Pre-departure Post

As I prepare to embark on my second Guatemalan adventure, memories of last summer have been rushing back to my mind like an unstoppable waterfall. Tiny details that I haven’t thought about even once in the past ten months are suddenly reemerging, readying my currently Boston-oriented mind for the Central American spirit that I’ve come to crave so much.

The logistics for this trip have already been infinitely easier than they were last summer, when I backpacked with my friend Eric from the Caribbean Sea in Belize to the Pacific Ocean in Guatemala. And while this trip is actually less of a “trip” and more of a semi-permanent “move”, many of the preliminary details have been similar- things like passports, visas, vaccinations, what to bring, etc. Having my own personal experience from last summer to go off of has been an incredible help and convenience that I’ve never been able to utilize before.

My personality type constantly craves the new, the un-experienced, the unexpected. So when I took a gap year after graduating from high school in 2012, my travel choices were quite all over the place, without much logic. At the time, I was lucky to have had a fairly substantial savings account in addition to the monetary gifts I received upon my graduation (this is customary in the US) to fund my spontaneous, and perhaps a bit reckless, travels. The difference is that now I have a year of university education under my belt, and a thoroughly depleted wallet.

Around February, when I started to think about how I wanted to spend my summer, there were a number of roadblocks in the way that were previously nonexistent. This whole business of being a university student, and also completely addicted to the world and its inhabitants, is a difficult one to reconcile. After much thought and contemplation I came to the conclusion that my options were thrice:     

1. Spend the summer in my hometown, a medium-sized suburb of Seattle, WA.

2. Spend the summer in Amman, Jordan- the closest thing to “home” currently, when I’m not studying in Boston.

     -or-

3. Get creative (which is always the best option).

The first two options were completely viable, and each had their own advantages, but I wasn’t able to shake the feeling that I would be wasting four months of potential travel time that wouldn’t exist again for another year. The challenge was as follows: finding a culturally stimulating, affordable, and enjoyable place to live where I still had the ability to continue my education.

When I say education I’m not talking about coursework, although that has its value as well. I’m referring to my constant pursuit of knowledge and skill in as many varied fields as I can manage. My interests tend to change rather quickly, and for that reason I often find myself needing to prioritize. One skill that I’ve developed rather well over the course of the past year is my ability to speak Spanish. I studied it for two years in high school but absolutely despised my teachers and never put in much effort. I also grew up hearing my maternal grandparents speak Spanish to each other, and was fairly familiar with how Spanish commands worked thanks to my mom’s preference for them over English (“Venga! Sientate! Vamanos!”) but my interest was never sparked.

That is, until last summer.

Hearing the language spoken in its native land and combined with the insurmountable beauty of Guatemala’s landscape, I never regretting anything more than not taking those classes seriously. It was shocking to me how very little English was spoken, even in the larger cities. And due to my innate love of culture and people I wanted nothing more than to be able to communicate with them and hear all about their lives. I felt bad for being yet another American tourist who just expected that everyone would speak my own language and resolved that the next time I visited, things would be different. And so, from a tiny internet café in the streets of colorful, colonial Antigua I logged onto my university’s registration page and changed my schedule around a bit to afford for some Spanish classes.

Two completed semesters after that day, I’m amazed at how quickly my Spanish has progressed with just a little motivation and a goal in the back of my mind.

I decided on going to a Spanish speaking country this summer fairly early on with the intention of becoming fluent, or close, by the end of August. Instinctually, I wanted to go somewhere new. Peru and Argentina were pretty high up on the list initially, as I’ve dreamed of making it down to South America for quite some time now. The main problem with both of them was the airfare, so I started looking closer. I’m not sure exactly when the thought popped into my mind but I remember being surprised by it- what if I went back to Guatemala? The concept of revisiting a country is more foreign to me than almost anything else. The only other time it’s happened is with Jordan. Part of me resisted the idea at first- how was I going to see everything in the world if I kept going back to the same place? But the more I thought about it the more appealing it became. It was true that I'd felt more connected to Guatemala than any country I'd visited previously, and there were hordes of things that I hadn't had enough time, but wanted, to do.

After accepting Guatemala as the most realistic and desirable option, I had to decide where in the country I wanted to go, and how I wanted to live. Thankfully, that part was beyond easy. Eric and I had stayed in a small town called San Pedro, which is located on Lake Atitlan up in the mountains north of Guatemala City. The lake is cradled by three volcanoes and recognized as the deepest lake in Central America with a maximum depth of 340 meters (1,120 ft). It’s absolutely breathtaking. I specifically remember saying to Eric that I was going to live there one day. The funny part is that we hadn’t originally planned on going there at all, but met a Frenchman named Adrian in a hostel in Monterrico, a small town on the Pacific coast, who made us swear we wouldn’t miss it. Adrian also recommended that we stay in a hostel called Mr. Mullets that was less than a year old and not even in most of the guidebooks yet. Following his advice, we found Mr. Mullets upon our arrival in San Pedro and were informed that they were fully booked but that they had openings for the following night. For a new hostel to be fully booked, without even guidebook recommendations to send travellers its way is pretty impressive. And made us even more excited to see what all the fuss was about.

Eric and I stayed in a small hotel a few doors down that a girl recommended to us, and returned the next day to what became my favorite hostel of the entire trip. The staff was exceedingly friendly, fun, and helpful and the owners had addressed all the issues that I had come to expect with most hostels. The wifi was fast and reliable, the showers were hot, and the mattresses were some of the most comfortable we’d slept on. Definitely a great experience. To this day I’m still friends with people I met in San Pedro and at Mr. Mullets.

Long story short, I am going to be working at that same hostel this summer and couldn’t be more excited. I’ll be taking Spanish lessons at the same time, writing, researching, and a getting a chance to explore the area in and around Lake Atitlan more thoroughly. I’m excited for the challenges and learning opportunities that this summer will inevitably present, since it’s so different from any way I’ve travelled before. San Pedro will become home- not just one more town I’ve backpacked through.

So there you go. To all that have asked, and for all those who didn’t already know, that is the full story. I hope you’ll follow along as I document my adventures and personal growth throughout the following months.

But until I take off in less than three weeks (!!!), it’s time to focus on the current “adventure” at hand: 

Finals.



Thanks for reading!
~Kaelin

(Here are a few of my favorite memories from San Pedro last summer!)