Guatever, Antigua. [CAT2016: Guatemala]

After our two days of frolicking around Lake Atitlán, we boarded a shuttle that took us to stop two-- Antigua, Guatemala. Where, I'll be honest, Sarah and I spent almost the entire time looking for Derick and Jill Dillard. We were unsuccessful.

We spent our first day wandering the cobblestone streets (it was very Comayauga-esque) and mostly looking for something to eat. Which we found when we stumbled across a baleada restaurant conveniently located next to a bubble tea shop. I'd call that a solid win.

In our wandering, we also found one of Antigua's most famous landmarks, the yellow Santa Catalina Arch. It was originally built to connect a covent to a school and allowed nuns to cross from one building to another without having to walk into the street. Yeah, I Wikipedia-ed that. Because, honestly, all I knew about it was that it was a yellow arch in Antigua. 

While choosing the roads less traveled (or something like that) had been awesome for the first few days in Guatemala, we were more than ready to participate in an organized tour offered by our hotel. Said organized tour consisted of climbing an active volcano and then rejuvenating at the spa. 

The volcano that we set out to conquer was Volcán Pacaya, located about an hour-ish outside of Antigua. There was a pretty major eruption in 2010 which shut down the international airport and caused some of the residents of nearby cities to evacuate, but it's been, more or less, calm since then.
It does erupt fairly constantly, but not like huge lava flows. More like spewing some rocks into the air a little bit.

Volcán Acatenango, Volcán de Fuego, and Volcán de Agua from Pacaya 

I'm not about to lie and say that the hike was easy because I was definitely heavy mouth breathing about two minutes in. It wasn't a long hike, but there were some steep parts. Although it wasn't easy, it wasn't the hardest hike I have ever done either. (I'm looking at you, Pico do Papagaio.) As it usually is with hiking, the view from the top made it worth it.

You know what else made it worth it? This. Roasting marshmallows in some of the hot lava vents. The lava underneath made the rocks so hot that we were all able to brown our marshmallows to perfection. Some people in another tour group were roasting hot dogs, which would have been a really tasty idea.

After such a grueling hike (and bellies full of marshmallows), we travel to Santa Teresita Hotel and Thermal Spa. We didn't splurge on the most expensive spa package, but we did receive complimentary fruit smoothies, time in the thermal pools, a 10 minute chair massage, and access to the swimming pools. And big fluffy robes, which may have been my favorite part.

After five shorts days divided between two very different cities, it was time to say "Adios" to Guatemala and "Hola" to one of my favorite countries in the world-- Honduras.

Guat's Up, Lake Atitlan? [CAT2016: Guatemala]

IT'S FINALLY HERE!

After months of dreaming and planning and hotel searching and shuttle booking, the day to embark on our Central American Tour 2016 (affectionately known as CAT2016) finally arrived.

Let me explain. Sarah wanted to go to the CEE graduation and I'm always down for a trip to Honduras, so we had basically been dreaming of the trip ever since we left Honduras two years ago. About a year ago we decided it was actually happening and in April we really started planning. So we're spending three weeks traveling around Central America and its going to be awesome.

Our main goals included eating as many baleadas as possible, speaking copious amounts of Spanish, and trying not to cry when we leave Sigua. Other than that, we have very few plans, goals, or expectations. Wherever the wind takes us is good for us.

We've begun our trip in Guatemala. One-- because neither of us have been to Guatemala before and both of us have some pretty lofty travel goals. Two-- it was the cheapest airport to fly into.

We spent the night in Guatemala City at Quetzaroo Hostel. The beds were comfy, the bathrooms were clean, the breakfast was delicious, and the staff was incredibly helpful. We weren't there for very long, but it was an enjoyable experience.

EXCEPT FOR THE FACT THAT MY LUGGAGE STAYED IN COLOMBIA WHILE I CONTINUED ON TO GUATEMALA AND STAYED THERE FOR THREE DAYS! But that wasn't anyone's fault and it all ended up okay, but it was a bit of a rocky start there for awhile.

Anyways.

After a night in Guatemala City and a brisk bike ride to get the blood flowing, we boarded a shuttle that took us to Panajachel, or Pana to the locals and the wannabe locals, which is located at Lake Atitlan. It was pretty gray and rainy when we arrived (oh hey, rainy season), so we didn't get to truly appreciate how beautiful Lake Atitlan really is.

Not the view we had on the first night.

The next morning we woke up and wandered down to the lake in hopes of seeing, what is claimed to be, the most beautiful lake in the world. We were not disappointed. When we arrived at the lake, we were able to see all three of the surrounding volcanos.

We ended up taking a boat tour around the lake to visit some of the other neighborhoods. We even splurged for the private boat tour because we're fancy like that. Honestly, I wasn't that impressed with the whole thing. The riding around on the boat was awesome. But we knew nothing about any of the neighborhoods and didn't know how to get around, so we kind of just aimlessly wandered around all day. Was it fine for a day? Absolutely. Would I do it again? Nah.

Dinner overlooking the lake and volcanoes at sunset wrapped up our short time in Pana before heading on to Antigua.

Minus the missing luggage and the lack of water at our hotel one morning, CAT2016 was off to a great start.

What's New, Buenos Aires?

Once upon a time, I was on Facebook reading scholarly articles and came across one that said that the Honduran and Argentinian soccer teams would be playing a friendly match against each other on May 27 in Buenos Aires. Which just so happened to be during one of our long weekends (shout out Corpus Christi) and flights just so happened to be less than $300. So we looked for a flight, looked for a hostel, and less than an hour later, we had booked both.

Kenny, Kelly, and I stayed at America del Sur Hostel located in the neighborhood of San Telmo. I'm not a hostel connoisseur or anything, but I have stayed at a number of them within the past year or so. America del Sur definitely wasn't the fanciest hostel that I've ever stayed at, nor did it have the most amenities, but it was, by far, the hostel with the best environment. The hostel had a great staff and a great common area, as well as daily activities such as tours and excursions, that was really conducive to hanging out with the other hostel guests. We did a handful of tours, but we also spent a large portion of our time hanging out with other hostel guests, both inside the hostel and around Buenos Aires. 

Our first 24 hours in Buenos Aires were nuts. We arrived in BA at 1:00am, stood in line for way too long to convert reais into pesos, and didn't arrive at our hostel until almost 3:00am. At which time we fell face first into our bunk beds and were dead to the world until morning. We went on a walking tour of Recoleta which is one of the historical and affluent neighborhoods of BA. We wandered the aisles (rows?) of the Recoleta Cemetery which is unlike any cemetery you've ever seen in your life. Seriously, it's like art and mausoleums and tombs, all rolled into one. To top it all off, you can see where Eva Perón is buried. I'll be honest, I didn't know anything about Eva (AKA, Evita) before going to Buenos Aires, but I left basically an expert. 

Once our walking tour was over, we decided to become our own tour guides and went in search of the Floralis Genérica, AKA, the giant metal flower. Apparently at one time the flower was mechanical and opened during the day and closed at night. I think it's broken now though, but that's okay because we were saw it during the day anyways. Our self-led tour made a little pit stop for some lunch (oh hey, empanadas) and then we continued onwards to walk down the widest avenue in the world in search of the obelisk. We were successful in all endeavors which basically means we're all prepared to be tour guides, am I right?

Clouds for days.

I wear my sunglasses at night. Or in the rain.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was when we went to see the Casa Rosada, which is Argentina's verison of the White House. Minus the fact that the president doesn't actually live there. A fact that I know because I asked some of the guards. Uneducated North American much? Anyways, the Casa Rosada in located in front of the Plaza de Mayo. It's in the Plaza de Mayo where a group of mothers, called the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, gather every Thursday. Why? Because in the 70's, their children "disappeared" under the military dictatorship during the Dirty War. During this time, there were also babies that were stolen and given up for adoption illegally when their mothers were killed in the Dirty War. Originally the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo were getting together to get answers and to find their loved ones. Today they are still fighting for human, political, and civil rights throughout the world. 

When I was in Spanish 3, we watched a film called La Historia Oficial which was all about the Dirty War. I highly recommend watching it. Even though it's been ten years since I saw the film, I have never forgotten about it and when I realized that I would be heading to Buenos Aires, where La Historia Oficial was filmed, I knew that I had to see the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. And I did. It was like history coming to life. It was heart-breaking, but it was real. 

Since we didn't cram enough stuff in the first day, we decided to go to a tango dinner show that evening. And we ended up sitting front row. For about $95 dollars, we were treated to a tango show (obviously), unlimited wine and non-alcoholic beverages, four choices of appetizers/ main course/ and dessert, andddd transportation. It may have been the best $95 that I have ever spent. If you ever find yourself in Buenos Aires, head on over to Café dos los Angelitos, you won't regret it at all. 

Front row to the dinner show.

Apps: Crisy Philo with Duxelles of mushrooms and sautéed vegetables in curry carrot coulis

Main Dish: Angus beef with rustic style potatoes and caramelized onions

Dessert: Cointreau's chocolate mousse, strawberry coulis and chocolate, dried fruit praline

Seriously. Who knew that I would even food with names like that? But I did. And I loved it. 

We did another walking tour on our second day which took us to the neighborhood of La Boca. From what I recall, La Boca is where people who used to work in the port lived, so they took left over materials and paint from the port to make their homes. So it's the beautiful, colorful hodgepodge of buildings. It's also home to this cross-eyed statue of Messi who just so happened to be playing against La H the day that I saw it. Photo ops all around. 

We took a break from walking tours, but not a break from walking, on our last day in Buenos Aires and went out in search of El Ateno. It's an old theatre that has been changed into a bookstore and it's freakin' beautiful. In all honestly, it's just like a fancy Barnes and Nobles. The books aren't fancy or anything that I couldn't find at any other bookstore, but the theatre part was incredible.

Argentina, that's a wrap.

All You Need Is A Dose of Vitamin Sea

There are some pretty bangin' beaches just a few hours east of Rio de Janeiro. Don't get me wrong, Copacabana and Ipanema are pretty great, but sometimes you just want to get away and see something new. Last semester we spent a weekend in Cabo Frio and none of us could stop talking about how lovely it was, but every person here in Rio told me that Arraial do Cabo is even more beautiful. So as soon as we realized that, with a carefully planned schedule, we could rent a car and drive to Arraial do Cabo for the weekend, we knew where we were headed. 

We stayed in an AirBnB located in Pontal do Atalaia. Sometimes choosing an AirBnB (or hotel or hostel) can be a little touch and go because you don't know where the "hip" part of town is and you don't know if public transportation is reliable. Honestly, staying in Pontal do Atalaia would have sucked a little bit if we hadn't had a rented car. It wasn't within walking distance to any restaurants or beaches and we waited a solid minutes for a taxi when we were going out to dinner oner night. Luckily, we had a car, so being in Pontal do Atalaia was no problem for us this time around, but I wouldn't choose it if I were to go by bus. 

We spent the our first day laying on the Prainhas do Pontal do Atalaia. The Cariocas were right-- Arraial do Cabo has some beautiful freakin' beaches. Our schedule consisted of swimming, sunning, and snacking. All. Day.

Prainha do Pontal do Atalaia

On our second day, we took a boat tour all around Arraial do Cabo. I really, really, really wanted to see the Gruta Azul, so I specifically looked for a tour that took us there. Imagine my disappointment when I realized that the tours only took us past Gruta Azul and no one actually stopped there. Which I guess I could have figured out if I had actually looked through Google Images more carefully, but I hadn't. 

Our tour did take us to many other lovely places and we were even lucky enough to see some sea turtles. Yassss. We also did some beach gymnastics which earned us many stares, and laughs, from those on the beach-- as if that doesn't happen enough. 

After our tour was over, we had to race back to our car in order to make it back to Rio in time to return the car without incurring any late fees. We returned the car one minute early-- how is that for planning?

So, do the gringos agree with the cariocas? Is Arraial do Cabo actually more beautiful than Cabo Frio? I can't speak for all of Cabo Frio because I only saw one small part. But I can compare what I experienced. I would have to say yes, this gringa does agree. Arraial do Cabo gets my stamp of approval, hands down, and bragging rights that it is more beautiful than Cabo Frio.

Life Was Meant For Good Friends and Great Adventures

Despite my many nomadic adventures, I've made lifelong friends along the way. They're scattered all across the globe and, unfortunately, it's unlike that I'll ever be surrounded by all of my closest friends at a single time. But sometimes stars align and worlds collide and friends from one place that I call home are able to come visit me in another. Sarah and I met when we were both teaching in Honduras. We started out as two sobbing strangers who found themselves suddenly living together and left as two sobbing best friends who didn't know how they'd survive not living together. 

Sarah and Rachel, along with their friend, Jana, made the 10 hour trek to Rio de Janeiro last month and spent a couple of weeks soaking up all that the city has to offer. Mainly unlimited sunshine and caipirinhas.

Sarah, Rachel, and Jana were able to do a lot of things during the day while I was work, such as hiking up to the Christ Statue which is something I have never wished to do. As soon as school let out, the adventures commenced. 

In our adventures around Rio, we stumbled across this really great restaurant in Ipanema called Rayz. We all had some version of chicken, all of which were delicious, but the best part of the meal was definitely the caiprinha. It was raspberry and blackberry and strawberry with a little bit of vanilla and then a coconut popsicle to stir. Seriously-- drink of the gods.

In search of another adventure, we drove to Barra and frolicked around the Olympic Arena on our way to watch the Olympic test event of Trampoline Gymnastics. The women's team had already finished competing by the time we had arrived, so we were only able to see the men's teams, but it was still pretty awesome. The States and Canada were both there, so we were all able to cheer on our countries.

As a side note, I may have made eye contact with one of the US gymnasts while quietly chanting "USA! USA!" And then he smiled at me. And then in a matter of minutes I had planned our lives together which included me tweeting at him and saying "#RoadtoRio? More like #RoadtoRomance" or tagging him in a photo of the two of us (him on the trampoline and me in the stands) with the caption "This is where forever starts." Imagine my disappointment when I found out he has a girlfriend. I'd settle for tour guide though, so, Logan Dooley, if you need someone to show you around Rio in August, holla at ya girl.

We beached in one of the prettiest places in the world when we rented a car and drove to Arraial do Cabo. We hiked Pedra do Telégrafo and played daredevils for the afternoon. We traversed the palm tree lined walkways of Jardim Botanico and we spent an entire night playing every single category of Heads Up. And then, as all adventures usually do, they had to return back home while I stayed here.

It was a wild couple of weeks. But life was meant for good friends and great adventures. Those weeks had both. 

On a completely selfish level, seeing Rio de Janeiro through the eyes of someone who hasn't been gotten stuck in the mudane everydayness totally reminds me how freakin' lucky I am to live here. In the everyday of living in Rio de Janeiro, sometimes I forget that I live in Rio de Janeiro. I live in a place that some people only ever dream of visiting. I have a preference between Copacabana and Ipanema beach because I've actually been to both enough to have a preference. I turn up my nose at coconut water from a bottle because I know that it tastes so much better out of the coconut. I've been up to the Christ Statue more in the past four years than most people in their entire lives. But in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, sometimes I forgot how awesome it is to live in such an incredible place. Seeing Rio through the eyes of people who have never been here before, who have never seen a sunset at Arpoador or drank mate on the beach, really makes me realize what an incredible opportunity I have here.

Pedra do Telégrafo? More like Pedra do I'll Never Let Go

Every once in awhile there are pictures that circulate around the internet of a guy hanging his girlfriend off the edge of a cliff or someone hanging precariously off a rock at the edge of the ocean. And everyone freaks out and says that they don't trust anyone that much, blah, blah, blah. 

Imagine my delight when I found out that that this daredevil's paradise is located in right here in Rio de Janeiro, only an hour or so from my house. 

Daredevils.

And so we went. My hot pink tennis shoes came out to play, we explained to the receptionists at our awesome AirBnB that we needed a car and they all laughed at our enthusiasm, we got lost on the way to Barra de Guaritiba, and, finally, we hiked up Pedra do Telégrafo. 

I was mentally prepared for the hike this time, unlike when we hiked Morro Dois Irmãos, so the hike didn't seem too bad. Rachel and I also adopted Kimmy Schmidt's theory that you can do anything for ten seconds.

 

When we'd been counting ten seconds for what seemed like at least half an hour, Rachel and I started asking people how much longer until we reached the top. Twenty minutes? Okay, no problem. Let's think of what we can do in less than twenty minutes. Watch an episode of Friends. Shower. First recess in Honduras. Perfect. Let's think of all of the things that have lasted longer than twenty minutes that we've survived. And next thing we knew-- we had made it to the top.

We wanted to celebrate our arrival, but frankly, it was too darn hot and we were covered in sweat and dust. Not only that, but we quickly found out that we had to wait in line for about two and a half hours just to take an infamous Pedra do Telégrafo photo. It was hot. We were sweaty. We were in direct sunlight during the hottest part of the day. We were hungry which quickly turned into hangry. But we had driven out to Recreio, rented an AirBnB for the night, woke up early to beat the heat (HA!), and climbed this mountain specifically for these photos, so we were going to stay, gosh darn it. And we did, of course. 

Thank goodness we did because the pictures turned out awesome. Everything I could have dreamed of.

Though I think that Snapchat is really missing out on a good geotag/ filter thing by not having one that says "I waited in line for two hours and all I got was this lousy picture." Because really, at that moment, that's how I felt.

I'll Take One Trip To The Happiness Capital of Brazil for $100, Please.

Let me clarify things for a second. I did not spend my four day weekend in  El Salvador, the Central American country. I did spend my four day weekend in Salvador, the city in the Northeastern state of Bahia. 

Melissa arrived on Wednesday morning and because I didn't pay attention when booking the plane tickets I'm a really good friend who wanted her to be able to see as much of Brazil as possible, we were back at the airport less than eight hours later to board our flight to Salvador. 

We arrived at our hostel in Pelourinho late Wednesday evening and pretty much straight to bed. I mean, we had to be well-rested for the 8 hour tour that we had signed up for for Thursday. 

While in Salvador, we stayed at the Açai Hostel which was a pretty great place to call home for a couple of days. Much like Six Star Hostel that I stayed at in Taipei, Açai Hostel had bunk beds built into the walls and black out curtains for each bed. Each bed also had outlets, a small little locker, and a bedside lamp in each bed as well as a rolling locker for each guest. And they provided the keys for said lockers, which is a huge bonus. The only downside was that the hostel only turned the AC on from 10pm-9am, which is really unfortunate when there's 90% humidity each day.

On Thursday, we took one of the worst tours of my entire life. It was 8 hours of transportation. I'm not kidding. We basically sprinted through Pelourinho, jogged around Dique do Tororó (which is a small lake in Salvador that has statues of Orixás in the middle), caught a bus that took us to the sketchiest train ever, rode a baby boat across the bay where we did eat at the best ice cream in Salvador, hiked up to Igreja de Nosso Senhor do Bonfim and stayed a total of five minutes, crammed ourselves into a tiny car that drove us to the beach, laid on the beach for a total of 30 minutes, got back into the crammed car and drove back to the hostel.

Seriously. It was a huge disappointment. The only high points were the ice cream and the church. I'll admit, the ice cream was pretty bangin'. And even though we were only at the church for about five minutes, we were able to buy some of the famous ribbons, make our wishes, and tie them on the fence. Which is really all that we were going to do there anyways, we just had to do it a little bit faster than I would have liked.

Since we breezed through Salvador so quickly on Thursday, we wanted to devote Friday to exploring Pelourinho and spending some quality beach time. Before leaving Rio, a bunch of people had warned us to be safe in Salvador because it wasn't like Rio. You know, be aware of your surroundings, don't go down dark streets at night. (Which is good travel advice period.) Pelourinho didn't feel unsafe during the day, but I could see how it could get a little sketchy at night. During the day, it was filled with tourists and more shops than I knew what to do with. my favorite part is that a TON of the shops were selling paintings for R$10. Which is a whopping $2.75USD. For a handmade painting. It was pretty awesome. Not as awesome as when we stopped to watch a guy paint and he painted us into the painting, because that was pretty great.

We also stopped for a street performance of Olodum. It was like marching band, but better. I'm also a horrible dancer, but you know, YOLO and all that good stuff. I can say with a solid 98% certainly that I will never hear an Olodum performance on the cobblestone streets of Pelourinho again, so I was definitely going to carpe that diem.

After a morning of shopping and sweating, we were ready to go to the beach. We took a taxi to Praia do Farol da Barra (basically, Barra Lighthouse Beach) and it was definitely one of our best decisions while in Salvador. The water was divine and the waves were calm. Neither of which is true of the beaches in Rio. Seriously, I've been swimming less than ten times the entire time I have lived here. So we swam around, climbed on rocks, dug for shells, and basically played mermaid until the sun set. And let me tell you, it was awesome.

What wasn't awesome was the taxi driver on the way home who greeted us by saying "I'm sad." and then proceeded to talk about his broken heart for the entire 30 minute taxi ride. Seriously. I'm like Chandler Bing in these situations. I'm not good at advice, but I can offer you a sarcastic comment. Which, in my limited Portuguese, was basically "It's over."

And because my life goal is to make everything way more challenging than it should be, I got all of the way to security at the airport before someone told me that one of the souvenirs that I had purchased had to be checked and couldn't be carried on. And even a nice smile and batting my eyelashes couldn't convince them otherwise. Le sigh.