Amazing...

You know how your parents always asked you “If your friends jumped off a cliff would you?” Well this past week I did just that, I jumped off a 10 meter cliff because my friend did! We were at Semuc Champey which might be one of the most amazing, beautiful and tranquil places I have been! Semuc is in Alta Verpaz about 3 hours from Coban and is an amazing natural wonder. It is located in this huge gorge and I don’t know how to exactly explain it but it is a river that actually runs under this limestone plateau. The plateau has a bunch of natural pools, waterfalls and great places to jump off cliffs!

When you first get into the area you hike up the side of the mountain that forms the gorge, I mean straight up, it was hard but so worth it! When you get to the top, there is an amazing view of the whole gorge, the pools and the river! The hike down was a lot easier and you could hear the water rushing under the plateau, which was incredible! We then spent the next 4 hours lounging, swimming and exploring! At the end of our time there, our guide took us to where the plateau ends and he had us climb down this rope ladder to the cave like area under the plateau! You could see the river’s strength and how fast the water was moving out from under the plateau, it really made wonder how things this powerful and amazing exist because it is so unreal! So after the terrifying experience of climbing down the ladder, he took us to a spot where you can jump off into the water below, not my type of thrill but my friend and I decided to take the plunge after 10 minutes of building up courage! So he told me if I jumped he would, so I told him ok, you go first! The next thing I knew he was jumping and it was my turn, what was I thinking! It turned out to be an amazing adrenaline rush and cool experience! I am so glad that I did it!

The rest of my weekend consisted of PACA shopping, which I am proud to say that I came away with a new pair of jeans for Q10 (Q $1.30) and two new shirts! I love the PACA shopping here, anyone who visits, I promise will love it too! I also got to hangout with a bunch of people from my training group, most whom I have not seen since New Years! All in all this past two weeks have been great! My farmers are doing great with their processing and the coffee market is soaring, the highest it has been since the 1980’s!!! All in all things could not be better!

Finally...

In recent days I have received many anger messages for not updating my blog so here it is…

Work is keeping me busy, which has been good and bad! I love what I am doing so I enjoy most days but I have not been able to read and relax like I would like too! Sometimes I feel like I am back in the States working because it is a constant go, go, go, attitude in my office! This past week my organization signed a contract with a cooperative here in Guatemala to sell our coffee for Q 800 (about $100) per hundred pounds of processed coffee! This is a really good price because it is about Q 50 ($6.45) more than Free Trade price, yay! My groups also started harvesting full force this past week; one of them processed about 700 pounds of coffee in about 3 hours, which is about Q 1120 ($ 144.50)! So 700 pounds seems like a lot of coffee but really it is not all that much because 470 pounds of “uva” or the red fruit that contains the coffee beans only equals 100 pounds of actually coffee beans, so what this means is that you need a LOT of coffee fruit to equal a small amount of actually coffee!

This month and next month my communities will be processing about 40,000 pounds of coffee, wow!

Other than work I have been reading (keeping up on my favorite politician, O’bama and I recommend the book Three Cups of Tea), cooking (a southwestern black bean soap , attached if anyone wants to try it), and watching tons of DVDs! You may think it odd that I watch tons of movies but when you have a store that sells them for Q 10 ($ 1.45) you just have to stop and buy some every time you pass. I am really lucky too because they are normally not the bad versions that were filmed in the theaters but are good quality (meaning no reflected heads, no moving, etc.)! I highly recommend the current hit, Juno, very different, humorous and enjoyable movie!

I have also been able to travel a lit bit this month. After being in site for almost a month, which will make anyone go crazy, I went to Quetzaltenango or better known as Xela ‘shayla’ a K’iche Mayan word that means, 10 ideas or 10 wise men! It is the Guatemala equivalent of Chicago, I think! It has a very modern scene, lots of young professionals and also a wide variety of ethnic food, Indian, Middle Eastern, and even sushi! It is also very close to many ecotourism sites, an active volcano, the highest point in Guatemala, and other incredible hikes, which will be ventured upon by myself hopefully sooner than later (Brandon get in shape)!

There is not a whole lot of exciting things happening here, other than the fact that our new Mayor has decided to paint our Muni building, a bright blue! Also it rained here the other night for the first time since mid-December, which was highly appreciated on my end because now the dust will some what be dampened, YAY! I won’t have to do as much laundry this week.

I will try to be better about updating my blog but please be patient with me, I am a workin girl now, lol!