Cooking with Domatila

Domatila is an amazing Guatemalan woman who I have grown to love a lot in a very short period of time!  She is our landlord, lives in the house below us, runs a small shop that we buy most of our food from, and we pay cleans our appartment and washes our clothes (so worth it!  I hate washing clothes by hand). Seriously, she is incredible and I love her like crazy! 

For anyone who knows me, food is a big part of who I am.  I love to cook.  I love to eat.  I love to try foods of different cultures.  It has been a blessing for me because it allows me to connect with people, even when I don´t speak their language.  Sweet Domatila offered to give me cooking lessons once a week so that I can learn how to cook traditional Guatemalan cousine.  I eagerly accepted her offer!

 Last Wednesday we had our first lesson.  Domatila taught me how to make a traditional meat in a tomato sauce, rice, and a warm fruit drink that they usually make at Christmastime.

Joseph, Domatila´s son (and one of my favorite people here!) played photographer.  I gave him my camera, and he excitedly went at it!  I think he did an awsome job! 

Domatila put my right to work and showed me exactly what to do.  The nice thing is that we used very normal ingredients that I have back home, just in a way that I have never put them together before.  Within minutes the whole kitchen smelled divine!  

One of the best parts of the whole night was waiting for the food to cook.  We had put everything together, cleaned up, and just had to wait for the food to cook.  We sat for about an hour and just talked.  Domatila speaks no English, and my spanish is still pretty shaky, but she is the kindest and most patient woman ever!  So not only did I get a cooking lesson, but I got Spanish pracice as well!  She doesn´t make me feel silly at all when I try to speak and it comes out all wrong!

Finally the food was ready and we all ate.  It was so yummy!  

It was one of the best experiences I have had since coming to Guatemala (and I have had a lot, so that is saying something!) I can´t wait for more cooking lessons so I can learn how to make even more guatemalan food, and have more opportunities to sit and talk to Domatila!  

Chichi

The ride from Panajachel to Chichicastenango was simple spectcular! I wish the busses here were safe enough to pull out my camera and take pictures, but they aren´t.  Be glad, or you would have a picture overload! 

This is the view from the roof of our hotel.  it was amazing!  

There was a huge storm Saturday night (shocking, right ;-) So we didn´t get to do much exploring until Sunday.  Sunday morning we got up and went to church, then we went to visit one of Krista´s friends in the hospital who had just had a baby.   After we got back we wandered through the Chichi market.

Even though we didn´t buy anything since it was Sunday, we decided it was worth it to at least see the market.  It is only open two days a week, and the steets are lined for blocks and blocks with little shops.  There are more people than you can imagine!  

The market in Chichi is listed in the book ¨1,000 Places you should see before you die¨.  I can see why.  It is kind of overwhelming, and quite chaotic, but super fun.  They are only open on Thursday´s and Sunday´s. They have people come in from all over the world each week just to see it!

Just as we were about to catch our bus home the afternoon storm rolled in, leaving all the busses VERY full for the ride back to Patzacía.  All in all, it was a fun filled and exciting weekend exploring a little corner of the world! 

El Dia De No Lamentaciones

I don´t know that I will ever get use to hostel´s, but for the price you pay I really can´t complain!  Saturday morning a rooster woke us all up around four o´clock.  We finally got up around six, and wandered into town to find some breakfast.  The rain from the night before had cleared out, so we headed down to the dock to enjoy the lake some more. 

Seriously, there is no way to describe this lake, or have a picture do it justice. It is simply breathtaking! 

After lounging around, shopping the streets, and checking out of our hostel we headed up to a nature reserve in Panajachel.  We hadn´t heard much about it, and were keeping our fingers crossed that it was worth it, and we were not dissapointed! 

 The mountains around Lake Atitlán are more green than you can even imagine!  When you go to the nature reserve it is like walking into a jungle.  It is so pretty!  We walked around a bit, and even got to see some monkeys (In the wild!  That was a first for me!)  Then we hiked up the mountain and across some really cool suspension bridges until we got to a waterfall.  I LOVE waterfalls! 

We hiked down and around the reserve a bit, and then went to the butterfly preserve and saw more butterflies in one area than I have ever seen in my life!

Right before the afternoon rain came along, Krista and I hopped on a bus and headed out to Chichicastenango.  Krista served her mission here, and Chichi was her last area and she wanted to visit.  Since we were so close I came along for the ride!  We got there and checked into a hotel that some of her friends have, went to dinner with another friend, and I even found this in one of the shops and splurged:

You never know when you are going to find some good chocolate while you are here, so you have to take advantage of the moment!  It was a perfect way to end a perfect day!

Our trip to Pana and Lake Atitlán

We get out of school each Friday at 10:00 so that we can get out on the road to one of the many places to visit in Guatemala.  This week as soon as we were done we hopped on the bus and headed to Panajachel and Lake Atitlán.  We were lucky, and caught the best busses EVER getting there!  They weren´t crowded at all, and we all had seats.  What a miracle!

You come down the side of a mountain and Lake Atitlán comes into view.  It is spectacular!  It is surrounded by three volcanos - San Pedron, Toliman, and Atitlán. President Kimball once said that Lake Atitlán is the site of the Waters of Mormon, and it is well known as the most beautiful lake in the world.  This is what you see as you come down the mountain: 

The afternoon was absolutely beautiful, so we hired a boat to take us out to one of the pueblo´s on the other side of the Lake, Santiago. 

The ride was amazing, the view was spectacular, and the weather was perfect!  It only cost us about twenty dollars each, sooooo worth it!

The pueblo of Santiago is really cool!  It is a very old pueblo, and only 10% speak Spanish.  The other 90% still speak one of the ancient mayan languages, though I can´t tell you which one!  

We wandered the streets of Santiago, saw the oldest church in Central America, and even met Moximan, an incredibly popular idol on Santiago.  They move him every year for his protection, and you have to hire someone to help you find him.  You also have to pay for a picture.  The offer him lots of beer and cigars, if you look closely in this picture he is smoking.  It was a very odd experience.  We call this our ¨Family Picture¨.  It makes me laugh every time I see it!

Just like most days in this beautifully green land, the sky opened and we got DRENCHED before we could get off of Santiago.

We all huddled under Krista´s umbrella (super grateful that she had bought it just an hour before) while we waited for our boat to come around. 

Even in the rain, the lake is absolutely phenomenal!

 When we got back to Panajachel the rain had stopped enough that we could wander the streets and take advantage of the market that goes along the sides of the streets.  It was great!

We found a cheap hostel to spend the night at.  You always ask to see the rooms before you decide if you will stay there or not.  I walked into the bathrrom, looked around and asked ¨Where is the shower?¨ Krista started cracking up because the shower was DIRECTLY over my head, you just couldn´t see it where I was (And there is no such thing as a shower stall!).  Hence the picture.  I felt like such a dork!

To make you smile . . .

I will be posting lots and lots of pictures of our weekend adventures traveling around this beautiful place, but I promise, I am actually working here as well!  We work hard during the weeks, and play hard on the weekends!  I will do a longer post about teaching and what it is like, but for now I will give you a sneak peak of some of my DARLING Students!

The very first day I taught I came across this page.  I could not stop laughing!  Pay close attention to number two.  The cute student did not know that John was a name.  Or that John can be used to describe a toilet.  He was just trying to use the words in a sentence, and it worked so perfectly!  I think he thought I was crazy when I took a picture of his paper!

All in all, Guatemala is WONDERFUL!  More to come! 

Hostel´s and Volcano´s

We couldn´t quite find a hostel in the beginning (no idea why!) so we ended up taking the first one we came to, and we really lucked out!  It cost about $7 to stay there overnight.  We paid the extra dollar to have our own bathroom.  I have never stayed in a hostel, though I have heard lots of stories, so I wasn´t sure what to expect!  This is what it looked like:

Of course it was very different than any hotel I have ever stayed in, but it was not bad at all!  The hallways opened up onto a little courtyard, and the architecture was fun! 

 The room was small, but clean!  And we did have our own bathroom which was a bonus, though no sink.  I was worried about sleeping in the bed (I have issues with bed´s, even in hotels, I´m not sure why!) and checked the entire thing before I went to sleep.  I was sleeping on top of the covers when I fell asleep, but was all tangled up underneath them when I woke up anyways.  I am totally fine, so I am not sure why I was worried!

This sign was hanging in the hall and it cracked me up!  I am so easily entertained!

The next morning we woke up early to go climb a volcano!  You can´t visit Guatemala without climbing a volcano, right?  The bus picked us up at 6:00 in the morning, and we rode about an hour and a half to the Pacaya volcano.  It erupted in 2010, so we weren´t allowed to climb all the way to the top, but you do get to go most of the way up, and to a GREAT lookout where you can see the peak!

 The hike was much more strenuous than the one the day before, and almost did me in, but it was so worth it!

There were all these hot spots, and they even let you climb down in a little one that feels like a sauna.  As hot as it was, and as humid as it was I thought it would be miserable.  It actually felt kind of nice!

Once we got to the top they pulled out marshmellows and sticks and let us roast marshmellows on the top of an active volcano.  Pretty much the COOLEST THING EVER!!!!

The day after we climbed Pacaya I was looking through a Central America guide book and came across a page warning that Pacaya is a very dangerous hike, and that many tourists had been robbed.  No worries, we went with a tour group, but I still thought it was funny I found this information right after we got back!

After we climbed down the mountain we caught a bus back to Patzacia.  What a great weekend!

Adventures in Antigua

We got to our appartment late on Thursday night.  Friday morning we got up, talked to Denise (The wonderful woman who keeps an eye on us and helps us with everything we need).  She took us to the bank, then we sat down and talked about the weekend trips we wanted to take while in Guatemala.  Once we made a list and looked at our available weekends, we realized we had to get going on our first trip if we were going to get it all in!  So by noon our backpacks were packed and we were on a bus heading for the town of Antigua!  It was kind of nuts!

Antigua is a beautiful town in Guatemala known for the ruins, and a very popular place for tourists to visit.  I was amazed at how many tourists were all over the place!  I didn´t feel out of place at all! 

This is the famous yellow arch in Antigua.  I would love to tell you why it is famous, but I honestly have no idea.  But everyone seems to know about it!

We went to the coolest church ruins in Antigua.  This church was destroyed three times by earthquakes in the 1700´s.  They rebuilt the first two times, and then gave up after it was destroyed a third time and moved the church to a different city.  It is now a very, very cool place to visit!

After wandering around town for a while and enjoying all the really cool ruins we headed towards the edge of town to climb up to a cross at the top of a hill that looks over the city. On our way there we saw this basketball game taking place and I was totally intruiged!  Notice the ruins in the background - so cool!

The climb up the hill was really nice!  It was BEAUTIFUL and green, and even though the humidity was enough to smother you, it was a nice climb up the paved & winding path.  

As we got to the top we started to notice TONS of security and we were kind of confused.  Turns out the US Futsol team was in town for a tournament, and they were at the cross at the same time we were (random!)!  They were super nice!  I asked a group of them if we could take our picture with them (just for you, Ash!) and they got the ENTIRE team together for us.  It was so great!  I might be Futsol´s newest fan! 

After we enjoyed the view we headed off to enjoy the scenery ;-) The town is GORGEOUS!

Can you see all the volcano´s in the background? I didn´t realize there were so many in Guatemala! They are everywhere, and really cool! 

We wandered around the town square for a while and enjoyed all the music before heading off for our hostel.    For our first venture out into the country, it was a glorious day!