Fun Times with Visiting Friends

Arriving in San Marcos

Last week our good friends and former neighbors, the Kirklands, came to see us along with their two new friends, Phil and Rel, from San Diego. We had a blast traveling around Guatemala and showing them some of our favorite spots.

We started off the trip with two days at Lago Atitlán. We spent the first day in our favorite spot, San Marcos, at our favorite hotel, Aaculaax. Thankfully they liked it as much as we did and were equally impressed by the unique and creative rooms! Likewise, they seemed to enjoy all the
food!

Breakfast at Aaculaax

Lunch at Moonfish Cafe

The view from Phil and Rel's room

Matt & Erika just hanging out...

The second day we boated it over to Panajachel for an afternoon of zip-lining, swimming and sun-bathing, and then some shopping. More photos from Matt HERE.

The fearless crew

Walking around Pana

Looks rough, doesn't it?

We came back to Guatemala City Tuesday afternoon and had a nice pasta dinner together that evening. On Wednesday, I took our guests to Volcan Pacaya for a hike and an upclose look at some lava! (Unfortunately, Beth had to work that day, so she couldn't join us.) Everyone was pretty excited by the active volcano, and we were all pretty worn out after the tough hike. Check out Matt's photos of the hike HERE! And definitely don't miss the short video HERE!

On the way back to the city, we dropped off Phil and Rel in Antigua as they were planning to spend the next two days volunteering at an orphanage run by one of their friends.

Thursday was our down day, so we had a later morning and then joined Beth at school for a tour of the campus and lunch together outside. I spent the afternoon working while the Kirklands took it easy. That evening, we all enjoyed another dinner at home and watched LOST, The Office, and 30 Rock.

Friday I took Matt and Erika down to the historic Zone 1 for a view of the central plaza and a bit of shopping in the market. We finished with a true Guatemalan lunch down in the market at one of the restaurant stalls. In the afternoon, we picked up Beth from school and headed over to Antigua for our final night together.

After checking in to our hotel, we strolled over to a restaurant for happy hour snacks and drinks to watch the sun set amongst the volcanos. Then we met back up with Phil and Rel and had dinner at a small rooftop restaurant. Afterwards, we went to the nicest place in Antigua, Casa Santo Domingo, for dessert. By then we were all pretty stuffed and sleepy and called it a night around 10 p.m.

The next day we had a delicious breakfast at our favorite place, Rainbown Cafe. Then we spent the rest of the morning sight-seeing and shopping. Throughout the day, Volcan Fugeo was extremely active. At one point, while the Kirklands were exploring some ruins, Beth and sat in the shade and watched the volcano erupt and spout out large streams of smoke four times in a half hour.


At noon we headed back to the city to go to airport. It was sad to say goodbye, but we're planning to visit Matt and Erika in San Diego this July. We had such a fun time with Matt, Erika, Phil, and Rel. Thank you for visiting us!

Pacaya Porter: Success!

I just sampled the first Pacaya Porter with my good friend Matt, and I can happily say the beer turned out successfully! It's even a little early to be sampling it (I should have waited at minimum till next Wednesday), but it's already tasting good. It came out the right color with a tan head, has a pleasant dark, fruity smell, the body is nice with a subtle carbonation (hoping this will improve a little more over the coming weeks) and the flavor is surprisingly good. I really had low expectations for my first beer and this one far exceeded them. I'm very happy right now.

Three Days at the Beach

Last year Beth and I fell in love with Sunzal, a beach and little surfing community in El Salvador. I think we went four times between January and June. But when we came back from summer break in 2008, for some reason we never got around to going again before Christmas. We finally made it back this past long weekend and immediately fell in love with the place all over again.

Friday morning we caravanned with a group of teachers (12 at the time, though 3 more met us at the beach later) to the beach. One of the reasons we like going so much is that it's the easiest drive to make of any of our usual destinations. The road out of the city is much better, and the highways in El Salvador are leaps and bounds better than Guatemala's, not to mention it's quite scenic.

Of course, there really isn't much to report of our time at the beach. We did a whole lot of swimming, reading, eating ceviche (like a shrimp salad) and pupusas (stuffed tortillas), drinking fruit smoothies, and just hanging out with our friends. We spent our mornings over at a nearby small hotel/restauarant overlooking the ocean, our afternoons boogie boarding, watching the surfers (in absolute amazement -- it looks so hard and intimidating!), and the evenings playing pool and playing music.

Breakfast at Miramar -- the greatest view in Sunzal

Gimme a B-E-A-C-H!

Playing pool on the beach

Don't worry - I cleared the table, then sunk the 8-ball in the wrong pocket -- and scratched!

Beth, Jean Ah, and Wendy

James and Mike

Wishing sunset wasn't over

We had several musicians with us: Mike, Andy, (guitarists) David (guitarist/keyboardist) and Reid (banjo-ist). And we struck gold by inviting a nice surfer fellow to join us. Stephen was a Talent. He could pick up the guitar or banjo and pull sound out of it that you didn't think was previously possible. He also knew tons of Beatles' songs, and Beth was in her element, singing along to every song he played. She said it reminded her of being at home around her Dad and her dad's musical friends.

Mike on the guitar and Reid strumming the banjo

Stephen! Surfer and Guitarist Virtuoso -- we all wondered what he was doing on a beach and not in a band

My favorite song he played and sung:
Something in the Way She Moves by James Taylor

The bad news? It looks as if many of us got food poisoning/bacterial infection on some level. James and I had rumbly tummies for a few days, but some of our friends were much sicker, and one friend ended up going to the doctor and finding out she had e-Coli bacterial poisoning.

Warning: Pupusas may be hazardous to your health! But don't let that stop you. :)

.....but wasn't it all worth it in the end, to spend three days at the beach?

Bottling Night at Mildren Brew. Co.

After anxiously waiting and waiting the last two-and-a-half weeks, my beer was finally ready to be bottled. Last night after Spanish class, the ever-helpful Beth assisted me in the process. I really would have been lost at a couple points in the brewing process if it weren't for her mathematical skills. Since I ended up with less beer than I had anticipated, I had to adjust the quantity of the priming sugar we mixed in last night. I would have just eyeballed it if I were on my own, but Beth actually guided me in measuring it all out and doing the proper conversions.

So, I boiled the sugar in a little bit of water and then poured it into an empty and sanitized water jug. The reason for adding the sugar is to give the yeast in the beer a little more to eat on while in the bottle which will create a natural carbonation and up the alcohol percentage a bit. While the sugar was boiling, I dipped all my clean, empty bottles into the sanitized water solution to prepare them for the beer. Next I siphoned out the beer from the fermenter into the jug with the sugar. I gently swirled the sugar into the beer (careful not to swirl too hard as oxygenating the beer can hurt the flavor) and then prepared to begin bottling and capping.

Siphoning the beer

My brew kit came with this neat bottling wand and it's just a narrow tube of plastic with a little tip on the end that when pressed down will release the beer (it's connected to the siphon). So I just put it into the bottle, press down, and the beer starts flowing. When the bottle's full, I pull up and the flow is cut off. Beth set out the empty bottles for me to fill and kindly capped the full ones. She did a great job and I really appreciate her getting into this hobby with me.

Filling the bottles

Once all the bottles were filled and capped, I counted up 31 12-oz. bottles and 1 22-oz. bottle. Not bad! Especially since I ended up with about 40% less than I should have. Now I'm supposed to wait another two weeks before drinking them. But, I'll probably try one in about 10 days as I'd like to have our soon-to-arrive guests, Matt and Erika, try it. I'll be sure to follow up on the flavor.

Capping the bottles