Cancun

17 a 19 de marzo

Like any true college students, we hit Cancun for spring break. While some drinking did occur, we mostly just spent our one free day chilling on a beach and avoiding being in our... I don't even know what to call it.... hostel?

Honestly, we were all very uncomfortable in this airbnb. We felt the photos lied to us and everything just felt so dirty and half-assed. It probably didn't help that we arrived after dark and we were all sweaty, tired and overwhelmed. I ended up calling mom crying about how freaked out I was.

BUT we lived, and we enjoyed our time in the turquoise waters immensely. Even Sasha swam in her shorts and t-shirt. 

We started the day with some tacos-for-brunch and a couple cocktails. I found my favorite drink, Miami Vice, for the first time since leaving the resort in Mazatlan, but let me say that this one was so much better.

The tacos were delicious and light enough that I didn't feel like dying in the intense heat. The restaurant was on a sort of board walk that also had some lounge chairs they let us use since we'd eaten there. 

So we had a wonderful view of the water, there were lockers for our valuables, drinks close by, and reserved seats just for us.

Only downside was that it was also right by the bungee jumping, so the guy who was announcing kept telling us how much fun bungee jumping would be. He also teased us when we started to fall asleep. 

But on the upside, we got to see a whole bunch of people go bungee jumping.

The water was amazing. I mean, just look at that color. It was also really warm, and there weren't intense waves so it was super calming and relaxing.

The same guys who were hosting bungee jumping also had some snorkeling equipment, so Syd and I got to see some little schools of fish. The dark patches in the photo are clumps of seaweed and rocks and there were so many cute little fish that swam right past me (as in, within inches). There were fish of so many different colors and sizes, and it was absolutely magical.

Going back to the hostel while it was still light out made it a little bit more comodo, but I can safely say that checking out the next morning was such a relief. It was a sobering airbnb experience; it made me realize that while airbnbs are mostly really amazing finds, sometimes you get a dud. 

Although, it did have a really, really nice view once the sun started going down.

Guatemala Part 3: Panajachel

15 a 17 de Marzo

After we left Antigua, we went to Panajachel, a small little fishermen's town on the edge of Lake Atitlan, a stunning freshwater lake surrounded by towering mountains.

Photo above is our view from our hotel room. On our last morning we were up with the sun, so we were able to see all of the fishermen coming in from their morning work. With fresh fish coming in every morning, the seafood in Panajachel was absolutely phenomenal. 

The easiest way to get around was to take a tuk-tuk, which is basically a 3 wheeled low-power scooter with a roof, between the hotel and the town for $1 USD and some spare change.

The roads were so bumpy, I felt like my body was going to vibrate so much I'd just dissolve into a puddle of glue. Since it was so hilly, you could only safely fit 2 people into each of them because if you tried to go uphill the motor would sound like it was dying. We tried to fit 4 people into one when we were coming back from dinner. Not only did it feel like we were going to fall out the sides of the thing, but I'm pretty sure walking would have been significantly faster.

We spent a lot of time exploring the markets, getting souvenirs for ourselves, friends and family, but we also took a private boat ride across the lake to San Pedro, an adorable little town nestled into the mountainside. 
San Pedro had the distinct feel of a home, but the exact feeling is a little hard to explain. Looking at the shoreline as we pulled away in our little lancha made me miss San Juan Island in Washington. 

It was a really quick, brief, relaxing trip and I was so sad to say goodbye to this lovely, lovely, place. If any of you want to go to Guatemala, make sure to stop in at one of the towns on the shores of Lake Atitlan, it's well worth the trek out. Those views alone were worth every cent I spent on this trip.

I mean, just look at the one we had.

How It's Made: Coffee

14 de Marzo

On our last full day in Antigua, Guatemala my friends and I took a tour of a coffee farm in a near by pueblo with the company De La Gente, a wonderful cooperative that works with Guatemalan farmers to grow coffee sustainably, reach larger markets, and teach visitors about the coffee making progress.

Our host's husband, Rafael, was kind enough to give us a ride into the town, and the view on the way in was absolutely stunning. Quaint street between brightly colored buildings, with a view straight to one of the mildly active volcanoes surrounding the valley. We waited outside a cute church for the farmer, a translator (which we didn't really need, shout out to developing language skills) and the rest of a tour group which were some other university students on a spring break trip. They were doing some sort of volunteering and planning with developing grass roots companies. I bonded with the other fair skinned red head in the group as we both walked in whatever shade we could find.

The views on our way up through the farm were stunning. We kept seeing the mountain sides and the rest of the valley through gaps in the trees. We got a lovely view of the church next to our airbnb, the streets where the major festival had just occurred the day before, and we could see the rowed trees of coffee farms on the distant mountainsides.  Even though I was loving every second of the view I was a little disappointed that we were there during a foggy period. I can't even imagine what these views would have been like on clear day.

The first coffee plant we saw was just a baby, which we were told would be ripe with beans some time in October. The farmers keep the fields rotating so that they have constant production throughout the year.

We saw our first beans, which are actually more like a berry on the plant, a little farther up the path, in the shade of a type of austrian tree with very thin leaves and tiny yellow flowers that are used to decorate the streets with the designs in my last post. Our farmer, Daniel, grows a few different types of coffee. The beans to the left are from a tree that can produce for 100 years. However, they tend to cut and replant at around 75 because the beans start to decline in quality. Other varieties grow for different amounts of time and have different bean qualities.

We kept moving. We hiked up the side of the volcano towards Daniel's fields, which he'd inherited from his father, just as his seven sons would inherit it from him (he also has two daughters, and he's given plots away to his two sons that are already married).

When we made it to the field we'd be working in, a shady grove of coffee plants and austrian trees covered in volcanic ash and bugs (it was beautiful), Daniel taught us the tricks of harvesting: only harvest from the middle of the branch because the berries are biggest there, pinch and pull to seperate the berry from the branch, etc. He also showed us the easiest way to strip the red skin from the berry and how the gel-like coating on the beans inside tasted sweet. Then he set us to work.


To the right you can see the fruits of my labor, ft. the basket tied around my waist (really tightly) with rope and my ash covered hands. Coffee berries are really sticky, so the ash clung to me like it was glue. I also had it smeared all over my face because I kept brushing my hair out of the way. My feet were filthy too because I was silly and wore sandals for a hike up a dusty ash-covered mountain. My feet also got mildly sunburned and had a terrible tevas-like tan line for days (its still kind of there, but you didn't hear that from me). 
I successfully picked 2lbs of coffee berries, all on my own on the side of an active volcano in Antigua, Guatemala. With six of us working, we managed to pick about 14lbs of raw coffee berries, which probably wasn't actually that helpful since most of the beans we picked were unusable. See the more orange-ish one in my hand? Yeah, unusable. 1 bad bean can ruin the flavor of 20 good beans.
I have a new found respect for the coffee I drink. We were picking for about 30 minutes and most of our work couldn't even be used. And this is only the beginning of the process.

We returned to Daniel's house where he and his family handle the rest of the production in the courtyard of their home. The outer skin of the beans is stripped from them on this bicycle-like contraption. The skins are then used as fertilizer for the plants in the fields. We managed to work through our 14-ish pounds in a couple of minutes, taking turns on the bicycle. 

Then he showed us through the process of how they float the beans in water to remove the empty ones, dry them out, then strip off the additional inner skin surrounding the beans.
Everything that is taken out before the beans are roasted is used to fertilize the living coffee plants in the fields. The farmers are really good about what they do and have it down to a science, nothing is wasted. Any coffee that doesn't turn out quite right is what they drink with their meals (I feel kind of bad, because this means they're probably drinking our poorly harvested coffee...). 

We then roasted the beans in a metal pan over a wood burning fire in the family's kitchen. We requested a medium-dark roast and each took a turn stirring the beans around the pan to keep them from burning.
Disclaimer: these are not the same beans we picked. The drying process takes over a week, so this is a different small bowl-full of beans that had been picked much earlier.

After we all took a turn at the burner, Daniel's wife finished off the roasting process, let the beans cool, then started grinding the beans on a stone tablet with a wooden rod. Roasting took about 10 min and grinding about 8. Daniel's wife is a real pro. The whole grinding process probably would have been a lot faster if the group of gringas (us) had actually known what they were doing. The grinding process smelled the best. The whole room filled with the smell of warm coffee. It was like heaven.

The grounds then went into the olla, or pot (the dark blue one in the photo to the right). We then sat around talking, asking questions of Daniel and his family, and just bonding in a room filled with one of the greatest smells on earth.

The coffee, after the whole process, was absolutely amazing. It was full bodied, strong, and not too bitter. I ended up using a lot of sugar anyway because I love my coffee sweet, but I ended up buying an extra bag (we got one for free with the tour). Also, can we just take a moment to admire that adorable little mug? It's so cute, I wanted to keep it. Unfortunately, no such luck. But I brought the amazing coffee home and that's what matters.

The morning finished off with an amazing home cooked meal in Daniel's home. It was delicious chicken, fresh vegetables bought that morning in the local market, rice, and strawberry juice. Never in my life had I considered strawberry juice a thing, but let me tell you I had as many glasses of that stuff as I possibly could. It was fresh pressed minutes before and was absolutely stupendous. 


After a delicious lunch, we left Daniel and his family with a thousand thanks and walked back to the center, where we were picked up by our host's husband, Rafael, and driven back to the house to wash our feet, change clothes and prepare ourselves for the next adventure, a personalized tour to the pueblitos surrounding Antigua led by Rafael, who runs a tour business in Antigua. But I'll talk about that adventure later.

Antigua Guatemala

12 a 15 de Marzo

Antigua Guatemala- a city filled with churches, beautiful architecture and wonderful people. Surrounded by mountains, volcanoes and tiny pueblos. It's so rich with culture that the four days I spent there were not nearly enough.

The ride into Antigua was absolutely stunning (See picture at right). Everything was decorated for Pascua [Easter] with purple banners and other violet decorations. 

La ciudad pequeña [the small city] really lives up to its name, which means "ancient" in Spanish. All of the houses looked old, and had a definite colonial vibe to them. They were absolutely stunning.

The best part architecture-wise was how these old buildings were crammed in together, and occasionally there'd be a completely run down building squashed between two that were still in use. There were abandoned churches a block from one that was in use. There were crumbling cement walls, tree roots re-covering floors, and walls heavy with ivy. It was absolutely beautiful.

Our host family was super kind. The airbnb is owned by a woman named Violeta and her husband, who run a little shop/restaurant out of their front room which looked like it might have been a garage at some point. Three of their four sons still live with them and help out, and the rest of the bedrooms are rented out to travelers. While we were there we made friends with a French couple, a few students on a leap year or spring break adventures, a woman from Barcelona (pronounced barth-eh-loh-nah) and a man from England. There was also another woman from First Hill. It was really fun getting to know other travelers and get advice for places to go in the town.

Antigua really gets into their Easter Celebrations. Our Airbnb host says that thousands of people come to see the festivities every year, and I believe it. It's one of, if not the, largest Easter celebration in the world (thanks google). When we went out to breakfast our first morning in Antigua, we walked past families and neighbors making beautiful artwork in the streets using wood chips, pollen, flower petals, and other brightly colored natural materials. The photo at left is one of these in progress. They marked the path of the procession that was performed twice in one day- more on that later.

Many men and boys were wearing purple hooded robes made out of what appeared to be a heavy polyester, thus also adding a lovely sheen of sweat since it was hot. I was burning up (literally, since I forgot sunscreen) so I couldn't even imagine what these men and children were going through. 

As we wove our way through the streets, trying to find the elusive Blue Sky Cafe, which TripAdvisor had recommended for its stunning views of the city, I could sense the somberness of the occasion. The procession and purple clothes are supposed to replicate, remember, and honor the journey of Jesus into Jerusalem and the process of carrying the cross so everyone was pretty somber and pensive, although there was still the vendors and the amount of people proper for a classic parade and festival. 

The view from Blue Sky cafe didn't disappoint. Unfortunately, we were in Guatemala during the middle of a foggy period, so the volcanoes and mountains weren't as prominent as they normally would be. But we could still see almost the entire city (photos at right)

The food wasn't the best as it was definitely geared towards international visitors (read as: menu consisted mostly of american food) and there weren't many gluten free options. The best part of breakfast was the coffee, which came with a cute little jar of fresh milk.

After breakfast, we explored the city and the markets. We got swarmed with people, my chest, face and feet started to burn (#beefsteaktomato). I found a blanket I feel in love with (surprise) and we decided that before we explored anymore we needed to get back to the house to rest and budget.

Little did we know- since our airbnb was right in front of a church, the procession passed right in front of our house. We made it to the end of the block when we were stopped by some sacerdotes [priests] in white robes and were told we needed to stay behind a line made by more men in purple. We slowly tried to wind our way through the crowd, but got trapped about 6 houses down from our own. 

It was pretty amazing. We watched as men carried a giant wooden platform with the figures of Jesus carrying the cross and what I assume are other significant scenes from the bible and his crucifixion. There had to have been over 50 men carrying the platform, and each and every one had this look of extreme pain on his face, but also a peaceful reverence. I have no doubt that this was a deeply important moment for them, mimicking Christ's suffering like they were.

After about 30 minutes of being stuck as this procession made its way down our street, I started to get lightheaded from a combination of heat, dehydration and incense, so as soon as the platform was past I had to start moving.

Sasha and I started making our way through the crowd. We finally made it outside the house, but had just about given up ever making it inside past the  group of people 5 rows deep standing in front of us when a man pushed past us and started pushing his way inside. We followed close behind and, after 40+ minutes stuck outside in the blaring sun, we finally collapsed onto our beds under the protective roof of our airbnb.

[Photo to the left is an aerial view of the parade that I took during dinner, where we'd ducked inside to avoid getting stuck in the throng for the second time in one day. You can see more of the flower art and some of the hooded men who were leading the procession, cleansing the path with incense.]

I was so sunburned by the time we got in, but only on my face and chest since I'd been smart enough to bring a light summer jacket with me that kept the sun off my shoulders and arms. I've got tan lines now, y'all. I still look pale af, but I definitely have tan lines.

El fin del infierno

10 a 12 de Marzo

Winter Quarter went out with a groan and a quick prayer that it was over. The last few weeks of the quarter were hellish, with a professor who wasn't the best communicator nor supportive when we asked for clarification. 

It was a series of busy work, unproductive class discussions, lack of communication and just an eternal bought of frustration.

But its finally over, and I'm pretty sure my sigh of relief when I practically ran out of the classroom after turning in my final exam could be heard across campus.

And so began Spring Break 2k16

Mis amigas y yo had a day of freedom before we left at the crack of dawn for the airport for the next adventure: Guatemala.

As usual, I over packed for the 2 weeks I was going to be gone, but I managed to save enough room for all of the regalos and recuerdos I ended up buying (I regret nothing).

We got off to a rocky start when- for the first time in my life- Uber failed us. There were no drivers available, and when one did appear and accepted the ride, he cancelled it a minute later. So we had to resort to calling a taxi service. I always struggle with this because my Mexican phone is really low quality, and I'm not skilled enough with Spanish yet to be able to fill in the blanks the phone creates in the conversations.

But we made it to the bus station and bought our tickets to the airport. We made it in one piece on a really nice bus but we got lost for a bit in the airport itself. I swear the signs led us in circles. The best part- the security in the airport was so simple. There was no line, we didn't have to take off our shoes, it was absolutely amazing. Such a breeze. I think the airports here are going to spoil me for when I go back to the states...

Getting through customs in Guatemala was relatively simple too. They have you fill out a customs sheet when you enter AND when you leave the country. This freaked us out a little bit when they took our immigration form. How would we verify that we're legally allowed to be there? But apparently its fine and they didn't even have randomly selected bag searches- a plus for me since I almost always get randomly selected.

The best part of immigration was being greeted by this lovely relief next to the bathroom before we actually had to go through customs (shout out to Immigration Offices providing a bathroom, its a rare blessing)

Its Mona Lisa but 3D and much bigger than the original. 

She's also nude.

It was an unexpected sight upon entering a new country, but I love it all the same.

la Ciudad de México round 2

3-6 de febrero

This post is going to be a pretty brief post because I didn't transfer any of the pictures from this trip to my laptop before my phone was stolen a couple days later. 

The rest of the LASP program and I went to Mexico City during the end of the first week of February to go to museums, see the major sites and get to know a bit more about the history of Mexico. 

My favorite parts were the palace of Maximilian and El Palacio de Bellas Artes, the latter featured an amazing mural by Diego Rivera named El hombre controlador del universo. I spent a good 15 minutes sitting in front of this mural, just taking it in, absorbed by its complexity.

Source: http://www.wikiart.org/en/diego-rivera/man-controller-of-the-universe-1934

All of the murals in this museum were absolutely stunning, and the 40 minutes we had there were not enough. 

Most of the nights were spent in the hotel, but there was a 7-11 across the street so we had access to junk foods for random hotel room parties. It was a really good bonding experience for everyone and I came out of it feeling more connected to the group as a whole. 

Some of my friends and I spent an extra night in la Ciudad, and we went out for the night to a bar/club thing where we ended up just sitting around, eating chips and guac, talking about life and playing Never Have I Ever. 

I want to go back to CDMX really badly because the city is massive- it takes about 2 hours of highway driving to cross the city from one side to the other- and absolutely stunning.

Oaxaca City

22-24 de enero

I know this post is really late, but I finally have down time where I can feel productive so here we go.

Oaxaca City, Oaxaca is a beautiful city in the mountains of central Mexico.  

My friends and I stayed in a beautiful Airbnb where we each got our own room. They voted me into the master suite because I’d orchestrated all the travel and housing plans (MomFriend^TM). It was absolutely wonderful.

 

This is a picture of the view from our airbnb. Syd was lucky and got the room with the view, so she got to wake up to this every morning and go to sleep to the full moon every night.

Biggest downside was the mosquitos, but they were tame in Oaxaca compared to what I'd have to live through in Puebla in a week and a half.

Oaxaca is famous for its cheese, which I have pretty much formed an addiction too. My go-to snack is a quesadilla with some salsa and some Oaxaca cheese, because it’s melty and stringy like mozzarella but it tastes better.

Our first day there we got breakfast in a cute little restaurant near the city center. I had a delicious omelet de champiñones y espinaca and cafe de olla (at right), which means coffee of the pot because it’s brewed with a whole bunch of sweet spices in a giant clay pot, giving it a very unique flavor. I generally hate black coffee, but cafe de olla is sweet enough that I didn’t want to add anything.

Overall, the food in Oaxaca was amazing. For dinner our last night there Syd and I split a sample platter of different cheeses and sausages that featured quesadillas, guacamole and totopos, i.e. tortilla chips.

All through dinner we made friends with pigeons, some adorable dogs, and at the very end a father son duo brought up a marimba (its like a giant wooden xylophone) and played some adorable music. 

We also tried mezcal, which is a super strong alcohol that's made from the same plant as Tequila (i.e. agave) but it's fermented differently.

The city center was absolutely adorable. It was still very colonial, which I have some moral issues with but man is the architecture stunning. 

These pictures are of my two favorite places I found in Oaxaca. One is of a small courtyard near an open-air market with beautiful trees and crooked streets (above). The other is a tiny hidden alley/courtyard we found where all the businesses were therapists, spiritual healers and a tiny cooking school. I fell instantly in love and didn't want to leave (left).

We also made a trip out to Monte Alban, the ruins about a 30 min drive from Oaxaca City.

It's an old Zapotec city that's only partially excavated, so some of the pyramids aren't fully exposed (see the main pyramid to the left). There was so much exploring to do that we Hailey and I didn't get a chance to see the whole thing because we spent too much time exploring the first half and taking a ton of pictures. Travel Tip: don't spend 1/2 your time at a site in the first 1/4, because you end up rushing through the last half and missing some cool things. Oh well, Oaxaca is definitely on my list of places I need to see again. 

look at my cute friends

The trip was absolutely amazing. Best purchases were an absurd amount of Oaxacan chocolate, which makes the greatest hot chocolate I have ever eaten in my entire life, and a blanket. I have a problem where I buy a blanket in every country I go to because I am obsessed with them. I don't really consider it a major problem, because they keep me warm and can also double as beautiful wll hangings once I actually get my own place. This one is brightly colored and has a simple striped/geometric pattern on it. I love it a lot.

Bonus Photos:

Giant spider we found at Monte Alban. It was a little over an inch long and about an inch wide, including legs. You could see it from about 10 feet away, putzing its way through the dead, yellow grass. It was so beautiful, but I probably would die of fright if it had suddenly appeared on my body. No one else wanted to get anywhere near it, but I was down on my knees trying to get pictures.

Beautiful Tree with the background of an old church and an amazing system of roots that was breathtaking. Also this lighting was amazing and everything about this tree and this moment made me exceedingly happy. 

In front of the church doors there was a painter who was working on capturing the beauty of this area, and just past him, up the street, was an open air market with a whole bunch of blouses, jewelry and generally tourist-y souvenirs. It was super cool to wander around and look at everything though and the light filtering through the leaves around us was absolutely stunning.

I was pretty sunburned by the end of the day though.

Fun Fact: I'm actually getting tan?!?!?!

Keep in mind that I have always been as white as a piece of paper, so when I say "tan" what I actually mean is that my skin doesn't reflect sun and blind the people near me anymore. 

I'm still the whitest person in the LASP program.

Mazatlán

I am so blessed.
I spent the last week in Mazatlán with my amazing family. We wandered through the old city, swam in the warm ocean, and soaked up the sunlight on the shore.
Our resort also had an all inclusive open bar, so i got to drink as many mangoneadas and miami vices as I could ever want.
I'm tinged a little pink now, but its all worth it.

Exploring Old Mazatlán was amazing, my dad printed out a walking tour he found online and we all just took a day to explore, enjoy good food, and take photos of old buildings.
We found a whole room filled with trophies, just left there. It was so cool to see buildings where half looked lived in, but the other half was being reclaimed by nature. I've always loved abandoned buildings, and these were just so fascinating to see from the outside.

My Spanish is better than I thought it would be, I'm able to communicate my needs and hold pretty simple conversations with people. My grandparents, sister and I went on a tour of Stone Island, where we went on a tour of the town in a horse drawn wagon. Our guide didn't speak much English at all, so I worked as a translator for my family and also had a pretty sweet conversation with him during the course of the 30 minute tour. And, if I understood him correctly, we drove past the home of the village witch, It was super cool because there were whale vertebrae (i think, whatever they were they were huge), a giant pile of coconuts, and other such knickknacks. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture :(

We spent all of Christmas day relaxing on the beach, and as a result I'm a little sunburned which made my hives act up (because apparently I'm allergic to the sun, go figure). But it was all worth it. Mom and I got up at 6:30am in order to claim a cabana and we spent the rest of the day relaxing, swimming in the (relatively) warm ocean (it was about the temperature of an outdoor pool in summer), drinking and bonding.

I'm in the Mazatlán airport now, waiting for my flight which leaves in a little over an hour. There's only about three other people here, so the anxious part of me keeps wondering if I'm in the right place, but the nice helpful tv by the gate says my flight number so I'm pretty sure I'm okay. I've been here for about four hours, because the rest of my family just boarded their flight back to the states.

Saying goodbye was hard, especially because I thought I'd be able to sit with them, but then we had to go through separate security gates. I cried a lot, and mom and gramma teared up which was expected. My dad started crying to though, which I think is only the third or fourth time I've ever actually seen him cry (tearing up during the Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer doesn't count).

I only stopped crying fully after about an hour, because I kept tearing up every time I got a snapchat or a message from them on whatsapp.

It's hard realizing that I won't see them until June, especially because I've been able to just pop home for the weekend whenever I felt like it these last few years. It's going to be hard, but I know we'll make it through. 

I still have about an hour left until my flight boards, so I'm going to watching Captain America: The First Avenger and wait for the other people on my flight to start showing up.