Beth Gullone’s Blog

Tourists

For the last few days Matt, Annie and I were able to drop the missionary work and be tourists while Heidi and Isaac traveled to North Carolina for a job interview.  It was a nice break.  Monday morning we got up and drove about 2 hours to Panajachel where Lake Atitlan is.  It’s a huge lake at the base of 3 volcanoes that I think is about 10 miles across and 1000 feet deep!  It was a gorgeous day and the sky was clear in the morning so that we were able to see the tops of the volcanoes and take some great pictures!  We took a boat ride from one side of the lake to the other, which was much longer than it appeared to be.  But it was a nice boat ride with some beautiful views.  The color of the water was beautiful.  The town on the other side was a perfect set up for tourists with plenty of vendors selling any souvenir you’d like.  Of course I had to partake.  We then got back on the boat and stopped at another little lakeside town where we ate at a local restaurant.  I had some delicious fish and a papaya drink.  Yum.  Finally we got back to Panajachel around 2pm, got in the truck and drove about 2 1/2 hours to Antigua.  Once settled into our hotel we walked to a neat artesan store that had various souvenirs/crafts that were specific to each region of Guatemala.  We then ate dinner at a restaurant that apparently many famous Americans eat at when they come to Antigua (including Bill Clinton and Charlie Sheen).  It was delicious.  By then we were tired and headed back to our hotel.  The hotel only had I think 8 rooms but it was really cute.  It had a nice center garden courtyard and the rooms still had a lot of old wood as part of the structure.  For those that don’t know, Antigua was the original capital of Guatemala and has tons of old buildings that were built back in the 1500s that are still standing.  It’s a very colonial town and very beautiful, still with cobblestone streets. 

The next day Annie and I spent the morning shopping in the market and then met up with Matt for lunch at a nice garden cafe.  Annie went back for more shopping, while Matt and I stopped at a cool cafe with seats made out of coffee sacks for an afternoon coffee and then back to the hotel to rest for a bit.  We then ate dinner at a cuban restaurant.  We were the only customers there at 6pm since that is too early for dinner here, but it was nice because there was a band there practicing which we were able to listen to.  We then met up with the brother of some friends of Heidi and Matt that happened to be in the same town and went to some bars.  Lots of gringos!  Mostly because there are many Americans and Europeans that come to Antigua one for vacation but also to attend the various language schools located there.  Apparently it is also a place where many couples come to adopt Guatemalan babies. 

Wednesday we drove into Guatemala City where we did some grocery shopping for items not found in Santa Cruz del Quiche at Hiper Paiz and Pricesmart (Walmart and Sam’s Club, respectively).  We then went to a huge, very nice mall and ate lunch at Chili’s! of all places.  After that we picked Heidi and Isaac up from the airport and then drove 4 hours back home.  That’s a lot of driving in one day!

Tomorrow it’s back to work.  We’ll be going to ASELSI again in Chichicastenango and then probably to the market afterwards since Thursday is market day in ChiChi.