Antigua!

Oh Antigua - a place that will forever be romanticized in my mind as the start of this epic trip. I wrote about my very first day here in what is probably my favorite post so far:

Ramblin' Mannino: I had arrived.

"After weeks of reading up on and scrolling through google images of Antigua, I was finally seeing it with my own eyes. Right in the middle of the park is the iconic "Fuente de los Sirenas" built in 1738. As the gentle splash of the fountian came within earshot, the sirens drew me in. As I drew closer, everything around me seemed to slow down, and then there I was. It was no longer a picture of a place far away, an idea, or an image in my imagination. Nope. I was standing right in front of it. And that was the moment it truly hit me - I was really doing this. I had arrived."

Haha, I was excited alright. And rightfully so! With its well preserved colonial architecture, cobblestone streets, and unique blend of culture - not to mention all the hip cafes and vibrant nightlife, Antigua is great place to post up for a couple weeks. But what brought me to Antigua was the absolutely thriving spanish school scene. If I was going to be traveling through Latin America for 6 months, I figured I had better invest some time up front in learning the language, and from what I read online prior to my trip Antigua was the place to do so. Apparently within the couple mile radius of town, there are an upwards of 400 spanish schools! So naturally, I chose the top ranked school on Tripadvisor: http://www.antiguaplaza.com/

When I think back to my time in Antigua, the one word that comes to mind is BUSY. As I alluded to in my video blog http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsnfaAN3le8, I had not completely unwound from the rigors of working 16 hour days with the firm at this point, and constantly felt like I needed to be doing something productive. I needed to stay busy because in those quiet moments a bit of anxiety crept in as if there were something out there that Needed to get done. Some phantom deadline that was approaching. Completely irrational but hey, these are the things that public accounting downloaded into my subconscious, and were probably necessary in order for me to have success there, as strange as that sounds.

So busy I stayed! And it wasnt necessarily a bad thing that I was still in get-shit-done mode, as it allowed me to pack in as much activity into my days as possible - hitting the spanish classes hard, taking multiple salsa lessons per day, going out almost every night, all with machine-like stamina.

So with that, I invite you to click on the video below and come along with me as I take you through one of my typical days in Antigua. And it just so happens to be Thursday, which is fieldtrip day with the school where you'll get to check out one of my favorite spots in town - el mercado. Listo amigo?? Vamos!

 Whew...I get tired just watching that! And what the video doesn't really capture are the distances between everything - from home to school, school to the market, market to dance lesson, etc., etc. I was easily walking 5 miles per day, if not more.

What I love most about creating and watching these videos is reliving all the fun moments with the wonderful people and close friends I made there. Now that you'll be be able to put a face with the name, let me introduce you to a few of them:

Violeta and Rafael - Violeta and Rafael were the mother and father of the host family that I stayed with. Incredibly warm and hospitable and made us all feel like part of their family. And having been hosting students in their home for almost 2 decades, in a sense we really were. We ate dinners together, praying before every meal, and sharing our day, like a nice little family should. The food was always excellent, prepared by Violeta and her son Fernando. Violeta stayed home running the household while Rafael was a decorated local officer, often seen patrolling the central park area. However while off duty, Rafael was a total jokester who kept us all laughing with an endless supply of jokes and funny stories. Rafael was one of those people that while talking with him, you were on the verge of laughter at all times, like a balloon waiting to pop. I spent as much time as I could bantering with Rafael, and as you can imagine, dinners were just not the same without him!

Brett, Olivia, and Cathy - The four of us were like four peas in a pod. We all arrived around the same time and instantly connected. We shared life stories, palled around town as well as to and from class, took weekend trips, and helped each other out in our early stages of learning spanish. Brett just finished up as a White House intern and if he ever runs for president, vote for him. He's a cool dude.

Mauro and Lesvia - Hands down Mauro, my first spanish teacher of the day, is one of my favorite people I've met so far on my trip. I remember being all nervous and serious in my first class until a few jokes came flying out of left field. From that point on, going to class just felt like hanging out with a buddy, the beauty of it was that I was practicing my spanish while doing so. While we did some formal textbook learning each day, the majority of class was spent laughing and bullshitting about random topics. It was perfect because it really helped out my spanish, in a more informal but very practical way. It was a shame I could only squeeze in a few minutes of banter with Mauro in this video as I literally have almost an hours worth of hilarious content. I am thinking about creating a whole other video, just with snippets of our often very crude conversations, with English subtitles. If you found those clips entertaining, let me know and I'll def go forward with it, as I'm not sure if it's only me that finds them hilarious. Lesvia lead a more structured class with a lot more textbook oriented learning but we as well went off on long tangents which I really enjoyed. Lesvia was one of the sweetest people you could meet and was a real pleasure to spend time with. If you are interested in taking classes with either one, let me know as they offer online learning through Skype. Would be great for someone who is planning a trip to Central America and wants to get a quick foundation prior to doing so. And don't be fooled by the informal nature of the clips of Mauro and I - he's been teaching for over 20 years and is one of the most respected teachers in Antigua.

Oscar and Nancy - Oscar and Nancy were my two salsa instructors. Having the combination of the two was great as Oscar was more like a buddy while Nancy was a bit of a Drill Sargent, busting my balls for an hour every day as you can see from the vid haha. Both were fantastic instructors and I learned so much in my two weeks with them.

I hope you enjoyed meeting this fabulous cast of characters!

Normally I'd wrap it up here but not today as I've got some VERY SPECIAL BONUS FOOTAGE for you! The day I did this documentary just so happened to coincide with El Dia de Corpus Christi, which is a holiday celebrated in the Catholic religion and especially throughout Latin America. The celebration is highlighted by a huge procession through the streets, which of course we joined in on. I originally included this footage with the above video but decided to create a separate one as I wanted the original video to really reflect a "typical day". What a treat this was to experience and be a part of - check it out!

 Pretty cool huh!?

I really hope you enjoyed the videos! It was a really special time for me and I think my enthusiasm and excitement for being out and about in the world really shines through in them. Let me know what you thought as well as any comments / criticisms / suggestions as this whole video creation thing is still pretty new to me. I'm really enjoying it though and am already working on the next one which I hope to share early next week. Also, I promise my spanish and salsa are better now that what you saw here in only my second week of travel! Es verdad! :)

Chow amigos!

Ross

 

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Santa Maria Volcano Hike - Guatemala

I love hiking. So when the proposition was made for me to join some friends in hiking up a 12K+ foot volcano I was all about it - until I found out that I would have to wake up at 4am on a Saturday morning in order to catch the pre-arranged shuttle bus from our spanish school at 5. Brutal. Made me think twice. But I knew that it would be an amazing experience with an exceptional group of people so I had to suck it up. I told myself I would not go out Friday night and get to bed early, neither of which happened. So when my alarm went off at 4am, slightly hung over after only a few hours of sleep, it took every ounce of willpower I had to peel myself out of my warm bed and into a cold shower.

We met, bleary-eyed at the school at 5am and were on our way. I thought I was the worst off, having been out past midnight, until I found out our guide Kevin was out past 2am salsa dancing, and showed no signs of fatigue, at least not yet. This was the inspiration I needed. After a brief shuttle ride we arrived at the base of the volcano where a friendly stray dog, who became known as Pinta, greeted us and offered to lead us to the top in exchange for food scraps along the way. Fair enough. GoPro camera in hand, we set out on one of the most badass hikes I've ever done:

I hope you enjoyed the video! Having zero experience with anything of the sort, it was quite a daunting task, especially getting started but the more I messed around with iMovie, the more intuitive it became. Now that I've gotten the hang of it I look forward to putting more of these together!

So yeah, back to the hike - it was an unrelenting 3 hours straight up with no switchbacks or flat stretches, just steady incline. The hike up was nothing too special until we got about 2/3 of the way up, around the tree line where we started to get some cool views of the city below. But the big payoff was reserved for those who reached the top. It was like stepping into another world. As the top came into view, we began to hear the faint sounds of random unorganized chanting which turned out to be a Mayan ceremony! I was only able to get a small bit of discrete footage as apparently it is disrespectful and you must obtain consent from the group in order to do so, but from what you can see it was quite intense! There were two ceremonies going on, the second of which was extremely somber. The leader seemed to be fighting back tears as he painfully wailed out prayers while a group of women wept below. It was really captivating. Also at the top we were lucky enough to witness one of the smaller volcanos erupting below through the clouds. while the video doesn't quite do it justice, it was really cool to see live and to hear the faint rumble of the earth as it was happening. We hung out on the top for about an hour until the clouds started rolling in and literally enveloped us, as Rita points out in the video "We are in - a cloud - right now". Haha. Our queue to start heading back down.

What fascinated me most about the whole experience were the Mayan ceremonies. I couldn't stop thinking about them.The next week in class I showed my teacher Norma, who is of Mayan decent, the video and asked about what sort of rituals were going on. She noted that when the Spaniards came and imposed Christianity on the Mayans, the people were forbidden to practice their native religion. The only way in which they were safe to do so was by climbing to the top of a mountain where they could do so in secret. Although no longer forbidden, this is a practice that has carried on into today, and it was really quite surreal to see.

Well thats all for now. I am almost through editing my video from Antigua and plan to post that up in a few days. Please let me know what you thought of the vid - comments / criticisms / suggestions, all are welcome!

Chow

Ross

 

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3 Months In - Just Keeps Getting Better!

Hola! 

And greetings from San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua!

Wow...three months in. My first instinct is to say I can't believe it's already been three months! But when I really think back on all the places I've been, people I've met, and things I've been able to do, I am blown away by the fact that it's ONLY been three months! It's weird, while the days seem to fly by faster here since I'm having so much fun, overall the weeks and months seem to last a whole lot longer. It's as if your perceived duration of a specific time period is mostly determined by how many "wow" moments you fill it with. The more you can pack into a given time period, the longer it will seem, especially when you look back upon it. And vice-versa. To illustrate this, I compare my days here, filled with fun and excitement, to my time in accounting - sitting in the cube, those days seemed to just crawl by. But before I knew it those days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months and months melted into years. It was scary how fast a month or year could blow by in spite of the individual days being painfully slow. Even scarier would be talking to a friend after a few months and when the inevitable question of "so anything interesting going on with you lately?" came up, often neither party had much of an answer. "Not really just workin a lot blah blah" before the conversation turned to current events, sports, or other people. Where did that time go? Kinda sad when I think about it now.

Cheers to making up for lost time!

So anyway I am very excited to present to you guys my very first video blog! It's exciting for me because this isn't some random idea I got. Before I set out on this trip this was one of the specific things I envisioned myself doing. I saw it not only as a cool way to communicate what I'm up to, but a way for me to work on my speaking skills, presence, delivery of content, etc. I just underestimated how tough it would be to actually stand in front of the camera with the little red button flashing and make something happen. I rationalized putting it off to the future when I'd have all these amazing epiphanies and life lessons to talk about, when really I was just procrastinating because of fear. Fear of looking stupid, of freezing up, of not knowing what to say, and then putting it out there for the world to see and judge. Fear wants to keep us right where were at, right in our little comfort zone. It doesn't want us to expand into awesomeness. I've had to push through this many many times and I'm always glad I did, so without further adieu:

And there you have it! It's funny to watch myself in this video knowing exactly what was going on in my head at the time. Like in the beginning when I'm all smiley with this look of "uhh am I really doing this right now" plastered on my face lol. But after a minute or two I fell into a nice rhythm, stopped thinking about what I was doing and just started doing what I was doing. Accepting and rolling with it. While I was hoping to go for 3 - 5 minutes, I was interrupted towards the end by the camera shutting off and was later shocked to find out that it did so after 10 minutes! While I hope to become more concise and grounded in what I am doing in the future, I am very pleased with how the first one came out and am excited to continue and improve. 

I hope that you can sense some renewed excitement in regard to my blog. For the last several weeks I had been resisting it as an obligation, and just wanted to get away from all that and do my own thing. Maybe that will happen again on this trip but for now I am excited to get this thing rolling again. Finding that balance. Later this week I'll put out the long awaited Santa Maria Volcano Hike video from Guatemala which is totally kickass and I am finishing up editing a video I put together from my time in Antigua which I should have ready early next week. In addition I've got tons of raw footage from my surf trip, hike through Corcovado national park, as well as some other cool clips that I'll start piecing together. 

Well that's it for now. Gonna chill out and go surfing for the rest of the day. These videos are a pain to upload as I need to trek an hour into town to get on a decent wifi connection which even then the above video took 3 hours to load while I sat posted up in a little cafe watching spanish soap operas. Ended up missing my return shuttle back and only had enough money with me for a cheap dorm bed. Went to bed hungry and annoyed with the load music playing but alas I accomplished what I set out to do - upload the video and update the blog. 

Victory!

Ross

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