A Curandera, a Slaughter and Some Jaguars!

We are wrapping it up here in San Andres, spending some time with our families and preparing some thankyou gifts. We have been emmersed into some of the historical Myan beliefs of San Andres, including a visit to a Curandera(a shamanistic herbal healer.)At the Curandera we learned about some of the common sicknesses amongest children and ways of healing them. One of the illnesses is caused from the transfer of heat, from someone who has recently been working or is drunk, to a baby, causing fever. Curing it involves an egg, a lemon, a duck, a local grown herb, some other goodies and some ancient orations. Karen has visited the Curandera since then and has had a facinating experience. Aside from this, these last couple of days have been mello and relaxing, as far as activities go. We have managed to fit in allot of swimming and time with group.
Last night Dan, Celia, Robert, Max and Alex had an experience that will forever change there outlook on what it is to eat meat. Dan´s family are butchers and the group mentioned before, had the opportunity to watch them kill a pig. This raw experience has brought more appreciation for the meats eaten here as well as respect for the locals interactions with the animals. The animals here live a life untainted from inhuman treatment. We are thankful for the culture we have been exposed to and are pumped to continue on our journy.
The excitment continues to bubble up in us as we prepare to head our for our first visit to a Myan ruin site, in Tikal. We will be camping out over night at the Jaguar Inn near the Tikal jungle. Hopefully none of us will wake up to find ourselves in a jaguar cuddle puddle, for there are Jaguars in the area, thus the name. Dan, Alex and Kaise arranged our stay in Tikal as well as the transportation there. Thanks Boys!
All of us here send our love and are thinking of ya (you know who you are)!
The Cam Crew
- Heidi

Quetzales in the Bank, Shawty Whatch Drank

Its our third day at our second homestay, in San Andres. We apologize for the lack of blogs thus far. We thourghly enjoiyed ourselves in Poptuon and were fortunate enough to have participated in the local Guatemalan Independence Day festivities. These festivities included, sack races, music, a compatition with horses and a scramble up a 30 foot tall, lard covered log. Alex and Robert were champs and participated in the human ladder to get to the top of the lard pole. Although Alex got pantsed infront of everybody and a little aftermath of sore backs, it remains a once in a life time experience. We explored the city of Poptun with a fun scavanger hunt, put togeather by Celia and did our first service project at La Escuela. Our service project included filling a large planter box with soil and putting up the fence. We spent alot of time at the school aside from our service project. There, we were greeted with lots of smiles and many invitations to play soccer and basketball. The children were very friendly and we became immediate friends with many of them.
We were spoiled with the wonderful meals made for us and ate togeather as a group. Most of the meat we ate was once crusing around in our backyards, including tamales made with a cerro, pig, from Heidis house. With a mixture of excitement and a little sadness we moved on in our adventure, never to forget the family and freinds we made in Poptun.
We took an hour long bus ride form poptun, which gave Andy the first hand experience of what a sardine in a can may feel like. To our ammusment he was accompanied by a man who basically sat on his lap the whole way, yelling for more passangers out the window. We were thankful to arrive in Florez where we took a great boat ride across the lake, Peten, and arrived where we now reside. Yesterday we had a great field day. Max, Andy and Heidi went to an organic farm , where they gathered fruit, habeneros and saw the national tree of Guatemela, a Ceida. Karen, Celia, Robert, Kaise, Alex and Dan went to an animal rehibilitation where they saw the beautiful Occelots and experienced how crazy Spider Monkeys can be,
Big Love from The Cam Crew!
- Heid, Robert and Max!

We made it!

Having met the group after months of only knowing them over the internet has made this whole journey become real. It started as we sat in a circle on the ground in the airport playing games and getting to know eachother. After a 6 hourt flight to El Salvador and another half hour to Guatemala City we hopped on a 7 hour bus ride to Finca Ixobel. Alex managed to get the most sleep on the bus in the most uncomfortable awkward positions while everyone else struggled to get any sleep. After 7 hours we were shown around the beautiful Finca Ixobel grounds and to our rooms. Bobby, Dan, Max, Alex, and Kaise were all in the same dormitory while Celia and Heidi slept two doors down next to Andy and Karen. The boys were welcomed by a half foot long spider and a bat flying in their room. After eating a great dinner we ended the night with a few games of scattergories and after a long day of traveling for everyone and lots of heat and humidity everybody fell asleep with no problems. The next day was filled with activities, orientation, and group agreements to make these next 3 months go smoothly. In between group meetings some people decided to swim in the lagoon while other people relaxed and did what they wanted. We were lucky to have a ping pong table which everyone managed to spend plenty of time on throughout our stay there. Everyone decided to get a early nights sleep to prepare for a long and exciting day of caving and swimming. Everybody woke up ready to go except for Celia and Dan who unforunately came down with a slight stomach illness. Andy graciously stayed behind to make sure things went well for both of our sick companions (including but not limited too providing ginger ale). As for the remaining six, we enjoyed our breakfast, packed lunches and flashlights, applied sunscreen, filled up our water, and began our two hour trek through the Guatemalan jungle. Our guide Pilar, although not practiced in English was very experienced in navagating the jungle and got us to our destination with only a minor hiccup. Pilar and most of us heard a gun shot while no more than 100 yards from the cave entrance. Erring on the side of caution, the students sat and waited for Pilar and Karen to go ahead and examine the noise further. Our anxiety was for nothing, after seeing three jovial hunters walking towards us. The cave at first sight was a lot like many others, but upon further inspection it was rather unique. Flying bats and cool deep waters put smiles on all of our faces. The stark contrast between the heat of the jungle and the refreshing pools of the cave was welcomed by all. One of the many features inside the cave was a 20 foot jump which had the bravest of us showing signs of trepidation. Once out of the cave we enjoyed the quick lunch that we packed and scrambled back to Finca Ixobel as fast as the terrain would allow.
Betweem the great meals, plush accomodations, and some heated games of ping-pong, Finca Ixobel was a great place. We left it for the town of Poptun for our first homestays. Everyone seems to like their families so far, though most of us can´t tell what they´re saying. I am excited to be forced to improve my Spanish, because progress has been slow so far. Tuesday is Guatemalan Independence Day, and being part of the celebrations should be a great experience for all. Until next time, much love from Dan, Celia, Max, Heidi, Kaise, Bobby, Andy and Karen. Paz!

Let the Journey Begin!

I just spoke to our intrepid leaders, Andy and Karen, and they've got the entire group together and are heading through SFO airport security as we speak! I have to admit this is an auspicious beginning to the semester as everything seems to be going quite smoothly thus far ... and I'm sure the semester will continue accordingly!

So, stay tuned for fairly regular blogs from the students on a roughly weekly basis. Until then, this is Ethan, signing off.

Cannot wait for CAM!!!!

Hola Los Amigos: Alex, Celia, Dan, Heidi, Kaise, Max, y Robert,

This is our blog-site in which all of your friends and family will be vicariously living through. Once a week one of you will be a "blogger"/author who will describe all the juicy details of our amazing, twisting, bumpy and winding roads that we travel along during the next three months. We encourage you to peruse past blogs to get an idea of what they might, might look like. Also, please inform your family and friends of this site, and show them how to log in, so they will know what an amazing and authentic experience we are having.

In addition to gaining responsibility of the blog, we will have other job titles assigned and rotated once every 1-2 weeks. They are described below. Contemplate which one you are most enthused to take charge of for the first couple weeks of the semester.

Cribs: Organizes any sleeping accommodations we need. ie: hotel/hostel/camping

Hotwheels:
Coordinates our transportation to and from cities, activities, caves...

Director of Fun:
Scopes out and arranges fun activities. ie: Hiking volcanoes, reiki classes, salsa lessons...

El Cap:
The leader of our team who makes sure everything runs according to date, corresponds with budget and is plainly doing their job. Yeah, crack that whip... ;)

Slacker:
Actually one of the most important roles. The slacker picks up the slack we all drag behind. If we are messy, you help clean up and delegate us to pick up our poop. The slacker may also write appreciation letters to those in communities helping us have an amazing experience and may deliver flowers and chocolate... you get the idea.

Appreciator:
This person compliments the slacker. He/she tags people throughout the week with stickers or ribbons as he/she catches them performing acts of kindness, growing in a special way, recognizes strong effort, pushing comfort zones, etc.

Clark Kent: The news reporter who finds out current events in local communities, U.S. happenings and any other cultural information we should be aware us as we travel.

Spanish Spiller: provides us with a word of the day and encourages us to use it until we are blue in the face. ie: "VACA" "Tengo un vaca en mi camiseta." Yes, we just wrote that.

We are pupped for our upcoming endeavors as we get ready for this place called Central America, and hope you are too. Spend lots of time with your family and friends, eat lots of American food and listen to a lot of Latino music. We'll See you sooner than later!

PAZ,

Karen and Andy