1st weekend in Guatemala!

This last weekend my study abroad family and I went on a mini adventure to Lake Atitlan.

This lake is actually a huge crater of a volcano that has been filled with water. There are 13 villages that surround the lake. We stayed in a village called Panajachel. On Saturday, we went to two other villages, Santiago and Santa Catarina. We had to take a boat across the lake to get to them! At these villages we bought many souvenirs and visited a few homes to see how the Mayan women made their clothing that they sell at the market. We then went to a town that is on top of the crater called Solola. In this town there is a child care center called Eagles Nest that has an interesting story. Long story short, the facility that this care center uses was originally a resort. The resort went bankrupt and sold the land and buildings to a family(who were being funded by a bunch of different churches) that were looking for a place to start a new orphanage. But because of a complicated legal situation, Guatemala does not allow people outside of Guatemala to adopt from Guatemala. Therefor, is it now a care center for kids who either have no parents, or have been abused by their parents. It is truly an amazing operation and I encourage you to look it up and read their story. After all, they can tell the story way better than I can.
The next day, we went to Chichicastenango and took a tour to learn more about their Mayan/Catholic religion. The only thing I can say about this part of the trip is, the way they practice the Mayan and Catholic religion is very interesting. I would go more in depth about their religion but I am not confident that I would get the facts straight. So I will just move on to the market place.  This market place is so big you could easily get lost. The people selling their products will easily get on your nerves. This is because they are constantly coming up to you and putting the goods they are trying to sell in your face. This does not just happen at this market. All of the markets here have to same kind of selling strategy. Shea, one of the family members, asked how much a blanket was and when she realized that she would not have enough money to even offer the women a good price Shea politely told her no thanks and continued her shopping. The lady selling the blankets followed her all the way down the hill to the boat we were taking across the lake. When I say "all the way to the boat" I mean the women was on the dock and even laid the blanket across the front of the boat while she slowly kept lowering the price. At the end, Shea still said no as we "undocked" and headed back across the lake.
The hotel we stayed in had a beautiful terrace which provided a beautiful and breath taking view of the town and the volcanoes. This adventure is something I hope I will never forget.