Saturday, May 02, 2009

A Video Update

Oh my what an incredible adventure this has been. The past few days have been full of so many stories and great experiences for our entire family. We left Antigua on Wednesday afternoon to go to Santiago Atitlan. We drove (well Venicio did the driving) through many small villages, a busy town (Chimaltenango) and up into the mountains. We traveled on the main highway but still, the road was incredibly narrow. The entire trip was on a paved road but there were about 10-12 bridges and turns that only one car could pass at a time. Venecio drove us to Panajechel where we boarded a boat to ride across Lake Atitlan to Santiago - a 25 minute ride.

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Here, I had to leave a few bags behind to help Lily and Max negotiate the sand covered rocks.


It was a rough ride with 2-3 foot waves.




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I LOVE being married to this woman!!

I find myself staring at her many times on this vacation and wondering things like -

"She is so good to me."
" She is gorgeous."
"What a great Mom."
"Why do these crazy vacations make us so happy?"

We arrived at La Posada de Santiago and with much help, lugged all of our bags from the dock up to La Hacienda - about 100 feet up the mountain. We only had enough time to swim in the pool for a few minutes when it started to rain. Rain like it does not rain back home.


Then the power went out. But they were still able to serve dinner. In fact, everything on the menu was available, except drinks that required the blender. If you listen closely to the audio, you can hear our dinner entertainment. Gabbie and Will treating us and the few other guests to a pop bottle version of "Hot Cross Buns".






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The next morning was a cool and misty, but we could see the volcano across the bay very well. It rained again that afternoon, although not as heavy. Then we left on Friday morning to visit with Dora and Ruben in the city. After another 3 hour drive we arrived and they were very gracious hosts. Teh served a great meal and even tought Carrie how to make Tamales. They were delicious.

3 comments:

dave.heather said...

It looks like you had a wonderful time at Atitlan and visiting with Lily's foster parents. I remember them from the first we saw your darling family at the Marriot. They must have loved to see Lily again. Chad ~ how sweet you are to verbalize your adoration of your wife...we eat that stuff up! Crazy vacations do bring out the best in us, don't they? Good for you guys. Can't wait to hear more about your trip!

Hugs, Heather

Carrie ~ I'm so glad you got the Guatemalan tamale secrets! Now we can make our Christmas tamales...

Ray Veen said...

Lovely.

Awesome rain, too.

BT Laurie said...

I'm enjoying the updates. I would love to make tamales with you sometime and learn myself.
What a wonderful family memory making vacation!
You are in my prayers are the many children
needing forever families!