Guatemala - First Days in Antigua

6 degrees in Wisconsin or 76 degrees in Guatemala. Tough decision eh? I am missing that country so much (and my friends!). But hey, it was a fantastic trip that will be remembered forever. I'll tell ya'll a little about my first few days in Guatemala.

You can kind of see the two volcanoes in the background :)

We left Madison at 1a on the 5th of January and landed in Guatemala City around 3p. Then all of us piled on a bus (that the Department of Agronomy from USAC let us use for the trip) and drove 45 minutes to Antigua. When we got to Loc Bucaros (the hotel), we unpacked and did the whole introduction/welcome stuff that takes the rest of your day!! I met my partener, Hugo Ferres, and got to know all of the other USAC boys. Luisa, the best tour guide ever, gave us a tour of Antigua. Luisa is from the Antigua area so she is a walking encyclopedia. Here's a photo of my beautiful eco-tour guide. If you ever travel to Guatemala, I highly, highly, highly recommend her. Not only is she brilliant, she is outgoing, kind, easy to get along with, and bilingual. Miss you Luisa <3

Luisa Zea - seriously. Google her name and eco travel guide Guatemala. She is rated one of the best :)

The next day, we went to a coffee farm (finka de cafe) that was also a museum. Ricardo, the owner, gave us a tour and explained everything. His family had owned the farm for generations and he was the first to turn it into a museum to bring in the history. He was also bilingual which made is easier to ask questions :) Organic coffee is incredibly hard to grow in Guatemala, that's for sure! Ricardo's plantation was not organic and he had so much disease on all of his crops! Personally, I was trying not to be super excited (rusts are my favorite disease) about all the fungal and bacterial infections. At his plantation, he uses native tree species from Guatemala to provide the shade that coffee needs to grow. It was beautiful, but there was very little wildlife. This is one theory why - since the farm is NOT organic (meaning chemicals in fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, bactericides, and whatnot are allowed to be sprayed), there is less wildlife because of the toxic compounds being put into the environment. The only wildlife I saw was a dog so skinny that I wanted to cry. Overall, the Finka de Cafe was still beautiful and obviously well taken care of. It was easy to see that Ricardo was proud of his plantation and loved that we were interested in visiting it. I had my first cup of coffee at his finka! Needless to say, I'm still a tea drinker :) 

coffee plant

Passion Fruit Flower

Fruit of Coffee

This is the name of the Coffee Plantation/Museum

Later that day, we visited a Macadamia Nut Farm! That was super cool! One, because I love macadamia nuts (which are super healthy for you). Two, because macadamia nuts can be used for so much else! At the farm, they made creams for your skin (which heal sunburn faster than anything I've ever tried) and extracted the oils for skin therapy too. That oil left my hands smooth and moisturized for days (not exaggerating either). That stuff is a wonder! Our tour guide, Ricardo, was also very happy that we wanted to visit his place (which was organic). There weren't as many diseases but there was a serious case of bacterial trunk rot. We told him about it and what he could do, which he really appreciated. When we were packing ourselves onto the bus, I caught Luisa giving Ricardo a kiss!! I asked her about it and found out she was engaged to him :) They make a cute couple - I'm very happy for them.

Dried Macadamia Nus Ready for Deshelling

Just Some Beautiful Scenery

The next day, we visited Pilones de Antigua (which means Antigua Seedlings). The place was interesting, but not nearly as exciting as the previous two tours. Here, the company specialized in growing vegetable and tree seedlings that they would later sell to Guatemalan customers. I don't believe they exported anything out of the country; it was all domestic. They had a few sustainable practices such as reusing the trays they planted seeds (don't worry, they steam sterilized every tray and the soil before they were reused), not having heat or cooling systems (instead they had open air vents that were screened to prevent pests and some diseases from getting through) and a few other practices. It was a striking difference between the old greenhouses and the newly built greenhouses. Talk about sustainable! They had the old greenhouses for 20 years before they decided it was time to rebuild. Pilones de Antigua was very different than any greenhouse we have in Wisconsin (in many ways - especially how they deal with the weather changes and dry season). We also visited La Hojita - a small community organic farm. That was interesting except it looked like disaster (not well taken care of, unfortunately).

Some wildflower at La Hojita

Tomato Seedlings

Harvesting corn at La Hojita! I don't want to do that for a living!

Flower grown at Pilones de Antigua.

'll leave this post at this for now! I'll try to do another one later tonight since classes started yesterday and homework is minimal :) Get this, I graduate in less than 4 months. Yeah that's right, in 4 months! Bye!!

Guatemala - Photo Tour Of Mi Amigos!

So as you may all know, I was in Guatemala from the 5th until the 16th. It was for a plant pathology class that was combined with an agronomy class from University of San Carlos de Guatemala. There were 12 students from Madison and 10 guys from USAC. Each of us was partnered up with someone from USAC; I was partnered with Hugo Ferres. We got along pretty well; it was kind of hard to communicate because I didn't know Spanish and he had fairly good English. The other guys names were: Oliver, Jose, Jorge, Pablo, Eduardo, Camilo, Nimrod, Carlos, y Joel. They were some of the most chivalrous men I have ever met. They would help you off the bus (huge last step), hold doors for you, always let the ladies for first (especially when it came to food), let me have the shade, everything. Don't get me wrong, they were a lot of fun too - joking, laughing, hanging out, showing us around, and always all smiles. I really miss them...I'd do anything to go back to Guatemala and see each of them again, especially Joel. He was my best bud :(  I'll post some photos of me and the boys for this post. Trust me, there will be more posts soon to fill everyone in!

Back Row: Nimrod, Carlos, Oliver, Camilo, Eduardo. FRONT ROW: Jorge, Hugo, Dani, Aki, Pablo

Camilo y I

Joel y I  :)

Pablo, Eduardo, Hugo, y I

Ecotour-guide Luisa, Renee, Eduardo, Pablo, y Hugo

Nimrod, Eduardo, Carlos (front), Pablo, Hugo, Oliver (front), Jorge

 So above are a few photos of my boys. There are tons of photos on Facebook - feel free to check them out. For our grade, we have to make a video of our trip to send to CALS at UW-Madison. CALS gave us a huge grant to help pay for our trip (that's why it was ridiculously cheap for me). CALS specializes in undergraduate experiences - that's me! So in this video, I'm going to be featured. There are tons of photos of me looking studious and taking notes. I look good :)  I still miss my boys so much! I wish I could run back there and get a group hug :(  At least I will see them again :)

Te Extraño Guatemala

Hey Everyone! I'm back from Guatemala! I got back to Madison around 2:30a yesterday but was too tired to make a blog (: I'm going to make this one short because I'm still exhausted and need to sort through my suitcase, go to work, and all that jazz.

Guatemala was AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH-MAZING. Words cannot describe the experience I had. UW-Madison teamed up with University of Santa Carlos to make this trip possible. There were 12 Madison students and 10 USAC students. We traveled around Guatemala together touring lots of different places. The friendships that were made are ones that will last forever. Leaving my Guate boys behind was worse than leaving Anna at Chicago. It's like I have 10 more brothers than I did before Guatemala. Anyways, I will post again later with pictures and way more details about my trip. Here's one picture of the whole group :)

Just a good looking group, posing on the mountainside with a breathtaking view of Volcano de Agua :)

 

YAY FOR A'S

3.700/4.000

A - 3   AB - 2   B -1

I am so happy with my grades this semester! I knew this would be my best chance at getting a 4.0. This will look so good for graduate schools! I'm really hoping that this boosts my chances of being accepted in the Phytopathology graduate programs at any of the schools I applied to. It would be a dream come true if I got accepted. Anyways, I was just really excited about my grades this semester that I had to share with everyone. Hopefully this upcoming semester will be just as great. Here's my class list:

Physics 104 - Second Semester Physics
Phytopathology 375 - Organic and Urban Agriculture
Phytopathology 606 - Environmental Toxicology
Horticulture 375 - The Growing Food Dilemma
Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences 100 - Introduction to AOS
Phytopathology 699 - Capstone Project with Dr. Brian Hudelson

Yay for my last semester! 15 more weeks of classes and I'll be a graduate of UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. AAAAHHHH!!! That's so exciting. I leave for Guatemala in 3 days. Say what?    :D    

Missing My Loves in Madison

So when Kiley and I get bored we find nerdy pick-up lines and try them out on each other. Since I'm on winter break and don't have anything better to do with my life besides post random pictures of the best pick-up lines found to date....please enjoy. Kiley tested, Megan approved.

My favorite

Perfect for Ky

I tried this on my buddy Drew - didn't work. Still funny as all heck.

Editting Photos Instead of Studying Physics

Two of my great friends from UW-Madison graduated today! Congratulations to Jayme Moon and Stephanie Rieger! I'm so happy for you girls :)

Yes, I may be a little jealous that I'm not graduating with them but hey, soon enough. In between studying physics and studying more physics, I've been going for runs, being crazy with Ky, and editing a lot of photos. I know I should be studying more but I just don't feel like it anymore. With graduation happening today, it just makes me more and more excited to graduate myself. Well, minus the fact that I have no idea what the heck will be going on in my life at that time (cough...grad school or job searching). Either way, I'm excited as heck to graduate. It is literally in 5 months and I'll have a degree. This sounds like it should be motivating me to kick ass on the physics exam (it's not). Alright, I'll just post more of my beautiful edits and get back to studying. My exam is in 24 hours...not soon enough. Oh well, I'm just so happy for my friends that it doesn't even matter if I study or not. Logic.

Old San Juan, PR

Star Lake, WI

Hansmann's Hideaway

Hike up from the bottom of the Grand Canyon

Flagstaff, AZ

Plant Kaleidoscope at Olbrich Botanical Gardens, Madison, WI

View from our room at Rio Mar Resort in San Juan, PR

Gosh....Plants are so freaking Cool!

Brain....Overload....Oww

I need a break  from studying for finals!! I just went for a run in the rain with Ky :)  It was cold but definitely stress-relieving. I just want to take the final already! Ugh!! Especially when I have exciting things like get ready for Guatemala. We have everything finalized...flight leaves at 6a from Chicago. Alrighty - I guess I don't mind waking up super early.

Physics. Oh my favorite subject. I do not care about the Doppler effect. Yes, it is pretty phenomenal but I really don't care how it works. Please tell me how this is related to plants and maybe then I'll be interested. There are 16 chapters covered on the final...at least the final is only 20% of our grade. I could just not take it and still get a B in the class...funny how that works. 

I wish I could dance...or take more dance classes. It's so fun to learn different dances (African, ballroom, jazz) and find the similarities. I know I could catch on super fast. I was born from a boombox...just got to go find a boombox I guess. That would be a good stress-reliever too. Oh the things I would do instead of studying for physics. Which I should probably start doing. After I shower. Here are some black and white edits I did recently (instead of studying physics). Enjoy my little flowers!