guatemala

July 2012- Guatemala Day 6 (and onward)


After breakfast we hiked up onto the side of a hill and planted 150 trees. Kayla was not the best at getting all of the plastic off of the roots, which Caty saw so tried to teach her. It went by quickly because of the large number of hands we had working. We returned to Chuicatama to pack and finalize our departure. Our ride came and it was an even larger van this time. On our way out we stopped in a village far on top of the mountain called Chikixis so that Lupe could take a picture she needed. It was quite the adventure seeing this huge van trek up a steep gravel road. We soon headed back down the mountain on our way to our next destination: the Mayan ruins. The ruins were (more…)

July 2012- Guatemala Day 5


I woke up from either Denise or Melissa tapping my shoulder. I had been in the middle of a dream that consisted of stoves, fire, the FBI, and a Nikita’s Division sort of operation. We started off the day with a hike up one of the neighboring mountains. Naturally, the group set off at different paces up the hill. I tried to stick with Evan and Grey however the altitude was hard to adjust to. The three of us made it to the top with a less-than-triumphant feeling because of the lack of a great summit. The best view had actually been farther down the mountain. We soon heard Melissa calling out our names. She was afraid that we were lost and went looking for us. In her McGiver-like thinking she placed her water bottle on the ground in order to mark her path. She eventually caught up (more…)

July 2012- Guatemala Day 4


Day 4 of the trip started off on a good note– I did not wake up until twenty minutes to 7:00am. My goodnight sleep can be attributed to Glen’s offering of his beanie cap; my head was much warmer. We had pancakes and honey for breakfast. We were being spoiled for our meals. We made our way to the village to find out that each of our homes for the day had concrete floors except for Sheila and Grey. This, in theory, makes the stove building process easier. Kayla and I were on a roll in the morning. Our family was very nice and helpful. There were three little girls that were bashfully peeking around the corner at us working. Luckily, Kayla and I finished (more…)

July 2012- Guatemala Day 3


The previous night we arrived in the village of Chuiqatama and were warmly welcomed by the villagers. Lupe had brought us to the one room house that we would be staying in for the following three nights. It had four sets of bunk beds and two single beds on the ground. Somehow both Nancy and her daughter got the single beds. I slept in a bunk above Kayla. I proved to have gotten the best night sleep that first night. Neither the barking dogs nor the bawking chickens kept me awake. I did however wake up towards morning miserable because of how cold my head was. It felt as if I had been stuck in a freezer. I eventually buried my head down far into my sleeping bag. This did not seem to help defrost my head so I got out of bed and got dressed. The morning (more…)