El Salvador and bus etiquette

So on Wed. i left antigua for San Salvador. I am traveling with Stine, another volunteer from the project from Norway. we bought our bus ticket from a travel agency in antigua, we later realized we paid way to much. on wed we went to guatemala city, and then switched to a pullman style bus to go to San Salvador. It went well except for one hicup on the border. It took us a while to clear the border because on our last trip to El Salvador they gave us a stamp for 90 more days on our visa which they normally dont do because theres an agreement between the countries. i needed to renew my visa so we asked them and they said it was fine. This time around the immigration officer didnt understand why we had the extra 90 days, she had to talk to her boss but eventually said it was fine. We stayed the night in San Salvador and went to the immigration office in the morning to make sure everything was alright. there we found out that our extra 90 days stamp wasnt valid so we needed to get new stamps. we made friends with the immigration officer because she asked us to help her with her english homework. it only took us 3 or 4 hours to get the new stamp which was pretty good. then we left san salvador and got to playa el tunco. this required 2 buses but was very easy to get to. playa el tunco was very relaxing with not very much happening. our first night there, there was a bunch of locals playing in a mini soccer tournament on the beach that was fun to watch. the next day we just relaxed on the beach, i tried to surf a little bit but wasnt able to do much. this morning there was a surf competition at the beach right next to playa el tunco which we got to see some of. we left around noon for san salvador and then took a bus through town and caught another bus to the quiet little town of suchitoto, where i am now. the place we are staying isnt that nice but its only one night here so we think its going to be fine. this afternoon we walked around the town a little bit, it overlooks a nice lake. we had dinner at a pizza place that was very nice and we got to wath the sunset there. now were getting ready to have an early night because were getting up early tomorrow. We are starting at 6:30 in the morning and have to take at least 2 different buses to get to the el salvador/honduras border. then from there another bus up to copan. then either tomorrow afternoon or monday morning we will see the ruins in copan. After that I think i will split up with stine and try to go to utila to scuba dive. i had a little question with insurance but found out that the dive schools cover you with there insurance when you take classes. so hopefully by the end of this week i will be a certified scuba diver. after that i think i will head up to tikal and see the ruins there and then head back to antigua to relax for a few days before my flight home. All my plans are very rough and we will see how closely I will follow them.

Now I want to tell you about bus edicate, which I got to experience today in the buses. We were taking the equivelant of guatemalan chicken buses in honduras and here are some of the rules i learned.
1. Elderly people always have priority to sit in a seat and if they come on a full bus you should stand up to allow them to sit. It was interesting to see this in the buses because they always seem so hectic and chaotic but there also is some order to it.
2. Mothers with babys have next priority. this was not followed as closely but I had a first hand experience with this. A mother holding a baby was standing in the aisle for a little bit and I was thinking of standing up and leting her sit in my seat with my bags. then I looked around and caught the eye of a younger woman and kind of gestured to the mother and she noded. so i got up and let her sit down. Next time i looked around all of the el salvadorians were smiling at me.
3. You have to wait to pay for the bus. This seemed a little strange to me because I was trying to pay when we got on the bus, but actually the buses work with a team of 2 or 3 people. the driver, and two others. the others along long stretches of roads without stops will go around shaking change in the hand and thats when you pay.

It was a very fun experience going on the chiken buses because we got to see more of the el salvadorian culture and interact with more people. I felt even a little bit more safe in these buses then the pullmans because they seemed less likely to be targeted by robbers and the people running them seemed less likley to scam you.

I dont know when Ill have internet next and/or ill have internet long enough to upload my photos. but probably in a week or so ill have photos from my travels up!

Photos from the project

Photos from the project
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=107873&id=516009306&l=b0ce52d29b

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=107875&id=516009306&l=04e145924e

Already missing Camino Seguro

Yesterday was my last day at the project and I am already missing the kids. The week went well, everything was normal. We had a despedida (going away party) on Wed. because I'm not the only one leaving this week. There are 7 others leaving! After we leave the project is going to be pretty low on volunteers. I decided to make paper cranes for all my kids for my last day, so all of thursday I spent making around 50 paper cranes. My last day was really nice, all the kids kept on saying I needed to stay and asked why I was leaving. I got cards from all the kids which were really nice and really cute, I'm gona keep the cards for as long as I can to remember the kids. It was really sad hugging all the kids goodbye for the last time. My time at the project went by sooo fast. I can't believe its over now. From my time at the project I got to see first hand how hard the kids lives are, and also see how much Camino Seguro is helping the kids, and their whole families. I really want to come back because I think it would be amazing to see how the kids that I work with have grown up. One of my friends here has been here 5 times and he says its amazing to see the kids grow and change. This has been a very powerful experience for me, coming to a new country and the experiences I have had here are amazing. I have had the time of my life here, the past 2 months have been some of the best I have ever had... and now I get to travel. I have pretty much confirmed what I'm doing now. I'm going with my friend from the project who just finished as well, Stine, to El Salvador for 3 or 4 days, get to maybe try some surfing again, then go to Utila, Honduras for 3 or 4 days, get to learn to Scuba dive, then go up back into Guatemala and stay in Rio Dulce for a night, then head up to the Ruins in Tikal, and then get back to Antigua for 1 or 2 days before my flight home. It should be an action packed couple of weeks, hopefully I'll be doing enough stuff that I won't have time to think about the kids and miss them. Anyways, next time I post I might be in El Salvador so bye until then. And I might post some photos later when they upload.

One week of volunteering left

A week has passed by and a lot has happened. Last week was a short week because May 1st was a national holiday, and Thursday was family day. Monday through Wedensday went smoothley and were fun. Tuesday and Wedendsday I brought in my camera to the project to take photos. I had been a little aprehensive about taking my camera to the project because I had already seen some cameras get lost or stolen but it turned out to be great. I let the kids take the camera around and they loved taking photos of everybody. I will post the photos at the end of the blog. On Tuesday, two friends I met in Antigua came to the project. Aaron, and Taylor are studying abroad in Antigua and for one of their final photography projects they came in to Camino Seguro and took pictures. It was a good day and the kids loved having visitors. Thursday was family day and it ran very smoothley. I played bingo with the mothers while they talked with Julvia, my teacher, one on one. Thursday night there was a Camino Seguro party at a group of volunteers house which was a lot of fun. It was cool cause we got to see the staff outside of work. Friday was when the adventure started though... We decided to go to Semuc Champey, one of the biggest attractions in Guatemala, and one of the most beautiful places in the world. We left friday morning around 8, and took a chicken bus to Guatemala City, about 1 hour, that cost 8Q (1$). Then we took a taxi to the Monja Blanca bus terminal where we got a greyhound style bus to go to Coban, about 5 hours away, 50Q (6$). Then once we got to Coban we had to walk to another bus terminal that took us to Lanquin, the nearest town to Semuc Champey, 2 hours, 30Q (4$). This was a very bumpy shuttle that ended up taking us to the tiny town of Lanquin, hidden in the numerous mountains and valleys around there. When we got to Lanquin we got on the back of a pick up truck to head to our Hostel near Semuc Champey. This was another hour, hour and a half. We ended up getting there around 6 or 7 at night and set up our tents by the trucks headlights. There was a small kind of restraunt there and we had brought some food so we ate and hung out for the evening. The next morning we joined a tour of Semuc Champey (I will post my photos of Semuc at the end as well) First we went to the park and hiked for about 20 minutes up the steep side of the valley to get to the Mirador, lookout. This had an incredible view of the river and the pools of Semuc hundreds of meters below us. We then hiked down to the river. First we went to the start of the pools and saw what really makes Semuc Champey amazing. It is created by the huge river going underground and then the pools are above the river. You can see a little ways down the river as it goes underground. We then went and swam around the pools for a while. When we got to the other end of the pools, the guide tied a rope to a rock and we climbed down a fairly steep rock face to see where the river came out from underground. We had to swim across the river which had a pretty strong current and then climb up some rocks. We then were able to go up the cave a little bit and see the underground river. It was amazing, the rocks were incredible and there were bats flying around. We then climbed up the other side of the river and this is where I did one of the craziest things that day. Me and 4 other people jumped off a rock that was about 50 feet high. That wasnt the craziest thing, it was crazy because we had to aim where we jumped because there was a rock on onesided of the pool under about 3 or 4 feet of water so we had to jump to the right to land in the deep water. It was amazing, but I dont know if I would do it again. Then we chilled in the pools a little bit more and went back to the camp site for lunch. Then we went to the Maria Caves which was another amazing experience. These caves are formed by an underground river and so for the tour we just had candels we had to hold as we waded through the water. At some points we also had to swim so we had to hold the candel with one hand and swim with the other. At one point there was a rock about 10 feet high in the cave that we were able to jump off of which was fun. Then at the end we had to squeeze through a little gap with a kind of water fall and drop down 6 or 7 feet into a lower pool. That was kind of scary cause you were dropping down into pitch black. It was an amazing experience. Then we got back and the tour had included tubing but the guides had left so we just went by ourselves. It was getting dark so we just tubed down the river for 30 minutes or so, it was nice though. I fell asleep early that night because it was an exhausting day. We then got a shuttle straight back from Lanquin to Antigua which was nice, so we didnt have to worry about switches or anything and could just fall asleep. We got back to Antigua around 3 and had the rest of the day to relax and shower. Today was a good day in the project as well, nothing unusual happened. I will take the camera in my last couple days probably to get some last pictures of the kids. Here are the links to the photos and next time I post ill probably have finished volunteering. It went by so quickly and Im gona miss the kids so much...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106532&id=516009306&l=d6545ccb91
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106552&id=516009306&l=febc7b22b4
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106562&id=516009306&l=5fc00de166
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106563&id=516009306&l=4ffa2ee7cd
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106567&id=516009306&l=2575547d08