Semuc Champey

Hi all - We're in a town called Lanquin, which is where these water pools are, called Semuc Champey, and lots of caves. We're in this little hut doing Internet, but in our little hut that we sleep in (room) there is a hammock outside, and we know which one it is because it has a scorpion picture that matches the picture on our key. Today we went on this cool tour with this cave that Dad went through. Dad, say what happened:
We swam through the dark holding candles and had to climb up and down various ladders. At one point I told the guide he was crazy when he pointed his flashlight out into the distance and said "jump there." Also had to slide down a couple spots into the dark and jump down through a waterfall.

Miguel again:
Another reason it was so crazy was because you had to hold your candle above the water while swimming and all that. After the caves, we went on an innertube ride that was very fun, and then after that we got to explore a little bit. We went swimming, saw the view, lots of waterfalls, it was really cool, a waterfall went into a lagoon and it went into a cave, you could really see it go into the underwater cave. I dropped a stick and it just went.

It was a long bus ride to get here, about 7 hours. Tomorrow we are going to Tikal. Bye for now! Happy new year!

Swimming

Here is a video of me at the swimming pool at our hotel at the Xocomil water park. And here is a picture of my dad and I in the river at the park.

Guatemala City

Yesterday we were in Guatemala City and we went to a few things. We went to the Archeology museum, we went to the relief map, and we went to the zoo. I really liked the zoo. We tried to go to the Popul Vuh Museum (the Popul Vuh is kinda like the Mayan Bible) and the Children´s Museum, but they were closed for the holidays. So we got a taxi to the mall, then we walked around, got a little snack, went to the mall. I tied mom in air hockey at the video arcade. Mom and Dad played Ms. PacMan and Dad played Galiga while I played street fighter. Then we went to a hotel and waited for about an hour because our shuttle was delayed. The hotel was special because it was where I first met my mom and dad when I was a baby.

At the zoo, we saw some coyotes. The coyotes howled for a long time. We saw some coatimundis, an ostrich, a peacock, a white peacock, a puma, a bunch of parrots, an eagle, and a barn owl. We saw a boa constrictor, a false corn snake, a python and a bunch of other snakes. We didn´t see any bears. We some spider monkeys, some with babies. We saw a lion, and a jaguar. We didn´t see a quetzal; I wonder why that was.

At the Archeology Museum, there was a whole collection of masks. A mask of a wolf, jaguar, lion, puma, pig, bull. They had this cool ceremony with maniquins that was suposed to be the Dance of the Deer (Danza del Venado) which had a guy with a rifle and three people with deer masks and capes, and five people that were watching with jaguar masks, and one regular guy wearing a hood over his face. They had a display of Maximon, who is a Mayan saint that smokes and drinks. They had a whole display of Tikal with miniature guys. Outside there was a fountain, and around the fountain with rock carvings. There was one that was a crocodile with a skull in the back of its head, and there were Mayan heads and monkeys. Then we entered a cool room with a bunch of jade necklaces and I think the Mayan alphabet on two slabs of stone. Then when we went around the corner, we saw a skeleton in its crypt covered with jade necklaces, bracelets and stuff.

Then we drove to the relief map that showed the whole of Guatemala and a bit of Mexico. It had Antigua, San Juan, San Pedro, the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. You could see Tikal and all the other pyramids, and they had little docks on the Pacific and Atlantic.

Today we are going to be around the house and take laundry in the town. We have to pick that up at about 4 p.m. Tomorrow we start our five day trip to Tikal and some caves.

Christmas in Guatemala

We had a fun Christmas in Guatemala, but we would have like the fireworks to stop a little earlier. But they didn´t, and when we went out to get something to eat, there was a bunch of wrappings from the fireworks in the street. I even found a smashed Gallo beer bottle in the street...

We got a new stocking at the market for Santa. The stocking is green with a snowman, a christmas tree, two people and some snowflakes...

This is the second christmas I was in guatemala. My mom and dad were here with me when I was a baby in 2003.

Water park notes

Hi, we´re stuck in a town called Retalheu for a couple of hours waiting for the bus back home. We just spent two nights at a waterslide park called Xocomil (¨shocomil¨). It was fun! There was a manmade river where you could float in innertubes or you can just swim, like Dad and I did! They also had some pretty cool stuff, they had a slide called the serpent´s nest, me and Dad took that on a raft, if that´s not just the craziest thing you heard of. And we took another ride I forget its name but it was a family thing, me Mom and Dad did it. The 1st time, we had to rescue a lizard that had gotten into the raft, so I hadn´t really been focussing, so we went twice. The 2nd time was fun. Well, it´s hot in here and I´m not feeling great, so I´m going to get going. Merry Christmas! More later.

Fotos!

These are my masks, wolf, lion, jaguar, bull. I´m not sure which is my favorite, but it¨s between wolf, lion, and jaguar. I think it might be the jaguar, it´s the only one that will fit me.

This is a coatimundi, we had some bananas for the monkeys and coatimundis, but the coatimundi had other ideas. He stole one of my bananas out of my hand and the other one I threw over the fence to the monkey and he stole that, too.


This is the monkey. We first saw this monkey when he was on the stairs out front, but on this picture he´s climbing on a few bars. He was all over, but we only captured him on the left side (maybe it´s your right side).

These are two of the parrots that we saw, we think they were grooming each other. I really liked their colors. We saw these parrots at the Santo Domingo hotel. It has ruins from a Spanish monastery.

This is Dad and me on the zip line. I really liked the view. There were eight different lines and I took them all, not including the test ride to see if you like it. Of course the test ride was only a few feet off the ground. It was about 15 minutes to hike up to the first line, but after that it didn´t take too long to hike to the other ones. We all got a diploma and we ended up where we started when we were done!

Back in Antigua

Hi all - We´re back in Antigua. Mom is feeling a little sick so she told me to tell Dad to pick up some oranges and orange juice. We wanted to download photos, but thanks to Dad he forgot the camera cord. We are at the Funky Monkey Internet cafe, pretty weird name, don´t you think?

We will get some pictures up soon.

We took a long bus ride yesterday to get back home, after market day there weren´t shuttles. As you know, I bought four masks at market day. There was a chicken on the bus up in the luggage rack wrapped up in a red checker tablecloth in a basket. The seat wasn´t too big, they are old school buses from the United States of America. I was squeezed on the edge and I almost fell off a couple of times.

We bought something for mi clase, some worry dolls. It´s a little box that contains 6 worry dolls, one big worry doll (the Mom) and 5 smaller ones.

Our next trip is either going to be Tikal or the water park.

I´m glad it´s Christmas soon. I hope everybody is doing well. Is it cold in Portland? It´s pretty hot here!

The market of Chichicastenango

Hi, we-ve been on the road, but just the day before yesterday we went on a zip line, which was loads of fun. We got a diploma. The 2 guides were very nice. I rode with my Dad and he ran the brakes. My favorite time was when he almost forgot to run the brakes, that was a real jolt. Thanks Dad!

Today is Sunday so the market is open and I-ve got 4 new masks to hang on the wall. I was able to talk in Spanish and bargain the prices down. The masks are of a jaguar, a lion, a wolf, and a bull.

I really liked the wolf, lion and bull, but my favorite was the jaguar.

I made a candle holder out of some volcanic rock that was really easy to cut a hole in with a shell and we have 4 light blue candles to put in there. We swam in Lake Atitlan for about 15 or 16 minutes. We took a walking tour in San Juan, but Dad said it was a driving tour. Thanks a lot, Dad. We saw a mountain that was shaped like a Mayan face that looked like it was lying down on its back. We also went to the house of a Mayan priest.

We took a boat from San Juan to Panajachel and then we took a bus from Panajachel to Chichi. Considering it was only 25 miles, it took 3 hours.

Tomorrow we will be heading back to Antigua and I will start posting photos, including a photo of my masks.

Day 4 of Antigua

Today we went to a hotel called Santo Domingo. It had parrots and ruins. There were some skeletons in there and a crazy statue, it was just sitting there by the skeletons. It was there because it was from the old city of Guatemala. There was an archaelogical museum afterward with sofas. I did not know there was a chocolate store there, too. There were 8 different flavors of chocolate. Mom got a bar of dark chocolate.

There is a volcano here and we saw it erupting black smoke. We also went to a jade museum and it was really cool, it had a necklace with the markings of my birthday and I got a piece of jade free of cost. We got a picture of some jade masks.

I bought a little round flute with 8 holes for 25 quetzales. Two holes are on the bottom and 6 are on the top. At first it was for 40 quetzales, but the price was lowered because it was a little too expensive and we didn´t want to buy it. It has a quetzal bird on it and it is very cool.

We took a ride home in a little tuk tuk cab because I was tired of walking. It was really bouncy. Tomorrow we are going to Lake Atitlan. I think it will be fun.

There's a rock 2 or 3 blocks and around the corner that I like to climb.

While Dad and I were at the house, Mom picked up our laundry and bought the tickets for Lake Atitlan (Panajachel).

Getting to know Antigua

Today we went to the Aposentos Park outside of Antigua. We rented a paddle boat and went around the lake. We ate at a stand where a lady was making tortillas frescas. We had chicken, tortillas, some orange soda, and fried potatoes. Then Dad rode the zip line. The zip line went across the lake and near a little forest. Then Mom rode the zip line. After that we went to the bus. The bus ride was very crazy. It felt like I almost cracked my head on the window, the driver was going so fast. I think we were the only people on the bus who spoke English.

Yesterday we just explored and shopped a little bit. I got a hackysack ball. We went out for breakfast and we shopped for groceries. The grocery store was very crowded. They had mustard, mayonaisse and ketchup in a bag, and instead of a dozen eggs they sold 15. The store was pretty big. There was an upstairs and a downstairs. Mom said she shopped there a lot when I was a baby. The store is called La Bogedona.

We are talking about going to Lake Atitlan. I have been taking photos and will post some soon.

Our Family

This is the first photo of the three of us as a family. It was taken
at the house we lived at in Antigua before Miguel came home. We are
staying right around the corner from the house during our trip.

Welcome to my blog

Here is my blog about my trip to Guatemala. We will be there Dec. 11-Jan. 9. I will post reports and pictures about my trip here. I hope you like it.