Gone fishing.

I am currently working on the new post about Tikal, but in the meantime I figured I would throw this in the mix. Last Saturday I had the opportunity to go Sailfishing with some new friends who were in town from The States and Honduras. They were all Florida Gators, and anyone who knows anything about Ohio State football knows I should have thrown them off the boat, but in the heart of good sportsmanship (and the fact that they paid for the boat) I gave them a chance. We went out off the Pacific coast of Guatemala, which is the capital of the world when it comes to sailfishing, on the Fat Cat.

A couple pieces of information were relayed to us on our 20 mile trip out to sea by John, the boat owner. One was that it was not currently sailfishing season, so we should not get our hopes up too high for catching a Sail. I was not discouraged. The second was that there is a tradition where he used to live in the South Pacific, where you are supposed to rip out the heart of the first fish caught on the day and eat it while its still beating, then drink a beer. I thought he was joking.

Well, we got out there, cast our lines, and a couple minutes later I had a monster on my hands. It was an epic battle, and at times I felt like Santiago (Old Man and the Sea reference), but after only 20 minutes and a huge blister on my index finger we were hauling a 150 lbs sailfish over the side of the boat. What a big and beautiful beast. Fortunately for me it is illegal to keep them, so luckily I was not forced to eat its heart, and after taking some pictures we gave him back to the ocean.

Then we caught our first Bonita (part of the tuna family), about a 30 pounder. Next thing I know John hands me a beating heart and a beer, and since I'm not one to wimp out and have always been such a big fan of Silence of the Lambs, I took a big bite and started chugging. It was surprisingly tastey and ironically not very bloody.

It was a great day. We caught about 10 Mahi-Mahi and two Tunas. The two shipmates filleted some of the fish right there on the boat, then busted out the premade soy sauce/wasabi mix, and we ate sashimi 15 minutes after catching the fish. It doesn't get much fresher than that. The rest of the fish we brought home and had a huge fish buffet; grilled, baked, fried.

You can check out the Fat Cat's website at: http://www.guatemala-sailfishing.com/

Reeling in dinner as it leaps out of the water

Eric and John eating Sashimi fresh out of the ocean. So good.

The Fat Cat.

The shipmates with Monica and Teresa as they caught two Mahis simultaneously.

Hauling a sailfish out of the water.

Dorado aka Dolphin Fish aka Mahi-Mahi aka Dinner.

Lunch. Sashimi.

Monica with her first Dorado of the day.

Santiago battling the fish.

185lb beauty....and a big fish.

Quick comedic interlude

Yesterday I hosted a meeting of a women's group in my town; the artisans that make the handmade products. Now, being the only "gringo" in town I am kind of a local celebrity, and I hate to sound conceited, but I am quite sure that several of the young ladies here have crushes on yours truly. A handful of which were at this meeting.

Okay, so I had just given a long speech about all the opportunities we have in front of us, and detailed exactly what we need to do to proceed down the path to success. Then one of my counterparts, Don Bacilio, got up and decided to reinforce what I had just said. Bacilio is a great guy, but hes got more words than alphabet soup. I compare him to one of those dolls that you can pull the string on their back and they talk; however, Bacilio's string is broken, so you have to be careful when you pull it, because he is going to talk until you are blue in the face.

Well, I didn't think I had pulled the string, but he must have learned to pull it himself, because he went off on a rant. A staple of the Bacilio rant is the metaphor. In this paticular rant he opted to use a rather complicated metaphor about making juice. The basic idea of the metaphor was that these ladies need to take advantage of the opportunities I can provide them. Somehow he illustrated this by saying that their products are like fruit and I am like a professional juicing machine.

So picture this: there I am sitting up front in this room, with about 20 women, several of whom giggle every time I speak to them, and Bacilio is ranting. Then he hits the punch line of his metaphor. It went something like this: "If you girls want to put in the effort and take advantage of what he has to offer, Tony can give you some great juice!"

This immediately stuck me as nothing short of hilarious, but in the spirit of professionalism I tried to keep from laughing. Until I looked up and made eye contact with one of the gigglers in the front row. She let out a "tee-hee" and I just lost it. Then the rest joined in. It was an all out laughing fit for about 10 minutes. I don't even think Bacilio realized what he said or what we were laughing at. "Juice."

This is the scene of the crime. It is a different meeting, but that is Bacilio up there ranthing. This is also where I teach my english classes.

I'm back baby!

I know it has been waaaay to long since my last post, I have been busy to say the least. In the last month and a half I have hosted several international visitors, have launched a few new projects here in Chilasco, been called in to help Peace Corps revise the Sustainable Community Tourism Project guidelines, and of course been over my head in English classes. I have also been working hard to obtain mobile internet service for my laptop, and am happy to say that I was just able to succeed in this endeavor today! So from here on out I will be connected to the internet, and will try hard to post more frequently.

First off I want to comment on this wonder that is the internet. I think we would all agree that it is the most significant, world-changing invention of recent times. It has changed everything from the way we shop to the way we communicate with one another. It is hard to think of many aspects of our lives that have not been affected by the internet. However, I never expected it to have a huge impact on life out here in the middle of the jungle with a bunch of farmers. That was naive. After a few months here in Chilasco I have come to the realization that one of the most useful tools I can provide the people of my community with is the internet.

The first step in that process was obtaining service for myself. Now, granted there are many selfish motives inherent in this first step, but nevertheless I now control the only "reliable" source of internet access for miles. The next step is to introduce the power and possibilities of global connectivity to the members of my association. They are not completely in the dark ages when it comes to this issue, but they are only vaguely familiar at best with the internet right now. They do have an email address and a makeshift website, but they barely know how to check the email and the website has never been updated and is unfindable through search engines. This is the fastest and most efficient way to bring in the visitantes, and the best way to connect ADESOCHI and its magnificent wonders to the rest of Guatemala and the world at large. So we will work on that.

We will also be working on a website to sell some of the incredibe handmade goods that are made here and never find a new home. We have organized a large group of female artisans from all over the region who make all kinds of beautiful products; everything from baskets woven from pine needles to fantastic traditional Mayan garments. Thousands of hours are put into these goods and often nobody even sees them. I want to help them learn to take advantage of the fact that the world market place is only a few key strokes away. I think it could be a huge success, and I will be calling on all of you for help once we are able to launch the site. Don't hold your breath though, life moves slowly down here.

I'm going to leave at that for now. I will try to start putting up frequent shorter posts like this one with a few pictures each, rather then really long ones that come few and far between.

This is the main courtyard at the Mayan ruins of Tikal. This is just a teaser, the next post will discuss my trip to the ruins, the Mayan culture, and the great change predicted for the year 2012.

Me in front of the great Ceiba Tree at the entrance to Tikal.

Lake Atitlan at dawn. Stunning.

This is the entrance to Semuc Champey. The waterfalls are draining the freshwater lagoons, and the river, Rio Cahabon is actually flowing under a huge limestone bridge here.

This is Rio Cahabon right before it flows beneath the limestone bridge that is Semuc Champey. I have rafted this beast twice now (although obviously not at this spot exactly).

This is the aerial view of Semuc Champey. The river is raging underneath, and the limestone has formed a series of freshwater lagoons that are fed by rainwater running off the mountains. The water is incredibly clear. Its gorgeous here.

Another aerial shot. Yeah, I know.

This is me attempting a back flip off of a rope swing into the river. It looks good now, but the landing was ugly, 4.3