Maps

Here I am in Guatemala City.

 

I started this blog with a map of where I had been, here is the update with South America included. 

 

Before I head home, I'd like to include more of Central America (5 more countries) and perhaps the Caribbean(lots of countries, but hoping to go to Cuba). 

Later in life I will try to check out some of those white countries.

 

First Week

I know no one actually cares but I feel a little weird about never finishing posts from the last trip.

I find myself in Guate, with bad wifi.

Today I went to the big grocery store.
It had everything you would normally find in a grocery store, but my favorite part was that the people giving samples had moveable tables and would kind of seek you out. Also there were people who were not giving samples, but nonetheless trying to sell a product that was on sale. There were also people stocking the shelves. All in all this meant that there were sometimes 2-3 workers per aisle.

JOBS!!! 

When you go around Guatemala there is no doubt the country is poor, but it feels like the people do alright because everyone is working. Every business has like 5 extra people working. At restaurants three different waiters will serve you. At the office store 5 different people will ask if you want help. At my school it feels like there are 50 workers who do maintenance, clean and monitor the buses. Outside our building there are two armed guards. There are usually 2-3 people at the security desk inside, and someone a guy at the door who will open the door for you. Are you picking up what I am throwing down?  I am sure the pay is low, but holy crap do they find ways to give people jobs in this country. 

MALLS

I worked in a mall for 5 years. I have a love hate relationship with malls. I love the people watching, the colors and lighting, the scenery that is a modern day market, but not always what the advertising or the products stand for...  normally I just try to ignore it all, and then it turns out ok. 

When I am traveling I LOVE going to malls. Its such an easy way to get to know a culture. In Paraguay we kept going into these run down, weird hodge podgy malls. It wasn't that they were terrible, horrible malls, just felt not quite put together... just like Paraguay.

In Zone 10 of Guate, there are at least 4 malls. I have been going to 1-2 a day because there isn't much else to do except walk around the swanky commercial area and check out the various kinds of shops. I don't really buy anything. Sometimes check prices. But its more to see what the people are into, what the different classes buy, what items appeal to who. 

The other night I went to a movie with some of my new coworkers, potential new friends (yea). We walked into the Oakland mall, and immediately I knew I'd been there before. This was the mall where I deliberated getting Pizza hut, and seeing a movie. In my memory it was on the other side of the street, but the layout was the same. It means nothing and yet provided such a feeling of familiarity, like much of this area. 

Next week we will head to Antigua, and I am sure it will strike me in the same way. That familiarity, that comfort mixed with the jazz fireworks of realizing your memory is a little off, and this is a new experience... a new moment. 

First Impressions

About 4.5 years ago I took a trip to Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. Of the places I saw in the three countries I enjoyed my time in Guatemala the most.  I remember feeling like the country had a ton to offer within a very small space. Ancient ruins, colonial cities, jungle, mountains, small towns, massive cities, a mix of modern conveniences and old school indigenous culture -this was the abundance I was hoping for and found here. 

Within that framework, Guatemala City was the big scary city that everyone told me not to go to, and yet after spending just a night or two I remember wishing I could have seen more.

Well I'm back, staying not too far from where I stayed last time. I was hoping some of the scenery, the chaos, the feeling of it being slightly dangerous would have passed or changed. Like maybe in the 5 years "Guate" would have matured and settled down a bit. But it seems as lively as ever. 

What has changed is me. In my years of growing up, in my having adapted and grown accustom to some of the things I'm seeing here because of other travel experiences, I've found that I look on this city much differently than before. 

Perhaps it is my purpose here, already in less than 2 days I've realized how different it is to try to set up a new life somewhere as opposed to just traveling.

Perhaps it is the other massive cities I've been to, this one barely even ranks now in comparison to some of the cities I saw in South America. 

Perhaps it is just the fact that I've changed enough that things feel easier now.

Regardless Guate seems like an OK place.  

I am living in the most commercial area, a few blocks away are several malls, chains restaurants, fancy hotels etc.

I work at a school that is basically it's own little village compound. A campus including what feels like alley ways to different areas of child development such as the early learning section and the high school area.

In between home and work, is a 30 minute bus ride (estimated by Google to be a 2hour walk). The ride twists through some neighborhoods but mostly takes long traffic congested routes through neighborhoods that look much tougher than the area I am in.  While riding home today I tried to compare it to South American cities but found the comparisons fell short. There were street side stands, auto garages, corner stores etc, but  somehow it looked different to me, more Mexican than Peruvian I guess. Even a lot of the language is Mexican Spanish vs South American Spanish, which requires me to drop words I've been using and replace them with the ones I learned in high school and college.

That being said the biggest hassle so far is the pollution and traffic and that feels very much like South America.  All the buses and trucks are spewing out dark smoke and numerous times I've had to cough it out. The air near the roads is thick with it, and because traffic is a huge reckless pain, pedestrians like myself often wind up on the curb waiting for our 15 second chance to run across the street.

As for work and the apartment.  Well there is a strange smell in my room I can't figure out, and apparently we do have cockroaches, but otherwise the apartment seems really nice.  The school too is a beautiful complex half indoor half outdoor with wonderful well maintained grounds. 

For professional reasons I won't be writing much about the school, but I will try to bring up some cultural things when I see them. 

I can say for now that it seems like I will be working very hard. And will probably be exhausted on many nights mostly from the mental stress of remembering to maintain a million procedural things that have nothing to do with teaching directly but create an environment in which high standards are upheld. So yeah.

I may also not have as many photos as before, around until I settle in... who knows, maybe I will buy a cheap camera and take it every where.

2nd Impressions *sorry no pictures yet

I find myself in a bittersweet mood for the second time in Bogota. The first time I was grieving leaving home, missing friends and family but excited to go adventuring in South America. This time I find myself excited to go home, but grieving the adventures and more specifically the people Ive met and grown close to while traveling. I go home in about a week and the adjustment to this reality hit me really strongly today when I said goodbye to my companion of the last few months.

The familiar streets and sights of Bogota remind me of when I first got here. I think back on that time now and realize how different my perspective of this place has become. When I first got to Colombia *and South America,  my head was filled with the places I imagined I would go. I had ideas of what things would look like, what troubles I would face and what awesome things I might behold... but those fantasies have been replaced with the reality of those places. Lists of towns all checked off, and now so much of it feels familar even comforting.  I can recall and describe neighborhoods and the special differences between countries. Returning to them would be easy, and without anxiety.  But when I first got here 6 months ago I was full of fear, anxious about the people, the smells, the foods, conversations... I had only my imagination and the descriptions I had heard from others and those descriptions weren't always comforting. 

I was walking through the old town and central Bogota, a place that Ive been reminded I should be on guard. But it feels comforting to see the old places I'd visited before. Now the streets are filled with holiday lights and the costumes of the street performers have changed to christmas themes, but its just a nice spin on a familiar thing. Likewise the restaurants I avoided because I couldn't read the menu- now are revealed. The places remind me of different experiences... seeing dunkin donuts reminds me of my binge in Trujillo, Peru where I went 3 days in a row and eventually got really sick. The indigenous faces remind me of the months I spent in the Andes region, so different from the last few in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. 

But its also a bit difficult to be excited now. I have 5 full days left in Colombia and a very strong sense of lonliness.  I'm headed home for the holidays, but don't really know what to do next.  

The Ocean

Throughout this trip I've had plenty of opportunities to see the ocean. In fact with the exception of the landlocked countries of Bolivia and Paraguay, I saw the ocean in each of the countries I visited. But it wasn't until Brazil (in the last two weeks of my trip) that I actually swam in it.

I know it sounds crazy, but in Colombia the beach I was at had super dangerous currents.

 In Ecuador, the water was dirty where it met the polluted river. 

In Peru and Chile it still felt far too cold, 

in puerto madryn it would have been freezing, plus scary to swim with whales. 

 In Uruguay it was stormy everyday, and finally here... In the warm shallow bay waters of a Brazilian town called Paraty I finally swam in the ocean.

Paraty felt like a bath

The waves were tiny and the water far warmer than it should have been, but the saltiness could not be denied.  It's been a long time since I swam in the ocean. I never went in Southern Europe, or India. I didn't swim in Mexico or Belize, I certainly didn't swim in Iceland or Ireland... So the last time I swam in the ocean must have been a family trip to California right around the time Ok Computer came out.... That had to have been the mid 90s.

The ocean is always impressive to see. The waves of all sorts, the colors, the vastness. But there is something incredible about being in the ocean. Something a little bit scary and also incredibly natural.  Considering I grew up around tranquil lakes, I will probably never get used to the ocean.  But I kind of like that, because it will always make me feel that awe.   

Street Art of São Paulo

São Paulo in ~Ten (written about 6 days ago)

1) The Biggest City Ever

Most cities have one skyline, often identifiable, a familiar set of shapes...Everywhere you go in São Paulo you see a city skyline in the distance.

Recently we went to the top of one of the downtown sky scrapers, the city of São Paulo doesn't end, in any direction. 

We were honestly kind of awed, when we realized there were mountains in the distance... Who knew?  But on careful examination I realized the city crept up them and into the valleys between...

2) Buffets!

In the last few countries we started seeing more and more of the pay by weight buffets. This is an especially good option for a picky-eater and a vegetarian who don't speak the language, but in São Paulo we have run into buffet heaven. At the food court in the local mall there are about 25 restaurants, I'd guess about half are buffets of different styles. Japanese, Middle Eastern, Brazilian, Chinese, Italian, etc. much like many of the Chinese buffets in the US a lot of them offer a little bit of everything.  Here is one we ate at in the Japanese neighborhood:

But here is a suggestion, don't get watermelon at a pay by weight buffet. 

3) Portuguese 

This is not really a language but a series of "sh" sounds added to words randomly. 

After being in this country for 5 days I can say honestly that I still don't know how to pronounce a single word properly. In Spanish each letter is pronounced the same everytime, I'm pretty sure Italian is the same, however Portuguese takes liberties on many letters... Like an "São" is pronounced saong with the last few letters sort of implied but not spoken directly. The United States is basically pronounced "doosh eshtadoosh ooneedoosh" anyway I can't help but laugh at most "portugesh."

4) Homeless

With a population of around 12 million in the city limits and 22 million-ish in the metro area, there are bound to be homeless people. But our guide through downtown today told us that there are estimated to be at least 15,000 homeless people in the city (especially the center). Walking to the center isn't recommended at night, the parks, alleys and churches are full of people who have fallen on hard times. Our guide noted hard times... By saying tourists are often surprised by how often the homeless will approach them speaking their (foreign) language. 

5) 500 Years of Immigration

The local Tupi-guarani people were set upon by Portuguese colonists, slavers, Jesuits, farmers trying to find land, adventurers in search of fast wealth. The mixture of peoples over the years have shaped Brazil into a multicultural society with strong ties to foreign lands such as Japan and Italy. While in São Paulo we went to two museums honoring the cultural contributions of two groups who came to Brazil under very different circumstances. The first was the Afro Brazilian museum which documented through maps, artififacts, costumes, instruments, art and photos the history of people of African ethnicity in Brazil. The museum showed both the positives like contributions to music and art, carnaval costumes etc, but also the negatives like the history of slavery, displaying chains, pictures and even the wooden frame of an old slave ship. Brazil didn't officially end slavery until 1888 which is ridiculously recent. The Brazilian economy for many years was based on slave labor in agriculture like sugar plantations and rubber collectors, both of which relied heavily on black and native slave labor. But around the time that slavery ended another industry (coffee) was taking off in the south and Japanese immigrants were recruited to meet the labor need. The Japanese immigration museum is located in a neighborhood of São Paulo that is is heavily influenced by Japanese culture and has a huge population of Japanese families still to this day. 

The museum highlights the living conditions of the people who emigrated from Japan, how they merged and contributed to Brazilian society. Artifacts and documents show work and life conditions in the jungles, clearing farms and starting business and community organizations. 

The contrast between the two museums, the one showing a people kidnapped and forced into slavery vs another of courageous people who willingly adventured to start a new life is extreme. The afromuseum shows an incredible amount of visual evidence, but very little written documentation of afrobrazilian life. 

For instance a picture shows how Africans were brought by the hundred chained in rows to the decks of the ships with very little room to even eat or defecate. They had no idea where they were going or what to expect.

The Japanese(a much more recent immigration) have pictures getting on and off the ships, and photo evidence to document the classrooms on the ships in which they learned Portuguese on the ride over. 

6) Diversity 

São Paulo with it's massive population and history of immigration is the most diverse place I have ever been. People in every shape size and color. The combination of the entire world melting together. It's beautiful honestly.  I know a lot is written about how Brazil has conquered the race issue, and a lot is written about how that is bullshit, but as an American who reads every night on Facebook about the continued racial tension in the US, it's really amazing to see a society that SEEMs to have integrated so many differ people so well. 

That being said...

7) Or Not?

In one of the wealthiest areas of the city, we saw all of the worlds famous stores (name any high end designer) and the entire mall was full of white people.  

If I spoke the language, I'd guess id hear a lot more about the differences, the biases and other inequalities present in Brazil, but as an outsider who doesn't speak the language... It mostly looks beautiful if you don't pay too much attention. 

8) wtf? 

Mcdonalds doesn't have chicken mcnuggets on their menu?

9) Street Art(see next post- sorry but it may take some time to load the photos).

10) The Christmas Spirit

For me Christmas usually means snow or at least cold weather. Its been about 80-90 degrees here everyday but the Brazilians are out in full swing to celebrate X MAS.  Here are a couple of the public displays...