Independence Day Weekend in Guate!

Viernes (Friday)

So we decided to spend the weekend in the city and get the full experience of Independence Day! Every real holiday is free of class :) Therefore we had no class Friday but came to school ready to run! So there's this Guatemalan tradition of running 18K with a torch, though I don't know that many people run the whole route, and it's not all at the same time either. We saw people running randomly in packs throughout the weekend lead by a torch bearer. They people on the street sides like to make it interesting and throw water bags (which are much more popular that water bottles and make for perfect water balloons) at all the runners. Running uphill is almost impossible. Running downhill on the otherhand, Man was that a breeze. I was going so fast I thought I would just tumble down the hill. I thought the river run was crazy but the chapinos (Guatemalans) have out done us again! We ran uphill, downhill, on highway, and through rock-paved streets of Antigua while trying to dodge the water bombs:) It was a great experience. I must also add that I arrived to school in shorts and running shoes, while most of the Guatemalan teachers and students ran the race in jeans and converse! After we all went home and took siestas, we returned to the school for a fashion show we were asked to participate in featuring ropas typicas, or the typical mayan dress from different regions. It was so fun! Afterwards we took some awkward missionary family photos. The key word being awkward. hehe

Sabado

Despite our run from the day before we braved the hike up Pacaya, one of Guatemala's active volcanos. I believe of the 29 volcanos in Honduras, only 3 are active. It took about an hour and a half by van. The whole time I just felt so blessed to be given the opportunity to visit these places! I had everyone in my prayers! I was able to pray two rosaries on the way there, and haha did we need it. My thighs were burning as we began the hike. The steepness of the hike up felt like the grand canyon! Our tour guide was muy amable (very nice) and gave us breaks along the way. He stopped to show us some of the plant life as well. I learned about the oja de queso, or the cheese leaf, which is soft underneath and apparently is great toilet paper if you're in a crunch! Our guide said sometimes he made the hike 3 times a day. Behind us were 3 guys with horses, trying to convince us we were very tired so we would take their "horse taxis". haha. They were pretty persistant, but we made it sin caballos! (without horses). Along the way up you could hear firework-like noises. Our guide said this was the volcano, but assured us that this was just normal activity and we would know if it were about to erupt. The view at the top was amazing! I don't even know how to describe it, so I'll just show you. Our guia said the black hardened lava running down the middle was only 3 weeks old! The volcano went off about every two minutes! You could see black rock spouting up out of the top and at times there was an orange tint! How amazing! We only had about 10 min up at the top, but we were above the clouds! I just tried to mediate on how the prophets and our Lord would go to the mountain tops to pray:)

The walk back down was harder for me, my thighs, holy cow! I just keep trying to think of all my patients that couldn't walk, and despite the pain at least I can feel. It helped me make it! So most guide books say that it takes about 2 hours to hike up and we definitely did it in one.lol. I think the horse helped push us. I think most of us fell asleep on the car ride back. We decided on dominos for lunch! It was I think the best pizza I ever had.lol. After we were all stuffed and happy we all headed our separate ways for a siesta. I think I might have slept for about 2 hours!

Domingo

The plan...hehe...the plan was sleep in, afternoon mass, and whenever Noelle and Curtis woke up, they would stop by my house, grab me and then Tiffany, and we would communicate with Pat by internet. Well I woke up by 7 and by 9:30 I was pretty hungry. My internet wasn't working so I couldn't check on plans. I decided to stop by Tiffany's house, but her Guatemama said she had left for mass. Ok well I decided I would run to the bank so I could get money for breakfast, find a café, and check to see for updated plans...Well today is the official Independence Day of Guatemala and there was a parade going around the whole city. You literally could not walk. So I was able to make it to the bank but then I stayed in the park and just enjoyed the festivities for awhile before making the 15min walk, which took an hour, to the café. I was so happy to make it to the café before it started raining! Right as they brought out my food, now it's about 11am, I see all these messages about going to 11am mass. Oh the problems without a cell phone.lol. In the end everyone ended up at the café and we all went to afternoon mass! haha. Funny how things work out.

Gracias a Dios! It was a beautiful weekend and I'm feeling a bit sad because I only have one week left here!
                                                           http://vimeo.com/74594820
                                                           (another great video by Pat)