A trip to Guate...the capital

Guate! Guate! Guate! the men yell from the street corner indicating the destinations of the camionetas. These guys are paid to stand there all day shouting that our and they have the skills of an rapid-talking auctioneer. Yesterday we followed the Guate! calls and ventured into the quagmire of Guatemala City with our trusted guide, Eduardo, our Spnish teacher. It was quite the interesting advuenture as we were paranoid the whole time of getting robbed...but it was a succuss. We got taxis to the Peace Corps office...surrounded by a high fence with barbed wire and razor blades with security gaurds wearing bullet proof vests. I don{t know whether these safety measures make me feel safer or more vulnerable. We located the hospital and the laboratories if the need should arise.

We then were treated to a schmorgeseboard of fast food options for lunch in the fancy new mall, Tikal Futura. It was a tough decision between pizza hut and Quiznos for me, but I opted for the pizza with a real salad to follow. And then finished it off with a churro and some strawberry ice cream. Pure heaven. The mall was filled with lots of stores from the US like Levis and the Gap. We were told that since a lot of people cant afford these things, theyre actually used for laundering drug money. Awesome.

We had to round out the trip with a stop at Hiper Paiz, the half Wal-Mart owned super mega uber store. Against my morals yes, to shop at a 50% Wal-Mart, but I tried to console myself that its half Guatemalan too. Anyway, I splurged on some mini-snickers for a emergency purposes and a bright pink Barbie beach towel (Jesse, it might be the same one you have..heh heh). I also scoped out brands of products for the future when I need to start replenishing other supplies and I was quite pleased with the selections.

After arriving back in Alontenango (about an hour away) we tried to go to the Muni for our appointment with the Planning Office coordinator, but he seemed to have left the building for a family emergency. So we still haven{t met with him....some day hopefully. Today is Elyse{s birthday so we baked a surprise cake for her with supplies from Antigua - Betty Crockers Devils Food cakes complete with Rainbow chip frosting! Were going over to her house to celebrate tonight. Yippee for birthdays and reasons to celebrate!

On Sunday Ill be going to visit another Municipal Development Peace Corps volunteer at her site in Chimaltenango. I{m very excited and it should be a fun and very informative adventure. Ill spend four days with her learning about what the real PC experience is like.