We have left Poptun and moved to our second homestays in San Andres. The scenery has changed from dirt roads and rural housing, to near 90 degree paved streets and a lovely veiw of lake Peten Itza. Here is the follow up of our last remaining days in Poptun:
Our ditch digging was put to a hault after a query between a few local residences, whose homes were being flooded due to our efforts, and the school´s directora, who continually thought the project was a good idea and that we where doing a mediocre job of it. We switched our game plan to teaching english at the school and found it a much more helpful and involving activity. During the recesses all of the children found themselves drawn to play with us, give us flowers, and literally climb all over us. There was a day when about a third of our group was stricken with what we think was food poisoning, but it was only a day or two of extra trips to the bathroom and skipping meals. For the majority of our stay, we had grown fond of and used to taking day trips into the town of Poptun to get ice cream and then hiking back to the Finca to swim in the Lagoon before dinner. The morning of our departure from Poptun we where seen off by a small 6 year boy named Wilbur who we had grown fond of and who had particularly grown fond of Katie.
San Andres was met a few days ago by 11 smiles as we looked upon a gorgeuos lake and a beautiful little town on a hill. Here is where we started our 1 on 1 spanish lessons at Echo Escuela, which has given mixed results in furthering our knowledge of the launguage. We are still getting to know our new homestay families and have been finding many activities to do such as watching night basketball, cooking at Sophies homestay house, having movie night at Jessa´s, and visiting a animal reserve across the lake. Megan´s Homestay dad, Cush, transported us in his boat to the animal reserve and to the town of Flores while serenadeing us with his harmonica, lovely singing voice, and air trumpet. At the animal reserve we fed monkeys and were challenged to fights by the endangered birds. At Flores we saw other Gringos for the first time as well as got in some time to purchase peanut butter and other necesities. Swimming in the lake has been a nice way to kill the heat that has been taking its toll on us ever since we first arrived in town. We have another week and a half to look forward to in San Andres, with lots of exciting events to look forward to, such as: Visiting the Myan ruins of Tikal, going for nature hikes, boat rides, music on the beach, more spanish lessons, and what ever else there is to be done while traveling through Guatemala.
There will be more blogs written while in our stay in San Andres and this is Dan saying Adios.
