I guess I should update everyone on some of my travels so far this summer. The day after school got out, I was on a plane heading to Los Angeles to meet up with my older brother and my parents to start our journey to Guatemala. We took a red eye on Saturday night/Sunday morning. I got to sit next to an old Guatemalan lady that didn't speak any English (I also questioned her Spanish) so I ended up translating for the stewardess a couple times. We got to Guatemala City, found our rental car, and then headed off to the city of Antigua. All of the buildings were beautiful with all sorts of bright colors. We were able to attend church with the local branch that Sunday. We only stayed for Sacrament meeting as we were wiped out from our flight. We went back to our hotel to sleep for a bit and then we wandered the town to see the sights.
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| We got out of the rain and found a dance party with locals playing the marimba |
On Monday, we walked around Antigua some more. It rained a lot while we were there and took refuge inside buildings when it got to be too much. At the end of the day, we took a shuttle to the volcano Pacaya so we could hike to the top. Mom took a "taxi" (aka a horse) to the top as it was a really steep climb. There wasn't any visible lava where we were on the volcano and it rained poured up there too. We were all soaked by the time we were through. We were originally planning on saving the volcano hike for Wednesday, but we had time and energy on Monday so we moved it up on the schedule. It was a good thing that we did that because it ended up erupting and was closed on Wednesday. We could see lava sitting on the top while we were a safe distance away in Guatemala City.
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On top of Old Smokey the volcano |
On Tuesday, we hired an LDS tour guide to take us to Lake Atitlan to show us what is thought to be the Waters of Mormon. We saw a lot of land as we drove there, it was very green. We realized how easy it would be for a group of people to get lost among the mountains, volcanos, and trees (lots of trees).
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| A restaurant close to the lake. Each chair had a different shirt with patterns from local groups/areas. |
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| Waterfall by the lake |
On Wednesday, we toured Antigua some more. We found a guide to tell us more about the nunnery we walked around.
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| The nuns washed clothes from people in the city to earn money |
We took more pictures so Dad could paint a picture for Mom when they got home rather than buying on of the local paintings. We also finished all of our shopping as we wouldn't have time the rest of the week. I bought a cute bag and a Christmas ornament. I managed to get the guy to go down from 70 quetzales to 30 (I guess a wink and a smile go a long way). Mom wanted one like mine as well, but the guy only had the one. We weren't too worried about finding another one as the same ones were all over the market we were walking around, but it took a lot of convincing to get someone to go down to the price I got.
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| The view in most paintings of Antigua |
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| All of the streets in Antigua were a type of cobblestone. It wasn't very comfortable to drive on. |
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