Guatemala

Tuesday 7/3/07 - Market, Reserva Natural Atitlan, Our Last Night

We woke up and the girls got ready for school. Paulina made panqueques for breakfast, which really hit the spot. Paola and Vanessa left first, followed by Yasmin, who didn't cry today. As this was our last day and I had plenty of memory cards and battery power, I decided to go all-out with the camera. I showed the girls how it can make and play back short movies, and that became an instant success. Aracely put the pegasus sticker on her forehead, and she and Yoselin played with some pogs they had gotten in packages of Doritos over the past couple of days. Paulina mopped the floor with a wet towel draped over the end of a broom. Aracely wanted to help and I got a video of her pushing the mop around. It was really too big for her and it was very cute. She was a good helper to Paulina. When the doors of the house were open, lace curtains hung from the doorways acting as screen doors. It was always funny to watch Aracely negotiate these. She would approach the doorway and then make a grandiose sweeping motion with her entire arm, thowing back the curtain and making a grand exit or entrance.

Craig and I took showers and Paulina continued cleaning the house. Craig took our little mirror and went out to the sink to shave. Yoselin watched and made shaving gestures with the plastic razor guard and made noises to go along with it. After she was distracted by something else, Aracely took her place and watched Craig with interest. We played with the girls, and we bounced on the new bed, tickled each other, and played with the teddy bear and unicorn.

After taking the girls to school, Humberto had stopped at the parish to get the baptism dates for the next few months. He arrived back at the house and we all sat in the living room, discussing the dates and looking at the calendar. We wrote down the dates and thought that November might be the best option. We were all quite happy at the thought of another visit in just a few months, and we promised we would look for flights as soon as we got home.

We went with Paulina, Yoselin, and Aracely to the market in a tuk-tuk. Today Yoselin started saying "OK, Stephanie," a phrase she hadn't used with us until now. Paulina bought a knife from a vendor at the market. Meanwhile, she spotted a friend of hers with a baby boy. She introduced us and we got a photo of them. We stopped at a little stand to buy chicken from a nice lady. Craig and I held Yoselin's hand and lifted her up so she could see over the countertop. Paulina explained to the woman selling the chicken that we were guests at their house for 5 days. I asked the woman if I could get a picture and she gladly agreed. She was interested to see it afterwards, and showed it to a boy who was working with her. As we left, she wished us a safe trip home.

Paulina bought some large fruit, including a canteloupe and a watermelon, which Craig offered to carry in his backpack, so she wouldn't have to carry them in her basket. As we left the market, Paulina stopped at a "granizadas" (shave ice) vendor and bought the girls a shave ice. She asked if we would like one as well. It was quite warm and the thought of an ice cold fruity concoction sounded great. They use spring water to make the ice, so it sounded perfect. Aracely, in Paulina's arms, tried to turn the crank on the ice shaver. She had a hard time doing it by the handle, but soon she grabbed the outside of the wheel itself with both hands and was able to turn it. One man turned the metal wheel and ice was shaved off the perimeter of a cylinder of ice. He packed this into a paper cup, and handed it to his co-worker. This guy pulled back a towel which was (marginally) protecting a vat of bright sticky syrup and chunks of fruit from an onslaught of flies. The guy drenched the ice shavings with syrup and then re-covered the vat with the towel. They put each cup into a plastic baggie to catch drips, and handed one to each of us, along with a plastic spoon. It was delicious: cold and unbelievably sweet. This wasn't your average snow cone. This was more on par with Matsumoto's shave ice in Hawaii. Yum!

We got into another tuk-tuk. Humberto would be able to pick up Yasmin at school today, so we went straight home. I ate my shave ice pretty quickly, as it was so refreshing. We ran into Rocio when we arrived home, and I gave the rest of my shave ice to her, though I wish I had more to give her. We sat on the floor in the living room while Yoselin and Aracely finished their shave ice. Aracely had bright orange syrup all over the front of her shirt, all over her face, etc. It was the only time we had seen any of the kids looking less than immaculately clean. When she was done eating, Paulina stripped off the stained shirt and before we knew it she was fresh and clean once more, with no trace of the shave ice, except for a stained tongue. Yoselin told us to brush our teeth after eating the shave ice, which was a very good idea. She is good at taking care of us! So we all brushed our teeth.

I gave Yoselin a piggy back ride ("atuto") and dipped her forward so that she would go "Wheeeee!" Paulina cut up the watermelon and brought a slice to each of us outside. It was delicious. Paulina kindly offered her washing machine if we had laundry to do, but we didn't want to use their water and electricity. Our laundry could wait until we got home. Rocio, Craig, and Aracely went to the store for Paulina. As they approached the road, Aracely reached up with both arms and held hands with Craig on her right and Rocio on her left. It was really cute, and I followed them down the alleyway to get a picture.

When they got back, I let Rocio use the camera. She knocked on the door of her cousin Mario's room (from which music was blaring) and had him come outside to get a picture taken with me. Rocio took us around the garden and pointed out everything, from flowers and plants to chickens and roosters in their coop. She was a very patient teacher, and if we seemed confused, she would thoughtfully put her index finger to her chin and say a synonym that was easier for us to understand. She seemed to really understand the concept of the language difference and how to try to work around it, which was really impressive for a 9 year old.

As usual, when we passed little 2-year-old Josue's house he called "Hola! Hola!" and waved enthusiastically. He and Luis walked over to join us in the garden, and so did Aracely. Rocio was our photographer, and she took some really nice shots. Rocio positioned little Josue next to Aracely on a little mound of dirt. They stood there staring at the camera, and she got a picture reminiscent of "American Gothic". She took a couple of shots and they remained frozen in that spot. Several minutes later she noticed and told them it was ok to move. It was so cute, because they had just stayed posed there until told otherwise. Rocio picked a couple of flowers and gave them to me.

Soon Vanessa, Paola, and Yasmin returned home from school, and they ran to meet us in the garden, backpacks in tow. As I hadn't really had an opportunity to look at the new construction yet, Craig and Humberto called me over. Humberto explained his ideas. The girls followed us inside the new building. There was a wooden beam balanced on a fulcrum and the girls sat on either side and used it as a makeshift see-saw.

Paulina called us in to lunch, and we were served a delicious meal of pepiam. It was chicken and rice in a sauce that reminded us of a curry, and it was delicious. We asked Paulina what was in it and she got up from the table and arranged the ingredients beautifully on a plate. These included peppers, garlic, tomatoes, and small green tomato-like vegetables that grows inside a shell. We told Paulina that she didn't have to drop everything to prepare this still life of food, but as a mother of five she is used to taking care of other people's needs before her own. We drank juice which Paulina had made form the canteloupe she had bought at the market this morning. It was delicious.

Yasmin and Vanessa took Craig's hands and started to play a ring-around-the-rosey type of game. They held hands and circled around, singling. One person was in the middle. When the song was over, the person in the middle had to chase and tag one of the others. One girl would always hide behind Craig to avoid being tagged. It was really cute.

One by one, the girls took baths, and Craig and I played with the others in the meantime. We wanted to preserve the interaction of the girls and took some movies. I was talking to Vanessa and Paola, trying to explain that I wanted to take a movie of them doing the clap in someone's face to try to make them blink game that they had done yesterday. They looked at me apologetically but really didn't understand what I was referring to. Then Yasmin came in and immediately got excited and explained to them what I meant. They performed the game on each other while I filmed. Yoselin emerged from her bath wearing just underwear and a towel, and she started to join in the fun. Vanessa then took over the camera duties and took a bunch of photos and movies. We made a quick trip to Humberto's office to send an email home. When we returned, the girls were done with their baths and we were ready to go to the nature preserve.

We set out from the house holding hands, and Craig and I realized simultaneously that we were a couple of girls shy. It seemed that Paola and Rocio were with their grandmother, and hadn't returned in time to accompany us. We were disappointed that they would miss out on the outing, but the family didn't seem overly worried about it. We walked through Pana, chatting with Humberto and Paulina. As we approached a hill, Humberto hired two tuk-tuks to bring us the rest of the way. Yasmin, Paulina, Aracely and I rode in the first tuk-tuk, while Humberto, Craig, Vanessa, and Yoselin followed in the second one. We waved out the back to the others. It was a pleasant ride, and soon we arrived at the gate of the Reserva Natural Atitlan nature preserve.

We went into the office/gift shop to buy our tickets, and then proceeded along the verdant trails through the rainforest. We passed a sign that said "No tocar, don't touch" and had an illustration of what looked like a nasty huge rodent. Don't worry, whatever it is, I won't be tempted to touch it. We climbed to a viewing platform from which we had a great view of some spider monkeys frolicking in the trees. They were very close, and they were swinging by their arms, hanging by their tails, etc. They put on quite a show. One of them did a particularly impressive move as I was taking a movie of it. Yoselin was impressed and yelled to the monkey "Otra! Otra!" (Again!) He obliged and did the exact same move a second time for her. It was hysterical. We could see raccoons on the ground. These were apparently what the signs had been warning us against touching.

We crossed some rather dodgy suspension bridges (the wood on the surface often had holes and you could see straight down to the ground or water below, and in some spots, even the metal rebar of the bridge itself had rotted away) and it was quite exciting. I took some pictures, and Humberto asked me to get a family photo on one of the bridges. I felt a twinge of regret that Paola and Rocio weren't here for the photo. We passed some large waterfalls and saw lots of interesting vegetation. We got to a spot where we had to cross a river. Humberto carried the girls over one at a time. Craig ran over to Humberto and said "atuto!" joking that he wanted Humberto to carry him across by piggy-back as well. That got a lot of laughs. Humberto then returned for Paulina. she was doing this entire hike in open-toed sandals with heels, and it was very impressive. She truly is a super-mom! Humberto held her hand as they crossed.

We got to a point where we had a nice view of the lake and volcanoes (and also the ugly 70's era green towers overlooking the lake). Despite the towers, it was still a gorgeous view. Humberto pointed out a butterfly chrysalis on the underside of a large leaf, and Vanessa posed for a photo with some large white bell flowers. Aracely seemed to be getting a little bit tired and fussy, but all we would need to do to cheer her up would be to take a picture of her. She would immediately perk up and want to see it.

We came upon a tall pole with ropes hanging from it, and we recognized it as a pole from which four voladores (fliers) spin around 13 times each (4x13=52, representing the weeks of the year) suspended by their ankles in Mexican tradition. Vanessa and Yasmin stpped into the loops at the bottom of the ropes, and spun around, colliding merrily with each other less than a foot off the ground, having a wonderful time.

It started to sprinkle rain, so Paulina and Humberto eventually called them away, and we proceeded to the mariposarium (butterfly farm). By the time we arrived there, the quick,light rainshower had passed. We entered the screened in building, which had a door attached to some weights so that it automatically closed behind us to prevent the butterflies from escaping. We were the only people there; there were no other visitors and no staff. There was an area with displays about the butterfly life cycle, including a bunch of chrysalises. Aracely went straight for a hacksaw which was lying on one of the counters.This place would be quite a liability in the United States. I moved the hacksaw out of reach, and soon came across a similarly accessible machete. I realized that I was probably being over-protective, and Aracely probably knew better than to injure herself, but just in case...

There weren't too many butterflies around. Humberto said that there was also an eagle in the enclosure, and he led us down the path to look for it. I thought that the chances of actually coming across an eagle in the late afternoon in an enclosure like this were quite slim, but I had thought the same about the spider monkeys, and they had been quite visible.

All of a sudden Humberto said "There it is!" Where? It was so close to us that I looked straight past it and it took me a while to actually focus on it. It was about two feet off the ground and we were several yards away from it. It was amazing, I was able to get in very close for some photos. Aracely started to get a bit tired and Paulina took her over to a bench to feed her while the rest of us were all enraptured by the great bird of prey. When we were done admiring the eagle, we joined Paulina and Aracely on the bench. I showed them the close-up photo I had gotten. This seemed to arouse Aracely's curiosity, and the next thing we knew, she was toddling off down the path towards the eagle. We all noticed that this was a potentially dangerous situation, as the eagle could easily carry off something of her size. I followed her and crouched down next to her as she observed the eagle. I was watching it very intently and was determined to throw myself on top of her if it became threatening. But it just sat there looking at us. Aracely was very quiet and still, and after a few minutes I took her hand and we walked back to the others. She picked up a stick and was using it as a walking stick as we exited the mariposarium, still holding hands.

As we walked to the road, Yoselin started to cry because she didn't want to go. I picked her up and she whimpered into my shoulder as we walked. Humberto called for tuk-tuks on his cell phone. He and Craig each took one of Yasmin's hands and were swinging her way up in the air between them as they walked. Yoselin perked up when the tuk-tuks arrived. I got into one with her, Paulina, and Aracely. Yoselin started to chant in a sing-song voice "Estas conmigo!" ("You are with me!"). Humberto, Yasmin, Vanessa, and Craig got into the second tuk-tuk. Craig said that Yasmin called out "Stephanie" for the entire ride except for when she took a short break in order to call a guy riding a bicycle a "mono" (monkey). The tuk-tuks dropped us in front of Humberto's office. As we walked down the alleyway to their house, we met up with Paola and Rocio. We felt a bit guilty that they hadn't been able to join us, but they were happy enough, wanting to hear about our adventures but not seeming jealous at all.

Humberto had to go to his office to get a bit of work done after our excursion. Vanessa and Yoselin ate a banana, and posed for a photo, acting like monkeys. Even though the girls didn't consciously know it was our last night, on some level they seemed to sense it and we lived it up to the fullest. Everyone was laughing and bouncing off the walls. Girls would drag us in and out of the house, taking movies and photos and genuinely enjoying each other's company.

The girls shouted "Caballo" (horse) and I gave them horsey rides. Bouncing on the bed was a novelty for the girls, as the mattress and boxspring were much springier than their own beds. Yoselin helped Aracely climb onto the bed and shouted "Aracey, saltar!" (jump!) Aracely bounced on the bed and then landed on her bottom. She had a hard time standing back up because the ned was moving from Yoselin jumping on it. It was a comedy of errors and very cute to watch. Yoselin and I were tickling, hugging, and kissing each other until I nearly fell off the bed. Either Craig or Vanessa captured the moment on video. We all couldn't stop giggling.

Paola, Vanessa, Yasmin, Yoselin, Rocio, Aracely, and I walked down the street to the store. Paola made sure to buy Aracely's snack first, and then all of the other kids bought something. Yasmin didn't find what she wanted, and proceeded on to two other small stores across the street to buy a lollipop. Aracely was eating her snack and the wrapper fell onto the ground. I picked it up. Rocio was watching intently and followed my lead, picking up some trash on the ground that wasn't even from us. We deposited it into a box of trash next to the entrance of the store, which Vanessa pointed out to us. I picked Aracely up and we all went back to the house. The girls were eager to share their snacks (cheese curl rings, flavored popcorn, etc.) with me on the walk, and with Craig when we reached the house. As our noisy gang burst into the house, Paulina gave Craig a look of amusement, noting how quiet it had been just a couple of minutes beforehand.

After asking permission, the girls used our little mirror to apply Chapstick, pretending it was lipstick. As we were sitting on the bed I found a small piece of Yasmin's lollipop stuck to my leg. She picked it off and popped it into her mouth with a smile. Out of all of the kids, she seemed to have the most energy tonight, and needed to be reined in once in a while. Our laughter and happy shouts echoed across the neighborhood, and soon cousins Mario and brothers Luis and Josue arrived. Luis is good at looking after little Josue, much like Vanessa and Paola are good at looking after Aracely. Josue and Aracely had some cute interactions as Vanessa and Paola tried to pose them for photos. Paulina called us to dinner, and we knew this would be our last chance to say a proper goodbye to Rocio. We explained to her in broken Spanish that we were going home tonight. She seemed to understand and gave us hugs and kisses. We said that we would be back soon and she said she would see us then.

We went back into the house and sat down at the kitchen table for a dinner of scrambled eggs, black beans, tortillas, and fried plantains with cream. Vanessa teased her mom that it was more like breakfast than dinner, and that she had way too much cream for the plantains. Before we knew it, Yoselin had left the table and headed off to bed. Paulina had her give us a hug and kiss and say hasta mañana. Craig and I looked at each other sadly, we would not literally be seeing her mañana. But Humberto wasn't even back yet, so this wasn't a good time to break the news of our departure. I started to feel sad and I went into her room and gave her a kiss, saying "Buenos noches, Bulldog," but she was already fast asleep.

Humberto came home and started eating his dinner. He was speaking to the girls and he relayed that Paola had heard us telling Rocio that we were leaving. Humberto started to explain this to them and they were ok at first, but soon Yasmin put her head down on the table and started to whimper. I asked if she wanted to sit on my lap but she shook her head no and continued to sit alone and cry. Humberto asked if they had something they'd like to say to us, but they couldn't. Soon Paola had her hands over her eyes and was trying hard not to cry. Humberto and Paulina said some very kind words to us, and we told them how we felt about all of them.

Humberto suggested that Yasmin give me a hug and she came and sat on my lap and hugged and kissed me for about half an hour. Humberto told them we would be back for the baptism, probably in November, and Vanessa immediately started counting out the months on her fingers. She had kept her composure and was handling the news in a mature fashion, but it was nice to see that she was excited about our return. Yasmin climbed onto Craig's lap and hugged him while she continued to cry. Paola came over and stood next to me, hugging me and crying. Then Craig lifted her onto his lap. They had school tomorrow so we said goodnight and Humberto brought them into the room. Yasmin was sobbing. It was so sad. We sat at the table with Paulina and a sleeping Aracely and all teared up.

Humberto and Craig then went to the office to confirm our flights home while I started packing. Paulina went in to console the girls. I couldn't pack right away; it felt too final. And I was all by myself. I wrote a note to the girls in simple Spanish, and left it next to a photo of us in Mexico. I went outside to retrieve my sneakers, and found that one of my women's size 11 sneakers was sitting right next to one of Aracely's tiny pink ones, and, wiping away a tear, I figured that would make a fitting final picture.

After a long while the girls had quieted down, and Paulina let them come out of their room to give me one more hug. When they went back into bed, I could see Yasmin on her bed and she actually smiled. This warmed my heart, as I couldn't stand the thought of them continuing to be so unhappy. I brought her the teddy bear and she said gracias. I waved to her and they went to bed. Craig and Humberto came back and by that time I had finished packing. They had had a nice man-to-man chat at the office. We said goodbye and thanks to Humberto and Paulina, though there was no way to truly express the way we were feeling. We went into the bedroom to kiss a sleeping Aracely. She is always so cute when she sleeps on her back, with her elbows bent and her hands behind her head. We went to bed and set the alarm for 1:45 am, just a few short hours away.