National Polar Bear Day...

So sometimes life isn't fair. Apparently today is National Polar Bear Day and I didn't find that out until about 8:45 tonight. I can't believe I wasted an entire Polar Bear Day walking around like an idiot not knowing. In my offense I didn't know because surprisingly it isn't a huge celebrated day here in Guatemala. I hope you had a beautiful Polar Bear Day! :)

Anyways, It has also been awhile since I uploaded some cooking pictures, so here you go. It's been a crazy couple of weeks, but I finally had time to go to the market yesterday, so tonight I did some cooking. I also made zucchini stuffed chicken last night, but didn't take pictures.

These are roasted chickpeas. Heather got a recipe for them in an email a couple of weeks ago and we have been wanting to make them since. Also Ashley talked about them last week. She puts them in salads everyday. I think I needed to cook them a little longer because only about half of them are crunchy, but I like them a lot. You can find hundreds of recipes for them online.

Next I made dinner. I made sesame seed crusted chicken with sauteed carrots and cucumbers. I also found this recipe online. You soak the chicken in sesame seed oil and soy sauce before you roll it in sesame seeds and panko. Super easy and quick.

My roommate cooked chicken with mole sauce tonight, so our kitchen was wrecked after both of us cooked. Sometimes I really miss a dishwasher.

Right now Heather and I are watching The Bachelor (and when I say watching I mean we have it on mute and are making fun of it/the people who are addicted to it). My apologies if you are one of those people. I still watch Survivor, so feel free to judge me back.

I hope you all had a very beautiful Polar Bear Day! And you're welcome for the very exciting blog for today. :)

Belize week recap... Get ready for some photos.

Right now I am sitting in my apartment in Pana watching the Oscars. We had a team fly out of Guatemala City this morning at 5:00, so I met the Joshua (a bus driver we work with often) at the airport bright and early and headed back to Pana. He dropped me off in Los Encuentros where I caught a chicken bus to Solola where I got on yet another bus to Pana. On the first bus I shared a seat with a man with a basket of roosters (not kidding) then on the second bus I sat with a man who had a pig hanging out of his shirt (again not kidding!). I'm impressed that it was my first time riding one by myself and I did it with my backpacker's backpack and also my regular size one. Anyways, it's a good feeling to be back in my apartment, but I had an amazing week with Ashley. Here are some of my favorite pictures from our trip and some stories from the past couple of days.

Here are a couple of pictures from when Ashley visited Salud y Paz and met the kids and everyone I work with. The first picture is of us with Reyna (with me) and Pati. 2 Kindergarten students I adore.

With the first grade class. I am so happy Ashley got to play with the kids for a little bit.

 

Next up here are some Antigua pictures. We were only there for a day, but it was beautiful. I should spend more weekends in Antigua. This fountain is in the main square in Antigua.

 Here we are at lunch at Hotel Casa Santo Domingo. This is where we planned Parker's wedding. :)

 You can't really tell because it is far away, but Ashley is on the stage posing like a bridesmaid. By the way Parker got an email back from the wedding planner here with a DETAILED budget of his upcoming Spring 2013 wedding. If you read this and are now wondering why you didn't know Parker was engaged and getting married in Guatemala next Spring you should probably read my previous blog about Antigua before sending a congrats text.

The ruins at this hotel are gorgeous!!

I bought a painting of this arch in August when I went to Antigua for the first time. It is a beautiful view with the arch, cobblestone streets, and the volcano in the background.

Ash took this picture while we were walking around the town at night. I think the flowers in front look photoshopped it's so pretty.

Ok... now onto El Savador. :) After a 30 minute flight we stopped in San Salvador for about 20 minutes before flying for another 45 minutes to Belize City. We decided we needed to document our time in El Savador, so we took a picture with the tackiest thing in the store.

BELIZE!!!!! When we landed in Belize city we took a taxi to get to the water taxi. Then when we got to the second island we took another boat to our resort. Here we are on our hotel's boat heading to our island. Needless to say it was a little windy.

This is our resort. So beautiful!! It was on the very edge of San Pedro and a 30 minute boat ride away from the town of San Pedro.

Our room was right on the ocean front. It was so beautiful to just walk out the front door and see such a beautiful view. Here's Ash posing on our porch.

Living room view from the front door. Such a beautiful room.

We took so many pictures of the 2 of us with pretty backgrounds. We needed a third person to just follow us around to take pictures of us.

Ashley and I went on lots of walks around the island and I loved how deserted it was. We would randomly pass locals sometimes, but for the most part it was just the 2 of us. So quiet and peaceful.

One morning we were suppose to go kayaking and snorkeling, but it was too windy so instead we decided to ride bikes. Here's a helpful note... Riding a bike on sand is MUCH more difficult than riding on a road. However, I guess we really wouldn't know that since neither of us could remember the last time we even road a bike.

After our bike ride we took the boat to San Pedro to walk around town. I saw this little cuteness on the sidewalk and decided I needed a picture with it. I had read in our welcome book for the resort that we could have one pet with us in our room, but Ashley wouldn't let me.

We rented a golf cart for an hour to drive around town. Ash didn't care about driving, so I got to drive for the whole time which I loved. There wasn't a lot to see in San Pedro, but everything was so beautiful.

When we got back we went sailing. The resort has a hobie cat sail boat that a dude who works there will take you out on.

A lot of activities that we wanted to do got canceled because it was so windy the days we were there, so we sometimes had to come up with things to do. I decided I really wanted to climb a palm tree to pick a coconut. Ashley was a great cousin and took pictures of me to prove I really did it. I will admit it wasn't the tallest tree (who would choose the tallest tree with shorter easier ones around??), but it was in fact a tree that I had to climb. If you've met me then you know how accident prone I am, so to climb a tree and not fall out of it was a huge accomplishment for me.

It was a team effort getting the stupid thing open. Ashley insisted I only use knives when she was outside with me (see earlier reference about being extremely accident prone).

We used all the random kitchen tools we had in our room and scissors from the front desk. When I returned the scissors they asked why I borrowed them and then I got several weird looks when I explained I used them to open a coconut. Also one night one of the resort dudes came to our room to ask us about something and when I opened the door he was looking at the mess all over the table (did I mention that we left all the kitchen tools and coconut pieces on the table for a couple of days) and all I could come up with to say was "I climbed a tree". Ashley and I decided that people we meet must love us because we are so delightful (and by delightful I mean weird and quirky).

The next morning we decided to hike to the end of the island where it meets the coral reef. We were afraid we were not going to be able to snorkel because it was so windy, and we really wanted to see the reef. It was about 4 miles (we think) to the reef. After walking along the beach for about 45 minutes you come to the part that they call rocky point because the edge of the island is lined with coral rocks that have washed to shore. Half the time we walked on the rocks and half the time we just walked through the ocean. It was difficult because it was so windy which made the waves crash harder.

It was a hat day since it was so windy. :)

Ashley thought I needed an action shot of me walking on the rocks and not falling.

After our hike our snorkeling trip had been canceled (again... stupid wind!), so we instead just took the boat into town and thought we would see if we could find anything else to do there. After checking with many places who all told us it was too windy to do anything we checked on snorkeling the following day and found out that they were about to take a boat out that afternoon.

We went snorkeling in 2 places. The first one I can't remember the name of but it was a reserve where we mostly just saw fish and the coral reef. Our second stop was Shark and Stingray Ally (sounds scary right??) where we saw sharks, stingrays, sea turtles, fish, and again the coral reef. Apparently this is the second biggest coral reef in the world.

 SHARKS!!!!! I took this picture from the boat right before I jumped in to snorkel. Just to brag :) I touched 4 sharks, 2 stingrays, a countless fish. I actually kicked a fish in the face on accident then spent a few minutes swimming after it to make sure it was ok. Before you judge me you try swimming in huge flippers. It's difficult and you can't always tell what you're about to kick.

This isn't the best picture, but here Ash and I are snorkeling. We did buy an underwater camera that Ashley is going to get developed when she gets back in DC. I'll post those pictures on here after I get them. Hopefully they turned out really cool.

On the dock in San Pedro waiting to take the boat back to the resort after snorkeling.

 I don't have any pictures to go with this story, but on our last night one of the guys at the hotel (the social director... what a great job) asked if we wanted to hang out with him and another guy that night after dinner. We originally said no, but then we got curious about where locals would go to hang out on a deserted island so we said we would hang out for a little while. We ended up walking to an old abandoned shrimp factory that some dude has moved into and turned into a club. It was located between the 2 resorts that are located on that end of the island and it's where all the peeps who work at the resorts go to hang out after work. We learned that the guys from our resort are called the green iguanas (because they wear green shirts) and that the girls who work at the other resort are called the yellow birds (again they wear yellow). The club (aka shrimp factory) looked a little sketch to us, so we stayed outside at the picnic tables and hammocks and didn't go inside. We played the 'we are not dancers' card and left after taking in the experience. The things we do for a funny story.

Last morning in Belize I woke up really early and watched the sunrise from the dock. I sat there drinking coffee for about an hour before I saw anyone else up. It was such a beautiful peaceful moment at the end of a few really busy weeks.

Just a cute cousin picture in front of the resort sign on our last morning.

Before we got on the boat to leave we took a picture with our green iguana friends. Jose (who while he took us sailing I noticed a HUGE tattoo on his back that says Jose and asked who that was to which he just looked at me and explained that that was his name... hilarious awkward moment) and Harrison who is the social director at the resort. Ashley asked him the night before if he ever wore shoes and she got about the same look I got from Jose. Again we are just delightful guest to have. :)

There were only a couple of other people on the boat, so Harrison let us drive (or at least take pictures to make it look like we were driving).

Ash driving. When she tried to get up the first time she fell and then the second time she grabbed the steering wheel to help steady herself. I was afraid the whole boat was going to make a sharp turn.

We jumped off of the water taxi on Caye Caulker to spend a few hours on that island before heading back to Belize City to fly out. We walked around feeling like we were in an oven. It was so incredibly hot and without any breeze at all. After walking around for a few minutes we felt like we had already seen the whole island, so we looked for a lunch place. Mainly because we were too hot to walk anymore.

After Caye Caulker we headed back on the water taxi for Belize City. We both fell asleep on the boat and when we got off a guy grabbed us and our bags and within about 30 seconds of being off the boat we were already in a cab heading to the airport. We looked at each other and realized that we were both still half asleep. Ashley said that she almost yelled at the guy to put down her bag, but then was worried about what the other taxi drivers would think if a little while girl yelled at one of them. I feel like you can't really appreciate the humor of this moment unless you were there (sadly that may be the case with a lot of things I blog about).

This picture we took at the airport waiting for our TACA flight. We found diet cokes in a store at the airport! This may not seam like a big deal to you who live in the United States where they have the delicious diet coke, but here in Guatemala they only have the stupid coca-cola light which tastes nothing like diet coke. It was a great moment... some may compare it to finding gold.

Lastly, here are my embarrassing tan lines at the end of the week. I wore my chacos all week and now have Z's on top of my feet. I am also sporting a bad watch tan. Let's see how long it will take me to get rid of these.

This was a beautiful week and having Ashley come down to experience what my life is like here was truly a blessing I'll cherish the rest of my life. So blessed to have a cousin who wants to see what I'm doing down here and who also realizes without me having to say it how much I needed a break and some great one on one time with her.

It also has made me incredibly excited for the rest of my family to come in a couple of weeks. Oh my goodness and I looking forward to hugging them. To be able to sit and laugh with my parents, Poppy, and Parker is going to be such a needed vacation. I'm being so cheesy, but I really can't wait to hug my mom and dad, show Poppy everywhere in Pana I love so much, and finish planning in person Parker's wedding next year. :)

I have a lot more pictures from our trip on Facebook that I couldn't post on here because it would have taken so long. I think you can get to the album of pictures from this link: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100190215119515.2373293.34402535&type=1

Ok... back to the Oscars.

Belize... Welcome to Paradise.

Right now I'm sitting on a dock watching the sunrise in beautiful Belize. What could be a more beautiful moment?

Wednesday morning at 4:00 AM Ashley and I got picked up from our hotel in Antigua to get to Guatemala City in time for our 7:00 flight to Belize City. We had a stop over in El Savador where we had just enough time to buy a cross and take a picture to document our beautiful 30 minutes in that country. Then after about a 40 minute flight we landed in Belize City. We didn't spend anytime there. We caught a taxi to the dock where we caught a boat taxi to our island. The water here is beautiful. It was stunning being out on the boat for the first time.

We got off of the boat taxi at San Pedro then were picked up on our hotel's boat. Our hotel is about a 30 minute boat ride from San Pedro (not complaining... It's beautiful!) So here is something I learned this week. When Ashley books a hotel (or really a resort) it is MUCH different than a Kelly Cragg booking. I've heard Ashley say so many times "yep... This is how I travel" and it makes me smile every time. This week has been beyond amazing with her.

Anyways... Here is how Ash travels (which I could totally get used to. I would just have to start winning the lottery). We got off the boat and were met at our dock with cocktails (who else thought that only happened in movies??). The place we are staying is called Sueno del Mar which means Dream of the Sea and their slogan is Welcome to Paradise. I can't wait to get back to Guatemala and upload my pictures to share with y'all. This is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.

Now on to all the fun things we've been doing. When we got here on Wednesday we spent some time getting settled in and exploring then we laid by one of the pools. Ash read her nook and I made note cards from my "Spanish for Gringos" book I bought in Pana a few weeks ago. I think I should earn some kind of points or gold stars for studying on vacation... Just saying. After a few hours we took a boat to a neighboring resort for dinner. We first asked if we could walk there (it is only about a 5 minute walk), but we're told it would be difficult to walk through the jungle at night. One girl who works here just laughed at us and handed us a flashlight. Then we found out from Jose (dude who works at the front desk who we ask our thousands of stupid questions to) that they would come get us in a boat. Why the first chick didn't tell us that who knows. It was fun to take the boat at night, but it made me a little nervous. Big bodies of water when you can't see anything terrifies me. I think it's the whole "I am ridiculously accident prone and I know that my chances of falling in are higher than the normal persons".

Ok... On to yesterday. We woke up and were suppose to go kayaking and snorkeling, but it was crazy windy out so they didn't feel safe letting us go out on kayaks. Here is where it got interesting. We decided to then bike ride to the reef. Neither one of us could remember the last time we rode a bike so we were both a little shaky at first, but we eventually figured it out. Also let me just point out that riding a bike on sand is much more difficult than on a road. There were several times we would have to stop and walk out bikes... So much laughter. After riding for about 30 minutes (and realizing however long we biked for one way we would have to bike that long going back) we decided to turn around and take the 10:00 boat into San Pedro. San Pedro is cool, but after spending 4 hours there I'm glad we are staying on the deserted part of the island. When we got to town we really didn't know what to do. We looked into parasailing, but it was again too windy. The streets are linked with golf carts you can rent to drive around, so we decided to do that to see the rest of town. You would have laughed seeing me drive the cart. It was larger than a normal cart and felt like it was the slowest thing ever. We rented it for an hour and I got to drive the whole time which I loved. We didn't really know where we were going (we have discovered getting a map of where we are going is an after thought to us everywhere we go), but we just drove to one side of the island then to the other.

After our joyride we ate lunch at Fido's. We had grabbed an appetizer there the day before when waiting for our hotel water taxi and wanted to go back for lunch. We ordered conch for an appetizer then I also got it for my meal. I had never heard of it, but it is apparently the animal (don't know if that's the right word) that lives in the pretty pink shells you see people blowing into in movies (you can laugh at that description, but I bet you knew exactly what I was talking about). It was good. It kinda tasted like lobster, but a little more chewy.

After lunch we walked around town for a little longer then caught the 2:00 boat back to the resort. When we got back we went out on a little sailboat. The dude I mentioned above Jose took us out for about an hour and it was so much fun. Ash is actually a certified sailor, but I had never been. The boat we were on is called a hobie cat, and was the perfect size for 3 people. Ash and I sat on opposite sides (whole boat was about 6 feet wide)and Jose switched sides depending on which side the sail was on. There were several moments where he popped the sail to the other side (I'm sure that the professional sailing way to say that) and told us to duck. It flew to the other side with so much power than I'm way impressed with myself for never being smacked in the head and knocked off the boat (see earlier comment about being accident prone).

After sailing Ash and I walked back through the jungle path to the rows and rows of palm trees. I had been talking about wanting to climb a tree to get a coconut and thought this was my chance. I thought climbing the tree was going to be the challenge, but once I got us the tree it was actually more difficult pulling the stupid coconut out of the tree. I almost fell backwards off the tree when it finally came out. Also please picture me up in the tree while Ashley is taking pictures and we are both dying laughing. Then imagine a golf cart driving by... that was our experience. Next we went back to our room and spent awhile hacking it open. We used all the kitchen tools in our little kitchenette (pizza cutter, wine opener, peeler, knives) and scissors from the front desk (they looked at me like I was an idiot), but we finally got it open.

After our coconut victory we hung out in the Palapa which is the main area at the resort where the restaurant, front desk, pool area is and waited to be able to shower. The water was broken in our room, so we had to wait awhile. To kill time we played board games, walked along the peer, walked in the ocean (which I discovered is like quick sand because I wiped out at one point and flew into the water so fast... Hilarious). Next we just chilled with some of the resort staff. Ash and I have discovered that we must be a delight to everyone. We are absolutely those tourist that make friends and ask stupid questions. Did you know that apparently Guatemala is trying to steal half of Belize's land? Everyone here I've told that I'm in Guatemala right now tells me about it. I keep telling them that happened before I moved there and that I'll fix it. It makes them laugh. Like I said we bring joy. :)

Today we are chilling around the resort this morning then snorkeling at sting ray and shark ally (for some reason that doesn't scare me as much as it probably should). I'll update later maybe. Hope it's a beautiful Belize day!

Antigua = more laughter than I thought was possible.

Just another beautiful day in Guatemala with Ashley. This morning we headed to Salud y Paz, so Ashley could experience Camanchaj. I had so much fun showing Ashley around and having her see everything and meet all the students and staff. She had actually already met a lot of the staff when we were in the market in Chichi. We have a huge team in this week, so it was cool to show Ash what a busy day at work is like. Between the school, the clinic being open so their are patients and vendors everywhere, and the team being there I think she got a good sense of what a typical day is like at work here. Loved showing my new world down here to her.

After being at work for about 2 hours we got a ride with one team's bus driver to Los Encuentros where we caught a shuttle to Antigua. We arrived to our hotel (casa del parque) around lunch time then took a tuk tuk to Hotel Casa del Santo Domingo to eat lunch. This is one of the most beautiful hotels (if not the prettiest) that I've ever been in. When I was here in August we ate lunch at this hotel. It is an old monastery with ruins that has been turned into one of the best hotels in Guatemala. After lunch we walked around the grounds which are beyond beautiful. Like it was in August it was set up for a wedding which I think would be such a beautiful and cool place to have a wedding. I told Ash that I had heard that it was $100,000 to get married there which she couldn't fathom. Next we found ourselves looking for the front desk to ask for wedding information. Next thing I know we are sitting in the wedding planner's office planning a wedding (yep... Get excited). We had decided on the way to the meeting that we needed a good story that wasn't just "we are 2 girls without boyfriends that think a wedding here would be beautiful". Ash decided that we should be sisters and asking about information for our brother's upcoming wedding. You see he had backpacked here many years ago and had always dreamed of having his wedding here and was about to get engaged. It seamed like a good plan.

However, when we sat down for the meeting (yes you can laugh at us) I completely ruined it. You see when we sat down the planner asked for some information, so she could give us an appropriate price quote (and here I was thinking we could just get a pamphlet). First question she asked was "whose getting married?" to which Ashley replied Parker Cragg (this is where I started giggling a little). Next question was "what is his phone number and email address so I can contact him?". Now this is where I LOST it. I mean I can't remember the last time I laughed this hard and I tend to be a person who laughs a lot. Ash started giving the planner Parker's number and I literally got up and left the room I was laughing so hysterically. The thought of this lady calling Parker and giving him information for his upcoming wedding was too much for me to handle. I can't even explain how hard I was laughing. I was standing in the hallway and a man came out of his office to ask if I was ok because I was sitting on the ground in the middle of the hallway with tears down my face. After crying laughing for a few minutes I got myself together enough to go back in. I was wrong. The second I opened the door and walked in I heard Ashley planning the drink menu with the planner and immediately got back up and ran back out laughing. Ashley told me later that she explained to the lady that "I hadn't gotten much sleep and was delirious". Again after sitting on the floor crying for another few minutes I went in and Ashley was sitting there alone. The lady had gone to get her business card and Ashley and I died laughing. The planner came back in and said she would email Parker all the information he needs for his upcoming Spring 2013 wedding. Really though however hard you are imagining me laughing times it by 50 and that's where I was. Ashley and I almost fell over each other walking out of the office we were so hysterical. It has to be one of my favorite cousin moments ever.

After we planned Parker's surprise wedding we walked to the Jade museum. We both found out what our Mayan signs were and shopped around. By the way my Mayan sign is Ajmaq that is the sign of the sinner and dead and I found out last week that the name Kelly means war. What the heck?!? Mom and Pa what were y'all thinking??

Next up we just spent a few hours walking around Antigua. We walked to the mail square and to some of the beautiful churches they have here. We also went to a couple of cool flea market type places. It was such a gorgeous day here to be walking around. We then decided that we would take a tuk tuk back to the hotel because we had no idea where it was from the square. We ended up walking around for about 20 minutes because we couldn't find a tuk tuk. Finally we got one and after riding around for a few minutes he let us out and told us to walk a few stores over and we would be there... Wrong. Next after awhile we finally got another one and he drove us around for awhile before again he just let us out and told us to walk a block and we would be there. We got out of the tuk tuk laughing and with Ashley yelling that she was boycotting tuk tuks. Luckily he was right and after walking down a block that he could have easily driven us to we finally made it back to the hotel. Here is the hilarious part. We discovered that the hotel was about 4 stores away from the main square in Antigua where we had been standing lost forever. :)

For dinner we walked a few streets over to a restaurant called Fonda de Calle (I think). It was really cool because the kitchen was in the same room we ate in, so you could watch them cool your food. It was another meal filled with laughter. I'm so glad Ashley is here to experience all of these amazing moments with. I mean come on who else could I plan a fake surprise wedding for Parker with?

Now we are back at the hotel about to fall asleep. We have a shuttle picking us up at 4:00 AM, so we can get to the airport in Guatemala City for our 7:05 flight to BELIZE!!!
I didn't bring my computer with me, so I can't upload pictures until I get back to Pana on Sunday, but if we have Internet at our hotel there I'll keep you updated.

Hope you enjoyed our hilarious day!

ASHLEY'S IN GUATEMALA!!!!!!!

ASHLEY IS HERE!!!!! It is so nice to have family here! Ashley has been in Guatemala since Saturday afternoon and I have loved showing her around my little area of Guatemala that I love so much. When we got to Pana on Saturday night after dropping off her bag at my apartment we went to the Hotel del Sol to meet my roommate for dinner. We were thinking about going parasailing on Sunday, but the sky was a little cloudy so instead we decided to go to Chichicastenango for the market the next morning.

I had been to Chichi during my mission trip here in August and also went a few weeks ago when I was working with a team. We started the morning by going to the Hotel Santo Tomas (where we have a lot of our teams stay) and taking pictures with the parrots. It's my favorite thing about the hotel.

Next up we spent some time walking around the market. When we got to the end of one road we saw this huge arch that I thought was beautiful.

There is a beautiful church in the middle of the market that is always beyond crowded. Every time I'm been to the market there are ladies sitting on the steps of the church selling gorgeous flowers.

Ashley and I walked up to the cemetery and on the way apparently walked down the bird street. Here's Ash posing with her new chicken buddies.

Also on bird ave we saw this little kid and a few more like him carrying live turkeys up the road to sell in the market. Hilarious.

Our new bud Edwin. He was quite possibly the cutest/smartest kid we've ever met. He talked us into buying a stuffed elephant... impressive.

After taking a shuttle back to Pana we ate dinner at the Sunset Cafe. It is right on the lake and has live music playing most nights. There was a Guatemalan band playing Beatles' songs half in Spanish and half in English. Ashley and I are both people watchers and there was a table on all foreigners that were drinking and dancing. So much laughter.

This morning we took a boat ride around the lake to 4 different villages. We had an hour stop at the first 3 then 2 hours at the last. We went to San Marcos, San Pedro, San Juan, and Santiago Atitlan. All of which were beyond beautiful. Also Pana had been a little cloudy the past couple of days, but today was one of the clearest days I've seen since I've been here. I was so happy when I woke up and saw that you could see the entire volcano from the house.

Such a beautiful day for a boat ride!

On the first stop in San Marcos there really wasn't much to see except for this beautiful church. The rest of the village seamed to be made up of massage schools and spas.

When we didn't know where to go we just sat and looked at the lake. Again what a perfect day to be on the lake!

We have so many pictures of us that we took ourselves. Maybe in Antigua and Belize we'll get better at asking people to take our picture.

On one of the boat rides we sat in the front of the boat and got SOAKING WET! Here is a picture Ashley took where you could see the water flying at us. It was really hot out, so we dried off completely in about 2 minutes once we docked.

We went to the store and to the market yesterday and packed a lunch to bring with us on the boat ride. When we got to San Pedro we started up this really tall hill then decided we were hungry and tired of walking, so we just went back to the dock and ate lunch. It was a cute cousin moment.

Last stop was Santiago Atitlan. This was a cool church right off of the main square that we walked to.

Inside these statues lined the walls of the church. We couldn't figure out why they all seamed to be dressed in these pink doctor coat things.

When we got home from the boat tour I finished giving Ash the tour around town then we headed back to the apartment for a bit. Next we took a tuktuk down to the beach to watch the sunset before heading back into town to eat dinner. We ate at an Asian restaurant that I have never been that had such a cool design to it.

Lastly, enjoy this picture of my stupid Chacos tan. Please note that this tan is after one day on the boat. Imagine how bad it is going to be after Belize. Also sorry for all the ugly spider bites. On a side note Ashley has slept in my bed for 2 nights now and has NO SPIDER BITES... Not fair!! I even introduced her to Paco and Raul (the 2 scary big spiders that live on my ceiling) and neither of them have crawled down to attack. I don't get it!

 

 Ok... I'm off to bed. Ashley is already asleep, but I thought I should update the blog before we leave town. In the morning we are heading to Camanchaj so Ashley can see Salud y Paz. We will be there for a couple of hours before catching a bus to take us to Antigua for the night. We will spend most of the day tomorrow in Antigua then be picked up at 4:00 AM to head to Guatemala City to fly to BELIZE! To be honest I don't know much about what we will be doing in Belize. (I planned Guatemala and Ash made me reservations for Belize) I can't wait to get on the road tomorrow and experience a new culture in Belize. I know how blessed I am to have such an amazing cousin to want to come visit me. Should be a great rest of the week!!