Let Me Entertain You

While we haven't been up to anything of importance lately, we have been doing and seeing lots of fun little things with our spare time! Such as....

Competitions...

Dance Off

Leg Off

Beer Off
(don't worry - just a blind beer tasting of Brahva, Gallo, and Dorada Ice...James was only sipping on these! He won, by the way!)

Game Night


Being Active...

Zip Lining

Measuring the height of volcanoes


Being Lazy

Stop! Hammock Time!

U Can't Touch This

Nap time

Central American Celebrations

Cuban music with Franco!

Cuban Contraband

Antigua Religious Processional

Watching Rafa Grow!

He's getting so big!

The Creepies and the Crawlies

This week I saw some new itsy bitsy creatures that go up the water spout...

A crazy caterpillar....


Its spikes are supposedly poisonous!


It was about 5 inches long and very healthy


A small scorpion in a friend's room at an eco-lodge at the Lake


A nest of daddy long leg spiders!


James after being bitten 25+ times by a swarm of ants!

***

Good night

sleep tight

don't let the bed bugs bite!

Supermercado Sweep

Of the many, many cultural aspect of Guatemala I love, one of my favorites is going to the Market (mercado or mercadito). While I have not been seriously shopping to a mall in nearly a year (other than Christmas in the U.S., and European stores), I have come to love going to Guatemalan mercados! There are many things I love about market shopping, and I just had to share them.

Textiles

At first, James and I both found the bright and patterned cloth from Guatemala a bit tacky or overly colorful for our polite color choices in our home. Before becoming a fan of the Guate textiles, I more enjoyed soft colors like light green, tan, or white. Putting something wildly colorful on the table or wall seemed too bold. Now that I have seen all that goes in to creating these textiles, I am in love with them all, and love looking at them at the markets! Not a mercadito trip goes by without discovering a new beloved pattern, color choice, or item covered in the textile that I would like to own.

Everything can be purchased with some sort of textile on it: purses, CD cases, headbands, photo frames, notepad covers, shoes, belts, etc. Whatever you would like, you can get. And if you can't find it, you can just buy the cloth yourself and make it at home! Our good friend Kari loves to sew, and she is currently in the process of making us something out of colorful cloth we recently purchased.

In the States, it seems everything is becoming so similar...you can go to Kansas City, Little Rock, Chicago, or Joplin and find the same stuff in the same stores or restaurants. Kohl's, Wal-Mart, Target, Gap, Starbucks, Applebees. Borrrinnng! In Guatemala, each indigenous group and/or department (sort of like a state) has their own textile design and colors that they wear and use in their decorating. At the mercado, you can see and buy from all of the different geographical areas and indigenous groups that are very distinct and therefore very fun to look at and choose from when you shop! For example, my favorite department's designs/colors is the Todos Santos part of Guatemala. I love the bright blues, pinks, and purples, and the stripes/geometrical designs.

Bargaining

Part of the fun of the market is knowing that you can bargain on everything. Everything! James and I have been here long enough to know what a fair price is for different items, and so we are good at getting that price. It's fun to use our Spanish to bargain, and fun to shop around and get the best deal possible at the market. It's also fun to get even better deals based on the more you buy at one stand. Wouldn't it be nice in the grocery store or mall if, when you bought more you got everything at a better price? It's fun at the market!





I was trying my hand at selling this bright
blue fabric...I think the owner was much
better at his craft, but it was fun to try!

Myriad of Markets

Not booths sell the same items, either....

Spices & Peppers


Flowers

Fabric

Leather Goods

Masks

Wooden Toys

Beans
(protected by statues of saints no less)

Fruit & Veg

The Sightings

Every visit to the market is different. You are bound to see something you have never seen before, and may never see again; market visits never fail to create an adventure! Some of my favorite sightings are the following:

Dyed/colored baby chickens being sold like goldfish. When a Guatemalan buys one, the chick gets put in a small plastic baggie and tied up to be taken home. We never quiet figured out why the chicks were dyed different colors.

The blind man with a clairvoyant snake:
He can tell you the date you'll die or what you are eating for lunch.

An entire stand dedicated to selling fried food.
We can't believe there are that many foods that can be eaten fried!

Women walking around with anything you can imagine on their heads.
A classic: enough taquitos to feed an army

Something for Everyone

The main cathedral at the Zone 1 Guatemala City market square

Que rico!
Lunching at a market food stand
(some things are worth the risk!)

One of the best parts about going to the market is that (whether you were planning on it or not) you will buy something. If you are like me and don't like to walk away from your shopping experience empty-handed, you will also love the market. Even if you only have a few quetzales, you can find something to purchase. Each time I leave the market, I look to add to my growing collection of Guatemalan memories of the market! It's a really fun way to shop and see the creative and colorful talent that Guatemalans have to offer!

Panajachel's Best Kept Secret EXPOSED

Oh, Panajachel, why must you be so coy? You are a little Guatemalan shopping town, constantly humbled by Lake Atitlan and its surrounding volcanoes. Guidebooks will tell us to pass you by for nearby indigeneous villages on the lake, and to treat you only as a launch pad for better places to spend time. But Pana, you must stand up for yourself as a respectable tourist destination! No? You don't want to brag on yourself? Okay, we will do it for you!

Pana: not just for shopping anymore!

Upon our return from an exciting summer in Europe, we had the pleasure of hosting a family friend from Neosho (one of my Mom's best friends and former neighbor), Tammy! Tammy's visit helped us to get a second Guatemalan wind, falling in love with the country all over again. We hiked Volcano Pacaya, spent a few days in Antigua, and spent some time along Lago Atitlan in the small lakeside town of Panajachel.

Spider Monkeys weren't the only ones
swinging through the tree tops at the Nature Reserve

Yes, Panajachel is worth the visit, and worth a stay! We discovered one of Guatemala's best kept secrets while there...the Nature Reserve. The nature reserve has everything you need to keep you busy, awe-inspired, happy, and maybe just a little bit scared, too! It has hiking, waterfalls, suspension bridges as part of the hikes, excellent flora and fauna, splendid views of the lake and volcanoes, a viewing platfform to watch (and feed!) spider monkeys, a butterfly garden, and best of all (drum roll, please:) Zip Lines!

The little person in red pants zipping across mountain sides is Tammy!

Coming in from a zip line

Before this week, James nor I had ever gone zip lining, and didn't necessarily think Guatemala's zip lines would be good enough or safe enough to try, but when we got the recommendation from the hotel owner at Posada Los Encuentros that the zip lines were awesome and US/EU certified safe, we were excited to try them, and even more excited that Tammy wanted to try them, too!

James (far left) looking at a waterfall from a suspension bridge

Well, it was amaaazing. There were 8 zip lines in all, of different inclines, speeds, and heights above the tree canopy. We had two guides with us who kept us safe and happy, so all we had to do was get hooked in and told when to go swinging across the mountain sides! It was truly exhilarating to be flying over the tree canopy and looking out across the lake at the volcanoes! Wow!

Our view from the mountain side, which opened up
to see the volcanoes as we zipped across

This definitely ranks as one of the coolest things we've ever done in Guatemala! We will be spreading the word that Panajachel has more than just shopping and boats to other towns on the lake!

Watch the entire process of Beth getting hooked in and zip lining!