Lake Atitlan, Friends, and the bus ride from hell.....o!

Friday Night we went out to dinner with the whole crew from the academy. It was some of the better food we have had. They ordered a ton as you can see!

Saturday was the adventure of a lifetime. Me, Ben, Mike (other intern) and Lily (my long lost sister) set off on bus to Lake Atitlan (the rumored ¨Waters of Mormon´). It was the most sickening bus ride of my life. Some of you know that it only takes me looking at a bus to get motion sickness. This was taken to a whole new level.

Me about ready to barf. (Can´t figure out how to turn pic-sorry)

 As we were treaking up a hill on our first bus, it started to fill with nasty smoke. Pretty sure the thing was going to explode. We rushed off and as soon as we got off, another bus drove by and we hopped on that one. Three buses later we were in Panajachel  (the small town on the shore of the Lake). It was beautiful and hot! Many moons ago, the lake was a volcano. Eventually, it sunk and filled with water. It is thousands of feet deep, one of the deepest in Central America. It is sourounded by three huge volcanoes on each side. Isn´t this picture beautiful? You can kinda see one of the volcanoes in the background (it was a bit misty that day)

This is an old church in Panajchel.

Me and Lily. The floweres there were amazing!

The bus ride home was a nightmare. Imagine with me for a second that you are on a bus driving down a mountainside, similar to the Road to Hana or even our Cottonwood Canyons. Now imagine that this bus is going 70 MPH, doesn´t touch the brakes, even on corners with a drop off of hundreds, maybe thousands of feet. This was my real life nightmare. With each corner, I had white knuckles on the seat in front of me and couldn´t help but let out a yip. Two hours of this!!!! Ugh! I looked over a Lily sitting on the seat next to me-she was touching up her makeup and fixing her hair, like no biggy. Once she noticed I was scared, she leaned over to me and said, ¨you don´t need to worry, Annie. These are professional drivers. They have been driving this same road since they were twelve.¨ For some reason, that did not help. The miracle of our safe return, obviously happened. If Ben can talk me into taking the bus again, we want to stay for a weekend-it is so nice there!

Sunday, we had lunch at Lily´s house. Lily teaches English at the academy with us. She speaks better English than I do. Her whole family speaks English as well so it was nice to have people to talk to. The meal was a veggie lovers dream. I loved it. In this picture, Lily is teaching me how to make tortillas. I excel in other talents more. Its harder than it looks.

 This is Lily´s 10-year-old son, Sabastian.(sorry-I couldn´t get the picture to turn). He is my best buddy. He is teaching me to crochet and helping me with my spanish. He is so cute!!

Us with Lily and her family on their roof. They have a very nice house for Guatemala. Such a great family!

If I can figure out how to get my pictures to turn, I will post more pics later.