Phase two has begun on sad note

It has been a awhile since I last wrote a blog but the last time I went to use the computer I got some horrible news. It was really strange... after an adventurous morning, Colin and I returned to our hotel for a siesta. I layed down on the bed and tried to sleep but I could not stop thinking about my grandparents. Earlier I had just been telling Colin about them and how they are the world to me, and I kept thinking about how special they are (my grandma passed away last year, but I still think about her all the time too) and I started to cry. I had to get up and I told Colin I was going to the internet to write my grandfather an email. I sat down at the computer and the first thing I read was an email from my mom telling me that my grandfather had just passed away. I immediatly started sobbing and I have not been able to return to the internet since then until now. It has been a very sad week for me so I am afraid I will not have much to say about my recent travels, although they have still been enjoyable. This morning my grandfather is getting burried and my whole family is at the funeral in Spokane, Washington. Now is a time when it is hard for me to be so far away in another country, but I know that my grandfather was very proud of my travels and he wanted me to be here. I would like to say just a little about him now since I am not at the funeral.

Thor Kiilsgaard or Papa (as he was called by his grandchildren) was one of the most special and amazing men in this world. I have looked up to him ever since I was a little girl and I feel so lucky and honored to have him as a grandfather. This is hard for me to write so I might not be able to write much (I could write about him forever). He taught me mostly all I know about the outdoors from spending time with him on the farm in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. We would go fishing together (and always end up in Canada), we would go exploring through the woods (searching for the boundary corners of the property, and once he tricked me right into a swamp and we both laughed hard), he taught me to shoot a gun and we would sit around, Papa, my brother and me and shoot at cans or the big barrel on the barn, he taught me to drive when I was about 11 years old (he would get impatient as I would try and to not stall the old red truck that has the trickiest clutch I have ever used) but we would drive around the country roads together. My brother and I would get so excited to jump on the big trampoline at the Kropatches farm or at Papa´s neighbors across the street in Spokane, and Papa always called me Bouncer Sue or Bigfoot Sal and my brother was always Red Shirt Charlie or Sam You Made the Pants Too Long. Papa had a great sense of humor and he was always cracking jokes and I loved the way he talked and the sayings and words he used (i.e. we never went shopping anywhere, but sometimes we would have to go trading at the market). He lived in a different time from me and I always thought it was so cool to hear about how life used to be. I loved his old stories about life on the farm, his encounters with the native americans, his first jobs in the mines and working in the field, going to war and meeting my grandma, living in Saudi Arabia and working with the King, etc. He was also a great gardener and he grew the best garlic I have ever had, for the longest time I never bought garlic in the store because I always ate his. He was also always fixing things or working on something on his shop, and he taught me how to fix up things on my own and be a good problem solver. Papa was also a great geologist for the USGS and he traveled the world for his job, working in places like Peru and Saudi Arabia, and he taught me about the formation of the land and shared his appreciation of nature and the outdoors with me and also his interest in travel. I am also a lover of the outdoors and of travel now in my life. Papa was a smart and wise man and he shared with me the importance of a good education, which I feel so priviledged to have had (especially now seeing the lack of education in Latin America). He also taught me about responsibility and how to take care of yourself and those around you for now and the future, and the importance of family (even until the end he kept saying how lucky he was to have such a great family). He was an easily liked man and he had a lot of respect for those around him and in turn he was very respected... I was always so impressed meeting people who knew him and worked with him how much they all looked up to him, and enjoyed his company and they always had good things to say. Papa had a great smile that could win anyone over and the most beautiful deep voice (except when he would wake us up at 0 five hundred to daylight in the swamps, but I will miss that as well). I remember me and him could get away with anything... once he picked me up at the airport and he had a hard time driving at night, since he only had one eye and therefore bad depth perception, and he drove right through a stop sign and we got pulled over and he wouldn´t have even known if I didn´t tell him... the officer was like sir did you notice there was a stop sign back there, and Papa gave him a smile and was like no I didn´t, I can´t see those very well but I was just picking up my granddaughter who is coming to visit me and so on, and the officer looked at us two and let us keep going on our way. A similar thing happened at the border of Canada once when Papa just drove right through the whole border crossing (with about 4 stop signs) and they came running after us with guns and my brother and I told Papa to stop and we got away with that just fine too... we made quite the pair. Going to visit Grammy and Papa was always my favorite trip and I would get so excited just to be around them and hold their hands or get involved in what they were working on (my grandmother taught me a lot as well but I dont have time to get into that now). Oh yeah, also I can´t forget to mention his sourdough hotcakes. I will never forget Papa´s sourdough, and when I was little I didn´t like it and so he would make me special sourdough hotcakes without sourdough, but over time he kept sneaking more sourdough in until I was eating it all- now I love it! I have so much love for Papa and it breaks my heart to know that I will never get to see him again. All I hope for now is that he will find my grandmother and they will get to be together again in peace and hapiness. I will carry on the great spirits of my grandparents in my life and try to make them proud (which I know they always were proud of me and all the things I did). I will never forget about them and the great influence they have had on my life and all that they have taught me. I am sorry I can´t make it to Papa´s funeral, but I will mourn for him from Guatemala. Papa I love you!!!!!!!

Thanks for letting me share that. Now I guess I will just give a brief outline of what has happened recently so you know where I am. Colin and I spent our last week in Mexico in San Cristobal de las Casas which is great city (that is higher in elevation then Denver) and we went on some great hikes, a cool boat tour through this amazing canyon, and we visited some outlaying Mayan villages in the mountains. Then last Sunday we said goodbye to our good friend Mexico and headed to the border of Guatemala. We spent a day in Huehuetenango, then a few days in the rural town of Todos Santos, and now we are in Quetzaltenango. I didn´t know what to expect from Guatemala, but it is so different from Mexico, and phase 2 of our trip (central america) is going to be a whole new challenge. I will try and write about it more later. We will be here for the next week because Colin and I both enrolled in personal spanish classes here for the next week and we are both going to have a local homestay for the next 7 days. I think this will be a great experience for us both.

I send my love and strength to everyone.
Lala salaama my dearest Papa.
Hasta luego,
Tess

Colin wrote a great blog about Guatemala so you should check that out, since I was not able too write much: www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Niloc

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