Wow! Que Bonita!


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Published: July 7th 2007
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Hola a todos,

I have arrived safely in Guatemala and am staying for the weekend in a town called Antigua (no, not the island!). It is absolutely gorgeous here. From only one day in Guatemala I can tell that this is a very special place. There are volcanos everywhere here! They are so huge that the cones of two volcanoes actually popped through the clouds as we decended upon Guatemala City yesterday. I have never seen anything ABOVE the clouds before and I almost couldn´t believe my eyes. I can´t wait to hike one of them when I get to Xela. Antigua is an absolutely beautiful place. It was completely flattened by an earthquake in 1773 and was abandoned for 75 years before people finally returned to rebuild. For that reason there are lots of ruins everywhere that you can tour. Today I went to the market and bartered for some local crafts. It´s a good thing I brought an extra bag because I can already tell that I´m going to need it! Tomorrow I´m off to Xela where I will meet my host family and start classes on Monday. I´m really looking forward to getting settled and starting on what I came here to do. My spanish is very rusty, but I´m actually doing beter than I thought I would. What I am looking forward to more than anything is volunteering. I met a youth group that is staying at the same hotel as me and they have spent the past week in the mountains building a clinic. They gave me the contact information of a few people in Xela that I can see about volunteering for. The people here are clearly poor, however I have never encountered a more friendly and generous group of people.


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8th July 2007

Awesome pics!
Keep 'em coming--I like to live vicariously-this is fun! Glad you are having a good time!
8th July 2007

Wow...
Laura, Antigua looks so beautiful and it sounds like the trip is going really well so far. Good luck tomorrow meeting your Spanish teacher and moving from Spanglish to full-fledged Spanish muy rapido! I look forward to reading about your adventures...
8th July 2007

It's great to see that you're having so much fun! The pics you put up are gorgeous. I'm jealous! We miss you!

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