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!!
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