More Visiting

We took a detour from the tour bus in Antigua and struck out on our own while the bus load went for lunch. We had heard about a place called "Earthlogde," from a ward member, so here we are hiking to find it (high above the city of Antigua). Blake is in his fashionable scarf and his new friend, who loaned him the bike! We walked through this little city looking for our destination. The boy and two of his brothers worked at Earthlodge, so we know we were on the right track.

We finally found Earthlodge! Hiking down to our destination!

Here it is! Earthlodge! It was a charming little out-of-the-way place. It has a little restaurant, cabins, yoga, an avocado field, and was a little hippy-ish place. The food was really good and we probably would have stayed if we could! There were hammocks all over and it was beautiful and relaxing!

This is a common sight in little villages here. This lady is making her way home with the firewood for the day!

This is seen a lot on the highway. A little family heading for their destination/work. Actually, there is usually more people in the back of the truck! There was a baby under the blanket, too.

This was the Ego Ning of our tour at Tikal where we got cauge in a down pour. In less than five minutes, we were soaking wet and walking in water! Yes, we stayed that way for the remainder of the day and the plane ride home. :/ Not flattering, but fun!

This is the town "Laundromat," where women come and wash their clothes. We were on our way to find Earthlodge!

Trying out the "tuk tuk" for transportation. They said it was pretty fun!

Of all the available hats, this is the one dad wanted to buy! This is at one of the little villages at Lake Atitlan with Rach and Blake.

This is a GIANT old tree in Tikal, which I think is the national tree. It's called the Ceiba, it is over 400 years old!

Love the translation here?! We tried not to seat on the monuments!

If you look closely, you can see Rach and Steph at the top of this Mayan Temple.

This was a religious ceremony being performed by this little family around the fire at Tikal.

Here we are under a little grass hut shelter, waiting for the rain to let up. Notice the running water on the ground at the top left corner of the picture? Yes, we were wading around in that!

This is one of the many beautiful Spanish cathedrals in Antigua, when we all took a little day trip with Sister Viveros as our tour guide.

Totally photo-bombed by Blake above Antigua... Still smiling even after he took a bad fall and majorly scraped his leg on that monument in the background!

Catching Up

I have neglected the blog lately and need to get caught up! I will go back to July and try to catch up on our activities here. At the end of June, we had a Guatemalan holiday, Monday, July 30th. I think it was a little like Labor Day in the U.S. The Pitchers had the day off because the area office was closed and invited us to go on a little excursion with them. They have a car now, so we readily agreed! The was the week before Rachael, Blake, and Stephanie came and we already made our travel arrangements for them, so we were free on this P-Day, too! Paul served a mission in Guatemala and El Salvador during 1967-1969, when it was all one mission. He wanted to go back to some of the places he had served. They have already taken a little trip back to El Salvador to meet people from his mission, so off we went! We also traveled with them on Thursday, July 3rd and these pictures included the following cities; San Pedro Yepocapa, Chimaltenango, Patzicia, and an outdoor market in Chichicastenango. We were also going to visit some ruins Tecpan/Iximche, but realized when we got there, that we already had been there with the group on our third day in Guatemala!


This is a little businessman we saw along the way selling hammocks, which are very popular here. I sent on home in Julie's suitcase and hope someone has put it for everyone!

We saw two adorable little sets of twins on our trip with the Pitchers! Aren't they cute in their little look alike outfits?! The family was happy to pose for a picture when we asked them. They are four years old.

This is a "Living Wall." One of the creative things they do with the plants here. It is in front of a business on the wall.

This was a little lookout point along the way, isn't this a good shot of the Pitchers?? Look at the beautiful scene behind them!

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The highlight of July was the visit from Rach and her friend Blake who came July 8th. Dad took them on a little day trip while I waited for Steph, who came on the 10th. The Pitchers were good enough to pick up Rach and Blake for us. Our trusty friend/taxi driver, Andres, helped me pick up Steph while they went to Rio Dulce and Lake Atitlan for the day. Steph and I went to the outdoor market by the airport and walked around the zoo on the day she got here. We also went to St. Martin for yogurt and walked around Guatemala City.


This is the day the temple opened after the closure, and we were able to go together for a session. It was so fun to introduce our kids to everyone who was there!

I think I used to be taller... Shrinking, old age, and all that!

These are the sister missionaries from our ward. I invited them for a Sunday lunch, so the kids could meet them. Sister Brown, in the middle, is a Navajo Indian from Page, Arizona. We knew here from the MTC when she first go here and was assigned to our ward. She has been here for 7 1/2 months, so we know her well! She reminds me so much of our Stella, who was with us on the Indian Placement Program at home... Really happy, outgoing, and friendly! Everyone lovers her and she is a people magnet! Her grandparents were placement students in Brigham City and joined the church, giving her family a legacy of church members. She is a fantastic missionary, as are her companions! We have had two Young Women investigators get baptized in the last few months, one was just last week! She got transferred the week after we had this dinner. The other girls are Sister Garcia and Sister Recivas, and they are still in our ward.

Here is a shot above the city of Antigua, which used to be the capitol of Guatemala, until the big earthquake. Then they moved it to Guatemala City, but people eventually came back to Antigua and there are some great Spanish Ruins there.

This is Sister Viveros, who is a former temple missionary. She now volunteers one night a week at the temple and does a little travel business on the side. She took a little bus load of people to Antigua.

Pictures

Grandpa sent me two photo streams, but I think it'd be easier to post the URL's rather than each picture. If you go to these websites, it should work!

https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A8GqkRUiFv5H8

https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A8JEsNWnGEPrII