Over the next week we marveled at what Cambodians can transport on a bicycle, pickup or motorbike. I swear I counted over 25 people on one pickup truck, not to mention their belongings. I think our college car-stuffing team would've had a hard time competing with these people. I wish I had pictures of everything we saw, but since we never knew when to have the camera ready and were usually in shock or hysterics, my weak attempt at describing what we saw will have to suffice. After a while, nothing really surprised us, but the pickup truck with the (live) horse in the bed did amaze us. So did the 2 motorcycles strapped on top of a whole bunch of luggage in the bed of another pickup. Some other things we saw - 3 50lb. sacks of rice on a motorbike with one between the driver's legs and 2 stacked on the seat behind him, which his buddy was balancing on top of; dozens of dead chickens tied by their necks to boards running across the back of motorbikes; 2 dead pigs on a board on the back of motorbikes; guys on bicycles with 12' long 2x10s, or thereabouts, strapped lengthwise along the frames; 2 guys carrying a car door on a motorbike; several blocks of ice on motorbikes; families with the father driving, a kid between his legs, his wife on the back carrying a baby, all, of course, with no helmets or any straps of any kind; all kinds of stuff strapped across the back of motorbikes which seemed to defy the laws of gravity and, at the very least, required a very wide berth. I wish I had taken video! The other cool thing were the "gas stations". Actually, they were mostly used by motorbikes and tuk-tuks cause they did have regular gas stations. Along the roads you would see metal racks filled with bottles (soda, old liquor bottles, etc.) containing around a liter of gas. Perfect size for a motorbike. I was wondering what the heck they were when Tracy finally realized I was puzzled by them and said "Gas stations". Why not?

If you've read this far, you probably have a nagging question in the back of your head - "Why Cambodia?" You probably also have realized that Tracy and I don't go to "normal" places. Two words - Angkor Wat. It's believed to be the world's largest religious structure, built in the 12th century if I remember right. At least, that was our initial motivation, but as we read more about the country we just felt it would be more intriguing than Thailand and that there would be more of a need there. We were right on both accounts. Things kept popping up on our radar screen regarding volunteering in Cambodia before we left and we hooked up with a woman named Ponheary Ly our first morning there. Which brings me to our second harrowing experience in Cambodia. Ponheary had no sooner picked us up when she collided with 3 kids on a motorbike. Her car just got a broken headlight, but the kids got a bit scraped up. We learned an interesting thing about accidents in Cambodia - that you have to settle things before the cops get there, otherwise you have to help "pay their salary". A nice way of saying that they don't get paid enough so if you don't give them some money they will impound all the vehicles involved. Ponheary, of course, had no money with her so she first asked us for $10 for the kids to get medical help, which they definitely needed. Then, she asked us for another $5 to placate the cops. She planned to pay us back, but we said no thinking that her money was better spent elsewhere.

Let me back up a bit. We had actually arranged a meeting with her by email first after finding her organization (www.plf.org) on the internet. She helps Cambodian kids with supplies and uniforms for school. The school is free the first 6 years, but the supplies and uniforms are not. Many kids can't afford the $20 it cost for a year. When she asked us what we wanted to do, we warned her that we weren't teachers. Her response was, "Well, you speak English, don't you?" "Well, yes." "Great. That's all you need." We soon realized why. It was the first year the school had an English program and we figured out real quick that of the eight teachers who taught English, 3 could speak it OK and the rest didn't come up with an excuse fast enough to get out of it. So we spent 3 days, 7-11am and 1-5pm, in 95 degree heat with 98% humidity, with no A/C, with classes as big as 40+ kids trying to teach English using a book that was written for Euro teens in the 90s. Do 10 yr. old Cambodian kids really need to know what country Leonardo DiCaprio comes from or that Anna Kournikova is/was a tennis player? After the first day I wanted to quit. And Tracy had a hard time trying to come up with a good argument why we shouldn't. Mostly, we didn't want to fail after just one day so we went back for more punishment the next day. And by the 3rd day we were getting the hang of it despite the horrible book we had to work with. We were also totally exhausted at the end of each day. Thank God (or Buddha) for the 2 hour lunch breaks and for the great margaritas we had after we finished on the last day. But, I think both of us would do it again in a heartbeat. I don't think we'll ever forget 35 kids yelling "Teacher, me! Teacher, me!" when we asked them to come up to the board or answer a question. There were some shy and quiet ones, but most of them really wanted to learn.

Back to those two words - Angkor Wat. Siem Reap used to be a dusty little city with nothing, but now huge hotels are all over the place. You can find a $10/night guesthouse or you can pay upwards of four or five hundred dollars for a luxury place. Actually, there's not just one temple, there are whole complexes of temples with the "jewel" being Angkor Wat.

Not far from Siem Reap is one of the largest lakes in SE Asia, Tonle Sap. It is the lifeblood of central Cambodia. There is actually a large community of people that live in a floating village on the lake. Well, they do in the dry season when the lake level is much lower. In the rainy season the water level can rise as much as 30 feet or so and the lake is about 2/3 larger than in the dry season so the people have to move inland. We really wanted to go out and see it despite it being a bit touristy and harder to get to since we were late in the dry season. Another week or so and I don't think the boats could've gone out of the harbor that we went from. Some of the boats were already getting stuck. It's pretty funny though. They have most everything a normal village does - gas stations, restaurants, schools, a basketball court, and even a Catholic church. It just all happens to float.

There is also a place called the Flooded Forest where the water rises so high that all but the highest branches of the trees are covered during the rainy season. It was an hour's boat ride up the lake but being out on water on a hot day seemed like a good idea so we checked it out as well. The village near it is all built on stilts so they don't have to move in the rainy season, though they do have to get around in boats then. The water was so low that we had a hard time getting up the inlet where the village was and we were the only tourists in the village that day. Before leaving we decided to eat lunch in the village at a place our guide took us to, rather than wait another hour til we got back to the floating village. It certainly wasn't your typical restaurant. No menus. Our guide simply asked us what we wanted - chicken or pork. Then he showed us through the house to our table, which shared a room with some beds. A while later, after we had drinks, he asked us how we wanted our chicken cooked. We realized that the cook had to go out and kill the chicken first. We heard a lot of chopping and commotion in the kitchen, and after what seemed like forever, a woman appeared with a plate of food that smelled great. A closer look showed us that it was chicken alright, but it was all the bones, neck, back, etc. chopped up. Hardly a piece of meat to be found. Then, out came another plate so we thought, "Oh, here's the meat." It was fried chicken, but again hardly any meat. Luckily there was a lot of rice. When we asked how much we owed (no menu, no checks) we were shocked when the girl said $15! You have to realize, that would've been the most expensive meal we had our whole time in Cambodia. We usually had dinner for two, even with a beer, for $8-13. We settled on $10 and got out of there. I think they were trying to make up for the lack of tourists.

On our last day, we hired a tuk-tuk driver to take us to an orphanage that we had seen while touring around the temples. We thought it would be a good place to deliver the dolls. A young man showed us around the 2 room building that housed about 50 kids. He was 21 and had grown up in an orphanage himself, but still looked like he was one of the kids. They had a kitchen, toilets and a generator for electricity, but they used the lake across the street to bathe. The kids mostly slept on mats on the floor. We had brought a doll that a Cambodian girl had decorated with traditional Khmer clothing. She was an orphan in Cambodia but was adopted by the sister of one of Tracy's friends. The kids eyes lit up when they saw it and heard the story.

They were so excited to get all of the dolls, even the boys. In fact, one of the boys claimed the Cambodian doll for his own. Within minutes they were playing with the dolls' hair and changing around their clothes and stuff. It felt really good to see their smiling faces. I wondered if we should've stayed longer and played with them, but it just seemed like they were engrossed in the dolls and it was better to let them play on their own. The need is so great in Cambodia. Only the poorest of the poor children can come to this orphanage, but it is growing and there are others as well. The kids all go to school and you can tell they are loved.

The next morning we took a cab back to the border and were entertained by all the crazy things we saw on the way - horses in pickup trucks, pigs on the back of motorbikes, each thing more unbelievable than the last. I almost forgot to mention the traffic in Cambodia. I wish I could put into words how the traffic flows there. It really is something to sit back and just watch for a while. You have to realize, first, that there are as many, if not more, bicycles and motorbikes on the road than there are cars, and they often don't stick to their side of the road. At an intersection it's like a dance, or a weave, or 4 streams coming together. There's no neat orderly progression of vehicles waiting for their light to turn green. In fact, most of the time there's no light. From the outside it seems like chaos, but it's not. And, it works...somehow. If someone coming the other way is turning left and you're going straight, they don't wait for you to pass. They turn as if you weren't there. And you don't slam on the brakes and hit the horn. You simply go around them to the left, or further to the right if that works better. If you're crossing heavy traffic, you don't wait on your side of the intersection for the other traffic to clear. You venture out into the middle and the cross traffic veers around you - on the left or right - until you reach the other side. The key is, for the most part, everyone keeps moving. If you were carrying 30 chickens to market on the back of your motorbike, you wouldn't want to stop either. I know I'm not doing it justice. Next time I'll have to take a video.

Back in Thailand, the bus ride to Bangkok was far less entertaining. We looked forward to one last Thai massage at the airport hotel before our long journey home. At $11/hour we felt like we were being cheated a bit, but we had to remind ourselves that $11 would be dirt cheap in another day or two.

You can also see more pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/23798449@N04/sets/

After a long journey (which wasn't so bad since we had first class seats from SF to Tokyo thanks to Tracy working for United and her good travel karma), we arrived in Bangkok around midnight on the first day of Songkran, the Thai New Year festival. Like many festivals these days, what started out as a low-key religious festival has turned into a 3 day party full of lunacy. The original idea, which you can still see being practiced if you stop in at your neighborhood wat, was to sprinkle yourself, others and statues of the Buddha with water as a cleansing ritual and to gain merit for the new year.
Now, you walk through the streets eating and drinking and tossing, throwing, dumping, squirting or otherwise soaking people with water while getting soaked yourself. Actually, Bangkok wasn't too wild except in the area our guesthouse was in, near the backpacker ghetto of Kao San Rd. So when we told the taxi stand at the airport the address, they all started smiling and apologizing, especially the driver when he dropped us off and bid us "Good Luck". Our guesthouse was down an alley, which he couldn't drive down of course, and at the head of the alley were a bunch of young kids who were completely soaked and were holding down one of their friends and drenching her with a hose. Happy New Year! We managed to get by, with all of our luggage, unscathed. We later noticed that there was an unwritten code of compassion, for the most part, for people who weren't carrying a super soaker (I think more of these are sold in Thailand that week than any other country in the world at any other time of the year!) or already wet. If you weren't obviously "in the game", they were pretty nice to you. On the other hand, people in Chiang Mai, our destination the following day, did not subscribe to that same code in the least. CM is definitely the epicenter of Songkran in Thailand and all the crazy Songkran devotees make a pilgrammage there each year. We took the night train out of Bangkok to CM that night and, lucky for us, arrived there in time for the last day of the festival. Once we found a guesthouse,
we wandered around town and proceeded to get soaked. Luckily it was in the high 90s so it didn't matter too much, but after a few hours of this it got old. The amazing thing to us was that people didn't get tired of it and noone got mad or got in fights. They just laughed and smiled. I wish we had pictures of the nuts, and there were tons of them, riding around in pickup trucks with garbage cans full of water in the back soaking anyone within reach. But we didn't dare risk our camera getting wet.

With the first few days in Thailand being filled with Songkran and getting over our jetlag, we finally felt like we got going on our second day in CM. We signed up for a "Flight of the Gibbons" tour up in the mountains. It's basically a canopy tour on zip lines in the jungle, just like the one I did last year in Costa Rica. Tracy had also been on one before, but it was still pretty cool. One of the guys in our group was an Australian who was about 6'6" and over 300lbs, and he was a bit afraid of heights. I was more afraid that the cables would break, but they held up admirably, and I felt like they were well-tested when he went before me.


One of the things you read about on TripAdvisor and other travel forums is that all the hotels and guesthouses will hound you to take tours, for which they get commission, of course. We had wanted to go to the Thai Elephant Conservation Center, but we were told it was very expensive and very far. They offered us a "better" option of going to a different elephant center for only 75 or 80 bucks which included lunch and a tour of an orchid farm. We passed on the deal and went to the conservation center on our own. When we got to the bus station, everyone wanted to sell us a ticket to wherever we were going. We were a bit skeptical, but the price was good and they guaranteed us the driver would drop us off at the center even though it wasn't a regular stop. We were a bit worried we would end up in Bangkok, but were relieved when the bus pulled over to the side of the highway just as we saw the sign for the place. We wanted to go here because they help rehabilitate sick or injured elephants and they also train mahouts (the elephant trainers), and supposedly don't make the elephants do silly things like play soccer. Besides, they also make and sell elephant dung paper and it's not every day that you get to see that. One hokey thing they do during the show is have 2 elephants paint pictures. We were assured, however, that the elephants really enjoy it. Maybe they find it therapeutic and stress-relieving. What do I know! I did like the flower painting, but I wasn't crazy about the abstract the one elephant did. I clapped for both of them, though, not wanting either elephant to have a lower self-esteem. Some of the highlights of our visit was seeing the baby elephant, bath time and watching a chained-up elephant leaning his whole body over and swinging his trunk out just far enough to steal hay from his neighbor, who was quite clueless.

The most interesting part of the day, though, was the ride home. The guide books never really explained how to get back to CM from there, but a few people said you can take a bus that runs regularly, but you have to ask to find out where to catch it. Well, after asking several people we felt quite certain that a bus would come along at some point, and we were pretty sure we were waiting in the right spot, but after waiting for 45 minutes or so were beginning to wonder. I finally said to Tracy, "If we were in Chiang Mai or Bangkok, about 50 people would have asked us 'Where are you going?' by this time." (more on that later). Sure enough, about 5 minutes later a guy walked up to us and asked the question we would hear hundreds of times during our trip, "Where are you going?" Turns out he was going back to CM with his family - all 8 or 10 of them along with their belongings in a pickup truck. The difference between him and most of the other people who asked us that was that he didn't want any money to take us there. After he reassured us it was fine with him, and the rest of his family, we agreed and hopped in the bed of the pickup with him, his dad and his brother. We realized after a time that he was just a friendly Thai guy who wanted to practice his English. It's not easy carrying on a conversation in the back of a pickup going down the highway, but we managed to have a modest cultural exchange. In any case, it was better than an orchid farm and the whole day only cost us less than $20!

We had read great things about getting a Thai massage, and we were not let down. After riding in the pickup truck for over an hour we decided it was time to indulge ourselves. We were talked into spending an extra $2.50 to get a 90 minute massage instead of the typical 60 minutes for $5. A few days later we found out that 60 minutes for $5 was just fine, but figured you can't always get the best deal. Thai massage is quite different than what most people in this country know as massage. First of all, you're fully clothed (unless you go to one of the seedier places and get a "happy ending"). Second, it's intimate in the sense that they use their feet, arms, elbows and sometimes most of their body weight to stretch, bend, pressure and twist your body farther than you thought imaginable. Third, it can actually hurt and is certainly not relaxing during the process. But, when you're done, you FEEL like you've had a massage. Closer to the truth, you feel more like you've gone through your first day of boot camp, but it feels GOOD. And we happily found out that repeat customers only have to pay $4!! I had a hard time deciding if that, or if a lemon shake for 33 cents was the best deal on the planet. For the uninitiated, a lemon "shake" is more like a lemon ice or slushee. But on a hot, steamy day (or night), there's not much that satisfies better than a nice, tart lemon shake no matter how you call it. Needless to say, we took full advantage of lemon shakes and Thai massages in Thailand. Good thing because we never really found comparable equivalents in Cambodia.

Another thing we had looked forward to before the trip was Thai food in general, and taking a Thai cooking class in particular. Food, in fact, was a big part of our adventure, whether it was finding some really weird stuff or tasting some amazing culinary delights or trying to figure out what the heck that weird-looking fruit is.
There must be a dozen cooking schools in CM. We picked the one that our guesthouse manager recommended and we were confident that she picked a good one in the end. We went to the market, cooked, and ate for 6 hours and even I was stuffed and fully satisfied at the end of the day. Truthfully, I think the meals we cooked were some of the best meals we had on the whole trip. It wasn't too hard when you had someone telling you exactly how and when to do everything. Now, however, Tracy is a Thai food fanatic and we've already found a bunch of Asian markets in Denver. It's a little harder without our teacher watching over us, but we're actually getting pretty good. It also helps to have the right equipment, which is why I got Tracy a new wok for her birthday. So if you visit us in the future, you're likely to get Thai food more often than not.

CM is famous for it's night market and it's Sunday market so we did do a little shopping, but to my liking we didn't do a real lot of it. Tracy did manage to find some nice tops for a great price, a pair of traditional Thai pants for $3 and a scarf for $3 too, and I got a silk elephant tie for $3 but got ripped off on a pair of shorts for $5. I just couldn't bring myself to bargain with the guy at that price. We also rented motorbikes one day and took a ride out into the country to check out some handicraft "factories". The motorbikes were fun, though a bit scary on the busier roads, but the handicrafts were a bit of a letdown.

A big part of the motivation for this trip was to be able to deliver some handmade ragdolls to orphanages in both countries. Tracy makes them and, with the help of other ladies, decorates them and then delivers them to underprivileged kids in developing countries. Through the lady at our guesthouse we found an orphanage in CM that was within walking distance so one afternoon we took the dolls over. Unfortunately, they decided to put the dolls in the kids bedrooms at a later time so we didn't get to see the kids when they got them, but we were able to stay and play a while. We also managed to come back another morning, but there weren't many kids out at that time and there were other volunteers playing with them too. The Cambodian orphanage turned out to be a more rewarding experience, but that's for the next entry.

To get to Cambodia we had to head back to Bangkok first and then go on from there. Getting around in this part of the world can be quite adventurous. Not in the same way that riding in a NY city cab or driving in Boston is adventurous. More in the sense that everyone - the taxi drivers, the tuk-tuk drivers, the touts working for a hotel or tour company - wants to take you somewhere so they can make some money. The hardest part is figuring out who is, and isn't, trying to scam you. Sometimes you can't walk a city block without being asked if you want a ride somewhere. So, we were quite disappointed when we found out the night train to Bangkok was fully booked and we had to take an overnight bus. We should've had a clue that it wasn't a public bus when they said someone would pick us up at our hotel 30 minutes before the bus was scheduled to leave. It turned out to be the bus ride from hell. What do you expect when you pay $20 for a 12 hour bus ride, but in our defense, the night train was only $25. To make a long story short, we started nearly 2 hours late waiting for some mystery person who never showed up and the A/C worked about as well as it does in a 12 year old car that has never had it recharged. Needless to say, we didn't sleep much and when we got to Bangkok there was no way we were getting on another "tour" bus to Cambodia. We paid (too much) for a cab to take us to the bus station and took a public bus to the border. Later we would find out from some tourists who got scammed real badly, that it was definitely the smart thing to do despite the A/C not working all that well in it either.

You can also see more pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/23798449@N04/sets/

The ski in was tough. You're really not skiing, but "skinning" up the trail. (With backcountry skiing, you can use either telemark or randonee, aka AT skis, with climbing skins attached to the bottom.) And I do mean up. The trail gained 2000 ft. in elevation in 6 miles. We got a late start so we didn't stop a whole lot and my legs were about to fall off when it was getting to be about 4PM. I thought we still had a little ways to go, but since Tracy had been there before she knew we'd see the hut any minute. So she slyly let me go first and, sure enough, around the next bend there was the hut. I don't think I could've gone another 1/2 mile so I was real happy. The next day we skinned further up the mountain with our hutmates and climbed up a ridge. We decided that was high enough and it was time for me to make my first backcountry turns on telemark skis. It was also time for me to make my first backcountry faceplants, but amazingly enough I actually did manage to make some real telemark turns. The open area was shortlived as we headed back into the trees. Which meant going back to snowplowing a lot and occasionally trying to do a real turn.

The first two days had been perfect, beautiful blue-sky days and the temps were in the mid- to upper-20s. Not bad for the mountains. The second night we got a minor blizzard. It only dumped about 4-6" of new snow, but it was enough to give us fresh trackless powder to ski out on. It started out in the low teens, but by the time we were well on our way out, things warmed up real nice. I'd highly recommend it to anyone, but I would also recommend being in pretty good shape. I wished I had been in better shape, but I survived and had a great time in the process. Here are some pictures, but to see them all you can go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/23798449@N04/sets/

I also have a new person in my life. Her name is Tracy and I met her in a hiking group this summer. We love to do a lot of the same things and she was also brave enough to volunteer to teach me how to telemark ski this winter.

Abbey is still going strong at 14. She did a 2 1/2 hour snowshoe with us last weekend and had a great time in the snow. I think she's going to love it out here. She's also going to love living in one place for more than a few days or a few weeks. I think all the moving around was wearing on her and she really enjoyed staying put this summer. The same goes for me. I had a great time traveling around the country, but I had grown tired of all the travel. I still plan to take some trips, but I'll have a homebase now. I'm really looking forward to it.

I hope this holiday season finds you and your families all well. I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!

Ed

I arrived at the familiar confines of the fairgrounds on Sunday, the 16th, just in time for our group meeting. We had a new team leader this time. Bob signed up early to be the team lead, which worked out OK since Charlie, our previous fearless leader, wasn’t able to stick around for the build. He later mentioned something about missing his dog. It took a little while getting used to Bob’s leadership style. You see, he took the word “leader” literally, whereas Charlie took it to mean something more on the lines of “upfront organizer, but once on the jobsite let Trace do the leading.” Charlie’s modus operandi had been much to our liking so there was some adjustment for those of us used to his style, and even for some of us who hadn’t worked with Charlie. But we did manage to smooth things out for the most part (read this as we tolerated working with Bob when we had to, but poor Bill got stuck with him the most) and we accomplished quite a lot in the two weeks. And I have to say in defense of Bob, he did keep us moving and was a big reason why we got a lot done.

Bruce and Vina (pronounced like the end of Carolina – poor thing has to constantly correct people) were the only repeats from previous Jackson builds, but I finally convinced my RV’ing buddies, Doug and Liane, to join me on a build. They tried using a lame excuse that they already had plans to see the Buffalo Roundup (in my home state of South Dakota), but I finally convinced them when I said it wouldn’t be a problem if they left a tad early to catch the roundup anyways. Funny thing is that they left on Friday afternoon and the roundup didn’t happen until Monday. They somehow managed to omit that part when explaining why they HAD to leave early. Besides them, we also had another new couple from Indiana, the aforementioned Bill and his wife Barb. The only slacker in the bunch was Bruce (just kidding, Bruce!) who never failed to call out the exact time of morning and afternoon water breaks and lunch with amazing precision. Of course, I was always hungry long before lunch arrived so the warning was not necessary for me. Bruce was also good at giving Vina orders, but, true to form, after all those years of marriage, she had developed an acute sense of when to ignore him. (Bruce did admit to me in private that he is one lucky guy to have her for his wife, so it’s all just a façade.)

On my first two builds in Jackson you may recall that we did mostly roof work. There was rarely a picture of me, besides the ones at happy hour, where I wasn’t on the roof. Well, this time we were on the opposite end of the construction spectrum – foundations. We built forms, bent re-bar, shoveled gravel, poured footers and stem walls and the usual assortment of “move this over there, now move it back over here, take the garbage to the dump” kind of stuff that would make us feel lost if we didn’t have to do some of it now and then. We were actually working on the foundations for 2 different houses and we did odd jobs on 2 others.

On the final day we did manage to get the subfloor on one of the houses, but we never did have that barbecue and hoe-down that Trace promised us if we finished it. He’s still the slave driver! He did have a softer side this year, or I should say, Katie, his construction assistant, provided a “softer” side to Trace’s whip-cracking. (He’s also very forceful when it comes to my social schedule which explains the need for drying out afterwards.) Actually, she’s a great carpenter and is probably stronger than most of the guys that were there. Bruce is probably still talking about how she “just picked up the re-bar bender and threw it in the truck!” The only softness came in dealing with us. She was way too polite in the beginning, but by the second week she was learning to dole out the abuse pretty well.

This time I also was able to bring my RV to the job site so Abbey could come with me every day and she had company in the form of Max, Doug and Liane’s dog. They at least got to get out at lunchtime and beg for food from everyone and not just their owners. We had a few happy hours back at our beloved fairgrounds – the flies and the manure smell finally died down in the beginning of the second week – but the weather wasn’t as warm as last September so we had a few indoors. The middle weekend, are only days off, it rained both days, but we managed to get out still. On Sunday Doug, Liane and the dogs and I went to see Periodic Springs. It was a bit of a drive, but the leaves were quite colorful and the springs had quite an advanced billing by some of the others. It’s technically known as a cold-water geyser, but I have my doubts. If it’s true, it’s actually a pretty interesting phenomena. The spring comes out of the base of a cliff and the water cascades down this little side canyon and forms a creek. Every 20 or 30 minutes it stops flowing completely and the cascade dries up, and then, after another 20 minutes, it starts all over again. The funny thing though is that someone has put a concrete “cover” above the opening and there are flaps and a pipe under there. We thought it looked like something out of Disney World and were joking that there is a pump somewhere that cycles on and off every 20 minutes that pumps the water back up from the creek. In any case it was a nice little hike on an otherwise rainy day.

On Monday Trace asked me to do some recon with him on the Granite Hot Springs. It’s not that far from Jackson as the crow flies, but it was slow going for 10 miles on a dirt road. It was worth the drive though. We passed up the public “pool”, and $6 fee, and hiked down to some natural pools by the river. There was one that had a hot waterfall flowing into it. The scenery was incredible. The only downside was that I was with Trace and not Tracy. But the “work” paid off the following week when Tracy came up to meet me after the build was done. She and Trace and I also did a nice hike on one of the days she was there. And, I squeezed in a hike the Monday before we started with Mills and Trace up the nose of the Sleeping Indian, aka the Schnozz. That was a pretty grueling hike exacerbated by the wrong turn that someone took. We totaled about 4000ft. of elevation gain. Mills’ dog Bette made it the whole way with us and was a great companion. She rarely strayed far from us and always came back right away. And somehow she managed to ride in the bed of the pickup and not get thrown out while we drove on this very rough 4WD road to the trailhead and back. I’m sure she slept well that night.

As usual, Jackson was a great time and I saw some friends that I had made on previous stays. I’ll always love going there but I don’t know if I could live there. I definitely have a good time for 2 or 3 weeks though.

Tracy had to be back to work and I had to get back because my brother, John, and his wife, Patty, were coming to Denver for the week so we were spared the heavy packs. We had an absolutely perfect fall day for hiking. The aspens hadn’t quite started to turn yet, but it was still beautiful. The West Maroon Pass trail passes through the Maroon Bell Wilderness and skirts around Maroon and North Maroon Peaks. It’s normally a very popular trail but it actually wasn’t that crowded. It’s the shortest distance between Crested Butte and Aspen – about 10.5 miles on foot, and then a 15 minute bus ride into town. By car the shortest drive is over 100 miles and takes 3-4 hours, and the scenery just isn’t quite the same.

We didn’t exactly rough it, though, as we stayed in a nice little hotel in Aspen. I was a bit worried given the price seemed way too affordable for Aspen, but the hotel turned out to be really nice.

The next morning Mike and Gwen took a different trail and headed to Conundrum Hot Springs and an overnight campout. After carrying those packs I’m sure the hot springs felt great. Meanwhile, Tracy and I caught a cab back to the trailhead and headed back the way we came. This time we got to see the Maroon Bells in the morning light, which was pretty spectacular. The hike didn’t take as long the second time around, and the weather was just as gorgeous. Funny thing was that we saw a rainbow leaving Crested Butte just before we made the long drive back to Denver.

John and Patty flew in on Sunday afternoon, but I didn’t see them until Monday. They made the trip because Patty had a conference to go to and John just came along for the ride. Unfortunately, I kept forgetting my camera so I didn’t get any pictures of them or the sights we saw. I did get to take them to Boulder, Breckenridge, Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs and a few other places. I think they’d agree that the Garden of the Gods was the highlight as far as scenery is concerned. I hadn’t seen them in nearly 2 years so just spending time with them was the highlight for me. I think they liked the area enough that they might even come back to visit me once I move back in the winter. They left on Friday morning and I hung out a little while longer before heading up to Jackson on Sunday. More on that later.

On Tuesday I finally got back on the road and headed up to Leadville where Jim and Patricia are staying. They are friends that I worked with twice up in Jackson. Jim was my roofing partner for a good part of both builds. Jim’s an electrician and he’s been working on a huge hotel up in Vail for the past year or so. For the past month they’ve been living in their fifth wheel up in Leadville. I was here 2 years ago and it seems to me that they have fixed up even more of the town since then. They took me out to dinner and we reminisced about our good times in Jackson. Unfortunately, they aren’t going to be able to make the next build up there which starts in a couple of weeks. I’m going for the three-peat and looking forward to it.

I really enjoyed my summer in Boulder, but, believe it or not, there were times when I was itching to get on the road, if even for a short roadtrip. But I met a number of people, got to do a lot of yoga and see some great live shows including Lyle Lovett, kd lang, the Subdudes, Amos Lee, John Hiatt, Shawn Colvin and the Neville Brothers. You can’t beat that. The last show, Amos Lee and the Subdudes was free. Well, for us it was. I went with Steve Kupec, who was visiting on business for the week, and Bonnie (Dan was out of town). If you know Steve, you know he loves to eat. He stopped at Whole Foods on his way back from a meeting and went crazy. He bought so much food he even invited the cashier to join us. She politely declined. She gave some excuse about having to work a double shift. The concert was at Chautauqua, a very cool, historic auditorium about 5 minutes from the apartment. The really cool thing about it is that you can “poach” seats on the outside of the theatre and they don’t care. They open up these big sliding doors and you can hear almost as well as inside. Our view wasn’t great, but we were rookies when it came to seat selection. Now we know where to go next time. But the other great thing is that you can eat and drink (and boy did we eat!) as much as you want. Inside they don’t allow food or drinks. I don’t think I’ll ever pay for tickets there again. I had a good week with Steve though it started out kind of rough. Before he showed up I picked up some kind of stomach virus. By his second day I was finally eating solid foods again which was good since he was on expense account. If you know Steve, it won’t surprise you that he knew more places to go in Boulder than I did.

Three or four weeks ago I was getting bored with Boulder and was ready to leave, but my time there ended with a flurry of activity. I was happy it ended on such a good note, and I still have some great things to look forward to in the next month or so. I’ve also decided that I want to come back to the area in the winter, though it might not necessarily be Boulder. It will all depend on where I can find a place. And this time I’ll already know a bunch of people so I’m really looking forward to it.

In Colorado they are fiercely proud of their 14ers. These are mountains that exceed 14,000 ft. It's kind of amazing, but of the 68 or so 14ers in the Lower 48, there are 54 (or 58 depending on who's counting) in Colorado. And there are a ton of freaks who feel that it is their destiny to climb every single one of them. Fortunately, or unfortunately, one of these freaks happens to lead the hiking group that I go with the most. Luckily, she doesn't exclusively do 14ers, but she certainly has a strong affinity for pain and punishment of the vertical variety. Well, I finally did my first one a few weeks ago with Mike, the pilot, and Gwen. To me, the best thing about going up high on these peaks is the view. It also is a great sense of accomplishment, or is that feeling overwhelming relief, when you finally get to the top.
OK, so Mt. Bierstadt is probably one of the easiest 14ers in the state, but its name notwithstanding, which means "beer city" in German, it is still a good workout. We lingered for a while on the top until we saw the ubiquitous afternoon thunder clouds rolling in. I was trying to be optimistic and kept saying we're not going to get hit before reaching the parking lot, but we not only got dumped on, we got hailed on too. Being good Coloradoans we were well-prepared with our rain gear. In this state you don't go to the store in the mountains in the afternoon without it. No, Mike and I did not coordinate our attired. I had actually seen him before we left, but I had on my last clean hiking shirt. So we just had to pretend that was the uniform of our hiking club.

Yesterday, I went with the other group that I've done most of my group hiking with. There usually is a pretty big group, but this time there were only 4 of us. I half expected the leader to call me in the morning telling me she was going to bag it, but it wasn't the case. In fact, one of her friends decided to go at the last minute, otherwise there would only have been 3. On the drive up, the weather didn't look too promising and I was beginning to think I should've cancelled, but I kept driving anyways. It actually turned out to be a great hike. The weather held out. It was cloudy, but because of that it wasn't hot at all. Despite the clouds, they were high enough so that we still had good views. The four of us yacked the whole way up and back down and we still managed to keep a pretty quick pace. Scott, the other guy, was a newcomer to the group and he was a wealth of information, a walking encyclopedia of backpacking, hiking and gear-related tips and tricks. The women, believe it or not, were so excited. They were also excited to have 2 guys along that would actually talk on the trail. Of course, I did have trouble getting a word in edgewise at times, but kept up my end whenever I could.

Mike and Gwen at Blue Lake
Wildflowers on Blue Lake Trail

Lake Dorothy Pictures

Near top of Twin Sisters
Longs Peak

And it's even in my neighborhood!

My Boulder experience hasn’t turned out to be too different from what I expected. I probably haven’t gone out to as many restaurants as I expected, but I’ve been able to listen to a fair amount of live music (Lyle Lovett, the Neville Brothers, the Colorado Symphony, Bob Dylan, free concerts, and more to come) and I’ve checked out a fair number of restaurants and bars/pubs. I’ve had a few visitors, which has been fun. I’m happy with the great selection of organic and natural food stores despite the fact that there is no Trader Joe’s. I have managed to get TJ’s care packages from 2 of my visitors, though! I’ve taken a number of miscellaneous classes and met some interesting people. I have some great neighbors, actually they live in my house. Mike, a pilot for United, lives above me. He is single, though he had a friend, Gwen, living with him for a few weeks while she found her own place. She just moved out from Chicago and also works for United. I have been doing a lot with them including hiking, biking and just hanging out. They’ve been great to have around. Doss and Susan live upstairs, but they use the garage as their factory. They make and sell hemp ice cream. It’s really not that bad, though I’ve only tried the cookie ice cream sandwiches. They sell them at various places including Red Rocks Amphitheater, a great place to see a concert. It’s an outdoor amphitheater built among these natural red rock (of course) formations. The other night Mike and I volunteered to help them so we could see Bob Dylan for free. They originally thought they were going to be shorthanded, but it turned out they didn’t need much help. We stayed for about 45 minutes of Dylan, but he turned out to be a bit disappointing. At least when he dies, we both can say that we have seen him. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to wear the hemp hats and walk through the crowd. Maybe next time. Speaking of concerts, this area has a TON in the summer. I’m in heaven. I saw Lyle Lovett with k.d. lang at Red Rocks last week. I became a big Lyle fan when I was in Austin. I just love his quirky style and something about his voice…. I usually say that about female singers. He’s the only male singer that I feel that way about. He put on a great show. Then I went to the historic Chautauqua Auditorium right here in Boulder and saw the Neville Brothers. It was hotter than hell in there, but they’re from New Orleans so it wasn’t humid enough for them, but they still managed to bring down the house. I have tickets to a few more shows (I’m killing my budget while I’m here), so I’m pretty excited music-wise.

I’ve met a decent number of people here, but besides Mike and Gwen I don’t feel like I’ve made any friends that I’ll keep in touch with. But there’s still time, so who knows. I found a website called meetup.com which sponsors groups for anything from hiking groups to singles groups to single mothers with 3 or more children. I stay away from the latter. Anyways, I’ve found a couple of good hiking groups that I’ve done outings with and also a climbing group. I’ve been wanting to do more climbing, but unfortunately I’ve only been once. Part of that has been the lack of confidence I have in my back. I found, through my friend Bonnie Gibbons, a new chiropractor here that I really like. He has a slightly different focus than most other chiropractors I’ve been to, and he also doesn’t have you come in 3 times a week for umpteen weeks. He’s given me a number or exercises to do and they seem to be helping so far. I think it’s a good start, at least. How far it goes is up to me.

I’ve also been doing some volunteer work for an organization called Engineers without Borders. One of my favorite organizations has always been Doctors without Borders. Since I’m not a doctor, or even in a medical field, I found the next best thing. Actually, though, there’s not much I can do for them in the way of field work. They mostly need civil, mechanical or traditional electrical engineers. They do engineering projects in developing countries and work with the locals to get them involved. I found out their main office is in Longmont, which is less than a ½ hours from me, so I asked them if they need any work done in the office. So far I’ve done a little work for them, and hopefully they’ll be more during the rest of the summer. The office is nearly all women, except for one of the summer interns, and now me. So, as you can imagine, they ask me to do all the computer-related stuff that noone else wants to touch. It’s a rough job, but someone’s got to do it. I’m just doing my part!

One of the things I’ve been doing a lot of here is getting good exercise. Besides hiking and walking Abbey every day, I’ve been going to yoga class. I’ve been trying to go twice a week and have hopes of bumping that up to 3 times. I first signed up for a 10 week class at the rec center. It’s a good class, but I’m the only guy (not so unusual for yoga) and I’m the only one under 50. If it weren’t for one woman, I’d be the only one under 60! I should’ve known signing up for a weekday class that starts at 9:15AM. I also go to another place that has a better mix of students, at least as far as age is concerned, and I’m not the only guy that goes. Luckily, there’s only one other guy. Wouldn’t want to make the ratio too even. So, between the chiro, hiking and yoga, I’m hoping my back and the rest of my body is in pretty good shape by the end of the summer. It is feeling better for the most part, but it still needs more work.

Well, that’s about all for now. Here are some hiking pictures. One of these days I want to get out and take pictures of Boulder and it’s crazy inhabitants. I’ve got to get a picture of the Hippo House. It’s right in my neighborhood. The crazy inhabitants are what gives Boulder it’s charm in my view. Yes, it has grown a lot, but it is still a fairly unique place once you look past all the touristy and gentrified places. It reminds me a bit of Austin, though on a smaller, and much more compact scale. In Austin you’ll see people wearing “Keep Austin Weird” shirts, or their cars sporting bumper stickers of the same ilk. In Boulder, you won’t see that (though you’ll see a million other bumper stickers), but I think it’s because they don’t need it. Despite the influx of yuppies and chi-chi stores, and, gasp, a mall, I think Boulder will always have its weird side. That’s what makes it interesting to me. I mostly sit on the outside and look in, but it’s usually with a smile on my face.

The only one who didn’t fare as well this time around was Abbey. Since I have a car now I didn’t drive my RV to the site each day which meant she got left back in the KOA. It was about 5 miles away from the site so I usually didn’t go back at lunch to let her out. And since Trace was such a slave driver and worked us long hours, she was often holed up by herself for 8 hours or more. Of course, I still had to walk her when I got back, and she took me for a walk every morning so I was usually pretty tired by the end of the day. Somehow I managed to go out quite a bit, mostly thanks to Trace. Not only is he a construction supervisor, he was the consummate host. Rena also helped in the entertainment arena. On the first Saturday night, there was a fundraiser for Breast Cancer Awareness called Bras for the Cause. 25 different organizations sponsored a “designer” bra to be auctioned off. Rena had designed four of them so she made sure Trace and I were going to be there. As if I needed more incentive to go see women modeling some crazy bras, she kept telling me that her single friends were coming. After last year when she kept trying to set me up with everyone in the Cowboy Bar, I was a little leery. Rena even set us up with front row seats for the fashion show so I couldn’t complain. I’d have to say the fashion show was a rousing success and raised lots of money. Two bras actually went for $1000 a piece. Let’s just say that some of the models were quite animated and I think one of them has had experience dancing with a pole in the past. The bra Rena designed for Habitat didn’t bring in the most money, but it won the vote as the most popular design. (Actually the idea for it was Trace’s. Apparently, he has talent in the fashion arena as well.) It was adorned quite appropriately with roofing nails. Carin, one of the Americorps/Habitat interns was kind enough to model it at the job site one day for those who didn’t attend the show.

On Sunday, I only had enough energy left to float down the Snake River with Trace in his ducky – an inflatable two-man kayak. Unfortunately, we didn’t quite get it inflated enough, and the cold water managed to contract the air in it even more, so we were riding pretty low in the water. The rapids weren’t exactly class V, or even class II for that matter, but we did manage to “taco” in one rapid with me ending up in Trace’s lap in the back of the ducky with his paddle in the back of my head. Believe it or not, no alcohol was involved. The river was pretty high and moving real fast so the ride went pretty quick. After we pulled out we drove down into the canyon to witness a truly unique Wyoming experience. In a rapid called Lunch Counter (or Big Kahuna, I’m not sure which) for several weeks in the spring there is enough water to create a standing wave where surfers can actually surf the wave in the middle of the river. If I hadn’t seen it myself I’m not sure I would’ve believed it, though it has supposedly been written up in Surfer magazine a few different times. Several surfers tried to surf the wave, but it wasn’t easy judging by the looks of it. One guy was pretty amazing though and could stand up in the wave for quite a while. I was really disappointed not to have my camera with me, so you’ll have to take my word for it. It would’ve been a great picture to show Guchi, our surfing dude down in Costa Rica. If they had been selling “Surf Wyoming” T-shirts I definitely would’ve bought one. It was pretty crazy.

For a town of only 8,000 people Jackson has some pretty nice amenities including a brand new Center for the Arts. On Monday, Trace was able to get me an extra ticket to see John Prine. I wouldn’t call myself a big fan of his, though I’ve heard his music enough to know that I do like a lot of it. The theater is what I would call “cozy”, which I think is perfect for seeing a show because there really isn’t a bad seat in the house. Well, except maybe our seats because we had some nuts sitting in the aisle right next to us that felt the need to accompany John on some of his more popular acoustic songs. I guess they thought he wasn’t loud enough by himself. I was going to ask the guy what his name was so I could see if he was listed on the ticket as John’s special guest. Luckily someone finally told them to move to their seats. Anyways, it was a great concert. However, when Charlie found out we went he was quite perturbed that we had neglected to mention the concert to him. It turns out he IS a big fan and he didn’t soon let us forget this point. I think he forgave us by the time he left, though.

Midway through the second week a couple of friends that Trace had met on a train a few years ago showed up. I was thinking they were going to be a couple of young guys, but not so. Don and Art are in their 60s and 70s respectively, but they came out and worked 2 long days with us. I was happy to have them there, partly because Art took most of the ribbing that I usually get, but mostly because they are just a couple of great guys. We went out to dinner a couple of times and we were usually laughing most of the way through the meal. The funny thing is that they only knew Trace from a 1 ½ hour train ride from San Diego to LA, but after he sent them a postcard a while later, they somehow managed to track him down “on the ice” in Antarctica through the internet without even knowing his email or last name. I think Art sometimes questions the wisdom of that effort ;) On Saturday, we stayed a bit late and managed to finish the roof. It felt good, even though our bodies didn't. Well, all except the ridge vent, which Trace was kind enough to save for me the following week.

If you’re starting to get the idea that I went out a lot while I was there, you’d be right. I decided to stay an extra week, with the idea that I would only work a few days for Habitat and maybe catch up on my sleep. Well, that didn’t quite work out. I did stay for another week, and had a great time, but I didn’t really catch up on my sleep. I worked on the house a few more days and also did some work for Michael. I also managed to get Abbey out for a hike or a good walk most every day, but needless to say I think I went out every night so I didn’t catch up on my sleep too much. Not to mention that Abbey woke me up most morning by 6:00 so sleeping in was not an option. I had to leave the KOA but I was lucky enough to stay for free in a storage yard in town. The boyfriend of another Americoprs intern, Mills, found out I was looking for a place to stay so he said I could park in his lot. It was actually not a bad place and since it was in town and free, Abbey and I were just fine there. Believe it or not, I was there 3 weeks and I didn’t go for a hike, or even go into Grand Teton National Park until my last day there. Trace, Heather (a slightly crazy friend of Trace’s) and I went for a real nice hike in Death Canyon. The scenery is much nicer than the name suggests. And thanks to Trace and Heather talking pretty much nonstop we didn’t have to worry about bears or anything. On the way back Trace decided it was warm enough to take the first dip of the summer. Heather and I thought otherwise so we watched as he took a quick dip in a freezing cold stream. He kept telling us after that we’d feel much better if we had gone in with him, but I was feeling just fine. About 2 minutes after we got in the car I started falling asleep. I think the 3 weeks were finally catching up to me. Unfortunately, the next day I had to drive 9 hours to Colorado. I’m sure Heather and Trace were napping all day.

This trip was even better than the last one and I also met a whole bunch of new people thanks to Trace and Rena. I’m ready to sign up for the next build in the fall. I’m hoping that Trace will come on down to Boulder to visit me this summer, but I’m worried about it being able to live up to my time in Jackson. I’ll have a hard time trying to top his hospitality. I made it down to Loveland, to the Gibbons, Monday evening, picked up my apartment keys on Tuesday and Abbey and I moved into our new home for the summer on Wednesday. The first thing I wanted to do after putting things away, however, was to get some sleep.

The Beginning
Midway
After 2 Weeks. Check out that roof!
A typical pose

The Super

No matter how I looked at it, it was interesting and I was happy I went. Mary on the other hand was not. She was probably the oldest student in the group, and wasn’t real intent on learning Spanish. She also didn’t swim in the pool, which explained why she was so hot and uncomfortable in Tikal. Sean and I made use of the pool so we were just fine. Sean is a Canadian from Nunavut, if you’ve ever heard of that. I remember hearing about Nunavut being named a new territory in northeastern Canada near Greenland several years ago. He is the one and only Nunavutian that I know, though he is not from a native tribe. He’s a real nice guy, nonetheless, and if all Nunavutians are anything like Sean I’m sure it’s a real agreeable place to live, if you like frozen tundra. The next morning Sean and I went back in the park to check out more of the ruins and we hoped to see some wildlife. Not only did we see some wildlife, Sean had a close encounter. While climbing up one of the temples we saw some parrots. All of a sudden 2 more parrots showed up and a territorial battle broke out. Sean's head got caught in the middle of everything, but luckily he didn't jump out of the way. It would've been a long fall down. We also saw some howler and spider monkeys, but they weren't as "wild" as the parrots.

Miss Mayan Ruin Contest?

When I arrived back in Antigua Sunday evening it felt strangely familiar and comfortable, like it was home, even though I had only been there a week. Maybe it would be more appropriate to say I felt like I belonged there. Walking through the central park back to my house, I felt like I was an old timer, one of the experienced. Luckily, no one tried to start a conversation with me in Spanish. That surely would have killed the moment. Week 2 was more Spanish. I graduated on to using the past tense. I no longer had to say everything in the present tense and hope that by the context of the sentence the person to whom I was talking could figure out my meaning. Of course, with more verb conjugations to remember, I suddenly forgot how to conjugate verbs in the present tense. It’s been way too long since I had to study! Week 2 also came with more partying, which also hindered the studying part. Since I had gotten to know more of the students, I started going out more. Most of them were younger so I was usually not in the crowd that stayed out the latest, but I did manage to experience “reggatone” for the first time. Some would call it music, some would not, but nonetheless I managed to dance, or some semblance thereof, to it. Jackie, a girl from DC, was in love with reggatone so we had no choice. The students came from a variety of countries including Holland, Switzerland, Canada, Denmark, Australia and the US. After the US and Canada, the most were from Holland. Surprisingly, at our school there were no Germans. Most places I’ve traveled recently the majority of the foreign tourists have been Germans.

The meals we had with the family were pretty good, though not overly big. There was always bread and tortillas and many meals came with rice and beans. I definitely had my quota of beans for several months in those 2 weeks. The lunches were the biggest and the best, where dinners were quite small. We’d often get something else to eat before or after dinner. And at the 10AM break at school I learned in a hurry that a lady came in everyday to serve different kinds of sandwiches for all of .50 to .70. You couldn’t beat them for the price especially considering that they came with guacamole – one of my favorite foods. There were a few different brands of local beers none of them anything special but they were fine just the same. We were a bit surprised at the price of the beer though. It was cheap by American standards, but in relation to everything else it wasn’t any bargain. We had cheaper beer in Costa Rica. I think it is because Antigua caters to tourists.

On my last night, I decided to try and stay out with the youngsters all night. My shuttle was picking me up at 4:00 the next morning so I figured it wouldn’t make a lot of sense to go to sleep for just a few hours. We started out with a nice dinner and then headed to one of the dance clubs until that closed at 1:00. In Antigua, they have this strange concept they call an “after party”. After the clubs all shut down at 1, guys stand outside and hand out maps to their “after party” – supposedly illegal parties at some out-of-the-way unmarked place where they serve limited booze and play pretty bad music in a darkly lit room. I pretty much think they bribe the cops to look the other way, because it is way too obvious for them not to get caught. (One of the major complaints of the locals I talked to was that of corrupt police and politicians.) Well, the music was pretty bad so I lasted ONLY ‘til 3:00 before heading back to the house. I somehow managed to stay awake until 4 when the shuttle picked me up to start my journey “home”, which at that time happened to be Colorado. Whenever someone asked me where I was from I would just say “the States”. And they would say, “Of course, but where in the States?” So I’d have to go into this explanation of how I live now. Just before leaving for Guatemala I decided to rent an apartment in Boulder, CO for the summer starting just after Memorial Day until the end of August. So sometimes for simplicity sake, especially if I was explaining it in Spanish, I would say that I now live in Colorado.

I didn’t realize it beforehand, but Antigua is quite touristy, by Guatemalan standards. It also is home to a dozen or more Spanish language schools and more travel agents than Manhattan even though there are probably less than 50,000 people living there. As you can imagine it is popular with the backpacking crowd. Even though I saw a lot of western tourists and expats there, the population was still overwhelmingly Guatemalan. However, it was too easy to fall back into English, especially when talking to other students. Towards the end of the first week though, after 4-5 hours of Spanish lessons a day, I was happy to not have to try and think in Spanish all the time. My brain was fried and oversaturated. The school I went to had about 20-30 students at any one time, each with their own individual teacher. I stayed in the home of a local family near the school. The first week there was one other student who stayed in the same home, a Polish guy named Jarek, who now lives in the US. The second week a young Dutch girl joined us. The family was an extended family with the grandparents, four or so of their adult children and a few grandchildren. It took me most of the two weeks to figure out who was who. At most meals we only ate with a few of them, because they had several kitchens in the house. One of the sisters, Maria, cooked all our meals. She and her brother, Freddy, both had hearing and speech problems, but they had big hearts to make up for it. They were always smiling and laughing and, of all the family members, they spent the most time with us. We found out that in Guatemala, people with disabilities are shunned and discriminated against. They told us that the students that stayed at their house were much more friendly with them than any Guatemalans. Jarek found out they like wine so he started a habit of picking up a bottle of wine now and then to have with dinner. They really appreciated that.

I arrived on Saturday night, and on Sundays we didn’t eat with the family so I spent most of the next day just exploring the city. Antigua is from the Spanish colonial era so the architecture was interesting and there were a number of old ruins still around. It was quite common to see local women dressed up in traditional clothing. They also had an area next to a park filled with concrete basins where the local women would come to wash their clothes by hand. I figured they were mostly from the rural outlying areas. One thing that lost its charm after a few days, though, were the cobblestone streets and the crazy sidewalks. The sidewalks were fairly narrow, very uneven, and every building seemed to have windows with concrete sills and iron grates that protruded out over the sidewalk. If you weren’t paying attention you could smash your head or your shoulder on one of them. There were also many large churches in the city and one of them was celebrating the feast of its patron saint, Francisco. That morning I had been awakened at 5:30 to loud music playing. There were people dancing and they had this crazy procession through the streets carrying a statue of San Francisco. On the route they traveled people had laid out pine needles and flowers and had made some pretty elaborate designs using colored sand. And then there were the firecrackers and fireworks. Actually, they went on all day. And night. And the next day. They seemed to die down for a day or two and then on Wednesday they started up again. We were all thinking that they really go crazy for their saints’ feast days in Guatemala until we found out that they were celebrating a different saint’s feast day. All day long you would hear firecrackers and explosions. Finally after several days of this it stopped, but even then you would hear an occasional outburst. It turns out that anytime you celebrate someone’s birthday, even Mother’s Day, the thing to do is to light off firecrackers. Guatemala is anything but quiet. Between the early morning music, traffic noise, fireworks, dogs running on the roofs (they’re flat – the roofs, not the dogs) and the ubiquitous roosters, I didn’t get a lot of good sleep there. It may have also had something to do with having a few beers at night, but I’m not inclined to believe that.

One of the downsides to staying in Antigua was that I didn’t really get the feeling that I experienced what life is really like for most Guatemalans. I did have some talks with my teacher about how life is in Guatemala. And one of my host family’s sons, Jose, who didn’t live in the house, came over for dinner a few nights and talked to us about the politics and other issues. He spoke pretty slowly and clearly for us, which helped a lot! So at least we got a little flavor of what it’s like to be Guatemalan. We were told that our host family was considered middle class and were by no means poor, but by US standards they were at most lower middle class. I think if I go back, I’ll take some time to see some other places as well.

On Thursday of the first week, the school had an outing to a swimming pool. Actually, there were several levels of pools with a slide going from the top to the bottom. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t too good in the morning, but we had lessons in the morning around the pool anyways. It finally cleared up in time for lunch and a few of us managed to get in the pool. The school’s director went in only because he was pushed in. The guy who pushed him in felt bad when he found out he couldn’t swim. There aren’t many swimming pools in Guatemala so most natives don’t know how to swim. If nothing else, I was happy I went because I got to know a lot more of the students and I had my first experience on a “chicken bus.” The “chicken bus” is the major means of transportation in Guatemala. They are actually school buses that have been painted in bright colors other than yellow. I never saw chickens on the buses, just tons of people. We were told not to ride them after dark as they can be dangerous and are often held up by banditos on the road. To get back to town after the pool party, we found another mode of transportation – the back of a pickup truck. It had a metal frame sticking up that you could hold onto so you could stand up. That definitely was one of our “local” experiences.

Another thing I really enjoyed doing was going down to the central park in the afternoon and reading or doing my homework. The central park was a place where everyone congregated – locals and tourists alike – especially on weekends. It was a great place for people watching and you could always see public displays of affection especially among the kids. It was like they thought they were the only ones there. Of course, if most Guatemalan homes were like the house we stayed in with several extended family members living in one house, it’s no wonder the kids go out on the street or down to the park. I don’t think they have much of a concept of personal privacy.

On Sunday morning I took her down to Lake Powell again. I was feeling a little better so we went pretty far this time. Except for the time she was in the water, Abbey was moving non-stop for the better part of 2 hours. I keep thinking that she’s 13. She’s gotta slow down sometime soon. Page is mostly known for the Glen Canyon Dam and the major starting off point for houseboat trips on Lake Powell, but it’s also know for nearby Antelope Canyon. This is a beautiful slot canyon on Navajo Land. The canyon is 3 ft. wide at it’s narrowest and only about 18 ft. at its widest. On the surface it looks like no more than a slot in the earth in some places. It’s also called a corkscrew canyon because the walls of the canyon spiral around like a corkscrew. You can only go by tour and since it didn’t involve much of a walk I decided I had enough energy left over to do it. Unfortunately, I don’t have a tripod and I have a pretty shaky hand, but I did manage to get some good pictures nonetheless. The amazing thing about the pictures is the colors. It’s fairly dark inside the canyon because it’s so narrow so you don’t see a lot of color with the naked eye. But when you take a picture and leave the shutter open long enough the colors that come out are amazing – red, pink, orange, purple, and blue. I’d love to go back there with a tripod, but these will have to do for now.

On Monday morning I was feeling a lot better, but I decided to leave Page anyways. I had to work on Tuesday so it was either leave then or wait ‘til Wednesday. The campground was close to a road and a bit noisy, and that wasn’t a lot else to do there besides hike. I wasn’t really up for another hike so we took off and headed for Durango, CO.