Travel Archives - Page 5 of 6 - A.J. Cattapan

Mi Piace, Mi Gusta – Day 4: Nulla Pazza (Nothing crazy)

June 18, 2015/2 Comments/in Travel/by AJ Cattapan

Last year, I was blessed to see Pope Francis give the General Audience while on I was on pilgrimage (btw, check out The Catholic Traveler for great Catholic pilgrimages). After Katie and I got our tickets for the General Audience, we started making plans for where and when to meet. Last year, my pilgrimage leader had us lining up at 7:00 a.m., and without giving away any of his secret methods, let’s just say we ended up with perfect seats that may have involved me nearly tripping over a woman and her children, as well as nearly accidentally body-slamming a Swiss Guard. Okay, I exaggerate. A little.

After describing to Katie how we got such great seats, we came to the decision that we wouldn’t do anything crazy to get seats. We were okay with meeting at 8:00 a.m. instead of 7:00 a.m., and if we didn’t get seats in the front row of the second section, that was okay, too. We’d be happy with any sort of perimeter seat where we’d get a nice drive-by from Pope Francis.

So at 8:00 a.m, I met Katie and her roommate at a piazza near St. Peter’s, and then we walked the rest of the way to the square together. There seemed to be a long line ahead of us. We shrugged it off. Oh well.

Then Katie’s roommate said, “I think we’re actually in the wrong line. I see people going on up ahead. I’ll go check it out.” To make a long story short, we think we were actually standing in line for the group of people who get seats up on the stage with Pope Francis. Oops.

So we left that line and soon found ourselves at the security checkpoint. A quick scan of our bags (was anyone even looking?), and we were in the square. They hadn’t even opened the second section of seats yet, and the first section only had people sitting around the perimeter. The center was all empty. Hmm. I guess the square doesn’t fill up as much when there isn’t a huge canonization happening the next Sunday.

So we waited near the front of the second section after the guards told us they wouldn’t open it until the first section filled. Slowly, more people filled in the first section, but more people also milled around the second section like we did. The three of us wondered where exactly they would open up the barricades for us to enter.

Suddenly, we heard shouts from behind us. The guards had opened the second section from the back, directly opposite us, and a crowd of German high school students were running directly for the seats that were just on the other side of the barricade from us–a mere two feet from us. There was no way we could run all the way around the barricade and get any sort of decent seats. They would all be taken by then.

“Throw your bags over the barricade and onto those seats!” I yelled to my companions.

Then the British girl and I lifted the white sheet that hangs in front of the wooden barricade.

“I’ll try to climb through,” said the British girl. The barricade has wooden beams crossed like an X. She tried to crawl through the lowest opening in the X because it was hard to lift the white sheet very high. She got halfway through and said, “I can’t make it!”

Peering over the barricade, I spotted the Germans. They were halfway to our seats by now.

Ducking down, I lifted the white sheet higher. “I’m going for one of these side pockets,” I announced. I thrust my head through the “hole” at the right side of the X. I figured if I got half my body through, the other half could follow.

Did I mention I was wearing a denim pencil skirt while doing this?

“Are you kidding me?” cried Katie. “You’re actually going to fit through there!?!”

With my head and right arm through, I grabbed hold of the plastic gray chair I’d thrown my purse on.

“Yep!” I cried to Katie, and with nothing but sheer determination, I wiggled my body through the opening. The British girl followed my example.

“I can’t believe you two just did that! I mean, I’m glad you did, but I’m going to walk around now.”

The British girl and I sat across the three chairs we’d thrown our purses on and waited for Katie.

What was that about not doing anything crazy to get those front row, second section seats?

There had been threats of rain on all the weather maps, but the morning ended up so sunny, we put on sunscreen used my umbrella for shade. The pope talked about how death affects families (you can find his talk online, I’m sure), and we got a really nice, slow drive-by from Pope Francis. Check out my Facebook page for the video.

The afternoon was spent mostly working on homework. Then in the evening, I took the school’s guided tour of Isola Tiberina, which is a tiny island located in the middle of the Tiber River. For those of you who read the Speak, Pray, Cook blog posts last year, you may remember this as the island where I had my cooking class.

After the tour, I went out to dinner with ten other students, a fun collection of people from the U.S., Turkey, Russia, and Bulgaria!

Mi Piace, Mi Gusta – Day 3: Non posso parlare

June 16, 2015/7 Comments/in Travel/by AJ Cattapan

Today I lost the ability to speak Italian. Well, only briefly.

I did okay in class today. We had a student teacher visiting our room, and our teacher asked us (in Italian, of course), “Who is she?” A couple people made some guesses like “Un’amica?” (A friend?). However, since I’m a teacher myself, I know what it looks like when a student teacher visits a room, so I said, “Un’insegnante futuro?” (A future teacher?). However, I really should have used “futura” because it was a female student teacher. Oops. My Italian grammar is pretty bad when I’m speaking off the top of my head.

Despite that mistake, I felt like I did okay in class. We were working on verbs in different tenses, which is very hard for me in Italian (easy in English), but I think I finally figured out the difference between passato prossimo (which is like present perfect tense in English) and imperfetto (which is like simple past tense). At least, I hope I got that right.

My inability to speak Italian came after class today. I made arrangements to meet Katie in St. Peter’s Square so we could pick up tickets for tomorrow’s General Audience (when the Pope gives his weekly address to the public on whatever he’d like to talk about). The tickets are free and can be picked up via the Swiss Guards near St. Peter’s. I had done a little research on where to get them, but one website had given me bad intel, so we had to ask for help. Some nice police officers pointed us in the right direction.

Finally, Katie and I found a couple Swiss Guards on the south side of St. Peter’s. One was helping a family; the other was available. As we approached the available one, Katie said, “Scusa,” and I picked up with the Italian line I had been practicing in my head for the last five minutes: “Dove possiamo trovare i biglietti per l’udienza generale?” (Where can we find tickets for the General Audience?)

The problem was that the Swiss Guard was what my mother would call a “very nice looking young man.” So as I started to say my prepared sentence, I began to fumble over the words. “Dove . . .uh . . . possiamo trovare . . . uh . . . i biglietti . . per . . . ”

And the “molto carino” (very nice looking) Swiss Guard started to smile at my faltering Italian, which only made it worse, of course.

“Per . . .l’ude . . . l’u. . . l’uda.” I gave up with a sigh. “The General Audience?”

The Swiss Guard smiled some more and pulled some papers out of his pocket. At which point, Katie exclaimed in English, “Wait! You have them in your pocket!?!”

“Quanti?” he asked. How many?

“Quattro,” Katie and I both responded in Italian. Her two roommates may come with us tomorrow.

He handed over four blue tickets, and we thanked him in Italian. Well, I may have been rendered a bit speechless by a Swiss Guard, but at least he didn’t start speaking English with us.

After shopping at the “Catholic Costco” and a quick bite to eat at a pizza-by-the-slice (pizza al taglio) place, Katie and I parted ways. She headed off to class, and I returned to my apartment. I had told my teacher that I would be missing class, and she told me what pages to look at in the workbook, so I wanted to start on them.

After a couple hours of working on Italian, I headed out to Santa Maria dell’Anime, the German language church that I had visited last year. It was one of my epiphany moments last year, so you can read a bit more about it in last year’s blog post. I got a little more prayer time in this year.

Then I met Katie and one of her roommates at school after their afternoon classes. We headed over to Santa Maria sopra Minvera, the church where St. Catherine of Siena is buried. (Or at least, where her body is entombed. We’ll see her head when we’re in Siena. Not creepy at all, right?)

Then we headed back to school where you can meet up with a teacher and other students for an optional dinner outing. They walk us to a local restaurant where they have worked out a special price for us. It’s not a bad deal. Sixteen Euros for wine, water, an appetizer, a main course, and a dessert. We had five different types of bruschetta, a choice of main courses (I had spaghetti alla carbonara), and then a choice of four different desserts (I had profiteroles, which are pastries with gelato inside, kind of like an eclair, and often with whipped cream and chocolate sauce on top).

Yum!

Off to bed kind of early tonight for the big General Audience at St. Peter’s tomorrow!

Mi Piace, Mi Gusta – Day 2: Il primo giorno di scuola

June 15, 2015/2 Comments/in Travel/by AJ Cattapan

Today was the first day of school. I met Katie and her two British roommates at a corner on the way to school. It was fun to walk the old path to school and say, “Buongiorno, San Pietro!” while crossing Via della Conciliazione. Again, I was amazed that I’ve returned successfully. Even as I sit typing this at the desk in my room, I find it hard to believe I’m really here again. In some ways, it seems like just yesterday that I sat here typing out my blog posts. At other times, it feels like I’m in a dream as I sit here. Perhaps it’s the jetlag!

At school, there was a long line of students waiting to check in. The two Brits and I took the test to see where we would be placed. It seemed to be the same written exam as last year. Then there was a brief oral exam, which was basically just to hear us talk and see how well we understood spoken Italian. Listening in a foreign language has always been very difficult for me. Half the time, I catch just enough words to guess at what the person is saying, and then I just hope I didn’t miss an important word that would completely change the meaning.

After our exams, we had over an hour to kill before our results, so I went with Katie and the Brits because they had to pay for their apartment. The guy who runs their housing accomodations recommended a place where we could get good fruit smoothies. They were indeed good, but I got my red smoothie onto my white shirt! Katie and I thoroughly impressed our new British friends with our Tide-to-go sticks and our Shout wipes, which almost completely removed the red spots from my white shirt. Apparently, they have no such things in England. This is why I love coming here! You meet people from all over and learn something new!

When we returned to get our class assignments, I was put in a morning class. Basically, I’m right where I had left off last summer, which is fine with me. I’m just glad I didn’t regress! Katie and her roommates all have afternoon classes, so after my class, I did a little grocery shopping (sandwich for lunch, yogurt and fruit for breakfast tomorrow) and headed back to the apartment to read and rest for a bit.

A piazza near school

Then at 3:30 I headed out to meet up with a Roman woman I met while in Guatemala on my spring break trip! We had exchanged info at the end of our trip. We spoke Italian together, or at least I tried as best I could. Her Italian (like all the other natives) is pretty fast for me. We stopped for a drink where I ordered Chinotto (an Italian cola), and another Roman friend of hers came to chat with us. After an hour or so, I had to leave to meet up with Katie.

Back at the school, we attended an orientation meeting and then went out to dinner at Polese, a restaurant I’d eaten at during last year’s pilgrimage as well as my solo trip last summer. Seriously, the best bruschetta ever.

After dinner we had gelato (gelati, veramente) and sat in the piazza watching the children play. The weather during the day was cloudy and humid with a bit of rain, but the evening was absolutely beautiful with clear skies and a light breeze. A truly gorgeous night in Rome.

One of Katie’s roommates said, “I’m already getting sad about the idea of leaving here.” And she gets to stay a whole month!

I replied, “You see why I came back here.”

“I’m surprised you ever left,” she said.

Mom, if you’re reading this, don’t worry. I’m still not moving to Rome, but I sure do like it here!

Mi Piace, Mi Gusta – Day 1: Sona a Casa

June 14, 2015/4 Comments/in Travel, Uncategorized/by AJ Cattapan

Welcome to “Mi Piace, Mi Gusta”! (Mi Piace is Italian for “I like” and Mi Gusta is the same in Spanish.)

Well, this trip started out with a whimper. On the way to the airport, I got a call from my friend Katie, who was already there. Our flights (ORD to PHL, PHL to FCO/Rome) were both cancelled. They had been fine an hour earlier when I’d checked online at home.

Some polite begging at the desk got us transferred to another airline with a direct flight to Rome. The only problem is that we were seven hours early for that flight. Oh well, we’ll eat a meal (or two) at the airport. Our new flight was scheduled to leave at 6:20, but we soon found out it was delayed and wouldn’t leave until after 10:00.

The funniest thing that happened at the airport occurred as we were going through security. Katie had wanted to bring some peanut butter for her lunches. They don’t have peanut butter in Italy (a fact that truly worries peanut butter lovers like Katie, me, and Cardinal Dolan). When Katie ran out of room in her luggage, she stuck it in her carry-on. Yeah, guess what counts as a “liquid”? Peanut butter! Out went the brand-new, still-sealed jar at the security point! Katie invited the security guard to eat it himself, but he said he couldn’t.

After nearly 12 hours at the airport, we left on our direct flight. Apparently, there had been a fire at the international terminal in Rome back in May, but they are still recovering. When we landed at four this afternoon, the employees at Terminal 3 at Fiumicino were all wearing gas masks.

Using my landlady’s advice from last year, we took a coach bus into the city. From there, we walked several blocks to Katie’s apartment, which she is sharing with two Brits. Only one of whom was at the apartment already. We chatted with her for a bit (she seems lovely), and then headed over to my apartment, which is 7-8 blocks away.

My landlady was very happy to see me again. Like real Italians, we kissed each other on the cheek. She even insisted on the same with Katie. Then she made us coffee, and we chatted as best we could. Katie speaks Spanish, and apparently so does my landlady, so we had an interesting tri-lingual conversation. Mostly Italian with some Spanish from Katie, and a little English between me and Katie.

My landlady had some funny stories to tell us about a previous tenant who didn’t seem to ever use to shower, and kept mistakenly using the bidet as a toilet even though she was left messages in Italian, English, and her native language not to do so. Ha!

Katie and I enjoyed a nice pasta dinner, ate some gelato at one of my favorite gelato places (Old Bridge), and then sat for a bit in front of St. Peter’s. Tomorrow we head off to class. I will have to take a test to see what class they put me in. Katie will go in the beginner’s class.

Sono a casa. I am home.

The thought that keeps running through my mind is that I can’t believe I am really here. Last year, on my last night in Rome, I spent a long time in front of St. Peter’s praying that I would one day come back. Who knew that it would be so soon! Grazie a Dio! Thanks be to God I am back!

A domani!

Help me name my next travel blogging adventure!

May 28, 2015/6 Comments/in Spin Cycle, Travel, Writing/by AJ Cattapan

As I write this, there are only eight days of school left. Normally, I teach summer school, but for the first time in my teaching career, I’m going to take the summer off!

And you know what that means . . . it’s time to travel! Last year, I fit in a two-week trip to study Italian in Rome after the summer school session ended. I blogged every day I was there and dubbed my trip the Speak, Pray, Cook tour. This year, because I have more time off, I’ve expanded the trip, but what should I call it? “Speak, Pray, Cook Part 2” seems sort of dull.

So here’s what I’ve got planned so you can help me come up with a name:

two weeks in Rome studying at the same Italian immersion school I studied at last year
a Saturday cooking class (a different cooking school than the one I went to last year)
finally doing the Scavi tour at St. Peter’s where you get to do down into the excavation site where they found St. Peter’s actual tomb! (Only a few people are allowed to do this each day, and my friend and I have tickets!!!)
hopefully a trip out to some catacombs (I’ve been to Rome three times but never seen any catacombs.)
a one-night trip to Siena (As a writer, I’ve got to visit the hometown of St. Catherine of Siena–now that woman could write! Her writing persuaded a pope and all sorts of influential leaders.)
one week in Florence studying at one of the satellite locations for the Italian immersion school
and then because I’m traveling with a friend who speaks Spanish . . . four days in Spagna . . . uh, Spain! (Sorry, getting a head start on my Italian there.)

So what should I call this grand adventure????

I’m coming Rome! Save some sunshine, gelato, and cappuccino for me!

I’d really like my Italian to progress to a point where I can listen to some Italian and not feel like I’m really straining just to catch a word or two here and there. I also want to have some fun before buckling in for the doctorate program in the fall.

Got some summer plans you want to share? Hook up with the Spin Cycle this week and share your blog post! Click on the button below to link up.

Leave your suggestions for a trip name in the comments below and maybe I’ll pick you up a little something in Italy or Spain. 🙂

And no, sorry, I can’t bring you back a man.

Gotta Guatemala Days 9 and 10

March 30, 2015/1 Comment/in Lent, Travel/by AJ Cattapan

Day 9 started with an hour and a half boat tour around Lake Atitlan. We left from the dock at our hotel. As I’ve said before, Lake Atilan is reminiscent of Lake Como in Italy. The beautiful blue lake is surrounded by green mountains and three volcanoes. Some people (clearly relatively wealthy) have built some beautiful homes along the lakefront. Due to the steep mountain slopes, some of these homes are only accessible via boat. No traversable road could be built through, around, and/or down the mountain to reach them.

An expensive home along the lake

Some of the more typical Guatemalan homes on Lake Atitlan

One interesting story our tour guide told us during this boat ride is that the author of the French book The Little Prince once stayed at Lake Atitlan. If you’ve read The Little Prince, you might remember that the boy kept showing people a drawing that everyone claimed was a drawing of a hat. However, someone finally told him it wasn’t a hat. It was a snake that swallowed an elephant. That shape was inspired by a hill that the author saw while visiting Lake Atitlan.

Do you see the snake that swallowed the elephant?

During our boat ride, I tried to find the cables for the zip lines, but we were unable to spot them.

I ziplined somewhere along this mountainside.

After the boat ride, we got in the bus for the three-hour ride back to Guatemala City, stopping once for a lunch break. When we arrived at our hotel, we found several workers making one of those colored sawdust “carpets” for Holy Week.

A gorgeous Holy Week “carpet” in our hotel

We had time at our hotel to rest for a while before the farewell dinner. I have to say that we had a really nice tour group. You never really know what you’re going to get when you sign up for a group tour. However, I think one of the benefits of going to a place like Guatemala is that you don’t get newbie travelers. Everyone in this group was a seasoned world traveler. We were never waiting on the bus for someone who was late. In fact, we were almost always at least five minutes early. Nobody complained. Nobody snubbed their noses at witnessing a different way of living. Everyone was appreciative of the lovely scenery and the good people we got to meet.

Day 10 was just a long travel day home with nothing too exciting to report, so I’ll just share with you a few final thoughts on my travels and what I learned on this trip.

1. Caravan is an excellent tour company. We were very well taken care of. Basically, we paid about $120 a day, and that covered hotel, transportation, museum entrances, tips for bellboys, a very knowledgeable tour guide, musical performances, and three yummy meals a day. And the hotels were top-rate (they are listed at running from $150-250 a night!).

2. Travel reminds me that experience really is the best teacher.

3. God created something large and beautiful and awe-inspiring when He made the world. I’m so blessed to have seen the few parts I’ve been to. I am even more blessed to have met the people from those places.

4. We may come from different lands with different climates, cultures, and languages, but we’re really not as different as you might think. Most of us believe we were created by a higher power. Most of us want to please that higher power. And we all just want to feed our families and enjoy good times with the ones we love.

And finally . . .

5. If you enjoy a springlike climate and want an exotic-type vacation that will make you feel a little like Indiana Jones, well then . . . you “Gotta Gautemala”!

Gotta Guatemala Days 5-6

March 25, 2015/3 Comments/in Travel/by AJ Cattapan

Day 5:

This was mostly a traveling day. We had to head all the way from Tikal in the north back south past Guatemala City to Antigua. This city used to be the old capital until it was ruined by earthquakes one too many times back in 1773, and they decided to just move the capital somewhere else. That somewhere else, of course, being Guatemala City.

Since we were basically driving on the same path we took two days ago, we didn’t have any sight seeing stops this time. We just drove all day with one lunch break and three quick bathroom breaks.

Mango tree near our lunch stop

Even without any side trips, we didn’t get to Antigua until 5:23.

Our hotel is very, very nice. It’s a spa actually. We were greeted at the door with some kind of fruity drink in a champagne glass. My traveling friend said the drink reminded her of a Bellini without the alcohol.

Towel swan that greeted us at our hotel

The two of us did a quick walk around the neighboring blocks for a half hour. We saw a lot of kids in school uniforms, so we wondered if a local Catholic high school had just gotten out. Maybe they have a long school day here.

Back at the hotel, we had a lovely dinner with lots of yummy dessert choices.

Thank goodness the desserts are small so we can try them all!

Day 6:

Oh my gosh! What a lovely day in Antigua today. The weather was perfect, in the 70s and mostly sunny. We started at 9:00 a.m. with a three-hour walking tour of the city led by our very own Veronica, who continues to be filled with valuable knowledge and entertaining stories. For example, did you know that they built corner windows in their houses here in Antigua during the Spanish colonial times because the higher class women were not supposed to move around outside their homes by themselves. They spent most of their days indoors doing embroidery or staring out the windows–hence, the corner windows to give them more to look at!

Also, the carpenters that they had were used to building ships instead of houses, so when they had to make a roof they basically built a ship’s hull and then turned it upside down.

Notice that the roof looks like an upside-down ship’s hull.

On our walk, we visited the main cathedral near the town square. It is much smaller than it used to be because most of it was ruined during earthquakes.

The cathedral

Inside the cathedral

Holy Week is a big deal down here, and preparations have already begun, including this beautiful “carpet” made of colored sand.*

Can you believe this is colored sand?

Our group stopped near the Central Park, but Veronica instructed my friend and I to make a little detour.

Central Park

The night before she had told us about a chocolate museum (you know the cacao bean is big here) where we could take a class. Since I had told her we were interested, she instructed us to go right away and make our reservation for the class and then meet up with everyone else at the next stop on the walking tour. The chocolate museum (named Choco Museo) was only a couple blocks away. Unfortunately, it didn’t open until 10:00, and it was 9:57. So we waited. And waited. Finally, at 10:10 it opend. We quickly made our reservation for a 1:30 class and headed toward the “Las Capuchinas,” the convent for the Capuchin nuns. It was damaged in an earthquake in 1773, but has become basically a museum now.

Standing in the circular set of dormitories in the convent

Courtyard in the Capuchin Convent

After our walking tour, we had a nice (but somewhat salty) lunch with an onion and leek soup and then our choice of entrees. I had the tilapia, but there were also steak, chicken, and vegetarian options.

Lunch ended just in time for our chocolate class, which was awesome. Our instructor took us through the whole process from the cacao pod to the beans fermenting to drying the beans to roasting the beans to the separation of the shell from the bean to the crushing and pulverizing of the bean. We actually got to roast the beans and shell them. The shells are used to make cacao tea, which we got to drink. Then we grounded some of the beans to make two other drinks, the traditional Mayan drink (with chili, paprika, and honey) and then the Spanish version (with cardomon, anise, sugar, milk, and black pepper). It tasted a lot like a chocolate chai tea.

Time to grind the cacao beans!

Then we finally got to the business of making chocolate candy! We had our choice of dark or milk chocolate. I chose milk, and my friend chose dark. We picked out molds, filled them with the chocolate, and then added things like sprinkles, coconut, macadamia nuts, orange peel, mango, ginger, almonds, and Oreo bits.

Filling my mold with chocolate!

The chocolate needed one and a half hours to set, so we headed out to a jewelry store to do some shopping for jade.

Then we headed to the church of mercy (Iglesias de Nuestra Señora de la Mercidad). This is a very pretty church with intricate white scrollwork outside which makes it look a little like a wedding cake. We took a few minutes for prayer inside.

La Mercidad

We also visited the museum at Santo Domingo before heading back to our hotel for another lovely dinner in our open-air restaurant.

Church inside Santo Domingo

One other cool thing we got to see while walking the streets today was a procession of Catholic school kids getting ready for Holy Week.

*I was corrected later. They actually make those “carpets” with colored sawdust instead of sand. Either way, I’m totally impressed.

Gotta Guatemala Day 4

March 23, 2015/1 Comment/in Travel/by AJ Cattapan

Today we visited the Mayan ruins of Tikal, a place that will make you feel like Indiana Jones. But before we talk about Tikal, let’s talk about our hotel. This is, by far, the most exotic hotel I’ve ever stayed at. Everything is open air: the reception desk, the restaurant, the pool, the bar. I feel a little like I’m in the Bali scenes from Eat, Pray, Love.

Bar area of hotel

Hotel room with view of lake

Lake at hotel

Our hotel is located in the middle of a nature preserve. There are howler monkeys, wild birds, and perhaps even a crocodile and a jaguar up in the jungle around us. The bad part is that we totally have to load up on mosquito repellent.

Wild birds in our nature preserve

After breakfast this morning in our open-air restaurant, we headed out on the bus. An hour and a half later, we arrived at the national park that holds the Tikal ruins, where we were given several rules:

1. Don’t leave the group. The last person who got last in the jungle was gone for 11 days.

2. Don’t feed the animals!

3. Don’t fall.

Our whole group walked to the area of Temples I and II. Well, actually most of us walked it. A few people got on the back of a pickup truck. You can no longer walk up Temple I, but there are wooden stairs at the back of Temple II and you can climb those 103 steps.

Me at the top of Temple II, with Temple I in the background

Only a couple of us climbed the giant stone steps up the necropolis. I really felt like Indiana Jones then. Those stone steps were a lot harder to crawl up than the wooden steps to the Temple.

Standing on top of the necropolis – Just call me Indiana Jane

A view of the necropolis from Temple II

Then our group split in two. The less hardy took a pickup truck back to the entrance and then the bus back to the hotel for lunch. The rest of us adventurers hiked deeper into the jungle. We saw the Plaza of the Seven Temples, which was just excavated from 2004-2011, so they haven’t been letting people in for that long. Then we saw the Lost World and then we finally got to Temple IV. You climb Temple IV by a series of 196 wooden steps up the back. Amazingly, George Lucas shot a brief scene from the original Star Wars movie from the top of this temple–and I don’t think there were stairs then, which means they had to bring their camera equipment up by climbing the crumbling and very steep ancient stairs in the front.

Recognize this rebel base from Star Wars?

After our arduous trek, we were rewarded with a yummy lunch with fresh gaucemole in an open-air restaurant within the park.

Back at the hotel, we had a quick dip in the pool before dinner. After dinner, we were treated to some traditional Guatemalan dances performed by some local teens and preteens. I even got asked to dance at the end by one of the boy dancers. You’ll have to wait for a photo of that because my friend took photos with her digital camera, and we don’t have a way to transfer those photos to my iPad.

Some of the older dancers

A couple of the younger dancers. Isn’t this girl cute?

Not sure when my next blog post will be, depends on where we can get wifi!

Gotta Guatemala Days 1-3

March 22, 2015/1 Comment/in Travel/by AJ Cattapan

When the first cold finger of winter began pushing its way into Chicago last December, I said to my friend, “I’m sick of winter already. Do you want to go some place for spring break. I don’t care where as long as it’s warm.”

She said, “How about Guatemala?”

I said, “Sounds warm to me!”

And that is how it came to be that on the first day of spring, my friend and I headed to the “Land of Eternal Spring,” Guatemala.

Day 1:

Our first day was really just a travel day. We flew from Chicago to Dallas, and then from Dallas to Guatemala City. We had some time to kill between our two flights and my friend had day-long passes to the first-class lounge for American Airlines, so we ended up being able to enjoy a relaxing atmosphere (with free drinks!) in both ORD and DFW.

A little mid-morning snack at ORD

Unfortunately, our flight out of DFW to Guatemala was delayed due to rain, so we didn’t end up getting into Guatemala until about 8:00 their time, which would be 9:00 p.m. Chicago time. We’re all in the Central Time zone, but apparently they don’t do daylight savings here.

Getting to the hotel was very easy as our tour group had a driver waiting for us at the airport. It’s not a very big airport, so compared to O’Hare, it was nothing. Still, the dark night sky punctuated by city lights, the honking of passing cars, and the line-up of people waiting for loved ones was enough to wake me temporarily from the sleep that was threatening to overcome me.

Before long, we and our luggage were on a van with about eight other tour members. The ride to the hotel was no more than ten minutes. It’s a very nice hotel, I’m sure one of the best in the city. By American standards, we might say a few things like the hairdryer might not be the latest and greatest, yet my friend and I have both traveled enough to understand that this is a very, very nice hotel.

Our tour guide met us at the entrance and gave us a quick tour of the hotel, along with instructions for where to get our late dinner at the hotel and where to meet in the morning.

Here is what I had for dinner.

Day 2:

We had breakfast at 7:30 and then met our tour director for an orientation. A few words about our tour guide, whom we’ll call Veronica for the purposes of this blog. She is fabulous! She’s originally from Algeria and speaks at least four languages. She studied in France, was in the military for the Gulf War (but got injured during training and never fought), and then came to Guatemala about 25 years ago on a cultural mission. She loved the people so much that she never left! She is extremely animated and a great storyteller. Veronica has studied history and anthropology so she is very knowledgeable.

After our orientation meeting, she took us to Popul Vuh, one of the key museums in Guatemala City. If I had walked through Popul Vuh on my own, I don’t think I would have gotten half of what I got out of it with Veronica’s guidance. She told stories and gave explanations worthy of an anthropology class. I learned a lot about the Maya culture and how it developed over time. I’m sure she’ll be sharing much more of this in the coming days.

Right next door to Popol Vuh is a museum called Museo Ixchel, which displays the handmade textiles native to this land.

Museo Ixchel on the left, Popol Vuh on the right

After the two museums, it was time to head back to the hotel for lunch. I ate a number of things, including rice, a little roasted chicken, some steak, grilled vegetables, and roasted potato. For dessert, I tried a cookie, a profiterole (filled with a yummy cream center), a baked apple, and then a piece of traditional Guatemalan candy. This last one would be the red ball you see in the photo. When I picked it up, I thought it would be some kind of jellied, fruit-based candy, but while it may have been fruit-based, it really just tasted like giant granules of sugar. I left most of it on the plate.

After lunch, we had a bus tour of Guatemala City. Unfortunately, there was a marathon scheduled for the afternoon, so the traffic was terrible and we didn’t get to see the Catedral Metropolitana or the Palacio Nacional de la Cultuura. If you’ve been with me since last year’s Speak, Pray, Cook tour of Rome, you know I like visiting churches so I was disappointed not to see the cathedral.

What is the city of Guatemala like? By American standards, it’s a dirty, mid-size kind of town with more than its fair share of slummy areas. However, it has several redeeming qualities. It has some of the coolest graffiti I’ve ever seen.

The streets are far more tree-lined than we usually see in urban areas in the States.

And they have some of the most amazing piñata makers you’ll ever see. If there is a Disney character out there, they’ve made it into a piñata.

Also of interest was the fact that St. John Paul II visited Guatemala three times, so they built a statue of him.

JP II statue in Guatemala City

After our bus tour of the city, we headed back to the hotel where we had some time to visit the pool and jacuzzi before dinner.

Picture of the pool from the dining area after we had dinner

Day 3:

An early start this morning since we had to travel most of the distance across Guatemala to reach the northern region of Peten, where the ruins of Tikal are. The ride involved a number of hairpin turns up and down the mountains so our tour guide Veronica drugged us all with dramamine. Well okay, it was offered, and she talked so often about how horrible it is to get sick on the bus that I took her up on her offer. While I found the mountains quite pretty, I also found all the trash along the highway quite surprising. Let’s just say Guatemala is in desperate need of an Adopt-a-Highway program.

Anyone want to adopt this highway?

On the way to Tikal, we stopped in Quirigua, our first visit to a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Quirigua is the site of Mayan ruins, including many stelae and statues depicting animal-human hybrids.

Zoomorphic statue (part jaguar, part crocodile, part turtle)

Me in front of one of the tallest stelae in the world. It was built to honor an ancient Mayan king.

Me in front of one of the tallest stelae in the world. It was built to honor an ancient Maya king.

Then we headed to Rio Dulce for lunch. Now I was really feeling like I was on a tropical vacation. Check out this thatch-roofed restaurant along the river!

During the afternoon drive, we watched a documentary film on digs being down in the Maya ruins. After all theses archaeological talk, I’m beginning to feel like I’m in an Indiana Jones movie.

Tomorrow we visit the ancient ruins of Tikal. It is sure to be a packed day!

And for all you Star Wars fans, be prepared to be very jealous! If all goes well, I’ll be stopping by a spot made famous in the original Star Wars movie!

Spin Cycle: Traveling

January 23, 2015/2 Comments/in Spin Cycle, Travel/by AJ Cattapan

This week Ginny Marie is asking us to write about traveling for the Spin Cycle. Great! I love to travel. In fact, I’ll be heading to Guatemala for spring break, and if I can get wifi down there, I’ll probably even doing a little blogging.

But for this week, Ginny has given us a choice of several travel questions to answer. Here are my responses:

1. Would you rather take a road trip or fly?

I enjoy both as long as the road trip doesn’t involve day after day of long drives. I just can’t sit still for that long.

2. Where is your favorite place to travel?

Duh! Italy! In fact, my poor mom worries I’m moving to Italy. (Don’t worry, Mom! I’m not moving to Italy!) That being said, I would like to go back and study more Italian there this summer. I’ve got to get it in before starting on the doctorate in the fall. I fear once the doctorate work begins I’ll have no time for learning Italian, and I’d really like to master one other language. I never really got there with German.

Ponte Sant’Angelo

Besides Italy, I really love England. I’d love to take a summer class in creative writing at Oxford some day. Maybe after the doctorate. 🙂

I’d also love to return to Germany and Austria. Maybe once my teaching career is over, I can go to Germany during Oktoberfest and for the Christkindlmarkts at Christmas.

3. What is your favorite activity to do while traveling? Do you like to read, sleep, listen to music, or play games?

All of the above! Mostly, I like to see new places and/or experience a different culture. I think this is why I’m looking forward to Guatemala so much. The furthest south I’ve been is Cozumel, Mexico, and that was a brief stop on a cruise. I’m looking forward to experiencing Latin American life and seeing a rainforest for the first time.

4. Is there a place you would travel to just for the food?

Um . . . Italy?

Pictures speak a thousand words.

5. When you leave your house for vacation, is it messy or clean?

I try to leave it clean, but that doesn’t always happen. At the very least, I make sure there aren’t any dirty dishes left in the sink or dishwasher and no trash in the garbage.

6. What is one thing you would never travel without?

Credit card! LOL! And now that I have a smart phone, I wouldn’t travel without my smart phone. Seriously.

7. Would you rather have a relaxing vacation or have activities planned from morning ‘til night?

I like a mix of activities. I want to see a lot, but I don’t want to be so worn out that I can’t take anything new in. That’s why I really had a good time in Italy last summer. I had Italian language classes in the morning, then my afternoons free. Sometimes I did schoolwork, sometimes I visited churches or museums, sometimes I just rested back at home. In the evening, the school had optional activities. It was a nice mix of learning, touring, and relaxing.

8. If you could photograph (or see) any place in the world, where would you go?

Besides going back to Italy, England, Germany, and Austria (and my upcoming trip to Guatemala), I’d really like to see Alaska, Hawaii, and Australia some day. However, I have to admit, I’m totally dreading the flight(s) to Australia.

How would you answer these questions? Post your answers on your blog and link them up to the Spin Cycle by clicking on the button below.

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