Semana Santa in Guatemala

These are called Alfombras. They are a very big deal in Guatemala. To mark the very holy and beautiful Semana Santa leading up to what we call Easter, the Guatemalan people clean and decorate the streets with things called Alfombras. These are pathways made of all organic materials such as pine needles, wood shavings, fruit, vegetables and flowers. The churches make these giant wood structures to carry their Jesus statues out of the church and carry them around the pueblos. Within seconds the alfombras are ruined. It's fantastic.










We were lucky enough to get to help build two such alfombras with friends we had made in Guatemala. I must say that in all my travels, this was a huge highlight for me in particular. I travel for culture, for people, for traditions. This one is a biggy in Latin America. The people of Itzapa, no matter how poor they were, got up in the dark, cleaned the streets in front of their houses and together with neighbors, decorated quite intricately these absolutely breathtaking alfombras. The oldest man on our street directed all of us how to do this one exactly the way his father had done it for years and years before.



These are what the processions look like...

It´s all about the Hair

I put this photo in here just to show the biggest attraction in our town, THE HAIR. Plus, I had to throw this in here as it was the only day in two months we convinced Phelan not to wear his hat.

Have you Ever Had One of those Nights

So, those of us that are older reading this can remember those crazy nights that just kinda happen. You laugh a ton and have no purpose but being wild and free. We had one of those nights with our friends at the bike shop recently. We discovered quite a few wheelchairs upstairs in the shop and decided to decorate them and ourselves and race down the hill to the plaza. It was a blast. After the races we ended up having chicken fights with the local kids on our shoulders. I lost my voice from laughing so much and I think we might just have shocked the locals a little. But, so incredibly fun.

Mama loves bats!

So, bats are cool. I don´t care what you think. Phelan asked me why they are my favorite animal and here it goes (although I think it takes no explanation). First and foremost, they are a flying mammal. Name another, I dare you - squirrels don´t count. They fly without feathers or eyesight, hmmm. Cool. They pollinate flowers like bees and bugs. They eat fruit like other mammals and, oh yeah, some of them drink blood from the legs of animals. But when you look at their little body and face, they´re actually kind of cute and fuzzy, kinda. THERE IS NOTHING ELSE LIKE THEM AND THEREFORE, THAT IS WHY THEY ARE MY FAVORITE.

Now picture this. It´s seven in the evening and my family is climbing into a giant cave in Guatemala. We sit on rock ledges with giant drops on either side of us about 20 feet to a river flowing through the cave. It´s dark and of course, I´m nursing Casey. Then it starts. You hear some squeeks, something flies by your head. You flip on your flashlight and there they are, thousands and thousands of bats circling around your head and heading out the entrance to visit nearby feeding grounds. I have never ever done anything like that before and probably never will. It was really incredible and I was so happy to experience it with the kids.

My little Carebear

I dedicate this to the heartiest of travelers in our family, my little Phelan.

When planning this trip, we never thought about what would or could happen to each and every one in our family. We thought about things like we need to find kids for them to play with, we need to keep Casey off the ground so he doesn´t get sick, we need to teach the kids to walk with rocks in their pockets to throw at crazy dogs. Never did we think that everything bad would happen to just one of them. My poor little Phelan. Phelan has suffered more than anyone else in our family. He´s at the hardest of ages to travel with. Ryder is rational enough to know he needs to be quiet when things are tough, help out when we need him and go to bed when we say go to bed. We are rational enough to know that Casey can be shut up with food or in worse case scenarios, an orange Crush. But Phelan, oh Phelan. He´s young enough to still need naps, old enough to know how to scream for everything he wants. He´s been more sick than anyone else, hotter than everyone else because he´s completely attached to an old nasty Angels baseball hat someone gave him in Mexico and he´s been wearing a piece of elastic cord around his neck for almost two months that he calls his necklace. He wears the same clothes every single day probably in an attempt to keep something normal in his life. He hoards things in his pocks and when you rip his jeans off him late at night so that you can wash them, you pull out probably three matchbox cars, 15 nails, wrappers bottlecaps, ball bearings - it´s ridiculous.

But here´s my little guilty story about my little Carebear. Two days ago we went to this Biotopo hoping to catch a glimpse of the elusive Quetzal bird. Phelan was pooped as it was a 3,000 foot climb to the top and the night before we had gone climbing as well. I told him I´d turn around and do the easy loop with him and the rest of the group could catch up with us down the trail. As he was heading down the hill, he tripped and did a complete flip in the air and landed on his face. He knocked one of his teeth loose. I figured the reason he tripped to begin with is because of this - he´s been on antibiotics for a week as one of his fingers got REALLY infected. In this week it has blistered, cracked, peeled and turned several different colors. The previous 24 hours to the fall, he´d been throwing up while we traveled eight hours on different buses and made many runs to the bathroom. He also had only slept eight hours two nights in a row because we had to catch buses or get up early enought to see the elusive Quetzal.

The most amazing part of all of it is that he never once complained. Maybe he said he was tired or maybe hungry but that was it. As long as his pockets are filled, his elastic cord necklace is on, his baseball cap is on backwards, he´s good. He´s great in fact.

Don´t get me wrong, Ryder is a trooper as well. But, we expect him to be for some reason. We´ve all had our meltdowns, fit throwing, panic attacks but truly, Phelan has taken the brunt from puking, injuries, icky belly, scary experiences - you name it, Phelan has dealt with it. So, I raise a toast (of Orange Crush) to my little Trooper Bear. If I could invent a Carebear for him it would be red, with a camo shirt, an eyepatch, baseball cap and army boots. He´d love it and right now, I´d spend a fortune on it for him.

Volcano Pacaya

Yesterday was an epic day for both Ryder and Steve. They hiked uphill for two hours to see the lava flowing down this volcano. It has been flowing for three years straight and erupting for twenty years. They roasted marshmallows over the 2000 degree flow and played hot potato with lava rocks. I am pretty sure that Ryder will never forget this day, EVAH.

San Marcos Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

On a recent weekend trip to Lake Atitlan, the boys were inspired to make flower arrangements and take lots of photos. The construction of the local houses were of particular interest as they used everything from plastic soda bottles filled with old plastic bags to this beautiful construction of glass bottles set in bamboo chinked with mud, then painted reddish with clay. Absolutely gorgeous! All of these photos are from Ryder or Phelan except the one of the boat with a volcano in the background. The lake had three volcanoes around it. So, we have felt MANY earthquakes while here. Small tremblers and there is always ash on the ground. No one seems phased by it.