week two

ok, back to the recap of Guatemalan adventures--our second full week.
disclaimer-- these pictures are way out of order.

We woke up one particularly clear morning and saw this view, volcano and all, from our hotel in Chimaltenango.
At the end of the week we drove all day (and I mean all day) and ended up in El Estor on the shore of Lake Izabel, the largest lake in Guatemala. Our hotel was right across the street and it was beautiful...
...so we had to swim in it! It was the warmest water I've ever been in, like a bathtub! The lake is invested with crocodiles and manatees, but apparently they don't come to the part we were in. Which is sad, because we're always up for an adventure.
Earlier in the week a group of us went back to Santa Cruz Balanya to continue work on the Habitat house. We were mixing concrete by hand, but then there was a chance of rain so we had to stop and they sent us home. We ended up waiting for the bus for a bit, so we had an artsy photo-shoot. This picture is so Guatemala with the church and the chicken bus. Please excuse our faces, we were trying to be "hardcore", obviously.
On our long day of driving to El Estor, we stopped at Quirigua. These ruins were amazing! We had left the mountains and were in the jungle Peten region, so it was super hot and humid, but so beautiful!


I loved the thatched roofs and ceiba trees. So tropical!Earlier in the week we spent a day working on a mushroom co-op we were funding for a women's group. The construction supplies weren't ready, so we spent most of the day playing with the kids. This is Martina and Dalia, two of my favorite girls in Guatemala. Dalia and I decided we would be friends forever.


We ended the day playing "pato pato gonso" with the kids in the street. They loved it, and we soon had atleast 30 people watching us up and down the street.We spent a day working with agricultural development, so we delivered seedlings to farmers and taught them new planting techniques.

Miracle of miracles, there was a branch of the Grameen bank across the street from our hotel in Chimaltenango. I'm writing my paper on microcredit, and it was amazing to talk to the women in the office!!! (This was after a day of painting and on laundry day, hence the clothes)

wow, this was really long. but YAY!! my papers are done!! we celebrated guatemalan style with a midnight ice cream party last night. lovely!