Guatemala

On the way to the nature preserve, we went through a town that was in the middle of having a really big farmers market type of event. There were people everywhere and the traffic was awful! We saw people wearing very traditional clothing that was very colorful and then we saw this, we thought the chickens were dead, but then noticed that they were in fact alive and being sold and carried this way. Some people had 2 or 3 chickens on their arms.

After we walked around the town and bought a few things, we had a boat ride across the lake and on the way stopped off to a place to eat that was on the edge of the cliff. It was so beautiful! Spencer and a couple of us ordered a drink of lemonade, that when it came out it was seriously bigger than Spencer's head! He couldn't drink it all! I don't remember if any of us really could drink it all!

Spencer was splashed with a wave on the lake while we were going, it was really funny! The rest of the pictures are of the place we ate at and climbing up lots of stairs to it. Also some other houses that were built on the edge of the cliff also. You can see on the mountain side the bare parts that looked shaved away are the farm land areas. We went to a little town were we took the fun little rides to where Mayan tradition of dying cotton and silk were done by hand. Two ladies showed us how they cultivate the cotton and silk (by hand) and then spin it (by hand again, not a spinning wheel) and then dye it with different nuts, flowers, spices, etc. to get the color they want. Then they embroider or crochet purses and all kinds of things. It was beautiful!

It rained on the way back across the lake. We saw volcanoes also! That night we rode all the way home late and had a fast sleep to wake up super early to get the ride to the plane for Tikal.