On Sunday the 29th, I got up at 3:30am to catch my shuttle to the airport, anxious to return home, but sad to leave!

Things I will miss about Guatemala:

Crazy driving and the chicken bus

Super cheap shopping and super cheap baked goods

Beautiful weather and scenery, especially the volcanos

I will say being in Guatemala has helped me to appreciate the United States! What a wonderful place to live!

Ruins of Iglesia el Calvario:

Family band:

Guatemalan Home Depot:

Miranda drinking a Mirinda!

Me with my second teacher, Matilde.

The stone street of Antigua:

This lady came to the school everyday to sell food on the break. I’d recommend a doblada.

Presentation on San Juan Bautista:

The best bakery in Antigua (I think).

The market. I almost bought a few.

Making pinchos:

Cooking pinchos:

Graduating!

Our contribution to the fiesta:

Meli and I with el jefe (our possible future boss).

The inside of the cultural center in Antigua:

A traditional butcher, according to him the last one left in the city!

A street preacher/ Bible verse shouter:

Just to make sure the kiddies behave on the bus:

July 25th is the feast day of San Santiago. The parade passed along calle 6 in front of the school.

The black suits represent the souls of the dead.

Quinceañeras?

Horse thing:

Oh, yes, and the pope was there too.

Would you like to buy a hat?

Bugle band.

Women in traditional clothing:

Kite:

Another band:

Tuc-tuc ride.

Baila de los gigantes:

Baila de los ancianos:

Some dudes playing drums in the park:

Not allowed el mercado:

Me sneaking into an unattended tuc-tuc.

Laundry Guatemalan style:

On the 24th we went to Yepocapa, a small town in Guatemala where our school sponsors another school.  Here are some pics of the Guatemalan countryside.

Bibliobus and students!

Giant chess games at the school:

Me with some of the students:

Weightlifting class:

Scariest bus ride ever! Not only did we slide backwards in the mud down the mountain, but we also encountered another bus coming from the opposite direction on a one lane road! Hooray for our driver, no casualties!

Me with a giant jocote (it’s a fruit). We lived in Jocotenango- “jocote” for the fruit and “nango” means town (kind of like ville in English). We lived in Fruitville, Antigua!

More pictures at Tikal:

This is a gum tree. You can see the criss-cross marks on the side where it had been cut.

Our guide said it wasn’t too uncommon to find a dead body at the base of a tree from where the cutter would accidently slash his own support rope.

Archeologists can tell there are ruins buried here because the roots of the tree are above ground. They are still uncovering ruins in the area!

Part of the seven altars:

The peanut-head butterfly:

From Tikal we headed back to Antigua, but not before having lunch in Flores!

And we took another boat ride on the Rio Dulce to see the Old Spanish Fort that’s about 500 years old.

This is the Guatemalan president’s river house:

On Sunday, we got up at 3:45am, drank a cup of coffee in the hotel lobby and set off on a hike through the jungle in the dark. We climbed the tallest tower in Tikal (tower 4) that’s about 20 stories high and watched the sunrise (almost- it was kind of cloudy). This is where the end of Star Wars: A New Hope was filmed.

Here is one of the weird centipedes that were crawling on most of the stone ruins.

The top view of tower 4:

The stairs up to the top:

Many animals live in the jungle at Tikal, including jaguars, tucans, and howler monkeys.  Unfortunately, we only got to see some of the tamer critters. These are coatimundi, raccoon relatives.

Breakfast at the hotel!

Very soggy boat ride on the Rio Dulce. These are friends from school- Brian, Christelle, and Scott.

Bird boat:

Scenery on the river:

Waterfalls in the rocky mountainside:

This is the hot springs on the Rio Dulce. For 2 quetzales you can take a shower in the hot water. Jumping off the dock is free.

Steamy!

And finally, after an hour in the boat and 5 more in the van we made it to Tikal!

The hotel only has electricity for select hours during the day. Without power when we arrived there wasn’t a whole lot to do. So we went swimming in the rain. Boo hoo. Poor us.

And, after dinner, without the modern conveniences of tv and internet, we had a nutella party and played dominoes.

After checking into the hotel, we took a taxi to the beach on the Carribean. The driver took us through some very muddy roads (muddy enough for pigs) and dropped us off in a remote area, telling us to cross the bridge and walk about 10 minutes to get to the beach.

The beach was beautiful but covered in trash. You can see some at the bottom of this picture:

Tiki hut pier! (with hammocks on the 2nd level)

The view from the tiki hut pier!

Lunch. The first place I’ve been in Guatemala with no rice and beans.

After beach time and shower, we went to a communion service at Nuestra Señora del Rosario in Livingston.