Our First Look at Guatemala

This trip was three hours each way in an old school bus! It was interesting and we saw some real native Guatemalans. I'll tell you more later. Loved the Skype yesterday!

We were waiting for the bus to pick us up... 6:30am... No, 8:00am Guatemalan time! Good times! Our travel group was all of the senior missionaries. The natives are precious, and that little lady on the left sings, dances, and plays basketball. She is awesome!

These are the homes they are remodeling for the senior missionaries. They will be done in July or August and we will move in.

This native woman was showing us her weaving. Notice her little "store" on the ground. She even sold toilet paper... Note to self, none of the bathrooms have paper! She's pretty enterprising.

This is President Burk and his wife at the church youth camp. We had lunch at the pavilion of a youth camp that is about an hour and a half away from home. The church bought an old coffee plantation and fixed it up with the help of the members. It has a large soccer field, basketball court, three amphitheaters, bathrooms, and a large assembly hall they use for stake conference until they build a new building. They guessed it to be about 50 acres. Part of it is still a coffee plantation. The lunch was prepared by the hermana caretaker there.

We saw some "markets" and stores along the way. We saw two Mormon chapels that I tried to take pictures of, but we passed by so quickly. Many people seemed very poor in these areas.

Here is a picture of some native people in a little city in the mountains. Note the basket on her head... Hands free!

 

Mayan remains... Yes, they were beheaded! WHAT?! The black rock is Obsidian. It was used as a weapon because it is so hard.

This is a museum mock-up of Mayan City. Many of these ruins were destroyed by the earthquake in 1976.

Our guide at the Mayan ruins.

Mayan Temple remains.

Me on top of a pyramid... I hiked up there!

This is a court where two men competed and the loser was sacrificed! WHAT?! They never sacrificed women? Oh... Okay!

Old Mayan Chief... Well... That's what he claimed at the ball court.

Mom thought they didn't sacrifice women, but as you can plainly see here, Mayan Squaw with part of her head cut off. I hope the Mayan Chief didn't do it. Thought you might enjoy. Funny thing, that Squaw is sitting next to Mayan Chief  here on the couch. She hasn't let losing half her head slow her down.