Dia de los Muertos.

Some beautiful pictures from around the world, in honor of the Day of the Dead, care of Reuters.

(Santiago de Sacatepequez, Guatemala)

Goodbye Guate – for now.

Both Mari and Tshilo arrived back from Guatemala last night after staying on for about five days longer than Brook and me. It seems that whatever bad juju we picked up before we left stayed with them as their flight out of Guatemala City was delayed five hours for lack of a working air bag for the co-pilot. So they flew a new one down from Houston before they could take off. This added to the fact that they had taken a taxi to the airport at 3am for their flight. Of course they missed their connecting flight and took the next flight out, making their trip from door to door 17.5 hours…and to top it off Mari had also come down with amoebic dysentery. So now that we are all back I am putting up a whole barrage of photos from the trip. This will be my last bit about Guatemala for awhile, as it is high time I get back to updating you about my uppity chickens that my brother so kindly took care of while we were away.

Rooftops of Guatemala City.

Brook & Tshilo – we always knew where Tshilo was when he wore this shirt.

Whichever volcano it is that is near Antigua…I want to say it is Volcan Agua, but it could just be because it was about to rain…

Brook on a boat.

Tshilo on a different boat.

The boats of Monterico – minus Brook or Tshilo.

Mari in Nebaj.

My mother would tell me to stop making faces…I never did listen all that well.

Ixil weavings.

Brook, Mari, and an unexpected wave.

Both Mari and I thought this looked like we were a bit strung out, but then someone told us it was a good picture…mostly I think it is weird and that is why it is here.

Sunset at Monterico.

San Lucas Toliman.

One of the most enjoyable and relaxing parts of the entire trip (for me) was going to the quaint little town of San Lucas Toliman on Lago Atitlan. We stayed at my friend, Caren’s house which is mostly just some rooms on the top of the roof of another house with some fabulous views of the surrounding volcanoes and even the lake. It was the four of us, as well as Caren and her partner Fili. We made wonderful meals, went dancing, did way too much shopping for the beauteous textiles that are so prolific around Atitlan, and generally relaxed a little bit. These are some of my favorite pictures…

This is Caren’s roof house.

A rose that was just opening as the sun was rising.

Volcan San Pedro.

Volcan Toliman.

Another brilliant flower.

Some kind of dried up seed head.

Our Guatemalan Index.

Here are some numbers from our few weeks in Guatemala:

Size of our group: 4
Number of us who got parasites: 3
Out of whack digestive systems before the amoebas took hold: 2
Ear drums ruptured due to (massive) ear infection: 1
Painfully swollen left cheeks after diving: 1
Mushrooms in the gastrointestinal tract: 2
Toothaches: 1
Percentage of people who got colds: 50
Percentage of us who were stressed out at some point(s): 100
Minimum number of different visits to doctors, clinics, hospitals, and laboratories: 15

Ahh, foreigners traveling abroad! If only we had been able to find the relief that this public bathroom so brilliantly advertised…

Honduran chickens.

This is what chickens look like in Honduras…I know you don’t care though – but you should.

(Mari took this picture for me while she was on the island of Utilla diving for eight days.)

Monterico morning interlude.

One morning in Monterico, we got up at 5am and took a slow boat ride through the mangroves near the shore. The water was perfectly smooth, the garsa birds were gliding overhead, and we even saw some chickens at dawn…