Guatemala, September 2001 |
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Antigua
After my 1st rotation in the hospital, pediatrics, I understood how little I was able to communicate with the Spanish speaking population. How my lack of communication affected their standard of care. Motivated, I discovered a program to study Spanish. John Hopkins had a traveler's diarrhea vaccination study which would pay me $600 to study Spanish for a few weeks in Antigua, Gutatemala. So, my destination was chosen. Unfortunately, a week before I left, circumstances arose such that I couldn't participate in the study. But, I was set to go to Anigua. While beautiful and fun, Antigua is a tourists' city. Where I spoke more English at night than Spanish. I had fun, but didn't learn as much as I could have. |
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The poorer side of town. These are houses on the left. The road leads up to a beautiful of overlooking the city. I had never seen poverty before my trip to Antigua, not like this. Even those well to do in Guatemala, would be considered as living in poor living conditions in the States |
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Monterrico,
the beautiful western coastal tourist town. |
Here I am with 2 tortugitas, baby sea turtles. We got to purchase, handle, and release the tortugitas as part of a fundraiser. |
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I went on a swap tour to try & see
some wildlife. |
I also got to see a wild dolphin,
jumping in the wild one afternoon, |
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My second major trip was to Tikal, a collection of Mayan ruins on the northern border of Guatemala. | ![]() Where the picture was taken from on the right, a ruin at the top of a hill. It was a steep climb on stairs up there but well worth it. The 2 small people on the bottom right are the 2 girls I went |
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Pisote, a very cute animal. This one was
in a pack that ran directly across our path.
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We walked into the park in the early morning & climbed the large main monument to watch the sunrise. There were some howler monkeys in the trees pictured here. It was very peaceful. |
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![]() While I was there, some sort of ceremony was taking place in the main plaza. Hearing about indigenous Guatemalatecuns' superstitions relating to cameras, I didn't want to take any pictures of people's faces. |
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Chichicastenango |
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Chichi, as it is known, is a huge market. Located at a higher altitude, I remember it raining the entire time I was there. Ah well. At least I got a pretty good deal on a swinging chair (at least I hope). |
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The dress of two different ages. Left, traditional Guatemalan garb, and on the right... typical Guatemalan garb. |
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Lago Atitlan |
Vulcan Plakaya? |
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My last trip in Guatemala. The the beautiful peaceful, Lake Atitlan. The surround scenery includes 7 volcanoes (as the locals like to tell us). I didn't visit the drug city, but I did sit out on the dock for hours to enjoy the scenery. The sky was so dynamic and beautiful. ("So beautiful!" my favorite phrase in Espanol while I Guatemala) |
I climbed up a volcano. It was hard, but worth it. | ![]() |
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This is Dorothy's sillohuette against the sky. I just thought it looked kinda cool. :) |
![]() Above the clouds. |
Misc. |
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