Jan. 18/19 – Guatemala
Day 170/171 – My teacher, Johnatan, suggested that we all go dancing tonight at a club. So a bunch of us from the school (Johnatan, Jason, Luis (Jason’s teacher), Robbie (a staff member), Maria (the director), and I) went to CocoLocos, which had a dance floor. I gave in and let Johnatan teach me to dance a bit and had a good time, but I felt bad for him because I am just not a good dancer. As the night went on we had an interesting discussion with Maria and Robbie about world trade which lasted until 1.00am. It has been extremely interesting to discuss, listen, and learn about all the issues of world trade and social economy as we are traveling. We will write more about our learning’s on these subjects later.
view of Quetzaltenango from the road to Almolonga
Since we had no water in the city this morning our family took us to a bathhouse in Almolonga. We were able to relax in some natural hot springs water and clean up. It was an early morning coupled with a late night, but worth it. The bathhouse had a row of rooms, each room fully tiled, with steps leading down to a soaking tub. The soaking tub has a wall sectioning off a small area for the user to soap up and rinse off, using a bowl to collect water from the soaking tub. The hot water came directly from the hot spring and there was a cold water tap to create the perfect temperature. It was just the thing to start off an early morning. Almolonga grows the biggest produce in the area. The bottom of their valley is covered in rich topsoil and their well tended crops are given plenty of water and love. All the big produce gets exported to the States, the medium produce exports to South America, and the small produce stays in Guatemala.
Almolonga
I was spoiled this afternoon because the school’s activity was to go to Vahos for Banos de vapor – a wet sauna. Two bathhouses in one day! Jason’s heel was hurting, so he decided to stay behind and relax at home. We hiked up the mountain on the edge of town to the top where Vahos was located. The hike through the country was spectacular, with a few small establishments accompanied with consistent views of the city and surrounding mountains. The sauna/steam bath is a rustic building with two rooms. The rooms are rented out individually, where you can change in proper sweating clothing and then directly walk into your personal steam bath. The sauna consists of two rooms and a shower to rinse off in. The first room is a nice hot temperature, we pushed open the plastic door to the second room and a gust of boiling hot air came out. That is as far as we investigated that room! The steam comes naturally from a volcano vent that is located, I believe, in the back of that second room. I stayed in for about 40 minutes; it was extremely relaxing for my body – I went to bed at 8.30/9.00 that night.
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Rt to Lf: Ted, T-girl, Robbie, and Remi__ The road to Almolonga viewed from Vahos road
Tags: 09 - Guatemala, guatemala
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