After Baños, I went to Quito. In Perú, I took almost all night buses because the scenery between towns is normally just sand and more sand, however this is not the case in Ecuador where I feel like I would miss on seeing the beauty if I took a night bus.

I stayed at a really nice hostel in "Old Town" Quito. However, after hearing a few horror stories, I decided not to leave the hostel by myself or on foot, ever. I did take a tour of a nearby area. The market of Otavalo is said to be the largest outdoor market in South America, which if true is sad. I like the market but becauses I have been travelling around here for five weeks, I am getting tired of seeing the same things.

The tour also included a stop at the equator line, to overlook a lake (yes, odd, but I finally got pictures with me and a llama and an alpaca), the market, lunch in another town, then a waterfall. The group I was with was really nice, and strangely all English speaking. I have gone to a lot of places where only the people from that country have been on the tour, thus they speak only Spanish.

We didn´t go to the big monument site, but another place on the line. The guy there represents an organization that apparently wants to redraw all world maps so that the equator runs up and down, not left and right. ALso, he calls his spot on the equator line the center of the earth for no good reason. He tried explaining it, but I can see through smoke screens to see the loss of reasoning rather well.

The waterfall was really pretty (pictures will go up later). There was a small walk to get there, the guide made it sound hard but it was delightful and easy. On the way back we had to wait a few minutes while a cow with sharp looking horns moved out of our path.

Then I left Quito and went to the coast. Now, the 8 hour ride was asful. It reminded me too much of Honduran buses, which is never a good thing. I get to one town, but the guide is a little off on how to get to where I want to go. It says I have to take a ferry across the bay and then a bus. Well, apparently the guide is a little old because there is a nice bridge just made for getting people across the bay.

My plan for those days was to enjoy the sun and beach, but there were always clouds blocking the sun. I am smart enough that I still wore sunscreen though.

The next stop was to Puerto Lopez, where I currently am. The guide barely mentions this town and only for whale watching. I wish I had more time here but i have something else booked and need to leave this afternoon. This town does have a lot of whale watching, but also scuba diving, kayak rentals, fishing expeditions and more.

I did a whale watching trip combined with a trip to an island. The island is home to thousands of birds including blue footed ones and the ones withh red bags under their beaks. I think I have explained my lack of interest in biology before, so remembering their names (in Spanish no less) just doesn´t get me. After the tour we went snorkeling which was fun.

I did get to see a bunch of whales. They are not the sperm whales which are on all the posters, but more like killer whale shape, only a lot bigger. At two points, I got to go on top of the boat, where all my energy went to trying to stay on my feet. There were massive waves and the boat rocked a lot. I did get to see one whale jump all the way out of the water. Unfortunately, there are no whale pictures because that would require knowing when the whales are going to surface as well as where, and then a really fast shutter speed which my camera doesn´t do so well.

And that´s all for now.

Jill

I am happily tired today, but I will get to that later. I finished my tour of Cuenca, deciding it was better just to know the city well than take day trips. I also spent a lot of money of gifts. However, I am now free of gift buying obligation because everyone has a gift. Not everyone in the world, but everyone I was buying for. Now, if I want to buy something, I don´t have to, and shopping has become fun again. I can´t spend too much because I want enough leftover money to go to MN. I do have budgetted plenty of money to live off for the next few months, but having a little more when I get back to the states will be good. I met up with Couchsurfer Lorena and her roomate. I don´t have a working cell phone in Ecuador, so we made plans to meet up at night. I was looking at her as I passed thinking , is that her? I passed because if it wasn´t her, the person would have been really confused. They came up to me a few minutes later and we laughed over the matter. We went to dinner and talked for a bit. They are studying environmental engineering, so that was a common topic. Then I asked what kinds of typical foods I needed to try while in Ecuador. Speaking of food, if people want to worry about me, they should worry about my very risky eating habits. I love street food. It´s good and it´s cheap. However, more people get sick off street food than restaurant food. My stomach is pretty solid though after surviving two years in Honduras. So, after Cuenca, I headed to Baños. In the guide it said it was really touristy but it reminds me of a sleepy little town. The first day I just walked around a bit. I didn´t do too much. Today, I rented a bike. Now, when I first got on the bike it was really scary because I hadn´t been on a bike in 9 years. The trip to Puyo is 60km and almost all downhill. However, if you don´t trust speed on a bike, you break constantly. Not helping the fact was that it was lightly raining on and off. I was amazed though how fast I did get to the different points. The area I biked in is a river valley and has a lot of waterfalls, which means a lot of stops. The best falls is 10km from town and the whole river drops about 100 feet or more. I am really bad at judging distances, so it might have been a bigger drop. You get there and it´s amazing the power of the water and how wet it is because it is spraying up from the bottom. Then you can go into a little cavelike passage and actually get behind the water fall. You get really wet doing it but it is worth it. Now, at this point I realized I forgot my bike helmet on my bike and anywhere else in the world it would have been robbed. Luckily, it was still there. Now, most people on bikes went back at this point, but I went on. It was a good and bad decision because the weather didn´t improve and I was tired. I did manage another 8 km, making a total of 15 miles riding. Like I said, it was almost all downhill which made it easier. I got back and got dry. And now I am trying to upload a ton of pictures, so I hope you appreciate them. Jill

Parade in Chachapoyas. These women are showing typical foods plus how grains used to be crushed with the giant rock and flat rock.

My friend and I with a group of really old dancers. The youngest was 69 years old.

I just like how they combined old giving food offering ways with catholicism, it is a cross.

Beach at Mancora.

Surfer at sunset.

Trip up to Ecuador.

Colonial arquitecture in Cuenca.

More pretty buildings.

Church. I like the two colors of walls.

Plate of food I got on the street. It was only $1.50 nd had some kind of grain on the bottom, meat, fried potato creation, and a salad all piled on top of each other.

View from the bus on the way to Baños.

Beautiful countryside on my bikdride.

The road and bike path are but into the mountain side.

Just joking, that is not me.

Twin waterfalls.

This is the big falls where the river falls down.

Ok, there are a lot more to load, but it is being really slow. I will try to upload the rest later.

Ok, so last time I left off, I was in the Amazonas.

Saturday was the big day for the week. All morning and well into the afternoon there was a parade. Not too much like parades in the States though. Here, people from nearby villages walked the route. Some had bands with them and performed traditional dances, others had traditional foods, and others had religious displays. The whole parade was from 9am to 3pm. Some groups had 20 minute performances, so it wasn´t moving very fast.

I met up with my new friends and we hung/balanced very precariously from a school{s fence to overlook the parade. My new French friend had a shell/husk cup made for the week and every time that people with traditional foods/drinks went by he hung out over the crowd and got a sample for all of us in his cup. I later got one. The food I tried was very good, and let me just say that Peruvians know how to make alcohol out of everything!

After watching the parade, we all watched a movie together and then made plans to meet up for the night.

That night we met up with more friends and watched the fireworks. Now, before the traditional fireworks that we have in the states, there is a tower that has small fireworks that spin and have a lot of colors all connected on a bamboo tower. One layer would go, then the next higher up until the end. According to the locals, it wasn´t a very good one, but we foreigners who had never seen a "castillo" or castle, were impressed. Then came the real fireworks. My friend Karina and I wanted to watch the real fireworks but everyone else was itching to go so we kind of walking backwards while taking a lot of breaks to watch as much as we could. It was an impressive fireworks show.

At this point we made a new friend, someone that Karina had met in Mancora named James. He is an American, so I finally had another american although we were still well outnumbered by the French. We had a beer then went to the party. At a park there was a stage set up and vendors and just a festive atmosphere. We fought our way to the middle and started dancing. At one point we were dancing next to a crowd of 6 young to middle aged women and they just grabbed James and started dancing with him, he was quite the hit! I danced with few people. I love to dance and latin music is made to be danced to. We called it a night when I had to go to the bathroom and since there were no public bathrooms, I RAN to the hotel. To be a guy and be able to go in any sort of private place.

The next day I made arrangments to leave on Monday. Again, I met up with the crew at night . We hung out in the park then eventually made our way to a local viewpoint where some people played guitar. It was a rather relaxing night.

When I left monday night my friends went to the bus terminal to see me off which I thought was really sweet.

Now, there have been a lot of comments about my safety. During this week I was with a local woman about my age, so she knew what was and was not ok to do. I was out a lot but had local guides and was generally in a group. I really can´t do anything more to guarantee my safety besides end up the old crazy cat lady in South Gardiner, Maine who never leaves her house.

THe bus ride was anything but sweet. I was so sick, the ride was windy, I couldn´t sleep, and my knees were killing me. THe worst bus ride yet.

I went back to Chiclayo, and this time the museum in Lambeyeque was open. The museum basically has everything from the 1987 excavation of the ruins of Sipan. This was an archeologist´s dream. The tumbs they found were just jam packed with bodies and rather well preserved things. Each tumb had a minimum of 100 ceramic bottles, lots of jewlery, and other things. Look up the museum Señor de Sipan for more information. It was really impressive.

Then I went back to town, caught a bus north, followed by another bus north and ended in teh seaside town of Mancora. Now, I was staying at a hostel, and when I got there none of my roomates were in the room and everyone was huddled into groups at the bar which makes for an interesting time. I decided to delay that uncomfortable scene and ran out to some of the last vendors open to buy flip flops. Before this point I had been almost exclusively to cold places and didn´t need them. THis time when I got back all my roomates were in the room and I went with them to the bar.

THere was a giant beer pong tournament which made for a crazy time. More than that everyone was walking around and supporting strangers, so it was easy to introduce myself to strangers without it being awkward. The party died though when it was over.

I then spent three days in the sun. With plenty of sunscreen. I had a good time, didn´t do too much. My last night there the guys had left and were replaced with women from Argentina, so I hung out with them for a while. Thank goodness I speak Spanish. THey were really nice and I think we are really similar. The big event that night was crab racing. Nope, not with humans doing the crab run, but real crabs. I will have to post pictures, because it was just the weirdest thing. A lot of fun though.

The next day I got my last few hours in the sun then left for Ecuador. I do not recommend the company I went with. I got into Cuenca around 9pm, had to call a hotel to see where I could stay for the night, then got dropped off at the wrong hotel (the have the same name). Luckily the right hotel was two blocks away. Oops.

Since then I have been exploring the city, it is gorgeous! I have also spent way too much money because gifts are a lot more expensive here! Stupid me for not buying everything at the beginning.

Still having fun, meeting up with people tonight them heading out to another place.

Ok, so the adventure left off when Jill was in Cajamarca, land of cheese here in Peru.

I spent several nights there, and had to spend an extra one because I couldn{t get a bus out of town the day I wanted to. June 5th was the Presidential election and everyone was going home to the places they were registered to vote. Hence, the buses were packed.

I finally leave Cajamarca and roll into Chiclayo at 5am. I had to wait a few hours until the next bus company opened it{s doors to customers where I bought another overnight ticket out of town leaving at 8pm. To review, got in at 5m, left 8pm. That is a lot of time to kill.

So, even after waiting until 8am to buy my ticket, I had 12 hours and nothing to do. The next town over has a very famous museum here in Peru, but didn{t open for a few hours. I went to a park and wrote in my journal for a while and contemplated the church.

Here is one thing about Peruvian women: they don{t walk. I get to the bus station and ask where can I go, like a park or something to sit and kill some time. Answer: Take a cab. Here is my thing, I hate cabs. I would rather walk for an hour versus get in a cab. They cheat you on prices here.

After a few hours, I get directions on the buses that go to that neighboring town and get on the bus to go. I am in typical developing world transportation here, so that means little van full of people. Safety on that is not so high. Side note: This is how you get there, and how thousands of Peruvians get there every day, so while it might be below standards US safety, people do it here without thinking about it. Next time you drive on the highway think about how much damage one drunk driver could do to you, and you realize that you driving isn{t that safe either.

Anyways, I get to the town, and it is packed. I finally make my way the few blocks to the museum and it is closed. Closed for the elections. Argh!

I walked around because I still had over 9 hours to go

Now, I made a small error getting off the bus back in Chiclayo, meaning I didn{t wait until we got the terminal, so I got myself a little lost. I walked around for about a half hour before I was like, maybe I should get a taxi to get me back to that park. But, as I have already mentioned, I don{t like taxis, so on the thought that maybe I was really close and would be wasting that money. So, with a giant hope, I rounded a corner and started walking again. Then finally I found the park. The city is just wall to wall three story building on flat ground so it is impossible to look up for landmarks.

Anyways, I sat around talking to random people who sat down next to me. Creepy people got the cold shoulder and others I talked to. I met a man who went to the states to work and actually worked in maine for a while. We talked about different areas in the state. He apparently was an itinerant farm worker in maine, I didn{t realize we had them there. He worked the blueberry fields and potato fields. You learn new things everyday.

Well, that is enough detail on a day when I essentially did nothing. I eventually made it to the bus and we went to Chachapoyas.

I get in at 5am again. My worry whenever I do this is that they are going to charge me for going into the room right away, so normally i just ask if I can leave my bag and then they show me to my room. My first plan was to kind of wait until sunrise then go exploring and book a tour for that day. Then the bed called to me. I eventually woke up again and then just walked around the town.

The next day was the same, just catching up on sleep and the town is really cute, so I walked around. It was their anual tourism week, so there were a lot of activities. I went to the opening on a photo exhibit and felt really under-dressed. Everyone else was some kind of representative of the local government or a university professional (the exhibit was at a college), and then there was me. I was wearing my new pants, so I was clean at least. They also had a bunch of local food there, so I got a free lunch. It was good to try the traditional food, I had the goal of eating a lot of that but hadn{t been doing it so well.

THe next day was Wednesday and I did my first tour. We went to Kuelap, a ruin site two hours out of town. It is amazing. It is built on the top of a cliff basically and is so beautiful. The site is not cleaned up like Machu Picchu is, so you see the jungle inside the walled complex. I can{t say enough good things about the site. The houses inside were all round and had big cone roofs. They had little troughs to raise guinea pigs in right outside the houses (remember: guinea pig = food), and big stones inside to ground corn into flour. Also, each house had a small hole in the ground which they placed their ancestors in. That{s right, grave in the middle of the living room.

The people I did the tour with were nice. I talked to them a bit. Knowing spanish is fantastic because I wouldn{t do half the things if I didn{t speak it. My camera battery died halfway through the tour which was awful, but one of the guys from Lima said he would go to the internet cafe with me and pass me a bunch of his pictures.

FOr these day tours there is normally a stop for lunch, although lunch is around 3pm or something like that. This lunch was really good, it came with soup, plate of food, and drink for under four dollars. It had fried plantains which reminded me of Honduras!

That night I called a couchsurfer and we met up. She introduced me to a lot of people. The activity for that night was actually a boxing demonstration. We all just sat there and chatted in the plaza for a few hours. It was a really nice group of people.

The next day I did the cave quiocta, and an archeological site Karajia. The cave was pretty cool. The thing is so big that the whole group can walk side by side and not touch the walls. I had my flashlight on me which is pretty strong for its size so I could shine it around and see everything, while most people had these little tiny pen lights that barely lit up their shoes. I rented a pair of black rubber boots for the cave for which i was really grateful because it is solid mud. or not so solid as mud is normaly muddy in texture.

After another lunch, not quite so good, we went to the site of sarcophogi, that{s the plural of sarcophogus, which i learned on this trip. The pictures of this place look great, but that is because they used a camera with a good zoom. My camera is not so good in that sense. TO get there you walk about a kilometer (.7ish miles) and it{s all downhill. That means on the way back up it is uphill. I walked really slowly for me, but because I didn{t take any breaks I got there well ahead of anyone else. I got to the top then played volleyball with a bunch of local girls. I had a lot of fun, but everyone in the tour was amazed that I could walk up that hill that fast and then have the energy to play volleyball.

The next day{s activity was going to a waterfall. My plan was to leave the next day, so I rented the black rubber boots again to not get my shoes nasty for the ride out. We walked really slowly there, a walk of 2 hours. It rained almost the whole time though so everyone was getting wet. I had the presence of mind to grab my umbrella, so I was comfortable. The waterfall, Gocta, is the third largest in the world. You walk down to the base of the second fall. Once we got there everyone in the group took off their ponchos and were posing in almost model like poses. Then there is me. I am in my raincoat (i wasn{t about to take that off) and rubber boots posing like, yep, I am here. The walk up I just took off and didn{t wait for the group. I knew several of them were going to take a lot of breaks and I wanted to walk and really stretch my legs. I did the 2.5 hour hike in an hour and a half. I was really happy to finally be able to walk comfortably and get some decent exercise in.

That night I met back up with the couchsurfer and we made new friends with other couchsurfers in the town. We just kind of hung out for a while and talked. Two were from peru and then a french guy and me.

Ok, I have been here a while typing and I want to do other things. Saturday was the big day for activites so stay tuned for when I get that written.

Ok, so it says here that i last updated 10 days ago. Now, I promise to update at some point but I am rather busy living. And considering i just booked into the roudiest hostel ever, I probably wont have time later. I promise i am having tons of fun and have met some really great people.

Jill

Chicken feet!

Me at the glacier

Mountain

Me at the laguna

Spot where the town got smooshed. What you see in green, used to be the town.

Two layers of the temple that have been excavated. That scary dude in the middle is the main god.

The outside of the temple had layers that people think represented the hierarchy. See last blog post for why my bag is so big.

Best self'photography.

View from the "Seat of the Inca"

Cumbemayo, look closely at the little space ub the middle. Zoom in, what do you see?

Woman selling crafts. For once I wasn´t cheap and paid too much for something. But look at her, you feel sad.

Garden

"windows" or tumbs.

Really rocky suspension bridge. Why was a modern pedestrain bridge? who knows.

Ok folks, for today´s blog update, Jill finds herself in Cajamarca, Perú. It is a city in the mountains and is famous for cheese because it is surrouded by dairy. I have tried some of it, not bad. This does come from a person used to really salted Honduran cheese, so it might actually be very good, just not salty enough for my tastes.

Before I get in depth, I took a daytour (it´s a detour that lasts one day) in the city of Trujillo. First, let me just say that I prefer Trujillo, Honduras.

The city is the third largest in Peru and hosts some pre-Incan ruins. Now, the Inca are not a really old group, they came about later and were then vanquished by the Spanish, I´ll get back to this later.

I hired a taxi to take me to all the interesting points during the day. First we went to the best place which is called Huaca de la luna, and it also encompasses Huaca del sol. They are temples used by the Moche people, who basically existed between 100 and 800 AD or after christ. The museum here is very well done. There is a lot of pottery found in the ruins and I am guessing some replicas.

These people had their stuff together and were very religious. One notable fact is that they did human sacrificing. They were also very good at pottery, textile weaving, metalurgy and other artesan stuff. There was a city between two temples and it was very organized with streets and avenues, as well as canals to bring water around the city.

The temple Huaca de la luna is also amazing because the color of the murals still exists. FOr some reason, these people really liked temple building. Every so often they filled in the old temple and built the new temple right on top of it. There are literally layers of temple. The new temple was pretty much exactly the same as the old, but just a little it bigger.

Archeologists think that only the truly elite were allowed in the temple, everyone else stayed in the courtyard. The main god was a compilation of different animals, from the land and sea. HUmans, warriers who lost fights, were believed to be sacrificed to appease the gods and make for better weather conditions. I think I have mentioned that most of the Peruvian coast is a desert, so they couldn´t really afford dry spells.

THe Moche people are believed to have abandoned their religion when a El Nino wave hit them and it became clear that the priests really didn´t control weather. They then lived by more traditional government for a while before finally disbanding the culture. Most probaby assimilated into the Chimbe culture.

Only a few miles away you find a few ruins of the chimbe people. Two are literally within the city limits (all cultures from all times gather around water sources, in this case a river). These ruins are really less interesting. Right outside of town there is a huge complex where it is believed that 50,000 people lived. That is a lot of people for that time frame.

Now, the museum here is sub-par. THen, guides cost a bit of money, so most people just wander around on their own. There is nothing or very little of note. There are few designs on walls, and what there is has been covered over, for protection against the elements, but it just makes them look fake.

Finally I went to Huacachaco, or a name like that, and saw the beach. I really didn´t do much more than look and take a few pics. I had lunch. Now, if you don´t like seafood, beach towns are a problem. THey just don´t do other food well.

Then I hit up to main plaza in Trujillo. It is ok, nothing special. One thing to note is that there was a political rally for Keiko, the female presidential candidate, so there were a lot of people. THe rally didn´t officially begin until later, so i wandered around. I bought a shirt because all my clothes were dirty at the time.

The rally started 2.5 hours late. Imagine if Obama had ever showed up that late, all but the diehard supporters would have left. However, I am in Peru, and those who are from here and understand how things work, didn´t show up until 2 hours after the start time. I however, had no where to be, so sat on a stone staircase for 2.5 hours.

Ok, so like I mentioned, this was just for the day. Someone might wonder what I did with my bag for this time. Well, I bought my overnight ticket at 8am and checked my bag then. So, I needed everything that I could possibly need in 24 hours with me. My purse got a little heavy. Here is what I had in it:

book (i knew at some point i would still have to wait for a while for the bus to leave)

water bottle

wallet (and it´s a large clutch purse but it organizes everything well)

camera

phone and headphones

toilet paper (there is never any)

handkerchief (still getting rid of the last bit of cold)

candy bars for snacks

guidebook section for peru

sunglasses

sunscreen

Gifts that I forgot to take out of my purse the day before

now, what is not in there is a jacket of some sort. I was travelling in the desert for the day practically, so i didn´t have a coat. However, that night it got cold. Waiting around for the rally to begin was a little chilly. I only stayed for a few minutes of the actual rally because i had reached my cold limit and i didn´t want to sit on the step for any longer.

The buses all thankfully come with blankets for each seat, which is so nice.

I pulled into Cajamarca around 5am, got out my sneakers and coat (did i mention i was also in sandals) and then got a cab to a hotel. They let me check in right away without paying extra which was nice.

Cajamarca is also the place where the Inca people lost to the Spaniards. The last INca leader was betrayed and eventually killed here.

The first day I did my own walking tour of the city. It was ok, nothing too exciting.

The second day I opted for tours. I went to Cumbemayo in the moring, which is a rock outcropping a little ways outside the city. THe tour was very so-so.

In the afternoon I did a tour where we visited a dairy farm, saw the workings and did some cheese tasting. Cheese with oregano is very good. Then we went to a garden and saw some artesan stuff. THen we went to what are called the ¨windows¨ which are actually preincan ruins where they used to store the bodies of dead people. It´s a cemetery basically.

On the second tour there was a better guide and more active/talkative people, so it was much more enjoyable. I went to dinner with a German woman who is also travelling alone. We tried some traditional dishes and they were very good.

During the break between tours I pretty much did a tour of the bus companies. I wanted a ticket out of town that night, but everywhere was sold out. I ended up having to stay another day, which is why I can write this update. I slept in late, watched cable (including old Big Bang Theory) on tv in English! I am going to try cow brains for lunch and then see if I can get another tour for the afternoon.

I will do another daytour tomorrow although since the elections are tomorrow, i don´t know if i will be able to or not. I hope so. After that it is back to the mountains and more ruins. I like ruins, what can I say. Then several solid days at the beach.

Take care all,

Jill

Hey there folks, it´s time for Jill´s latest update.

I am in Huaraz, Perú. It is located in the mountains about midway up in the country. The town is the center for trekking, as there are a lot of things to do in the surrounding countryside. The national park here is about 100 miles long and covers a lot of mountains, which for people like me, means a lot of play. Unfortunately, I have been recovering from a cold so was not able to do a trek.

I did do a counple of outtings though. The first was a trip to Pastoruri, a glacier, located more than 5000m (16,000ft) up on a mountain. The pictures are really cool. In one I look like I am in Antartica. One day I will do an activity where it is warm. Being next to a glacier guarantees it is going to be cold.

THe next day I went to a lake really high up in the mountains. The lake is the product of snow melting from neighboring mountains, again with really great pics. Now, there is kind of a tragic story about one of the mountains. Exactly 40 years ago today, a major earthquake hit off the coast of Peru and the traditional adobe buiildings were not up to the tremor. But, one really unlucky town was located below a giant glacier, one that had fractured from the mountain. The earthquake loosened it and 63,000,000 cubic meters of material went flying down the mountain and covered the town. Literally 20-30ft of rock plus another 20-30ft of ice and snow sat over the town. Over 25,000 people died.

Next I am going to another mountain town, but due to mountain roads, there is no easy way to get there. I hope to visit some Peace Corps Peru volunteers in the area and see what their service is like.

I´ll put up picks when I can.

Jill

This desert oasis is surprisingly simple to get to.

I wont lie, there isn´t a whole lot to the ¨town,¨see pictures of how small the place is on the previous post, and I almost dismissed this trip as a waste. then I did the sand buggy tour.

My friends had talked this up quite a bit, so I was expecting a lot, and it delivered. Being in the buggy feels like being is a rollercoaster. You are just like, there is no way we are going up there, and then you do, then you can´t see the other side and have no idea if you are going straight down, or what! It is so much fun.

Then you get to try sand sledding on the board and then actualy boarding if you can stand up on the board. I was in a group of three people, the other two were girls from Denmark, and we got to stop several times to sled. It is so much fun, and I posted a video. You get really sandy. The sand is like fine beach sand which makes trying to walk up the dunes very interesting.

My attempts at standing on the sandboard was pitiful. My first time down I had a record of ten feet before falling, and the second time I made it a little further but then had a serious wipeout.

A couple of times on the trip I had to empty my shoes of sand because they were a few sizes too small due to how much space the sand was taking up. Then showering after was fun because there wasn´t enough water pressure to actually get the sand off.

In all, the town isn´t that great, but sand buggying is totally worth it!

Next step: back to the mountains. My goal is another trek (we´ll see) and rock climbing!

Sand dunes

here I go! (five feet before falling) The girls from Denmark and I agreed it was a cool factor just to have tried, no need to actually be able to stand up on the board!

Sunset.

Sandsledding. The internet is too slow to add the video of sandbuggy-ing. Make I can add it later.

Stairs going down Waynapicchu. I was not joking about the steepness, these were at least wide steps.

The average postcard pic of Machu Picchu. When I get home I need to photoshop out the people.

Baby Llama!

Random walls in the urban sector.

HousesMe! This is the view out from MP

View from random spot.

This was the boy´s learning center.

Agricultural terraces

Fresh from the hike up and taken before people arrived.

On the trek, this is one bridge that we crossed.

Town that we slept in.

Pretty mountains. Cold mountains.

First view of mountains. Day one when everyone was fresh.

Group resting on day one.

Cusco, one of many churches

These ladies go around saying ´take a picture´and then ´monies.´ I snapped this one without them looking.

Big church on the Plaza de Armas Cusco.

Typical market selling souvenirs

church bells

incan walls and churches

shopping street in lima.

blue church in lima.

one of many historic buildings in the historic district

main plaza

the girls who I met on my first night, they were also Honduras peace corps volunteers and were on their last night of travelling.

The hike went really well.

I got picked up at 5:30am on the first day, and we drove the about two hours to Mollepata. It is a small town that is the traditional starting point for this trek. After an expensive and unsatisfying breakfast in town, we started hiking. The whole day was a steady uphill at high elevation. This is why I got to Cusco a few days early, you have to learn to breath at that elevation. The town is over 10,000 ft above sea level, in comparison, Denver is a mile high at just above 5,000ft. There is a lot less oxygen and your body feels it.

The hike was pretty, we had some great photo ops of mountains. We followed the road all day. At lunch we realized we would be getting great food on the trek. Soup followed by traditional plates. No room for complaint. By the end of the day it was cold, I mean really cold. We camped at 12,500ft and it was COLD. We were all huddled around waiting for dinner wondering if waiting for dinner was necessary, knowing that sleeping bags were in tents. No one slept well, I can´t even explain the cold.

The next morning was sheer will and determination that got everyone up. We had to take off clothes to get ready for hiking, and most people paced and ate breakfast at the same time to keep the body moving to not cool down too much. Before noon we reached the saddle of Salkantay and Umkatay mountains. The saddle is at 4650m or 15,255 ft. That is high people. Our guide led us through a traditional Incan thanks giving ceremony to pachamama, or mother earth. Then we went down.

My knee lasted most of the way down, then I tried to wrap it, but had no idea how to wrap a knee. We went down almost 6000ft in that afternoon. The good news was that it was so much warmer down there! Everyone was out and talking and having fun. We were taught a peruvian card game called ¨Chancho va!¨or ¨Pig go!¨ It is really fun and I shall teach it to people when I get back to the states.

The next day was almost all downhill. We hiked all day and it became more jungle-y vs the highlands we had been seeing. By the end of the day it was almost exactly like Honduras, even to the point that they had coffee plants.

Then we learned the Russian knife game. Now, the first time we heard the rules we all thought that it was like playing russian roulette whether anyone was going to throw a knife and get it stuck in your foot, but it turns out it is a safe and fun game to play with knives. Later when the ground was too hard but we all wanted to play, we found a away to play with rocks, which makes it available to younger people as well.

The next day we hiked until Aguas Caliente, which is the starting point for Machu Picchu. The town kind of looks cute at first, but there is nothing all that great about it. It was made to house all the people going to MP. I also highly recommend skipping the hot springs, they are NOT WORTH IT.

So, last day of the trek was the Machu Picchu day. Now, there is a peak behind MP called Waynapicchu and they only let 400 people climb it a day, so only the first 400 in the place get it. How do you get to be one of the first in there? You wake up at 3:30am and start walking to the start gate for the hike (400m or 1,300ft) up the mountain. Now when I say up, I mean up. There is very little horizontal distance covered, it is almost like a constant spiral staircase up. It was funny, people who later when up on the bus were saying how crazy that road was and all the hikers laughed because the road did major S turns and the trail did not.

Machu Picchu is amazing. We got the guided tour for the first few hours and managed to get some pictures before thousands of people entered the ruins. They are really big so can hold that many people. I have limited time so cannot go into the history of machu picchu right now, but it was amazing.

Yeah, then I came back to town. I started a conversation with other travelers on the bus and we chatted for a while. I came back and had a nice discussion over dinner with two canadian girls. Life is going well. Tomorrow I head to Lima and then down to Ica.

Jill

Well, if anyone still reads this, I thought I would write up a little bit on what I have been up to.

I finished my Peace Corps experience on May 13th. It was also the day the trainees swore in and became real volunteers. There is something poetic about that. The last week was in Tegucigalpa finishing reports and medical tests. There is just something degrading about having to poo in a cup.

Before that I had a bunch of good-byes. Two weekends before, the volunteers in the department of El Paraiso threw me a good bye weekend. We went to two small towns that I had never visited. We had a barbeque at hot springs in one town followed by fresh strawberries at a freezing cold pool at the second town.

My host family threw me a pupusa and margarita party my last night in site. My whole host family was there and it was a really calm night just talking to everyone.

My last night was actually at the lake, where I met a close volunteer friend. We spent one night at a hotel, then the next day went to a giant waterfall.

THe next night, I didn´t stay in the hotel in teguc, but with friends. It was good to spend a calm night with them and talk.

So, after doing the paperwork and tests, I left! THere are both happy and sad feelings about that, but I don´t have time to express all of them.

The first night I had a 13 hour lay-over in San Jose, Costa Rica, where I met my friend Ryan. He had left two weeks before me and was on the last night of his travels, while I was on the first night of my travels. We went to a chinese place for dinner and just chilled, I got in too late to see much of the city. I will say though, that it is very different from Tegucigalpa, it is developed and has highways, and green in the city.

Finally, on Saturday morning, after an hour layover in Panama, I flew to Lima. This is when the giant panic happened. Apparently, my bank limited how much money I could get out, and I didn´t know this, so I flipped because i couldn´t get money out, i was in a foreign country and couldn´t get in touch with the guy I was couchsurfing with. I had friends who were on their last night of travelling in Colombia and Peru, and I had an idea where they were staying with, so I charged the overpriced airport taxi to my credit card and went to their hostel.

I had a good conversation with the taxi driver (yeah for speaking spanish) and because the hostel was on the other side of the city, I got to see a bunch of the city. I get there, start rehearsing how I am going to talk my way through the door and immediately see one of my friends. She was online trying to get a message to me, so seeing me was weird. At that point, we dropped my stuff off in their room, I used to internet to try and get in touch with couchsurfing guy, then we went out. We went to find an atm, my card still didn´t work, tried another one- no luck, and then went to email couchsurfing guy again, because the number he gave me didn´t work. We went to eat, at one point I called couchsurfing guy and that finally resolved itself.

At night, CS guy met me at the hostel and we all had a beer in the restaurant there, then I went to his sister´s house. We stayed there a little bit then went out for a walking tour of the historic district of Lima. It was really nice, so safe and so different than Teguc.

The next morning we did the walking tour during the day and got to see more and I was able to take photos. Then, I tried my debit card and decided to take a giant wad of money out so that I would never get stuck without money, well at least for a few weeks.

Lima is really nice, but it was so good to have a local guide. I can imagine that alone it wouldn´t be as nice. It is also pretty cheap, not as cheap as Honduras, but that is the price of development. Speaking of development, my friend told me that ten years ago the center was a bad place and that the government and investors spent a lot of money on it, and in my opinion it paid off.

I had dinner with his whole family, and then went to bed early because I literally could not keep my eyes open.

I then went to Cusco. I again had to pay a lot for the airport taxi only to get dropped off below the hill from my hostel. Not cool. I had my giant bag, and then there is not too much oxygen up here. We are around 3300m, or over 10,000 ft. I thought my heart was going to pound hard enough to explode. I got my room, dropped my stuff off and then went exploring.

I like exploring Cusco alone. I can go anywhere, spend as much time as I want people watching and having fun. I found the market, which turns out to be the cheapest place to eat lunch. I am going to need to control myself on how much I buy here though. I can´t help it, there are just that many things for sale that I really like. The one thing stopping me is that my bag is already full and heavy, so i don´t want more weight.

Oh, and my first night here, I lost the key to my lock! I had to make due with what I had in my purse for the night, then headed out early to buy a twin to my lock to be able to change and shower.

I leave early tomorrow for my hike, so it will be six days before I can post again.

Jill

PS photos will have to wait, i don´t want to load them now

The stoves that we made!

Me working with my counterparts- specifically resting after working for a whole 2 hours.

I made them pose with me for this photo. I didn't have any photos with me working with them.

Ultimate Frisbee, that is my little Carlita throwing the frisbee!

BINGO!!! I didn't win anything that night. boo.

I taught my host family, including the Japanese volunteer, how to play Yahtzee. Thanks Theresa for leaving the dice.

Turn your head sideways. The much beloved pupusas.

X and I at the 50th anniversary party for Peace Corps.

M and Seca before I gave her away.

It has been a long time since I have done a real post. I thought today would be a good day to catch up. Now, I have no idea when was the last time I wrote a blog entry, so forgive me if I repeat a little bit. The trainees are in my town again. I went to see them in the training center north of Tegucigalpa for a few days and help out with some activities. Since coming here we have gone on several field trips. A lot of my time has been planning those trips and future trainings. Since I live here, I have the contacts to do that, and it is my job. At the very least I will be qualified to be a peace corps training specialist in my future, if nothing else pans out. In the training center, we went to visit existing water systems, to show the components and explain all the names in Spanish. Let me remind you that some people come into the Water and Sanitation project with political science degrees or something like that, so we have to get down to basics. The next day was the practice abney level topo study. This was also the day of return of the ticks, apparently it is tick season again. I was really glad I had done several abney level surveys in my time here and that I had figured out how to problem solve in the field because there were several problems with the abneys. Once they came to site, we did chlorination systems and went out to see two tanks with chlorination, and a new treatment plant they are building for three communities. Then we did a bad water system day and were able to give advice to the community on how to repair their water system. We have done more, but my mind is a blank, I am very tired. My good friend came down last week to go over GPS-GIS with the trainees. I went to the mountains that day and believe I have already written about it. We went with all the El P women to Danli to party it up for K´s birthday. The next week I went to Olancho and got to see a pretty neat cave. The cave runs more than a mile into the mountain. It was very pretty and there were metal railings to protect the cave from foot traffic, and they did not detract from the caves like other places I have seen in Pennsylvania. I am trying to teach the housekeeper´s granddaughter some basic things, like which shapes are which, how to draw them, along with colors and numbers. I have no idea how to teach this, I am just hoping repetition is the thing. I feel like Count Dracula on Sesame Street. Una, hay una crayola. Which is One, there is One crayon. Her grandmother is completely illiterate and cannot help her, and I don´t know where the daughter is. Ultimate Frisbee with the kids is going really well. M and I started up an Ultimate Frisbee club a little over a month ago. The kids really like the game and it is so much easier to teach than baseball, plus a lot less equipment. They are learning strategy bit by bit, but they got the basic rules the first day. Only those who participate and let everyone play come back every week which is so much easier. There were a few who didn´t want to play with the girls and were really disrespectful, so having them gone makes the practices a lot easier. That is about it, not too much else going on. Jill

Well folks, I am writing today because I received a letter from Erin. You all should thank her (if anyone still reads this).

I had an amazing day today! Well, it started out the wrong way with my alarm clock going off at 5:05am, generally I prefer a 9am wake up call.

However, my counterparts called me at 5:25am to make sure I was up and ready to leave! This may not seem like it deserves an exclamation point, but it does{ it{s the first time it has ever happened! Then, I get to the office and they tell me we are only going out for the day, not dropping me off for three days!

We go to the town, stopping for coffee on the way and get there at 8:30am. Everyone is waiting for us, and they serve us breakfast. It turns out we only have two houses to measure to, and I have my counterparts do the work since they wanted to learn. We were joking the entire morning. We get done at 11am, have fresh tea from a fruit whose name I don{t know in English, then head back to the car. There we practice with another machine, and have lunch. Shortly after we leave, and get this, we stopped at a place to play pool!

To understand that, you have to understand that only prostitutes are found in pool halls here, and that I avoid them at all costs. We opened the place up, so no one else was there, and because I was with 3 guys, when other people did come, no one said anything to me! No insult, no cat call (which I have come to consider insults) and I got to play! They play by different rules, but I was just excited. That was one of the things I was excited to be able to do in the states, go to a pool hall! I wont even walk by one at night here.

So, a little while later we come back to town, I showered, then bought myself a new shirt. I was hanging out with a very good friend and sitemate M, and then my friend made dinner. We found someplace that sells decent quality meat at a good price, so I might actually incorporate meat into my diet now!

And now I am at the internet cafe! Later we will hang out more.

A great day.

Oh, and if you don{t send a letter to me by the end of next week, I may or may not get it before I leave.

Jill

One thing lost: my patience. I have used it all up.

My other announcement, I will not update again until I receive a letter in the mail. I am holding the details of my life hostage until someone writes me a letter, and here´s the kicker: they mail it to me.

Seriously, I am desperate here.

Jill

The Peace Corps Honduras staff put on a 50th anniversary party for the peace corps last week in tegucigalpa. I was interviewed on tv and if you go to picture three, you will see me as well. What can I say, I am a celebrity here!

http://www.elheraldo.hn/Vida/Ediciones/2011/03/07/Noticias/Medio-siglo-de-triunfos

Ok, so I am nearing my last few months of service. I am actually having a really hard time concentrating on being here these last few months, so be great and WRITE ME SOME LETTERS! For all of those who thought that they would write to me during my TWO YEARS here, you haven't. This is your last chance and I really need the encouragement.

So, here is my address again.

Jillian Churchill

Apartado Postal 34

El Paraiso, El Paraiso

Honduras

America Central

Mail letters before April 15th to make sure they make it to me on time.

Family I stayed with in the mountains.

I just call this "unwise." It's what you do when you want to write, but don't have a table. I was really worried I would accidently set their bed alight.

Overlooking part of the community during the study.

A dog that lives at my neighbors' place had puppies on Christmas eve, here one is on christmas morning.

Another neighbor and pup.

Town's Christmas tree in the park.

My host Mom, the current Japanese volunteer living with her and Me on Christmas Eve.

Yeah well, I am a little behind, so shoot me.

Well, this year I stuck around to experience the holidays Honduras style. Now, because I wasn't really looking forward to the holidays, they just kind of snuck up on me. Then, I was a little bummed at first (Mom, keep reading it gets better). Honduras Christmas is nothing like Maine Christmas.

I went to my in-town host family on Christmas Eve. During the day I was kind of bummed, but then I just took a minute to look around. Kids were playing in the streets, there were small fireworks going off, it was Honduras at Christmas. Fireworks are pretty (and pretty annoying all night long), and a big part of Honduran Christmas. Families were gathering and celebrating the holiday which is the most important thing. I went to my host family, and there were only 4 of us there because her kids/grandkids went to go see in-laws this year for Christmas. We were sittig around, eating, listening to punta. Punta is not exactly Bing Crosby singing "White Christmas," but I enjoy it, and it is very Honduran.

The next day a missionary that lives in the next town over invited me to her house. She invited the Peace Corps volunteers that were in the area and not going home (2 of us) to her house and had another guy who came to help the water drilling team that the church group runs. The four of us sat around talking, went to go visit a community where I have done a bunch of work, and had Christmas dinner together.

Then came my birthday. Now, I love my birthday because it's the day where everything is about me. Well, now that Megg is old enough to not throw a GIANT fit on other people's birtdays, it is all about me. I was kind of tired, so just spent the day being lazy. I was going to go visit people, but I needed to do laundry first, and just couldn't get the energy to do it. That night, I met up with M and a friend of hers in the park and we went to dinner together and later shared a bottle of wine. So, I did end up spending birthday time with friends.

Finally, New Years Eve. The biggest part of new years here is to "Quemar el viejo," or Burn the old. Now, this does not mean lighting Granny on fire, but burning effigies to represent the old year. In times of political or personal crisis, you can make something to look like a specific person, but really it's an excuse to light something on fire. We all love fire, whether you admit it or not. And there are still fireworks. These are not the same caliber that you see in New York at Christmas, or even Augusta on the 4th of July. However, everyone gets together, has a good time, and wishes for a prosperous new year, which is the point of it all.

So, I now have a Honduras holiday season under my belt. It is now 2011, and this year I will be returning to the states. I have 4.5 months left, but I can already feel the desire to be done and start the next phase of my life. However, that does involve job searching, so I'll enjoy the next few months, getting everything I can out of my Honduran experience, before going into that unpleasant experience.

Jill

Weird hats for dogs, and humans!

This is half of those who went to Gracias for Thanksgiving.

Biggest hair clip I have ever seen!

That's right, you can even get the B's merchandise here in Honduras. Used, but it's still here.

3 of the 5 flower girls.

My first host mother and myself.

Me and the bride, my host sister. Isn't that dress fabulous!

Bride and groom (missionary, not Peace Corps)

Me, posing. For most of the day I was unofficial photographer. My friends really wanted to pose for pics, and they made me sit for a pic or two as well.

The following is my tale from recent trip to the mountains:

Day 1: I am told we are leaving at 5am, so like a smuck, I arrive at 5am. No one is there, and I am sitting out by myself in the dark with my stuff. Thank goodness I live in a safe place. We actually leave at 5:38am. Later, one guy states that thank goodness we left on time for the first time! Now, what would your job be like if you showed up 38 minutes late and we considered on time?!

On the way out there, which is a 2.5-3 hour drive, there was some nice Christmas music in the background. That made me think of carolling last year with friends around my town.

Now, the people in my office like to joke around, and one favorite joke is to call an animal by person in the group's name. For example, a short person/animal/gnome on tv, is Edward, because he is really short. So, we are driving along and suddenly stop. Walter (my coworker) sticks his head out the window to ask how much does Nelson cost. Nelson, is another coworker, but he was referring to a pig. The very confused little girl answered that he wasn't for sale because they are planning on killing him (for food). Poor Nelson.

Good news: I can finally eat tortillas and mantequilla. Mantequilla is a sour cream type thing which has taken me almost two years to be able to eat like a Honduran. That's right, I can eat mantequilla now, so it's time to go home.

The community I am working in is called El Recuerdo and they have something very important going for them: a giant soccer field. This thing is almost regulation size. It is hard to find large tracks of flat land, so normally people play in small areas, but not here. They even have a league set up between all of the small communities, complete with championships. There are jerseys to wear, but the players don't take them home. This is common: one family takes care of the jerseys and at teh beginning of every game they fight over numbers and such. This one family (and by that I mean one woman) takes care of the jerseys, ie washes, and has them ready for the next game.

Lunch rolls around and one guy was excited to have me eat at his house. He is one of the people really advocating putting in this system and has been giving me a tour of the area all morning. So, I go there and am given a plate of food: balona and weird eggs cooked in a large amount of oil, a large portion of mantequilla, and 6 tortillas. My life is interesting, what can I say. If nothing else, Peace Corps has taught me to be less picky about food.

That afternoon I was sitting around because my work for the day was done. I was reading The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe in Spanish in a hammock and made myself nauseous due to the rocking motion. Later, I planted myself in teh kitchen next to the wood burning stove to keep warm and continued reading. As the afternoon progressed, I was tilting the book to get the last remnants of sunlight then toward to fire to get light there. A few minutes after I had given up on reading, the woman turns on the light. THe light! They had light! Actually, they have a solar panel which means that they have lights throughout the house and even a tv. I don't even have a tv. It shocked me to see electrical appliances in the house.

Day two:

One thing that should be done before dragging out the topo equipment is to pick your route so that you don't have to argue about the direction while carrying the equipment. So, that is what we did on day 1, but on day 2 all kinds of new people were there and there was lots of discussion. I allowed this for a few minutes until putting my foot down that there was a route, and there would be no changing of the route. Unfortunately, because they know the area so much better than I do, I don't always know that not being flexibe is a good thing. However, I can't have them taking forever to discuss something.

Later, I broke the equipment. Not so much that it doesn't work, but enought that I'm worried I could cause more problems. So, we had to carry the theodolite separately, baby-ing throughout the day.

At 1:30pm, I was asked until what hour we were going to work. My answer: 5pm. Their hope was 2pm. Sorry guys, we work long days when i am out there.

One of the things I like to do while on a topo study is let people look through the theodolite to see how much it magnifies things. So, at one point I set it up pointed a house which you could see the outline of the house with your eye, but no details. Through the eyepiece, you could see lots of details of the house. Now, later, while waiting for the guys to chop down some brush in my way, I started looking at a house and watching the people, although only for 5 seconds. Is it weird that I want to see something funny/ embarassing happen while spying on people? Don't answer that.

Later that night, I read two kids books that I picked up to the kids of the house. Now, it was hard for them to concentrate, but the little girl seemed to like it and played with the books pointing out all the animals to a smaller child later.

The next day I headed back to town (short trip, I know). I was riding in the cab of a truck with one of the guys with the community. He went through the basic questions: What is your name? Do you like it here? Do you have a boyfriend? No joking, this is how every conversation goes. What was funny though was later, when he asked why I was not married. I responded that I am young, and like travelling, and that I had plenty of time to marry later. So, he asked how old I was. 25 I respond (although only for another 13 days). The look on his face was precious. That is OLD to not be married in the villages. Normally girls here get married around 16.

That's all for now. More adventures on the next edition.

A full blog entry to come soon, but this happened this morning and I thought it quite cute.

Back story: My dog sheds A LOOOOTTTTT!!!! I sweep once or twice a day and brush her everyday, and there is always hair everywhere. Also, several months ago in a rage I broke my dustpan, so I sweep everything out onto the street.

So, this morning I am sweeping and getting this morning´s load of dog hair out of my apartment. My five year old neighbor asks me what the dog hair was, which I explained. Then he asked, ¨Why did you take her hair off?¨ It sheds kid!!! It can´t be stopped.

Anyway, I thought it was cute.

Jill

Ok, so a few updates ago, I put in a big thing about how to send me text messages online. Apparently it wasn't working for a while, but I have since received a message via the website. So, please feel free to try again.

Tomorrow I leave for a topo study, and should have interesting stories when I come back.

Jill

I went to go visit friends for thanksgiving. It was a great time. Over 30 people showed up for dinner, including PC volunteers from all over the country, other Americans in the town, and some Honduras that knew the couple throwing the party. Afterwards, a bunch of us went to the hot springs! They have been developed into a tourist attraction, with stone pools dug out to allow for swimming. Oh, how I miss swimming. And today I was thinking about figure skating, not something you see around here.

ok, i gotta run

JIll

Hey there folks. Time for another book review:

I just got finished reading Chris Duff's On Celtic Tides. It is an excellent read. In 1996, Chris solo sea kayaked around Ireland. It took him over three months to do it, and he wrote a very nice book about it. This book calls out to those who have the adventurous spirit, fierce independence, a love of water, or kayaking, and those who are interested in learning more about Ireland. I give it 5 stars.

At one point he quotes John Dunne, "No man is an island." Chris then goes on about how sometimes a solitary adventure brings you closer to those you love. I agree with this. Now, for the last several years, I have been living away from home (college, grad school, and now the Peace Corps) but even here, I find myself thinking about my family and friends a lot. Without all the distractions of surviving a normal life, there is a lot of down time to self-exam and think about those you love. Now, there can be too much self-examination as well, but thinking about family gives you strength to continue, because those people (and I write that my closest friends are family to me) have given you the ability to do this. They have shared their dreams with you and given you the inner strength to continue through the hard times.

So, to all of you who have made me who I am, I thank you.

Still being in the reading mood, I reread all the letters that have been sent to me in Honduras. Yes, I still have them all. They are out of order and most are not dated, so it was weird to relive those letters and experiences in those letters out of order. Trips are planned, taken, shared, proposals followed by weddings, children being born. A lot has happened in the last 1.75 years.

That's all for now,

Jill

A natural umbrella- banana leaves!

looks kind of like a minigolf obstacle.

Hey, there! I just got back from a weekend up in the mountains. I had a good time and was surrounded by good people. My sister would like them, the women are trying to make me fat by giving me HUGE plates of food 3 to 4 times a day. One day I finally convinced them only to feed me twice, although once was enough!

The first day we get out there, a cold front came through and it rained freezing cold rain (for Honduras that is). Anything under 70F is cold to me now. One day I was cold at 72F and then really cold at 68F. Later I got a little better and only needed the sweater under 70F. Anyway, to avoid the very cold rain, I had one of the guys helping me cut me a banana leaf. I balanced it on my head between points. Later, someone ran to their house and got me an umbrella. While I was taking the points, I could not hold it with my hands, so someone would hold it for me. Now that's service!

I remembered something very important on this trip- the problem with water. This time I mean drinking water. In the States, everyone drones on about dehydration, but here it's rare to see the villagers carry water although they do hard work all day. The first few days out I was really thirsty, but had forgotten my water bottle at home, so I was just thirsty. I would get like two to three cups of coffee a day and that's it for liquid. Later, they gave me water with meals and then I ran into the other end of the problem: what to do when you have to go to the bathroom. I thought I would be gone for two to three days, but ended up being gone a week, and thus didn't bring enough toilet paper. That's only a small problem when I could find a bathroom. Somehow while surveying through coffee plants I can't see the meter stick, but always feel that I might be seen through the branches. I stayed with a family one night that didn't have a latrine, so everyone goes in the great outdoors.

Normally when I work, I have three guys with me and then everyone else either making stakes, moving branches out of my way or cutting the underbrush. The three guys are: one hold the backshot stick, one carries the theodolite and one the meter stick. This time I had four guys working with me one day- the third had to help me get from one spot to the other. It started when I needed to do a jump from one rock to the other. Now, not normally a problem but I felt uncomfortable jumping from one slick rock to another with a six foot drop to the stream between. Later, I was just falling all over the place. In the last few months of little work, I lost my mountain legs. By the end of the week I got my mountain legs back!

One day I was working and the backshot and person carrying the theodolite were kids, well, teenagers. One was staring like he was in LOOVVEEEE, with me. All day, just staring at me, it's weird. This kid saw S and I when we danced at the dance festival in the plaza. He also told me that it is rumored that S brought a bunch of teenagers to the States. Not actually true, she went home alone.

One thing, a lot of people talk to you about helping them get to the States. Now, we can't actually do it, Peace Corps rule. One guy who helped this week was talking to me about helping him get a visa to go work in the states for a few years. The passage through Mexico is extremely dangerous for illegals, so he doesn't want to go illegally. All I could think though was: you are never going to get a visa. Pretty much, you need money to get a visa. The process is long, involves several trips to the capitol and maybe some bribe money. The bribe stuff I am not sure about, but it's rumored to be true. This guy does not have the money for all the trips into the capitol, not to mention flight to the states and start up cash. I smile and nod when people talk to me like that, because I know there is no hope.

One thing about life in the mountains, life starts early. The women are all up by 5am, starting the cooking fires and general business. The men who work in the fields leave the house around 6:30am. This was true for my work too. They normally stop working around 1 or 2pm, while we worked until 5pm. The teenagers just up and left though at 3:30pm the day they helped out. I was at the base of the hill, the others at the top and I had to scream to them that the kids just left. They had had enough. Suffice it to say, the others weren't so happy about that. Without someone to carry the equipment, I was done. Before I got my mountain legs back, I was slipping and sliding down a LOT. Even afterwards, I am not carrying that heavy thing up a mountain side! I am not in that great of shape people!

Sometime the person carrying the equipment would try to level it off. At first I encouraged it, why not? Their job was to carry the thing, which is not so exciting. Well, one day this guy really wants to do it, but he was so SSSSSSSLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW. Seriously, ten minutes to level it when I can do it in under 2. I was seriosly trying to get some zen calm. By the end of the day I started jumping in and grabbing two of the three legs of the tripod and managing to level it with only those two. As nightfall was closing in I finally was just like, move over! I was trying not to be mean all day, but my patience has a definite limit!

Now, a little note on poverty. Someone not used to this here would assume that everyone in the mountains live in a state of poverty. There are however levels of poverty. Some people are actually doing pretty well although their house may or may not look like it. Others, well they are really poor. Then, there is the level of hygene that people keep to. You will see some people cleaning their dirt floors with brooms made of a stick with leaves to keep their house clean. Then you have some people who let the livestock enter their house, everyone goes to the bathroom wherever, and well it's dirty. At one such house I saw a pig walk into the kitchen and come out with a banana in it's mouth. Ok, so a pig walks in it's own feces. If you then allow it to enter your house, it drops that feces in your house.

Likewise, some people will keep their kids clean. A quick dip in the stream does that. In this particular regions, there were streams everywhere, so it would only take a few minutes to run your kids to the stream and clean them. Note: people who don't have water at their house do everything at the stream (bath, wash dishes, clothes, etc.). So, you see some poor people who try to keep basic sanitation high, and then those that don't. I always feel bad for the kids in those situations.

Seca is doing well for all those that are curious. My new sitemate, M, took care of her. She is afraid of street dogs though, so doesn't walk her very far. I now know most of the street dogs, or at least those on the streets that I frequent. Most of the time it's Seca that creates a problem if there is a problem. I still hear, "and your dog?" if I walk around town without her. She's famous.

Health update: To add to all the skin problems I have had here, I now add a fungus to that list. That's right, the skin parasites love me. Not to worry, it is not harmful, just itchy and I went to the doctors and got me some meds to get rid of my new problem.

So, write your letters quickly! A friend will be in the States until Nov. 13th and has agreed to shuttle letters (or small packages) back to Honduras. So, write to:

Jill Churchill

c/o Sheila Kragie

2683 Bon Bon Dr.

San Jose, CA 95148

These need to get in BEFORE Nov. 13th. Write fast!

PS. No one has sent me a text yet on the very well displayed tigo website, what´s up with that. I know you all have internet access, since you need it to see this blog!

Ok, so you can send me free text messages anytime you are online! go to www.tigo.com.hn and this screen will come up. Click on the yellow/orange one in the middle

This will then show up. type in your name, make it short like Jill vs Jillian Churchill. then click "aceptar"

then this will pop up. in the first place, put my number, 9525-5595. this is one more digit then you are used to, but trust me, it works

Ok, so now type in the bottom spot what you want to send me. when you are done, click enviar on the bottom right.

Now, you have to do the verification, like any site you need to prove you are a humann, and not an automated machine. every time i have tried this, i have needed all lower case. type the verification in that white box below the numbers and letter, and then click on the "enviar" that is right next to it. Then keep texting! It is kind of expensive to text back, so you may not hear from me, but it is a great way to say hello to your favorite daughter/sister/niece/cousin/friend when you are online.

Ok, so I am not feeling very communicative today, so this might be a very short blog, solo Dios sabe.

I went out to a mountain community two times in the last two weeks. Now, here is the thing, i work with gravity water systems, so the dam has to be higher than the tank so the water flows downhill, and then the houses below the tank, so again, water flows downhill to the houses. There are pump systems that use a pump to get water out of the ground and into a tank, but i don't do those.

So, we go, and try to verify that the water source was higher than the tank site. we normally do this with a GPS, to get a basic picture, because they are not 100% right. But, on trip one, we find out that the GPSes don't want to get a signal because the source is in a canyon. Then, when i go back with my survey equipment, the townspeople are all about starting at the tank site and surveying to the source. so, we go downhill (not a good sign), then continue going down until we hit the source and they are like, "We're here!" and I get to tell them, "No we are not!" Yeah, whole day wasted.

fun note, as we are working I heard loud booms, and the first time i thought it was thunder. Nope, its the Nicaraguans disarming bombs by exploding them! Now, mother, don't worry, it was several miles from me, its just that sound travels so i could hear it.

ok, really not feeling like typing, and Erin, forgive the typo errors, i don't have the energy to correct them although i know they drive you nuts.

Jill

Campfire night 1. Making smores!

View from the trail. That is a lake in the background.

Further up the trail.

Looking out into the mountains.

Waterfall!

That's me! The flash caught the little droplets of water that bounce off the bottom of the waterfall.

At the top.

Lookout. This is the group I travelled with. Great people.

Jealous yet!

So, not too much has been going on lately. My sitemate, S, left. that was sad. She is a great friend and an excellent person. She has been replaced by M who seems like a really nice person, but I don't know her that well yet.

Work is going, slow progress but going.

This weekend, I went to the national park Cerro Azul. It is beautiful. I met a lot of really nice, new people. I signed up for couchsurfing, and they were all a part of it. I was kind of disappointed, I have been sick lately and not working, so I haven't been speaking that much spanish, so I was excited to talk to them in spanish but almost all of them spoke english. there was another person there that only speaks a little bit of spanish, so they all spoke in english. oh well. I will try to get pictures up later from the trip and you can all be jealous about me living here and kick your butts for not coming and visiting.

Also, most of you (ie not Erin, Megg, and Mom) have not completed the New Year's resolution I set for you. So, get out some paper, write me a letter and pop it in the mail!

Take care all,

Jill

So, yesterday I was bored, and really tired of my long hair. So, I decided to cut it. Myself. I began cutting to the normal level I cut my hair, which is right before it hits the shoulders, but then decided to go for something that I had been thinking about. My hair is now a bobbed length, although my hair doesn't behave that way. Its kind of Molly Ringwold, 1980s style.

Well, lately I have been thinking about how you know you have been in Honduras too long. Here is what I have:

You stick everything in your bra. It’s an anti-robbing technique meant to separate your money from your bag. However, when you put a chip bag there because there is no trash can, it may have been kept too far.

You stand six inches or less away from doors. In Honduras, if you want to go into someplace next, there is no polite space allowance, stick your face on the door to signal you are next.

Espagetti is acceptable food. This is spaghetti, but with cream mixed into the sauce. I have not reached this phase, but friends have.

You love fried food. Well, I used to eat healthily.

You prefer soda over water to refresh yourself. I never bought soda for my house, now I down large quantities on nearly a daily basis.

You throw everything on the ground.

You now speak Spanglish and not English.

Ants in your food no longer upset you.

You have been sick on a bus a few times.

You call out “chitch, chitch, chitch,” to get someone’s attention. In the past that was only used on dogs.

You see a cute little kid on the bus and think, “Que linda la negrita.” In the states, that would be extremely offensive; it means what a cute little black girl.

You can tell rich Hondurans based only by skin tone. The richer they are, the less time they have ever spent in the sun, and thus the whiter their skin. My friend was recently quoted saying, “He’s light skinned, but not rich white.”

Yeah, that’s all I have for now. Every book/ article on going back to the states says that getting readjusted to the US is more difficult than getting used to the foreign culture. There are many theories on why, but I believe that our concept of “normal” has changed. Also, how do you put the extreme poverty that we sometimes see against people spending outrageous amounts of money. The fact that all Americans are not rich and in fact can be quite poor although they make a lot by Honduran standards has been a common topic of conversation lately.

A little after sunrise, day 1.

The group (minus 1) getting ready to go snorkeling.

This island is for sale! Any takers?

Pelicans. They are looking at a guy cleaning fish. He cleans out the insides and throws them anything he takes out.

After the big class 4 drop, the one in the background. It looked more impressive in real life.

Me, jumping from the large rock. Mom, please note the life jacket and helmet.

I’m not sure the last time that I updated my blog, or what I wrote on that update, so this may be very out of date.

Two weekends ago: I went to Comayagua to Peace Corps Olympics! I shared a hotel room with several friends and friends of friends (which is how you meet everyone in PC). I was kind of disappointed because we didn’t have hot water.

The Saturday began and we all go to the soccer field, which because of all the rain lately has been named the mud bowl. We play soccer, in three games. My team won! Not that I assisted in that. I was out there, but my skills at soccer stopped at basic passing the ball. I had a lot of fun. It was so hard to stop while playing, and people were sliding and falling into the mud all over the place. At one point I passed the ball to a teammate, and saw three other players from the opposing team start running for the ball and thought, “Oh no, they are going to get it;” but in the end they all slid too far and the ball went right to whom it was meant for. Go me.

After soccer, we had sack races, three legged races and a water balloon toss.

The final activity was ultimate Frisbee. Now, this is not my game. I tried, I really did, but just couldn’t get it. Every time that I tried to cover my person, I wouldn’t have a clue where the Frisbee went to, and if I watched the Frisbee for a second, I lost the person. In the end, I didn’t end up playing too much, just cheering on my team.

Afterwards we all went dirty and tired to eat lunch. We had the events at a real city, with all kinds of restaurants, Honduran and American. Then back to the hotel to rest for the night, and Peace Corps prom.

Now, I am not going to lie, I was disappointed in prom. Really it was a dress-up party. I went in a strapless dress (reuse of bridesmaid dress!) and had quite the sun tan/burn lines. I applied sunscreen twice in 6 hours, apparently not enough, even for an overcast day. Most of the women were in a similar position.

The next day I went home, and worked for the week.

Until Friday, when I took off for vacation. Now, before the vacation started I was flipping out because our paychecks were very late. For two months we had been paid at the middle of the month, and it was already the 20th and we hadn’t been paid. I didn’t have enough without that month’s pay, and the vacation needed to be paid for in cash. In the end a friend had to up front me a lot of money.

That first day I went up to the coast, picking up some friends on the way. We stayed in a cottage on the beach. Early the next morning we took off for some islands which are only a few miles off the North Coast of Honduras. After stopping at the conservation center, we went to where we would be staying. There is a Garifuna community there (refer back to old blogs if you don’t remember them). They fed us and let us sleep in one of the cabins for the night.

We did a bit of snorkeling that first day. Now, I was wearing a sundress over my bathing suit most of the day and thought to myself, “I need to but on more sunscreen before going out without the dress.” Yeah, people had already left, so I just went in. While in the water I realized that I hadn’t applied sunscreen, and yep, I burned. One hour in the sun, and skin not used to seeing daylight= strong burn. For those of you who haven’t already figured out where I burned, I burned my butt. There is a strong red outline around the bottom bathing suit half. So, burned butt cheeks and upper thighs = fun time sitting. I have never been more happy that I sleep on my stomach and therefore wouldn’t be in pain all night. The next day I applied much sunscreen the my bottom.

The next day did have a bunch more snorkeling, and we saw an island for sale. Very sweet set-up. We then ate more lunch (fresh fish again) and headed back to the mainland. Half of the group had to go back to work, and the rest of us went up into the mountains. We went to a lodge and ate before going to bed. Sounds boring, but all that sun and time on the water wore us out.

The next morning we went out white water rafting. It really felt like only a few minutes, but it was three hours, well, almost three hours. The stinky part is that the hard part is right in the beginning, and then it is much easier. So, the first few minutes I was still a little unsure and a little nervous, but later when I was like “whooahh,” it was only baby stuff. Not the fault of the company, but still a little stinky.

Yeah, and then we started heading home. Good times had by all.

I get home and there was an inauguration of a park and community center that my friend and fellow volunteer designed and found funding for. I went to that; it was very preachy since a reverend was the master of ceremony. Still, I had a good time.

Now, I am home, at least for a few days, and working. I am really excited for going and staying out in the aldeas in two weeks. I really like being out there.

So, first let me say that I am writing this at the internet cafe instead of at home, and this keyboard is very sticky, so please excuse typing errors because going back and correcting everything has already become tedious.

Last weekend I took a minivacation. M sitemate, S, and I went to the south of Honduras. Now, for us, it is easier to travel through Nicaragua, than to go through Tegucigalpa. We managed to get permission from Peace Corps to do this (normally we would have to apply for vacation in advance ) but this time we did it. IT was a great trip.

Before even getting on the first bus it was a good trip. We go to our bus terminal and there is some gatorade promotion going on and the first thing the guy says after we walk over there to see what was going on was ¨la chica mas bonita que he visto en verde¨which translates to the most beautiful girl i have ever seen in green, i was wearing green that day. Then we heard the vocal styling of a few bolos in town. bolos are drunks that really can´t even have a productive life they drink so much.

we finally get going and it takes forever to pass the first border, we were stopped and had to present passports 4 times, no joking. now, once we passed the border i was travelling further south than i had ever been in my life. Nicaragua by the way surprised me because just looking at the infrastructure, the development of roads and towns and bus terminals, etc, you would think it was a richer country but the people are actually poorer than hondurans.

THe greatest part about going is that neither S nor I looked up how to get where we were going. So, we had to ask the border agent how to get there. he looked at me like ÿou are going to get so lost¨while I was repeating hte names of the towns where we had to change buses. We got stuck in town 2 for 2 hours because the bus didn´t leave in a convenient time frame. We finally mak it to border number 2 - crossing back into honduras- and find a friend there, so her family gave us a ride into town. that was nice, because we had already been on four buses and there wasn´t a bus waiting.

The town was amazing, lots of money there. now my town is pretty nice, but pales in comparison. the fair was going on, we we walked around after getting to the house to put our stuff down. there were stands of food, games, carnival rides... a fair. That night was a big old dance. they close off the center of town and put up bands and djs all over the place. luckily our friend lives in the closed off zone, so we got in there before they closed everything and thus didn´t have to pay to enter. we danced until like 2:30am. good times!

I will say this though, the guys there are not as brave as the guys here. We were dancing for a long time there without anyone asking to dance with us. This would NEVER happen in my town, here you literally have to shove them off you.

Now, I must have written about piropos or cat calls at one point or another. Now, one thing about cat calls, well the appropriate ones anyway, they feed your selfesteem. When we went dancing in that other town and no one wanted to dance with us, it was kind of a blow to the ego. We have decided that 1:those guys aren´t as brave as the onse around here and 2: they didn´t want to break into a group of 4 women. note: that would not deter anyone in my town, they come into groups of 8.

Yeah, i am not feeling all that descriptive today. for anyone who wants it, my number changed to 9525-5525.

Take care

Jill

Hello again, apparently I have picked up the blogging attitude.

Today, instead of baseball we played kickball. Baseball kind of fizzled out and now every other Saturday we have some kind of sport or activity for kids. We didn’t quite get the attendance we wanted, but that meant we got to play and not just be coaches. It had been a LONG time since I had played, but it was a good time! We had a few new kids and some we hadn’t seen in a long time, so that was good. Kickball, an activity that only needs a soccer ball and its fun for all ages, I recommend it.

Also, I am getting in better shape, a friend and I have started running. It was kind of weird, she knew I ran every once in a while, so one day she asked me if I wanted to run in the morning, and now we are running buddies three days a week. The first time we ran we both tried to bring our dogs and that was a disaster! First they only wanted to play and so getting them to go straight was interesting and then one little dog came up growling and ended up getting hit by a car. Since then, we just run without dogs. Occasionally S comes along and runs too.

Funny story, so I go to the post office and the guy tells me there is no mail for us. Then, he comes out and has a letter with my name on it and says there is a package. This is why I like the woman, she knows me. Turns out, the letter was mailed in August of last year! It had been hidden in the wrong box for almost a year. I started reading and got very confused because it had odd references to things that happened last year. The package was great, treats for me and for Seca!

Another note: I highly recommend the movie Memoirs of a Geisha. I know it came out a few years ago now, but I thought it was rather well done. I had avoided seeing it for a long while because I liked the book and did not see how it could be made into a movie without skipping a lot, but my congratulations to the movie makers, they did an excellent job. No two hour movie could have all the detail of a 200 page book, but the imagery was amazing and they were faithful to the story line.

Making wood-burning stoves. Update: the families that have the new stoves are happy to report they use 1/5 to 1/7 of the wood they were using before which saves them money, and protects the environment. With the chimneys, the smoke is leaving the houses and no longer accumulating in their lungs.

Two little chicks! So cute.

Bride prep!

Going to the chapel, and Erin's getting mar-ar-ar-aried!

Make-up time.

Hair stylin'

Gift boxes with chocolates

Manicures and pedicures, too bad we almost drove Erin crazy trying to find the place!

Walking to the restaurant to start the bachelorette party!

View on drive up Tuscon's Mt Lemmon.

Rex, while not getting squished by backpacks.

Dengue

Instead of doing my normal moment by moment account of what I have been up to lately, I have decided to talk a little about one topic. Today’s topic is dengue fever.

This is a very important topic for me and all those in Honduras (as well as many other countries). This year the dengue epidemic is very bad, the public hospitals are full and have to turn away patients. There have been many deaths this year due to hemorrhagic dengue. The rainy season is the perfect time for this to spread.

The virus is carried by a mosquito. The mosquito bites an infected person, and then can transmit the virus to the next person it bites. Dengue is a virus, so there are no preventative measures such as vaccines that can be taken. The best defense is to use mosquito repellent.

The rainy season provides all kinds of stagnant water for the mosquitoes to breed in. The amount of water held by half an egg shell is all the water they need. Now, keep in mind that this country relies on pilas, or open cement tanks to store water, and you have a perfect mosquito breeding spot in or right outside the house. Available through public health centers are what is called “abate,” which kills mosquito eggs in the water, and this needs to be placed in the pilas to prevent mosquito reproduction. The puddles and other water sources in homes are another risk.

Due to the almost limitless amount of spaces for the mosquitos to reproduce, the government is sponsoring a major fumigation campaign. This is a lot bigger in the capitol, Tegucigalpa, because that is where the majority of cases have been so far. My area is also seeing high numbers. Last night the school across the street from my house was fumigated in an effort to protect the kids. My host Mother, who had dengue earlier this year, has fumigated her house twice in the last few months.

The virus itself needs five days in the body before it will show itself. The symptoms are general cold/flu symptoms with body aches, fever, tiredness, etc. The scare is hemorrhagic dengue which comes about when the blood platelet levels are very low. After five more days, a very itchy rash is common. Then, your mind wants to be able to go back to doing normal things, but your body needs more time to recover and gain strength or else you can come down with an opportunistic infection.

I am very good about applying the repellent, and take my naps under my mosquito net to make sure I don’t get bit then. There are four versions of the virus and a lot of volunteers come down with at least one during their time here.

Incredibly brief update:

Not much happening around here except for a ton of rain.

I started a project to create catchbasins and an actual rainwater removal system. Most of the road around here are dirt. Those of you who have ever lived on a dirt road know how much a good rain can damage the road. Now imagine a good sized storm everyday- the roads are in pretty bad shape right now. I went and for some critical areas, did some measurements and the municipality might put in some storm drains. Who knows, it might just be a pipe dream.

Baseball last week was interesting. One kid brought a small soccer ball, so while waiting for more kids to show up, we started passing the ball. As more kids showed up I became goalie and they pretty much did corner kick drills. It was a lot of fun. Only four kids actually showed up, and after a while of soccer, we switched to baseball. We practiced throws, pop-ups, then I taught them how to bunt. That was a little hard to explain especially considering the new kids who have now batted three times in their life.

I just had such a good time playing with the kids. What am I going to do in the states to match that? My nephew is several years away from being able to play catch or soccer with his aunt. If I tried to play with kids in a park I would be considered a predator. There is always little league sports but who wants to deal with crazy parents?

There was an inspirational concert the other night. Basically, these singers that would never make it on the big stage are put into this concert and the message is to live more peaceful lives, without violence, and preventing teen pregnancy. It was ok, not something I would go to again, but for one night it was fine. Walking home afterward there was a group of guys smoking, well, not tobacco. Great job, a concert to get away from things like drugs and you smoke up a doobie right afterwards. Then they didn’t get it when S and I weren’t interested in them. Shocking.

I did a day of translating, and was very happy with how that went. The Episcopal church has missionaries here end a water ministry that has well drilling machinery. Well, when they go into a town to put a well in, they have a class on water hygiene and health. While they have trained and hired Hondurans to help them there is still a woman that comes down from the states to do it and she doesn’t speak Spanish, so I helped her out. I thought what they had done was good. She gave me a large bag of hersheys kisses as a thanks which thoroughly enjoyed.

That morning I woke up to a Seca emergency. I get out of bed and Seca was being more clingy than normal. I pushed her off and started going about my business. A few minutes later I look down and her face was HUGE!!!! She must have tried to eat a bee or hornet and got stung. I didn’t even think I ran to my med kit and got out the Benadryl and shoved one down her throat. She was acting normal and she ate fine although her mouth was huge and her eyes were almost completely swollen shut. I ended up giving her another Benadryl and when I was satisfied the swelling was going down I left to do the translating, I did get distracted several times during the course of the day hoping that she was fine. No lasting side effects. I wasn’t even around to see if she got doped up on the meds.

Ok, so I did something stupid. I was making pizza and it came time to take it out of the oven, and I could only find one oven mitt, so I put it on my right hand and started to take it out. Well, my pizza tray is wider than my oven so the tray has to go in at a bit of an angle. I tried to take it out and it started to rotate, and yep I did the dumb thing I reached out with my free hand to stabilize it. Burned a few fingers but good. I couldn’t immediately treat it though because the pizza slid off the tray and onto to heat coil things at the bottom of the oven and caught on fire. I was worried I was going to burn my house down for a minute. However good sense returned and I grabbed a towel to protect my left hand and put the pizza on the tray again and took it out of the oven. Then I put the blistering fingers in water. So, now I sit typing this with one hand because the left hand is wrapped around ice. Does this type of stuff happen to other people? Or is it just me?

Long, long time and no update. Well, things have been moving pretty slow around here. I have also lost the desire to blog and share every miniscule detail of my life, because everything here has become so normal to me. My dog ate something of mine: normal. Heavy rains: normal. Blunders in Spanish: normal.

Three weeks ago now I left to go to the states. I went to Erin’s wedding in AZ, hence why no one knew I was in the states. After some snafus trying to get there, I had a wonderful visit. I gained at least 5 pounds on the trip thanks to eating all that wonderful food.

Most of the visit was hanging out and getting ready for the wedding. Kelsey was there already so it was the three of us. One day we went up into the mountains and drove around. Did you know there was a ski resort right outside of Tucson, AZ? Yeah, the mountains are high enough that it snows there. Amazing.

The wedding was gorgeous, eventually I will put up a pic or two. The wedding was in the Catholic church that the groom’s parents belong to and the reception was at a country club. Now, the four of us (adding Devika now) met/ became good friends due to playing tennis together in college, so we took some shots on the tennis courts there; some fun ones where we are playing tennis using the bouquets as rackets and some pretty posing pictures as well. I can’t wait to see those!

Since then I have been on post-vacation vacation. The last few days I have finally gotten back into doing a little work- little being the key phrase there.

What work I have done is mostly for a stove project. The people who live in the villages, and a good portion of those who live in towns and cities have wood burning stoves for cooking. These stoves are generally very inefficient and cause major health problems because the smoke sits in the room and enters the eyes and the lungs of those in the house. Therefore the designs for these stoves have been modified to reduce the amount of wood needed and adding in a simple chimney to remove the smoke from the household.

In the community of San Lorenzo (note you will not find this community on ANY map) I have been working on a stove project in conjunction with a missionary who lives in the city nearby. I help with the building of the stoves and training of the women on how to build them, and she provides the money basically.

A note on small villages here: Each community kind of has a community board for community projects. These include small things like organizing workers to clear the sides of the road of debris, to big projects like building schools. Now, this community currently has 2 big projects, they are building a park (designed by fellow PCV Nathan) and a community center (also designed by Nathan). Each household is required to send people to work on the project. Not doing so does have consequences.

What the missionary has done is to increase participation by rewarding extra work. The big budget items for the stoves are the metal plates that serve as the cooking area and the chimney. Now, it costs less than $30 to build a stove, but if you are a subsistence farmer, this can be a lot of money. The missionary stated that those households that contributed two extra days of work to the projects can get the metal plate and the chimney.

We have used one lady in particular in the stove projects and she has become the leader for the project. A few months ago she was brought to a Women in Agriculture meeting to learn me about better farming practices and how to become a female leader in a very male dominated area. She returned to town too shy to actually try to be a leader, but through this project those things she has learned are coming out and she has taken charge.

You may have noticed that I have used “the women” and “she” a lot, well this is because this is a women’s project. Because women spend hours a day cooking (beans take a long time to make) they are the ones with the worst health problems coming from the poor stoves. It is also to say that if you want something, you must do it yourselves. And this has certainly done its job in San Lorenzo.

When we started the project, I had the women help me with the making of the stoves. Now, men are involved in that they cut the adobe blocks into the shapes that are needed for the stoves and to cut the hole in the roof for the ceiling. Nobody takes a machete away from a man. The first few stoves consisted of me doing the majority of the work, with me explaining why I wanted the blocks shaped in a certain way and why they should be arranged in a certain way.

The last time I went there (this was the fourth trip for stoves) I wanted to back out of the building part and make sure the women could do it themselves, making it a sustainable project. The first house I went to that day was to the leader of the project and she already had several of the adobe cut and the rest arranged on her adobe table in the shape of her stove. Clearly she understood.

The second house was a woman who had only helped on one stove. A few women come up to see what is going on and in the end they wound out helping with the stoves. Now, my forever stomach problem came up in the middle of this stove and I had to sit outside when there was a lack of work going on inside. The women stepped right up and finished, doing an excellent job. Now, thanks to my stomach ails, I decided to take an extra long lunch break and listen to the world cup match on the radio with the man of the house. Towards the end of the match he let me get on his horse and ride about the community a little. It was fun.

On the ride, his son (who was walking ahead of the horse so that the horse would just follow him and eliminate my need for learning how to drive the beast) takes us to a house which I was getting a stove. I am happy and excited, and tell them that I will be down in a bit to start their stove. I go ahead on the horse a little more and head back to the house. After regulation period was up (this particular game went to overtime and penalty kicks) I went down to the house and realized I had misunderstood the conversation. The house was slated to get a new stove that day, and while I was listening away to the radio and chatting it up with Tito, the ladies of the community went right ahead and built the whole stove without me. Good for them!

Then I go to another house where the women were in the process of building a stove. I like to build the stoves without the mud to see how the blocks need to be cut and to size the thing, a dry-build if you will, then the actual building of the stove takes a few minutes. This build was great though. The women were on top of everything. They were ordering the men on how to cut the adobe, they were discussing the sizing of the stove, and how they could modify their own stoves, and at one point a man tried to tell them they were doing it wrong. This was a great moment. They women banded up and pretty much told him to mind his own business because they knew what they were doing. I was offered a chair and just watched this unfold from the sidelines.

I hope you don’t think I am man-bashing here. That is certainly not my intention. This is a very machismo culture, very man oriented where women are often treated as second class citizens. By enabling women, you are impacted that half of society, but then they are educating their kids differently in the home, making certain changes in attitudes permanent. If these women and men can see what they can do on their own, they can make improvements in their daily lives and see eventually need less direction from the outside. These people are villagers and they are always going to be villagers (again not using villagers as a derogatory name, but to classify them differently from someone who lives in a city and has more interaction with the world and technology) so the goal is not to change that but to help them live more comfortable lives.

World Cup action: I hope that some have you have at least noticed that the FIFA World Cup passed. As I am writing this, the third place match has yet to be played, nor the final, but who knows when I will actually post this.

Honduras qualified for the tournament for the first time in a LONG time. The whole qualification process was a big deal for us. Honduras did not make it past the round robin play. They lost two matches and tied the third (0-0). The US did better, but was still eliminated early on.

Whenever there is a match here, the town is empty. I live right near the park and when Honduras was playing, it was empty. This is very abnormal. The park is always a busy place. I watched half of one game on a big screen at a bar, but the smoke got to be too much and we left for someone’s house. This is a soccer country, so everyone can tell you details about all the teams and who they support.

Carnecerias: Roughly translated as butcher shops. I learned something new this morning, and it was when the butcher shops get their meat. I left my house a little after 5:30am to walk my dog. There was another activity planned for later, so I wanted to walk her early, plus I was awake. Anyways, while on our first circuit around, I see two guys lift what appeared to be half a cow out of the back of a pick-up truck and into the market.

I had never considered myself a city girl, but have appreciated the fact that I can get my meat in little Styrofoam packages in the supermarket. This, in my opinion, is good. Those people who complain about the lack on knowing where your food comes from is baloney, I know it was once a cow, but I don’t want to be reminded of that by seeing half a cow pulled off a not so sanitary truckbed. The thing had large bars around it, which means live cows probably ride in their occasionally so that means that the meat is resting on top of cow poo. See, separation of meat from the farm is good.

The second part of why this is important relates to dogs. As the butcher shops carve up their halves of cows and other assorted animals, they have some bones lying about, and being nice people, they throw them out into the street occasionally for the dogs to eat. Thus, around 6am, there are packs of dogs that travel from butcher shop to butcher shop. Luckily for me, they have a healthy fear of people, and don’t approach while I am walking Seca.

Mail: I haven’t received any mail in over two months. This is crazy. Someone, and new people are definitely allowed into this bandwagon, should send me a letter. Nothing fancy, just write on paper “How are you? I am fine,” and possible a few other details about what is going on in your life.

Last week of FBT, the trainees are building a pila and a latrine. Gotta love mixin' cement!

Ok, so this was in a bathroom- translation: In case of emergency, break the glass (and there is a corn cob in the glass)/

Small boats that bring you to the island.

View from the boat.

View from the dining area of our hotel.

Small touristy villages.

Hey folks, I am just taking a break from working, so I thought I’d clue you in a little on what’s been going on for the last few weeks here in Honduras.

The trainees are GONE! They are good people, and will make good volunteers, but I spent too much time on their training and not enough on my own work for the last two months, so I feel that I am back to being a volunteer and not a training assistant. Eventually I am sure I will miss them, and its weird not seeing them around town, but I am still happy they are gone. Also, I was housing a lot of people that came down to help with training, so my dog wasn’t living at home (she’s not friendly) and now she is back home. Its nice having her back.

The last few weeks were interesting. As I sit here writing this I am not sure what I already have in my blog, so bear with me for a minute if I repeat a bit. The last two weeks were pilas and latrines, followed by junta de agua (water board) training. I felt bad during the pila time because we hired someone to help the trainees learn how to make the pilas, but he didn’t go a good job of going from group to group. Therefore I sat by on one group trying to tell them what to do, but lets just say my working with cement techniques are a little lacking. I refused to mix cement. It was my least favorite activity during training, and besides, there were a lot of them there to do it.

My group also helped out with latrine construction. This meant they got to help dig the hole, which surprisingly I do have past experience with- go trail crew! They also did a little more work with it. It’s amazing what you can do with mud. I’m not sure how much they got out of the latrine project since I didn’t have the drawings with me to explain why they were doing what they were doing, although I did try to explain.

Oh, I also played soccer with the aspirantes. Twice. Now, tennis is my sport for those who don’t know me, and I quit soccer after playing from first grade or kindergarten up to eighth grade because, well, I’m horrible at the sport. I did have a lot of fun though. We played at this new court in town. Now, for those of you thinking, don’t you play soccer on a field? I would like to introduce you to futbolito, or mini-soccer. The court is roughly the size of a basketball court, but with goals the size you used in first grade. Our new court even has artificial turf. What can I say, we do it right here in El P.

Oh, so that weekend we had another small good bye party for the volunteer who just left. It was really relaxed, hanging out and eating. Bye Mandy, you are already missed.

The next week was the water board training for the trainees. Friends came down to help out with the training. In Honduras, we have this phenomenon called bolos. It means drunkard really, but to fully reach bolo status you have to be seen passed out on the side of the road at random hours. My town has very few bolos. But the first thing my friends see as they come off the bus is a guy sleeping off his drunkness on the corner of the road. Way to welcome them into town buddy.

After the training (so I actually did not participate in the training besides popping in for a few minutes because I was cooking at home), we played soccer- see above. The next day we took off for Teguc. One friend just finished his Peace Corps service, so he was taking off to travel Central America before heading back to the states, and the other was just heading through there to go home. I was going to a meeting, which will be explained in a minute. The funny thing about the ride is that my boss messaged us early to ask if we were still in town, and then was like, the other driver is leaving for Teguc in ten minutes if you want a ride. Well, free ride, heck yeah. Forgot several things because I wasn’t quite packed yet.

Ok, the meeting I went to was an Emergency Zone Coordinator meeting. Basically, it breaks down like this: In case of emergency the Peace Corps office becomes a central command area, and they disseminate any and all pertinent information to what are called E-zone people. They then relay that to fellow volunteers. This means that PC isn’t trying to call everyone under the sun, just a few people, and those few people are essentially leaders for the volunteers in their regions. See, its very organized, so if something ever did happen, say, like a coup, we are organized and ready to handle it. Thought that might make you feel better about my safety during emergency events.

Ok, so I met a bunch of new people at this meeting and was invited to a weekend on an island. I went and had a good time. Isla de la Tigre is not a white sandy beach in the north, but a volcanic island in the west, not too far from the Pacific Coast. At the time that I went it was also fair time in town, so there were food concessions and bands all about.

Now I am back and working on my own stuff, its amazing. And a little boring. Oh, well, what can I say. Happy mothers day everyone! My phone was dead so I couldn’t call my mother or any of my three host Moms. Oops.

More: Well, more time has passed since writing the above, and they have been crazy days.

I got back and started working again, I know, surprising but true. Then on Friday I went to do another stove project. There were about 7 people watching and helping so that they know what is going on and can later build their own stove. The missionary who is kind of spearheading the project has bought the materials on the church’s funds and the people have to work extra days on community projects to get their materials. For example, the metal piece that goes on top of the stove to cook on is worth L200, or ten bucks, but that is a TON of money for these people, so they put in two days of labor to get it. The community members are more than willing to do this and are all excited to build a stove that uses less wood and has a chimney thereby eliminating a lot of health issues associated with breathing in smoke all day.

Now, in one week there is a dance appreciation day in town. Sara has signed us up and we are doing a dancing through the decades show. We are taking 12 songs and dancing for about 30 seconds of each song showcasing various types of dances. We are starting with the Charleston, eventually hitting swing, jazz, beach boys style, disco, thriller, crazy 80 dances and ending with the 90s. It should be a lot of fun!

Current work project- this is a dam for a 40 house community.

Jill vs pinata of Clifford the Big Red Dog. Alas, it was S that dealt the death blow.

Shout out to my awesome and adorable nephew Lucas Arthur Churchill! Maybe you wont be the only grandchild by time I get home?!

Well, things have been going well since I got back from my vacation.

Training has been going well. We completed the survey/design part of training, and my good friends Kalin and Bert came down to help with that. Always a pleasure seeing them. Xiah, from vacation fun, came down for GPS and microwatershed info. Afterwards while the trainees were learning about HIV/AIDS, I had some free time to do my work. My counterparts appreciated that. And the last two days we have been stoves, look back to my training update on stoves to get all the basic details.

The stoves has been the hardest to plan because people kept not talking to me, and then I had to switch communities we were going to build them in, and then they didn't have time to make the clay blocks, so we had to buy them, one person didn't come down to supervise, so we had two people supervising four groups, and we switched stove designs to save some money. In the end everything came together, and four famillies now have new firewood efficient stoves with chimneys to get the smoke out of the house and not into the lungs of the women.

Thats all for now folks,

Jill

How dusty the trip in the bus was. Nothing like a good coating of dust on the lungs.

This apparently was the doggie door.What flexibe people can do. My back don´t do that.

Best pictures I have of La danta, it is the largest structure in the Mayan worldThree person acroyoga. Really, I had the easy part.

We ent to the top of the mountain to star gaze and watch the moon come up. Hard to get comfortable with the large rocks sticking out of the top but oh so worth it! Great travelling companions were up for having fun all hours of the day and night.

Flores, the city island. Big circus tent in the backgroundI fell in love with the huts with the thatched roofs.The hut we stayed in the first night,, it was actually the house of our guide´s cousin.Me!

Flying on a Mayan temple.

the fore building is the prison and the back is where they killed prisoners

ok, not so flexibe, but having fun up on the sacrifice altar

thats all the photos for now my friends!

Greetings all, welcome to the tales of Jill’s incredible vacation

A little over three weeks ago, I left for my vacation. I went to the Guatemalan border the first day, into a very touristy town. Now, in my town S and I are the only gringas, and that is fine, because we are able to develop friendships with people and they know we are not just in town for a short vacation. Not so in touristy places where everyone thinks of you as a tourist. And to be honest at that moment I was a tourist, but I like my town better where I have to ability to get to know people.

The next day I met up with X (friend from training) and her friend T, from the states. We pay at a travel agency for the whole trip to Flores. We get in a little late, and the guy working the desk at the hotel tries to rip us off something severe. In Guatemala, the currency is called the quetzal (the feathers of the bird quetzal were used as money by the Mayans, and thus the name at least continues. The guy tells me it is going to be Q600 for the three of us. Well, when I called I might have been a little confused but not that confused so we talked him down to Q350. Next morning comes and we see this big old sign that says our room should have only been Q180, so that’s what we paid. Normally you pay first here, then go to your room, but it’s a good thing we didn’t.

Then comes the communication problems with our guides. See, they are from a small village in Northern Guatemala that doesn’t have electricity or cell phone coverage; thus making it difficult to actually talk to anyone. When I knew we were going to be getting in late I sent a message to his cell saying so, and he assumed we wouldn’t want to start the next day, which we actually did. He comes around 9am and says that we would take the 1pm bus to his village- all the tours start here, and being a guide is the most profitable income in the area.

In the mean time, we got to explore a little of the island. The town of Flores is actually like the state capitol. It’s an island in a lake that they built an earthen dam to, for convenience. There is a road that goes all the way around on the edge of the island, and everything else in the middle is building, paved street, or paved sidewalk. The actual dirt that you can see can be measured in square feet, and is only there as a garden feature of the central park. This is also a very touristy place so there are gift shops and restaurants and hotels galore. Now, X and T know each other from yoga, and acroyoga, so I got a little demonstration of this- the best I can do to describe it is say it is cirque de soleil type stuff. Many pictures of this to come when I can actually load them.

Time comes and we head off to the bus. Side note, the village we were heading to is so small that our guide had to buy all the food for the trip in Flores. We are on a chicken bus that is all kinds of bumpy, and dusty. At one point we were watching out the back window and all you could see were these huge clouds of dust. By the end of the trip our hair was nasty due to the cementing properties of sweat mixed with dust. Along the road though, in the times without dust, I fall in love with Guatemala. The thatched houses and the serenity of it all was beautiful.

We arrive in the village of Carmelita and are shown into our hut for the night. The hut is actually our guide’s cousin’s house, but we are using it for the night. We got to go to a little river to bath (this would be the last water we would see for four days) to try to get a little of the dust out. They fed us large amounts of food and were really nice people. After dinner we went across the way to visit some other people who were going to be doing the same hike, and thus we would be running into them every night. It turns out that they were Peace Corps Volunteers from Guatemala. So, PC stories were exchanged, and what there is to do in each country (Honduras and Guatemala).

Bed time comes and we become well aware of one crucial thing somehow left off our packing lists- sleeping bags. Our guides had given us each a blanket, but it was still cold. We were sleeping on hammocks, and the wind would just go right through them so you had to try and get your blanket beneath you and above you and curl tightly into the fetal position. This would turn out to be a repeating theme throughout the trip.

The next morning we were ready to go- although we do believe our guide was hung over. The whole family (it’s a family business) was like, “relax, you have time.” The first day was only 4 or 5 hours of hiking, and it was really flat, or at least felt that way to us. One note here- along with the guide, we paid for horses to carry the supplies. One thing to note is that there is no water along the way so you have to carry in four or five days worth of water, so horses are good.

We get to the first place, and are still very energetic, what’s 14km, but a short walk. Our guide is telling us that we should wait four hours to go see the main temple at sunset, and we were like, nope, we are going to explore now and then return at sunrise. The guide finally agrees to come with us, more to make sure we don’t get lost than because he wants to. We go up to the temple, take pictures, ask questions, and then the guide wants to go back. We don’t. He finally relents and lets us go alone, provided we stay on one path and don’t get lost. Silly him, we went exploring. We also played on vines.

We eventually did go back and we talked to the others who were staying that the camping area- there are specially designated camping areas to reduce human impact on the area. Since this camping area is at a Mayan ruin site, it’s popular. We did more acroyoga and got other people to participate which was fun.

The next day we were up and out early to hike 24km to the bigger set of ruins, called El Mirador. Again this seemed like an incredibly easy hike and we got there at noon. The entire hike goes between the two sites more or less on the ancient road, so you pass tombs and Mayan “truck stops.” Then closer to the big site, you get to a jail and altar used to sacrifice the prisoners. The jail was cool in that you could actually to in and play around. I have a picture of one the cells where a bat is just hanging out. Lots of pictures playing on the sacrifice temple.

A small walk later and we get into the large site. In the summer there is a group of around 300 that comes down to excavate. Now, summer in the US is rainy season here, but that is the only time of year that there is enough water for everyone, so they have to work in wet conditions. They have some pretty basic rain catchment systems to collect all the water they will need. Because they are excavating limestone ruins, they have tarp tents covering most of the work- but you can go in and still see it all.

After a little relaxing time we headed out to the large temple. La Ganta is the largest structure in the Mayan world. The top is over 72m tall (236ft). Our guide took us and we were to start there and eventually make our way back stopping at the things we passed. Well, we got to the large temple and decided to hang out there all day. Lots more acroyoga pictures on top of the ruins. As the sun was starting to set we took regular yoga pictures as well. Now, for those of you who don’t know me so well, yoga is not my thing. I have the attention span on the average gold fish, so sitting in one not so comfortable position for a while just doesn’t work for me. Thus, my friend was standing just out of camera range instructing me on what to do and demonstrating for me.

While taking the pictures we saw more monkeys and could hear some howler monkeys in the distance just being all kinds of loud. At sunset a bunch of people come and ruin out alone time on the temple. A few minutes before actual sundown we decide to go watch from the other ruins. Well, the other temple was at least one kilometer away. We go at just about a run, and as we were climbing my legs just stopped; after walking 24km at a good clip, the running up the stairs was too much. Turns out we missed the sundown.

We head back to camp for a meal. One thing about paying a guide, we didn’t have to worry about cooking or cleaning up. T actually became my plate cleaner most meals because the plates were so big, I couldn’t eat it all. He didn’t complain about this. After dinner T and I decide to go back up the nearby temple to watch the moon come up. Problem- cloudy night. So, we are up there for a while, which was awesome because if you blocked out the flashlights that you could see of the camp, there was nothing for miles in any direction. We heard the monkeys howling, and other assorted wildlife and you could pretend you were the only humans in a very large radius. We waited a while for the moon and it was a good ways up and we thought we were never going to get a good view because of all the clouds, so we returned to camp. As we are walking back (5 minutes) we saw the moon perfectly through the clouds. Really bad timing.

There is a giant open space in the camp, the old helipad, and we laid down for a while watching the stars. In my town I don’t get to see a lot of stars and I love to do it. Living on the Palouse provided an excellent area to do this, but my little 2”X4” yard doesn’t allow for much star gazing.

The next morning T tried hard to get us up and out early but X and I were tired. Due to the lack of communication we didn’t have the whole day to explore like most groups, we had to get back to the first camp before sunset. We go off and my legs are starting to feel the affects of so much walking, but off we go. Our guide was trying to tell us there was nothing left to see, but we were like, yes there is, we passed a whole bunch of stuff. See, the guide was kind of for the walking parts to make sure that we didn’t get lost, and to cook and clean. He really didn’t know that much about the ruins themselves.

At one point T and I go off (again, at about a run) to visit a set of temples a little off the path. You see, the graverobbers had cut a giant swath into the temple, and it generally isn’t encouraged to go in, they are worried about cave-ins. This didn’t stop us though. Now, before any of you decide we were being reckless, I wouldn’t have entered if it looked like it was going to fall down. You can really only go about two feet away from the giant swath anyways.

Hiking the 24km back to the first campsite I began to feel the affects of my poor footwear choices. I had gotten two blisters in the backs of my ankles and had hurt my foot on acroyoga, so walking to prevent the hurt actually created its own problems. By time we got back I was so happy to get off my feet. The rest didn’t last long because we went back to the temple for sunset, which we actually caught this time. Then, after dinner we went up to see the stars and the moonrise. That was amazing, no clouds that night. There was a group of four backpackers up there as well and we were talking to them. Due to the cold, T and I decided to take the guide’s tent for the night (he was cold) but it wasn’t that comfortable either. The blisters on the backs of my feet I couldn’t sleep on my back because the weight on my heels was painful. The lack of sleeping pad made it uncomfortable, but two people cut away the cold!

The next morning I was hurting. I was definitely hobbling along. Then the guide lets the kid with the horses go in front. The first day he was all kind of encouraging us to ride, but when he saw that I couldn’t walk without a limp, he sends the horses away. Thus I had to suck it up for 14km. At first we were walking a little slowly because X was taking care of her sore ankles, but I just couldn’t do it; I needed to turn out those kilometers fast instead of prolonging the pain.

Once we arrived back to the village we went to the river again (seriously contaminated with soap and who knows what else). Then we were given lunch. The bus came not too long later. It was a bumpy ride again, but not nearly as dusty. We got into town and looked for a hostel to bath in. We found an awesome place. Then we caught the bus out of town. The bus driver had the A/C on SOOOOOOOOO cold. My fleece was in my backpack below the bus.

The next day we had a day to kill, so we went to Antigua for the day. For those of who not well acquainted with Central America, Antigua is the place to be during Holy Week. It was great though because we got there so early in the day most people were still at home for their hotels. We got some souvenirs off the street and ate before walking around for a while. Antigua is a colonial town with the old architecture and several volcanoes in the background. You can actually climb them and walk right up to the lava (we didn’t do it because there wasn’t enough time) because it’s not the US anything so you don’t sue us type of place.

Later in the day there were processions. The first was of Jesus walking with the cross on his back to be killed and the second was the funeral parade after he died. For those of you who are very Christian, please excuse the possible inaccuracies of the events, but that’s the gist I got out of it. These processions have thousands of people participating. There are lots of little floats and then one giant one. They go on for hours too.

Later in the day the crowds came in. Walking around became crazy. We went to a jewelry store and bought Peace Corps necklace pendants. This is the only place anyone has ever seen carry them. At one point the bag that was carrying them got knocked out of my purse because it was stuffed with other things that I had bought, and it just fell. Well, my first thought was that someone had taken it out, but I went back to check to see if I had dropped it. We go to the corner and somehow the bag and contents were fine on the corner. Hundreds of people, literally, had passed between when I dropped it and my finding it again. That was a supreme piece of luck there.

That night we met up with some friends of X. They are from Guatemala City and had gone into Antigua for the day. They were super nice. At the end of the day two of them invited us to their Uncle’s house and the family was really nice. T and X taught them a bit of acroyoga. They loved it and had a blast.

The next morning I took of nice and early (5am) for Teguc. Once back in Honduras and out of cell phone roaming, I called home and my Mommy made me a reservation at the Marriott in Teguc for the night. This place is total luxury. Its better than most Marriotts I have ever seen. I go in there looking like a stereotypical backpacker, I had been wearing the same clothes for two whole days and my bug repellent burst in my bag so you could clearly smell my backpack. There was a wedding in the hotel that night so I am walking past wedding guests like this too. The room was so luxurious it is hard to explain. I had been sleeping when able for the last few days and before that I was hiking through the jungle. In the one night there I took two showers and a bath.

The next day I finally returned home to a very grateful dog.

It was an adventure and I loved it all. The rushing around allowed us to just do whatever since we knew there was a limited time. I am glad I met many interesting people and got to experience something amazing.Greetings all, welcome to the tales of Jill’s incredible vacation

A little over a week ago, I left for my vacation. I went to the Guatemalan border the first day, into a very touristy town. Now, in my town S and I are the only gringas, and that is fine, because we are able to develop friendships with people and they know we are not just in town for a short vacation. Not so in touristy places where everyone thinks of you as a tourist. And to be honest at that moment I was a tourist, but I like my town better where I have to ability to get to know people.

The next day I met up with X (friend from training) and her friend T, from the states. We pay at a travel agency for the whole trip to Flores. We get in a little late, and the guy working the desk at the hotel tries to rip us off something severe. In Guatemala, the currency is called the quetzal (the feathers of the bird quetzal were used as money by the Mayans, and thus the name at least continues. The guy tells me it is going to be Q600 for the three of us. Well, when I called I might have been a little confused but not that confused so we talked him down to Q350. Next morning comes and we see this big old sign that says our room should have only been Q180, so that’s what we paid. Normally you pay first here, then go to your room, but it’s a good thing we didn’t.

Then comes the communication problems with our guides. See, they are from a small village in Northern Guatemala that doesn’t have electricity or cell phone coverage; thus making it difficult to actually talk to anyone. When I knew we were going to be getting in late I sent a message to his cell saying so, and he assumed we wouldn’t want to start the next day, which we actually did. He comes around 9am and says that we would take the 1pm bus to his village- all the tours start here, and being a guide is the most profitable income in the area.

In the mean time, we got to explore a little of the island. The town of Flores is actually like the state capitol. It’s an island in a lake that they built an earthen dam to, for convenience. There is a road that goes all the way around on the edge of the island, and everything else in the middle is building, paved street, or paved sidewalk. The actual dirt that you can see can be measured in square feet, and is only there as a garden feature of the central park. This is also a very touristy place so there are gift shops and restaurants and hotels galore. Now, X and T know each other from yoga, and acroyoga, so I got a little demonstration of this- the best I can do to describe it is say it is cirque de soleil type stuff. Many pictures of this to come when I can actually load them.

Time comes and we head off to the bus. Side note, the village we were heading to is so small that our guide had to buy all the food for the trip in Flores. We are on a chicken bus that is all kinds of bumpy, and dusty. At one point we were watching out the back window and all you could see were these huge clouds of dust. By the end of the trip our hair was nasty due to the cementing properties of sweat mixed with dust. Along the road though, in the times without dust, I fall in love with Guatemala. The thatched houses and the serenity of it all was beautiful.

We arrive in the village of Carmelita and are shown into our hut for the night. The hut is actually our guide’s cousin’s house, but we are using it for the night. We got to go to a little river to bath (this would be the last water we would see for four days) to try to get a little of the dust out. They fed us large amounts of food and were really nice people. After dinner we went across the way to visit some other people who were going to be doing the same hike, and thus we would be running into them every night. It turns out that they were Peace Corps Volunteers from Guatemala. So, PC stories were exchanged, and what there is to do in each country (Honduras and Guatemala).

Bed time comes and we become well aware of one crucial thing somehow left off our packing lists- sleeping bags. Our guides had given us each a blanket, but it was still cold. We were sleeping on hammocks, and the wind would just go right through them so you had to try and get your blanket beneath you and above you and curl tightly into the fetal position. This would turn out to be a repeating theme throughout the trip.

The next morning we were ready to go- although we do believe our guide was hung over. The whole family (it’s a family business) was like, “relax, you have time.” The first day was only 4 or 5 hours of hiking, and it was really flat, or at least felt that way to us. One note here- along with the guide, we paid for horses to carry the supplies. One thing to note is that there is no water along the way so you have to carry in four or five days worth of water, so horses are good.

We get to the first place, and are still very energetic, what’s 14km, but a short walk. Our guide is telling us that we should wait four hours to go see the main temple at sunset, and we were like, nope, we are going to explore now and then return at sunrise. The guide finally agrees to come with us, more to make sure we don’t get lost than because he wants to. We go up to the temple, take pictures, ask questions, and then the guide wants to go back. We don’t. He finally relents and lets us go alone, provided we stay on one path and don’t get lost. Silly him, we went exploring. We also played on vines.

We eventually did go back and we talked to the others who were staying that the camping area- there are specially designated camping areas to reduce human impact on the area. Since this camping area is at a Mayan ruin site, it’s popular. We did more acroyoga and got other people to participate which was fun.

The next day we were up and out early to hike 24km to the bigger set of ruins, called El Mirador. Again this seemed like an incredibly easy hike and we got there at noon. The entire hike goes between the two sites more or less on the ancient road, so you pass tombs and Mayan “truck stops.” Then closer to the big site, you get to a jail and altar used to sacrifice the prisoners. The jail was cool in that you could actually to in and play around. I have a picture of one the cells where a bat is just hanging out. Lots of pictures playing on the sacrifice temple.

A small walk later and we get into the large site. In the summer there is a group of around 300 that comes down to excavate. Now, summer in the US is rainy season here, but that is the only time of year that there is enough water for everyone, so they have to work in wet conditions. They have some pretty basic rain catchment systems to collect all the water they will need. Because they are excavating limestone ruins, they have tarp tents covering most of the work- but you can go in and still see it all.

After a little relaxing time we headed out to the large temple. La Ganta is the largest structure in the Mayan world. The top is over 72m tall (236ft). Our guide took us and we were to start there and eventually make our way back stopping at the things we passed. Well, we got to the large temple and decided to hang out there all day. Lots more acroyoga pictures on top of the ruins. As the sun was starting to set we took regular yoga pictures as well. Now, for those of you who don’t know me so well, yoga is not my thing. I have the attention span on the average gold fish, so sitting in one not so comfortable position for a while just doesn’t work for me. Thus, my friend was standing just out of camera range instructing me on what to do and demonstrating for me.

While taking the pictures we saw more monkeys and could hear some howler monkeys in the distance just being all kinds of loud. At sunset a bunch of people come and ruin out alone time on the temple. A few minutes before actual sundown we decide to go watch from the other ruins. Well, the other temple was at least one kilometer away. We go at just about a run, and as we were climbing my legs just stopped; after walking 24km at a good clip, the running up the stairs was too much. Turns out we missed the sundown.

We head back to camp for a meal. One thing about paying a guide, we didn’t have to worry about cooking or cleaning up. T actually became my plate cleaner most meals because the plates were so big, I couldn’t eat it all. He didn’t complain about this. After dinner T and I decide to go back up the nearby temple to watch the moon come up. Problem- cloudy night. So, we are up there for a while, which was awesome because if you blocked out the flashlights that you could see of the camp, there was nothing for miles in any direction. We heard the monkeys howling, and other assorted wildlife and you could pretend you were the only humans in a very large radius. We waited a while for the moon and it was a good ways up and we thought we were never going to get a good view because of all the clouds, so we returned to camp. As we are walking back (5 minutes) we saw the moon perfectly through the clouds. Really bad timing.

There is a giant open space in the camp, the old helipad, and we laid down for a while watching the stars. In my town I don’t get to see a lot of stars and I love to do it. Living on the Palouse provided an excellent area to do this, but my little 2”X4” yard doesn’t allow for much star gazing.

The next morning T tried hard to get us up and out early but X and I were tired. Due to the lack of communication we didn’t have the whole day to explore like most groups, we had to get back to the first camp before sunset. We go off and my legs are starting to feel the affects of so much walking, but off we go. Our guide was trying to tell us there was nothing left to see, but we were like, yes there is, we passed a whole bunch of stuff. See, the guide was kind of for the walking parts to make sure that we didn’t get lost, and to cook and clean. He really didn’t know that much about the ruins themselves.

At one point T and I go off (again, at about a run) to visit a set of temples a little off the path. You see, the graverobbers had cut a giant swath into the temple, and it generally isn’t encouraged to go in, they are worried about cave-ins. This didn’t stop us though. Now, before any of you decide we were being reckless, I wouldn’t have entered if it looked like it was going to fall down. You can really only go about two feet away from the giant swath anyways.

Hiking the 24km back to the first campsite I began to feel the affects of my poor footwear choices. I had gotten two blisters in the backs of my ankles and had hurt my foot on acroyoga, so walking to prevent the hurt actually created its own problems. By time we got back I was so happy to get off my feet. The rest didn’t last long because we went back to the temple for sunset, which we actually caught this time. Then, after dinner we went up to see the stars and the moonrise. That was amazing, no clouds that night. There was a group of four backpackers up there as well and we were talking to them. Due to the cold, T and I decided to take the guide’s tent for the night (he was cold) but it wasn’t that comfortable either. The blisters on the backs of my feet I couldn’t sleep on my back because the weight on my heels was painful. The lack of sleeping pad made it uncomfortable, but two people cut away the cold!

The next morning I was hurting. I was definitely hobbling along. Then the guide lets the kid with the horses go in front. The first day he was all kind of encouraging us to ride, but when he saw that I couldn’t walk without a limp, he sends the horses away. Thus I had to suck it up for 14km. At first we were walking a little slowly because X was taking care of her sore ankles, but I just couldn’t do it; I needed to turn out those kilometers fast instead of prolonging the pain.

Once we arrived back to the village we went to the river again (seriously contaminated with soap and who knows what else). Then we were given lunch. The bus came not too long later. It was a bumpy ride again, but not nearly as dusty. We got into town and looked for a hostel to bath in. We found an awesome place. Then we caught the bus out of town. The bus driver had the A/C on SOOOOOOOOO cold. My fleece was in my backpack below the bus.

The next day we had a day to kill, so we went to Antigua for the day. For those of who not well acquainted with Central America, Antigua is the place to be during Holy Week. It was great though because we got there so early in the day most people were still at home for their hotels. We got some souvenirs off the street and ate before walking around for a while. Antigua is a colonial town with the old architecture and several volcanoes in the background. You can actually climb them and walk right up to the lava (we didn’t do it because there wasn’t enough time) because it’s not the US anything so you don’t sue us type of place.

Later in the day there were processions. The first was of Jesus walking with the cross on his back to be killed and the second was the funeral parade after he died. For those of you who are very Christian, please excuse the possible inaccuracies of the events, but that’s the gist I got out of it. These processions have thousands of people participating. There are lots of little floats and then one giant one. They go on for hours too.

Later in the day the crowds came in. Walking around became crazy. We went to a jewelry store and bought Peace Corps necklace pendants. This is the only place anyone has ever seen carry them. At one point the bag that was carrying them got knocked out of my purse because it was stuffed with other things that I had bought, and it just fell. Well, my first thought was that someone had taken it out, but I went back to check to see if I had dropped it. We go to the corner and somehow the bag and contents were fine on the corner. Hundreds of people, literally, had passed between when I dropped it and my finding it again. That was a supreme piece of luck there.

That night we met up with some friends of X. They are from Guatemala City and had gone into Antigua for the day. They were super nice. At the end of the day two of them invited us to their Uncle’s house and the family was really nice. T and X taught them a bit of acroyoga. They loved it and had a blast.

The next morning I took of nice and early (5am) for Teguc. Once back in Honduras and out of cell phone roaming, I called home and my Mommy made me a reservation at the Marriott in Teguc for the night. This place is total luxury. Its better than most Marriotts I have ever seen. I go in there looking like a stereotypical backpacker, I had been wearing the same clothes for two whole days and my bug repellent burst in my bag so you could clearly smell my backpack. There was a wedding in the hotel that night so I am walking past wedding guests like this too. The room was so luxurious it is hard to explain. I had been sleeping when able for the last few days and before that I was hiking through the jungle. In the one night there I took two showers and a bath.

The next day I finally returned home to a very grateful dog.

It was an adventure and I loved it all. The rushing around allowed us to just do whatever since we knew there was a limited time. I am glad I met many interesting people and got to experience something amazing.

Things have been crazy since last time I wrote the blog, and more updates to come, i promise.

Jill