Semana Santa in Belize, Flores and Tikal Guatemala

We just got back yesterday from our Semana Santa trip. We needed to renew our visas and instead of just letting us cross the Guatemalan border (which is about 20 minutes from Copan) we have to leave the CA-4 which means the four central american countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras. So the real reason we traveled to Guatemala and Belize this week was for the visas but we were excited to have an excuse to get to see more of Central America. The highlight of our trip was getting to see the ruins in Tikal, Guatemala but we will start from the beginning....

We started our trip with the other teachers from the school. The school got a bus to take us through Guatemala to a town called Puerto Barrios where we took a boat into Belize. After our 3 days in Belize our group split and we all went different directions. David, Zach, Zach's brother John (who is visiting from the US) and I went up through Belize and over to Guatemala and wen to see the ruins in Tikal.
Here is the sunrise that David saw the first morning we were there.

We weren't too impressed with Belize. We stayed right on the coast in this very sleepy town. Our hotel was sort of a run down house/construction site. We would compare Punta Gorda, Belize to what we imagine the deep south being in the US. We haven't been there to confirm this so we'll let you decide for yourself. They speak English in Belize...well actually a mix of English, Spanish and a Creole language that we can't understand.
We tried to look for good pictures to post of Belize but seriously this is about all we have. There was hardly anything worth remembering in that town. We only visited one city there and know others who have enjoyed other cities in Belize. We won't write it off yet.

We left Punta Gorda on Monday and took a bus to Belmopan and then another bus to the border with Guatemala. We then went through customs which was a surprisingly pleasant experience and then took another bus into Flores, Guatemala. Flores is a small island in the middle of a lake that is in the bigger city of Santa Elena. It is connected to the edge of the lake by a bridge and was an amazing place. We arrived in Santa Elena and then got a minibus ride into Flores. We stayed at this really nice place with a lake view and spent our time there walking down the colonial streets and observing the Semana Santa celebration there.

Here is a view from our balcony to a little beach that we went swimming in.
The sunrise from our balcony. Once again this is David's picture. I was still asleep.
We really liked the food there. One night we enjoyed dinner literally on the lake edge. The warm wind was blowing and we watched the sun go down as we cooled off with iced lemonade. We also had some good tacos in the central park. A couple of the nights we got ice cream and watched a parade of a statue of Jesus be carried around the city and end up at the Catholic church.

Our second day there we got a shuttle at 4:30AM to go to Tikal. Tikal is located about an hour from anything. You can stay in the one or two hotels they have there but it is much more reasonable (and fun) to stay in Flores and get a shuttle there for the day.

We went on a tour of the ruins and walked for about 5 1/2 hours. The thing about tikal is that the ruins are BIG. The actual site is huge and the size of the ruins are what make it famous. We had the choice of going on the English tour with about 30 other people or the Spanish one with 10. We were so excited that we could go on the Spanish tour (Zach translated for his brother) and enjoy a smaller group. Our guide was really funny and we really enjoyed having him give our tour. You can climb up many of the ruins. This may not look that high but believe me it was. At the top I didn't want to take my arm off the wall because I was afraid I would fall off. There is no safety rope keeping you back. Plus our tour guide kept telling us that people have fallen off the ruins and died. Here is David on the top of Temple 5 overlooking Temple 1 which is the most famous of all the Tikal ruins. He is laughing because I keep freaking out that he is going to fall over backwards.
We had great weather for our trip. They kept telling us we should go early in the morning because once it gets hot no one wants to be walking around. This particular day it was cool and perfect for hiking around in the jungle. The ruins are surounded by jungle and from the tops of the temples for as long as you can see are different shades of green tree tops.
Here Zach and David are showing us how these sacrifice altars were used.
This is Temple 1 or the great jaguar temple. You unfortunately cannot climb this one but the one directly across from it you can.
We enjoyed our time in Flores so much that we really wanted to stay the rest of the week. However, seeing as it is Semana Santa (Holy Week) buses are not running on Friday or Saturday. We were hoping to come back on Saturday but since we found out that we wouldn't be able to get a bus, we had to come back yesterday (Thursday). We got up early and took a bus all day long to get home. We traveled for about 10 hours and arrived back in Copan around 5pm. We were just in time to see the beginnings of the building of the sawdust carpets that they make on the street. We will post more about this another day.

Overall we had a very enjoyable trip and our opinion of Guatemala has improved each time we have visited it. Keep in mind that these pictures do not do it justice. It is really hard to capture the size and beauty of these ancient sites.

Utila adventure

We recently had a visit from my mom and brother Casey. They came to Honduras for 2 weeks and we got to spend a week with them on one of the bay islands and then a week showing them around Copan. Here are some pictures from our adventure on Utila.


My mom rented a house on the beach. This is a picture David took of the sunrise the first morning we were there. He was sitting in the backyard. Out in the water about 50 yards from the short wall was a coral reef. We carefully walked out there on the sand then then snorkeled and saw many beautiful fish.
David and Zach were very excited to go out in the reef and had to try on the gear for size. They also wanted to try and improve their tan since the only tan they get here in Copan is a farmers tan due to the polo shirts we have to wear for uniforms. When we were snorkeling we saw a stingray, brightly colored fish, many parrotfish. We couldn't help but think of finding Nemo as we explored the reef.
The tans however did not work out as planned. This is after applying a lot of sunscreen. Zach's back was the best. He put on sunscreen and then sat on a wooden beach chair waiting for us to be ready. The wooden chair absorbed the sunscreen so he burned in a nice striped pattern.
One of the days in Utila we rented a golf cart and set off on the island. We had a lot of fun testing the limits of the cart. Another day we took a boat trip to a couple different beaches and the keys off of Utila. We had a very strange driver who barely spoke to us about what we were going to do. At one point we found ourselves stranded on an island hoping he was going to come back and pick us up.

On the last day we went to swim and it started raining while we were there. As we were riding bikes back to the house it started to downpour. We later admired the tropical storm from our back porch.

Overall we had a very nice trip. Our only complaint were the sand fleas who despite the amount of bug stuff we applied still seemed to eat us up.

David and Zach went exploring some caves. We were able to eat a nice variety of foods and celebrated many GOLDEN birthdays. Casey turned 21 on March 21st which was while we were on the island. David turned 24 on March 24th which was after we got back to Copan.

For his birthday I got David a GPS which is something he has been wanting. He thinks it is awesome and has been using to track all sorts of things. He informs me now that our walk to school is 1.4 miles. Thank you GPS...now we know how far we walk and our average speed not to mention so much more.

Happy Birthday David!!!

Also, David really likes coconuts. At the house where we stayed there were many coconut trees and David cut a coconut down each day.

We have had quite an exciting week this week and want to share a little bit before we head out to our next adventure. First, our friend Lissa is visiting. She and her husband Eric have been living in Costa Rica and Nicaragua for the past 6 months. They are now traveling around Central America before they head back to the United States in May. Currently Eric is in El Salvador participating in the election they are having there and Lissa came to visit us for the week. We went to the bird park and got to hold some of the beautiful Macaws.

This is a picture after Lissa tried to pick up one of the bird and he bit her finger. The blue on on the left likes to leave his mark by biting a hole in your shirt. He did that to everyone there that held him.
Friday the fifth grade classes had a field trip to the ruins. They have been studying the Mayans in their Social Studies class and so the Spanish teacher organized a trip. We luckily got to go along and better yet got a day off of teaching classes. We had a very long tour but enjoyed our day. Lissa got to come along.

This is my 5th grade class. There are 14 students and recently I am coming to realize how much I love these students. Lissa came in and taught art classes this week. I think sharing my class with her made me realize how lucky I am to have such great students and how I have a good relationship with all of them.
In David's classes this week they had Mathlympics. What is this...you may ask. Pretty much it is a way fool kids into taking many quizzes. He had a topic for each day and all 4 classes in secondary took the same quizzes. Everyone's scores were tracked and each class had gold, silver and bronze medal winners. On Friday they had the closing ceremony complete with ribbons, pie or cake and a movie. This was all started to celebrate pi day which actually is today (3.14 or March 14). It was a success and many students came by all week to check their standings in the competition.
Medals for the winners made out of....chocolate.
Proud medal winners in 7th grade. They even showed off their medals to other teachers in other classes.Last of all...last weekend we visited a waterfall in a nearby town. We hiked to it and it was in a beautiful spot between some nice rocks.

Well thats about all. We are heading out for Utila, one of the bay islands, tomorrow. My mom is coming to visit and we are taking some time off of school to spend with her on the coast. We are so excited about a vacation!

Fun Day and Field Trips

The school's anniversary was this month so we had a full week of fun. Each day was a different theme day all week. At the end of the week we had a 'Fun Day' which means a half day of school where the teachers put on a sort of carnival. We had frisbee toss, face painting, food, a water slide, music, a soccer tournament, an eating contest and much more. These are some brothers who are competing in a tortilla on a string eating contest.
Some of the 5th grade boys as they wait for their team's turn in the soccer tournament.
The teachers having "FUN" on Fun Day. Perhaps this is after the kids went home.
A couple of weekends ago we went to Agua Caliente, a natural hot spring, to celebrate another teacher's birthday. The highlight of the trip was getting to ride for an hour in the back of a pick up. We enjoyed standing up as we went bumping down the dirt road enjoying no seat belt laws. It was awesome.

David has been taking a few field trips with his middle school students. For an art class they hiked up to Llanatillos, an aldea (a small village) oustide of town. We visited this place back in the fall. They make pottery up there so the students learned the process and even got to buy clay to make their own pieces. As usual the educational part lasted only a few minutes and then the students spent the rest of the time playing soccer with the little children at the school up there.
This sign is a welcome sign except it should say Bienvenido. We often see signs where people mix up their "v" and "b".
Maria, the woman making the pottery, constructed this beautiful pot in a mere 5 minutes.

A week later, David went again with the secondary students on another field trip. This time it was for PE class and they hiked up to La Pintada. This is the village where they make corn husk dolls and weave cloth.
David may have found a new profession.
They also spent time visiting the small school in La Pintada.
On the way home they stopped at "Los Sapos" which means the frogs and is a small ruin site. After seeing the main ruins in Copan these just look like a bunch of rocks. Supposedly it is a Mayan fertility site.

Well that is a glimse as to what we have been up to lately. Each day the weather changes so we never know what to expect. We hear that this is the coldest Feb/March they have had in a long time and we should have had hot summer weather for a long time by now. The sun is shining today and we hope we've had the last of the cold.

Guatemala Weekend

At the last minute we decided we would pack up and go on a weekend getaway to Guatemala. We live about 20 minutes from the border so it is easier to go into Guatemala than to go to other Honduran cities. We went to a city called Esquipulas which is about 2 1/2 hours away by public bus. We had to take 3 different buses to get there but the timing worked out perfectly and we arrived around 5pm on Friday. Esquipulas is famous for the Basilica. This giant church turned 250 this year and is quite a stunning piece of architecture. As you can see from the picture it has a dominating presence in the valley. The thing we really liked about this town is that it has a lot of visitors but hardly any foreign tourists. This made things cheaper for us. We were surprised how it came alive with thousands of Guatemalans making a pilgrimage to see the famous black Christ statue. We spent the weekend touring the church, attending mass several times and going to a park/zoo. It was a perfect place to tour for the weekend, for Valentine's day, and it felt so good to get out of Copan.
Here is a view of the Basilica from a hill looking into Esquipulas. It looks enormous even from far away.
Here is David in front of the Basilica. This park was full during the weekend of people standing in line to see the black Christ statue. The line on Sunday zig zagged back and forth through the park walkways. It took us 45 minutes to get through the line when it was already at the church. We can only imagine how long people waited in the line when it started at the back of the park.
Here it is. This is the statue that brings people from all over to see it.
This is in another section of the church where people lit candles.
One of our favorite pictures from the zoo. We think they try to save money by doubling up on cages. Some of our favorite animals included alligators, lions, ocelots, deer, ostriches, crazy monkeys, anteaters and a variety of birds.
The zoo is in a park that has many picnic areas, hammocks everywhere and sports areas. It also advertises a cave which really is just a mine shaft. We really enjoyed our morning here and spent some time relaxing in the sunshine.

Cold weather

We've had some interesting weather lately. Everyone here is shocked that it is cold in February. Apparently this is the coldest winter they have had in a long time. But the funny thing about cold here is that it is only about 50 degrees. Everyone gets their gloves, scarves and hats out and walks around as if it were below freezing. With the cold this week came the rain. We woke up Monday morning to really hard rain at 4am. Rain is good but it makes everything muddy. The dust has collected over the the last month or so and now the streets have about a 1/2 inch of dust covering them. Then the rain came and turned that dust to slippery mud that we carefully walk through to get anywhere.

We found out yesterday morning that we were going to go home from school at 11am. There had been no water at the school for 2 days. You can imagine the problem this presents when you have about 300 students who use the bathrooms. It made me laugh to think of what parents would think in the states if their students were sent home because the school had no water. This is a common occurrence here in Honduras.

Weekends here are pretty relaxing. David's new Saturday routine is to wake up at 6am and go hiking in the hills surrounding Copan. Each week he has goals to find a way to get over certain peaks. I on the otherhand enjoy my extra few hours of sleep and David comes home from his hikes a few hours later to find that I haven't moved a muscle. Last week he saw an amazing rainbow. However he says that this picture does not do it justice.
Over our Christmas break we were lucky enough to have our house painted. Before it was a beige color that was very dirty and looked as if it hadn't been painted in years. We came home from Costa Rica to find our house painted green. We love it and were glad that we didn't have to be there to watch them paint our high ceilings. We'll get a better picture up soon.
Well that is a random update on us.