Jan 18,2014

Our adventure began Friday night with the arrival of our kids. They came in at 8:30. It was a tearful reunion for us. Kara, Miles, Fran, Kris and Jace were able to come.
  On Saturday we went to the " Cerrito del Carmen". It was the first Catholic Cathedral build here in the capitol. It was built in the early 1600's. After, we went to the Central Market. It is a Market that offers almost anything you would want. It provides a sensory overload to say the least. The kids loved it. We ate lunch at El Adobe which is a fun restaurant in downtown Guatemala. Later in the afternoon we went to the Temple. Mom, Miles and the girls did a session. I was assigned to coordinate the Baptistery. We found a group of young people who had come to do baptisms. Jace was included with their group. He made many friends quickly. This was a highlight for us for sure.
  Sunday morning we attended church in the MTC. This was a opportunity for our family to see and feel the Spirit that is prevalent. We ate lunch there, which was very good as usual. Later in the afternoon we went on a Sabbath walk so the kids could see the area were we live and walk.
  Our bus picked us up at 5:00am on Monday. We flew from the capitol to Santa Elena. This is way north of here. The trip from the Sta. Elena airport to Tikal was about an hour. Our tour guide was really good. He spoke pretty good English. We spent about 7 hours in the Park. It is like going to another world. There was one area that was so breath-taking. We walked up several flights of steps, rounded the temple, and looked out over the Central Plaza. Words can't describe the beauty. After that we drove to Flores which is an Island connected by a bridge. It is a a real touristy place. Very colorful and crazy narrow streets. We arrived back at the Capitol around 7:30pm

 

  Tuesday at 6:00am we loaded up and headed for Quirigua' which is a ruin site. However it is somewhat more recent than Tikal. There are very large Estellas here. The largest one being about 30' tall. The date back to 700AD. We stopped at a small Museum in Estansuela( near Zacapa). It was just so so. From there we traveled to Rio Dulce. We arrived a little to late to tour the Fort that afternoon. So we just wandered around the small community visiting with the locals. Our Hotel had lake front access. The Hotel had a private dock which was really cool. The dock was suspended above the water. The cool thing was it had a grass strip running the length of the dock. We all sat on the dock and watched the moon come up over the lake. It was a clear night and just perfect. No bugs, no wind and wonderful company for sure.

 

We toured a Spanish Fort here in Rio Dulce. It was very interesting. It was built to protect the waterway from pirates and invaders from other countries. It housed 100 soldiers. It had a cells for prisoners, a draw bridge, and look out towers. Several cannons were still mounted in place. We are glad we did not skip this site.

 

After the Fort tour we took 2 boats and sailed down the river. It was very calm and peaceful. The river narrows a bit and passes through a gorge on its path to the ocean. This gorge was nothing short of spectacular! It made us feel like we were in Jurassic park. Lush green vegetation, flowers, birds by the hundreds, and towering limestone vertical walls. We ended up at a port city called Livingston. It was interesting in that there are many nationalities there each with their own language and dress. It was not especially comfortable in terms of feeling secure and safe. Nothing transpired to spoil the trip there. On the way back up river were caught in a real tropical storm! Driving rain along with the boat  cruising up river made for a very wet trip. Fortunately it was warm so we did not freeze. We made it back to the hotel and loaded up for the return to the Capitol. What should have been a 5 hour trip ended up being an 8 hour trip. The Tropical storm that about drowned us managed to topple many trees, some of which blocked the road. We had to wait for workmen to clear them away before we could proceed. It was a long trip home to say the least but we made it safely. We retired at 1:30am after doing some laundry getting ready for the next days adventure.

 This leg of the amazing race was to Panajachel. This place has a beautiful lake which is ringed by a number of towering volcano's. There are 12 villages around the perimeter of the lake, each being named for the 12 Apostles. Each village has a market area for the tourists. The largest city has a few high riser buildings which are for the tourists that want to be pampered. We were not in the pampered group. Our hotel was not even a 1 star hotel. The first afternoon was a trip to the ECO park. They have a butterfly museum which was truly amazing. They also have some ZIP lines through the Park. The kids had a blast doing the ZIP lines. Unfortunately many of the group suffered with a case of Monte Zumas revenge( diarrhea) . We guess it was something we ate or drank on Tuesday.

   Friday was a boat ride over to another village. The vendors are more aggressive there, but we still had a great time and picked up some fun purchases. We were able to ride the tuk-tuk taxis, which is a favorite of Hermana Pitcher's. We arrived back at the apartment in the late afternoon so there was time for laundry, packing, and last minute visiting.

     Saturday morning we put the kids back on the plane. We know their families will be so happy to have them home again, however, we felt a little sad to see them go.

   It was an amazing week! We'll probably post more pictures from our fun week on later posts.

   Love to all of you!