Let the Good Times Roll

We were blessed with back to back visitors last month. Scott and Nancy
(Shane's parents) came for two weeks followed by a two week visit from
Mindy (Kallie's sister) and Charlie. We loved spending time with them
since we have only seen one family member in 10 months, which is way
too long.

With the Hoffner's we used a few vacation days to see Tikal, the
famous Mayan ruins which are so extensive we only saw half of it in 5
hours. In the U.S. I would expect everything to be roped off so the
structures could be "properly preserved" but instead we could walk
through them, climb them (at our own risk and peril), and touch them. I wasn't expecting them to be anywhere near as cool as they are. We also camped and explored some caves where Mayan's had once carried out religious ceremonies and lived, this seemed like a good idea until I saw hundreds of little bats hung upside down. Our puppy, Scout, didn't wake them, though, and our first spelunking experience was a good one.

With our next guests we headed east, ditched our car at the base of a river and canoed with Mindy and Charlie to Livingston. A ship of Nigerian slaves wrecked off Guatemala's coast a long time ago and still to this day there isn't a single road going into this area. This people group is called Garifunas and many of them even speak English along with Spanish and Garifuna. We ate delicious seafood, hiked and kayaked.


Many Guatemalans are busy with birthday parties or weddings of family members (extended family out to 4th or 5th cousins) almost every weekend it seems, and so making friends is a slower process. Therefore, we loved spending our evenings playing cards, cooking together and just being able to spend time with family.