Last Minute

        So the last couple days have been super hectic and all over other the place. I went to see the most recently erupting volcano; it stopped its constant flow of lava in 2001. They built this really luxurious hotel right by the top, amazing view. But when they inaugurated it, the lava stopped flowing, so the hotel went out of business...Mother Nature is a bitch sometimes. Tonight, I went to a Mediterranean place with a bunch of friends as a goodbye dinner :( boo. But there were belly dancers and the main dancer's birthday was today, so I got to see, not only dancing, but how the Arabs celebrate their birthdays. Pretty interesting, I had a lot of fun. Tomorrow is going to be all packing and making sure I have everything and fitting everything. UGH...

Coffee and Pink Chickens

Conveyer Belt

Yum Yum

This machine seperates the different sizes of coffee.

Coffee Women

Leonelle showing me how to pick coffee

        Hellloooo! Well today is Tuesday and I am very close to my trip back to Seattle! But here are some things that have been going on. Monday I want coffee picking. You can see a couple pictures of me slaving away. I was out there for maybe two, a little over two hours; I picked 20 Libras and made 80 cents. Let that give you a perspective of what these people go through on a daily basis. So I reiterate, when you have a cup coffee next, APPRECIATE IT. It was an awesome experience none the less, even though it was hot and uncomfortable for a lot of it haha. It really makes sense now why everyone is so short here in the Land of Coffee (god works in mysterious ways). The bushes are short/weighed down and when you’re tall it totally works against you, bending over the whole time or getting smacked in the face by the high branches. UGH, it got so frustrating.

        Also there's a picture of a row of women sitting at a conveyer belt, and another picture of just the coffee on the conveyer belt above. This is the final assessment that the coffee is the right size and color. The women scan their section and every minute the belt moves to a different set of coffee beans. Imagine having that job 9 hours a day.

        Ok, so this was totally random part (but funny). Last weekend I went to the market fair for the last time in Juyua and on my way out there was a young girl who passed me selling chicks. Well, these weren't your everyday chicks. They were died blue, green, pink, and red, which just looked hilarious with twenty of them chirping and jumping around in this small basket. They were twenty cents each and out of complete impulse I just bought a pink one. Well the fun lasted about 30 minutes then the chirping really started to piss me off and I had no interest in it anymore, but it made for a good photo shoot. Unfortunately, I gave it to the farm people and it died over night from being too cold :( they shouldn't have left it outside. So RIP pink chicky.

Downtown

Downtown

Cathedral High Ceilings

Grand Theater

     I just thought I would post some pictures that showed the center of San Salvador. Its worse than New York and Asia combined. Crowded, no concern for the TWO way road, full of little markets and creepy people. It was pretty interesting though. Jeans; 2 for 15, pretty good deal haha. They have everything and anything you can think of, and some people are pretty creative with there choice of advertisment and shelter. The cathedral was gorgeous with high ceilings and the art was so detailed and colorful. It was magic seeing the inside of it, I wish the pictures could have captured it better.

     Anway, it's December 1st which means I will be home in ten days. Man, saying that out loud seems almost unreal. Everyone says this, but it really feels like yesterday I walked off that plane into this foreign country. Time is such a mysterious thing, goes by fast when you want to savor it, and then when you need it to fly by each second seems to feel like forever. Can anyone give me an explanation of how to avoid this paradox? UGH! But I will say, that every day I have spent here has been something new, even when I was doing nothing. Boredom taught me how to be alone, being alone forced me to get out with...different people, and with people I had to learn and speak their language so I could get by. So even when I felt like this trip was a pointless cause, it never lacked a moment in my benefit. I couldnt be more grateful that I came here and nothing could have helped me more and taught me more than taking the step I took to live here for three months.

Whooo too much deep thought for the fun little blog. Hope everyone is enjoying the chaos of Christmas shopping and I'll be home so soon! Love to all!

Honduras

     Last Wednesday through Friday, Annabella and I went with a group on a bus to Copan, Honduras! The town is well known for its large collection of Mayan sculptures, underground cities and sky high temples found by Italian archeologists. That was the main reason we decided to go on the mini trip. It was truly breath taking seeing carvings and the temples that were all hand crafted. It gave me goose bumps going underground and seeing the aqueducts (the first type of plumbing system known). You could barley could your jaw up going from one site to another. These people existed more than 1000 years before Christ and after Christ. The way they lived is beyond fascinating.
      As time allowed us, we got to see another exotic site, The Jaguar Spa, which was hot water springs an hour away from Copan. Some of the water was up to 180 degrees Fahrenheit. As we walked through it was steaming and in the middle of this thick rainforest. I felt like I had just been dropped into Jurassic Park or something and some crazy dinosaur was going to pop out of nowhere, that's literally what it looked like. That or Tarzan and Jane were expected to fly out of the tree's...Anyway, we sat in the natural springs water which are suppose to "heal all in the soul", we put natural mud masks on and had stone foot "massages" (but they actually really hurt so we skipped that after one try). So enjoy the pictures because there some awesome things to see!

Jaguar Spa Hot Springs:

Cross the bridge and your spirtually reborn...if only it were that easy right?

JURRASIC PARK!

The foot "massage"
One side is hot and the other is cold and you walk around the circle SEVEN times
to help your feet. I decided my feet were fine...

The Swinging Bridge; which everyone though was funny to rock and jump
while I thought I was going to die and was NOT lauging at all.

Myan Ruins:

This is extordinary...The mayans carved this stone into a compass
that is hard to recognize. The center is the sun and what is shaped like a flower is what
they believe is a compass. The picture doesn't show the fading color that was once brightly painted but the
colors symbolize a creepy representation of the future world. You must note that this was made 1,000 years before christ.
The north a white, symbolizing caucasian people, the east was yellow, symbolizing asain people,
the south black, hence south american and african ethnicities, and leaving the west red, for the europeans.

Alter for sacrifices

Underground tunnels
Everytime there was a ruler died and a new one was elected
the Mayan people would cover the whole city and start to buliding new temples on top of it
to show respect for there new King.

Annabella and I

Turtle

Each layer of stairs meant a new generation, the highest were the gods and elders.
Detailed carvings all up the stairs symbolized this.

The Biggest temple found in Copan



Estela, the kind of stone used for the scultures. This is a very popular design
and god that was worshipped and everywhere all over the Mayan City



Group



The whole ball court

Sun God



Tomb Decor





The Ball Game Court

Where the tomb is

Some better pics and explenations;

http://gocentralamerica.about.com/od/hondurasguide/ig/Copan-Photo-Gallery/