The Great Adventure With Rachee Bee

Hey Friends. Sorry it´s been a while since I´ve posted. Life is good here, and certainly moving and changing - but in sublte ways. The basic format is still: wake up at 6:30, iron clothes, eat egg and fruit breakfast, driving down the hill and up again and around the roundabout and end up at the office, where I more or less sit at a desk from 8 to 5 and enter data, do some filing, go to meetings, or run out to meet with public prosecutors, etc. Drive home around the roundabouts, down the hill and up again (or stop in Zone 10 for dinner and/or a movie), go home. Run. Practice guitar. Eat dinner. Do some skyping or reading (currently: The Gift of Good Land, Chasing Francis, and the Gospels). Hit the sack. There are of course the day to day changes and interruptions. I´ve had the pleasure of getting more involved with my church lately, and tomorrow I´m going to see the Messiah performed at the national theater.

A more remarkable interruption, though, is the recent visit of Rachel. She flew in on Tuesday and left on Sunday. What happened in between was a great time. We went to the old colonial capital, Antigua, and enjoyed the metropolitan atmosphere, cobble stone streets, ruins of centuries old churches (and the still standing structures of others), and some great food. We then headed back to the city, hopped an overnight bus, and the next morning woke up in the jungle province of the north, known as the Petén. We had breakfast at the island town of Flores, then took a shuttle to the lakeside town of El Remate, where we holed up at a french-run hotel for two nights. Swimming off the idylic thatch-roof dock, eating at the same reliably delicious restaurant for every meal (they even served a real Thanksgiving meal!), walking around, shooting pool (that´s right), and resting (I think there was at least one nap in every day!).

We also went to nearby Tikal, the ruins of one of the largest, most powerful city-states of Mayan days of old. The stone-built temples, houses, and other structures were astoundingly gigantic, and the presence of history seemed to breathe with the wind in that place. Really a dramatic wasteland of power fallen, and jungle encroaching - just a shell of grandeur for our touristic voyeurism into the lives of a people long gone. We took the bus back to the city on Saturday, and had breakfast with my host family on Sunday morning, before I took Rachel to the airport and sent her back to Kansas. I know pictures tell at least a thousand words each, though, so check these out below. All of the Tikal and El Remate pictures are on Rachee Bee´s camera, so we´ll have to wait for her to email those or put em up on her flickr or something.

The Great Adventure Pictures Part I

Trimming back the hedges. Don´t worry. I asked if we could take a picture. They were really nice.

We found what looks like a meeting place for some Guatemalan Boy Scouts. I swear Rachel was more excited about this than me.

There's something like 20 churches in the tiny town of Antigua. This is one of them.

Rachel´s art shot.

Rachel was insistent on taking a picture of me jumping on this roof. I didn´t realize until later that she got it in a series.

At a giant tourist-friendly shop, Rachel found a comfortable place to rest in the arms of her savior.

We stopped at a mirador (scenic overlook) on the way back from Antigua which overlooks the entire Guatemala City metro area. I live somewhere towards the right of the picture.

Rio Dulce

A couple weekends ago Alex and I went to Rio Dulce, a town a little ways inland from the Caribbean on a river of the same name.

We stayed in this sweet screened in shack. All we heard at night were the jungle animals doing their thing. Pretty and relaxing. A great place to read and swim (of which we did a lot).

We walked into town to catch a bus through the outlying ranch country to see a certain waterfall (see next).

We went to a place called Finca Paraíso. That waterfall is fed by a hotspring = hotwaterfall. Hott.

We also kayaked across the bay to this castle. It was built in the 1500´s to keep pirates off the mainland and out of the harbor. The pirates, of course, commandeered it. Shiver me timbers.

The castle courtyard.

Over my right shoulder you can barely see a mess of shipmasts, that´s where we stayed (and where we kayaked from). We had to to kayak back as that more imposing mass of rain you see moved over the water. It was an epic aquatic adventure.

More Castle.

More news: since our trip to Rio Dulce, I have gotten sick, gotten better, and found a church. Hooray!