Earth Lodge Adventure

Last weekend was my second full weekend back in Guatemala, which meant it was time to get out of the city for a night.  Amy, Kenra, Chris, and I therefore spent Saturday night at a place called Earth Lodge just outside of Antigua.   This weekend was kind of a milestone for me in Guatemala, too, because it was the first outing that I have planned and organized on my own.  Coming from Puerto Rico, where I was more or less the self-proclaimed group tour guide and planned most of our weekend trips, I had missed that comfort level and feeling like I could plan something the way I used to be able to.  This was just a small trip, but it felt good to be back in planning mode.

We left a little after noon on Saturday, after a productive morning that for me included a 5 mile run and test driving a car, and before we got to Antigua, we were hungry.  We stopped at a shopping plaza in San Lucas hoping for some frozen yogurt.  We were not disappointed…and in the process of finding the sweet treat, we stumbled upon these adult-sized toy horses.  So of course we had to take them for a spin, and that became what is now lovingly remembered as The Great Horse Race of Lai Lai. 
I hope we never let go of our inner children.



As we neared Antigua, Chris realized we had never been to see the giant cross which overlooks the city, and since it was on our way that day, we made the slightest of detours and were rewarded with a great vantage point of the city of Antigua.  We took some photos, and then we were on our way.



Finally, we reached the end of our road and a dusty parking lot where we paid Q15 (about 2 dollars) and parked Chris’s truck for the night.  From there, we grabbed our bags and made our way down the dirt road towards the lodge.  (The road is under construction and therefore cars are not allowed to drive all the way to the lodge).

The view on the walk was worth it, and we all remarked we were glad to be walking so we could take the time to take it in.  We live in a beautiful country.







When we got to the Earth Lodge, it was more of the same.  We enjoyed breathtaking views of the volcanoes Agua, Fuego, and Acatenango framing the city of Antigua down below us as we relaxed in comfortable Adirondack chairs and munched on chips and guacamole before dinner.



At 7pm, as the sun set in a glorious flash of pink and orange, we dined on a scrumptious vegetarian meal (meat could be added if desired, but there was plenty of food without that).  After a bit of conversation with other guests, we retired to our dorm room (Where we occupied 4 of the 7 taken beds) and had a “slumber party.”  We had a great time lounging in our comfy clothes and telling ghost stories and sharing our most embarrassing moments.  At one point Amy exclaimed, “A slumber party?!  I haven’t had one of those since I was like 25!” which had us all in hysterics.
I hope we never let go of our inner children. 




The next morning dawned just as beautiful as the day before, and we were graced with some rumblings and smoke puffing out of Volcan Fuego in the distance.  It was certainly a cool experience to hear/feel the rumble and see the corresponding smoke cloud from a safe distance.

Volcan Agua to the left, Volcan Fuego (covered by a cloud)
and Volcan Acetenango to the right


We didn’t stay too late in the day on Sunday because we wanted to beat traffic back into the city…and make it in time to watch the Broncos/Patriots game.

Weekend=Success. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cambodia: Reflections and Highlights

Image
I was really excited to visit Cambodia for a few days and hit up Angkor Wat and the other temples in the area.  Cambodia felt like my kind of adventure--and I can’t even really say why.  But I was excited.  I was excited for our hotel there--a full-out boutique hotel (not a hostel), with AC, a swimming pool, breakfast included, and airport pick-up for free--which cost us a scant $20 per night.  And we’d read about a lot of great tours we could take with local guides.  Flying in and flying out, this leg of the trip would be a breeze, and hopefully everything would be as cheap as the hotel.   The Mango Rain Boutique Hotel Our flight to Cambodia was unlike any other I’ve ever been on.  There were only about 20 of us on the flight--which would not have been strange, except it was, because we were on a full-size plane that could have seated 200.  The 20 of us were mostly grouped together towards the back of the plane.  Second impressive thing was that as soon as the plane got to al
Read more

DI Globals 2016: A Tale of Two Teams

Image
For the past 3 years, I have acted as a team manager for Destination Imagination at my school in Guatemala, and each year, my team has earned a trip to Global Finals in Knoxville, Tennessee.  This school year, I was blessed to manage the exact same team I had last year—the Aguaguates, the most wonderful group of kids any DI team manager could wish for.  This group, all 7 th graders this year, has everything needed to not only excel at DI, but also make a team manager’s job almost unnecessary.  They have amazing team chemistry, and they understand the importance of teamwork.  They’re crazy creative and hilarious and amazing actors when they get on stage.  They push themselves to improve their performances.  They know what they need to get done for DI, and they create their own practice schedules.  In short, they are a DI dream team, not to mention really, really great people .  This year though, I took one look at the school calendar and decided that if the team qualified for Glob
Read more

Yearly Update: The Journey to 30

Image
Over a year has passed since my last “update.”  And the year I was 29, despite the fact that I lived close to home rather than abroad, was anything but boring, so there’s no real reason for the lack of blog posts.   The year I was 29, I survived what may have been my most difficult year of teaching yet.  Many overseas teachers say, “Teaching in the States is so much different than teaching abroad.  You’ll see.  That’s why I went overseas; I’d never go back to teaching in the States.  It’s just...too much.”  Well, they’re not wrong.  I admit, I thought that with five years teaching experience under my belt, my first year in the US, my first year at the high school level, would go rather smoothly.  While in a sense it did (no concerns about the quality of my work from administration or complaints from parents), it was mentally and emotionally very taxing.  Even this year, my 2nd back in the States, I’m still adjusting to and coming to terms with the fact that as a US teacher, I wil
Read more