Ahh... we have discovered the nicest, most relaxing, and most beautiful place in Guatemala. It is a hotel called Casa Del Mundo (House of the World) on Lake Atitlan.
We decided to go up to Lake Atitlan on Sunday and its about a three hour bus ride. We were actually supposed to get a nice tourist bus with individual seating but instead we got to the Travel Agency and our "nice tourist" bus was a chicken bus (recycled school bus). So you can imagine how uncomfortable the ride was. I was especially uncomfortable for Kelsey and I because we sat in the front row and all of the native women will not sit more than two rows back. So we kept getting very squished with almost three or four people to a seat that was meant for two people. We got to Panajachel (the town near the lake) very stiff and went to sit down in a restaurant for breakfast. Mom, Kelsey and I went out shopping in the market there but Ben decided to stay in the restaurant and just chill. We walked up the street and went into a store with all these nice cloth and leather bags. I ended up getting a very cute little backpack and Kelsey wanted to get one but decided that it was too expensive. After that we found t-shirts for ourselves, and a few little knick-knacks for Micaela. We returned to the restaurant for lunch then walked down to the boat dock where we found a boat over to Casa Del Mundo which is pretty much out on the other side of the lake and built on a lake. When we arrived at the hotel we had to climb about 100 steep and uneven steps up to the office. I noticed that on the sides of the stairs the hotel had made little clearings all over where they put sky chairs and hammocks. We got checked in and then had to walk about another 50 steps up to our rooms. The rooms where up on a high ledge and had a beautiful view of the lake. After we had gotten unpacked we went and down to the swimming area and cooled off in the water. The water was about the temperature of the Boulder Res. but the wind was blowing very hard so we didn't stay in long and my ears froze! Later we had some quiet time when I read and rested. Then Mom and Ben went down for a drink at the cafe, and Kelsey and I went out to take some pictures of the area. We found out that they had this old fashioned hot tub that was wood fire heated and was very nice looking. (We found out later that you had to make a reservation for the hot tub before one o'clock in the afternoon, and we never got to actually go in the hot tub.) It started to get very dark (it was only 6:00) so we went and found Mom and Ben at the cafe and they told us about the dinner situation. Since the hotel is not close to any grocery store the hotel makes dinner for us family style (which means that the whole hotel eats together at one huge table). The waiters brought out the soup first which was corn, squash, and something else that was yummy, after the soup came the salad which was avocado and tomato covered in a vinaigrette. Then the main dish came which was shish kabobs, veggies, and mashed potatoes. We finished and then they brought out dessert which was probably the most scrumptious strawberry short cake ever! Kelsey and I went up to the room to get ready for bed after that. And when I was walking back to the room from the bathroom (which is public). I saw my very first scorpion! It was tiny which made me even more freaked out because I had heard that the smallest ones are the most poisonous. But the scorpion was just minding its own business and nothing happened to that.
The next day I woke up early and found out that Kelsey was very sick and had thrown up quite a few times, so we decided not to do much that day other than relax. We went down for breakfast and I had pancakes with a homemade syrup, and fresh fruit. Then I went downstairs to the porch and found myself a nice sky chair which I snuggled up in and read my book for the next two hours. I went back up to the cafe to find Mom and I found her sitting with Kelsey who was feeling better by then. We had lunch then I went back down to my sky chair and read for another three hours. Then I decided that the wind had cooled down enough to go swimming. When I got to the swimming area I found Mom and Kels already there and so we swam for awhile. Then we had another scrumptious dinner of vegetable soup, fish, rice, and veggies for main dish, tomato salad, and fruit crepes. And again we had another early bed time, this time we found a huge spider and a scorpion so we decided to experiment by putting them together in a glass. Unfortunately for us nothing happened so we let them go and go to bed.
Yesterday nothing was a half day of relaxing and a half day of traveling which all went very smoothly. Today I am doing some home schooling and waking up from my three days of relaxation even though I don't want to!

Larissa

Yaaaaawn! This past week has been day after day of excitement (maybe I am exaggerating a little bit but it still has been fun) and now I am utterly exhausted.

The week started off with a very fun hike up a volcano: Volcan Pacaya. We had arranged a private tour with one of the many travel agencies here for us and our Norwegian neighbors (only the dad and the oldest son came because the younger boy was not old enough to go). The very comfertable bus arrived at the apartment at 8:00am and from there we had an hour drive to the volcano. We got to the parking lot and immediately a whole crowd of little boys trying to rent us sticks came and squished us into a bundle. We got out of that and started to hike. It took about an hour to get up to the cooled lava field and then it was another fifteen minutes to actually get to where we could see lava. Unfortunately our guide was too nice and got us to a place where we could get up close to the lava from below. I say too nice because it is actually a better view but if you are trying to take a picture it doesn't work so great because one you are below and you have to be careful of rocks falling and two it is way way to hot! Kels burned her legs when she was trying to take a video (don't worry it was just a warning burn and is fine now). In fact i had such a hard time getting a picture that I didn't ever manage to get one where you could see the lava very well so the following picture sadly is not mine. I did manage to get a cute picture of Kelsey, the guide, and I. After we got out of the lava field our guide took us to a grassy place where we could eat lunch (turns out where we ate was a right next and kind of in the middle of a whole bunch of corn fields). That is pretty much our whole adventure on the volcano!

This week we also finished the Contru Casa house! The only super exciting day was yesterday (Friday) when the family threw a party for us. At about 11:00am a group of workers who had also finished their house came over with a cake and a huge bottle of Pepsi. That was only the beginning of the party. First we had a group picture, then the volunteers (us) had to fill out evaluation sheets for Contru Casa (the kids at the house were very interested in our writing abilities and we had a huge crowd around us when we were writing), after we finished we had Pepsi and the cake (the cake was not your general Safeway cake it was amazingly good! It was almost like Tres Leches because it was so moist but not quite). The workers that we were not working with left after that. The family came up to us and said that they were making us lunch, so we stayed for lunch. At first we really didn't want to stay because all of us were very tired. But when the food came out it look so good that we forget about not wanting to stay. Lunch was Pepian: a Guatemalan recipe of chicken in a sauce that is very hard to explain but is very good, homemade rice, homemade tortillas, and a hibiscus juice! After lunch all seven of us (the workers came too) went to the bus stop and came to Antigua. We got home (without the workers of course) and just conched out. That was our day!

Today nothing special has happened, only our usual outing to the supermarket and maybe a little strolling on the art street. Tomorrow we are going to get up super early to go to a travel agency and board a bus to Panajachel to do some shopping and then spend a few nights on Lake Atitlan in Casa del Mundo. I will probably bring my computer so you can hear of my adventures up there but right now I really need to go pack! Wait one more thing on our way back from the supermarket today we ran into the lady that gives Ivan our Norwegian neighbor cooking classes and she said that next Wednesday will send her friend over to our apartment to talk about me and Kels taking cooking classes! YUMMY!

Larissa

Buenos Dias!
Yes I am still alive even though I don't update very often! I have just been having a fine time keeping myself occupied and don't see the need to sit at the computer for however long this will take to write :)
Saturday I think was the day after I updated last so here goes my schedule!
Saturday was Day of the Dead, and there was a tour organized by the Spanish school to take us to a kite festival and cemetery where we could watch the festivities! The kite festival was so cool they had kites of all sizes and I think the biggest one was 15 meters across!! They also had really cool pictures and designs on them.
The cemetery was also very cool because it is the one day a year where every member in a family with a deceased person goes to the grave, cleans it up, and decorates it with flowers wreaths, grass, and tissue paper. We walked around in the cemetery and little town that was down the hill from there for awhile. We as in the Kelsey, Mom, Gavin, Elizabeth, Lois, Joe (all people from the school) and of course ME! After that all of us started to get really hungry so we went back to the kites and found a nice grassy spot that was kind of sheltered from the sun and we ate! After that we went to the bleachers to find a good place to watch the kite competition, the rules for the competition were very simple the kite had to get up off the ground and then it was a matter of time (the kite that stayed up the longest won). Some of the kites were really pretty but didn't exactly fly, one of the really pretty ones got up maybe 30 feet and then folded in half and crashed it was very amusing and Gavin said "Hecho en Mexico" which means (jokingly) it was made in Mexico!! Oh yea and while we were waiting for the competition to start we kept ourselves amused by playing with the really sweet little girl that was sitting in front of us. But then we had to go right as the competition had started... and that was pretty much my day. Oh wait after we got home Elizabeth, Lois, and Joe wanted to go out to dinner and invited us to come, we did and then nothing else happened.
I forget what happened on Sunday so nothing special must have happened.
On Monday we got up super early because it was the day when we started building the Constru Casa house. Kels actually didn't come because she had a bad stomach ache so mom and I walked down to the square at 6:45 am (brr it was freezing). Carolina (head of Constru Casa) picked us up and took us to the location of where we would build the house, the city is called Ciudad Vieja (Old City). We walked in and there where kids running around everywhere because the neighbors had lots of kids, we met the workers we would be working with, their names are Thomas, Willie (never heard of a Spanish Willie before) and Cesar. They weren't very friendly the first day and we didn't actually do that much work but thats okay. After work was done we went down to the bus stop and that was my first CHICKEN BUS experience. I had just got on and the driver took off so I almost fell off but I didn't and was fine but it was kind of freaky. We arrived home late and very tired so we got home and just conched out! I don't have any pictures from Monday because my camera died right as I turned it on for the first picture and that was a bummer. Yesterday we (not Kelsey again) went and met Thomas at the Chicken Bus stop. This time the ride wasn't as crazy but it was still fun. We got there and Willie and Cesar where already working so we started working right away. The day flew by and we did a lot of digging and measuring and such, except then we were done with that and the materials we needed for the house weren't there yet so we sat around for a really long time and then finally just left. Again we got home tired and hungry, but this time Kels was nice and hyper for our return but we didn't feel like doing anything. We had dinner and watch the election, at about 8:30 I fell asleep on the couch and then didn't wake up again until Mom told me that the election was over, Obama had won and it was time for bed and that was that!
Today nothing much happened I got up early since I had gotten an extra 3 hours of sleep last night, and just kinda hung out and had breakfast until mom and Kels got up. We had a slow morning and then we went out to lunch and went to the store. We got home and have been resting since then. Right now I am listening to my itunes, chatting with friends, and blogging (I am such a great multitasker!) Later tonight we are going to have Chicken Tetrazini for dinner and watch a movie. Oh yea we found a Guatamalan Blockbuster!! They have lots of good movies and all of them are in english too! Exciting huh? Well I need to get off the computer because my hands already are weak from digging and typing this for an hour hasn't helped!
Hasta la Vista Baby!
Larissa