February 21st through February 25th:
Wednesday morning went with John B. and Badger to the temple and did baptisms for about 40
members of our family. It was nice to be
together in the temple. We then ate
breakfast and packed the car one more time.
We drove to San Antonio Polopo, a small town on Lake Atitlan. John B. wanted to buy Jill a piece of the
local fired pottery. This pottery is
something we admire too, so we also bought some. After finding just the right piece, we drove
back to Panajachel and had lunch.
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| These are the pieces we bought. |
After
lunch, we did more shopping and then drove to Hotel Atitlan, mom’s favorite
place to stay on the lake. After checking
in, we headed for the pool and hot tub.
It is such a beautiful setting.
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| Badger and John B enjoying the hot tub. |
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| View from our balcony. |
Thursday, John and I got up early and went for a walk and watched the sun
rise on the lake. We then did a walk
through the gardens. Hotel Atitlan has
huge beautiful gardens.
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| Just before sunrise. |
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| We watched the sun rise on the lake. |
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| Our early morning walk. |
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| One of the rose gardens at the hotel. |
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| The Volcano San Pedro in the back ground. |
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| John took good care of his mom. |
We had the
breakfast buffet and then headed for Solola.
We visited the market there and then headed to Antigua.
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| Market in Solola. |
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| More of the Solola market. |
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| The vegetables are huge. |
On the way, we
stopped at a small roadside workshop that makes wooden furniture. We had stopped a year ago. Mom found a table and I found two chairs and
for $45.00 each, we decided we had to have them. They just barely fit in the back of the car
with the seats down.
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| We don't know where we are going to use these, but we love them. |
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| One of the look-outs on the road above lake Atitlan. The many volcanoes are always impressive. |
We then drove to
San Felipe, which is right by Antigua.
John wanted something special to surprise Jill and he found a jade
necklace and matching earrings. Again,
we were successful in our shopping. We
had lunch in Antigua and did a little more shopping and then drove home. Mom helped Badger work on a paper for his
homework. John B. and I watched the
Olympics. Friday we went and climbed
Pacaya, one of the three active volcanoes in Guatemala. John hiked and Badger, mom and I rode
horses.
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| We shared the trail with a lot of hikers. |
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| From Pacaya, we could see three other volcanoes. Agua is directly across the valley, with Fuego and Acatenango to the left in the clouds. |
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| The view at the top was impressive. |
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| There were a lot of people at the top. |
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| We are on one of the lava flows from the 2014 eruptions. The active part of the volcano is in the background. |
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| Roasting marshmallows over a steam vent. |
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| The lava flow was very sharp. Each piece would cut the skin with ease. |
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| Pancho Pacaya was our guide. |
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The horses would not smile.
Click below to see us horseback riding.
Horseback Riding |
We then went to see Black
Panther. We got home about 5:30 pm had
dinner and John and Badger got packed to go home.
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| We enjoyed the movie. |
Saturday we drove to the airport at 5:00 am
and said goodbye to our two visitors. We
needed to spend this time with John B. and to feel his acceptance of the cancer
diagnosis and his confidence in moving forward with his life. He is very hopeful that he will live many years
and we share his faith. It was wonderful
to be with Badger and to see how he has grown in the last two years.
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| It was too early in the morning for Badger to smile. |
I came home and got showered and dressed and
went over to the temple. I had a group
of primary children from the La Hermosa ward that I had promised to meet and
talk to about the temple. Primary kids
are the best. It was a lot of fun to be
with them.
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| The primary. |
We then took some of the
missionaries shopping. We decided not to
drive to Zacapa and stay overnight, but to get up early and drive on Sunday
morning. Sunday we left about 6:30 am
and thought we would get there with plenty of time. We got stopped in construction again and
started to panic. I called the mission
president and asked him to tell Elder Cordon that we might be a little late. We both said silent prayers and after 30
minutes, they opened the road and we made really good time. We arrived at the
conference with time to spare. We knew
our prayers had been answered. We enjoyed
the meeting and felt good about our talks.
Elder Cordon, one of the counselors in the area presidency, gave us a
nice compliment, saying that we were doing a good job and many more people were
coming to the temple. I don’t believe we
can take any credit for this, but it is nice to know that he feels we are doing
a good job.
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| L to R President Christensen, mission president, and President Salazar, stake president. |
On the way home, we had a
flat tire. It took me more time to find
the spare than it took to change the tire.
We then got stopped one more time in the construction.
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| Changing the flat tire. |
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| Stopped for construction. |
We stopped and got the tire repaired-- it had
a screw in it. They have tire repair
shops--“pinchazos”—right next to the road.
He took off the spare, repaired the tire and put it back on in about 15
minutes—all for about $2.50! I gave him
a tip.
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| Tire repair. |
We headed home, arriving at 4:30 pm. Chris cooked dinner and I started working on
the blog. We were tired and Chris asked teasingly,
“Where do you want to drive tomorrow?”
We put a lot of miles on the car this last week and I don’t want to be
behind the wheel of the car for awhile.
It was a great week and we so enjoyed the visit of John B. and Badger. It was good to feel John B.’s optimism and
faith that things will be ok with his cancer.
We were worried about how he was doing, but felt relief and gratitude
that he is in a good place. Badger is a
good kid and we love him so much. We
feel so blessed and every week brings new experiences and blessings.
