open letter.: Aventuras.

Okay, i confess. I have been completely slacking on this whole blogging deal. I just feel that I haven't had anytime to sit down and write. So here goes, I'm going to let my fingers do the talking and see how long this thing gets. Considering I just had a great semana santa week we'll see where my post leads.

Because Semana Santa is such a big celebration here I had the week off of work at Alcance. On sunday night ( Apr 17 ) my Guatemalteco family, Chris ( Other intern) and some others headed off to these places called Xocomil and Xetulul. Pretty much a waterpark and theme park in the middle of guatemala. I had a lot of fun there, screaming my head off on a rollercoaster and getting drenched by waterslides. Needless to say, i was excited to see what was to come next. We retuned home on wednesday and on wednesday night Chris and I headed to Antigua as we were going to El Salvador early in the morning on Thursday. Antigua was absolutley nuts because of semana santa, and it was also really neat to see how the whole city shuts down. People creating alfombras made of different coloured sands and designs and the place just becomes packed with people.

Early thursday morning we headed off to El Tunco Beach, El Salvador. A pretty well known beach that is famous for its great surfing. It took hours to get there as we had a few problems at the border but after approximately 8 or so hours in a shuttle van we arrived. It wasn't the most gorgeous place i'd seen ( I would say Tofino beach is a little nicer) but the feel of the place was really neat. It was a total hippie town. Pretty great. It was nice to head there, get away and have some fun. Definitely a highlight of this trip. The next day we headed back to Antigua - yeah, a lot of driving!

Once back in Antigua for the night we watched an incredible procession. Because it was Good friday the procession was unbelievable. Hundreds of people carrying different scenes of Jesus' life. Insane! It was so great to see and I feel so blessed to have had the chance.

On Saturday morning Chris and I took yet another shuttle and went to this place called Semuc Champey. This specific place is practically in the middle of no where. It this river that has created these natural pools. So Gorgeous! Also, on sunday we went caving by candlelight. Caves with a ton of water I might add. So fun! We did have a few problems in Semuc Champey. First of all, when we got the room - there was a HUGE SCORPION on the wall. I think I almost had a heart attack I was so freaked out. The next night we got a different room which was way nicer - I guess it's what's to be expected when you're in the middle of a rainforest and your "hotel" is run off of a generator where the lights go off before 10 pm . hah! because we couldn't get a shuttle back to Antigua on sunday we stayed another night and i believe scared my parents to death - it's not my fault i couldn't get a hold of them because i had no cell phone service.

Anyways, I'm home now and thats just a gist of what my week was like. Overall it was incredibly fun and it was so nice to have the chance to see different climates and areas of Guatemala / El Salvador.

Here's a few pictures to help explain how beautiful this country is!