Guatemala...Heaven?

Our old sign...we just got a huge shiny one here and at our junction.
I am a little sad to see this rusted familiar sign go.

"Il'ock' Sha'an!"(Look at the old lady):
Lilly and her friend Kathleen came to visit us and our ruins. We made pizza and Brendon climbed in through the window because he was to shy to move the gate. He crawled in and stood behind me whispering about 'the one in the green shirt.' When Lilly came back in from bathing and unwrapped her hair from her towel Brendon started laughing. "Il'ock' sha'an miss!" -look at the old lady miss he repeated between giggle fests to me. I was confused and asked him why he was calling Lilly (3 years younger than myself) an old lady. He came over and whispered that "saq ismal" white hair...she is blond. The kids came over from Ofelia's house (it was Fermin's birthday) with rice and stewed chicken for us. They were afraid to walk back in the dark so Lilly, Kathleen and I set off.

The kids take us through the village way. The village way is walking through people's yards and right by their windows (Mr. Cal was pretty shocked to look up from his family supper and see me with two strange white people and 5 kids walking past his window). When we got close dogs came out of nowhere, like 5 of them, and the kids instinctively surrounded us while shooing them off in ketchi, "xik zti' " -go dog! We were welcomed in where the family was watching a Nigerian movie (very popular low budget dramas like telenovelas). We were caught up quickly; the three sisters don't know their four sister is actually their niece who was kidnapped by their parents from their dying aunt.

Mr. Santiago chuckled and then shared the story of poor Greg. Apparently Greg was being good and trying to learn some ketchi at school. He came home one day and, with a huge smile on his face, said a very offensive sentence in perfect ketchi. Mr. Santiago said Ofelia was shocked to hear such things come from his mouth. They wouldn't tell him what he said. Mr. Santiago said he shouldn't trust those rude boys from Standard 6...everyone was laughing so hard they had to turn up the telenovela. Around this time Greg made it over, they all had another good laugh about it. We stayed until the sisters plotted to set up their unknown sister and we walked back with Lynette. I asked her what it was Greg said, Greg told me he was trying to say 'I am going to go bathe.' She laughed. "He said, in a rude way, lets go...um..." If it wasn't so dark and she wasn't Maya I might have seen her blush. "Make sex." she concludes. WHAT! Poor Greg. Time to pack for Guatemala!!!

Green Guatemala: The Promise Land

16 adults in a 14 seat passenger van

Quetzales 3.65- 1BZE or 7.85- 1 USD

From my two short days...36 hours I have fallen in love with this country. Everything is so cheap...I mean their asking price is 30% cheaper than my bargain price in Belize and THEN they don't bat an eye when you take it down another 5-10 Quetzales!! We went to Rio Dulce where we ate lunch on a restaurant on the lake. Fancy. Ice cream, appetizers for free, and paper towels.

Greg with a ketchup packet...a ketchup packet! Melissa, Ruby, and Raquel.

Then we packed back in the van to drive to El Estor. My new favorite place in the world. It is a large ketchi town. ALL the women and girls wear the ketchi skirts and shirts and also they have a crochet over shirt shall like thing they wear. Shops are on every corner. Language choices: ketchi or Spanish. After a few attempts where Greg informed me I am asking "When?" not 'How much' I gave up on the Spanish and just went to ketchi shops. Success... 'Na qwa nim uuk.' -I want big skirt. I was blown away by Greg's Spanish, I stared in disbelief as he responded and spoke when I picked out only one or two words. Greg will tell you he can speak it, but not understand it. And speak it he does. He later told me he felt the same about my Ketchi. Casalettos; available languages...3.

Tiny girl in the market, for sale? The beauty of bags...I had to have them; water, cola, OJ, Downy, and bleach!

Guatemala has more pastures and horses. They have this smooth lovely road, you might have heard of it: the Pan American Highway. I was too awestruck to think to take a picture, my apologies. There is also not a monopoly on every industry hence- Pepsi. Dad I don't know how you drink that stuff. After not drinking soda for 5 years, then only drinking coke here in Belize, I've been branded...bad.

I felt so guilty...cheating on my brand.

Guatemalans love tiny vehicles.

Greg's teachers were hilarious. The rides were filled with constant teasing and banter. They were all so 'jokey' my cheeks hurt. There were 15 of us total that went. Surprisingly there were no fights but it was hard to get everyone in one location. Embarrassingly there were two 'street meetings' where everyone stared at the Belizeans hashing out their money and where to go next, and how much they should get back from the kitty. But we recovered quickly with a game plan and went with the flow for the most part. Boat tour of the lake and a 'family dinner' at our nice hotel for 24 Belize (TV, Air, and a shower shocker!)!!!!

Longest bridge in all of Central America


Fish market

Most of Greg's teachers...minus Teacher James who was on our row.

Castillo de San Felipe

All showered up talking about our crazy day.

Mother's Day decorations in Guatemala and MY LOOOOOOTTTTT!!!