It seems to
be time for another update. The thing is
that so much has happened since getting my wisdom teeth out that I don’t know
where to begin! Well I guess the obvious
place to start would be Darren’s arrival to Guatemala :)
I picked him
up at the Guate airport and whisked him to Antigua. It’s not that I didn’t think he could make
his own way to Antigua (which some people implied, as it is a generally very easy
feat), but the town was so busy with Semana Santa festivities that I thought it
best to personally guide him. Indeed, there
were a million people around and we kept getting stuck in the various
processions (which last ALL day and ALL night).
Even so, it was a good introduction to the country for Darren and he got
to meet a bunch of my Peace Corps friends before our chicken bus ride to Cunen –
no tourist amenities for my adventurous brother! In our short stay in my site, he got to meet
my host family and friends, shop in the market, cook me dinner, and laugh at my
weird lifestyle :) Of course, the joke
was on him when I dragged him 12 hours across the country to Rio Dulce and Livingston on our way to...
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| Darren and I in Antigua at the end of Semana Santa |
...Placencia, Belize, to meet up
with my sitemate Kate and friend Rachel for some beach time! At the Puerto Barrios dock while waiting for
our boat to Belize, I thought I was going crazy when a random Guatemalan guy
was like, hola Nicole! It turned out
that Marvin, Rachel’s boyfriend, was joining us. I was like, I didn’t know you were coming…does
Rachel know?! (Yes, she did lol). Anyway, after taking a boat, bus, and water
taxi, we finally made it to Placencia.
Absolutely beautiful. And fun;
Darren enjoyed it too much. But who
wouldn’t love getting sunburnt, snorkeling in an incredible coral reef (though
bringing contact lenses probably would’ve been a smart idea…I didn’t think how you
obviously can’t wear glasses with a snorkeling mask, fail), and eating
excellent Caribbean food? It was with
heavy hearts and itching skin that Darren, Kate, and I left Rachel and Marvin and
headed for Mexico…where we finally arrived in Playa del Carmen 15 desperate hours
later.
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| getting ready to go snorkeling in Placencia |
Funny side note: While waiting
for a bus in Belize City, some local men shouted at Darren: hey man, we like
your women! Darren, rather than
defending my honor, replied: I like yours too!
And they were like: but you got a snow bunny! Moral of the story is that you may refer to
me by “Snow Bunny” from now on if it pleases you haha. Also, we got unceremoniously left at the
Mexican border by our Belizean bus, with no pesos. While not a very surprising situation, it was
definitely unexpected.
Anyway, we
arrived in Playa at like 11pm and as Darren had to leave for the Cancun airport
to go back to New York at 4am, the logical plan was to grab dinner and not go
to sleep. So Darren’s 5 hours in Playa
del Carmen were filled with tacos, a lost debit card, Israelis at the Chabad
house, and beers on the beach…not bad.
He even made his flight, so mumsy didn’t have to kill me. She only had to keep putting money in my
account at a rate faster than at which I was spending it.
Kate and I spent
another night in Playa and then flew to Mexico City…omg I need to go back! We packed it all in: anthropology museum, Frida
Kahlo’s house, Leon Trotsky’s house, Teotihuacan pre-Aztec ruins, Diego Rivera
murals, shopping, eating, and dancing. A
lack of sleep and high levels of pollution took a toll, but I would’ve loved to
stay more than 4 days. Next were 6 hours
to Oaxaca for a mole-filled stopover (sooo freaking delicious!) and an 11-hour
overnight bus to San Cristóbal de las Casas.
Our 4 days there were filled with extremes: lazy afternoons reading in cafés,
a 2-hour hike to a fantastic limestone bridge and grutas, a wild evening
(featuring an immense amount of wine and a pair of hobo-musician dance
partners), and lots of sleep. The whole
trip was overall extraordinary and I secretly wished I had taken early COS so I
could keep traveling. Especially once we
returned to Guatemalan chicken buses (after getting dumped at another Mexican
border with barely enough money to pay the exit fee…Mexican borders suck, I can
only imagine what it’s like trying to get into the States!).
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| Kate and I at the Teotihuacan ruins outside of Mexico City |
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| lovely San Cristóbal de las Casas |
