Fuentes Georginas

On one of my days off me and some friends from the hostel went to Fuentes Georginas, a hot spring situated high up on an active volcano. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The water towards the face of the rock was SUPER hot. As we swam away from it however, it was really nice. We went on a Saturday so it was pretty packed, which turned out to be part of the fun. Well, I guess these pictures speak for themselves. 

Mujb'ab'l Yol Association

I started work with the station about a weeks ago and so far it has been great! Below are just a few pictures I took of the station. The last is a photo of the view from the station... so beautiful. The second to last picture is of the tapes that I have been working on digitalizing, preserving and categorizing. There are about two more full boxes the same size so I estimate there are around 300-500 tapes that still need to be sorted out. The information on them is all very interesting. They were all made during the civil war here in the 1980s so it is important to a lot of people in the community that they be made accessible. After all many of them fought during the civil war and they want their children to understand their struggle. 

Xela!!

I arrived in Xela a few days ago and it is a really cool city. It is a lot bigger and more modern than Antigua. For some reason there are a lot of spanish schools in this city and therefore a lot of different types of people. Yesterday I met a few people from Spain, France, England, and of course Guatemala. All of them are staying in my hostel and they are all very nice. I'm glad to have met people that I can spend my time with outside of the radio station. It was getting a little bit lonely here without people to casually talk to. Right now I am in the middle of digitalizing some historical tapes for the radio station. The information in these tapes is very interesting and I have been listening to them for about an hour. Tonight there is going to be a class here for people who work in radio all over the region. I am going to be able to sit in on it and get some ideas for how my own classes might run. I have a lot of pictures to share but unfortunately the chord I need for uploading them is back in my hostel. I will post those as soon as I can, or remember to.

Antigua (Part 2)

These are just a few of the highlights from my exploration of Antigua. It is definitely the most beautiful city I have ever been to...and the oldest. The beginnings of city were built in the early 17th century and it used to be the capital of the spanish colonies in the "new world". Most of the buildings in the center of town are still standing from when they were built between two and four hundred years ago. Okay, here is the history nerd in me coming out. The arch in the first picture below was built so that nuns in the 18th century could pass from one side of the street to the other without being seen. Pretty cool eh! Because of its beauty and history Antigua is now a major tourist destination in Guatemala. This certainly helped to ease my transition into the country. a lot of the city was designed to help tourists get around, some of the signs were even in English. I'm glad I went but I'm also glad to be on my way to a larger city where I can fully immerse myself in the culture and language of this country.  

Antigua (Part 1)

I arrived in Antigua Guatemala today for the first leg of my trip. I will be staying in the Casa Sito Volunteer House tonight and tomorrow while I get settled in the country. Casa Sito is an organization which works closely with the local community through teaching computer skills among many other things. As you probably already figured out Casa Sito also has some cheap housing for international volunteers. Although I am not working directly with Casa Sito they have agreed to allow me to stay in one of their rooms for a few days before my hostal in Xela is ready for me. In the mean time I have put some credits on my new Guatemalan cell phone, scheduled a ride to Xela on Wednesday, and started to explore. I was worried that I might be lonely being here all by myself. I thought it might be hard to make friends at first but it looks like I already have. I didn't catch his name but we both agreed that my backpack was great for soothing the teething pains.