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San José

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    • Michael and Helen CookMexico to Rio
      4
      Day 60

      Spanish Lessons

      February 29 in Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

      So we have been having Spanish lessons this week. The school has been excellent value and very well run.

      The principle they operate under is total immersion so our teachers only speak Spanish and we are living with a Spanish family. They also put on cultural events in Spanish too. At first it is very hard to understand but it is slowly starting to click.

      Living with a local family has been a lovely experience. Ana is the mum with four children. There are at least a dozen people living in a small house (plus us). But there are so many people coming and going in the home. Children from relatives she looks after. Neighbours and friends popping in. She also helps people by taking in lodgers and does so even if they cannot pay. There are normally four generations 2 years to 85+ I would guess. A very generous and welcoming family.

      We eat meals together and they are very warm hosts. They may not have much but they are very rich in other ways.      Read more

    • TravelerMexiko - Guatemala
      1
      1
      Day 18

      I am alive again - City tour Antigua

      July 9, 2023 in Guatemala ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

      After having seen more of the toilet than the city in my first days in Antigua, i finally managed to see the city. After my visit in the hospital on Thursday evening I am getting better again. I still have to take antibiotics and my nutrition is based only on plain rice and pasta but at least I can do some daily activities again. So today we went for a walking tour in antigua to learn about the history of this city. In the pictures you can see several colonial buildings...many are destroyed because the city was hit by several massive earthquakes in the past which lead the colonisers to abundan the city in 1773 and found a new capital a valley further...which we know nowadays as Guatemala City.
      Interestingly after Antigua was abundan as the capital a lot of spanish schools were founded here and meanwhile its a hot-spot of Latin America for learning spanish. Hippies have been taken over this city for the last decades and now it's a old colonial city with amazing restaurants, cafes and artisan craft shops everywhere. Antigua is surrounded by 3 impressive vulcanos of which one, El Fuego, is active and generating impressive eruptions (see in the picture)...Hiking up the Acatenango, the neighbour vulcano of El Fuego, is one of the most famous hikes on the continent. Unfortunately my bacterial infection prevented me from doing so yet. But I am not gonna leave this country without having done the hike :D

      Nachdem ich die ersten Tagen mehr von der Tiolette als von Antigua gesehen habe, habe ichs endlich doch geschafft die Stadt anzuschauen. Nach meinem Besuch im Krankenhaus am Donnerstagabend geht es mir wieder besser. Ich muss zwar immer noch Antibiotika nehmen und ernähre mich nur von einfachem Reis und Nudeln, aber zumindest kann ich wieder ein paar alltägliche Dinge Unternehmen. Heute haben wir einen Rundgang durch Antigua gemacht, um etwas über die Geschichte dieser Stadt zu erfahren. Auf den Bildern sieht man einige koloniale Gebäude... viele sind zerstört, weil die Stadt in der Vergangenheit von mehreren schweren Erdbeben heimgesucht wurde, was die Kolonisten dazu veranlasste, die Stadt 1773 zu verlassen und ein Tal weiter eine neue Hauptstadt zu gründen... die wir heute als Guatemala City kennen.
      Interessanterweise wurde Antigua schnell zum Hotspot Lateinamerikas zum Erlernen der spanischen Sprache, weil hier viele spanische Schulen gegründet wurden. Die Hippies haben die Stadt in den letzten Jahrzehnten übernommen und jetzt ist sie eine alte Kolonialstadt mit tollen Restaurants, Cafés und Kunsthandwerksläden. Die Stadt ist umgeben von drei beeindruckenden Vulkanen, von denen einer, El Fuego, aktiv ist und beeindruckende Eruptionen erzeugt (siehe Bild)... Die Wanderung auf den Acatenango, den Nachbarvulkan von El Fuego, ist einer der berühmteste Wanderung des Kontinents. Leider hat mich meine bakterielle Infektion bisher davon abgehalten, dies zu tun. Aber ich werde dieses Land nicht verlassen, ohne die Wanderung gemacht zu haben :D      Read more

    • NomadinMexico, Guatemala - full stop
      Day 69

      Ecofarm - the last resort for now

      March 23, 2020 in Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

      I run out of comfortable hide-out option My options went down to zero. All Hotels are closing down, the Island I wanted to go cannot accept any guest anymore.🙄🤔😳😔

      I still could go to Mexico, some awesome place at the beach. But the cases in Mexico will explode because until now, besides yucatan, the president is like the dangerous American national idiot and sociopath. Andres Obrador, the Mexican President, did not yet take serious measurements.
      Once I read the article of the New York Times I decoded not the go. You don’t need to be Einstein to know that cases will explode. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/opinion/mexi….

      Guatemala in comparison. The last flight in was on 13. March, they had two person with symptoms, put them in quarantine and after they were diagnosed positiv, tracked down all 300 passengers . I wrote previously about it.
      On the 16. March borders shut down and all not necessary shops/restaurant got closed down. Guatemala had “only” 9 official cases.
      As of the. 20. March we are on a partial lockdown. During the day people sitting in the Central Park by them selves get chased away.

      I guess it helps that the president in charge since the 14. January 2020 (poor guy!) is a doctor.
      I asked my pulmonologist if I should travel and come home, he said no. Not only because of the risk on the journey but also the higher risks of be infected in Switzerland.

      I’m now alone in my guesthouse which is kind of depressing and sad. Today I can move to another guesthouse where two more Maximo students, so that is good.
      The ecofarm is still open so we come here and enjoy the green and the hammock.

      I miss my family and my friends😔.

      Trying to stay upbeat!
      Claudia      Read more

    • NomadinMexico, Guatemala - full stop
      Day 47

      Historic buildings&an all white wedding

      March 1, 2020 in Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

      I came across a wedding in the yellow church white ornaments. I decided to look at all the hairdos, makeup, clutches, dresses, shoes. Everything very beautiful. Shoes... not so much emphasis on shoes for them.
      At one point I realized that there was not one person with indigenous features. An all white wedding. All very Spanish-Upperclass-looking. Then one exception came in; The nanny of a couple with a baby.
      No better places to observe segregation than in a wedding....
      We have been taught we should not say Mayan anymore but indigenous - political correctness.      Read more

    • Weltenbummler:innen 🌴
      Day 88

      Spanisch in Antigua

      September 3, 2023 in Guatemala ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

      Wir haben uns nochmal vorgenommen unser Spanisch etwas aufzubessern. Dazu lebten wir eine Woche in einem home-stay in Antigua. 🏠 Wir wurden herzlich begrüsst von Claudia, ihren zwei Töchtern, der Oma, dem Hund, der Katze, den 4 Papageien 🦜und den Fischen. Die ersten Tage waren wir die einzigen Gäste und konzentrierten uns fleissig aufs Lernen. 📒Unsere Lehrerin erzählte uns Allerlei über Gebräuche und Traditionen in Guatemala, während wir verzweifelt versuchten, mit den Vergangenheitsformen klar zu kommen.
      Gegen Ende der Woche trudelten dann Lioba und Janni ein. Wiedermal deutsch sprechen, Yeah! & dann erstnoch zwei Architekt:innen! So tiefe Gespräche hatten wir seit 3 Monaten nicht mehr. 😍 Jetzt ist die Woche auch schon wieder vorbei und wir ziehen weiter. Vermissen werden wir sowohl die Leute, als auch dass 3 Mal täglich für uns gekocht wurde. 👩🏻‍🍳 Und freuen tun wir uns auf etwas mehr Natur und wiedermal Pasta. 🍝      Read more

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    • NomadinMexico, Guatemala - full stop
      Day 47

      My home

      March 1, 2020 in Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

      A lot is going on in my home. The owner of this place also own several restaurants and a hotel.
      On Saturday’s and Sundays they cook food for Sunday’s buffet in one of the restaurants.
      The parrot, his name is Paca, sometimes has psychotic attacks. Either he goes round in the cage or he locks one wing and moves the other like crazy.
      He is very moody. Sometimes when you come home he greets you with “Hola”, sometimes not. When you talk to him he makes a sounds which definitely sounds like he is laughing at you.
      I wanted to give him a seed and he bit me in the finger.
      Stupidissimo parrot.
      The girls are all studying or volunteering with Maximo Nivel. We are having a good time and we are planing trips together.      Read more

    • TravelerMexiko - Guatemala
      1
      Day 18

      Ecofarm

      July 9, 2023 in Guatemala ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

      Heute habe ich eine kleine Ökofarm besucht. Hab mich gleich wie im Paradies gefühlt. Hier wird alles mögliche an Gemüse und Früchten angebaut sowie Kaffee. Zudem werden Kurse für die heimische Bevölkerung gegeben wie man sich gesund ernährt und sein eigenes Gemüse anbaut und es gibt ein lokales Volleyball and Fußball angebot für die Kinder der Gegend. Zusätzlich hat die Farm eine Pilzzuchtablage, in der ein Mykologe etwas Forschung betreibt. Das coolste war die Aquaponik Anlage, die ich aus Konstanz kenne. Im Endeffekt ist es ein geschlossener Kreislauf in dem Fisch in einem Tank aufgezogen werden, und dieses Wasser durch ein Hochbeet geleitet wird wodurch der Foschkot die Pflanzen düngt und das Beet direkt das Wasser reinigt. Das Gemüse wird in einer Art angebaut wie es die Mayas gemacht haben, nämlich als Spiralen angordnet und dem Mayakalender folgend.
      Danach habe ich noch mit Maddi das Goldcup Viertelfinale Guatemala - Jamaika angeschaut, Guate hat aber leider 1:0 verloren.

      Today I visited a small eco-farm. I immediately felt like I was in paradise. They grow all kinds of vegetables, fruits and coffee. They also give courses for the local population on how to eat healthy and grow their own vegetables and additionally offer volleyball and football sessions for the locals. In addition, the farm has a mushroom cultivation depot where a mycologist does some research. The coolest thing was the aquaponics system, which I know from Konstanz. Basically, it's a closed loop system where fish are raised in a tank, and this water is passed through a raised bed where the faeces fertilise the plants and the bed directly cleans the water. The vegetables are grown in a way that the Mayans did, arranged in spirals and following the Mayan calendar.
      Afterwards, I watched the Gold Cup quarter-final between Guatemala and Jamaica with Maddi, but unfortunately Guate lost 1:0.      Read more

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    • NomadinMexico, Guatemala - full stop
      Day 67

      Partial Curfew

      March 21, 2020 in Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

      As of tomorrow there will be a curfew from 4pm to 4am. Maximo has to close it’s door so we won’t be able to go there during the day. Today two students, seated on a bench and reading in the Central Park were chased away from by the police.
      So where do we go during the day? Walking endlessly around the block?
      Today we went to a ecofarm. They base their organic farming on one of the Mayan calendars.
      The Mayans had 23 calendars!
      They also do most things by recycling. See the pictures. There is a space for children (climbing, be with animals, playing ball games) and they provide workshops for interested farmers on organic farming based on the Mayan Calender.
      They have hammocks, sofas, rocking chairs... etc. We might go there for the day.
      They are always looking for volunteers, so anybody...?😎.
      Two of our ladies today left. They managed to cross the border to Mexico!

      Speak soon....
      Claudia      Read more

    • TravelerVon Panama nach Kanada
      Day 58

      Und wieder runter

      February 28, 2023 in Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

      Nach einer nahezu schlaflosen Nacht, ging es zum Sonnenaufgang auf die Spitze von Acatenango.

      Da haben wir dann auch die 3976m erreicht.
      Eine super Aussicht hat man von hier.

      Und damit kann ich nun auch folgende Liste erstellen :

      Volcano Baru, 3474m, höchster Berg Panamas

      Cerro Chato, 1140m, nicht in Costa Ricas Top 10

      Volcan Concepción, 1610m, Nr 4 in Nicaragua

      Volcano Santa Ana, 2381m, Nr 2 in El Salvador

      Acatenango, 3976m, Nr 2 in Guatemala

      Und mit Acatenango war ich auch auf dem dritt höchsten Berg in ganz Mittelamerika.

      Ich finde das kann sich sehen lassen.

      Direkt nach dem Frühstück ging es auch wieder runter.

      Ich hatte eigentlich vor mir in Antigua noch ein bisschen was anzuschauen, aber es war dann doch eine recht anstrengende Wanderung gewesen, so hab ich nur gefaulenzt.      Read more

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    • NomadinMexico, Guatemala - full stop
      Day 47

      Streets in Antigua

      March 1, 2020 in Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

      Really to me they look all pretty much the same. As usual the one in the center are cared for and groomed, others just left like they are. The cobblestones and sidewalk are even worse than in San Cristobal de las Casas. I fell twice🙄. Colonial, one story houses. I like it.
      .      Read more

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    San José, San Jose

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