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As I'm about to embark on yet another wild and crazy night here in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, I figure I ought to get a few of the ideas from the past few weeks out of my head before they disappear in the celebration of a New Year. But, it's not quite a new one for me. Many people around these holidays spend time with family and friends, contemplating about the past 12 months of their lives while predicting the next twelve. I cannot. My nuevo ano, my new life started 3 months ago and so while I attempt this reflection, my mind only goes back that far. And my future only goes a few days (sometimes weeks) ahead...
We've been living in San Juan del Sur now for almost 3 weeks and I'll admit I have my up and down days about this small, growing tourist yet still Nica town, but all in all, spending days on end at the beach is quite enjoyable. We've made many new friends and spent time with old ones we now consider family (it's uncle Jason and Brendon, according to Freja). We've surfed, we've swam, we've eatin and we've drankin, we've shared and we've experienced many aspects of life here with everyone from the local bartenders to the new mayor, the expats and the tourists, sailboat owners, real estate agents, drug dealing ladrons, and more.
But the most important people I've had the pleasure to receive friendship from are those of the local children in a village 45 minutes south via bumpy dirt roads the VW could barely make it up while we chanted "I think I can, I think I can". It was Christmas Day and Bill the Canadian had loaded up a truck full of toys he purchased in Managua. The new mayor of the town showed up with pinatas, we ate ham and cheese sandwiches in the back of the van, our sobrinas played with the kids on the playground, we chatted up Keith from Minnesota about his expatriation and beautiful Nica girlfriend, and together we all took part in the festivities of handing out toys.
Although I'm not a big Christmas fan, but I've always been a big fan of giving. Sometimes it's just a beer to a stranger, other times an extra tip to the waitress, randomly it's an unexpected gift to a friend or family member, but less often than it should be, it's my time. I'm also not a big fan of New Year resolutions either, but next year in South America, I want to spend more moments like this past Christmas sharing myself with those who are, cliche to follow, less fortunate than I.
And that's it for 2008. Hope everyone had a Happy Christmas and have a Merry New Year!
Nicaragua, San Juan del Sur, holidays
Posted By:
Brendon
Wednesday, December 31, 2008 2:37 PM
One of the reasons for this trip, for me personally, is to find "that place". The place where I could envision myself hanging out for a few years. In reality right now, I cannot at all imagine this working out successfully for me, but I figure if I fall in love with the culture, food, people, etc. I would make a go at it. I could just end up back in the States just as well, I could find more than one place, who knows, no se.
Traveling at a fast pace I'm not convinced really allows you to see the true colors of a town or country. So just like we did in Guatemala, where we stayed in Xela for a month and might have stayed in Antigua for longer if we'd had the time, we're going to stay here in Nicaragua. Last trip down here 2 years ago we enjoyed the place thoroughly, and it is catching on with many other travelers, ex-pats, gringos, etc. So we figure, lets see if we like it. Lets rent an apartment and stay for a month.
So finally, after 3 days of searching, false leads and drying up hopes, we found a place that's perfect. It's less than a block from the beach, two decent-sized rooms, full-sized beds, A/C, shower with heat (we think although its not necessary here), cable tv/dvd, and highspeed internet. For $500/month, it's quite expensive by Nica standards (average 2-bed $300), but its the holidays and there isn't a casa or apartamento to be found in-town in San Juan del Sur.
We'll spend the holidays here and decide what to do next when the time comes. Meanwhile we might learn to surf, maybe dance the salsa, contribute a little volunter work, and spend large amounts of time on the beach turning our gringo skinned bodies into lobsters. Oh and of course, write a few stories and post a few pictures...
Nicaragua, San Juan del Sur, beaches
Posted By:
Brendon
Wednesday, December 17, 2008 9:37 AM
the following blog is a mish-mash of fun, excitement, boredom, but most importantly random events that either deserved their own blog (and got one) or those that did not. some of these stories were written weeks ago and never published, others i will try to make up (and remember) as i go along. the central idea is first evers, either for me, for us, or for them. enjoy...
Thanksgiving
Jason wrote this story, appropriately, since he had more at stake for missing Thanksgiving than I did. I'm not a big "holiday" person, but I have to say this was one of the best I've had. Maybe it was the idea of sharing it with another culture (or 5), or maybe because I never expected to celebrate it abroad, or maybe it was the bottles of rum that flowed afterward. Either way, I stuck to my normal managerial self and "supervised" the cooking taking a break to buy (contribute) my part of the festivities, the wine. As Jason mentioned, it was the schools first ever.
Whiskey and Coffee
My teacher and I were having a conversation the other day. It was a typical one. We say this slang phrase, do you have one like it? I was referring at the time to the idea of doing something, just for the "hell of it". Another popular variation is for "shits and giggles". Sometimes our actions are purely out of curiosity and sometimes out of boredom. Other times we say or do things just to see others reactions. Being my Spanish was only in week one phase, I couldn't seem to get the point across that I put whiskey in my coffee just to tell a story about it later. Although it was typically Jason's signature drink before a Bloody Mary after a long night out on the town during college, I'd actually never had one myself not being a big coffee drinker and all. Apparently, I am the first student and perhaps the last to do so at the school. I'm okay with that. On a side note, how fun is a school that actually has whiskey in the cupboard at 10am in the morning. Especially in a country that doesn't really drink the stuff.
The "Other" School
After studying for weeks together, Matty, Shona, Jason and I were all leaving. David, our young 19-year-old "student" of debauchery wanted one last lesson so we willingly obliged being the good "teachers" we are. The night started with a fun game of football at the concha, followed by a mini-concert by Matty at the escuela. By the time we got downtown it was late, leaving little "official" time for the training session. As we walked back to our hostel, determined to have another beer, we were rejected by the kid who watches the place at night: "I don't want to put up with you tonight." In Xela everything shuts down at 1am, but David and I had passed a bar playing a little music still with the doors slightly cracked open. I knocked, couldn't hurt. It worked. David's eyes lit up as he ran back to tell the boys the good news and I made 4 new friends. In summary, the following classes were held: 1) How to Knock Over Beer Bottles 101 (twice in two minutes by David), 2) How to Sing Bad Kareoke with Guatemaltecas, 3) How to Dance Ungracefully (Matty, dancing by himself, suddenly topples over taking out 3 tables), 4) How to Piss Off Your Wife 400 (Matty crashed our floor forgetting to tell his wife he would not be home until morning). First self-made after party. First kareoke.
Small World Experience
We arrived in Antigua two nights ago. The plan was to leave today, no more time allowed except for going just to say we've gone. Yesterday morning morning we set about town to take the obligatory pictures, visit the market, etc. and found ourselves sitting in the park going what next. The guidebook mentioned a bar with Guinness and we figured "what the hell". Two shots of Jameson later, a girl walks in and sits down next to me. I said "what the hell" are you doing here, after recognizing her a split second later. I'd first met the American named Jocelyn in Merida, Mexico on the street looking for food during a festival. This isn't the first time we've met fellow travelers, but she isn't one of those, instead looking for a new job. Yet here she was, having found employment as a tour guide only two days after meeting us. First small world story, first round of Jameson, but not the whole story, see the last last for the next round or ten of shots...
4 Bottle Night
What more of a explanation does one need? They sell rum by the bottle around here, in the bar, not just the clubs. And it's cheap, $10 for the good stuff, 12 years aged. Sound like a bad night? Try a bad next few days. The first part, no other group of students has finished off 4 in a single night. Go us!
Banditos
Another story that deserved more than a wrap up. My first (and everyone else but our driver's and director's) eyewitness account of two thieves holding up a car with a shotgun and a pistol. I love Guatemala!
Foreign "Club"
They say curiosity killed the cat. Fortunately, they have more than one life, and hopefully, we do too. Call it that or "shits and giggles" again (see Whiskey and Coffee), we were convinced one night after many turned down requests to experience our "first" foreign club. We finally decided to kill the little furball, Jason is allergic anyways. I'll admit, I've never been a fan, and I can't say I am yet. No one ever cares about the details on these types of "adventures" so I'll leave most of them out. Although no dancing was technically paid for, to continue conversations initiated by staff, you are requested to buy drinks as a courtesy (at 3x the normal cost, or $5), and the idea, of course, is to upsell you. I tried and failed miserably, at talking (I'd only been in class a week). Anthony was better, Jason just didn't talk.
Football Game
Xelaju is the local team and who recently won their way into the semi-finals here in Guatemala. We got a chance to watch a game and enjoyed it thoroughly. Although there were no riots like those we witnessed in London years ago, I do have video that will eventually be posted showing the large amounts of confetti spewed across the field not to mention fireworks set off, mini hot air balloons let fly, and flares lit up. First game of the trip, it was a warm up for the real action that starts in 2010. Join us for your first!
Finlandia
So I can't find my book of sayings by Tom. I have a tape of many, but haven't wanted to go through the excruciating pain of re-listening to them. What am I talking about? Trust me, you don't want to know. I'm not sure even I want to remember. Tom or "Finlandia" as we called him, either suffers from massive head trauma or not seeing the sun for 3 months a year really screws with your mentality. Once I find or listen, Tom might just deserve his own blog...
Cops
Twelve hours, an entire chocolate cake, a Van Gogh painting, and (no Guinness?!) later, I found myself leaving the "after" party at 4am with two local girls, Andrea and Maria, and a dude from an island near Iceland. The idea was to "find" my hostel, but the cops found us first. I hit the Icelander-ish guy next to me saying "don't say anything", but he was already passed out. Maybe it was the fact the girls were cute, maybe it was because they don't really mess with gringos anymore, maybe it was because its Antigua, or maybe they were very nice cops. Maybe we shouldn't have been driving the wrong way down a one way either. They directed the girls where to find my hostel without citation. The directions didn't help, but eventually I realized where we were via landmarks and found my bed. I'm not so sure the hostel worker was happy to answer the door at 5am, but really, this is Antigua, little America Guatemala. And, I actually enjoyed it!
Antigua, drinks, beer, party, Guatemala, Xela
Posted By:
Brendon
Sunday, December 07, 2008 2:27 PM
So this is me Madre in Xela. Flory runs the school in which we studied for four weeks. From what I know she loves her job and as with any good educator makes sure that her students enjoy/learn the most from their time in her school. Thanksgiving was no different for us. It was an odd request in Guatemala: we wanted to throw a Thanksgiving dinner (i.e. party) in the school. Apparently, it was the first Thanksgiving meal that was cooked in the school and I have to say that it was an incredibly good time.
Everybody pitched in to buy the food and do the subsequent cooking. I have to say that even though the turkey had to have felt quite molested by the time that Carlos and Anthony were done with it, it turned out wonderfully. Yours truly made the gravy of the gods and everybody else pitched in with all the fixings. It was a day of cooking, slacking in classes, and eating until our eye balls were full.
When dinner actually came around, the crowd leveled somewhere around thirty people. There were English, American, Scottish, Guatemalan, Finnish, and Canadians present. My father used to tell me every Thanksgiving and Christmas that having the knowledge to carve a turkey was essential to being an adult because some day I would meet a girl for a holiday with her family. He is way smarter than I am 'cause I never believed him, but I learned the skill anyway. And as usual, he was right. It wasn't at the home of some girl that I was interested in however that the skill came in essential, rather a small school in Zone 3 of Quetzaltenango with six different cultures standing on while I carved a turkey and speeches were given concerning the origins of the holiday.
First went the American (no not Brendon) in two languages. He spoke of the history of the holiday and the importance of the holiday in current context. A time to welcome and thank friends and family from anywhere the speeches continued. Our new friends spoke in English (proper English), Spanish, Finnish, Scottish, and I even think there was a little French thrown in there.
Then we ate.
And ate.
And ate some more.
Did I mention we ate?
Coming from a good sized family with an even larger Thanksgiving tradition, I get a little homesick every time I miss a Thanksgiving. For me, the joy is always being able to see the people that you hardly ever get to see and catch up on a years worth of activities. This year was no different in that I started the day a little homesick when I called the family, but without the opportunity to spend it with my entire family, it was nice to share it with all our friends in Xela. Obviously never replacing the real thing this night came in a close second. Thank you all for a wonderful night, wonderful food, and letting me show off those skills that father thought so important (and rightly so).
holidays, Guatemala, Xela
Posted By:
Brendon
Saturday, December 06, 2008 8:03 AM
So as our time dwindles in Guatemala, I wanted to put down a few of those things that I really didn't expect about the place. A few of them you might think of as common sense, but some of them really did hit me like the route six chicken bus doing 65 MPH down a cobble stone side street that is as wide as an H2. So here you go!
- I will spend 90 percent of my time not spent studying or sleeping trying not to get hit by a car the other 10 percent is set aside for avoiding buses
- 13 dollar bottle service in the club for top shelf ROCKS!
- 43 people in a VW bus is the main mode of transportation
- Only one arm and half a foot actually have to be able to fit inside said Micro for a ride
- Said ride only costs ten cents
- Having to go to the Cinema two days in a row is required to watch a whole movie because the power is incredibly unreliable
- The mall reminds me of suburbia malls in Colorado
- Burning buses are not a figment of the imagination
- Walking around the park loaded with cash at night is a BAD IDEA! Three amigos and their friend "Chuchillo" will relieve you of the extra wieght
- I can talk about anything in Spanish just as long as it consists of food or drink and maybe a bus if you are lucky
- I kinda miss cell phones
- If somebody offers you a police escort...TAKE IT!!! They probably know better than you
- Highway robbery at nine in the morning on a Sunday isn't a completely crazy idea
- Restaurant service sucks. Good news though, you really don't have to tip!
- Whether you are driving through the city, one mile out of the city or four hours down the road the views are nothing short of breathtaking and the drives are simply gorgeous.
- Gringo bars can actually be fun. This is especially true when there is Guat v. USA football game on tv. You just have to be wary of the flying beer bottles when your team scores.
- The drunk Guatemalan who's father got deported from the US is not your friend. Tell him you are from Canada and he will buy you a beer.
- The place is a little sketchy at first, okay the entire time, but it is easy to fall in love with. Xela by no means is an untouched place but it hasn't yet had the ridiculousness infused into it.
- Every one of my Guatemalan friends are better than I am at getting a taxi. Totally makes sense though...
- Unless it is Pollo Campero, everything is up for negotiation. EVERYTHING!
lessons, Guatemala, Xela
Posted By:
Jason
Friday, December 05, 2008 4:02 PM
Over the weekend Jason and I visited a local coffee finca called Nueva Alianza about 2 hours outside of Xela. Matty, our Canadian hippie friend and his family, along with a few others from our school and around also toured. He posted a great blog about the history and struggle the locals went through to live a quality life. So instead of reinventing the story, here is our first guest column from Matty...
The gods work in mysterious ways and my coffee prayers were answered ten fold. Our family visited a local coffee finca over the weekend and not only were they growing only organic coffee, it is also a community co-operative with a very interesting and heart wrenching tale of it's conception. I'll give you a summary of the historia (story) that was shared with us over a few beers on Saturday night. For those of you unaware, coffee definitely has a bloody past and this story is just one of many that have happened and continue to happen all over the planet.
Nueva Alianza sits on 650 Acres of mountainous land in the heart of Guatemala. It's a beautiful, but harsh landscape which begins with the long and bumpy road up to the community. We had a mini-bus drop us off at the start of the steep part of the road and the rest of the drive was in the back of our police escort truck. It was and probably will be the only time I was happy to be in the back of a police car. I was holding onto Freja tight the whole way as the road winded through banana and coffee trees, past little shacks with clothes hanging in the morning sun to dry. After about 20 minutes we arrived at the community of Nueva Alianza and unpacked our gear. The Eco-Hotel that we all stayed in had a beautiful sweeping view of the valley below, a view that was limited to the past owner of the finca as this was his old house that we were sleeping in. A giant mansion compared to the rest of the tiny abodes scattered around the hillsides, which is a good point to start from in the story of Nueva Alianza.
The community was made up of about 40 working families. We were told that women and children regularly carried up to 100 pounds of coffee up and down the narrow winding paths, while the men and older boys carried 200 pounds. Shattered were my illusions of the donkey and smiling man that accompany Nescafe's clever marketing. The smiles were there, but hiding behind the sweat on their brows and strain on there faces. Everything was relatively good for the people of Nueva, they were getting wages, they were working hard and content with their dueno (owner). It was after his death that the plantation started to fall apart.
One of the owners sons took over the plantation after his death, but didn't share the same love as his father. He had other parcels of land that took up more of his time. The farm went into default in 1998 and the workers were not paid for their work for a period 18 months. The owner knew that they really had no power. Under Guatemalan law, if they left voluntarily would not see any of their accumulated wages. So they persisted working the farm with no wages, surviving mostly by gathering wild plants for food. It was exhausting both physically and emotionally and some of the 40 families left to find work in the city. The remaining workers organized and sued the owner for their wages time and time again receiving little of what was owed. Eventually, the new owner declared bankruptcy blaming the declining cost of coffee in the national markets and owing by law, little if nothing to the workers.
The farm no longer operating, every family was forced off the land on which they lived for 3 generations. Through a series of discussions with the bankers, labor unions, and NGOs, they organized once more under Guatemalan labor laws and secretly decided to take back the farm at midnight on a December evening. The bankrupt owner caught wind of this, having gone to the farm earlier that morning and taking all of the equipment worth anything substantial, but it was still seen as a minor victory for the Campesinos (locals) that night. The next few weeks were spent under the threats of private security firms with automatic weapons hired by the previous owner's family. These hired guns were notorious for hostile takeovers, usually ending up in the deaths of some -if not all- the workers. The story had gained some attention and the families on the farm were spared this fate, although they kept 10 guards at the gate at all times, not allowing any strangers entrance to the land for months.
On condition with the bank for inhabiting and working the land, the workers were required to pay for $1.9 million quetzals ($250k) for the land. After the air of hostility settled, the workers applied for and received a development loan from the sole governmental organization setup after the peace accords to help indigenous groups and begin buying back the farm for themselves and future generations. A victory in a country that usually doesn't favour the community organized resistances that they had staged. The old owner's house was turned into an Eco-Hotel, realizing that tourism would be a good way to bring in capital and educate people to their plight and that of others. Over three years later, the farm was finally back in action producing equal the previous amount. The first step in this process included slaves of work to get the plants producing again, having been left dormant for 6 years. This however only produced the raw product, selling pennies in comparison to proceeded beans. Purchases of new and fixing of old machinery followed, all due to the former owners theft or lack of maintenance, and its a process that continues today with the help of numerous local and international NGOs.
Today, Nueva Alianza has many projects on the go and many more planned for the future. They realized that they could use the natural springs throughout the land to purify and bottle water for their community. It has now turned into a supply for not only Nueva Alianza, but many of the neighboring communities as well, including Xela, selling for 12Q ($1.75) a 5-gallon jug. They have a working Bio-Diesel plant, with plans to use only non-food producing plants grown on their land instead of relying on the cooking oil from nearby restaurants who -realizing the capitalist opportunity- have begun charging exhorbanent rates for their waste. They also grow macadamia nuts, harvested and processed year-round. All of the power for the finca is generated on site with a micro-hydroelectric system catching energy from a nearby waterfall. The families installed a solar water heating system, which should be operational soon. A school for children in the community was created and a satellite for Internet access installed. Politically, Nueva Alianza is run by a democratically elected board of directors. All major decisions go to a vote before the families and a women's co-operative operates as well, teaching women's empowerment and sustainable commerce to nearby communities. Did I mention, all of the coffee is grown organically? Several organic techniques are used in the process, including the method for keeping pests away by making a paste from chili peppers and spraying it on plants in the nursery. Organic fertilizer is also used, created from the leftover macadamia nut shells, fermented and mixed with nutrient rich dirt in the area.
It may sound like a dream, but it's not. Nueva Alianza is a working reality in the midst of the Guatemala jungle highlands. I personally didn't want to leave, but they are limited by the terms of the loan to 40 families, 30 of which stuck to their machetes and sticks and fought for the land that they deserved, the land they worked with no pay for 18 months, the land that was their home.
I was inspired by this story. It shows that anything is possible if you really want to make a dream a reality. I will take this knowledge and passion with me to Nicaragua where I see possibilities opening for us. If 40 families with nothing can organize and make it happen, we can too. All of us. Take the power back.
To learn more about Nueva Alianza, check out the website here: http://www.comunidadnuevaalianza.org/.
But even better than that would be to go and visit it for yourself. -Matty
You can read Matty's personal blog chronicling his family's trip from Canada down the West Coast of United States into Mexico and down into Nicaragua at http://www.mattypowell.blogspot.com/.
Nueva Alianza, drinks, Matty Powell, coffee, NGO, Guatemala, Xela
Posted By:
Matty
Tuesday, December 02, 2008 7:14 AM
Two weekends ago we decided to get out of this cold climate of a city and find the sun. Weekend trips in Xela tend to start around 7am so we took the previous night off to be make the early trek. Fortunately, Flory (or school's director) picked us up in the microbus in front of our hostel so we didn't have to walk the mile to the school in the 50 degree morning.
An hour into the trip the jackets came off as the weather warmed. We wound our way down from 7,800 ft (the elevation of Xela) towards the coast. It was going to be a nice, clear, peaceful sunny day on the beach. I couldn't wait. From the road, you could see one of the nearby volcanoes erupting in a billow of smoke, clear as day. I wasn't paying any attention, my eyes focused on the car stopped on the opposite side of the road. But it wasn't the car trying to get a good view of the volcano that caught my attention, rather the guy standing in the middle of the road waving us on.
In his hands, a shotgun. Nothing new, we've seen shotguns all over the place, guarding not only the ATMs, but every Dominos, McDonalds, etc. Maybe it was the classic red scarf over his face or maybe it was the classic long barrel, silver 6-shooter his friend was holding inside the window of the stopped car. We passed as instructed and hurried to the nearest town where we all emptied out of the minibus and took a breather to watch the volcano erupt from a safer view. The driver warned the bus heading towards the robbery area and Flory notified the police.
After a few passengers chain smoked a few cigs, we loaded back up for the rest of the rather uneventful ride exchanging stories on who actually saw the banditos and who was sleeping. I asked Flory how many robberies she'd seen and she answered with many. In broad daylight however, it's not that common. It took another 2 hours to go less than 100k due to the permanently bad road conditions, but we arrived safely at a privado (private) beach near El Tulate.
After breakfast we headed out into the ocean. A small lagoon forms in the cove during high tide causing the beach near the eco-hotel to be quite small, so we waded through it to the sand split. The undertow coming out of the inlet was quite strong limiting our swim to only a few meters off the split, not wanting to risk being carried out and down the coast. That left us with playing a game of futbol(soccer) or football, but no one remembered to bring a ball of any time. So in the style of Tom Hanks or Robinson Crusoe (whoever is your favorite), I found a coconut to play with. Soccer was out the question after I'd accidentally kicked a coco earlier and bruised my foot.
We played two games, switching off full-time QBs during each. It was quite an entertaining time and a coconut ball is not that easy to play with we found out. Quite exhausted, we realized none of us had worked out since we'd left our homes months ago. As breakfast had required waiting for the chicken to lay eggs, we headed back to the hotel to place our order for lunch, giving them time to catch the fish and us time for siestas. Following a meal of fried chicken, shrimp with heads, and fish without, it was time to head out before dark fell and the banditos returned.
Flory had arranged an escort by the police for our return trip saying if a Guat gets robbed its no big deal, but if a bunch of gringos go down, its all over CNN. Verdad (True). The escort followed us from the nearest town back to Xela, switching off at random points with other shotgun out-the-window ready police along the way. We arrived back in Parque Central, half expecting a guided walk home, but we headed to Casa Babylon for a few beers and dinner instead. Returning home afterwards, I fell asleep quickly wondering if my first bandito experience was just the beginning...
For Matty's account of the story, click here!