundles of bananas and took a few of them home, before we picked up another few in the afternoon.

We've done some good interviews for our documentary we are going to make after the stay, it is especially interesting to talk to the teachers at the school. They have great ambitions for the kids, but the government does nada to help them along the way. Very frustrating, but it makes a good interview.

Other than that I've actually only eaten beans twice this week. The food has been pretty good, I get lots of soup and fried platanos, which I love, and Tonje Camilla hate. Last night I heard the first drunken finca-people. There is next to no (visible) alcohol on the finca, but last night there was a small gathering outside my house, and the family which usually goes to bed by 8pm stayed up to past midnight. And this morning there was a slab of empty Brahva beer bottles to return to the shop.

Well, off to write an application for a job as assistent to this autumn's Solidaritetsbrigade. Wish me luck!