Today was the first day that I truly enjoyed learning Spanish. I got a new teacher today who speaks better English than Corina so it was easier for me to understand what I was being taught. I actually feel like I accomplished something today. In the 4 hours on Monday I learned more than the 16 hours the previous week. So I’m counting this as day 1.
Day 2 of Spanish School:
Another good day at school plus
we had a student luncheon cooked by the staff.
Chicken breast stuffed with fresh spinach, cheese, and garlic; and
mashed potatoes and a salsa. They plied
us with Cuba Libres too (coke, lime, and white rum) and I had 2.
Later Tuesday afternoon I did not
feel right. I couldn’t put my finger on
what’s bothering me at 1st. I feel weak
and a bit disoriented. I was up on the rooftop reading my book and felt feint
so I went down to my room and took a nap.
I thought maybe it was my blood pressure. If I was home I would break out my cuff and
check it. But here I have no easy way to
do that and I don’t want to say anything to my host family yet because they are
already worried about the problem my knee is causing. I’m still in quite a bit of pain from my knee
too and often feel sick to my stomach because of it. I decided to skip dinner that night. Then it
hit! I couldn’t keep anything in me and
it reminded me of when I had dysentery in Hong Kong. This is not nearly as bad though. That time I
lost 25lbs in a week and I only weighed 155 at that time. After talking to some
people it may have been the ice cubes in the Cuba Libres at the school luncheon
earlier that day or possibly the semi-cooked chicken. I did try to cut around it. Wednesday and ½ of Thursday were spent in bed
and I only had toast, small amounts of rice, and tea to eat/drink. I finally felt good enough Thursday afternoon
to eat lunch at the house with the other 3 students but that didn’t stay with
me too long. I also get my BP taken on
Thursday morning and it was 188/120. Not
too good! Maybe Guatemala should be taken
off my “where to live next” list. I
haven’t been sick a day in Belize since I arrived there on February 4,
2010. I’ve been here almost 2 weeks and
am wearing a leg brace and been sick 3 days already.
Back to school on Friday but I
only made it 2 hours before I had to rush home to bed. It seems that every time I eat it goes right
through me. Can we say Montezuma’s
Revenge? I sure hope not. I ate only bread and tea on Saturday and
Sunday and even that wasn’t appreciated by my body. Monday a trip to the doctor and after a test
(I won’t tell you what kind) I was told that I had Cyclospria and given Bactrim
to take for 5 days. So it’s supposed to
kill the little buggers that I picked up as well as the ear infection I got
too. I also decided to drop out of
school for a week so I can kick this darn thing. Sometimes antibiotics affect me the way this
has so I don’t want to be away from a bathroom or have to use a shared one and
not have immediate access to it. Ok
enough grossing you out with my complaining.
Tuesday I woke up feeling pretty
darn good. Actually had an uninterrupted
night’s sleep! I even felt well enough
to venture out and have a meal of spaghetti with eggplant ragu and bread and it
had no effect on my. So I guess the
Bactrim is working. Wednesday I ate
light because I’d caught a cold and was back to feeling a bit off.
On Thursday I decided I was going
to head for home so I booked my Collectivo (van) to Guatemala City and 1st
class bus to Puerto Barrios for Sunday 8/11.
Included in the price was a pickup at the house to get me to the van. The van was scheduled for 4am and the bus at
6:30. The reason for the early times was
that the water taxi from Puerto Barrios to Punta Gorda BZ leaves in the
afternoon at 2pm and I needed to clear immigration before the boat. Anyway I was told to come back to the office
on Friday to pick up my tickets, which I did.
No tickets were delivered to the office.
So I was told to come in on Saturday. Hey didn’t have the tickets when I
got there at 1pm but they promised to deliver them to the house as soon as they
came. That was 4:30.
I spent Friday night on the town
with Pekka and we found a really good restaurant in the Hotel Posada right near
the Santa
Catalina Arch. I had an awesome
Fillet Mignon with mushroom gravy, veggie
rice, and steamed veggies and a Cesar Salad.
Pek had avocado with chicken salad, fettuccini
pasta with a creamy 3 cheese sauce and chicken and garlic bread. The
sauce was really great and thought that
it had a touch of sherry in it too. After a taste of mine he was sorry he didn’t
order it too. Then we headed to the Loco
Monkey Sports Bar for a couple of beers and to watch a bit of American Football
until we were too tired to see straight.
It was quite a nice night. Saturday was a shopping day for delicacies
that I wanted to bring back with me like handmade triple dark chocolate cups
with nuts and dried fruit and a semisweet cookie that Rene had in the house
that went great with a coffee. I had
ordered 30 of them to bring back and they had them ready but I bought the last
3 that they had just because. I bought that many figuring I’d share some with
Trish, who is a chocolate lover too. I
bought 2 dozen of the cookies. I packed
everything safely in my backpack so they wouldn’t arrive as crumbs or melted.
Sunday morning arrived and I was
out on the street 10 minutes before the agreed upon time for my ride to the
van. You guessed it…no ride and by the
time I got to Central Park the Collectivo had left. So it was a taxi to Guatemala City so I could
make the 6:30 bus. If I didn’t make it
then I would miss the water taxi and have to spend the night in Barrios. While the taxi was on US$35 it was more than
the collectivo and 1st class bus.
Thankfully I had enough. I keep a
stash of US dollars, MX pesos, and GT quetzales in hand at all time so I can
escape in any direction and have enough local currency to operate for a couple
of days. The bus was delayed for a
little over an hour on the trip to Barrios because of an over turned tractor
trailer in the opposite lane. Not sure
what happened but it looked like the cab rolled at least once. I got to Barrios with plenty of time to spare
though and cleared Immigration. The
water taxi trip to Punta Gorda was uneventful but very bumpy. We at least stayed dry. I called Trish as the chicken bus passed the
Placencia turn off so she knew about when to meet me at the Southern
Hwy/Hopkins Rd junction. She was a
welcome sight when I got off the bus! I was safely home by 8pm, after stopping
for dinner, and glad of it. She was glad
that I was home too but I wasn’t sure if it was that she missed me or for the
chocolates that I brought her…
So that’s the story of my
adventure to Antigua Guatemala to try and learn some Spanish.
Now that I’m back home we’re
getting warnings of a possible Tropical Depression here Thursday or Friday.
As always practice peace. Fatboy In Belize back in Belize…out!!!
