Symphony Down the Street!

So one of our friends was driving me and Jen home from our Tribes training (Tribes is a professional development thing we were doing for the school.) and as we're driving to our apartment we see this whole street blocked off with people milling around drinking beers and a whole symphony set up under a tent.


So Jen and I wandered down there and enjoyed the music and a beer. It was really pleasant.

Panajachel and Lake Atitlan

Me and my friends Aubry and Sasha did a little weekend trip to a town called Panajachel on the edge of Lake Atitlan. We mainly hung out, did some shopping, and wandered around. It was a wonderful break from Guatemala City and the drive was absolutely gorgeous!!

 

 

 

Guatemalan Kite Festival!

On November 1st every year there are celebrations across Guatemala. Families spend the morning in the cemeteries decorating the graves of their families and eating lunch. Later in the day they go to look at the huge kites set up at the top of the hill and even fly a few of them. The school set up a bus for the teachers to go to the celebration in Sumpango, a town about an hour and a half away from Guate City.

The busy graveyard. 

The kites were absolutely beautiful. And some of them were two and three storeys high! They were up on a hill and the wind was actually pretty strong and some of the kites were having trouble. Two got shredded by the wind and I saw two more completely tip over. It was lucky that they didn't fall on anyone. They were also flying some of the three, four and five foot tall kites. I was surprised, but they actually got them up!

 

 

Me and Jen 

The street vendors had absolutely amazing food! I got some street corn (It wasn't quite the same as the street corn in TZ but still good!) I also got a little kebab that was super delicious. 

 

Ambiguous Signage

At school there are these signs posted on the walls everynow and then. When I first got to Colegio Maya I spent over a week trying to puzzle out the meaning.....

Ummmm......  awkward threesomes on the roof?
                      please hold hands with people with briefcases?
                      gay couple and third wheel in the relationship?
                      please stay together under volcanoes?

I was very confused. Finally, I asked around and apparently this sign means that you are standing under a beam that can protect you in the case of an earthquake. (I mean that is obviously what that sign says, ha)

Landslide!!

A couple of weeks ago the rains caused a landslide on the Carretera (the main road that goes up to school) It took down a retaining wall from the top of the hill and  left a house perched pretty precariously at the top. It created issues with getting to and fro school and one day ALL the buses got stuck in traffic for 4 hours!

The rocks and dirt covered both of the lanes on one side of the road. Guatemala decided that it would be stupid to try and clean up the dirt while it was still rainy season, so they just built two new lanes and now everyone drives around the landslide everyday. It still creates a bit of traffic, but after the first three days it wasnt so bad. 

Monterrico Beach!

I decided to take a weekend away, to think and to escape from Guate City. To do this, I woke up REAL early one Saturday morning and took a shuttle from Guatemala City to Antigua (45 min) and then another shuttle from Antigua to Monterrico Beach on the Pacific Coast (2.5 hours). Monterrico beach is a black sand beach. That was new for me! I stayed at a really nice, cheap little place called Hotel el Delfin. It cost me 40Q for my room (about 5 bucks)

The waves are always super intense at this beach. You can really only walk in to your ankles before the waves start pummeling you. And these were some big, perfect looking waves.

My toes in the black sand. 

A rainbow!

I didn't really do much on my weekend away. I laid out on the beach (and got burnt, womp), I went up to my ankles in the ocean (and got smacked around by a few waves), sat on the beach people-watching, laid in the fabulous hammocks, and read by the pool. It was fantastic. (All you people in cold-October-Virginia are jealous, aren't you?)