Feliz cumple Guate!!

Sitting here on my balcony watching the lightning flash while the sun sets over the distant mountains is the perfect end to a wonderfully fulfilling holiday weekend. And Sija is refreshingly tranquil after spending the past day and a half in Xela for the culmination of Guatemala’s Independence Day weekend.

I’ve been needing a little escape from life in my site recently. With the pressure of getting projects started and finished at the same time as my Close of Service date draws nearer (now just 6 ½ months left!) and strains that still linger from integrating into a new site, the break was quite welcome. It started with an 80s Prom Party with other PCVs on Friday night. I love dressing up in ridiculous costumes, plus it was great to see some friends I hadn’t seen for awhile.

Saturday morning Judy and I set off to the beach, but not to just any old sunny, warm, tourist-magnet. We went to Theo’s site (Hawaii) where he lives beach-front in a small village and works in the nearby turtle rescue center/hatchery and on mangrove restoration projects. The long trip (8 hours when we expected 6) was well worth it.

Saturday evening we enjoyed a barefoot walk down the beach to a potluck at Theo's park. I was only expecting food, but we were lucky to see and hold newly-hatched sea turtles. Once they woke up, we released them onto the beach and watched them race into the ocean. (Turtles don’t wake up until about an hour after they hatch.) We released around 40, but the survival rate is only 1 out of 1000! As the waves swept up the little tortugas, I felt scared for them. What a journey they are embarking on! We also helped dig nests in the hatchery and bury the newly collected eggs so that they will be more protected than just on the beach.

Theo and I woke up before sunrise the next morning to take the kayaks into the mangrove forest. We weaved our way through the narrow paths for about 30 minutes then popped out into a beautiful lagoon. We were rewarded for our early-rising with great bird watching, including the spotting of two different parrot species! (Pictures below: kayaking through the path of the mangroves; entering the lagoon; the lagoon; and, if you look closely, parrots on the branch)

Later in the day we played in the ocean, battling the huge waves. While Theo took Judy kayaking in the evening, I spent some quality one-on-one time with the sea. The ocean is something that truly amazes and inspires me every time I visit it. Sitting on the beach watching the sunset over the breaking waves is as close as I get to church.

(Beachfront-cemetery)

Monday morning we woke up early (4 a.m.) so that we could catch the direct bus out of Hawaii; rather than having to take six buses and a boat, it dropped the number to just three buses. Although I didn’t want the trip to be so short, I also wanted to spend Monday night in Xela. September 15th marks the independence of all of Central America and is Xela’s feria (because it was its own country for two years), so it was the place to be last night. Parades, street food, a concert, dancing, good friends. It was the best night out I’ve had in a long time; perhaps the best I’ve had in Guatemala.

Parades: Guatemalans love their desfiles. We tried to cross one during a gap in order to get into the park and were very much hated for that.

Street food: We discovered the best street food Guatemala has to offer: crepes on a stick filled with NUTELLA (a rare delicacy) and pulled pork/guacamole sandwiches.

Concert: Malacates, an awesome Guatemalan rock band, played for free. We were lucky to squeeze into a good spot in the crowd. It might have been the best concert I’ve ever been to (although I haven’t been to many).

Dancing: Discos promised to be open until 6 a.m. to celebrate the nation’s birth, thus Sarah and I were determined to keep on dancing until the sun rose, something I rarely do. There was such an energy the whole night that I didn’t even feel the time pass. Although by the time I climbed into my bed at six, my legs were feeling all the dancing that I had put them through!

I decided that I am leaving no regrets here and am committed to fully experiencing everything these last six months have to offer, be it dancing until dawn, traveling to places I haven’t yet been to, or forcing myself to have the awkward interactions with people in my town so that I can feel better integrated. I’ve done a good job thus far, but the last six months are like the kick at the end of a race: I may tire myself out, but that’s better than the regrets of squandering my experience.

This morning we rolled out of bed after three hours of sleep to watch the big parade then check out the feria. The feria was a lot like going to a county fair, but much more crowded, crazy and disorderly. I rode a ride called “The Inverter” which was definitely a bit sketchy but worth the thrill. Then we had just enough time to get some 3 for Q10 tacos and another Nutella-filled crepe-on-a-stick before we jumped onto our respective buses to head back to our sites.

Although I am clearly counting down the months until my Peace Corps adventure ends, that doesn’t mean that I’m ready to be done. In a lot of ways, yes, I am longing to move on: I miss home – family, friends and the lifestyle; I’ve become restless, ready for a new adventure; and I miss my experience that I had in Chahal so much that it still makes it tough to want to be in Sija sometimes. But I also realized this weekend how much I will truly miss this country and the experiences that I have here. I came to this realization on my bus ride home from the beach. It was a typical trip: driving that could kill; brief friendships made with fellow passengers; questionable food from vendors; bus repairs; delays for parades on the highway. But as the bus sped madly down the coastal highway with an amazing view of the cordillera of volcanoes (I think I saw nine volcanoes in a 3 hour period), I realized how much I truly love my life here. Despite whatever hardships may arise, there is no question that I will miss Guatemala when I leave here. The countdown is fun, but trust me, I will not just be killing time while I flip the next seven pages on my calendar.