Since being here, it hasn’t been all work and no play. Each night after working, we took a 30 minute walk to the ocean. It’s funny, how walking to Parma never seems like an option, but here we have become accustomed to walking every where. Well, I guess that’s not a fair comparison because if Parma had a beach and ocean, I might muster up the energy to walk there too. We think it is quite funny for the locals to watch us walk by night after night. If we didn’t stick out already, Andrew’s neon yellow floating mat is a dead give away. One night, we even got rides to and from the ocean from the locals. I think they felt bad watching us walk there and back every night. We usually made the walk more enjoyable by celebrating a hard day’s work with an ice cream bar or ice cold soda or licuado (similar to a milkshake).
Guatemalan Sunsets
Friday, Feb 16th, was Andrew’s 25th birthday so we took the day off of work and went into town. We posted some blogs and ate some ice cream. Then, Felix took us to a nice restaurant on the beach where I had fried red snapper with eyes, head, bones, and all. Yummy! I have sure come a long way in my fish-eating habits. We did some quick shopping, stopped at Ivan’s for a birthday licuado, and headed to the ocean. We did some swimming at the ocean and came back for Andrew’s birthday surprise.
Andrew’s bday surprise – he’s the one behind the blindfold 😉
The girls got dressed up because we just wanted to feel “girly” after wearing the same painting and cleaning clothes for a week straight and being covered in paint, sweat, and dirt. We went to Monterrico Beach to go to a place where Felix and Ivan like to hang out. We left later than expected, so when we got there it was dark and the restaurant was closed. We walked out to the beach, looked at the stars, and hung out in the hammocks for awhile before realizing we were all starving. Most of the restaurants had shut down, but we finally found one that was open. Although it didn’t go exactly as planned, it was fun and I think Andrew had a good birthday.
Ivan, Felix, and gang on the boat to Monterrico
Our other day off was on Sunday. It started off with an iguana hunt. Yup, we went iguana hunting. One of the guard’s sons took us. We hiked in the back of the property, crossed over the river on some logs, and got stuck with burr-like things. The locals kept pointing up in the tree pointing to iguanas, but we never could see them. They had their slingshots and tried to catch a few of them, but with no success. One boy did catch a small one, but it was almost already dead. It was a fun experience, nonetheless. Check out the video of our iguana hunt on Andrew’s page – http://andrewmaas.theworldrace.org/
That afternoon, we returned to town and Andrew, Morgan, Candice, and I rented four wheelers to ride on the beach. It was a blast. I never actually drove a four-wheeler before, but with a little direction from Candice, I was ready to go. It was a gorgeous day and a great memory!
the 4-wheeling crew
(DISCLAIMER: All these fun things we do on our days
off, our paid for by our
own personal spending money.)
This morning, we took Chicken busses back to Antigua. We are here for the night then will head to Lake Panajachel tomorrow. We feel God calling us there and plan to listen to Him to direct us to the ministy He wants us to do. Please be in prayer with us for this time!
