Guatemala is.... TREMENDOUS! (in the words of Caesar, my tour guide)

Monday marked the beginning of my 2-week Easter break from school. Easter is a pretty big occasion here so all the schools take off the week before and after Easter which means more time for me to see new places around here. My roommates, Nikki (a teacher at Hummingbird), and I decided there would be no better place to start our break than Guatemala... I can't even tell you how excited I was about this trip! A.) I would get another stamp on my passport and B.) Why not go since we are so close???

The more we researched Guatemala, the more we realized how amazing the country was and also discovered we would need weeks to really take in all that Guatemala had to offer. We decided on getting just a little taste by going to Flores (a little island surrounded by a lake) and taking a day trip to Tikal (the largest Maya Site in Central America) from there. After a 2 hour bus ride from Belize City we arrived at the boarder and went through the process of crossing the boarder.

We then traveled about 2 hours to the little town of Santa Elana and then crossed the bridge to get to Flores. I saw some familiar places in Santa Elana: Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Payless. Never did I expect to see these places in Guatemala.

These little golf cart-looking vehicles are the taxis in this area of Guatemala.... they were everywhere!!!

Flores is the sweetest little town that I've ever seen. The town is lined with cobblestone roads, colorful row houses, and quaint shops and restaurants. Plus, the streets and sidewalks were free of trash and potholes which is VERY different from Belize. The people and government take pride in making a good name for Guatemala so they keep their land clean and offer lots of security with armed guards on nearly every corner to ensure the safety of the residents and tourists alike. I was also fascinated by the opportunity to think back to my days of Spanish class in 9th and 10th grade to really try to become part of the culture. The people of Flores were extremely patient and helpful with my mangled Spanish and over-exaggerated hand signs. Nikki is fluent in Spanish so she was able to translate for us at most times, but I got a chance to try it myself in the shops and restaurants. I was amazed at how quickly I began remembering various phrases and how effectively I was able to decipher what was being said to me in Spanish. I've decided I would love the opportunity to spend a longer period of time in a Spanish-speaking country in order to immerse myself in the language and culture.

Our Hotel

Walking up the hill to the center of town where they have a church, park, and basketball court. This area is set at the highest point of the island and is a meeting point of various streets that lead up to it.

The Catholic Church

View from the top!

I was surprised to the vast amounts of palm leaves that lined the streets and were posted around people's houses. Easter is a very important time in this part of the country and there are many ceremonies, parades, processions, and crucifixion re-enactments performed during the week leading up to Easter.

We woke up before dawn to leave on a bus to Tikal at 4:30am. Apparently this is supposed to be the best time to go to the site, so we jumped on the bus with about 10 other sleepy-faced tourists and a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed guide who was ready to go! After the hour long ride to Tikal, we stepped out to a very crisp, cool morning at the site, which thankfully warmed up sooner rather than later. (I was wearing my usual shorts, tank-top, and sandals with no jacket as usual.) The sire is roughly 222 sq. miles with 10 sq. miles of excavated ruins. Basically, it's HUGE compared to anything we've seen! I have to say that it was an amazing experience to see so many different temples in one area and have the chance to climb to the top of several of them to look out over the jungle and see other temples peaking out above the trees. Breath-taking is the only way to describe it, and the pictures I took do it no justice whatsoever. 

 

The first temple we climbed was done so by a series of steps leading to the peak on the temple. Let's just say that this was only the start to a busy day of climbing!

We took a little rest at the top to enjoy the view!

We met our guide at the bottom of the ruin and discovered that he had found something crawling around that we had yet to encounter during our 3 months... a tarantula! He was holding it and I decided to be brave (or crazy) and hold it myself. My mom is probably freaking out about this as she's reading it... sorry mom!

That's it crawling around on my hands... it really wasn't as bad as you would think!

 

 

This was the second one we climbed!

Rachel and I braved the giant ladder and climbed to top of this one! Jessica and Nikki took a rest at the bottom.

Yay! We made it!

This was the view... well worth the climb!

This tree was HUGE!

After a long day of walking, climbing, and taking pictures, we returned to Flores and walked around the town. There were so many neat shops to look in and we grabbed a bite to eat too. I absolutely loved my experience in Guatemala and can't wait to one day return and see more of this beautiful country!

God doesn't have fine-print...

Allow me to catch you up on what's been going on over the last week while Amanda was here...

We walked down to the tourist village of Belize City Wednesday afternoon to check out what the tourists see when they arrive on the cruise ships. I have to say that it's a bit of an eye-opening experience after being here for almost 3 months. We discovered that the cruise ship tourists see a very sugar-coated glimpse of Belize when they come in to spend the afternoon in this amazing country. The village was filled with lots of shops featuring high-end name brands, fancy diamond shops, vibrantly-colored restaurants, and an almost mall-like atmosphere which is completely un-Belizian if you step outside the gates of the village. However, I did find probably the greatest souvenir t-shirt you could buy from Belize...

Yep, it says "Someone who loves me went to California and got me this t-shirt" and then has Belize under that... not really sure about this! lol

Here are a couple pictures taken during the school day... my students absolutely loved her!

We headed out to Caye Caulker for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday before she had to hop on a plane back to Georgia. We had a couple great days in the sand and sun!

 

Our private little cabana on the beach!

This  cute little boy rode his bike out on the dock and sat with me for a little while... he was so cute!

Here are more photos from the first weekend with Amanda....

 

This is Lewis crawling through one of the lowest parts of the cave.

 

This is Amanda's Sprite Ad photo 

I went back to Galilee Baptist Church for Sunday School and Worship this morning. This was my second time going there and I'm already falling in love with the people there. I shook hands and hugged nearly every person before leaving and got to know the Pastor and another man named Syndey a little better before church started. We sang "Victory in Jesus", "I've Got the Joy, Joy, Joy Down in My Heart" (from the kid's choir), and "Because He Lives" during the song service which really made me feel back at home at Rock Springs! 

The title of the blog comes from a line that Mr. David (my Sunday School teacher here) used repeatedly during his lesson. He was talking about the fact that God is faithful with each and every one of his promises (on a side note: he also mentioned that there are over 800 promises given from God in the Bible) and that there is never fine-print at the bottom of the screen with God. He promises something and he gives it. Plain and simple. However, we sometimes don't see the promises fulfilled because we are too caught up in our own ideas about what the solutions to our problems and promises should be rather than what God wants them to be. I have to say that this lesson gave me a lot to dwell upon for the upcoming week.

Me in my Easter skirt that my mom sent before going to church this morning.