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Guatemala Adventures!

What a wonderful trip Lisa and I had! We decided before the adoption process gets into full swing, let’s take an anniversary vacation. What a great vacation it was!

Thursday, January 8th: Boise to Phoenix to LAX to Guatemala City

Lisa and I had the time of our life starting of course with the travel. We laughed at this guy stuffing his mouth with a MacDonald’s burger. We almost missed our flight to LAX after a 2 hour layover in Phoenix due to a gate change! Sweet red eye flight in an emergency exit row with tons of legroom next to an Irish/Australian dude with a seriously cool accent.

Friday, January 9th: Chicken Bus to Atitilan and Panajel

Got thrown up right onto the streets of Guatemala City. Not a money changer in sight. Got shoved into a taxi and dropped off at a “‘bus station” headed to Panajel. Waited 20 minutes to leave but all 20 minutes were highly entertaining! A few of the hightlights included:

• Meeting an ex-Mormon missionary on the bus.
• Watched as dudes were hanging off the sides of buses, strapping luggage down on top of buses moving 40 miles/hour down freeway.
• Six police officers stacked into back of pickup with shotguns
• Family of four on a moped

The bus ride itself was equally entertaining. People tried to hack their “wares.” In a three hour bus ride we were solicited to buy a worthless pen, granola bars, water, sandwiches, tortillas, watermellon smashed into nasty baggies, american newspaper tabloids (writen in Spanish), ice cream cones, and random unidentifiable foods. A man with a broken arm asked for money. Another man stood up and told us a story and tried to get us to pay money for it. A bus preacher stood up and gave us a sermon, prayed and sang a song in a pretty bad voice (very odd). We saw a dozen or so chickens packed into a basket for sale. We marveled at the countries bladder control? Seriously are there bathrooms in this country. Everyone must walk around in either a lot of pain or dangerously dehydrated.

Got to Panajel and took a glorified moped called a tuk-tuk to our hotel. It was so quiet and peaceful. Birds were singing with a gentle breeze and some extremely cozy hammocks. Water temp was perfect and the food at the restaurant was absolutely incredible. Had the pinchos twice. Mexican coke was a treat. Saw lots of American travelers that looked like they needed to stop traveling and get a job (hair in dreads, dirty, etc). Made us laugh.

Sunday, January 10th: Panajachel, Shuttle to Antigua

• “Slept in” till 7:30am but had a serious 10 hour sleep because we were so tired from traveling. Ate an excellent breakfast with real eggs, toast, fresh squeezed OJ, jam, fried bananas, funky cheese, watermelon and mango (in the shape of a butterfly)
• Changed money and drank some more fresh squeezed OJ from a street vendor
• Took a tuk-tuk to a nature preserve. Saw some monkeys (awesome!) Looked at a butterfly nursery.

• Shopped till we dropped. Lots of interesting people. Saw the smallest lady I had ever seen in my life who was carrying a baby. Two of the cutest little girls trying to sell toy ponies. A really annoying lady tried to sell us a scarf. Everyone is so short here! Lisa would be considered tall!

• Pinchos for lunch. Incredible again.
• Bus ride to Antigua was a very curvy road. Pretty, forested landscape

• Talked to a dude from Canada about intelligent design. He was a atheist but open.
• Arrived at night very disoriented. Everything seemed small and cramped and loud. Where could our nice hotel even be in a setting like this? Then we arrived and were overwhelmingly surprised. It was beautiful and very peaceful.

Sunday, January 11th: Explored Antigua

• Walked around town. Stopped for coffee across from an old church; watched a church service in the a different church.

• Get into a huge discussion about our marriage in Park Central.
• Saw the biggest avocados and bought 3 very good and watery ones.
• Ate lunch at a cute outdoor cafe.
• Had tirimisu at the hotel restaurant.
• watched a movie that night
• had a bit of a problem with fireplace smoke from the neighbor upstairs seeming into our bedroom. More humorous than anything.

Monday, January 12th: Hiked up Volcano Pacaya

• Wake up call at 6:20 to tell us the bus was there to pick us up.
• Hour and a half drive to the volcano with some great views of the land
• Driver picks up a shotgun at the base of the volcano along with a security guard.
• This random local man jumps into our car about halfway up the mountain along with a bunch of sticks. He turned out to be our guide.
• 4km hike to top to see lava bellowing out of the cone and sloughing off the side of the mountain. Way cool!

• Met some cool people from Finland, Denmark, and Singapoor. Everyone knew Idaho and spoke several languages. We felt dumb.
• Saw some dudes sitting on the back of a semi precariously perched on top of some large pipes
• We were exhausted. Lisa took a good 3 hours to recover. (dehydrated, altitude change). In our hotel there is a beautiful plate of fresh fruit which we devour in seconds. A wonderful surprise!
• Go out for dinner and wander. Lisa was humorously indecisive. Stopped at the bank to change money and email kids. Bought a bus ticket to Lanquin.

Tuesday, January 13th: Antigua to Lanquin

• Breakfast at hotel; Can’t figure out if it is free or not! Wait for bus and head to the bathroom every 5 minutes paranoid that they won’t stop for bathroom breaks!
• Squeeze in the bus. Jason rides shotgun. Lisa sits in the back by some hippies with her knees touching the seat. Jason would never have fit!
• Guatemala city was zoo. Took 3 years off our lives inhaling the exhaust fumes
• Gas was 21.30Q/gallon (about 3 bucks.. twice US price)
• Stopped for ice cream. Incredibly delicious. $1.50 for a double scoop. We each had two. It was fun ordering without knowing what flavor it was. Made for some crazy combos like coconut sherbert/mocha ice cream.
• Watched some humorous and amazing sights. Human board carriers. Hand cut lumber, unbelievable coffee plantations, misty warm rain, true subsistence living in Mayan villages buried deep into the mountains.
• Stopped randomly for a second bathroom break. the most bizarre building I have EVER seen. Seriously crazy. Not really sure what it was supposed to be but they were cooking fried chicken that smelled delicious.
• Arrived at Languin. Stayed in some grass roofed bungalows. Strange backpacker hostel atmosphere. Felt immoral but we didn’t see anything bad. Met a nice guy named Aviv from Israel. Birds yelling like crazy. Absolutely beautiful.

• Dinner was a communal affair. It reminded us of an isolated Costa Rica bar or something similar. Very, very good community style buffet. Jamaican outdoor free for all. I am pretty sure we were the only ones married and not drinking! Entertainment went long into the night and included torch throwers. The first and only place with the menus in English.
• Walked the town. Pretty. Humid and rainy.

Wednesday, January 14th: Semec Champey

• Woke up early, ate snacks and bought a cup of coffee. Very strong this time.
• Hopped on a truck with two Slovanian’s and a guy from England. It was fun to talk with them. Ride was cool, almost cold. Saw a little boy Marc’s age with a machete carrying it by the blade. Saw coffee trees, coco trees, bananas, pigs, coffee nursery, weird ducks, women wearing full traditional skirts.
• Arrive and guide takes off up a steep hill and we try to keep up not sure where he’s even going. Made it up and see a beautiful overview of the pools.

• Walk down to pools and see where the water enters and underground cavern. Very impressive. Very loud. Swim around in pools. See some fish, seashells, waterfalls. Perfect temp. Diving spots all around. Starting feeding the fish and in a few minutes there were swarms of them. Explored the exit of the river. Steep cliffs. Saw the random employee whose job was to sweep the rocks to keep them from getting too slippery (we think).

• Go to underground river cave. Very fun. Lisa clung to my back like a see urchin for a while. Heard a few bats. Climbed up a rope next to waterfall. Swim some more. Jump into a big pool. Shimmy through a water hole. Lisa relaxes and has fun after realizing the cave life is minimal.
• Exit cave, jump into some inner tubes and float down the river. River was freezing compared to cave water.
• Got painted in Mayan paint!

• Buy chocolate from local children. We pass out through our group and nobody but the guide and Jason like it. It was very crumbly and had lots of Cardomin in it. I would not believed it was chocolate except for all of the cocoa trees we were walking through.
• Some more Mayan life as we passed through the villages. Saw lots of chicken and chicks without feathers on their necks.
• Ate at a mayan/isreali restaurant for dinner. Very good.

Thursday, January 15th: Semec Champey to Antigua

• Yogart, Fruit, Granola Crepe for breakfast.
• Shuttle to Antigua was uneventful. Passed by our ice cream shop at heart breaking speed! Stopped at a gas station instead. Jason bought 5 corn tortillas for 20cents. Bought some junk food as well which turned out to be very good.
• Arrived in Antigua and went to hotel for a nice shower.
• Swam in the pool which was very cold but refreshing. Moved to the heated pool! Jason even made it down the kiddie slide. We were entertained by to children speaking Spanish to a older lady who only spoke English. They managed to keep talking for quite awhile.
• Walked to dinner and absolutely loved it. Hamburger, sandwhich, chips, OJ soda, cake and ice cream, all for 120 Q
• Went for stroll in the park and stopped at a kissing bench. Head back to hotel and enjoy our fire.
• Swam in the pool which was very cold but refreshing. Moved to the heated pool! Jason even made it down the kiddie slide. We were entertained by to children speaking Spanish to a older lady who only spoke English. They managed to keep talking for quite awhile.

Friday, January 16th: Antigua

• Stopped by another large church fully restored with gaudy exhibts. Took some fun pics next to a faded wall.

• Ate breakfast at Fernandos Kaffe house. Highly recommended in our book for excellent reason! Wow, what a treat.
• Lisa shopped like crazy loving every minute of it. Jason tried to look happy.
• Ate at our favorite restaurant again

• Walked through the entire market. Crazy maze of buildings and alleys and strange spooky alleys. Selling lots of junk like used naked barbies, shoes, etc. Saw about 20 kids playing soccer with a lame bouncy ball.
• Saw the most gnarly set of calloused feet I have ever seen on a human being. Seriously, I couldn’t help but just marvel.

Saturday, January 17th: Home!

• Uneventful, long trip home. So fun to come home and see our kids again. Really started missing them for the first time as we came home and sat around and thought about our life. What a great trip and what a blessing from God to be able to experience this part of the world.

Lessons learned:

1. Be intentional about vacations. We really tried to be intentional about our time. We watched marriage videos, scheduled our life, talked and talked and talked about how we could be better parents, serve God with pure hearts, balance ministry, etc.
2. 3rd world vacations are fun because they don’t train you to be discontent with your home. They teach you to be incredibly thankful for the mansion God has provided for our family! We saw many people in very difficult situations with no medical care and lame jobs. Sure made us grateful and splashed our hearts with a little reality. Very healthy. Not to mention, you don’t come home broke!
3. Time away is important. It is important because it takes time to allow the real issues and feelings to come out. Lisa and I will always trace this health spike in our marriage to this vacation. Very awesome if given from the hand of God.