A Tour of Antigua

Since our days in Antigua, Guatemala are coming to an end we have been visiting a lot of the tourist attractions in the afternoon. Most of these are Catholic Churches or ruins of Catholic Churches. It has been a blessing to learn Spanish while being immersed in the culture. We have learned a lot of Spanish while we have been here but, also have learned so much about Latin culture.

Un Dia con Mama Estela

Yesterday we went to a nearby pueblo to spend the day with Estela and her family. Estela is our mom here in Guatemala. Everyday she cooks for us and helps us practice our spanish. First she took us to her mother's fruit planation and then we went back to her house for a wonderful lunch. We had a wonderful time with the family.

The Fruits of Our Labor

As mentioned before we won a trip to the beach for our participation in the Halloween costume contest. On Saturday morning we left for Monterrico, a black sand beach about two hours away from Antigua. We were able to see lots of beautiful things and even release baby turtles into the wild. These all maybe communicated better with pictures than words. Enjoy..... we did!

Dia de los Muertos

Sunday was the day of the dead here in Guatemala. The people here celebrate the lives of their relatives by decorating and painting their graves and spending all day in the cemetery. I know it sounds a little creepy but, it wasn't at all. We were able to go visit a cemetery and everyone was enjoying the day with their family.

In the evening we saw a "float" being carried through town to celebrate the anniversary of one of the Catholic schools. The float was about 50 feet long and was carried by 80 men. They carried the float all through town for eight hours. It was really interesting!

Lets Go Fly A Kite

Saturday we went to a nearby town for a kite festival. The kites were very detailed and had to be handled by ten people.

Una Niña y Su Piñata

For Halloween our school had a party for all of the students, teachers and their families. We had traditional local food and a costume contest. Per suggestion of our good friends Jerrad and Ami Powell, we went as a piñata and girl-with-stick. Rich had a bag of candy inside the piñata with him and everytime I hit him he would drop candy out of the bottom. Needless to say we had a crowd of kids following us around. We won a trip to the beach for our efforts! Happy Halloween!