ola! well we have been out of internet access for some time. we went to the school at Chimaltenango and perfromed, admirably but weakly some would say, on thursday. Ill let diana give you the details of that excursion, needless to say, it was fun to see all the Guatemalan children and to interact with them. on friday we traveled to 1,000 foot deep, very large and beautiful lagop atitlan, a volcanic caldera surrounded by multiple volcanoes and small villages. we stayed at casa del mundo m- i highly reccomend you do a googlñe search and check out their websire, as i cant get pics up it seems, esp from this slow, ancient computer Im using- a hotel on a cliff side on the lake, accessible by 2 footpaths and, how we got there, by boat. ... read more

We're back again, safe and sound, after a long 8-hour day of uncomfortable travel. Alex spent most of the trip queasy and feverish, but he's resting easier now. I couldn't post to the blog from Lanquin, but I did send an email via Reen, so check those messages for part 1 of our adventure. As for part two: What an great trip. Semuc Champay is incredibly beautiful—lush green vegetation, travertine pools, perfect weather. We started the morning with a great breakfast at Retiro, rather European really—nutella crepes, french toast, etc. Then we packed sandwiches and headed for the pools. The first part of the hike was challenging and with the thick humidity and warm weather, we were all soaked within minutes. Micah led us to believe that sandals were proper footware—Tevas, perhaps, but certainly not flip ... read more

well its good to hear from the tikal crew. weve just retruned from chichicastenango, otherwise known as chichi, famous for its glorius sunday market and mix of pre christain and catholic religiousity. the shuttle ride tehre was fine, except we were forced to stop at the guatemalanb equivalent of a dennys for about 40 minutes- we figured that the dirvers (there were lost of shuttles there!) got free meals for brining in their "willnig" customers. they had a playground, which cedar liked, and clean bathrooms, which the rest of us liked. on to the market, the roads in guatemala- pretty nice condition, really, but at 30% grades and steeper, with- literally- 250 degree turns- we couldnt believe that fully loaded 50 year olds school buses and semis were taking this thing. it would never pass any ... read more

Well I knew we weren´t in everything is normal land when, on a very curvy mountain road, in the dark,speeding from the airport to Antigua, Kenzie says hey, did you see the goat walking in the rood? followed by visions of motorized rickshaws, also known as tuk tuks, plying the very bumpy cobblestone streets of this lovely town. after flying for what seemed like a long time -well, sitting next to a 4 year old on 2 consecutive flights, no matter how long, is a long time), being 30 minutes late because, you guessed it, a volcano erupted in nicaragua and they had to go a different way to the airport because of all the ash in the air, after surly flight attendants and no way to change money at the airport because everything has closed ... read more