Hostal de Santa Maria Santa Cruz del Quiche

Hi all!!<br><br>As I busily work away at the first year of my Masters in Economics at "The" Ohio State University, work steadily continues in Guatemala on one of our proudest accomplishments... the elementary schoolhouse in Xecnup.<br><br>I talk at least weekly with the community there in Xecnup and the masons I left in charge, hearing how things progress, and aching to be back there with them swinging a pick axe and a hammer! Alas, Life has asked me to be here in Ohio ...

... the wool into beautiful rugs, he does it the same way it was done 100 years ago and lives that way to.<br><br>The next stop is Momostenango for a market that was closed and some weird rock formations<br><br>Last was Fuentes Georginas, as its name implies, are thermo sources that emanate from the Zunil volcano and which flow into the place known today as FUENTES GEORGINAS.<br><br>The best ...

I am writing this update from the "comforts" of my home in Columbus, OH...though things that once seemed so comfortable sometimes can seem so abnormal these days...<br><br> It's funny, the first few months in Guatemala you feel so out of place, so lost in another world, so foreign in a land of foreigners...but then somewhere along the way, the strange becomes ordinary. Yet life there is so drastically different from the life here in the States ...

No idea where we are. We drove 10 hours to see this particular hotel but arrived at 11 PM and are going to be leaving at 7 AM. Not much seeing going on!<br><br>Just having breakfast before heading to the Tikal Mayan ruins. Then one last night in Guatemala before heading to Belize. I ...

I make it to breakfast. It{s going to be a good day! Porridge. Meh. Eggs. Yum.<br><br>My eye is also feeling better.<br><br>(I{m going to leave my notes below and finish this later, gotta run but didn{t want people (ie mom) to worry!)<br><br><br>skeleton<br>rain lunch<br>awesoime chicken<br>ice cream<br>best lunch<br><br>soccer<br>ceramics<br>orph anage<br>dinner<br>

I miss breakfast again. My wake-up calls didn{t expect me to get out of bed. Ha!<br><br>I go to the site. My eyes hurt and I pretty much leave right away.<br><br>At this point I do something stupid. I can already hear my mother 'Oh Rob'bing me. But I decide that the eyedrop antibiotics are not working so I switch to the 1 year expired oral antibiotics. Dr. Beattie in the house!<br ...

I make it to breakfast. Score. My two wake up calls help.<br><br>At this point my eye is starting to bother me. For the full details just read up on Mongolia. I started to bother me the prevous night but I neglected to put that in that entry. Sue me. I do have antibiotic drops that I start taking and I hope that these do the trick.<br><br>At the work site I start making holes ...

I sleep through breakfast. Mental note: bring a travel alarm even if it´s to just so I know what time it is.<br><br>We head to the build sites. They are within a km of the hotel. One site is in one direction and the other site is in the other.<br><br>Our site is in a large field. I don{t think the family owned the entire field. They did have a large compound with two houses/rooms and a passage ...

We arrive at the hotel and get our rooms. It is like an enclosed motel with a gated courtyard for cars on the inside. The rooms are ... plain. Mattress, fitted sheet, blanket. I´m glad I brought a sheet with me! The bathroom is ... plain. When you walk in you reach the shower area. Then the shower curtain. Then the sink. Then the toilet. The sink leaks ...

... didnt think we would climb it but after seeing that we think on our way back through Antigua on our way to San Salvador, we will. The highlands are definitely different and much colder...Everyone calls Quetzaltenango by its Mayan name, simply Xela for short. It is the centre of commerce for SW Guatemala and the heart of the Quiche people. There are at least 20 different Mayan languages spoken and Spanish is a distant second ...