La Casa del Mundo

The beautiful hotel we stayed in on beautiful Lake Atitlan. It is built into the side of a cliff. I was unable to get a picture of the coolest part, which was the dinners. These are four-course and are served family-style with the other guests by candlelight. It only costs about $12! We loved it. The first photo is the view of volcanoes from our deck!

I did swim briefly but the water was really rough! The hotel, like most of the small villages on the lake, can only be reached by boats. These depart from the biggest city, Panajachel.

Los Cumbres

This resort has saunas that are fed by natural thermal vents (remember, Guatemala has volcanoes). They were so hot! Like I said, the Mayans like saunas because it is thought to be cleansing. The resort was really pretty. You'll see steam coming out of some natural vents in one of the pictures.

San Simon

San Simon likes cigarettes, beer, rum, and pictures of sexy women. People bring these to him and light candles for wishes. I'm told people actually "share" booze and cigarettes with him. You'll see in the picture that there is a lit cigarette in his mouth. He looks oddly like Michael Jackson.

Glass blowing

Today we went on an outing with the school to a glass-blowing co-op, followed by a hike to another town. There we saw San Simon, an unusual saint/idol who is worshiped by some Guatemalans in specific town. Supposedly he basically keeps these town safe and prosperous. We'll get to more on him in the next post. After that we went to a natural sauna.

Here are pics from the glass blowing coop. I'm told these men previously worked in a glass blowing factory in Chile but they weren't treated or paid well. So they decided to open a coop in their own town. Now it is entirely owned and run by the artists themselves, who are all indigenous Mayan men who live in the town. They ship their glass all over the world. They use recycled glass to make all of their wares.

Fotografias de la clinica mobil

Today we had "mobile clinic," where we actually went and did a clinic out in the community. This one was at the house/clinic of Dona Anna, a local midwife who delivers pretty much every baby in her town of mostly indigenous Mayans.

Unfortunately, the Blogger app that I have right now will only let me post picture en masse (rather than one at a time so I can write a little about each one). If anyone knows of a better one, please let me know! Anyway, the last picture is of a sauna, which Mayan women will traditionally use sometimes when they're pregnant and definitely following delivery to cleanse themselves. I'm told this tradition dates back a very long time. The first picture is of the beautiful, colorful, hand-woven and embroidered clothing that the indigenous women wear. The blouse is called a huipil. The skirt is a large amount of very warm, tightly woven fabric that is tight at the waist with a belt. They often wear a colorful apron over this.

The pieces of cloth on the head are to keep sun out and to pad things that are carried on the head. I found out that the reason for head-carrying is that it allows you to carry things that are too heavy to carry with your arms or back alone. Before placing something on their heads, indigenous women will twist the fabric and coil it on their heads as a padding.

Antigua, day 2

You can see one of the volcanoes (the dormant one) in the background of the first picture

El desayuno tipico

The "typical" breakfast of the Guatemala region: huevos (eggs), frijoles (beans), queso (cheese), and plantanos (plantains, not pictured).

Antigua Day 1

Antigua is famous for numerous beautiful old churches and convents that date back to the days of Spanish conquest. Antigua also has volcanoes nearby and has had several earthquakes in its history, so many of these old buildings are at least partially in ruins.

El Meson de Maria

Our lovely hotel in Antigua

Los ganchos

Bobby pins are a complete staple for me. I use multiple bobby pins every single day. So of course I forgot to bring any with me here. I went to a Walmart-type store here and couldn't find them. It was then that I realized I would have to find someone to tell me how to ask for them. I resorted to drawing a picture of one for my Spanish teacher who said, "ah, ganchos!"

Yesterday Holland went to the market with his teacher and brought me back a present:

Yes, this really is a common sight

El partido de futbol

We decided to go with a group of other students to a soccer game. The local team was playing another team in Guatemala. Soccer is VERY popular in Latin America and I'd heard the games can get a little crazy so I was nervous. But it was really fun!

The best part was the hilarious cheering section. They beat I'm drums, sang songs, and jumped up and down the entire team. It must've been a serious workout. You can see a picture of them below with a flare burning in the bleachers among them.

There is also a picture of these girls in brightly colored spandex. I thought they would cheer or dance or something but no, they just walk around in spandex.

Living quarters

We got into Guatemala City around noon, then took a 4.5 hour bus ride to Cela, where our host family picked us up. Being the introvert I am, I'm still very uncomfortable spending so much time with strangers, especially when I don't speak the language. Both the husband and the wife with whom we're staying are Spanish teachers and speak good English. They try to get us to speak Spanish all the time in the house though. They're super nice. Here are some pics of our room. We have our own little space in the attic. It got kind of cold last night (we're at 8000 ft!) but I had a space heater and plenty of blankets!

First Class

How sweet is Holland? He has Medallion status on Delta and this sometimes allows him to get upgrades. This is the second time he's given his upgrade to me. It was really nice - I got to eat good food and drink wine and watch football (although that Saints loss was terrible!)

Bridesmaid dresses

After much trying to save and upload picture links, I finally decided that the easiest way to show people pictures of what I have envisioned for bridesmaid dresses is to post it on my blog!

Source: oncewed.com via Angela on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Angela on Pinterest

Cramming

I'm trying to read this book at the last minute because we're leaving for a month in Guatemala on Saturday. That's right, THIS Saturday. And I know nothing about the place.

We're spending our month-long elective there in a medical Spanich program. It will probably be a good experience but right now I'm totally not happy about it at all. I'm stressed out about trying to get the house in order and get myself packed. Not to mention what I'm most worried about, which is poor Jipsy being alone by herself for a month because I can't find anyone to spend the night here at the house with her. She is just going to have someone to come by and feed her every day and it's really sad. I've been stressed out about this cat situation for months and I knew it would come to this: we're leaving this week and still don't have a good plan.

And I'm going to get eaten alive by bedbugs.

And I could have just done "research" for a month and spent the month resting and planning my wedding, which is a whole other saga.