Talks, Trucks, and Tortillas

Greetings from Hotamala! (Don’t worry; I really know it’s Guatemala..)

Today was a chill, relaxing day. I woke up to a sunny day and a beautiful view of Lake Atitlan. I am still amazed at how beautiful it is here. We enjoyed a delicious fresh fruit for breakfast. The peaches were my favorite, even though they look so different (here they are a dark, purplish color).

While we waited on two ladies to give us a tortilla-making lesson, I sunned out back with the rest of the group. It was great just basking there, chatting, and attempting to read my boring book for international affairs, A Nation of Enemies. It’s great that even though I’m on a service trip, I can still get some sun on spring break J Formal is next weekend..

While making our tortillas, we came up with a brilliant idea: we are going to start a new tortilla business venture in Athens and sell them on the street! Everyone will help make the corn tortillas except for Jessie; she will tend to the financial aspects of our business, since she dropped 4 or 5 tortillas on the ground!

We spent our afternoon in Pana; the ride down was quite exhilarating and almost like a roller coaster ride: we rode in the back of pickup truck that zoomed down the mountain towards the lake. The view was amazing! Pana was quite different from Sololá, where we have been for the past few days. It’s much more touristy and liberal but still fun, of course. There were more gringos than us, quite a few hippies actually. I bought a few souvenirs at the market, which I will refrain from describing considering who might be reading this blog..

We had an interesting discussion at a bar about sustainability and development in Guatemala. I enjoyed that I could contribute to the conversation after taking some international affairs classes. It still amazes me how happy and positive people here seem even after the war that only ended 15 years ago.

Now I am freshly showered (the warm water worked finally!) and we are about to play Catch Phrase. I can’t wait for what the rest of the trip brings!