Hotel Casa Azul Antigua Guatemala

... operations. So the Falcons consisted of us 4 gals, 2 Irish chicks, an Israeli guy, 2 Frenchmen and a German man. The trail was well marked, however due to the consistent rain it was extremely muddy (bye bye nice, clean New Balances!) After a few close calls and more than a few ¨oh *****!¨we made it to the part of the mountain that turns into a slippery slop of volcanic rock/sand. The terrain was dramatically different from the trail through the vegetation portion of the ...

... amazing Guatemalan dinners - mainly consist of eggs, beans, or some type of meat - more on food in a later entry. My attempts at Spanish during dinner are a little rough but well received and everyone has a good time trying to understand and correct each other. All in all we couldnt ask for a better place to be spending our time while in Antigua and can only hope we dont cause too much trouble for our host familia :)<br>hasta pronto,<br>Andy

... means, which basically came down to meaning the very last days before I had to leave Guatemala! But with quite a many blessings from above helping us out, we were able to accomplish our goals there as well...and had a rocking inauguration party to celebrate the completion of the project -- a project the village had begun to work on 12 years ago! Though the community had worked hard and looked all over for assistance (many times to the ...

... the famous church of the town. Huge in statue as they are in most of these places, making the rest of the town look even humbler in its shadow. The steps that led up to the entrance seemed to be getting more attention though than the actual church as they were filled with large amounts of the faces that make this market so famous in the region. On one side you had the several groups of woman that were selling all sorts of flower arrangements, while on the other there were ...

... by beautiful flowers and there was a garden in the back. In addition to the surroundings there were two ducks and two cats that live at the house. The housekeeper and groundskeepers also live on the property and they keep up with the day to day maintenance. It was perfect and a great way to end semester at sea. The house usually sleeps eight people but the renters brought in four extra mattresses that we spread throughout the different bedrooms. The ...

... the most polluted lake in Guatemala, sanitation and waste disposal. I'd heard about this lake before coming to Guate, and I certainly still got a shock out of it: the lake, or at least its edges, are bright, almost neon green. Rio Villalobos flows into it, which carries waste from myriad industrial facilities upstream and a ton of waste from Guatemala City and towns flowing into the river. This has been going on for decades and this toxicity ...

... to start breaking a sweat digging the trenches for the foundation. We will soon be having the official Opening Ceremony -- plenty of chicken stew and moonshine stronger than kerosene for all! I will be sure to post pictures...though I can't send an email of just HOW toxic their moonshine is here. "One sniff and ...

... pretty basic, and there was no hot water in the dribbly shower but for only 35Q (around 3 squid) per night you cant complain!!! The weather is definitely hot enough to cope with a cold shower :o) <br><br>We dumped our bags and went for a wander around the town and had a look at lake Atitlan. The town is really just one main street with the lake at one end and a kind of town square at the other. In the town square there was a kids ...