Everyone, Sorry to keep you all waiting. We left you at Tikal, where we successfully camped one night amidst jungle sounds and tourist traps. For those who have never been to Tikal, it is huge and impressive. But just slightly more-so than other sites in the area yet much, much more expensive. Your $20US doesn´t even get you a map of the site (which is definitely necessary) or entry into the two museums; they don´t even use it to post ANY information anywhere. However we did spend a beautiful evening in the Grand Plaza and the following sunrise on Temple Four from which you can see the other temples looming over the canopy while tropical birds sound their wake-up calls. For what it is Tikal is a unique place in the world, but for what it could be it´s been seriously botched.
From Tikal we headed to Hidden Falls Farm in central Belize. It was not the farm we described in the last email but we were not disappointed in any way. Apparently the website is a little out-of-date and when you contact the people listed they just send you to Hidden Falls. There were no bees or wine but there was bamboo and plenty to do. For the month that we were allotted in Belize we lived in our tent, woke up at the crack of dawn and ate a lot of fresh food. Owned by 74 year-old, Oregonian with Belizean residency, still hard-working, hilarious and lovable Mike Scott, Hidden Falls Farm is 40 acres right on the Hummingbird Highway with a wonderfully diverse selection of plants. We counted thirty plants that we could use at any moment ranging from fruits like mangerines, bananas, sapodillas and mameys to vegetables such as eggplant, chayote, cocoa yam and wild spinach to medicines like neem. We never ran out of fresh produce to spice up our basic range-top menu of rice, beans and pasta. When we were lucky, Mike´s wife would bake us breads or muffins with fresh juice or smoothies for a snack.
A typical day on the farm went something like: 6AM wake up and eat, 7-10 work, 10 eat, 11-12 work, 12 eat, 1-3 work, 3 chill out in the waterfall/whatever we wanted. The work we did was as diverse as the foods we ate. Some days we´d be mostly in the garden planting, transplanting and weeding. Other days we would clear fields of banana, plantain and orange trees with machetes. Sometimes we´d have special assignments like building stairs or shelves. And other days we´d just carry stuff from one place to another. There was always room for creativity and personal choice so that there was always something that you would enjoy doing. Any work that can be done with a machete is fun work and there was always something that needed chopping.
Life outside of work hours on the farm was equally enjoyable thanks to the awesome people with whom we shared our time there. Curran was in charge and lived in the simple wooden cabin that served as our eating/chill space. Jon and Lacy, a couple from Kansas City, are great new friends and were a pleasure to work and live with. There were others who came and went during the month but our core team of five really bonded over shared projects, meals, and night-after-night of listening to the same five cds, drinking, smoking, and Quidler (Scrabble with cards). We also had plenty of time to make day-trips to the beach, town and local sights. The single most exciting thing to happen at the farm was Tyler´s 6AM accident which led to three (FREE!) stitches from the Cuban doctor who happened to be making his weekly rounds through the village that very morning. The cause of said accident was not daring, cool, or funny and is therefore not worth mentioning.
From Tikal we headed to Hidden Falls Farm in central Belize. It was not the farm we described in the last email but we were not disappointed in any way. Apparently the website is a little out-of-date and when you contact the people listed they just send you to Hidden Falls. There were no bees or wine but there was bamboo and plenty to do. For the month that we were allotted in Belize we lived in our tent, woke up at the crack of dawn and ate a lot of fresh food. Owned by 74 year-old, Oregonian with Belizean residency, still hard-working, hilarious and lovable Mike Scott, Hidden Falls Farm is 40 acres right on the Hummingbird Highway with a wonderfully diverse selection of plants. We counted thirty plants that we could use at any moment ranging from fruits like mangerines, bananas, sapodillas and mameys to vegetables such as eggplant, chayote, cocoa yam and wild spinach to medicines like neem. We never ran out of fresh produce to spice up our basic range-top menu of rice, beans and pasta. When we were lucky, Mike´s wife would bake us breads or muffins with fresh juice or smoothies for a snack.
A typical day on the farm went something like: 6AM wake up and eat, 7-10 work, 10 eat, 11-12 work, 12 eat, 1-3 work, 3 chill out in the waterfall/whatever we wanted. The work we did was as diverse as the foods we ate. Some days we´d be mostly in the garden planting, transplanting and weeding. Other days we would clear fields of banana, plantain and orange trees with machetes. Sometimes we´d have special assignments like building stairs or shelves. And other days we´d just carry stuff from one place to another. There was always room for creativity and personal choice so that there was always something that you would enjoy doing. Any work that can be done with a machete is fun work and there was always something that needed chopping.
Life outside of work hours on the farm was equally enjoyable thanks to the awesome people with whom we shared our time there. Curran was in charge and lived in the simple wooden cabin that served as our eating/chill space. Jon and Lacy, a couple from Kansas City, are great new friends and were a pleasure to work and live with. There were others who came and went during the month but our core team of five really bonded over shared projects, meals, and night-after-night of listening to the same five cds, drinking, smoking, and Quidler (Scrabble with cards). We also had plenty of time to make day-trips to the beach, town and local sights. The single most exciting thing to happen at the farm was Tyler´s 6AM accident which led to three (FREE!) stitches from the Cuban doctor who happened to be making his weekly rounds through the village that very morning. The cause of said accident was not daring, cool, or funny and is therefore not worth mentioning.
Also sharing the property were four dogs whom we had the nightly pleasure of inspecting for and removing ticks and botfly. It wasn´t until both of us were on the bus away from the farm and Belize, each thinking how lucky we were to not have had to deal with any blood-sucking parasites, that Tyler discovered the bump on his elbow... and then the bump on his back, each with the tiny airhole dot characteristic of a botfly larvae. Having seen two friends raise and remove their botflies without trouble Tyler decided to let them grow until they would be big enough to coax out by suffocating them with neosporin and remove with tweezers. That plan was expedited because of the excruciating pain that each fly would cause him a couple times a day. It felt like there was a tiny worm living under the skin taking bites of flesh a couple times and day and making room to grow, because that's exactly what was happening. Elbow fly, named Curran in honor of the first human-carried botfly we experienced, was successfully removed by Emily in front of a crowd of disgusted/impressed on-lookers. Back fly, named Jam after a second friend who´d experienced the pregnancy, was stubborn and we think it died during the operation as it never caused problems again and the lump is still being slowly dissolved by Tyler´s system.
From the farm our route was: Placencia and Punta Gorda, Belize; boat to Livingston, Guatemala; boat to Rio Dulce; Coban; Lanquin; Guatemala City; Antigua; to our current home Quetzaltenango (also known as Xela). After a month of the farm this was an incredibly fast-paced couple of weeks. We used the weekend in Livingston to get our party on and readjust to a non-farm schedule. Eventually we ended up in Lanquin to see the amazing natural wonder called Semuc Champey which are limestone pools of turquoise water suspended over a rushing underground river which falls into a cave before the pools and reemerges from another just past them. From Lanquin we had no idea where we were headed next. With our bags on our backs we headed to the nearest city and somehow decided to go to the capital, Guatemala City, despite it`s reputation as one of the world`s most dangerous places. Our experience there was a safe and festive. Our first day there was the national day of protest against the government and there was a parade with floats and demonstrations of masked people dancing to reggaeton music and making speeches against the establishment. As far as we could tell, we were the only foreigners in town which was a nice change away from the tourist track we`d been on. The next day was the start of Semana Santa (Holy Week leading up to Easter) and there were more processions and costumes, this time with a much more somber affect. We stayed the weekend to see our first soccer match and then headed to Tourist Town, Guatemala aka Antigua. The combination of Semana Santa and Spring Break in the USA meant that the town was full of celebrating tourists. Everything was much more expensive than anywhere else and it overall wa
sn´t really the experience we were looking for. While we were there though we did climb Volcan Pacaya for a close encounter with flowing lava. From several different people we heard that Xela was the perfect Guatemalan city to live in, a lively blend of travellers, Spanish schools, local culture, cheap food and outdoor activities. After a couple weeks of non-stop, bank-breaking travel we were looking to settle down somewhere, so here we are in Xela. We found an apartment building full of young people just one block from the central park and got a room for a month in an apartment with one roommate, living room,.kitchen, bathroom, internet, cable tv, all utilities, no deposit, and daily cleaning service for $75US each. That doesn´t even cover electricity in the states! We`re back to living how we like, cheaply. Emily is volunteering at a women´s shelter which houses women and children who are in hiding from abusive situations. She really likes passing her time there, mostly taking care of the children, facilitating activities with the women, and helping out the shelter´s one teacher. She´s also signed up with a yoga house a couple of blocks from our apartment and is really happy starting her days there. Tyler is sitting on his ass all day telling himself he´s going to write more. We both joined the Xela Ultimate group, with whom we play pick up games every Wednesday.
So that´s our life. For narrative pictures of Tikal, farm, stitches, botflies, and more check ourPicasa site. Also there´s stuff to read on our blog. We`re going to get back to eating 25 cent mangoes, we love and miss you all and have no idea what will happen next. Stay tuned, Tyler y Emily
PS - Reply with a quick update of happy news. When you´re gone so long (almost seven months now) bad news tends to build up and you don´t get to hear about the daily little wonderful things. Our hearts go out to all of our friends dealing with the passing of our dear friend Jackie.
So that´s our life. For narrative pictures of Tikal, farm, stitches, botflies, and more check ourPicasa site. Also there´s stuff to read on our blog. We`re going to get back to eating 25 cent mangoes, we love and miss you all and have no idea what will happen next. Stay tuned, Tyler y Emily
PS - Reply with a quick update of happy news. When you´re gone so long (almost seven months now) bad news tends to build up and you don´t get to hear about the daily little wonderful things. Our hearts go out to all of our friends dealing with the passing of our dear friend Jackie.
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