On to the Next One

Resurrection Priory: Fulfillment of Life & Spirit

The above video (click on link) is a finished product of countless hours of editing, recording, and translating during the dates of November 25 - December 5th. While most of the filming had been completed prior to our vacation, we had hardly cut any scenes and/or translated interviews, much less construct a cohesive plot to the movie. Most of these days were spent working for the full 14 hours, only breaking for meals. Why the rush? Our goal was complete by December 3rd, when Saint Patrick's Church (sister parish of Resurrection Priory) was having a dinner with our visiting Superior Padre Pedro. Unfortunately, we ran into trouble with some subtitle problems, and were delayed a bit. We finished the movie by the 5th, and (with a few uploading problems and copyright issues to resolve) we got the video live on the 8th. I hope you can take some time to enjoy it...

"Behind the Scenes" for Resurrection Priory: Fulfillment of Life & Spirit
Justin and I split the work according to our strengths and resources. While Justin worked tirelessly on historical context, translations, and cutting interviews, I spent time developing a plot, cutting transitional scenery, and writing the script. We worked together on the thematic element of the documentary, and it its truly amazing how easy it was to put the final product together. Lots of interviews matched themes from other interviews. They tied in well to the historical context and "feel" of Guatemala, and we are very proud of what we were able to accomplish. The video was shot mostly by my new D3100 Nikon SLR camera, yet a few scenes (more than you might realize), were actually taken with an iPod video clip recorder when the SLR's battery died. Many of the photos in the beginning of the movie were taken from the monastery's photo lab (the same one from which I rescued old photos from water leakage earlier this fall).
Questions during interviews were created and posed by Justin, while I filmed. Questions included, "What was your calling to the monastic life? What makes the Benedictine life different? What is your calling (responsibilities) in this monastery?, etc." I was impressed with the answers that were given. The  whole experience was very enlightening in learning the ways of the monastery and its supportive efforts towards a very needy community. I enjoyed myself thoroughly, and I can see filmmaking as a developing, ripe interest.

December 8 - December 12
Since its release into the cyber-world, the documentary has ranked up a couple hundred views (probably a dozen from myself, checking for any mistakes and, of course, raising the view count). The birth of Resurrection Priory's presence has sparked an interest in further online exposure. Next step / project? Making a website. I've found that this is easier said than done. Plenty of information has to be complied. Once more, Justin and I have to sit down, talk about themes, what we want it to look like, what we want to emphasize, and draft a few ideas. Obviously we will show history, photo gallery,  current events, etc. I've never actually constructed a website before. I have confidence in myself to learn, but I am intimidated by one outlying factor: everything's gotta be in Spanish! We'd like to have a running product up by the end of the month, but it's most important to get a basic foundation of ideas first. I'll keep you all updated.

Lately, its been the same-old work routine, enter website publishing work. On Saturday, the Spanish Classic was on (Barcelona vs. Madrid). We all watched the game in the Gringo room, ate snacks and drank pop. Today, we met up with some girls from the university to play basketball down at San Marcos Park. We formed 6-on-6 teams against a few young guys playing there. Justin and I ran nonchalantly up and down the court while these young Guatemalan guys tried to show off their ball skills. Only problem? They didn't have any. In fact, it was a surprise to see these Guatemalans not double dribbling.  Basketball is the next most popular sport to soccer here, but they must lack coaches. In general, Guatemalans stink at basketball.

Not so bad for us! First time I've seemed like the hotshot on a basketball court in... well, forever. It was a fun time, and the girls (who we met teaching English at the university) were fun to hang out with. They want to take us on one of the tourist stops next weekend (Semuc Champey, possibly!), so we've got some nice local guides to show us around now. All is well... December is passing quickly.

Last week, Veronica (Texas girl on the Nitewinds Snorkeling Tour) sent us her pictures from the trip. We didn't have a camera, so we were very thankful for these. Take a look at the fine places we got to visit:

Silk Caye 

Bubbles, Veronica, Gas

Image from Hatchet Caye

Paradise is in Placentia

I apologize for the delayed completion of my last entry. This past week has been the craziest week of work I've experienced so far, but it has yielded terrific results. More on that later...

November 20
Ahhh... where was I? Oh, yes. So there we were, stuck on the middle of paradise with nothing but the packs on our backs. Raul and Donal took off around 9:00a.m. Our journey quickly turned from a rushed calamity to calm idleness. Justin left for a run as I swapped all our gear from our sea cabin that was just inside the treeline to the "Parrot Fish" sea cabin right next to the ocean. It cost us an extra $20 overall, but it was so incredibly worth it. The view was unbelievable... check out photos below..

The rest of the day was chock-full of absolute nothing. Picked up a pizza from a burnt-out 50 year-old gringo surfer dude, stopped by the grochery store for some food and refreshments, and relaxed in the hammock with the occasional dive into the ocean. Placentia is the perfect place to escape. No worries in the world: only you, the sand, and the ocean..

Well, that is, until the sixth set of beach venders stops by your cabin and asks if you want to buy anything.   As long as you are bold enough to tell these beachers to carry on, you won't be bothered by anything else aside from the beach bum dogs that like to post up by your cabin's deck. Here's a picture of one frequent visitor...

Justin and I got some dinner that night at Omar's Crab Club. While we looked around, we noticed one thing particularly interesting about Placentia: if you end up staying there for a few days, you begin to recognize EVERYONE. We later found out that the village of Placentia holds about 800 people, most of whom work within the tourist business. We saw our waitress buying grocheries AND taking her kids for a walk (two separate occasions), we saw the hotel receptionist eating at the same place as us, and we even saw the same woman who had sold us our places on a snorkeling tour for the next day.h Tourists were similarly easy to recognize. Placentia is a peninsula into the Caribbean... with one main road out to the point. Aside from that, it's filled with square sand-lots and stilted beach house. Everything is worn by the sea air, yet the town still holds a very warm feel. Anyway.. all you have to know as a reader is that I found this place to be absolute paradise.

November 21
We began our day at 8:30a.m. because we were due for a 9:00a.m. launch for a snorkeling excursion we had paid for the day before. As we began to walk towards the boat launch, clouds rushed over-head. Soon, we were drenched by tropical rain.

Rainfall was constant for at least a half-hour; a true raincheck was in order. Since we couldn't head to the Cayes for snorkeling today (they let us delay the trip for a day), we took a walk around town and explored the shops (typical chintzy tourist stuff... go figure!). After a coffee shop stop (house in the trees!) and the purchasing of a couple Hawaiian shirts, the sun was shining again, and we headed back to the beach. Repeat actions from previous day.

November 22
We woke to happily find a sunny day on the horizon. We met up with the "Nite Winds" tour guides, Gas and Bubbles. Each had the "Caye Life" style- suave with shorts and shades. Rastafari. We packed up our luggage (snorkels, raw chicken floating in water in a white mason bucket, potato salad, island punch), met our tour companion (Victoria, a young, independent lady from Houston), and we were off. It took us about 1.5 hours to get to.... our destination?

Silk Caye, a collection of islands about the size of 10 small college dorm rooms. The island was scattered with 12 palm trees, a few picnic tables, a crude grill on one end and an outhouse on the other.   Surrounding these islands were beautiful coral reefs. It was prestine. Perfect. And of course... no pictures for this either. Sorry! we were afraid of ruining our good cameras. Still, no cameras did NOT ruin an incredible experience.

After exploring the coral reef (which wasn't as good as Hawaii) We ate a very tasty fried chicken (the marinade was incredible), had some delicious punch and potato salad. After lunch, off to swim with the sharks, rays, and turtles! Even though I knew there was nothing to be nervous about, I was nervous when I first jumped in the water.  I've never swam with sharks before! They were, of course, harmless. I saw plenty of huge sting rays, some shark, barracuda, but my favorite of all was the turtle. All the turtles swam very peacefully, and were always followed closely by fish that were using the turtle as protection. Occasionally the turtles would mosey on up to the surface for a gasp of air. After getting just a tiny breath, they'd float right back down the ocean floor, almost as nonchalant as they had left.
Our journey back to mainland was graced by a stop at the "Hatchet Caye" Resort
http://hatchetcaye.com/

Okay... wait. Go back. You really do need to click on that link. This place is incredible. It's a resort on a private island. I don't know who invested in this (recall Hurricane Irene absolutely trashed Placentia a few years ago), but for now, it seems like one of the best kept secrets in the Caribbean. We were offered free beer by the bartender. One of our tour guides, Bubbles, told me that the owner of the island permitted all tour guides in the area to stop by for a beer on the way back. It makes sense: 1) Keep the locals happy. 2) Advertising. I thought about this for awhile as I sipped on a delicious crisp Belkin (the ONLY Belize beer, better than Gallo in my opinion) and watched the sun go down as a let my feet sink into the sand..

We returned to mainland in time for another dinner (Wendy's Restaurant, Placentia. Order the Garlic Cheesy Shrimp-awesome). On our way back to the cabin, we ran into Victoria, who was heading to the bar. She was traveling alone, and I felt like I'd be a twit if I didn't offer her a drink from us. She gladly accepted. We went to the Barefoot Bar, where Victoria called the drinks... "Bailey's on ice please." I watched Justin's expression as his eyes rolled into the back of his head (it was previously determined Justin's card had the next tab).  We chatted with Victoria for a bit until Bubbles, our tour guide, found us and began to be flirtatious with Victoria. A couple of head nods, handshakes, and "good night"'s later, we were relieved of the awkward situation. An expensive $30 bill went towards a story at least.

On our way home, we stopped by the Tipsy Tuna for a game of pool. The interesting thing about this game of pool, though, is it's played in... sand. In fact, the whole bar floor was sand. Locals say that you can walk all of Placentia without shoes. Most of the bars are barefoot (not to mention THE Barefoot Bar), and there is never a hint of trash on the beach (which is constantly combed), much less anywhere else. The locals find it in their best business interest to keep the place immaculate. Even though Placentia is run-down, its surprisingly clean.

November 23

As fast as the vacation -erm- visa trip came, it went. As we packed up, I knew that I would be back to Belize many more times in my life. While traveling can sometimes be trying, our way back to Guatemala was painless. We took two water taxis, and a bus to reach Puerto Barrios. We stayed in a cheap hotel in Puerto Barrios and caught the El Rancho Bus the next morning. Our only true obstacle was the microbus between El Rancho and Coban.

(Aside)
microbus  n. - in Guatemala, illegally oversized vans used to cart people like cattle between cities. A microbus has 5 passenger benches, and will usually operate containing 10 people over the legal capacity.

About 45 minutes into a 2 hour ride, a young woman's daughter was extremely sick, and vomited in the middle of the van. Damn. Lucky I choose a window seat. I spent the whole trip trying to keep warm while I gasped for the icey-cold mountain air. Justin, who was directly behind the whole fiasco, was not so lucky.

Justin's luck continued to sink. When we had finally returned to the monastery, he realized that he left his North Face jacket and passport on the microbus. We spent an hour driving around and talking to microbus drivers. For some reason, I knew the whole time that we'd eventually get it back.
"These kind of big-time loses usually end up better than you think," I told Justin. I was right, thank goodness.

November 24
The next day, while Justin was out for a run, his phone got a call from the driver. He said that he would be in Coban in less than 5 minutes with the jacket. I knew I had to make the rendevous. As I ran down to retrieve the brown Suzuki (the only car I've ever driven here), my heart sank as I realized it was gone.
"Puedo llevar un carro?"
Only one left... the giant white Jeep / monster truck. I swear the wheels run parallel with my waist. While a bit intimidated at first, I quickly realized that I was king of the road, and drove so. I reached the Coban taxi station just in time. As the man gave me the jacket, he asked for 100 Quetzal. At first I refused... what the hell? (Little had I known that Justin told him over the phone earlier that he'd pay him) I thought twice, and decided it was actually a fantastic trade ($12 for a $125 North Face and invaluable passport), and pulled out the only bill I had in my wallet, a 100 Quetzal, and gave it to the happy driver. Knew it'd turn up.