Bilingual Laughing: Dear Diary, Week Six...

Well... we had a fun and interesting week and only spent it in the areas around Guatemala City!

Sunday January 8th... Just went to church, church that was ALL spanish! Luis finally felt the effects of the food, or water. He was sick all day long :(

Monday January 9th... We went to a mall with Luis's Uncle and his family; Alberto, Clarissa, Ricardo, and Aline. A fun day but nothing unique to Guatemala, we can do that in the U.S! Although I was a little overjoyed when we found a small Cinnabon kiosk! So yummy!! Didn't think those had made it here!

Tuesday January 10th... We got to go to the Mormon temple here in Guatemala City with Luis' Aunt Pati. It was very beautiful and wonderful to spend some time there! Also many people inside spoke English. There were some older couples serving missions and were just as happy to speak English as I was! The temple was nestled in between busy streets and super tall buildings. An all white gorgeous building that definitely stood out amongst its surroundings!

After going there we went to lunch at a place called Vesuvius, it was a delicious Italian restaurant known for its pizza. After that we went back home again and I spent the evening updating the blog from the previous week, this blog stuff takes time!

Wednesday January 11th... Julio, Luis's Grandpa, wanted to take us back to Antigua because he said there was a museum and a part of the city we needed to see. We drove back and first stopped at the museum. We weren't allowed to take pictures, although Julio still took pictures. Luis said "When you get old I guess they just don't care anymore about rules!" If that's the case then I can't wait to get old! All rules are going out the window ;).

The museum was full of paintings from the 1700s forward. Sadly they hadn't been taken care of over the years so many had chipped and faded paint. There was one painting where you could tell it had been folded for many years! Crazy stuff. Wish we had some pictures but the only ones are Julio's illegally taken ones! There were also many wooden sculptures of Saints. The guard of the museum followed us around the whole place. My thinking is he knew Julio was taking photos but the guard never approached us, something I'm grateful for since I didn't want to get escorted out with a shotgun pointed at my back!

One of the streets of Ciudad Vieja.
Also a boy excited to get his picture taken.

After leaving the museum (on our own) we drove to Ciudad Vieja (Old City). It is the part of Antigua that got flooded when the water volcano erupted, which is why Guatemala City is now the capital. That part of Antigua was very cool as Julio could tell us just what was underwater at the time of the volcano. It took 8 to 10 years for people to move back to that area. It is now a flourishing and thriving town. You wouldn't believe there was a huge volcano casting a shadow over the city! I don't know if I'd be brave enough to move back after getting kicked out once.

After seeing Ciudad Vieja we drove back to Guatemala City and ate at a fabulous Steak restaurant. All three meals only cost us 50 bucks! All three huge STEAK meals. Amazing, still can't get over the prices!

Seeing as we were well fed we made our way home and went to bed. I rhymed and not even on purpose!

Thursday January 12th... Today Luis's Godmother and husband (Chely Martin) said they wanted to take us to lunch. Little did we know that "taking us to lunch" meant picking us up at 9:30 am, sightseeing, lunch, AND dinner! We went to a town called Amatitlan (Aah-ma-tee-tlan), not to be confused with Atitlan (where we went back in December). Amatitlan is a town with a lake and a few volcanoes, just like Atitlan. The difference is the lake. The water is filthy and when I say filthy I mean disgusting! The lake is fed by a river that was fed all sorts of chemicals and trash, the river was basically used as a dump site. The lake got filled with a kelp-like plant called Alga (al-gah) that sucks up all the oxygen and no aquatic life can live there anymore. There was actually several mechanisms in the water feeding the lake oxygen. If they don't get rid of this plant it will eventually completely dry up the lake. Pollution at its worst.

Three oxygen tanks feeding the lake. Can you see the different color green around the tanks?

Up close and personal with the nasty lake. There was even a kid swimming in it!

Our boat ride with Chely and Martin.

After stopping by the town near the lake we went to Irtra, an amusement park. There are several of these company amusement parks all over Guatemala. It is for the people of Guatemala who work and keep jobs, a kind of incentive for Guatemalans to get a job I guess. This one on the lake was more of a park and less of the amusement. It had pools, boat rides, and food but no roller coasters or arcade. It was still very beautiful and Luis LOVED that there were Peacocks everywhere!

A computer generated picture of what
they think the

We drove back to Guatemala City and went to a museum that was in a mall. While this mall was being built they discovered ruins while digging to make the foundation. Large Mayan Ruins! How amazing is that? They dig to build malls and buildings and they find 2,000 year old buildings. You won't find that anywhere in the U.S. Anyways, they decided to continue building, they just built around it. So right next to the mall is a Mayan pyramid, well, a small one but it's still there! Inside the mall they built a small museum filled with artifacts from the area. We actually walk right under the pyramid while in the museum.

Luis looking thoughtful. Luis with the dead Mayan King!

Some pottery thousands of years old. A mask made entirely of Jade.

The necklace is jaguar teeth and Jade beads.

An ocarina and recorder. Me staring at a statue that was
defaced by Spanish Conquistadors.

I was so excited to go up and see the pyramid and when we got there, it was a huge disappointment.

To the left, Luis on top of the covered pyramid.

To the right, Luis trying to dig through the grass and dirt to get to the pyramid... :)

See what I mean? They built stairs over the mound, sidewalk all around it, manicured grass, built a museum, but left the actually ruin covered. CRAZY!! Why waste all that money when they could use that money to uncover the thing!? I found it extremely sad. Well as sad as it was it was still cool to think of a big Mayan city right where Guatemala City is now. Here is a picture of what they thought the city looked like back then...

After our cool but slightly disappointing trip to the museum we finally get to Chely and Martin's home for "lunch". It was 5:00pm by this time! We had a delicious dinner, called Luis's dad to wish him a happy birthday and they drove us home.

Friday January 13th... Just realized it was the dreaded Friday the 13th. Too bad we had a great day! Another of Luis's Aunts Anabela asked to have us over for lunch. Prepared this time (to be gone for the whole day) we went over, chatted for awhile, ate a yummy lunch, and went BACK to Antigua. Apparently there was another museum she wanted us to see. This is time number 4 going there. Although we thought we didn't want to go it was definitely worth the ride. Luis's cousin Jose Humberto (Oom-behr-toe) went with us. Our first stop in Antigua was a Coffee and Musical Instrument Museum called Museo K'ojom (Co-home). Guatemala is known for 3 exports, Coffee, Sugar, and Bananas. So the museum showed the coffee in various stages, how it gets roasted, and final result.

It also had a section for instruments used by the Mayans. Guatemala's main instrument is the Marimba, however, there is no knowledge of the Marimba before the 1500's so the guide said they think the Spanish had some influence over that instrument. Before the marimba they used ocarinas(flute like things), recorders, turtle shells with a deer antler (used as a drum), other drums made from animal skins, raspador (in english it's called a guiro I believe), maraca's, an oboe looking instrument (can't remember the name) and a horse's jaw.... wait, what? Apparently when a horse dies his teeth become very loose, they used the horse jaw as a maraca/rattle of sorts. We then watched a short film of Mayan music which was actually a very cool video. The indigenous Guatemalans still call themselves Mayans and they do many celebrations that they think ancient Mayans did. They dress up, play old music, and perform rituals. Such amazing culture here!

Some wooden drums. The horse jaw!

More musical instruments, drums using animals skins, and guitars!

Our new home! Come on over ;)

Luis trying to eat a coffee bean. Trying to push the cart, with Anabela.

The brighter green line is where
they harvest Imperial Jade.

Different types of Jade, sorry not
the best picture.

After the museum we went to a place called Casa del Jade. We learned all about Jade and how rare it is and that is called "The Gold of the Mayans". The very wealthy and royalty of Mayan times used Jade for statues, jewelry, and figurines. Jade is now very rare still and Guatemala has some types of Jade that are only found here. There are also many different colors of jade; lavender, light green, very dark green (almost black but there is no such thing as black jade), regular green, light blue, orange, and the imperial jade. Imperial jade is very rare because it is only found in the veins of certain jade rocks. They actually haven't found any more imperial jade in Guatemala in the last 5 years or so.

Imperial Jade and Orange Jade. A Jade ring I bought!

The Mayan calendar has 20 days in each month and 19 months a year, one month is only 5 days long. While there Luis and I learned what day it was on the Mayan Calendar when we were born. Each day has an animal spirit attached to it, called Nahuals (Nah-walls). The animal spirit you were born under is supposed to guide you throughout your life. Or at least that's what the Mayans believe. It was very cool and Luis and I both got a necklace with our Animal Spirit on it. If you want to read about our Mayan animal spirits click here! After another day in Antigua we drove back to Guatemala City and back home. Another very cool day in Guatemala.

Saturday January 14th... The Zoo! We went to the zoo! We have tons of pictures so I'll just put them up with captions. We went with Luis's grandpa, Luis's aunt Julita, A cousin and her kids, and Julita's grandkids. Fun day and very cool animals. Also, zookeepers didn't care if we stepped close to cages (like the monkey cage) and actually touched them! We probably shouldn't have but it was fun to hold hands with a monkey and play tug of war with a toucan :).