Guatemala

We were in Guatemala this week to teach entrepreneurship. The city government arranged for Adam and I to announce the workshops on three local radio stations. I was really glad Adam did most of the radio interviews. I have the hardest time speaking Spanish when I get nervous. Adam gave all the information and at the end I invited them again to the workshop. Below are pictures from one of the radio stations.

Quite a few people heard about the workshop from the radio announcement. We also had activities for the children while their parents attended the workshop. Over thirty kids--several left and came back with cousins and friends to do the activities. The kids loved getting to use the crayons, yarn, and Popsicle sticks. They were so excited to have craft supplies. The little boy below couldn't believe that he got to keep the box that he made. His cowboy boots were so cute.

We also met a guy who had a private collection of Mayan artifacts. Apparently there are so many Mayan burial sites in Guatemala, that it's pretty easy to buy artifacts. He hopes to open a museum in a few months. He had such a great collection. He even had a Mayan ocarina that he let us play. I am pretty sure Adam wants to be him haha. Adam has already started his own collection of artifacts. Below are pictures of some of the collection.

Caye Caulker

We went to the island of Caye Caulker this weekend. It was so beautiful and relaxing. The water was a perfect clear turquoise. Adam took a picture from our hotel room.

We celebrated our 3 month anniversary in Caye Caulker.

Every restaurant had so many seafood choices--but no lobster. We missed lobster season by one week. Adam was quite disappointed. We went to Olas del Mar, they had a great view as well as food.

Belize has the world's second largest barrier reef. We went to the reef to snorkel around with barracudas, nurse sharks, sting rays, parrot fish, and angel fish. Our guide showed us a trained moray eel. He clapped and it swam up and ate some fish from his hand. I was in the way of the eel so he swam right into me since he was so focused on the fish. The coral gardens were quite impressive as well. One of the volunteers had an underwater camera. We will have to get some of the pictures from her.

Indian Jones Adventure

On Saturday we went to the ATM Caves, or Actun Tunichil Muknal (Mayan for Maiden of the Stone Tomb).  It was amazing and felt like something out of an Indian Jones movie.  Our guide, Manuel, looked like a stockier, lighter-skinned Denzel Washington and sounded exactly like Antonio Banderas.  He picked us up and we drove about 45 minutes to the site.  From there we hiked about a mile and crossing the river three times before getting to the entrance of the caves.

The adventure began by swimming into the mouth of the cave and climbing onto a little ledge where we paused to receive instructions from Manuel.  Throughout most of the cave it was shallow enough to wade through, but there were several spots that required us to swim.  There were lots of amazing rock formations, bats, fresh water crabs, and plenty of small fish.  As we reached the end of the cave (well actually only about a mile in out of 5) we climbed up the "Mayan Ladder" that opened up into a big chamber.  In the new chamber there were pots everywhere.  It was so cool.  Most of them were still in the place that the Mayans had abandoned them. 

(Not our group since cameras are not allowed, but this is how close you can get to the artifacts. We used the photos from the ATM website)

 As we continued climbing through the new chamber there were even the skeletal remains of several sacrificial victims.  The tour goes all the way until you find the "Maiden of the Stone Tomb" (who is actually believed to be a man now).

We chose to take the "adventure way" out instead of the "tourist way."  It was a few pretty tight fits and sliding down a couple of rocks into pools of dark water, but it was definitely more fun than whatever the tourist way was I'm sure. It was worth it to see Adam try to squeeze into the small spaces.