Thanksgiving by the Lake!

For Thanksgiving I joined Shannon and Dexter's family and headed to Posada de Santiago for the long weekend. They brought along their two children Emma and Noah and we were joined by my roommate Jen and the high school math teacher David.

We were later joined by another (fantastic) teacher, Michelle and her son Liam.

Jen being obnoxious

 
 
Posada de Santiago is a beautiful bead and breakfast type place in the tiny town of Santiago on the coast of Lake Atitlan. It's about a 3 hour drive from Guate City but the drive is really beautiful.

The hotel is made up of a bunch of stone cottages surrounded by all kinds of jungle-y plants. It includes a big restaurant, a bar, a pool, jacuzzi, sauna, dock with canoes, and a massage room.

 

 The first day we relaxed in the jacuzzi, sauna and pool and filled up on a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner complete with turkey, cranberries, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. We ate until we were absolutely stuffed.

 


The next morning me, Jen and Dexter woke up super early to climb Volcan San Pedro, a massive volcano that was right across the lake from the hotel. We had to take a boat across the lake to the town at the foot of the volcano. Our boat guy was a speed demon and there were times I was quite afraid that the rough waves were actually going to the flip the boat. At the dock there were some buildings half underwater. Apparently these have been like this for a while although no one seems to know if the lake water is rising or if the ground is sinking. We then took a tuk tuk to the main gate of the volcano park.

It was an incredibly hard and steep climb. We spent about 3 1/2 hours going up the volcano and 2 hours coming back down. (Our legs still ache!) I, thank goodness, didnt have any issues with my asthma up this volcano.








The view at the top was completely worth the pain! It was crystal clear and you could see the whole lake and the hills all around. We climbed over 10,000 feet!!

Later that afternoon we just relaxed in the jacuzzi and sauna, and did a bit of swimming in the freezing cold lake.

The next day, we headed into town to finish up some Christmas shopping and have a bit of a wander. Later in the afternoon I got a massage and did some more relaxing by the bar and pool.

Each cabin had a fabulous stone fireplace built in and they replenished the firewood everyday. I lit a fire everynight. It made the cabin so cozy!

 

Next morning was our final day and we had just enough time for a fantastic breakfast of french toast and then hit the road back to the city. 

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?)