mid-trip: Guatemala

Guatemala (Nov 11 - Nov 25, 2007)

So I’ve been in Guatemala for 2 weeks now and here are a few things I’ve noticed:
1 – Guatemalans have a lot of pride in their country
2 – The Latin culture is MUCH more affectionate and personal than any other that I’ve encountered thus far
3 – Drivers are crazy everywhere (this is just a confirmation of what I already knew)
4 – My sinuses/allergies have been brutal since coming here

Work is work…there’s not a whole lot to say there outside of the fact that I’m coordinating my first audit. This is my 5th audit now and I’ve been working in this position for a little over 6 months, so I’m considered one of the more “experienced ones” these days. I wouldn’t necessarily consider my job really difficult, but it does take a lot of organization, admin and people skills…especially when you’re communicating with upper management all over the world and have to deal with the different languages, cultures/personalities and interpretations. All members of each audit team are responsible for their own work and no one really “reports” to anyone else, but at the end of the day – this audit, the results and how we deal with the local management, all fall under my responsibility. It’s nice, but also a little stressful at times.
That being said – our local office here has been really great and helpful with our stay in Guatemala so far.

The country is one of the least safe ones in Central America, and especially since it’s been 3 females (with only 1 speaking broken Spanish), our local office has been even more concerned with our safety. We have our own private driver that takes us to and from work every day and there’s only 1 real taxi company that’s reliable and you have to call them in advance. We’re not really allowed to venture off too much on our own and definitely not outisde “Zona 10”…where our hotel is along with several wonderful restaurants and some bars. It hasn’t been too bad on my end cause I’ve been able to focus more on keeping healthy and working out…well – at least until I got sick last week and had to focus on getting rest. I do feel bad for Holly more than anyone else cause she’s definitely an explorer (much more so than me) and hates being restricted like we have been.

So back to my observations:
Our first weekend since coming to Guatemala, we decided to go to Costa Rica for the weekend. It’s a beautiful country with so much to offer, we unfortunately couldn’t do everything we wanted as we were restricted on time and means of transportation. When we mentioned to our local office that we were going to Costa Rica, they were like “Why do you need to go to Costa Rica?? We have everything you need here!” They were even more disappointed when we returned and they found out we went to a coffee plantation in Costa Rica! It’s always nice to see pride in one’s country, but I really feel that there has to be respect for other countries as well.

Costa Rica pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30682&l=96f5c&id=500066404

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=31155&l=d4a80&id=500066404

The culture…of course it’s well-known that Latins are more affectionate than most, but I guess I never really experienced it until now. Just recently being in Japan, there’s an incredibly drastic difference between cultures, work and social. Asian culture is my typically stringent and formal with very little touching…bowing instead of shaking hands, etc, while the Latin culture might take offense if you don’t do the whole cheek-kissing thing. They’re much more personal here and really want to get to know you personally even if you’re doing business with them. For example, 2 men from our local management wanted to take Christina, Holly and myself to Antigua for dinner one night last week. Antigua is approx. 1 hour away from Guatemala City, but we couldn’t really say no, so we left work early that day and they drove us to Antigua. It’s a really beautiful city, especially at night. We drove around for a bit and stopped here and there to take pictures and then we went to a local hot spot called Fridas for a drink before dinner. It’s not unusual to have dinners with local affiliates or even drinks here and there, so we were fine with this. What surprised me is when our conversation turned to religion. In the States, that’s a BIG no-no…you rarely talk about religion at work, unless you already know your colleagues on a personal basis. It caught me offguard when one of the guys straight up asked us all what our respective religions. Not that I mind talking about it, but I just usually don’t.
Also, apparently it’s interesting to everyone in the office that there are 3 single girls in the office.

I have yet to encounter a taxi driver who doesn’t drive crazy. Our personal driver, Eric, is no different. He’s gotten much better, but at first this guy was NUTS. Traffic in the city is horrible in the evenings (but where is it NOT bad), so the first day he drove us home, I was clinging to the seat belt for my life. We mentioned this to our Exec. Assistant the next day and ever since then, he’s driven much better. He’s a character though – used to live in Cali and Vegas, but got deported several years ago when Bush came into office. His English is really good and he talks ridiculously fast! The funniest part is to watch him when girls walk by – he honks and goes “hey baby”…and he LOVES his music. Some days it’s salsa and some days it’s American Pop, but he cranks his music and dances to it in the car…always entertaining.

And last but not least…as much as I love the outdoors, all the plants and the higher altitude here have caused me to basically be somewhat sickly since I’ve been out here L. I’m definitely looking forward to getting home and seeing my family for Christmas. I spent my Thanksgiving this year at work, but my coworkers and I made the best of it and even had a little arts and crafts time to make thanksgiving hats (I was the Indian, Christina was the turkey and Holly was the Pilgrim). Our local office took us out to a great lunch and we left a little early to enjoy a nice Thanksgiving dinner of fajitas.

This weekend we spent visiting Antigua during the day and just wandering about for the morning and then drove to the Pacaya Volcano for a good workout/afternoon hike.

See the links below for my pictures:

Antigua
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=31636&l=f5b7d&id=500066404


Pacaya Volcano
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=31653&l=1a363&id=500066404

RIP

So I stayed in tonight to catch up on some phone calls and get some rest since I've been pretty sickly lately...little did I know what one 5 min phone call would have in store for me.

RIP Kapali -
I can't even describe the numbness in my body. It feels like these "phone calls" have been happening all too frequently in my life lately and there's nothing I can do about it. It's hard enough to hear that someone you're close to (or was once very close to) could pass away...especially so young and so sudden. I was supposed to see you when I came home over Christmas to celebrate my bday like last year.

I know everyone has their own beliefs when things like this happen, but I hold on tightly to one thing my mom told me many years ago:
these people are taken away so they don't suffer later in life. God is sparing them from a greater pain down the line....and not to be cliche, but I know things happen for a reason.

Religion is another topic I don't dwell too much into with many people, but it's times like this when I really cling on to my Faith....it's the only way to justify something like this happening to someone so young and undeserving.
Unfortunately this isn't the first time that someone I was once close to passed away...another friend, Brian, passed away about 3 1/2 years ago - also unexpected and undeserving.

I know I'm still in great shock over this and I wish I was there just to be with Kapali's other friends and family for support. I can't even imagine how hard this is and will be for his family, but my thoughts and prayers are with them.

I met Kapali when I was a young and naive 15 year old and he taught me a lot. A lot about myself and things that I want/don't want...he probably affected my attitude on relationships more than I would have liked, but it is what it is and I've never regretted anything. It's helped shape who I am today. Over the years, we had our ups and downs, but we always ended up ok and as friends. Kapali had his quirks for sure, but he was truly a good guy who meant well. He was a great friend to more people than he'll ever realize...Kapali - you will be missed.

Schedule for 2008

Guess I should probably post this! For those who haven't already seen my schedule, here it is:

Jan 7 - Feb 4: Malaysia (Truly Asia...)

Feb 25 - March 24: Ireland (I'll be here during St. Patty's day!)

April 14 - May 12: Denmark (Hanging out in the Nordics)

June 2 - June 30: Spain (Who DOESN'T want to go to Spain??)

July 28 - Aug. 25: Argentina (no explanation needed here! we're going to Patagonia!)

Sept 15 - Oct. 20: Germany (Oktoberfest anyone???)

Nov 10 - Dec 15: UK (Jolly 'ol England)


I'm seriously encouraging anyone who wants to visit - PLEASE COME!!! Sometimes I get a little homesick and I definitely miss my friends when I travel, so I'd love the company.

For those of you who want to come visit me in Chicago - the dates are here so book now!! My schedule fills up fast ;-).

Politics

I'm not really one to discuss my point-of-view on politics very much, but a friend of mine posted this link on Facebook and I thought it was pretty good. For those of you who haven't been keeping up with the candidates, their views, etc. then you may want to check out this site:

http://glassbooth.org/

I'll be the first to admit I'm not always up-to-date, so hopefully this'll help! By the way...make sure you vote so we don't have a repeat of our past election :-)

Trying to catch up

OK, I admit…I’ve gotten pretty lazy lately and haven’t been updating this thing like I should. I think the last entry I wrote was about my Oktoberfest experience. A good bit has happened since then. To continue with my weekends – after Munich we decided to stay in Switzerland for the weekend and upon recommendations from a local, we spent our weekend traveling to both Interlaken and Montreux via train.

Between 2 lakes in Interlaken and then off to Montreux on Lake Geneva!

10/5/07 – 10/7/07

So PC and I were originally supposed to go to Ljubljana, Slovenia for the weekend, but when we mentioned this to our local PwCer, he laughed at us. We thought that staying in Switzerland for our last weekend before coming back to the States would be enough time here, but apparently we were quite wrong. This guy, Robin (PwC), has traveled a ton – and all over (US, Asia, Europe)…and basically said that there wasn’t anything in Slovenia that would beat Switzerland. And that there was sooo much to see in Switzerland! He showed us some really beautiful pictures he took of various areas around the country and I quickly emailed my fellow co-workers who had already been to Slovenia and recommended that we go. I inquired as to what they did there and it was stuff that we had planned to do in Interlaken, Switzerland anyways. So this caused a little dilemma and we ended up canceling our hotel and flight to Slovenia (not without a bit of a fee, of course) and booked train tickets to Interlaken and to Montreux. We intended to go to Interlaken Friday night so first thing Saturday morning we could go Paragliding and then Canyoning afterwards. After our activities, we were going to take a train to Montreux to spend Saturday evening and Sunday and then head back to Basel Sunday evening. It was just a little tour of a couple cities in Switzerland.
I think I’ve mentioned how much I love the trains here, but really…they’re amazing. Not so much the trains themselves, but the views from the trains. Going in and out of mountains, riding next to lakes, seeing the hillsides covered by vineyards…just beautiful! Throughout the whole weekend we were really lucky with our “train-ride” weather and had some really outstanding views of the mountains, lakes and country-side. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about the rest of our weekend weather….Let’s start with Friday.

Friday & Saturday: 10/5 – 10/6/07:
We jumped on the train right after work and had a really enjoyable 2 hour train ride down to Interlaken and then arrived at our hotel with just enough daylight left to see the gorgeous view of the mountains from our hotel-room. We got up Saturday excited about our extreme outdoor activities planned for the day, but we looked outside with more disappointment then you can imagine…an unplanned foggy/cloudy/rainy day L. We kept optimistic and got ready as if our plans were to go on as scheduled and then called the Outdoor Interlaken people to find out if the weather would allow us to continue our Paragliding adventure that morning at 10:30…and the Pilot gave us the disappointing news came that it wasn’t going to happen.
Luckily Canyoning doesn’t really revolve around the cloudiness of the day, so despite it being slightly chilly, we were still set for our afternoon’s activity. PC and I took this extra time in the morning to walk around town and explore. Interlaken is definitely a tourist’s town…too cute, but all the stores were souvenir stores and unlike much of the rest of Switzerland – EVERYONE spoke English without any hesitation. Another hint that we were in a tourist town was that I saw more of “my people” (Indians) than Swiss people! It was pretty odd for me, but understandable as it was such a great little town.
So canyoning…there was a total of 9 people in our group. We realized earlier in the day that there weren’t too many “young” people walking around town and found out that all the “young” people were staying in the Basiler Hostel right next to the Outdoor Interlaken building. It was a little awkward because I was so excited to hear their stories about where they’d been and most of them didn’t know eachother but formed some sort of bond by staying in hostels…I felt left out because PC and I couldn’t join in. When they asked us where we were staying and we told them that we were staying in a nearby hotel and that we were in Switzerland for work…well – the conversation pretty much came to a halt. I felt like we were being reverse discriminated against!! Usually when I walk into a fancy schmancy store and I’m not dressed up, people tend to snub me…but this time I was snubbed because I had a job that brought me overseas and was able to stay in a hotel as opposed to a hostel. Tough to get a break!
Oh well – their loss I guess ;-). We still had an amazing time canyoning though! Basically we got all geared up in ridiculous wet-suit outfits and drove/hiked to the top of a mountain where we then proceeded to work our way back down via the river. We only did a 2 ½ hour canyoning trip, so this wasn’t the most challenging route we could have taken but it was still a lot of fun. You cross over rocks and jump into pools of water, we repelled down some steep cliffs and walked under waterfalls. The wetsuits helped keep us from freezing our tails off, but my hands and face were still pretty numb! I wish we had some video or could have taken pictures, but obviously you can’t really bring a camera to something like that. The 2 guides that helped us with our journey down the mountain were pretty good – 1 Irish guy and 1 New Zealander….The Irish guy teased me a lot towards the end because every time we were about to do a jump or something that involved us taking turns, I would always be the first one to volunteer! I guess I get a little over-eager when it comes to adventurous stuff like that…sorry Mom!
After our fun-filled afternoon of canyoning, PC and I decided to enjoy teatime at the Grand Victoria Hotel. This is the nicest hotel in Interlaken and apparently has a great teatime. So we took quick showers and despite the fact that we were all scrubbed out, we went to this gorgeous hotel. Obviously we were pretty out-of-place, but the staff still treated us well since we paid entirely too much for tea time…it’s times like this when I love my job! The snacks were AMAZING and the tea was tea – always enjoyable. I probably had about 3 cups (small ones) and PC had 4 throughout the 2 hours that we stayed there; definitely a great way to relax after our canyoning craziness. After our afternoon tea, we grabbed our luggage from our hotel next-door and booked it to the train station. Next stop – Montreux!

We arrived at the Montreux train station around 8pm and found our way to the Best Western hotel. Actually, a very nice hotel and right on the lake! Our local Swiss PwC friend, Robin, had suggested it since he had been there and it was a good thing we listened to him. The location was pretty central to places to eat and there was even a club right across the street. PC and I intended to have dinner at this restaurant (also recommended by Robin) called the Beef Bar and then hit up the club nearby. Unfortunately exhaustion hit us (more me than PC) from our days activities and we ended up at the hotel restaurant and then called it an early night.


Sunday, 10/7/07
We woke up the next morning at our leisure and were disappointed to see that it was another cloudy day. We avoided rain, but what would have been a wonderful lake/mountain view from our hotel room ended up being a mediocre view of the lake and nothing more. We decided that we would take a nice stroll to the Chateaux nearby. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chateau_of_Chillon
Our stroll lasted a good several hours as we stopped at the Beef Bar for lunch since we didn’t go for dinner the night before. The main dish was ok (PC had the perch and I had a burger), but the chocolate molten cake was to die for! I’d have to say that chocolate molten cake is probably right up there with cheesecake and gulabjaman as my favorite dessert ever!
We were pretty stuffed after lunch, so it was a good thing we had a few hours to walk it off and the walk along the lake turned out to be really nice as the weather slowly cleared up. I took a ton of pictures
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25566&l=bce54&id=500066404
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25567&l=19f90&id=500066404

and just enjoyed the walking and people watching. It was a fairly short day since we didn’t want to get back to Basel too late, but a good weekend of exploring all the same.

I think I’ve somewhat procrastinated on this entry because I feel like it wasn’t enough of an “exciting read”, but it is what it is… I find myself struggling between wanting to see stuff and make the most of these trips and wanting to relax and see what I can without getting burnt out. After all…there are so many hours in a day and we usually only get a day and a half on the weekend to see things (plus, I’m a big fan of sleep and I get it whenever I can!).