Guatemala trip

So we’ve been gone for awhile and it was great! We started out with Halloween in Copan in the West of Honduras. It is kind of a Peace Corps Volunteer tradition to have a big party in Copan every Halloween. There was a costume parade and contest and there were some great homemade costumes! Kevin was a basketball player (last minute ropa Americana) and Shannon was going to be a bottle of “D’Olancho” chile but she left her costume (that she spent hours making) on the bus. Needless to say, she was pretty mad, but one of her friends saved the day and helped her to create a “forest fairy” costume. It was not the best costume but not too bad on a couple of hours notice.

After Halloween we headed off with four of our friends to Guatemala. We first went to Antigua which is a very quaint town with cobble stone streets and brightly colored buildings. It is also very touristy and there seemed to be more gringos than Guatemalans. We hiked up an active volcano near Antigua and got to walk right up to the lava! It was a very unique experience. Kevin rented a stick that we were able to stick into the lava and make flame balls. It was so hot next to the lava that you could only stay a few seconds before your skin started to hurt. On our way down, the volcano became more active and huge flaming rocks started tumbling down. Everyone had to leave quickly and in the commotion our friend Elizabeth stepped on a loose rock and slipped and fell. Lava rock is extremely sharp and she ended up cutting herself up pretty badly with blood running down her leg. Luckily she was ok and Shannon, surprisingly, was able to clean her wounds for her.

We left Antigua and headed for El Lago de Atitlan and the community of Santiago de Atitlan. It is a pretty big lake with three volcanoes surrounding it. Santiago de Atitlan is a quaint little Mayan community on a hill overlooking the lake. We took a little boat across the lake and toured the city. We met a young boy (he wasn’t sure if he was 10 or 12 so he settled on 11) and for a small fee (about 75 US cents each) he showed us all the places of interest in the town. Spanish was his second language that he had only learned in school so it was really interesting to talk to him because he had an accent and made the same types of mistakes that we make. He was hilarious and took us to see Maximon (pronounced Mashimon by the locals) who is a Mayan God that is housed in a different house each year. He is a small wooden statue that is covered in silk scarves and ties and people have to pay 2 Quetzales (about 25 cents) to see Maximon and 10 more to take a picture of him. It is also recommended to give him gifts of guaro (really gross alcohol) or other alcohol and cigarettes. It was interesting to see and our little guide was hilarious!

From El Lago de Atitlan we went to Quetzaltano (Xela) which is the second largest city in Guatemala. It doesn’t seem that big as it is spread out. The architecture is very different from that in the rest of Guatemala as much of it was made by Germans and it has a more European style. There were a lot of columns and it really felt like we were in Europe. There was a really cool theater there that was all wooden inside and looked like something out of the Wild West. We had a great time walking around and seeing all of the interesting buildings. We also took a little trip to a nearby village to see the “craziest church in Central America”. It is brightly painted on the outside, orange, red, and yellow with designs, and even has some neon signs on the inside. It was quite interesting.

From Xela we took two buses (one overnight) to Flores to see the ruins of Tikal. Somewhere along the trip our friend Elizabeth’s bag, along with two others, “fell” off the bus. The bus driver kept changing his story and poor Elizabeth had to spend the entire day with the other two girls in the bus station. The bus company ended up giving them each $350 so that was much better than we expected. One of the girls was from Argentina and with her perfect Spanish and feistiness was able to argue well which probably helped. We spent that day exploring the little island of Flores which was pretty small and quaint.

The next day we headed off early (4:30 AM) to Tikal to see the awesome Mayan temples. Tikal is located in the middle of the jungle and is amazing! You are still able to climb to the top of most of the temples and from the tops of the tallest ones you can just see pure jungle with a few temple tops poking up. We spent six hours there and really could have spent an entire day. We also saw Coatis, a capybara, and white faced and howler monkeys. It was great and amazing to think that Mayans so many hundreds of years ago created these giant pyramids that are still standing today.

Ok, that is enough for one blog. Next week: Belize and Guatemala part 2!
Links to our pics from the trip:
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=1557094747&k=ZZ12YWS3QYTFY1LCXE4ZY5PQV3CC4U4F&oid=1279383752479
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=1557094747&k=ZZ12YWS3QYTFY1LCXE4ZY5PQV3CC4ZZM&oid=1263973129523
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=1557094747&k=ZZ12YWS3QYTFY1LCXE4ZY5PQV3CC4ZWB&oid=1305764123017
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=1557094747&k=ZZ12YWS3QYTFY1LCXE4ZY5PQV3CC4U2C&oid=1251308437021