the flatest piece of dirt we could find

When camping fell through for the weekend we decided it was monday night or bust, Palo was determined that we not push it off and push it off and then not do it (which easily could have happened). So we exictedly planned our meals, collected and prepared our food.

Anneliese made an awesome camp stove, it is a series of stainless steel chain rings wired, not welded, together with four kickstands bolted on as legs. The kickstands are particularly ingenious because they fold down flat against the chain rings, drastically increasing the portability of the stove. The Guatemalan way is rubbing off on all of us.


Erin and i didn´t realize it, but the others left in a rush to beat the dark leaving us behind to collect all the things still left. We grabbed all of the remaining items, stuffed them into bags not-quite-big-enough and sauntered up the hill.


My camera decided to shut down just as we started up, thankfully Erin had her (much nicer) camera to fill the gap. Here´s some of what we saw along the way.



On the way up to Carlos´ farm (where we´d be camping) we passed a series of these strange swaths chiseled out of the mountain side. Most of them looked as if they were designed for a truck to back into and they had unfamiliar pipes and tubing systems exposed. We weren´t sure if it was some sort of agricultural something-or-other or what. (We found out on the way back down that they were supposed to be house lots of a failed fancy housing project called Bella Vista).



After about 25 minutes Erin and i came upon Carlos´ finca (farm). I should have realized, but somehow dind´t put together that his farm would be one of the steeply sloped, seemingly impossible, mountainside plots. Everyone here uses slash and burn and plants row after row of the same crop. Who knows if they use pesticides, i´m guessing most can´t afford it. The dirt looks like it is going to blow away, it looks like the dust on the beaten roads or the trampled soccer fields. Permaculture could do wonders here.

Eventually we came across our comrades, they had scoped out the flatest possible spot on the whole mountain. I was impressed by their sleuthing. Technically this was not Carlos´land, but the neighbors are friendly and didn´t seem to mind.



The camera can´t do justice to the breathtaking view that we enjoyed for 16 hours, the cloudy skies also don´t help.

Below is Itzapa, at night we could also see Chimaltenango, Paramos and the light pollution from Antigua behind a neighboring mountain.


We didn´t waste any time getting a fire started, as it would be dark soon and we were eager to get some good coals going for dinner. Anneliese´s camping stove folded out beautifully and impressed us all for the whole evening.



Three of us went scavenging for wood while the other two got the fire started. It was slim pickings, but we managed to scrounge enough for the evening. We even found a nice log to sit on.



We enjoyed the fire for a few minutes while we waited for the tortilla pan (just a flat sheet of metal) to heat up. All of our food was laid out on a cloth, Ivy handed me a random piece of plywood and i rigged up a table to start the food prep.



I spent the next 45 miuntes scooping out beans and cheese and smuchsing them between tortillas (tortillas here are tiny compared to what we´re used to in the states, i´d guess because its all done between small palms). Anneliese had the prescience to stick a tin foil covered pepper into the coals- it was the perfect addition to our quesadillas. They were... so... gooood...



Next on the menu were the much anticpated angelitas (literally little angels, but we´d called them marshmallows). These little angels were far from small, in fact, they were the hugest marshmallows any of us had ever seen (a big part of the excitement).



I realize the picture isn´t the best, but if Palo´s excitement doesn´t convince you of the montsrous glory of our air inflated sugar pillows, perhaps this will- cut in half they were still larger than the normal US marshmallow.

Palo was excited to stick his marshmallow between two Chikys, a native brand of cookie that is already half covered in chocolate. He claimed it was exactly like a smore, but even more convenient. This inspired Erin to stick her giantic sugar cloud between two pieces of hannukah gelt (not actually gelt, but close enough).

Oops, camera strap.

But by far the highlight of the dessert menu, the pièce de résistance, were the banana boats. For those unfamiliar with a banana boat it´s a banana stuffed full of marshmallow and chocolate wrapped in tin foil and left in the coals to melt into one giant pile of deliciousness.
I was first introduced to banana boats at Church of the Brethren camp in 8th grade. I had since forgotten about them, but was very happy to be re-introduced.

Ohhh so good!

Ivy and Palo took turns serenading us. They are both really talented musicians and play in a ton of bands back in the states.

When it came time to crash we all sardined together on a salvaged tarp Chris had laid out. It was cold and we were happy to cram together to share body heat. Hopped up on sugar we giggled our way to sleep like a bunch of 4th graders at a slumber party. We were pretty punchy and everything was really funny.



Out of the necessity of the cold i cocooned inside my sleeping bag, head covered and all. It turned out to be a good move because it sprinkled throughout the night and i stayed warm and dry. My sleeping bag was not so lucky.

We woke up to the rising sun, doing its best to light the sky for us despite competition from some grumpy clouds.

Some of us had trouble getting out of bed. (Oh soooo classy).

Palo made a fire from the remains of the previous night´s, using some fairly wet wood, which is not easy. I thought it best not to trouble him with the precise knowledge of how i put it out the night before.

We ate the leftover fruit for breakfast. Roasted pineapple was a big hit.

Past the sunsrise the morning view was pretty murky.

And just like i learned in boy scouts my bag was a whole foot and a half off the ground. You know, for the bears.

(I was never in boy scouts)



Our walk back was really nice, all down hill, and we brought the blue skies with us. If we´d have been going uphill i would have had to take off my sweatshirt, but we weren´t and it was just right. We passed plenty of curious Itzapans on their way to work. We wondered what they thought of the groggy, dirty gringos.



Unfortunately we returned to a padlocked door, something none of us other than Palo had experienced. I was flabbergasted. Mostly becuase i really, really, needed to use the facilities.

Waiting was not an option.



I didn´t realze how much i looked like spiderman until i saw these photos. Ah, childhood dream fulfilled.

20 bikes for monday. Yoga, smoothies and (almost) camping.

As the buzz from Antigua was beginning to fade, and we started to settle back into the relaxed Guatemalan pace of life, Carlos threw us another big project- 10 bikes, ready to go monday morning. Okay, 2 bikes per person with the whole weekend to do it, not too bad.

But by friday afternoon 10 became 20. Fortunately a bunch were already done. Also fortunate was Carlos´disposition on the whole affair- almost good enough was good enough. So we spent the weekend churning out bikes almost good enough to sell.


Anneliese is checking out one of her manuals (it has a pretty cheesy looking ugy on the front we all like to laugh about). She definitely came in with a solid knowledge of bikes but has been steadily improving by leaps and bounds. I feel like she could answer just about any bike question i have at this point.

She and Elizabeth (Ivy) made a great team. They cranked out more bikes than the rest of us, they were definitely the powerhouse of the weekend.



Below is the bike i got to wrestle with. I picked up where a very sick Erin left off, with one wheel off and the rest still intact.


The first thing that i needed to do was to true (make straight) the wheel that had been popped off. It was a little wonky but not too bad. Carlos gave me a quick demo with his awesome home-made truing stand. Truing generally involves a lot of patient fine tuning, but not with Carlos, not today. He got it servicable and called it done. Next!


With my lesson in mind i went after the rear wheel. I put it up in the stand and began like Carlos showed me by tightening all of the spokes first, then going back to loosen them to true. I must have gotten a little too into the tightening because half way through my wheel was making a pretty S curve. Mmmm, not good. I asked Carlos to have a look and he gasped in amazement. What did you do? I turned it like you said, no, not like i said- this is garbage!

So i went back and took way too much time to correct my mistake (a good chance to learn). Slowly and surely i worked out the huge kinks i´d put in the wheel, then once i got those out i went after the ones that i wanted out in the first place.



The way the machine works is that you put the wheels axle into two retractable bolts. They hold it in place while you adjust the lower arm to line up with the edge of the wheel´s rim. On the lower arm are two smaller retractable bolts that you move back and forth to catch where the wheel is spinning off center. When the rim touches one side you tighten the opposite (and/or loosen that same side). The idea is to even out the tension on the wheel so that its perfectly, or almost good enoughly, centered and spinning true.

Sometimes though, you´ll have to loosen up one side too far to get it true, basura (trash) according to Carlos. Palo had a good way to fix this without affecting the true-ness too much. All the spokes, on this particular wheel, are paired up into crossing sets. If one of the pair is really loose and the other not then you can tighten the loose one and loosen the tight one the commensurately. It seemed to work out pretty well.



After an hour and a trip to the chaos of the parts room, the wheel was finito. Onto the rest.



The next part to work on was the front derailleur, which is the piece that changes gears on the chain rings attached to the pedals. It seemed to be shifting fine, not too loose or too tight, however the chain was rubbing on the derailleur. I raised it up some, which helped for shifting to the higher gear, but it still rubbed some when shifted to the lower gear. So i moved it slightly to one side, problem solved.

I noticed the bike was missing a rear derailleur though. Would it be almost good enough to leave it off? Or did that sucessfully fall short of our already lowered standards. Palo thought so.

He and Anneliese were kind enough to help me find a good one, Palo really had the eye for it- he knows bikes inside and out.


I got it hooked on, which invloved widening the bolt hole on the frame for the derailleur, and then fit the wheel on next. With those two in place i could get the chain on. Palo helped me figure out the proper length for the chain, it involved some eye balling i won´t go into. But with that on i could now adjust the shifting cable. With the chain on the highest rear gear (the smallest ring on the set) and the highest in the front (the biggest gear in the set) i set the rear shifter all the way down to the highest setting (the loosest it would possibly go). I then clamped the cable and shifted through the gears. All set there.

Next was to check the brakes, front was fine, back not so much. The thing kept sticking on one side and popping way off on the other. After a lot of fiddling it was clear that it would have to be replaced in order to function well, but instead i loosened the tension on the brake so that it wouldn´t rub on the right side. The left was way off, but it functioned. Done.



All of this doesn´t take too long to read, but for a novice it took a while to do. Especially all the mishaps. I´m really lucky to be surrounded by people who know a lot and like sharing their knowledge. Its a really good set up for learning.



You can´t tell, but Palo is doing a pretty sweet dance here. And below are all the bikes piled up and ready to go.




Despite the concerns that we would be too stressed out to make it all come together, we got everything done in a timely fashion and still had some time for morning yoga and two rounds of awesome, bike-blended, fruit smoothies. (Though we did have to cancel our planned trip to a macadamia nut farm and an overnight of campfires and songs at Carlos´ farm).