Spring Break Guatemala!

The week leading up to Easter, we were fortunate to have Beth's brother and sister, Tim and Robin, come spend the week with us. Here's a picture recap of our fun time together.

The trip was supposed to kick off with a hike up Pacaya Volcano, however, there had been too much seismic activity and the park was closed for fear of a large eruption. So, instead, we just spent the afternoon lounging at the spa in Amatitlan.

The next day we headed down to our favorite beach spot in El Salvador, Roca Sunzal. We all enjoyed the heat, the food and drinks, trying to surf, boogie-boarding, the pool, playing pool, tossing the Frisbee, sun bathing, and plenty of relaxing.











The next leg of our trip took us to Antigua, where we had fun sight-seeing and shopping, as well as enjoying an exciting sunset view of an erupting Fuego Volcano, followed by a fabulous dinner at Casa de Santo Domingo, courtesy of Steve and Jackie (THANK YOU!).



After Antigua, we drove over to the lakeside city Panajachel. From there, we took a boat over to the small village of San Marcos. We planned to stay two nights here, but do to parts of the hotel having no electricity (hence the candle light Trivial Pursuit photo), we bailed a day early and spent our second night on the lake back in Panajachel. There we enjoyed the active night life, shopping, and zip lining, as well as a comfortable stay at our hotel, Posada Los Encuentros.






After getting back from the lake, we spent our last night evening together eating at Frida's, a Mexican food restaurant.

Thank you, Tim and Robin, for coming to visit! We had a great time!

Rafa's Paw: Mystery Solved

When Beth's brother and sister were visiting, we had to postpone our trip to the spa because James noticed that Rafa's paw suddenly looked extremely swollen. When we made an emergency trip to the vet's office, no bee stinger was found in his paw, so we thought we would never know what happened to him. For the rest of the day, James referred to Rafa as his "Hellboy Kitty."

Since we didn't take pictures of Rafa, here's a picture of Hellboy so you can imagine Rafa's gigantic paw.

...Until James found this dead little "friend" on our patio yesterday....Mystery Solved!

If Tim and Robin would have known at the time there was a scorpion lurking nearby, we doubt they would've slept as well, or agreed to be in the apartment, for that matter! Interestingly enough, we abandoned a second night at the eco-lodge on the lake, in favor of staying in a different city and different hotel. Why? After spending one night in our rooms at the lodge, we had breakfast with a nice Irish girl who had stayed in the same room Tim and Robin had just spent the night in. The previous night when she stayed there, she had put on her pants, only to get stung by the scorpion that had crawled inside of them! She had a numbing and swelling reaction (probably like Rafa) for several hours, but it wasn't life-threatening. That, combined with the 2-3 inch spider that was on my pillow before bed in a room with no electricity, was enough to convince us that moving hotels to the nice one in Panajachel would be a wise move!

As you can see, Rafa is doing great now and still very relaxed outside.

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!

The Lake Conquers the Kennys

Mom on a boat ride over the Panajachel

WOW! After a week and a half of KU Jayhawk fever, and my own bout of fever, I finally have the time, focus, and energy to finish the blog about Mom and Dad Kenny's visit.

After Antigua, we drove to Santiago, a small indigenous town on the edge of Lago Atitlan. Our first day was great; the drive was easy and our suite-style bungalow, Casa Aguatal, was beautiful! We spent the afternoon walking around town looking at more alfombras, and visiting the town's revered "evil saint," Maximon. He's the perfect manifestation of the mixing of Mayan and Catholic religion, as he is a "saint," but he smokes, drinks, and people bring him offerings of money, scarves, clothing, booze, and consumer products so he will help them with whatever the offering was for. After watching a beautiful sunset on the lake, we spent the evening playing cards, watching some NCAA basketball, and having a relaxed dinner while listening to some local, traditional, live music. It was great!

The evil saint Maximon, who stays in his own house right across the street from the Catholic Church

Dusk at Posada de Santiago

A view of the lake from the shores of Panajachel

We were at Lago Atitlan (Good Friday) when Mom fell ill. She had felt 'off' all morning, but came along with us on a boat from where we were staying (Santiago) over to Panajachel (the main shopping town on the lake). We tried not to make too big a deal of it, but then at lunch she said she was very nauseous. She tried to stand up but immediately sat back down.

So, I ran over to the kitchen to try to get a bag for her to use in case she got sick. But by the time I came back over, Mom had passed out. Then while James and Dad tried to bring her around, I ran around the place yelling for an ambulance. Luckily there were a few people there who had phones and the right numbers, so they called the ambulance. By the time I got back over to the table, Mom had regained consciousness, but still felt like she could fall asleep and wasn't really in her right mind because she said she felt much better and didn't need an ambulance (yeah right!). But the police, who also called the ambulance and were keeping an eye on everything, told us that we were going to have to take a little tuk-tuk (a glorified motor trike with a seat) to get to the ambulance. Mom could not even sit up, let alone walk.

A tuk tuk

We eventually got them to bring the ambulance to us. Dad and I got in the ambulance with her (umm...let's face it. It was the back of a van.) and James took a tuk tuk to the hospital. They did not take us to the hospital in town, they took us to a hospital in the next town, Solala, which was a steep, curvy climb of about 10 minutes. We kept talking to her and trying to stabilize her around the hairpin fast turns the driver was taking.

Finally, we were at a hospital, but this was a Guatemalan public hospital. So, if you can imagine the set up of a hospital bed sheets and dark brown curtains for some privacy, that was it. The hospital did not even have a pillow to put under Mom's head. Luckily I had just bought something like a poncho, so we used that as a pillow instead. By the time she got settled in, she said she was starting to feel better. Luckily James, Mom, and I could speak Spanish enough to explain what had happened! But the good doctor seemed competent, and worked hard to figure out what happened with Mom (which, according to her U.S. doctor, was simply a reaction to nausea and heat).

By now it was about 2:00 pm, and in Guate, you do not want to travel when it gets dark, which happens around 6:00 pm. So we decided it would be best for James and I got take the boat ride back over the Santiago while they figured Mom's health out. We got back to Santiago, packed our belongings, paid our tab, drove around the lake (no easy feat; this took 3.5 hours!), and stayed the night in Panajachel.

We ended up finding a nice, quiet suite at Posada Los Encuentros for the night. This was a miracle, given that it was Good Friday, and the next day was one of the biggest party days at the Lake all year! The doctor had given Mom some medicine, and she was feeling much better by late afternoon. We basically spent the evening being very grateful that Mom was feeling better. And watching NCAA basketball, of course! :)

This was by far one of the scariest moments in my life. I have never felt for helpless, vulnerable, or full of fear. On the other hand, we all decided it was a blessing in disguise because, obviously, Mom did not go with us the next day to the Tikal ruins in the jungle. If the same thing had happened in the jungle far away from any sort of civiliation (we only had electricity for 4 hours the whole time we were at Tikal), I don't know what would have happened. God works in mysterious ways. Mom ended up relaxing in our apartment and watching the NCAA tournament which wasn't such a bad fate in the end for her. :)