Hola amigos!
Sorry I’m so late in posting last weeks update, the past few days have been crazy!
The weekend before last we kicked off our time away from our host families by making a 3 hour journey to Panajachel where we took a boat across Lago de Atitlan to a hostel to spend the weekend. It was a peaceful weekend with lots of free time to enjoy the beautiful scenery, go swimming, adventure in the town up the hill, or go scuba diving! After an awesome weekend with only a few people getting sunburnt (luckily enough, not myself), we made our way back across the lake to Porche de Salomon where we spent the week working in the mountains to assist in the construction of a casa for a local family. Porche de Salomón is an organization that assists in development and humanitarian aid of people in and surrounding the area of Panajachel. It was a long four days of helping them with the beginning stage of the construction of this house. Through hard labour; lugging cement blocks up a steep hill and digging a foundation for the house we were able to help make the workers jobs easier in the following weeks. Although we tired ourselves out with our work, we still managed to have some fun with each other, the family and the other workers involved!
This past week and the current week have been eventful due to the majority of our group getting sick because of something we consumed along our adventure away from San Juan. After a few trips to the hospital with various students, we’re all on the road to recovery. The doctors were good to us and with some antibiotics we should all be back to normal in no time.
Although illness crept its way into our group, our time in Panajachel is one that won’t be forgotten. One aspect was that the view of the volcanoes next to the lake and the colourful town was breathtaking! Another was there was so much to learn from the people around us, either the volunteers of Porche de Salomon or people we met in the mercado or from each other. I think there was a lot of growth in the appreciation of hard physical work and learning how to accomplish the tasks set out for us.
Currently we are back in San Juan del Obispo with our host families for two more weeks of spanish classes. And this afternoon we will be hiking Volcán de Pacaya along with enjoying marshmallows by a fire once we reach the top!
That’s all for today,
Hasta luego!
Kiera & Noah