November 8-15
When Holly and Blake came to visit us,
what a week it turned out to be!
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| We rode horses up Volcan Pacaya. |
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The entire afternoon,
this active volcano loudly rumbled, roared and spat ash into the air. |
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At one point, the horse trail ended; we dismounted
and stumbled on foot across a relatively recent lava flow. |
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We eventually found an open vent seeping up through the coarse black rock.
Hot air belched out. There, the guides provided marshmallows and roasting sticks. |
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| The marshmallows were yummy. |
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Once, the volcano growled so ferociously, we all looked up expecting
to see huge lava rocks pour down on top of us. Yikes! |
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The volcano's indigestion, however, only burped up hot gases
and billowing white clouds. As we slowly rode
back down the mountainside to base-camp, we all realized
what an amazing experience this had been.
Thank you, Pacaya. |
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| That night, we ate at a local restaurant named "Tacontento." |
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We ate tacos until we almost popped, but we were
very "contento." |
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The next day we took a three hour trip to beautiful Lake Atitlan,
stopping at ancient Mayan ruins -
a place called Iximche (ee/shim/shay). |
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Holly and Blake took time out to relax on the stairs
leading down to the ball court. |
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| They had a fun time in the ancient ruins. |
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| We reached Solola in the late afternoon. |
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At dusk, we arrived at huge Lake Atitlan.
This sunset photo was taken from our
hotel room window in Panajachel. |
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The downtown streets there are lined, block after block, with local merchants
selling everything from trinkets to food. Holly had fun shopping.
Blake just kept checking his pockets to see if there was any money left. |
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| Holly shopped until Blake dropped. |
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| The next morning we traveled by boat to the surrounding villages. |
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| From our boat, we saw Fuego erupt in the distance. |
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| In San Juan, we rode in "tuk-tuks." |
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| We saw the outside of the old Catholic cathedral... |
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| and the inside.. |
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As we traveled throughout the towns,
we looked for needy women with young children
so that we could donate baby kits to them. |
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| In one "tienda," we watched a woman spin, dye, and weave fabrics. |
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| Holly learned to hand-spin cotton. |
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At the next stop,
we watched another young girl grind cocoa
beans to make chocolate. Yum. |
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| At the wedding mural, Holly chose Blake all over again. |
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| Mom and daughter enjoyed an artist's shop. |
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In the town of Santiago, we met this native woman who
is the actual woman depicted on the
25 centavo coin of Guatemala. |
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| Cool, huh?! |
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On Sunday we attended an English speaking conference
near the Guatemala City temple. |
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Monday morning, we traveled this tree-canopied road
on our way to the Pacific coast. |
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We munched on lychee fruit that we had purchased
from a fruit stand in Esquintla.
The outside of this fruit looked hairy-scary... |
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| ...but the inside tasted candy-sweet. |
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When the road ended abruptly, we boarded
a two-car ferry to float down the river. |
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| Good bye! We hope we don't all drown. |
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At Hotel Dos Mundos in Monterrico, we
relaxed in the sun.
The hammocks were comfy. |
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| From the "infinity pool," we watched the crashing ocean waves. |
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| The virgin pina coladas were crazy good. |
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| Holly loved releasing baby sea turtles into their home in the ocean. |
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| We all had fun with the baby turtles, |
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From our hotel, "Dos Mundos," (Two Worlds)
we saw two suns. |
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On our way back from Monterrico,
we passed the historic architecture of Antigua. |
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On November 15, while Holly and Blake were waiting
in the departing airplane, they watched as Volcano Fuego
offered a final goodbye salute, sending a mile high column
of smoke and ash into the sky. |
During their stay, we had seen erupting volcanoes, a motorcycle accident that happened right in front of us, and two murdered bodies still lying in the street along with bullet casings. We had survived Guatemalan traffic, narrowly missed gang violence and lived through a boat ride across the lake with waves taller than the boat. Yup. We think Holly and Blake got a real taste of Guatemala. And we think they also had fun.
