Guatemala

A few days after school ended, Jordan and I took a trip to Guatemala. We flew into Guatemala City and stayed there for one night. The next morning we took a shuttle to Lake Atitlan. We stayed in a lakeside village called San Marcos La Laguna which is reachable by boat.




In San Marcos we stayed at a beautiful small hotel right on the water. It had a small beach, good food and a beautiful view. It was a little outside of the village itself, which is divided by a road into the local section and the foreigner section. Closest to the lake is where all the hotels and restaurants are. The town is really nothing more than a series of foot paths winding between buildings and trees. It was hippie heaven with holistic centers (where you could have your aura read or be healed by crystals), vegetarian restaurants and small stores selling local produce.





After a few days of relaxing and reading, we headed back to Panajachel, which is the main town on the lake. We took the chicken buses from Pana to Chichicastenango (Chichi) to go the world-famous market. The chicken buses are the local buses that got their names from the birds people bring onto the bus with them. The buses (we had to take three) were an experience in itself seeing as we loaded from the front and the back (with the door being shut and pushing on my rear end), had interesting seatmates, and got up close and personal with the locals.




After about two hours, we finally arrived in the busy city of Chichi for market day. It was the best market of the year because they were celebrating their local patron saint. There were dancers and musicians everywhere. Sometime during the craziness, Jordan had his wallet stolen. This really sucked because we had talked about precautions before leaving and he had his wallet in his front pocket. Apparently that wasn't enough. Everything is okay, though. They only stole a little cash and a card that was canceled before they tried anything.

The market was beautiful and alive with action and colors. You could by just about anything there including textiles, wood carvings and embroidery.



After Chichi we spent the day in Pana looking at the stores and stands. There was a really cool bookstore where we bought new (used) books to read. We've been reading whatever we can get from my school lately so it was nice to have books that we picked out.

We then moved on to Antigua, which is a beautiful, colonial town like Granada. It is surrounded by three volcanoes, one of which is active. We spent several days just walking around town and seeing everything. There were lots of cool stores and restaurants to see. We met up with friends from Heredia and had a fun night complete with salsa dancing and alcohol smuggling.




In Antigua we also went on a coffee plantation tour. Margarita showed use here coffee farm and processing building. It was an awesome tour and a great way to learn about coffee.



We tried to attend midnight mass on Christmas Eve but it apparently isn't at midnight because everything was all closed up when we go there. We did see all the fireworks in town, though. That was fun!

On Christmas day we took a shuttle back to Guatemala City where we proceeded to spend Christmas day laying on the bed watching cable (which we haven't had for a while) because nothing is open in the city on the 25th. We did get to order a pizza later in the day and we watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas in honor of the holiday. That was about as Christmas-y as it got, though.

Our flight back went though Honduras, which was cool to see. We didn't get off the plane, but the landscape looked a lot like Costa Rica. And now, after 4 loads of laundry, we are back and ready to welcome my mom and Frank tomorrow afternoon.

I hope you had a wonderful holiday and enjoyed the snow, if that applies to you. :)

As Santa said in Antigua, "Jo, jo, jo, Feliiiiiiz Naaaavidaaaad!"