We headed first to the highlands of Guatemala where we spent a few nights in Antigua before moving on to Lake Atitlán to enjoy the scenery, renew friendships at the Cooperativa Spanish School, and celebrate with our Beca Project students and their families. Then we flew to the island of Roatán, Honduras for beaches, snorkeling, diving, and flyfishing. HAPPY TRAILS!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Visiting families and more San Pedro memories

Another wonderful day in San Pedro. Here are some turkeys on a rooftop viewed from the school deck as we waited for Mynor this morning.
The footpaths and lanes of San Pedro are hard to describe to those who haven't been here, but if a picture is worth a thousand words, here are 3000 words' worth:
We enjoyed our 1st stop, the home of the family of Josefa Baram Ixtetelá. Her parents told us about some of the changes that make going from grade school to Básica (middle school) a challenge.
Next stop was the home of Pedro Juan Ixcamparij González and his mother. Life is hard for them and, without the scholarship, Pedro Juan would have to work instead of attending school (he's 12). His mother worries that he doesn't always complete his homework; I hope he can realize that working hard now will mean an easier life in the future.
María Cecilia Toc Criado works exceptionally hard and her parents are very involved in school. She hopes to be a bilingual secretary and will train for that in the nearby village of San Juan after she completes the next year and a half of Básica. We enjoyed seeing photos of María Cecilia when she was a baby and looking at her work.
María Cristina Sarat González wants to be a teacher; I should have guessed that from how she (very politely) corrected my Spanish.
We went home for lunch and then set out to explore a bit. In addition to some good coffee (Mike) and a pineapple licuado (me), we picked up banana bread and a cinnamon roll from the bread lady and passed whole hedges of these gigantic flowers.
We scoped out a few hotels for future reference ($25-30/night buys you a nice and clean lake-view room in a place with a beautiful garden and sauna) and stopped by to visit José and Micaela, former hosts of mine (below) and another friend, Micaela's sister and neighbor, María.
Then we returned to the home of our Beca student, Rosa Yanira, to purchase tortillas. In addition to the wonderful tortilla demonstration I purchased a dozen fresh tortillas for dinner; the usual cost is 1 quetzal for 4 tortillas which is about 38 cents for a dozen.
Rosa's mother also showed me her other job, weaving with a backstrap loom; I took videos as well as photos.
After dinner we took the salsa lessons the school provides once a week and Mike took these photos of me dancing with the instructor, Luis - great exercise! Happy trails!

1 comment:

  1. Love your posts and miss you both. Looks like you're having a wonderful time!

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