This week is Semana Santa. Almost everything is shut down from Thursday through Sunday and pretty much everyone has either the week off of work or at least a long weekend. Vacation time! And there are a LOT of processions!! As you can see in the pictures- the men carry Jesus and the women carry Mary. I love seeing the processions, but they move very slowly. For so many steps forward they take some back (but I am not sure how many). As yesterday was the crucifixion they walked even more slowly. One of the pictures includes an alfombra (carpet) made of colored sawdust. It is symbolic of the palms that were laid for Christ to walk on and the people who carry Christ walk over them during the processions (followed by Mary). Easter here feels a lot more like Easter should feel - with a focus on Christ. The sweet I have enjoyed this week is... cotton candy!! (algodón) YUMMY!! It's all over the place.

I am about to start my last week here. Hard to believe 3 months have passed. It has been a great time. I thought my Spanish would be better, but I am not sure if I will ever truly be satisfied with it. The first part of my trip started off with a bang and has become a lot more mellow. I am feeling ready to get back to my life and my friends in the US, but at the same time I know that I will leave a piece of my heart here. It will be hard to leave. One day I would love to come back and live here for a while. I will miss so much about being here... while there is so much I look forward to about being back home. I came here feeling overwhelmed with my life back home and I will be going back refreshed!

Las Cumbres

This is a natural sauna (Las Cumbres) pretty close to Xela. I can not believe that I did not hear about this place until this trip. The saunas are private, so Sandy and I had our own. Loved it! There is an hour limit, but that was plenty of time.

La Muela

We walked to La Muela from town. It was quite steep at the top, but other than that it was not bad at all. In the top picture is Xela (and the temple that is currently being built), the middle picture is me and my Spanish teacher/friend, and the bottom is me sitting on the highest point looking at Xela.

Weekend at the beach

The beach: Tulate. Went with Sandy, Danny, Josue, Justin, and another girl (can't remember her name). Wow! It was perfect! Not many people and we slept right on the beach. And the sand crabs, wild pigs, nor the wild dogs bothered me when I was sleeping! Phew!!

Hiking Santa Maria

We left Saturday afternoon and headed up Santa Maria, which is a volcano not too far from Xela. It sits at about 12,375 feet. What an absolutely amazing trip it was. There were probably at least a hundred other people with the idea to camp on top just as we did. It is quite a steep hike up.

Highlights from the trip: Watching the moon rise Saturday night, seeing the city lights at night, watching the sun rise Sunday morning, seeing Santiaguito erupt Sat. night in the dark, having an incredibly clear night and morning, the view at all moments!!, laughing hysterically with Sandy, and being with a great group of people.

The not so high lights: It was FREEEEZING out from the time we got to the top of the mountain until probably about 9am or so, unfolding out rental tent to find out it was melted together in parts (we pulled apart the melted sections, but had huge holes in the tent), using smelly rental sleeping bags (on of which had a non-functioning zipper), howling wind during the night, super steep climb and decent (that part has it's pluses too)!

Our roof top terrace

This is the view from the top of the apartments where I live! Today I went to study in the sun, but ended up napping instead. When the sun is out it is toasty warm, but when it hides behind the clouds, it is quite chilly!!

My birthday!!!

View of volcanoes................................ The lake in Chicabal........................Danny and Ari


Elizabeth, me, and Sandy............... Dinner at the apartment where I live.............Sandy and Danny

I had a GREAT Birthday this year! Thanks to my friend Sandy! She cooked me a dinner of my choice ( I chose Indian) and invited a bunch of people over. We all went dancing after dinner. Sandy and I got home at about 1:30am and got up at 5:30am the next morning to hike the volcano Chicabal. Unfortunately, I could not fall asleep right away, so I really did not get much sleep! But we did it. Chicabal is beautiful. It was the perfect way to spend the 1st day of my 37th year.

And, this is the second page that had me laughing. Although, not quite as hard due the more serious subject. And, I have to add that I have not (yet) heard random gunfire. Or maybe I have... and thought it was a firecracker.

Guatemalan road rules

One of 2 pages in "Xela Who" - " Quetzaltenango's leading culture and nightlife magazine". Laughed so hard at this! Although, I do have to admit that I have seen at least 3 cars use a turn signal in the last week.

Trip delay - SNOWSTORM

I was supposed to head to Guatemala today, but due to a snowstorm, I will now be leaving tomorrow. I have been home for just over 6 weeks and this is at least the 4th storm. Man, I wish I would have brought my snowshoes with me!!

haha, after I uploaded the photos I realized that my dad and I have very similar poses in our pics.

Soli LOVES snow!!! She acts like a puppy again in it.

Bre's baby shower

Amber and I threw Bre a baby shower. Yes, that is the relief society room. I know, lame, but it came out nice. It was a frog theme, if you can not tell.

My favorite part of the shower was the cake that Amber and I made! I painted the cattails that we bought from the Dollar Store (they were pink). And the log and lily pads we molded from cake. Our original log looked like... well, not the kinda log you would want to eat. It was so late at night when we were working on it that were laughing like crazy about it.

Bre got a lot of nice gifts! Tons of adorable clothes for their new baby boy who is due May 5th.

It was nice to see so much family because, although we all live in the area, we often go years without all getting together.

Picture of the relatives at the shower - All on my dad's side

I love Sasha

No, no, I am not talking about loving myself. I am talking about my ADORABLE, incredible smart, funny, sweet cousin. When we are together Beth decided it is easier not to confuse us by calling her Sashimi and me Salchicha. I wish I lived closer to Beth, Ken, and Sasha.

I only spent a day and a half with them, but loved every second of it. Beth and I even went cross-country skiing for an hour in 6 degree weather. Woohoo!!