Josh Ritchey: International Man of Festivity!

For James' Golden Birthday in which he turned his age on the same date (28 on March 28th), as a surprise to him, one of his best friends from college in Oklahoma City flew in for a week in March! The surprise was really fun, but the week was even better!

Josh flew in on St. Patty's Day, so we went out to a downtown gringo-laden bar, Rattle 'n' Hum. We found out later the Guatemalans call the place Pan con Frijol (bread and beans) instead because they have a hard time pronouncing Rattle 'n' Hum, and the name has no real translation, anyway. HA!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Then the boys spent a few days at our favorite beach destination, Roca Sunzal, where James surfed on a surfboard for the first time! Congrats, James!

El Salvador

Once back from their relaxing weekday beachdays, we had a fun party at our house with three exciting competitions: a Mojito Making contest, a Guac Off, and we played a bar trivia game that Josh also heads up back in Tulsa where he's attending law school (and running trivia bar games!). It was a blast!

Party Pics

For the mojitos and guacamole entries, each one was judged on taste, creativity of name, and style of presentation. For example, I entered my "Holy Guacamole, that's hot!" but it didn't win. James and Josh entered "Guac and Roll" which was just guacamole on a bun, but they got points for creativity! There were mojitos ranging from mango mojitos to margaritos.

Our trophies, presented to the winners at the end of the night

For the team trivia game, we were on small teams, and there were 4-5 categories in which we had to answer as a team. For example, one category was Dead or Alive, and Josh put up a pictures of someone famous, and as a team, we had to name the celebrity (1 point) and say whether or not that person was dead or alive (1 point). It was harder than you'd think! It was honestly difficult to recall whether or not the actor was from Spartacus or Ben Hur, and then their current Living Status....?

We used a projector for the trivia

After such a celebratory night, it was hard to imagine having any more fun to top the evening, but we managed to! We spent the next day in Antigua bumming around, and then our friend Jean Ah met up with us to go hike Pacaya.

At Cafe Sky, a rooftop bar in Antigua

Listening to a Peruvian Flute Band at Sol Latino

It was a pretty intense climb, but once we got to the smoking volcano, it was worth it to watch the lava spilling down the side! Scary! One guy gunning for a Darwin Award was trying to roast a marshmellow on the end of a stick while standing on recently hardened lava, and we could see it glowing bright red below him! We tried to warn him, but he wouldn't listen. Luckily, nothing happened while we were around to see it.

Note the flowing red lava behind us

The climb is steep
Volcano Pacaya smoking away

For Josh's final evening in the city, we went to Jean Ah's for an impromptu Sushi Making (and sushi rolling) lesson and sunset dinner on her deck. It was VERY fun, and we didn't know how easy it could be to make sushi! Well, we call it sushi, but Jean Ah taught us that it's called kimbap in Korean.

Mama Jean Ah cooking up the ingredients for kimbap!

James was trying his luck at making a monster roll that was hard to even eat it was so big!

All in all, it was a successful and entertaining week that went way to fast! Thanks again to Josh Ritchey for visiting and helping to make James' birthday so special!

... And Feliz Cumpleaños to James, of course!