Family Trip to The Beach and Zechariah Turns 5

Zechariah slept on our way to the Beach.

There are several options for places and things to see as far as trips go in Guatemala. Some are Tikal, Antigua (where we are living), Lake Atitlan, and Monterrico Beach. I've really only named a few but these are the popular ones. We picked the Beach since we would be traveling with Katy and Z.  We were able to stay from Friday afternoon till Monday morning.

Part of our view on our drive.

We basically lazed around at the two different pools, ate at the hotel restaurant, and took long naps in the afternoon.  The weekend that I was able to secure for the hotel also happened to be Zechariah's birthday weekend so it was like a double holiday for us. The really neat thing about Monterrico beach is that the sand is tinted from the volcanoes so the beach is Black.

We stayed at Dos Mundos Hotel, they have 14 huts, two pools, a restaurant, and a private part of the beach. The place was quiet and relaxing even though the place was full of kids all day on saturday and part of Sunday.  Our little hut was nice and it came with an AC unit which ended up being the best because the weekend we went was during a time when there is no rain, just lots of sun. (FYI I almost wrote "no hay nada lluvia, hay mucho sol" in spanish that means "there is no rain, there is a lot of sun". My spanish teacher would "tsk" me for writing in spanglish if I had written that.)

The beach.

Outside our hut.

The hotel grounds.

The large pool, where we spent most of our time.

Our days consisted of waking around 6:30 getting dressed for the pool and then heading to breakfast at 7. We ate typical Guatemalan breakfasts and enjoyed freshly pressed juice. After breakfast we would head over to the pool and stay till lunch time when we would head back to the hut and change for lunch.  Lunch however was different in the fact that we ate, pastas, hamburgers, fresh fish sticks, and nachos. It was not all to different from lunches we could eat in the states. In the afternoons we slept for a few hours then returned to the pool for more swimming, then at 7 we ate dinner and crashed after in our rooms for the night. It was relaxing but the amount of swimming, and sun we had made us all tired.

Nacho's

The kids and I ate burgers for almost every meal.

A Typical Guatemalan Breakfast, and it's wonderful to eat!

Happy Birthday Zechariah!

 

Speaking of sun too. Everyone except Josh had on sunblock and I was constantly re-applying it on myself, more than the kids even and some how I ended up as the only one with a sun burn.

The hotels signature drink. 

We were hoping to set off baby sea turtles while there into the ocean but even though online it says they do that from June to August it really isn't till the end of August that you get to set the turtles off. You can go to one of the many sea turtle farms and check out the hatched turtles. We were saddened but we survived. We did however get to see a tiny crab that was found in the swimming pool our first morning. We also saw dolphins or something splashing out in the ocean but they were to far out for us to figure out what they actually were.  There is a service where you rent small boats and they will take you out to spot whales, they get way to close to the small boats for my liking though.

We had a great weekend, and it would be fun to visit the black beaches again. Z got to have a virgin pina colada delivered to him poolside while he swam on his birthday, Katy as well and they both really enjoyed it. Even though pictured above is a large pineapple pina colada they had there's in fancy plastic cups.  Sorry I have no pictures of that because I left the camera in the hut that morning.

What I'm Reading

Ok, Im giving myself a book nerd moment (and it's going to be a long one folks.), and you really don't have to read this but if you do you should be warned I'm gonna fan girl all over my favorite reads and give you a tiny bit of info about what I'm reading this summer. You should also fully expect to get reviews of books that I read and love too, probably often.  

Sometimes I share what I read sometimes I don't. When I do you should really not expect me to ever share something that isn't in the romance section on amazon, I'll branch off into Dystopian and Paranormal (Angels, and Vampires) every now and then, but if there isn't a good little love story mixed in I don't bother. 

Maybe my love for love stories began when I first read Anne of Green Gables, or maybe my love of disney princesses since I first watched Cinderella.  

Anyways I have a few I'm reading this summer, or at least trying to read with everything that is going on. But if you haven't read them yet you should probably check them out. 

My most favorite book Series to recommend is The Bronze Horseman series written by Paulina Simmons. Josh got me the first three books last year for a Mother's Day and Anniversary gifts. It's taken me a bit to get through the books but I have finally read them all and Im about to Start the fourth book which is technically the prequel to TBH.  

The Bronze Horseman is an epic love story about a Russian soldier (Alexander) and a young Russian girl (Tatiana) the story takes place during WWII in Leningrad. There is so much that happens in this series I can't cover it all, so all I can say about them is that it would be a shame if you didn't read them.

I have all the paperbacks, AND they all are signed by Paulina herself.  Thats right folks, this girl got to meet, greet, and talk to Paulina. Josh drove me to Huntington NY to meet Paulina at a singing in her home town. He and the kids stayed at the hotel and swam while I listened to Paulina talk about her life growing up young in Russia and ultimately what led her parents to flee Russia and move to the states.  She also talked about her books and her writing process for them which was one of the best parts. But I really enjoyed listening to her read part of Bellagrand to us.  She's a delightfully sweet lady and I'm happy Josh said yes when I asked him to take me to meet her.  Anyways the series are in the pictures below:

How beautiful are those covers?  I was in love at first sight with those, I didn't care how long the books were.

Tatiana and Alexanders story starts in The Bronze Horseman, Then continues to Tatiana and Alexander, and Finishes up in The Summer Garden.

This is a collage that I found for book one and it's perfect.

 Book nerd secret #1: The building in the top right corner is the building where Tatiana lives in book one, and it also happens to be the building where Paulina herself lived in while she lived in Russia.  

Even though Alexander and Tatiana's story ends in The Summer Garden there is still more to the series.  They are technically prequels BUT they should be read after T & A's story, because they contain spoilers to Alexanders history.
They are the story of Alexanders parents. These I have yet to read but their on my TBR list for the summer.
 

My top favorites of all time! Puddle Jumping I just read this last weekend too.

The above books are my top favorites (but not including TBH or AOGG). The Silent Wife and Red Lory I would not place in chick-lit, love story, or romance genre. The Red Lory by Dave Newell is more of a southern gothic/mystery thriller book.  It was said that it reads like or is similar to an old Hitchcock film, and I have to agree it does. The Silent wife is also a Mystery Thriller novel where the lead heroine is just down right crazy, so get ready to board the crazy train with that one.

The husbands secret is a new novel that was out sometime this last fall in the states and it was a surprisingly suspenseful read. Slammed and Point of Retreat should be read in that said order and they are a cute boy meets girl reads with the added delight of slam poetry, and The Avett Brothers.

Flat-Out love is another ultimate favorite of mine I have t-shirts, sweatshirts, bumper stickers, e-books, audiobooks, and paperbacks for this series. It's regular price is $3.99 and sometimes it dips to .99 or 1.99. The companion novel Flat-Out Celeste is perfect as well, it was just released and like Ive said on facebook if you ever catch me curtsying you know why, but only if you read these two books.

Time Travelers Wife, the book is WAY better than the movie peeps. In the stillness is kind of a dark, second chance romance novel. The Heroine suffers from depression and cuts, the Hero suffers from PTSD. Its a really sad book, and take note that it might not be for everyone hence the dark material of cutting to cope with life and a soldier who continuously denies his PTSD. But it does have a happy ending.

Last but not least at all is Puddle Jumping. It's a unique take on young love and how someone with special needs can still have a regular life like all of us "normal" people. This is a "Mature YA" but what really caught my attention is the fact that its a beautifully sweet story about a boy who has Asperger's and a girl who can see past that.

So long for now you all! 

Next up is a post of our short trip to the beach, maybe something written in spanish, maybe a video of Katy speaking spanish, and probably a post about some of the foods we've been eating! See you, or blog to you soon!

What I'm reading next. Gotta love kindles I can carry hundreds of books with me to Peru and it doesn't affect the weight of our luggage. 

These Boots Were Made For...

One day we took a break from class but traveled with our teachers to a tiny pueblo outside of Antigua called Pastores. In this town you will find boot maker after boot maker. You can purchase all kinds of things made from leather.  We enjoyed visiting with the shop owners and picking out what we wanted for our shoes. After we took our teachers to lunch at a local Texas BBQ restaurant. Which our teachers loved real Texas BBQ.

Lunch After with our teachers and two of our house mates that are from Korea. 

The Feast of Corpus Christi in Antigua

The Feast of Corpus Christi is a latin rite liturgical solemnity celebrating the tradition and belief in the body and blood of Jesus Christ and his real presence in the Eucharist.....You can read more about it here: The Feast of Corpus Christi WIKI


We got to take a few hours out of our class day and watch one of the many processions of the Feast of Corpus Christi.  Everything around the city was decorated for the event, homes and business had white and yellow fabric sashes hanging on there windows and the streets were decorated with naturally made carpets of pine needles and flowers. 

Before the procession continues there are a tons of very loud firecrackers set off.  (see video below)

Children dressed as angels through out paper confetti in the front of the procession.

Nature made rugs.

The procession that we saw was making rounds to all of the schools in the area.  The school we stopped at the watch was an all girls school.  My spanish teacher sent her girls to the school and she said they average about 1100 - 1200 students a year, the grades they cover are 7th-12th grades.

The girls school

The entry area for the schools, there are some offices, computer labs and such here too.

The PE area and more class rooms.

The school has a pool as well.

After Nancy (my teacher) showed us around the school we made our way back to C.S.A to go back to our own classes.  On the way though we stopped and checked out all the awesome venders in the park that were selling food and such for the festival.  We tried candied nuts, corn tamilitos (basically corn bread), popcorn balls, and granadillas. 

 

Some street venders near the park.

Katy wearing a crown of flower we grabbed from the street before the cleaners came through the pick up the natural rugs.

Eating popcorn balls.

Corn Tamilito (corn bread)

Fruit Venders

Goofing Around

So I was editing some pictures and found this collage in my Picasa folder.  The kids were making goofy faces awhile back (possibly a year) and I took pictures of it.  Enjoy! and Happy Belated Fourth Of July!