Thursday: We had of work to go on a field trip because our cook Dona Mari is leaving us :( and we wanted to giver her a going away thing. We went to a place called Sabana Grande about an hour away from our house and brought lunch. We really had no idea what to expect but it was amazing. Sabana Grande is in the middle of the forest area on land owned by the university for agricultural students. It was this park away with picnic tables, grills, lodging, pools, forest hiking trails and, my favorite part...a waterfall and river! We spent most of the morning swimming in the waterfalls and then grilled chicken and steak and everyone had lunch together, me, abbey, clark and the whole staff was there. It was soo much fun and we are so lucky we got to go there :)
After we got home that night me and abbey decided to go out to dinner with her friend Brena from work to Fridays! We met up with Brena, her cousin Andrea and her friend Anita and had a pretty awesome dinner. They were a really good time, and Brena is so nice, we'll prob try to hang out with them again.
Friday: Work was fun, I brought macaroni and penne noodles and had the kids paint them to make necklaces! The only problem was that the macaroni was too skinny for the string to fit through so we just had to use the penne noodles and saved the macaroni noodles for another project. Friday afternoon right after lunch me abbey and clark set out on a grand adventure. The plan was to go to these waterfalls and pools called Semuk Champey. That is not what happened. So Friday we took a charter city bus to this town called Coban. Overall the bus wasnt bad but there was this couple in the seats right in front of us that was taking PDA to a whole new level. So that was cool....not. Heres some videos from the drive, and one of them is some sort of procession we saw on the way.
Once we got to Coban after the 5 hour drive we wandered around the town aimlessly for about 2 hours cuz it turns out the hostel we thought we made reservations at didnt exist anymore, and the one we ACTUALLY had reservations at we didnt know existed. So we ended up at a hostel called Casa Luna which was actually pretty nice and we went to eat at a yummy restaurant across the street!
Saturday: The next morning we got up and decided that we werent going to take a tour from Coban through Lanquin onto see Semuk but that we'd rather find our own way to Lanquin and then walk to Semuk...So we finally found a bus going to Lanquin and we loaded up for the 2 hour drive. Luckily it ended up that the guy next to us on the bus worked at a hostel in Lanquin, so we had a place to stay! But unfortunately by the time we got to Lanquin it was like 1 and the park where Semuk is closes at 4...so there was no way we were going to be able to make it. We were all really disappointed to have gone all that way only to not get to see the falls, but then we stopped and looked around for a minute and realized just how beautiful the place we were staying in Lanquin was. The hostel is on top of a mountain, surrounded by beautiful terrain, and it even has a river on the property. The people who worked there was amazing, and all in all it was alot of fun.
Sunday: We got in a shuttle at 8 in the morning for our 7 hour drive back to Guatemala City. So that was crazy long, and uncomfortable, and just not a good time. And after we got back here that night we were all pretty exhausted and we basically just went to sleep.
Today: At work we used the macaroni we painted friday to make the letters of their first and middle names on paper. They turned out pretty cute and I think its interesting how many of the kids here actually go by both names, its very different from our culture. This afternoon we had a lesson on Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Guatemala. Our guest speaker basically showed us pictures and videos of the different processions during the week in Antigua and Guatemala City and explained to us the meaning behind all of them. It was really interesting and basically it just got me REALLY excited for next week in Antigua :) Cant wait! Also 2 new volunteers got here on Saturday, there is Debbie from Puerto Rico, and she is a nurse, and Joe (Ironman) from Cleveland who graduated high school a semester early and decided to come here. So far they are really cool, and theyll both be with us in Antigua! yay! Well I gotta go eat dinner, Ill update later.
Beautiful Blog!! It sounds like you guys are having such amazing experiences.I hope all is well! :)
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