Lost and Found

One of the best parts of having Alex with us is that the pace of this trip has included more moments of relaxation than our previous trips. Our days start with slow movements to get ready, we linger over breakfast and have a small handful of things we want to see or within a day. It is wonderfully relaxing and very different than our previous action packed trips pre-Alex.

We have discovered two things in our first evening here. First, the walls in our hotel room are VERY thin. As in we can almost hear the content of our neighbors conversations. We can certainly hear when they come and go every morning and evening. It has not seemed to bother Tim and Alex much but Michelle is quite happy that she brought ear plugs.

Two, the only laundromats are outside of he main town area, requiring a bus ride to get to. Since that will eat up a significant amount of our time in a day, and we each only need clean shirts, we opted to do laundry the Rick Steve’s way. Fill the bathroom sink with water, hand wash what you need and let it dry in the shower stall for a day or two. Thankfully there is a hair dryer we can use as well if needed to finish the drying. ;) It will be enough to tide us over until we get home.

The breakfast options at our hotel looked minimal so we decided to head up to a restaurant up he street. It turns out the restaurant is connected to a different hotel next door. There were a good number of people there so the mood was lively. Michelle and Tim has spanish tortillas and Alex has the buffet. This kid can pack away the food when he is in the mood. They had a juice machine and Alex had fun mixing the various juices to create his own combinations. We forsee many bathroom stops in our future for the day!

Our plan for the day was to meander around town getting lost and found again. We ended up spend a lot of time plotting the Jewish part of town and were able to find three different parks for Alex to play in. He was ecstatic.

Contrary to most European cities, every church costs to enter here. We decided to buy the tourist bracelet which would allow us entry into seven of the smaller churches, as we figured we could see all of them in the three days we were here. The pass is a bright orange wristband that basically screams “hi, I am a tourist” to anyone who sees it. Not that we really fool anyone that we are locals when we travel, but we try not to have the equivalent of a flashing neon son on our wrist either. :(

We were able to get to three of the churches. The pass has reenergized Alex as he now has a goal to get the special stamps for each church location in his map. He has a goal to finish the last four tomorrow.

As we were walking to find dinner we bumped into a video showing the history of Toledo (in Spanish with English subtitles). It was interesting to hear how three very different religions could live in the same city and still respect, value and defend each other. Makes us wish there was more of that back home. :(

We had more late night tapas at a recommended restaurant (not our favorite). The food was so so and we think we hit a shift change and the wait staff forgot about us. When we came in it was slow and by the time we left the place was packed and hot. It was still early (8:00 or so) but we opted to head back to the hotel in search of some sleep. A good, full and relaxing day.

Last Moments in Madrid and First Moments in Toledo

Alex was up early (4:30 anyone?!?) and so we were up and getting ready around 6. Since we were leaving later in the day we opted to pack up and check out early. The Marriott would store our bags all day, so this way we figured all we had to do was talk to a porter to get our bags when we were ready to head to the train station versus having to be back at noon to check out. By 8:00 am we were back on the streets off to catch the last few sights of the city.

First up was breakfast. This time Tim found a great place that had all locals in it, and ones who looked like they came in every day for “the usual”. Young and old alike. The waiter was a sweet older gentleman who was very patient as we tried to determine what we wanted. In the end it was cappuccinos for Tim and Michelle, orange juice for Alex and Spanish tortillas of various flavors for all of us. Spanish tortillas are not at all like the tortillas we have at home. They are eggs, onions, cheese and potatoes mixed together and fried. If you have no other ingredients then it tastes like potatoes au gratin. Michelle had the original, Alex had added ham and Tim had added chorizo. All of us enjoyed our selections.

After breakfast we made our way over to the Egyptian temple. Apparently at some point in history the Spanish helped the Egyptians defend part of their territory and in thanks the Egyptians gave the Spanish one of their temples. So there it is, in the middle of Madrid, an Egyptian temple. Unfortunately it was closed on Monday’s, and since there was a healthy gate and a literal guard presence we couldn’t even peek through the windows. There is always next time, right?

Second on the list was to show Alex the palace and the cathedral. Since Tim and Michelle have been in these before, and we know the patience of our kiddo stacked against a long waiting line and even longer time on his feet, we opted to just see it from the outside. In all honesty, at his age we are just thinking exposure. He won’t remember details of this trip, but if he remembers the size and scale of things, and that there are different ways of living life, then that is enough for us.

After our quick exterior look at the palace, the garden and the cathedral we headed over to a restaurant for quick kebabs and pizza and were on our way back to the hotel. We collected bags and made our way through a crowded metro to get to the train station.

We had not bought tickets the day before as we just wanted to check on seat availability. Only 2 of the 12 trains were sold out for the day so we were not worried about getting tickets,  it was just a matter of when. We went back to the kiosks to buy them and realized all of the kiosks had been turned into contactless ones since our last visit in 2009. That means there is not place to insert your credit card, you have to have a contactless method of payment (like ApplePay). So these luddites treked there way to the very long ticket line. In front of us were two older ladies who were also going to Toledo. They were not sure they were in the right line. Tim assured them they were. After they finished purchasing their tickets for the next train (leaving in 30 min) it was our turn. And guess what. There were only two seats left on the train leaving in 30 min. But there were some for the train leaving in 1 hour and 30 minutes. Glad for the other ladies, but wondering how we would entertain Alex for 90 minutes in a train station, we plunked down our money and headed to security. We made sure to purchase our return tickets at the same time so we could be certain we were able to get back for our flight!

The train to Toledo was a fast one and we were there in 35 minutes. Trains are funny things. There is something cold and hard in the way they are designed, but once they start moving their rhythmic rocking is hard to resist. It almost feels like being held by your mother as a baby and gently rocked to sleep. Tim was out in 5 min, Alex lasted 15 and Michelle was the last one to go with about 10 minutes until we arrived in Toledo. The nice thing was, about half the coach we were in was already
asleep by the time Michelle finally nodded off. We are not alone. :)

We arrived and determined that we would only save around 40 cents if we took the busses into town versus a taxi. We hailed a taxi (Alex’s first!) which zipped us up the hill with alarmingly fast speed. Our hotel was located easily and once we checked in we were on the hunt for some good food. The hotel clerk had some good recommendations and we were excited to work our way through the list.

The thing about towns like Toledo that we love is that half of the fun is to get lost and then find yourself and then get lost again. The curving winding streets that split off in multiple directions are so fun. It is like a secret maze where you ever know what is around the next corner. We learned that this kind of development was also a defensive measure. It is much harder to invade a city if the invaders don’t know where to go and you can hide around various corners. Toledo is pretty manageable and fun. Venice, which is also like this, is a bit crazy. In Venice you could loose yourself and never be found!

We had some great tapas at one of the recommended restaurants, grabbed Alex his first helado and were on our way back to the room. Both boys crashed out quickly and Michelle was fast to follow. We are excited to have three full days in Toledo to really dive into the city and see all it has to offer.

Aaaannnndddd we’re back!

Our first full day in Madrid began with the realization that it does not get light until around 8 am. And with our early rising son this leaves about 2 dark morning hours to keep him occupied before he we can really get going. And since most of Europe doesn’t do American style breakfast, having him wait until 8:00 to get moving is akin to torture. Thankfully the iPhone works miracles and, as he isn’t used to having free rein access to one, he was overjoyed to get it into his hot little hands. This strategy will come to backfire on us. More about this later.

Not only did we have to bide our time for a few hours, the breakfast place Tim was planning on going to turned out to be closed. At least we were not alone in our disappointment. Another younger couple came up the street, saw the same thing, and smiled at us with a slight shrug of their shoulders before turning around in the direction they came in.

We doubled back as we as we passed by a few places on the way that looked fine. Alex had a smoothie and doughnuts. Tim and Michelle had pasteries and cappuccinos. They were ok but not great. Loaded up on sugar and caffeine we headed out.

Our first walk was to Plaza Mayor, one of the main squares. It is a huge space in the city lined by shops and cafes. It has just rained and would likely rain more in the day so only a few dozen people were milling about in the square. Apparently Sundays are the days for coin collectors as they were out in the covered eves in full force. Alex was not terribly impressed with it all. And apparently the coolness of buying a sandwich and your favorite beveridge and sitting in the square chatting with your friends wasn’t quite painting the magical picture we had intended. So seven year old in tow, we moved on.

Next up was El Rastro. Surely a tangle of markets and stalls all lining a cross crossing maze of multiple streets would get a seven-year-old entertained! We started at the top so he could get a view of what it was all about. He was excited about this one, especially when we talked about the possibility of pick pockets. He wanted to hear all about how it was done and if we had seen any. Oh boy have we. Not wanting to freak him out, we kept the details to a minimum of what he needed to know. Stay close to mom and dad.

We walked down one or two of the main streets then Alex spotted a small fitness park so we played for a little bit. He was quickly done so we decided to make our way over to the Atocha train station. This is where we would be leaving for Toledo the next day and it is a beautiful We asked some older men for directions and they sweetly reminded us to watch our bag as pick pockets were about. I always love it when the locals help to take care of the tourists.

 At the station there is a full garden inside and ample seating everywhere to enjoy the view. Tim and Michelle were last here in 2009 and it sure has changed. It used to be that anyone could walk anywhere in the station so you had to be very careful with pick pockets. We were used to seeing groups of them walking around while we were waiting for our train. A bombing at this train changed all of that. Now there is a line of shops in between everyone and security in order to get to the waiting area. And once in the waiting area there is a ticket attendant that you have to pass by in order to get near a train. Gone are the days of taking your loved ones to the train station and lovingly waiving them goodbye as their train pulled away. Nowadays you will have to settle for a confirmation text that their train actually left the station.

We verified some information on a train to Toledo for the following day and headed over to the Retiro Park. This park is massive and I imagine you could actually get lost in it if you were not careful.  We headed to the center where there is a large lake. The lake has boats in it for rent, but the line was long so we opted to grab a bag of chips and enjoyed the view.

After an hour or so we headed to the Reina Sophia museaum. The museaum was free that day from 1:30-6:30. Since Alex has never been to a real museaum we were not sure how long he would last or how interested he would be, and about an hour later our suspicions were confirmed. He was hungry and tired and had been on his feet most of the day. No Cubist paintings in the world were worth more sore feet for this guy. We took the metro to our hotel and stopped off at a grocery store along the way. Ham, salami, cheeses and bread in hand we headed back to the room for some rest. 

Within a few minutes of finishing the meal Tim was asleep so Alex and Michelle headed to the underground pool. It was a pool shared by hotel guests and people who belonged to the local fitness center. The note on the pool referenced children being allowed to swim so we excitedly headed down there. The pool is a rectangle about wide enough for three lap swimmers to go side by side. When you get an active 7 year old in a pool with a person swimming laps with a pool noodle it is a managble challenge. Then you add another lap person with a pool noodle and it gets interesting. Adding a third person who is swimming laps and you just give up. The look on Alex’s dejected face when Michelle asked him what he wanted to do was heartbreaking. “I guess we can just go mom. There isn’t room for us” ugh, ouch. 

Back at the room Alex had a looooong and luxurious shower to make up for the odd pool time. By the time he was out Tim was up and crafting a master plan for a tapas pub crawl for us. It wasn’t until he put the finishing touches on it that we realized Alex was asleep. Totally passed out in the bed. We scrapped our plans and headed for bed as well. Tomorrow is a bit more sight seeing in Madrid then off to Toledo!

The Shortest Post Ever

We need to start doing these blog posts at the beginning of the day,  as by the end of the day we are wiped out! Just know that we are all well and tomorrow we will recap you with he last two days events. Spoiler alert-it was awesome and expensive in Madrid and now we are in Toledo for the next 4 days. :)

Hasta mañana!

Three hours behind schedule - we have arrived!

Just a quick note to let you know that we have arrived safe and sound in Madrid!

The adventure started well with us packed and out the door around 8 to headed south. Around 9 am we received a text that our flight would be delayed. By three hours. Yes. Three hours. Apparently there was some issue on an earlier flight, so our plan was not getting into the airport until much later than planned. We all shrugged our shoulders and took it in stride. Just another fun part of travel. At least we had a direct flight, so we could be less worried about a layover!

Tim’s brother was able to take us to the airport which was a blessing. Our flight was on Norwegian and was a low cost fare. Which means everything extra  costs more. Food and drinks on the flight, checked luggage, choosing your seats. Even blankets cost. So we made  sure to stop off at Burger King for some extea food before we went to the airport.

Check in and security were fine, and we found ourselves at the gate very early. The text we had received about the delay said that we could speak to the gate agent about a meal voucher. Turns out that we were each entitled to an $11 meal voucher to use in LAX prior to our flight for the delay. Since we already had dinner with us we opted to stock up on a few breakfast items. Croissants and muffins tasted good ar the end of the long trip.

The flight was fine. No food or drinks, but Alex was excited to see the tv screens on the back of the seats. The windows on the flight were this odd color changing that you made more or less dark but adjusting the color. Our side was purple and the other side was green-blue. They really did work to block out the light. We also had the requisite young child who was upset, crying and kicking the backs of our chairs. But Alex was able to get a good amount of sleep and we arrived safely.

We were able to find a decent room price at the Marriott for two nights, which is way more luxurious than we usually have. There is also an indoor pool which Alex is excited about. After a quick trip to the local kebab restaurant we went back to the room where the boys crashed out quickly. And I (Michelle) will quickly follow.

More adventure tomorrow!

Wheels Up - Spain Awaits!

Often Tim will call Michelle at work, and the conversation goes something like this:

Tim - "Hey, babe, want to go to [fill in the name of any given country]? We can get tickets for [insert ridiculously low price here]"

Michelle - "Sure, when?"

Tim - "[indicates a date that clearly isn't practical since Alex is in school and Michelle works]"

Michelle - "Yeah, no babe, I can't take time off then and Alex is in school"

Tim - "Man, you never want to do anything fun"

Except that last April he actually had dates that would work with Alex's week long fall break. And so Michelle said yes and here we are, the evening before boarding a plane for a week to Madrid. We can bring only small carry-on bags, so we each have the equivalent of  Jansport backpack filled with clothes. It is a little liberating to be forced into a smaller bag than we usually bring. Needless to say, we won't be bringing back many souvenirs!

We booked a hotel about an hour ago for the first two nights, and then we will see where the Spanish wind takes us. Maybe Toledo, maybe Seville, who knows! We are all pretty excited get out there, show Alex another part of the world and continue practicing our Spanish. And Alex is a little excited that the first hotel has an indoor pool. :) Seven year olds!

More to come on the flip side.

The beginning of the end

Time to catch you up on the last few days. It is now Wednesday and all is well!

Monday was a normal day of classes. You can tell that the city is starting to gear up for their annual fair because the number of loud cannon-like fireworks (called boombas) going off is increasing. Boombas are around 35 quetzales each (roughly $5) and make a very loud noise when they explode. No pretty light pyrotecnics like our fireworks, just the very loud sound coming from some part of the city. For the first few weeks we were hear we would hear 4-5 at night. With the fair getting closer and closer to opening in San Pedro we are hearing 40-50 a day, at all times of the day. And since the queen of the fair lives just around the corner from our host family, most of them are being launched from literally the house behind us. The rooster is now a minor sleep disturbance compared to the boombas. :)

On Monday afternoon Tim, Michelle, Rosa and 7 kids all went to the local pool to swim for the day. The pool is on the outside of town, and thinking that this was a small village, when Rosa asked if we wanted to walk or drive in a tuk tuk we said walk. Twenty minutes later we were at the pool. It was a good walk, but we quickly decided to take a tuk tuk ride back when we were done swimming.

The local pool charges 5 quetzales to enter and you can swim as long as you want. Because it was a Monday afternoon we had the place to ourselves. Rosa said that on Saturdays and Sundays the place is packed. There were six different pools. Each pool was progressively deeper and bigger than the one before. There were three on an upper level that were shallow enough for babies to be in. The three on the lower level were for bigger kids and those learning to swim. One of the pools on the lower level was very deep and had a high jumping platform attached to it. On another lower level there were picnic tables and bbq for grilling and a playground.

The kids had a blast and Tim took many pictures and videos. When the kids were done swimming they played on the playground. It had a real old fashioned merry go round. We think a few of the kids spun faster than they should as they came off of the ride looking a little green. 😬

On the way back to the house we were able to hail a tuk tuk. Michelle thought that we would need two for our group and was trying to envision who would go in the first one and who would go in the second. In the end, to her grand surprise, it turns out that you really can shove ten people plus a driver into a tuk tuk. Since tuk tuks are less than half the size of a normal car, you can imagine how we were all crammed in there. It is the Guatemalan version of the London phone booth. :)

Back at the house we showered and played card games through out the evening. The kids are really enjoying Dos and Kings in the Corner. We are planning on leaving both games with the family so that they can continue to enjoy them.

Tuesday say another norm day in classes. Because the fair is going on, the number of activities that the school is sponsoring is minimal. So we rested in the room after classes and took a later walk around town before dinner as a family.

During dinner the ceremony for the coronation of the town queen was happening in the city center. Our host family had relocated their tv to the kitchen so that they could watch it. It was pouring rain at the time, so none of us was motivated to make the walk into town to see it on person.

It was a beautiful ceremony, full of traditional dress and historical meaning. The crowns that the queens wear are made out of wood and adorned with the animal that represents the village. They are intricately carved works of art.

An hour into the ceremony both Tim and Alex had fallen asleep at the table and we opted to head for bead. The only problem was the very proud back door neighbor whose daughter was just crowned queen of the city. And who also heavily invested in boombas. And who decided to let them off st random times between 8:30 pm and 1:00 am. A lack of sleep certainly puts a damper on ones ability to learn a foreign language!

Eventually sleep came. In our next post we will catch you up on Wednesday’s events. Suffice to say we are now looking at the end of classes on Thursday and the return trip home on Saturday. Blessings to all!

Weekend adventures in Antigua

A few days behind, as always, with our blog posts but hopefully we can catch you up a little bit with this one. We last left you on Friday as we were planning our trip to Antigua. It was one of the places that Tim wanted to get to while we were in Guatemala, and it seemed like an easy weekend option for us with our last full weekend in town.

We had booked the 4:30 am shuttle to Antigua and had to be waiting at the shuttle stop by 4:20. We had done such a good job prepping the night before that Tim and Michelle were dressed and ready by 4:00 am. It helped that our friend the rooster started singing right about 3:30am. Darned rooster.

Getting Alex up was a little harder. We pretty much dressed him while he was still sleeping. By the time we were putting on shoes he opened his eyes in time to walk down the stairs. Did we ever mention that we are on the third floor of the house? Amazing views, great exercise, but it reminds us why we love one story houses. ;)

Thankfully we made it down the stairs and to the shuttle stop by 4:15 am. And we waited for 25 minutes before the van came. There are a surprising number of people out and about at 4:30 am!

We were three of nine people going to Antigua that morning and none of us were terribly chatty. Thankfully Alex fell asleep again and Tim and Michelle nodded off a bit too. We made great time (because our driver drove like a mad man - thank you Dramamine!) and we were in town by 7:30am.

We were dropped off on one end of town as a group and everyone slowly disbanded to parts unknown. The shuttle driver said we could get coffee and a bathroom at the cafe next door, so our family and two other guys made our way in that direction. Coffee in hand (with another liquado for Alex), we chatted for a bit with the guys. One of them was from Canada, his ex was from Australia and he, his daughter and ex now live in the Cayman Islands. They are all traveling around Central and South America and he was going to meet up with them in El Salvador. Antigua was not his final stop, it was one leg of his journey. In another hour he would hop on a different shuttle that would take him four more hours across the border into El Salvador. How people travel, and where, and why, is always so fascinating.

We knew it would be way too early to check into our hotel but we hoped they would do baggage storage for us. We stopped by, and they were more than willing to let us drop our pack. Official check in was at 3:00, but they said they would have a room ready for us around 11. We figured that would be enough time to catch some breakfast and a walk about town.

Antigua is unlike any other ancient city we have seen. The main part of the city is laid out on a grid. The streets are all numbered and separated in half changing he direction from north to south. If the doors to the houses and shops are closed it does resemble walking down a long corridor with nothing to see. A little like the movie Labyrinth. And the sidewalks are just big enough for two people to pass by each other, but not really. Most of the time a person ends up in the street. If the sidewalks were a standard low height it might not be an issue, but some of them are quite high. It was a workout just walking around town.

Unfortunately Alex was catching a cold or suffering from allergies because he was nothing short of miserable walking around. We hit some of the big churches and dragged him through the VERY large outdoor market. It had blocks and blocks of everything. There was a section for meat, vegetables, clothes, bread, and household items. Tim had read there was a section for more artisan crafts and gifts, but we could not find it. We figured we could do a bit more research in the room later to see if it     was in a different location.

We opted to go to breakfast/lunch to give Alex some time off his feet. Another licuado and a hamburger later and he was happy. It was huevos rancheros for Tim and an omlette for Michelle. The atmosphere in the restaurant was great, but the food was so so. The restaurant was an old carriage house that had its second story completely destroyed in an earthquake. The owners rebuild and turned it into a two story restaurant with a center courtyard. It was a very tranquil place to share a meal.

After lunch we went to a jade museum and took a tour. We thought Alex would be bored so we asked for the quick tour. Turns out he was fascinated and wanted to hear the whole thing. At the end of the tour we learned that Alex’s spirit animal, according to the Mayan calendar and his birthday, is the snail. Sorry buddy!

After the jade museum Alex was again fading. We threw in one more quick peak in another church, reserved a return shuttle for the next day back to San Pedro, grabbed some quick cookies at a bakery and headed to the hotel. The room was ready, so Michelle stayed with Alex while he slept and Tim went out and about searching for the missing portion of the outdoor market we could not find earlier.

And find it he did. Tim was gone for almost three hours and when he came back he had all kinds of pictures of things he had found and haggling he had done and the prices he had everything down to. He was having so much fun, like a kid in a candy store. :) It was raining pretty hard when he originally left, lots of lightening and thunder, and wasn’t much better by the time he returned with his tales of victory. We decided that we would go to dinner when the rain calmed down and then watch the soccer match as a family before bed.

Dinner was at a small taco place that was highly rated on TripAdvisor. And it earned its rating. Reasonably priced with great food. The people working there were so nice and they just loved talking to Alex. We are finding Alex’s Spanish growing by leaps and bounds and people are surprised when he starts talking. His confidence too is coming along, which is a joy to see. We can’t wait to see where God takes this skill in the future.

Having our fill of tacos, quesadillas and horchata we headed back to the hotel.

After a great nights sleep (wahoo no rooster!) we created Sunday with renewed energy. We had a delicious breakfast at the hotel and were on our way back to the outdoor market. Tim wheeled and dealed his way into most everything we were interested in buying. We had a 2:00 shuttle to catch so we needed to make sure we were back to the hotel in time.

We finished up around 12:30 and headed back to the same taco place for lunch. It was too good, we couldn’t pass it up! ;) We all ordered the same thing and, when finished, set off back to our hotel to wait.

And wait we did. Our 2:00 shuttle picked us up at 2:45. Just long enough to make you panic as the person at the reservation desk had not heard of our hotel before when we made the reservation. Did we get the address right, did she write it down correctly? Would we have to spend another night in Antigua? In the end we were the last ones in a 15 passenger van this time. Once our bag was loaded on the roof rack we were off .

This driver made some interesting stops along the way. In one stop we waited 20 minutes on the side of the road in the middle of almost no where for another person to arrive. We won’t tell you what was going through our heads and the time.

The second stop was to let off three of the passengers. Then we stopped again on the roadside and two locals quickly jumped in. Then again on the side of the road for a woman and a young baby. Our thoughts were that this was a customary thing. If a person is driving and happens to be going in a direction and has extra seats people use those seats for locals who are going in the same direction. Saves them from having to take a less than safe chicken bus.

In the end, with stops and traffic it was a five hour ride. Not quite as fast as the three hour ride to get out to Antigua. There were two women on the bus as well who were pretty talkative and that helped to pass the time. They were traveling around together and decided to add San Pedro at the last minute to their list of cities to see. Having not researched much about the area, they were not sure what to do, what to see, or where to stay. Tim and Michelle were full of ideas and suggestions, which we hope were helpful. :)

In town we walked the young women up the Main Street in town and explained the basic layout. They needed a room so we walked them to a hotel we had seen earlier in the week. We had inquired earlier about their rates just to get an idea of what a lakefront hotel with a view would cost if we ever came back. So when the ladies mentioned they wanted lakefront views we figured we would try there. The price they now quoted for a room was much higher than the first time Tim and Michelle had asked, and Tim enjoyed talking them down back into their original price range. ;)

There was just enough time to grab some dinner and go to bed. Dinner saw us back at a restaurant we had been in before. Justin told us about some amazing green curry and Tim wanted to try it. Alex had a Hawaiian pizza and Michelle opted for a safe and delicious club sandwich. All were satisfied and ready for bed.

Another full week of class ahead - the last one!

Two days of parties, surprises and regional fairs

Thanks to the slow internet I believe we have a few days to catch you up on.

Thursday was full of the usual school in the morning. In the afternoon Alex went to the beach with Antonio (Rosa’s younger brother) while Tim and Michelle dropped off laundry and walked around town. We talked a bit about what to do for our last weekend in Guatemala. Tim really wanted to see the ancient city of Antigua. He had a number of discussions with Justin about it, which only confirmed his interest. Having convinced Michelle, we had to determine how we could get there and back. Being a single guy, Justin will often take what are called chicken buses. These are Big Mac truck looking buses that are decorated in wild and crazy colors and lights that go to various places on different routes. You hop on, and for as little as $5 you could get from San Pedro La Laguna to Antigua. The only problem is that these buses are not the safest. The other route would be to take a boat to one of the bigger cities on the lake and a shuttle bus from there. This option would take a lot more time and money. In the end we opted to choose a shuttle bus, which would leave at a set time with 8-12 people in the bus and we could also book a return time on Sunday so that we were able to get home. The nice thing was that we had a day or two before we had to make a reservation.

Dinner on Thursday was pasta but with a bit of an Asian spin. Full of fresh veggies and small portions of chicken topped with a light soy sauce. It was delicious, as usual.

Friday was a special day at our school. The school supports a number of social causes in the community. One is the home building project that Tim worked on last week. They also support about 30 local families who live below the poverty line with food every other week. This week was the week to deliver food to the families that are attached to each of the teachers. All of the students, including Alex, walked to the families homes to deliver the food. And of course chatted with their professors in Spanish along the way. Though Rosa has taken us around town a number of times, and we walk the city almost every day, it was good to get out and get a different perspective. Once the packages were delivered it was back to the school for the last bit of school for the day.

Friday was also a special day in our house as it was Rosa’s birthday. As a birthday gift Tim and Michelle bought Rosa a new blender cup. She had one that worked, but it would leak every time she used it and it was missing a lid. We noticed it as she has made a few delicious liquados for us during our stay. We were able to find a replacement for her and surprise her with it after school. She was very happy.

Tim and Michelle finally decided on the plan for the weekend and headed over to a travel agency. A shuttle for 4:30am was booked. If traffic is good, we would all be in Antigua by 8:00 am. More than enough time to see the sites of the city and do a little shopping on Saturday, leaving Sunday for anything still undone before we tried to head home in the afternoon.

Back at the house, we decided to take Rosa and the kids to the neighboring village of San Juan. There was a traveling fair which is in San Juan this week and will be in San Pedro (our city) next week. In fact, preparations are already being for the fair in San Pedro. We traveled by tuk tuk and arrived in the town within a few minutes.

At the fair there were a number of stands selling all manner of food and trinkets. The one that made us laugh was the “American churros” sign over a funnel cake store. The rides looked sufficiently scary, and tim and Michelle were a little nervous that the kids were going to want to go on them. At the end of the fair there was a double decker bounce house that we let the kids go on. At the end of 20 minutes the kids were sufficiently sweaty and tired. We played a few carnival games and bought some Guatemalan candy. The sky began to cloud over and we headed for home. Another quick tuk tuk ride and we were back at home about 5 minutes before the sky opened up and dumped a ton of rain. Lightning and thunder soon followed.

Because it was Rosa’s birthday her sister came over and made Hawaiian pizza for us. Her sister used to work in a restaurant, and to have the two of them in the kitchen together is quite the tour de force.

Michelle took Alex to the school for the weekly soccer game while Tim helped prepare the pizza. In the end there were six large pizzas that were devoured quickly by the family. All being in a food coma we headed upstairs to pack for the early morning shuttle ride to Antigua. We were packed and in bed by 9pm.

More on our great first day in Antigua soon!

Lightening storms and lake swimming (not at the same time!)

Hi all. A few updates from the last two days. We are all still alive and well in Guatemala. :)

The internet has slowed to a crawl, so it is likely that we will only update the blog every other day and post the blogs when we are at the school and can use their WiFi. The internet connection has been one of the only things about this trip that we would change if we could. But if you think about it, it does force us to disconnect even more and spend time with each other. :)

Thankfully Tim thought to bring playing cards and a new card game Alex got for his birthday called “Dos”. A bit ironic, yes? It is from the makers of Uno and operates on similar principles. It has been fun teaching the family Dos and how to play Kings in the Corner. The last two evenings have been spent around the dinner table with family and friends playing cards. And trying to teach a new card game entirely in Spanish to Spanish speakers was a real test of all of our combined Spanish experience. We all had a great time.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves here. We last left off on Tuesday. Tim had not been feeling well on Monday, but seemed to rebound by Tuesday. In the after noon Tim decided to run a few errands and check out some of the small shops. He was on the hunt for hammocks and Guatemalan coffee :). Michelle and Alex went with Rosa to the lake and her families property. Rosa was going in search of more plants for her kitchen and said that Alex could swim as she was searching. She will often go to her families lakeside property to see if there are any pretty native plants there. If so she replants them in containers around her house. They are a beautiful addition throughout the property.

The lake is also such a peaceful place, and Alex had a great time swimming with all of the little fish.

We all met back at the house almost at the same time as a big storm rolled in. And when we say big storm, it was a big one. It has been a while since we have experienced lightning and thunder quite that strong. The power flickered off a few times, but always seemed to come back on after a few minutes. After dinner was when we taught the family Dos, and by the last round we had 10 people playing around the table. It was a great experience and they were all having a great time.

On Wednesday morning it dawned on us that this is the half way point of our trip. :( Rosa made a delicious breakfast of eggs, onions, and fresh tomatoes. We all ate so fast as this is one of our favorite breakfasts.

Back to school and more lessons. Tim and Michelle are starting to feel like their brains will explode as the material is coming faster now. Our homework has gone from easy fill in the blanks to transcribe these three scenes from English to Spanish. Alex and his teacher have settled into a nice routine of study/play/go to the local tienda and buy a snack/study/play/go to the tienda again. And his teacher is so sweet that she buys him little cookies in the store. We told him that he can only go once per day to the store and we will give him money so that she isn’t paying for everything. A number of the teachers have remarked that he is a very calm and sweet boy, which makes Tim and Michelle happy. Apparently that isn’t always the case. Poor teachers!

After school we headed back to Rosa’s for lunch. Lunch was a rice dish with meatballs. Imagine spaghetti with meatballs but substitute in rice instead. It was delicious. Rosa sure does know how to cook.

Since the weather was still good we set off to wall around town for a bit. We bumped into a small shop that sold licuidos, which are similar to a smoothie but a bit more liquid. Alex ordered a pineapple, papaya and banana one that tasted great.

As we were walking home we walked past the gymnasium and remembered that one of Rosa’s daughters had a soccer game today. We popped on in and saw Rosa and the youngest daughter Leah. It turns out that Erica (the daughter who was supposed to play) hurt her foot in a previous game during the day and did not play in the afternoon game. We sat and watched a few halves of games and then continued on our walk.

We bought a melon ice cream from a street vendor and headed down to the more touristy area to explore. The locals call the touristy area “gringo-landia” which we find both funny and sad. While there we poked into a coffee shop on the outskirts and had a great conversation with the shopkeeper. They roast their coffee on site, and Tim got a great view of the process and more than enough coffee roasting fumes to fill his nose for the afternoon. Between Tim smelling like coffee roasting smoke and Alex and Michelle smelling like DEET to keep away the mosquitos we are quite the stinky family!

The rain never really came today, which gave us all some time to hang out on the top deck of the house. We enjoyed a great dinner of vegetarian burritos which are one of our favorite meals from Rosa. She also made home made French fries, which were a real hit all around the table. We opted to make it another early night so that Tim and Michelle could catch up on both sleep and homework. Which we are going to do right now. 

Love to all!

The Internet Gives Us Opportunities to Practice Patience ;)

Apologies for the last few days of no posting. The internet has been on at the house but really slow. We are still doing great and have started our second week of classes today. Time to get you caught up on the last few days of activities.

Sundays are Rosa’s day off, and we are on our own for food. We decided to ask Justin, our neighbor, for his advice. I don’t know if we mentioned Justin yet. He is renting one of the other rooms in Rosa’s house. He is from Arizona and is currently working on his PhD in Latin American studies. His focus is on the history of borders and border security between the US and Mexico and between the borders of countries in Central America. He used to be in the army and was involved in security in Iraq/Iran and in the Koreas, so he has a special interest in the topic. The fun part of his research is he can do it from anywhere, so he is here improving his Spanish, working on his dissertation and teaching online classes for the university during the semester.

Since he has been in San Pedro before he is a great resource for local information and history. His Spanish is also much better than ours, so he helps us work through more complicated conversations over mealtimes. He and Tim have spend many an hour in deep conversation on all variety of topics. And when we think back over the last few weeks, it is amazing how the stars all came together to have us with this amazing family and Justin here too. Gods provisions are even better than we could ask for.

Justin had a favorite spot for breakfast and the four of us were off. Waffles and fresh fruit for Alex and Michelle, the Elvis waffle (peanut butter, fried plantains, chocolate syrup and bacon) for Justin and the eggs San Pedro (eggs, beans, special sauce) for Tim. We all ate well, and even managed to  catch a portion of the Mexico World Cup match. Ironically, we are in a country that loves soccer at the best time to watch world class soccer and our family doesn’t really care for soccer. Go figure!

After breakfast Justin went back to the house to work and we went walking throughout the town. San Pedro is a little like Venice with its small narrow passages in between the houses and twisty windy roads. The town is on a massive hill, so not only are the roads twisty and narrow, there is also an elevation issue to tend to. And with no street names or signs, we really are finding our way by sight and instinct. We have to say, it is pretty fun.

On one of the hills we spotted a more modern looking cafe and stopped in to explore. We bought a cup of coffee and a liquido (like a smoothie but more liquid). We took them to the third floor deck of the building for an amazing view of the lake. It started raining just a bit which was fun to experience under the cover of a tin roof. We are really going to miss the sound of rain when we go home.

After the little treat we went home to get ready for church. We had asked Rosa if it was ok to go with her to church. We were not sure if we would be able to track with the speed of the Spanish spoken, but we were interested in seeing what a Guatemalan church was like. She goes to an evangelical church, so we at least had some ideas walking in.

At 3:00 it started to rain, so we took another tuk tuk to the church. Which was good, because the church is a little outside of town, and the road turns from pavement to dirt for part of the way. The tuk tuk ride was another wild one, and there were five of us packed in like sardines. But it did the trick, and Rosa let us know that kids under ten are free, which was a great thing to learn!

The service was great, we understood just a little, and the pastor and his wife were so sweet to both acknowledge us and thank us for coming. His wife then invited us on the patio of their house for conversation and to look at their view of the lake. It was a sweet moment, and their house has a pretty amazing position on the hill above the lake.

After church on our way home the worship leader road by on his mortocycle and offered to give the boys a ride around town. A few minutes later boy boys were loaded up and off they went. Tim and Michelle did have a moment of second guessing their un-helmeted son as he road away on a motorcycle in a foreign country. In the end, Alex had a great time and it is now one of his favorite memories of the trip so far.

Once back in town we opted to go for an early dinner. We decided to let Alex have a little comfort food since he had been eating authentic Guatemalan food for a week. We went to a restaurant attached to a hotel called Hotel Pinocchio. Alex and Tim opted for two different kinds of pizza and Michelle opted for pasta carbonara. Nothing like eating Italian food in Guatemala! It was delicious and we had enough pizza left to bring back to share with Justin as well.

It was an early bedtime to in order to be rested for week two of classes. Tim and Michelle are feeling a bit like week one was a fun refresher and week two is where the expectations ramp up. Let’s hope we can keep up!

On Monday morning we had a delicious breakfast of eggs and toast. These eggs come fresh from the family chickens. I guess we can’t be too mad at the roster since the chickens are from him. ;) Tim was not feeling to great, so we opted to plan for going to school and then laying low for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Class is absolutely ramping up for Michelle and Tim. We both had multiple pages of homework and verb conjugations. Alex spent the day learning about the seasons and producing more art. He drew a full person on his lower leg below the knee and named it Alexito. Since Alex had his ballcap on at school, Alexito had the benefit of a hat as well. It was pretty funny. Now to see if we can wash off the ink from his leg. And his ankle. And his toes. And the back of his arm. And and and. :) if you didn’t know better you would think the kid was sporting a multicolored leg tattoo. :)

We came back to the room and had a lunch of fried chicken, mashed garlic potatoes and rice. Better than KFC by far. Tim slept for a few hours while Alex and Michelle played card games. Alex mentioned being hungry (he always seems to be hungry) so Michelle broke down and bought the makings for pb and honey sandwiches at a local store. It was a smart move, and probably should have been done earlier, as during the week we eat around 7:30. It turns out that one of the town schools is under construction, so all of the students in the town share the use of the other school. Half of the students study in the morning, and the other half in the afternoon/evening. So the two boys don’t get out of school until 7pm. Hence the late dinner so we can all eat together.

Dinner was breaded and fried green beans with marinara sauce and a soup made with some kind of green leaves. All of it was delicious and served with the usual thick corn tortillas. We think we will all be dreaming of these corn tortillas when we come home. They are twice the thickness of the ones at home but are not crumbly at all. You can actually use them to hold food and the won’t split in half on you. And when the family makes them, the pat pat pat sound is a rhythm that speaks to your soul and makes you want to dance. Tim tried to make one, and the form was, well, let’s just say it wasn’t quite circular. He did try hard though. :)

After dinner Michelle and Alex went to the grocery store for a little yogurt desert and back to the room for a family movie night. Thankfully we downloaded a few movies onto the iPad, so we have something to watch if needed when the internet is slow.

Life is good.

A Few Days Behind!

So there is always a certain point in our trips where we get a little behind in the blog posts because we are running around like crazy and just get a little tired. But this time it really isn’t our fault. On Thursday afternoon the internet at the house we are staying in went down, and on Friday the city lost power. So we really haven’t been able to update the blog on our trip. But all is well and things are now back up and running. For now. ;)

The last few days have been full of more and more rain. The rain tends to start around 3 or 4. If we are lucky we can get out of class and done with lunch by 2 so that we can get out for a bit around town before it gets wet. On Friday Alex went to Sef and Kit’s grandmothers house to play. Sef and Kit are the two youngest sons and are around Alex’s age. Tim and Michelle went to drop off laundry at the launderia and run other errands. The only downside was that it was pouring. They only had one umbrella between the two of them and were both soaked. It was back to the house to grab the other one before setting off on a walk about the town. The rain kept coming down hard for the rest of the day, so after a quick dinner it was off to bed.

Saturday was full of sleeping in and a slow breakfast. Sef, Kit, Alex and a a family friend Justin were off to the lake to try to catch fish for dinner. Tim and Michelle were off with Rosa (the mother of our hose family) and her two daughters to the market. Today Rosa was going to show us how to make Guatemalan tamales. We had to buy the ingredients for the days meal at the market. This is something Rosa does each morning so that the food is as fresh as possible. Chicken, pork ribs, spices and chilies were all purchased in a market bustling with activity. Rosa brought her own soaked corn to the grinders to be ground into fresh masa. With out ingredients in hand it was back to the house for cooking and assembly.

In Guatemala they use leaves instead of the corn husks we are used to in the US. Which means the leaves have to be cleaned. Michelle had the job of making sure they were clean while Tim was in the kitchen working on the sauce and the masa/rice mixture that Rosa uses for the stuffing of the tamale. Rosa also put in whole pieces of meat with the bones still in tact in with the tamales, instead of shredded meat, which made the tamale more of a dish than a hand held meal. All of it was delicious, and we ate it for lunch and dinner.

The rain came more in the afternoon again, so after a quick trip by Tim to get our laundry we were at the house hanging out for the rest of the night. Tomorrow we will be eating around town as meals are not provided on Sundays, and we are excited to try out some of the places around town. We will also be going to Rosa’s church in the afternoon. We are looking forward to that experience also.

 Hasta luego!

Lluvia keeps falling on my head

The day began as most days appear the begin on the lake. Clear calm weather and a gorgeous view of the lake. Breakfast was eggs from the family chickens, grilled plantains, retried beans and mangos. We are not sure what Rosa does to her refried beans, but they were full of flavor. Such a treat to have home cooked meals every day with fresh vegetables. These things are rarities when we travel.

We headed out to the school for a slightly different kind of day. Alex and Michelle had their usual lessons, but Tim went to help with a construction project that the school was undertaking for a local family. The goal for the day was to bring more construction materials to the site for the workers to use in building the family a home. Tim really enjoys these kinds of projects and dove right in. It was a good physical work out for him as well. The group finished the work a little early, so there was still time for a short lesson. Alex spent the day with his teacher learning Spanish while they were making a super hero mask. He now calls himself Super Money Hero because he drew a dollar sign on the front of his mask.

Towards the end of the lessons for the day it started raining again. The original plan was to go out exploring, but we opted to stay in for a lazy day instead. If you have read our blog posts from previous trips, you will understand what a rarity it is to hear us utter the phrase “lazy day” while on vacation. After a lunch of cooked vegetables, rice, grilled pineapple and guacamole we retreated to our room to rest. Tim and Alex slept for a bit while Michelle completed her home work. Yes, she had homework again. All good practice of course, and it is fun for all of us to see the learning come to light in various contexts.

There was a small break in the rain around 5 so we headed out to explore another area of the city. There are so many different nooks and crannies here, and everyone is so friendly. It is a little like Venice with the narrow winding streets that then lead to bigger streets. There are no street signs and house numbers are rare, so we are having to create mental maps ourself as we explore the various areas. We have already scouted out a few different shops we want to go into again and restaurants to eat in on Sunday. Alex was really interested in the smoothies in one shop and the cartoon playing on a tv in another ;) It turned out to be a nice walk about in the area.

Dinner saw additional family members come to eat. The company is fun, as it gives us more people to practice Spanish with. Some are good at explaining around a concept if we don’t understand it and some are not. Rosa usually jumps in to help explain things, and she is great at using simple Spanish words we would know and examples to help us understand and respond well. The family was the mother with her three daughters. One looked to be around 16; another around 12 and the youngest was a little older than one. They were a very sweet family.

The meal was a simple dish of pasta with eggs, bacon, parsley and a butter sauce. The plates put before us were heaping, and we all wondered if we would be able to eat it all. But we had no problem eating all of our portions as it was delicious.

Towards the end of the meal a dance party broke out with all of the kids in the corner of the room. Alex busted out his dance moves, which are a combination of the floss (a big dance craze at his school), the robot, and various taekwondo moves. Those kids were having a blast and the adults were cracking up. Alex, our child who would never dance, has now asked to have a dance party again. We are scheduled to learn salsa dancing at the school tomorrow night, so maybe this will work out well.

It is off to an early bedtime for us. Hasta luego!

More School and Full Spanish Immersion on the Mayan Calendar

All is well in our neck of the woods in Guatemala. Our friend the rooster (el gaillo) again decided to serenade us multiple times in the evening. We are told that after a few days we won’t even notice it. Michelle isn’t so sure. We may need to use the dictionaries soon to find out the Spanish word for ear plugs. :)

Tim and Michelle rose in the morning for a look out over the lake. Our room has a very nice lake view as we are higher up the hill and on the top floor of our building. If the day is clear you can even catch a peek of the smoke still rising from the Vulcan de Fuego off in the distance. It is such a peaceful scene in the morning. If we didn’t have class at 8am we would be tempted to bring a cup of coffee to the roof and sit back for a while.

We had a hearty breakfast of mush and what resembled French toast. Mush, and yes this is what they call it, is a little like oatmeal thinned out with milk with added spices. It actually is really delicious and we all ate our whole bowls. The french toast was also good and we hope they make an appearance again in a future breakfast.

We made it to class on time this time. Did we mention we were late to our first class yesterday? (Yikes!). Did you know that the Spanish word for late is tarde? Yeah, we won’t forget that one now. We quickly met with our teachers and were off to our lessons. Tim spent the day talking with his teacher about our past travels. Michelle spent the day reviewing numbers, dates, seasons and months of the year. It was a good review of some quick concepts she has had before, but now had time to fully absorb. Alex made a book with his teacher to record new words and contain his drawings. Tim and Michelle both commented today that there was a small worry about having four hours of class each day. We were not sure if that would be too much. We are finding that the time goes by quickly.

After class was a hearty lunch of fish caught fresh from the lake, homemade French fries and a cucumber salad. It was so delicious our stomachs were hurting at the end of the meal. We spent a few hours after lunch walking around town and exploring the sights. We stopped to try a sugar covered doughnuts and a coconut flavored cookie as we walked around. We also stopped by a store with hand made crafts by local artisans where Rosas nephew works. The store is one of the most beautiful stores, full of life and color and stories of the artisans. The crafts are beautifully woven textiles made into all sorts of clothing and gifts. These are the things that make Michelle happy, when a souvenir is not just a trinket at home but is a way to be a part of a bigger story. These are also the things that make Tim nervous, as it means Michelle will want to buy everything in the store. ;)

We left to go to a small lecture in the school on the Mayan calendars. It was all in Spanish, so we tried to keep up as best as we could. We did get some of it, but certainly not well enough to ask any questions. In the end, it is always good to experience more moments of total immersion Spanish, but we may need to Wikipedia the Mayan calendars if we really want to learn more on this subject.

It was back to the house for the final meal of the day. Tonight was cooked fresh vegetables, guacamole and black beans rolled in a tortilla and cooked on all sides. We all ate our fill to bursting again. We feel like this will be a theme for this trip. Good food in plentiful amounts mixed with amazing hospitality. And we still have 2.5 more weeks of this. We are truly blessed and grateful for this time away as a family.

On school and rain and crazy tuk tuks

Our second day in Guatemala had us waking up to our new best friend the roster of the house. Rosa and her family have 20+ chickens for laying eggs and one very talkative rooster. Unfortunately this rooster is not a good timekeeper, as at 2am he thought it appropriate to sing to us very loudly. The windows in our room are not double pained and we could hear his lovely song. Fortunately one gets back to sleep quickly after a long day of traveling. But we made sure to give him a scowl as we walked down to breakfast.

Breakfast was pancakes and plantains and chocolate. The chocolate was warm and when it cooled it hardened like chocolate chips. That and the coffee fueled us up for the days activities.

At the school we met our teachers and were off to our classrooms. The classrooms are three sided rooms with the fourth side open. There is a small whiteboard on one wall, a table and two chairs. Michelle and Tim’s teachers did a quick assessment of their Spanish and they were off and running. Ales and his teacher spent a good part of the day drawing and talking about their art. It is good, because Alex enjoys art but doesn’t draw much. Most of the time he makes paper airplanes. Our house has paper airplanes everywhere :) The four hours went very quickly and it was nice to be able to have fun and ask any questions we wanted so we could really understand the language.

By the end of the day we all had homework for the evening. Alex had five math problems to work on, which he did while Michelle and Tim were talking to other students at the end of class. Tim had to write ten sentences and Michelle had to write twenty. Not sure exactly how that happened!

We returned home for a lunch of chicken soup. We are fast learning that Rosa is an amazing cook. The soup was full of local vegatables and chickens from their backyard. Poor chickens. Since her home is usually filled with students from the school we know the food will be ok for us to eat. This was one of our biggest worries, as none of us wants to be sick. We are all looking forward to more of her cooking.

We spent the afternoon walking around the city exploring. We bought some pan dulce and a quesadilla (no surprise that Alex was still hungry after lunch). We also bought new umbrellas from another shop as we forgot to bring ours (or our rain jackets) from home. And after our first night in Guatemala we learned that you either time your outings around the rain or you have something to keep you from getting soaked. However, the sound of the rain on the tin roofs is magical and makes it all worth the effort. We also found a park where kids were playing basketball, but Alex was too nervous to join in. We kept walking for a bit then went backup the room to rest.

Before dinner Rosa wanted to go to her church to deliver some lemons for the Sunday lemonade after church. So Alex and Michelle walked with Rosa and her son Kit to the church across town. It started raining soon after we left, but this time Alex and Michelle were prepared. The walkk was a long one, and towards the end Alex was getting tired. When we arrived at the church we found it was on a hill overlooking the lake. What a beautiful view to see each Sunday. On the way back we took a tuk tuk. A tuk tuk is a small three wheeled vehicle driven by madmen who know the exact dimensions of their vehicle and are not afraid to squeeze into tight spaces. Some of the streets here are barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side. But the tuk tuks drive down them with a speed and determination that takes you breath away. Alex was verboten and presented to drive from the back seat. The joy on his face was refreshing. Needless to say, we were home in no time.

After a bit, dinner was ready. A simple dish of eggs, tomatoes and homemade bread and tortillas. It was simple but perfect and Alex ate his so fast you would hardly know he had been served any at all. Then he was off with the boys to watch a movie. Tim and Michelle stayed and talked with Rosa, her daughter and Rosa’s nephew. This family likes to tease, so Tim and Michelle fit right in. We played a fun game where someone would say a letter and we went around the circle thinking of words that had the letter. It is a good game to expose you to more Spanish words. And trying to define words using only Spanish is an amusing challenge.

Off to bed for us as tomorrow brings four more hours of classes and a mini lecture at the school on the Mayan calendar. Should be interesting!

Guatemalan Adventures

Well we are off again on another adventure. There are a few changes to this vacation. The biggest one is that we have our son Alex with us. He is finally old enough were we feel comfortable taking him along. And after day one he has proven to be a great traveler. The second big change is that we are traveling in Central America this time. Our previous adventures have all been in Europe. And while we love Europe, Guatemala has the benefit of Spanish language schools. We have settled on one and will be studying here for three weeks, which we hope will help deep our whole families grasp of Spanish.

We arrived at LAX around 10pm to massive lines of people. For some reason Michelle thought that if our tickets were for a 1:45 am flight that we would experience the joys of a nearly empty LAX. Boy was she wrong! LAX was busy on. Saturday night and there were long lines to our airline.  While in line, we were behind a very friendly couple who were originally from Honduras. The husband had lived in the US since the 90s and the wife was in school in the US to learn English. Tim had a great time chatting with the husband on all manner of things, and his wife enjoyed talking to Alex and Michelle about her classes. It made the two hours in line go by much faster. Given the long lines at baggage checkin and security, were very glad that we arrived four hours before our flight.

Though Alex has been on a plane before he was only seven months old, and so everything about  checking, security and the airport was new. He had tons of questions about why we have the security process we do and was fascinated by all of the shops and decorations once we were inside. We made our way to the gate and prepared to wait for a while.

It was late at night, we were all tired and there were three total flights leaving from gates right next to each other. We found seats away from the gate and were listening carefully to announcements as we  wanted to make sure we didn’t miss our boarding. Unfortunately they never announced our boarding over the speakers. With 20 min before the flight was to depart Tim walked over to check and noticed the boarding room was now empty. Everyone was on the plane! Tim ran over and we dragged a very sleepy Alex to the gate. Nothing like being the last ones on to get your heart pumping! One side benefit of walking in last was that the isles were full of people arranging their luggage, so to pass the time the flight attendant at the entrance let Alex meet the pilots and walk into the cockpit.

The flight was short and we tried to grab sleep where we could. Alex was able to contort himself into a sleeping position and catch a few winks. Tim and Michelle were less successful. On the way in we caught a glimpse of theVolcán del Fuego and the smoke still rising from the top. We made it though customs just fine and found our ride to the town. The man who picked us up was named Miguel and he was great. He was so patient with us as we asked lots of questions about the subtle differences between different words, phrases and cultural sights along the road. We took part of the Pan American highway to get to Lake Atitlan. The road conditions were interesting, some of the potholes  were big enough to swallow a whole tire. We alternated between driving quickly and at slow speeds so as not to hurt the car. The mountainous country is very lush, we even had a couple sprinkles on us as we drove. With a stop for a traditional Guatemalan meal, it took a total of 4.5 hours to get from the airport to the town. It ended up being a great time for Alex and Michelle to catch up on a little bit of sleep.

In San Pedro we were dropped off at the home of Rosa and Jesus. They have four kids, two older girls and two younger boys. The youngest boy is Alex’s age, and they spent the next four hours running around as thick as thieves. Rosa seems very sweet and corrects our Spanish lovingly when we make mistakes. She speaks no English, but between our collective experience we are able to communicate well.  We modified our original plan of two separate rooms, andmoveAlexin with us as he would have been downstairs otherwise. The room has communal covered patio with an amazing view of the lake. While Alex and Keith played Tim and Michelle rested in the room and the hammocks on the patio. The afternoon rain was a nice sound to doze off to.

Our meals are provided for us except on Sundays, so around 6 we were off to find food. Unfortunately the rain decided it wanted to continue for a few extra hours, so we were soaked by the time we made it though town. We settled on a lake side restaurant with al fresco dining. The food was amazing and very reasonable under 12 dollars total for the three of us. We each had a plateful of “Mexican” street tacos,  which seems weird to eat when in Guatemala,  but were very tasty. Alex loved it with the lime drink he had. Tim tried the local beer, Gallo. And, Michelle went for “Agua pura.” We ran our way home in the rain and had time for a quick FaceTime chat between Alex and a friend and then to an early bed time.

Our first day of class is tomorrow and we are all excited to see what the day brings!