Postcards from the West 3

Postcards from the West 3

So much has happened since I last wrote something down … I promise I will keep this short.  I have learnt so much in these 4 months and feel incredibly lucky to have had this experience ….. the kindness of strangers and adventures galore.

I never made it out of Antigua for New Year as we went back up to the lake (Atitlan) again and then got back in time to celebrate with all our friends in the main square.  Lots of fireworks, people and champagne.  I had forgotten why I don’t drink Tequila so the first day of 2004 was spent in bed feeling sorry for myself.  My friend Amalia came round and made me hibiscus tea and we watched crap TV, so the usual New Years Day!

After New Year I headed south to San Salvador to hook up with an Italian friend and some guys from the BBC who I had met in Antigua.  They were making a documentary about the gangs in San Salvador.  I got a lift there with a Salvadoran journalist and a friend of a friend from Argentina who worked for the FMLN, the communist party in El Salvador.  Next I headed to Nicaragua with Paola, after one night in the capital we went straight to Granada.  A small colonial town right on lake Nicaragua, which is like a sea – big waves and beaches.  It was hot but the breeze blew off the lake through the wide palm tree streets.  We stayed in a great hostel and met some party people so for some reason found myself at Sunday morning mass at 7am.  It was packed full of Nicas in their Sunday best and a rousing service.  From there we headed to a couple of islands in the middle of the lake but the beach was calling and we ended up in San Juan del Sur on the Pacific near the Costa Rica border.  We hired bicycles and cycled up the coast to empty beautiful beaches.  I wanted to carry on going South …………. But I was late paying my rent in Antigua so dashed back stopping one night in San Salvador to meet up with some new friends.

Back in Antigua, I carried on working at the hospital with the disabled children and was invited by some of my interviewees to see the premier of their new film.  They said it was the first totally produced Guatemalan film.  It was based on a novel set in San Pedro on the lake so that was where it was screened.  They showed it in the municipal hall and I was pushed around with all the Maya villagers in their beautiful outfits trying to get in …. They were all giggling with excitement at seeing their village and their friends on screen.  I think it goes down as the most unusual film premier I will ever get to see.  Afterwards I went out with the film crew and talked to a lot of people about their work.  I ended up staying at the lake again for 5 days instead of 2.  I met some Guatemalans who had a lot of stories to tell about the war and the terrible things that had happened all over the country, people who had lost family and seen terrible things.  The revolutionary fire still seems to burn here, although everyone is talking about the new president and peace culture, I feel for some people it will take generations for those scars to heal, and too many people have not been brought to justice. However, for me one of the major problems for the Latin world is that the men and women start treating each other better!

Have also met a lot more nice Americans who give me hope that maybe we can stop Bush from ruling the world.  It is sad that a lot of them move here because they cannot feel free in their own country anymore.  I don’t say anything but sometimes I feel that they should go back and help make the land of the free what it should be again instead of running away.

Then my mum and John have just been out for 3 weeks so I have been a Guatemalan tourist doing the sites, visiting Tikal and the Maya ruins in the north, going up to Lake Atitlan again staying at my friends’ hotel in Santa Cruz.  They loved Antigua, Atitlan and Guatemala and thought it was a holiday of a life time.  It really is a special place.

This week things are back to normal and the pool is working in the hospital so we can swim with the children and they love it

I am off to Buenos Aires for a month on 1st March.  I have organized to meet up with quite a few filmmakers and through one of my freelance websites have contacted loads of people who are helping me with Spanish teachers, language schools, city guides, accommodation, weekend trips etc.  It’s a crazy thing but I have always wanted to go there and can’t wait to dance some real Tango and sample the delights of the Paris of the South and go to some good clubs and films.

Then its back here for Semana Santa, flower carpets in the streets and huge processions.

See you all in April or some time after.

Postcards from the West 1

Postcards from the West ……

I have been here just over 3 weeks now and it is beginning to feel like home.  Antigua is certainly a very beautiful and peaceful place.  Even the cars trundle along as the old cobbled streets don’t allow for speed.  I can virtually walk faster than the cars travel.  The houses are brightly painted and often back off the streets around pretty courtyards with brightly coloured flowers, in a colonial style.  The volcanoes tower above the town and at night you can see the smoke and fire coming out of Fuego the live volcano.  The electric storms at night can be incredible … like laser shows.  I love it.

Some of the restaurants have exquisite décor.  Hector my Guatemalan friend works in one of the smartest restaurants/hotels in town, which is called Panze Verde – Green Stomach.  This is the nickname for Antiguans as they eat so many avocados.  The hotel is one of the most romantic places I have seen, the rooms have private courtyards and enormous bathrooms up spiral staircases.  I pop in for a sneaky glass of fine red wine and to cuddle the hotel cat, as I miss Smudge.

There are lovely shops selling contemporary and traditional arts and crafts and all the typical Guatemalan textiles.  I’ll have plenty of time to decide what to get.  They also have fantastic Jade and silver stuff.

I was thinking about getting a bicycle but I have just found a beautiful little apartment for myself right in the centre of Antigua near the main square {or central park as the American influence calls it}.  It is costing me $5 more than my room in a shared house.  Everyone is very jealous … it certainly was good luck – the 4 apartments I saw before that were dark and dingy and expensive.  Antigua is so small you can walk everywhere.  There are bike trips you can do in groups to go out of town …. Some of them look quite good, although I am tempted by the horseriding option … it’s been a long time!

I suppose I should have been expecting it but I had not realised how these countries are totally colonised by the US …. in so many ways.  I suppose this is my first time traveling west.  In fact I am having to learn two languages…..!  I have done 2 weeks of Spanish nearly and have almost stopped pronouncing everything in a French way!  I feel very stupid at the moment but trying to be patient with myself.  I think I will succeed.  I have met plenty of Spanish speaking friends of friends who I can’t really talk to yet but I hope to be able to chat to them in a few weeks.  [Nicaraguans, Peruvians and Chileans as well as Guatemalans]  I have been doing 4 hours of one on one Spanish a day and I can tell you that at 8am I am useless so next week I am going down to 3 hours from 9 til 12.  I got them down to $40 for the week.  I’ll probably do another 2 to 3 weeks of school and then someone has recommended a private teacher who can come round to my apartment – so lessons on my terrace after that.  I already feel very comfortable with my central American friends so once my Spanish improves things can only get better.  At the moment I feel like an ugly idiot when I try and talk!

I have rented some office space for a nominal fee in a shared house co-operative where amongst other things they are doing post production on short films, trying to organize a film festival in Antigua next year and designing websites.  {Si and J, it is Spanish Rich’s place} People live and work here and there is a big roof terrace for chilling out when I need a break from the screen.  It is a great place for me to be to carry on my research into creative freelance careers.  I met a Guatemalan film director the other day in the park with his French Canadian wife and he invited me to the showing of his latest film in the City on Monday.  I think he will be my first interviewee.  Quite intrigued to see his film anyway.

Workwise I am putting adverts in the ex-pat magazine for career counselling and adverts elsewhere for English classes.  There are jobs available to teach English at the Bi-lingual school from January so I will probably apply for one of those positions.  I have also been asked to do some life-modelling at the French art school in Antigua – it is an all female class so I am contemplating it.  I don’t think they are used to seeing such long skinny white bodies ……3 hours should pay for a few beers on Friday night.

Hector is my main contact here {thanks to Anj} and I have been living with him and some other people for the first 3 weeks …… but I think it was rather ambitious to think I could go back to sharing after 4 years living in my own place with Smudge.  I was very lucky and found a new place which is small, light and pretty {most Guatemalan houses only have one or two storeys and tend to be quite dark].  My little studio apartment is on the third floor with lots of sun, plants on the balcony and the most amazing roof terrace in town.  I have a panoramic view all over town and of all the volcanoes surrounding Antigua and look over into private gardens full of bright flowers  Hector has been working very hard in his new job at the hotel so I have not seen him as much as I thought.  Scott is my new partner in crime, he’s from London, is Jewish and lives out here after selling his business.  He lends money to Guatemalans at high interest rates, I have told him that he is morally dysfunctional but he is the most fun person that I have met so far – we are a bit like a grumpy old married couple.  I keep on teasing him about being gay but he insists he is not.  If I go out with the Americans I have to leave my sense of irony at home in my suitcase and they don’t always understand me – although I’m beginning to learn Americana too.

There are also lots of Dutch here who are working on voluntary projects in villages around Antigua.  I have decided to help out at an orphanage in town where a British doctor I know works.  They are mainly abandoned disabled children who have no-one.  I have already been along to meet them.  As I did a bit of work with young autistic children in Hong Kong years ago, I feel quite comfortable with these little things.  Leslie the doctor is actually adopting a little three year old with cerebral palsy.  He is called Luis and has just started smiling and laughing again.

The Guatemaltecos are gentle, smiling people who don’t hassle you very much.  The Indians all wear their traditional dress which looks so regal and the children are so cute ……. I can see why all the rich American lesbians are here adopting … strange to see them round town with their new charges!  The men tend to leave me alone but if one of them comes up to chat they are quickly followed by three others telling me to be careful as the first one was after my money and a ticket out … taking it all with a pinch of salt.  I have not really explored outside Antigua yet due to the elections approaching so have so much more to learn.

The climate up in the mountains is like the English summer I have just left behind ….but the sun is stronger and the nights draw in quicker.  I am slowly developing a ski tan just from walking around town going about my chores. The food in Antigua is great as there are lots of international restaurants.  In the market you can buy almost anything in the way of fruit and veg.  Tropical fruits as well as apples and blackberries and things I have never seen before!  Last week I succumbed to street food and paid the price for 24 hours so I am now back onto sensible food but I think my constitution is hardening!    And the street food always looks so tasty ..grrrr.

Hector plays in a band which does Latino, Reggae and Cuban tracks … I have seen them 3 times already, in fact I am they’re offical groupy now.  You can’t avoid the salsa here so I will have to get some lessons at some stage.  Would much prefer to find a tango teacher.  I have been to Guatemala City once to have a little look round with a friend but it was nice to get back to Antigua.  I also went to a huge kite festival not far from here last Saturday which was to celebrate old saints day.  The kites were all homemade out of crepe paper and some were enormous.  It was quite a visual feast.  Still trying to work out he complexities of my new digital camera ..

It is election weekend in Guatemala so I cannot travel until after things have settled down as there is a lot of uncertainty but …..

I am getting ideas of travel plans and finding cheaper non-tourist ways of doing things i.e. friends with cars and houses.  People already know me just from walking around this small town so everyone knows they need to do me a better deal.

In case I can tempt any of you who said you might make the effort to come out and join me while I am here…………My plans are to visit the Guatemalan sights of –

  • Tikal … Mayan ruins in the north
  • Lake Atitlan …. Beautiful lake close by for many weekend trips – a friend has a hotel up there.
  • Monterrico beach for a full moon party sometime soon – I need to dance!
  • Down to Livingstone, the Rio Dulce and Belize for a bit of Carribean
  • El Salvador for the beaches and surfing. It is supposed to be good Harry!!!  Can I persuade you out for a Christmas surf trip.
  • And Honduras to go to the Bay Islands and hopefully visit Michelle an old Trailfinders friend of my brother’s.

My mother has just booked an amazingly cheap flight for February but if anyone is looking for a Christmas/New Year escape …… you know where I am until April 15th!

Postcards from the West 2

Postcards from the West 2

Its just after New Year and time for another update.  I have been here over 2 months now.  After the first round of elections had finished I have been doing some travelling.  There seems to be some hope that things will improve here with the new government that is expected to take over.  I have to admit my grasp of the politics is not great but corruption is rife and the weird form of capitalism here means there are the very rich and the very poor ……….. but obviously a lot more of the latter.  Most businesses in Guatemala are owned by 7 families.  The Castillos being one ….. my first two interviews here were both Castillos.  You definitely need to be wealthy middleclass in Guatemala to be a creative freelancer and even for them its hard to jump out of the traditional routes.

I headed for the Pacific for some beach and sun after the elections.  A friend of a friend has fishing boats down there so I got a lift down with him.  We went to an art opening at one of the hotels in Antigua, free wine, raclette and a sunset view from the rooftop.  Then we hopped in the pickup and drove down the side of the volcanic range of the highlands to the pacific plain which is very different territory, flatter, arable land and fewer indigenous people …………. And a completely different climate, hotter and more humid.  We crossed a canal by driving onto a tiny boat that floated across the small stretch and then headed for the beach.  My first sight of the pacific!  Next day I walked down the beach and then laid in a hammock and read my book.  At 5.30 in the evening the turtle conservation centre organizes a bit of tourist fun to get money for the projects to save the sea turtles.  They release the recently hatched baby turtles into the sea but turn it into a kind of race  the first turtle over the line gets its sponsor a free dinner in one of the hotels.  I watched but didn’t get a turtle … I felt a bit sorry for them to tell you the truth!  Probably being too sentimental and British.

The following weekend I went up to the Lake (Attilan) with a friend of mine.  It was a beautiful drive through the mountains, brightly coloured shrubs and flowers lining the road.  We arrived at Panajachal and had lunch and a quick look at the stalls there before getting the boat to Santa Cruz.  Santa Cruz is a tiny village with a couple of hotels on the lakeside.  We spent the evening with a random group of hippies and tourists.  Next day I swam in the lake walked up a valley and then laid in  a hammock overlooking the lake.  That night at the Iguana Café we partied until the early hours and then went swimming in the lake just as the sun was coming up.  The water was beautiful.

My next trip was with a Guatemalan friend who I have met in Antigua, Amalia, she is beautiful and great fun …. Her boyfriend is  Uruguayan footballer and is working in Jakarta of all places.  She used to live and work in Rio Dulce so we took an early morning shuttle down there and then a small boat out to our hotel which was like a tree house in the jungle on the water.  It was Amalia’s birthday so we went dancing at the only place in town called Backpackers bar to Salsa music, 80’s pop and a little bit of hip hop thrown in.  Fat rich old men try to lure young girls onto their expensive boats and seem immune to rejection, its amazing what testosterone and a bit of money does to a Latin man or any man actually I suppose.

My research (an extension of my masters thesis) is going really well and it is proving to be the best way of meeting interesting people as well as interesting work.  So far I have interviewed 4 film directors and one furniture designer, I have another 6 interviews lined up.  I have met a Guatemalan who did his thesis on the Guatemalan film industry, he is sending it to me and we may collaborate on something ………… although things happen very slowly here.  I am amazed how quickly I am finding my interviewees though and all have them have fascinating stories to tell.  I have been invited to some film screenings and tomorrow will meet up with the man who runs the art centre in Antigua.  He is running creativity courses for Mayan people at his centre.

I also have found my first coaching client who wants to start in January.  He is French and taking a year sabbatical to think about what he wants to do next.  I am hoping I might get a few more clients in January as Antigua is more expensive than other parts of Guatemala and I’m having to watch my money.

I was planning on going to Cuba for Christmas and New Year but now I have decided to wait until my Spanish is better and I can persuade someone to go with me.  I may not be able to afford it, Cuba is much more expensive as a tourist they say.

I was planning to go to the Bay Islands for Christmas and New Year stopping off at the Copan Ruins just over the Guatemalan border along the way. But I think I may do that in January now as the weather has been bad on the Atlantic side – windy and stormy.

A friend of Anj’s and Hector’s, a guy called Ricky has been back in town for a few days and everyone has been partying.  He is a larger than life character and makes things happen in town.  His family has a beautiful house on the lake and a whole crowd of us went up there for a few days.  The only way to get to the house is by boat and it was right on the waters’ edge, the sunsets across the lake were amazing.  It really is a magical place Lake Atitlan.

My impressions of Guatemala and Central America are growing and changing all the time.  It is such a place of contradictions – a mix of the old and the new.  You forget how much suffering has happened in this country, the people are so gentle and smiling that you cannot associate them with the terrible violence.  Some bits of the country really are the Wild West and kidnapping is a real problem here.  Being the son or daughter of a rich Guatemalan means that you need a bodyguard.  Most of the trouble happens around Guatemala City between the gangs in the shanty towns.  I have had a lot of advice from my Guatemalan friends and as a woman you just have to accept that there are things you can’t do alone.  My apartment is right in the middle of Antigua but still my friends walk me home at night.  I can’t go on a bike ride outside Antigua alone.  It seems so strange as when I go with my friends all the villagers smile and wave and you feel so safe and welcome.  The macho culture still prevails here and women are expected to be submissive although some of them break out of the mould.  Things are changing very slowly and the filmmakers here feel the responsibility of telling some of those stories.

On Christmas Day I caught a chicken bus into Guatemala City to have Christmas lunch at my friend’s parents, the sun was shining I squeezed into a seat next to an indigenous family and as soon as we left town the driver switched the music from the usual Salsa to The Best of the Beatles.  It was surreal …………