Adventures in GUATEMALA!!

Many of you know that Josh and I, along with our friends, Jex and Aubrey, spent this Christmas and New Years in Guatemala! (Both Josh and Jex served their missions there about 6 years ago! WOW!) So here it is... my account of the CRAZY FUN adventures we had there!!

We flew out of Phoenix Wednesday, December 24 (Christmas Eve) at about 12:30pm ish. We had to switch planes in Dallas, Texas and from there flew the rest of the way to Guatemala City; making it there by 8:30pm! Josh had set up a rental truck earlier, but they called us on the 23rd to tell us that they would be closing early for Christmas Eve, so he made a few phone calls and talked to a guy for about 2 minutes the night before we left, that said he would be there to pick us up. Needless to say we were a little worried about this turning out smoothly, but there he was with his big sign "JOSE TIEMAN." After getting everything with the rental truck squared away, off we were, planning to drive all night to Tikal! Aubrey and I tried to sleep in the truck as much as possible. I was definitely in and out of it all night! At about 3am I could hear the guys talking about turning around. That really caught my attention so I sat up to listen... we were running out of gas and there had been no gas stations open. Now Christmas Eve in Guatemala everyone stays up really late and gets wasted, so it the little village we were driving through there were drunk dudes all along the road! SCARY! Jex had seen a gas station just a little ways back on the road. So we turned around... No numbers on the sign.... It was still being built or worked on... we drive back farther. A gas station with numbers...but the lights are all off. The house next door has people coming in and out of it! Jex and Josh go talk to them. They own the gas station, but don't want to open it right now, they open at 9am and are totally drunk. Don't want to try and camp out here. We drive back farther... right passed a completely dark gas station and across a bridge. I see a Shell sign, 24HRS. Pull up, drunk guys there, they don't open until 9am. Back to the dark gas station... seems like the safest place to wait out the night! As we pull up I see a guy standing under a porch... he turns... he has a BIG gun! I am totally freaking out, Josh rolls down his window to talk to him! He is the gas station security guard, says they don't open until 8am but we can sleep there if we want! We pull our huge packs in the truck. Aubrey and I try to lay our heads across the bags. We are all sweating, but I am too freaked out to roll my window down more than a crack! We rest from about 4am to 6:20am, the security guard has been bump total mexican music all night... well morning technically. We get out of the truck to stretch and get some air!

Aubrey and I in the bed of the truck after a very LONG night! Look how light it is at around 6am! Don't we look GREAT, haha!

Josh and I at our first hotel in Guatemala! The Texaco in Rio Dulce!

Luckily, the owner came about 30minutes early so we were on the road by 7:30am. We drove to a beatuiful town called Flores and got a hotel for that night, but we didn't stop to rest; we were on the road again in no time, headed the rest of the way to Tikal!

Josh on the trail back into Tikal!

One of the HUGE Temples!

The round stones are were they use to sacrifice people

See Jex, Aubrey and me in the bottom right corner. We look so small!

They think that Tikal was probably the city of Zarahemla or the city of Bountiful! VERY COOL!!

Josh and I on the ceremonially ruins. Its cool everything is in layers of three. On these ruins, the first level has a flat platform, big enough that many people could stand or sit and in the middle is a hole about 6 feet long, 4-5 feet wide and about 4-5 feet deep with stairs leading into it! What could it be... possibly a baptismal font.

Josh and I on top of one of the small ruins!

Guatemalan turkey! Look at how beautiful his colors are!

Another Big Beautiful Temple!

Josh and I on top of one of the huge ruins! The ruins in the back are where we were earlier... it should look familiar! (hint: Luke Skywalker) Ha, it kinda looks like I am going to push Josh off!!

All of us looking Fabulous!

From our balcony window in Flores! Its a little island!

More of pretty Flores from the island were we stayed!

After staying the night in Flores we headed back down to the Polochic Valley! This is where Josh and Jex served most of their missions and also were they learned Kekchi (a Mayan language)! We passed through El Estor and then headed up to Sepamac. It was so amazing, so beautiful! Josh served in Sepamac for quite a long time and we went to see his buddy Felipe and his wife! They are so short! I felt like a GAINT! Felipe is the Kekchi Robert Duvall, but it was neat to get to visit their home and spend sometime with them! In Sepamac they have no electricity no running water, just little huts! The first thing you saw when you walked into there dirt floor hut was a big picture of Gordon B. Hinckley! I thought that was just awesome!

Josh and I with Felipe and his wife!

Leaving Sepamac!

More of Sepamac!

From there we went down to Teleman and stayed with some members there, Carlos and Noemi! Noemi made us some awesome food!! The first real food we had eaten since we left the states! They were so nice! We also got to talk to the elders serving in the area at that time! It was so funny to hear all the stories they had heard about all the guys and they also brought down the book that a bunch of the missionaries had started just before Josh and Jex had left, so they are like the second and third pictures in there!

Picture of Teleman from Carlos and Noemi's backyard!I wish I would have gotten a better picture, because this is hardly any people but everyone walks, or rides in the back of one of these trucks! They can fit so many people back there it is unbelievable.
From Teleman we headed up to Senahu! So Pretty! This was one of my favorite places! Josh and Jex both served here for a long time! We got to meet a bunch of wonderful people! Saturday night we got to attend a baptism for a family!

Pictures of the center of town! Market day!

The rest of the center and the beautiful green hills!
Sunday morning Josh and I woke up early and got to see the fog roll through town! It was so BEAUTIFUL!

It was seriously... WOW!
We got up and went to church! The branch president got up to start the meeting! He told everyone the hymn we would be singing and then that Josh would be directing! News to us all, but Josh did great! After sacrament, he got up again and announced that after the speakers, "the girls who came from far away will speak and the former elders will translate." Of course Aubrey and I didn't know what he said, so when Josh told us we didn't know if he was teasing or what. But we both got up and shared our testimonies! It was so cool! It always shocks me how even though I live in such a different place and a different manner than they do, the gospel and basic stucture is always the same! It was fun too because they haven't seen that many blonde people so everyone was freaking out about my hair!

As we were leaving town I snapped this picture! A mother and 2 children! That right the bundle over her shoulder is a baby! Most of the women actually do this but carry the baby by wrapping the clothe around their foreheads! They are some tough chicks!!

This is headed out the back way from Senahu to Lanquin... on a new road... that got kinda wild!
Here is a man carrying some corn or something up that HUGE mountain! See how he carries it with his head! And of course he has his handy-dandy machetti in his left hand!!
Here you can kind of see the patch work quilt looking mountains! That is were they farm! Those are fields of corn and coffee, etc. AMAZING!Josh and I with a beautiful valley behind us!

Ok so that road we went on was really bad... I thought the truck was going to have some serious damage, but thankfully we made it through! And after I took some pictures of the pretty scenery. The guys had never been out that far and I am sure that we were the some of the only white people those remote villages had seen.

Look at all those hills and mountains!
Pine Trees!
After we got back on a decent road we made great time through Carcha and Coban, to Chamelco were we stayed another night at one of Carlos and Noemi's homes. We met their son and a bunch of pizza that night. On our way in I took a picture of this lady carrying corn dough or something on her head! They walk to gracefully, like its nothing to carry that huge thing on their heads!
Next day we headed off to Atitlan!

I took a picture of the old church in the center of town!
This was what you saw when you left the hotel we stayed at!

Look at all those wires!!
Atitlan is supposedly the waters of mormon! And I don't doubt that! If there were more trees around then it would look just like the Book of Mormon pictures!
Those are big volcanos across the lake!

More of the Lake
Josh and I!We bought handmade tortillas from these girls a lot! See how they pat them in their hands! SO GOOD!

And here is another lady with a huge load to carry!

Unforunately this is also when my camera decided to stop working, (that is why its so blurry) so the rest of our pictures we took on Jex and Aubrey and I don't have those yet! But on our way back to the capital we stopped at Antigua... it was the old capital of Guatemala, but was destroyed 500 years ago by a volcano! It was beautiful! We went to a Jade shop and check out a beautiful 500 year old convent that is now a 5 star hotel!
We stayed New Year's Eve in Guatemala City and then jumped on a plane home on New Year's Day! We had a blast and I am so glad we had the oppurtunity to go!!