Cloudy, Maybe the Cloudiest.

Dear mothers, lovers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends, neighbors and beloved pets,

Greetings from Coban! We are staying in a Hostal tonight and taking a lengthy bus ride to Xela tomorrow morning, but, lets not get too ahead of ourselves here. You must know about last week first!

We left San Andres for Coban last Sunday. We stayed in the same Hostal we are staying in now, it is very clean and the people are nice and it has been a great place to recoup.

Monday morning we packed our bags and left for the Cloud Forrest. Our journey began with renting boots and taking a fifteen minute bus ride to another station. We arrived to discover a crammed cattle truck , little did we know it was just the beginning of the crazy adventures we were about to have.

We hugged one another all too tightly and squished together all too closely for the entire two our cattle truck ride. In the end though we conquered our naseau and claustrophobia and began our hike into the Cloud Forrest. It took about an hour to get to the village, Chicacnab, where we were greeted with dinner and accomodations. Our group all bunked in the same house which was one room split into two different sections dubbed the ¨dude shack¨and ¨the GIRLS ROOM.¨

We volunteered for three days in the cloud forrest. The first two days we created an assembly line where we took bags of sand and rocks from the top of a huge hill to the bottom. The sand and rocks will be used to make cement for the floor of a church.

The third day we spent clearing mud and rocks to make level ground where a kitchen will be built next to the house we were staying in. Both work jobs were difficult but we bonded and handled them with the endurance and strength of a carpe group (yeah yeah!!!)

The weather in the cloud forrest was warm most days and cold in the evenings and nights. We woke up to what looked like a thick layer of fog. We were livin in the clouds yo! Pretty tight if you ask me.

The last night we were in the Cloud Forrest we danced after dinner to the wonderful music of the Marumba which was played by three men. Its funny actually, every group we have interacted with so far in Guatemala loves to make us dance. They like to watch us, don´t ask me why.

The second we returned to Coban our achy muscles were all of a sudden fully restored, perhaps it had something to do with the McDonalds we were dying to hit up, thats just a guess though ha ha.

We slept like babies last night and left this morning to go swim in the pools at Semuc Champey. It wasn´t very sunny but still so beautiful and a fun place to relax. The water was pretty and we saw a lot of tourists there from all over the world.

And that brings us to where we are now! Currently the group is scattered throughout Coban, checking email, grabbing a bite to eat or catchin some zzzzzs. Tomorrow we´ve got a seven hour bus ride and honestly we are pumped. We love bus rides, it has become one of our favorite past times.

Now here is a lil triv from Brian-

The Cloud Forrest has about 175 people, a total of 30 or so families.

The Chicacnab was established thirty years ago.

¨Oos¨ means ¨good¨in Mayan.

I think I can speak on the behalf of the group when I say that it was a pretty tough week. The nights in Chicacnab were very cold, the water tasted like it was hickory smoked,we were all dirtier than we had been in our ENTIRE lives and most people we interacted with didn´t speak English or Spanish. I also know though that we created so many fun memories and inside jokes. I think we are also a lot more appreciative of little things, like toilets, and by the way they are TOTALLY a luxury for all of you who might not realize it. We also understand the importance of water and hydration, even if it doesn´t taste like we want it too.

Thats all for now folks. We love you lots and miss you. Know that we are growing, giving, loving and experiencing some really incredible things.

Love, Brooke

Old, maybe the Oldest.

Hola everyone!
We just finished our first week of spanish school and we all learned a lot! Most of us had our own teacher, and all of them were great. We spent 4 hrs each morning at the school and spent the afternoons swimming in the lake, or doing various activities. We took a boat trip into Flores to shop on thurs. and stopped at a small museum on the way, where we learned all about mayan artifacts. Yesterday afternoon we went went fishing...well we tried but only caught one. It was fun just being on the water though.
Today we woke up extra early and went to the famous mayan ruins in Tikal, only a couple hours away from here. We all loved it! It was so cool to see and learn about the ancient city. Tonight is our last night in San Andres, tomorrow we leave for Coban and start our week in the Cloud Forest. It should be a great time!
Here is some trivia from Kelly...
The national bird of Guatemala, the quetzal, is actually only found in the cold parts of the country. The quetzal is also the name of the currency.
We learned at Tikal that the Mayans used ball games to work out conflict, instead of going to war. However the loser would be killed...
Cush, the boat driver and kelly and lexis homestay dad is apparently more famous then bush...but can not swim. We learned this from the locals.

Okay that is all for now! Well be posting again soon, and well try to upload some pictures when we have a better connection.
Sending lots of love,
Emily

Calor, maybe the Caloriest.

Grettings from San Andres, Guatemala.

We arrived in the very hot town of San Andres yesterday after a week full of Guatemalan traditions, holidays, parades, pageants, and costume contests. The week started with carnivale where we were all covered in flour and confetti thrown on us by the local children. The next day was a mardi gras parade where we were once again attacked by the children. On friday it was the day of the Guatemalan national hero Tecun Uman. A child from every grade in the school dressed up as the leader of the Mayan resistance against the conquistadors. The day also celebrated the marimba which is the national instrument of Guatemala, it is very similar to a xylophone. We are now begining our spanish school and hope to be able to better communicate in the local language. More posts should follow this week during our time in San Andres.

Hope all is well in the states.

¡HAY USTEDES!

Hello everyone,

We have had a very eventful last few days here in beautiful Guatemala. On saturday we took a 2 hour hike into the hills, mountains, jungles, and every other imaginable terrian and arrived at a cave. On the hike to the cave we were attacked by a chacha bird and it felt like it was a scene straight out of Jurassic Park and the chacha was a Velociraptor. We survived the attack and kept treking and made it to the cave. The cave was massive and wet and cold and awesome. It took over an hour to reach it to the end of the cave and we were guided by candlelight. At the end of the cave everyone got up the courage to jump from a high ledge and into the water. After a long 2 hour hike back we enjoyed dinner and slept soundly.

We now have all moved into our first homestay houses in Barrio Ixobel and are working on understanding our families converstaions and learning about their culture. Barrio Ixobel is a small tightknight community that is hardly seen in the states anymore. It is really cool to see the whole community work together and know everyone around them as if they were the cast of Cheers. Later today we will be treated to some sort of beauty paegant that seems to involve some music by Lady Gaga. We are all having a great time and looking forward to whatever comes next.



Hope all is well with everyone back home in the states,

Griffin

Scavenger Hunt in Poptun

Hi everyone!
Its Emily, Lauren, and Hannah. We are in the village of poptun in guatemala doing a scavenger hunt (like the others below said) It took us a while to get to here but we made it! Even though were all sweaty and not very clean were excited to be here. We´ll post again as soon as we can
hasta luego

NUMERO UNO!

Hola amigos y familia!
Lauren F, Brooke, and Griffin here! we are currently on a scavenger hunt in a local town. we have had a wonderful time sofar at finca ixobel, relaxing, bonding, and preparing for our trip. the walk here was supposed to be 40 minutes but due to directional difficulties we went on quite the adventure through the town basura, aka the dump- the elephant graveyard... well not elephants but horses, with vultures. it was quite the experience, especially for griffin who was very afraid of the birds. the walk took almost three hours and made lunch taste so much better! we will take a tuk tuk back, which is a motorized rickshaw with room for three. later we will be swimming in the local lagoon, and tomorrow we are hiking to a river cave.
we love you all and miss you!
hope everyone is well, look for more posts soon
Griffin, Lauren, Brooke

So thats a Basura!?

Hello everyone this is Brian, Lexi and Kelly. We are on a scavenger hunt in Poptun, Guatemala. The place where we are staying is amazing and wonderful. We are all looking forward to a lovely lagoon swim later after a very long trek today. In case you did not know a basura is not just a garbage it is also a landfill...we were able to find this in the mountains on our walk. We were all together on the walk and bonded over the lovely experience. Everything is amazing and we will let you know more about our adventures along the way.

Adios for now!