Saturday, May 30, 2015

Guatemala, 1st stop

After a few delays, we finally boarded the plane that brought us to Guatemala!!

The first impressions from above showed us a city that looked like it was built of slums (Guatemala City) and a lot of an intense green around. It was, at the same time, a feeling of wonder and the first impact of a reality that we already knew tat existed but never saw first hand (at least, not on this part of the World).

After we passed immigration we are welcomed to the country with a live band of typical music of Guatemala! It was 10am and I wondered if they were always there for any flight! So it was with our spirits full of this country sounds and our backs free of any weight (see "How to survive with little so far away from home" post) that we exited the airport. With luck, and despite the many delays, the arranged pick-up service that we had agreed with our hostel was actually there, which made everything much easier! So there we were, on our way to our first stop in Guatemala: Antigua!

Antigua in the old capital of the country that was abandoned after a strong earthquake in the XVIII century which destroyed most of the city. There still are some ruins from that time, some of them are now being rebuilt (or at least, that was what it seemed).


Nowadays, the city comes as a mix of a simple and traditional way of living, with all streets made of large coble stones, buildings with no more than two stories of height, shops that sell a bit of everything and places where you can eat galinha (hen) instead of just pollo (the usual chicken) - the galinha meat is a bit harder but a lot tastier as well, with modern day references such as Burger King, McDonalds, Dunkin' Donuts and North Face! All these international chains have a store there; even Dunkin' Donuts!!

This is one of the main streets in Antigua
And then there is the people you see in the streets. Being a hub in Central America both for Spanish lessons and Volunteers programmes, Antigua is full of foreigners (a lot of Americans but not only), most of them staying here for more than just a couple of days (like we were). On the other side Antigua is full of women and children dressed in the colourful traditional clothings. It is true that a lot of the people with these clothes were actually sellers (of fruit or typical art&crafts) you could see that the clothes were still part of the city's and country's culture. This was later confirmed as we were travelling in the rest of the country. Beyond that, the way they use the "clothes" to carry their children (some, not that little) is something that will stick with me , just like the photo below:


Yes, walking, gaining a living and breastfeeding in one go! This is, for me, the ultimate multitasking!

When talking about Antigua, you HAVE to talk about the setting as well. The city is surrounded by 5 volcanoes and mountains which brings an amazing background for when you want to linger in the central plaza or in one of the roof tops. In fact it was an amazing scenery for whatever you wanted to do. Antigua is, indeed a very beautiful city and I wouldn't mind at all to come back and stay a little longer!

There was a lot more to say about Antigua, but I will let the images to do all the speaking for me:



The fountain on the main square had 4 of these statues
The central square is beautiful even at night
Antigua has one of the largest celebrations of the Semana Santa (Easter) when these are used

The arts&crafts market





Thursday, May 28, 2015

How to survive with little so far away from home

Finally we got to Guatemala!! :D One and a half days after what was initially predicted we landed on this green land. Too bad our bags couldn't share the same enthusiasm!

After the stop in Houston we got to the baggage carousel too late and our bags were already gone. As we were assured that they would be checked-in with us in the morning flight we went to our Hotel with no worries on our minds. And it actually felt quite good not to carry them everywhere around! I think I thought for a second that it would be good to have that feeling for a bit more time! Maybe someone was paying too much attention to me!

When we got to the baggage carousel in Guatemala we waited and waited and waited until all the bags we could see on the carousel had passed by us 4 or 5 times. Post claim and another assurance that it would come in the next flight that would arrive that night to Guatemala City. "It must have been something about the time of the flights" I thought. I now recognize that I was in the first stage of loss, Denial! In the mean time, on our multiple calls to the bag tracking service of United we were assured several times that the bag would come on the next flight and at some point they even told us that it was already in transit and that the bag would be delivered to us in under 12 hours. As you can guess by the title of this post, they didn't arrive! In these calls I went through all the other stages of loss, Barganing, Anger, Depression and I think I have just reached Acceptance!

At this point you might think "But they still had their carry-on luggage, right?" Yes, that is completely true! Besides the clothes we were wearing we still had this:


It was more than nothing, but not much more than that! No extra clothes at all, no toiletries at all! I even forgot to take my camera out of the backpack which I always take with me on the plane! At least we still had the tablet (that I am using right now) :)!
So, coming back to the title of this post, how do you actually survive with so little so far away from home? Well, with a bit of flexibility, a bit of extra-shopping in local shops that might not have exactly what you are used to, the kindness of strangers and a free spirit to enjoy the non-materialistic side of life :)! A change of clothes and essential toiletry were our first priority and so far, we haven't bought much else. When we buy things like a small bag we tell our story and people smile in desbelief because they think we are only saying that to get a better deal (of course we kind of use our story for that as well ;)). But neither of them believe that what we are carrying with us is actually all we have! Sometimes I can't believe it myself!! But the truth is that some things are much easier this way! Going on a chicken bus we don't have to worry for putting our bag on top of the bus, it is much easier to pack things when we want to move and, of course, we don't walk around with a huge backpack around!

Of course we do have to launder our clothes nearly every day, buy a few things almost everyday as they are needed and the photos... I really miss my camera!! Oh well! Thankfully, mobile phones are now much more than just a device to actually call someone! :)

This is really another level of travelling that I was not planning to have but that it is quite interesting as well. And a large life lesson! And what a way of commemorating the 50th post of this blog!!

Monday, May 25, 2015

Stuffed Chicago in a thin time window

This is the post of the unexpected trip to Chicago and how it was such a great addition to our Guatelize experience! I have already told in the "Where are we going to sleep tonight" post the circumstances that led us to this (slight) deviation from the initial plan. Long story short, we lost our flight and the option we choose to rebook it was to fligh through Chicago.
So, on the morning of the 24th of May (my birthday, actually) instead of waking up at Antigua Guatemala, we woke up in Chicago, IL! Being totally jet lagged we had an early morning and were already ready to start the day before 5am (to me, this is still closer, in concept, to the going to bed time, than the waking up time!) and we were out the door before 7am. Before leaving we had researched for a place to eat Pancakes and one caught our attention. So, around 7:50am we crossed the doors of "Wildberry Pancakes and Coffee" to find a very busy place. It is worth noting that this was a Sunday and that the weather around this time was a bit rainy. And yet, this huge place was packed!!
So we ordered a big portion of pancakes and, even though I have no idea if they are the best in Chicago, they were really good being served with fresh fruit, a raspberry coulis and the traditional (really thick) maple syrup! We were happy! :)



After being more than satisfied we got out to discover the city of Chicago beyond the pancakes. An interesting note is that, by the time we left (around 8:30am), there was a huge queue to enter the place. On a Sunday! Early morning! Not so great weather!!... Maybe they were all jet lagged tourists like we were! :P
The park was just next to the pancakes place so we went straight to the most famous giant bean of the World. The effects created by the reflective surface of the big bean are indeed quite spetacular combining the green from the park and the sky scrapers on the other side of the street. These effects would get even more crazy in the concavus part of the structure even distorting images in such a way that they would create amazing patterns. I had some photos of this, now that my camera is missing along with my backpack the only photo I have is this:

At least we have one to prove we were there!
The park, the Buckingham Fountain (have we really left London?!) and the views over the lake were great, but the best thing about them on our visit was the HUGE cycle event that was going on that day. Sponsored by MB Financial, it was an informal run where everyone with every kind of bike could participate. The following photos are not mine as mine are somewhere in the lost camera. I always love to see such a huge crowd getting together for a cause while expressing their individuality at the same time! :)



As we were in Chicago we had to try the Chicago Pizza! We went to a place recommended by a guy that looked like he knew what he was talking about. The place was, again, packed and had a huge queue when we left (does Chicago need more places for people to go to and eat or was it just us? :P). We had to choose the thin crust pizza instead of the stuffed one as the latter would take 45min(!!) and we did not want to loose another flight!! I wanted to go to bed in Guatemala that night! (note: I ended not succeding as our flight was too late to catch the connection flight in Houston!) Even though we only experienced a thin-crust, the pizza was great and we were completely stuffed by the end!
Thanks Chicago, you were a great unexpected pitstop and warming up to the rest of these crazy holidays.

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Where are we going to sleep tonight?

I am writing this post on the flight from Chicago to Houston. A flight that was not included in our initial plans!
Almost 36 hours after our first scheduled flight has departed, we are still in the US and, as the title of this post says, we are still not sure where we will sleep tonight, bot even in which country!
It all started right back in Heathrow where a juggle of automatic machines sent us from agent to agent up until the last one that told us that we needed an ESTA (kind of a turistic/business meetings visa) to be able to do a transfer in the US. Then came the actual application online while the clock kept ticking and our time running out. At the end, with everything ready, we were too late and weren't aloud to join the flight even if we still had 45 minutes to reach the gate.
We appealed to the kindness of their hearts as far as we could, but there was no chance. Even before we got back from the shock, we were negotiating the re-booking "Do you want to stay here in London tonight, or catch a connection flight to Houston through Chicago or Newark?" At the moment we are kind of homeless in London (moving houses with a gap in the middle) so the first option was dismissed! Neither of us had ever been to Chicago and Andre had never been in the United States, so why not the option of stopping for one night in Chicago and actually do some unexpected tourism in the Windy City?
That was our option and a few hours later, still a bit shaken up by losing our first flight but excited with the new tourism experience, we boarded the 9 hours flight that took us safe and sound to Chicago. Of course that, in between, we had to send an email to our hostel in Antigua, Guatemala letting them know of our one day delay and also find a room for the night. Finding a room proved to be a challenge with Booking, Hostelbookers and Hostelworld sites showing no options at all, all places were booked! Salve Airbnb that gave us the chance to sleep in a large room not so far away from the center of the city.
We got to our room (having stopped a bit in the city center just to have a quick feel of it, i.e. Dunkin Donuts!!) around 21h30, which was 3h30 back in London where we had woken up at 8h00 the day before! So we basically slept, or passed away, one of the two, on the bed after a really full of emotions day! And we slept really well!... until 5h00 when our bodies decided it was more than time to get up. And eventually we did, and there it started our Chicago adventure which will be the subject of another post.
Right after lunch we headed off to the airport as we did not want to lose another flight! And we didn't! YAY!! :) However, and with posts with this kind of title, there is always a However, the flight took of with over one hour of delay when we had a layover of 37 minutes! Despite asking multiple times about the short transition time we were always reassured that this was quite common and that there wouldn't be any problem! Well, now there might be! Because we have no idea if the plane will be in Houston airport waiting for us or if we will have to find yet another solution! Hence, we have no idea where we will sleep tonight, no even which country!
I am sure that by the time this post comes online I know the answer to that, but I wanted to share this strange feeling I am/we are having right now! This uncertainty if we will have to ask our hostel to postpone our stay another time (I think they might not believe us this time!) or if it is tonight that we will see Antigua; uncertainty of how many more flights we will still have to get so our actually planned vacations start!
PS: After a very long run we eventually lost the flight! So this was posted from the Marriot in Houston (finishing the night in style!! )

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Guatelize is waiting for us! :)

After a few busy weeks we (me and ALF) will be flying to Central America where this journey will await us! Part of this journey is an unknown because the only thing we know for sure is where and when we are going to land, where we are going to stay in the first two nights and when an where we are getting the flight back!


More news and adventures coming soon! :)