Not sure how to rotate the photo. 
Preparing to destroy the pinata. 
My host mom battling the pinata, another volunteer controlling it.
My host dad doing his best to hit the pinata.
Not sure how to rotate this one, but this is Lago Atitlan from Solola. 
Lago Atitlan from the road between Solola and Panajachel.
View from John's host dad's fields.
View of Santiago from fields. 
View of campo.
A view of Santa Maria Cauque from our hike.
Part of the group that visited the ruins. 
Ruins from the entrance. 
I haven't been as up to date on checking emails or posting blogs lately, it has been awhile since I have been to the PC Center and don't really enjoy paying for internet. With that said, it has been an eventful couple of weeks and I've got the pictures to prove it.
Two weeks ago, a group of 16 of us went to the Mayan ruins of Iximche, which was the Kaqchikel capital many moons ago, they are one of the indigenous populations in Guatemala. My family is Kaqchikel and still speaks the language. Now it is an archaeological park where gringos go to check it out. The entire group met in Tecpan, the closest city of any size, and hired a small Nissan pickup to take us out there. 16 people in the back of a pickup was quite a sight. The ruins were very interesting and the whole site was pretty amazing.
Last weekend we (myself and the three other volunteers in my community) went on a hike with another volunteer's host dad to a spring above our city which feeds the river in our community. We had to go through the forest and it was so humid that even though it was about 70 degrees, you could still see your breath. Needless to say, I sweat profusely and by the end of the day, I was drenched. We also were able to go into a cave where the spring originates and that was a pretty cool experience.
This last week we had field based training, which was in Solola, a city close to Lago Atitlan. Before heading to Solola, we stopped at an organic farm outside of San Martin which was very interesting. They are completely self sustained and produce their own fruit, vegetables, milk, cheese, eggs and meat. The lunch there was well worth the 20 quetzales (about $3 US) we paid. We also visited a collaboration between the Taiwanese government and the Guatemalan government, where they had medicinal plants and compost projects. We spoke with a Taiwanese government employee who is working here. He was a pretty interesting guy and had a lot to share. In Solola, we visited some volunteers, helped vaccinate a couple hundred chickens and gave charlas on nutrition to women's groups. On Friday, we were able to go down to the lake and had dinner in Panajachel, the tourist town right on the lake. We were also able to locate a bar that was carrying the debate. That was interesting, especially because we had a drunken expat in the bar who gave us a running commentary on the debate.
Yesterday was my host sister's birthday and even though it was raining like crazy, we celebrated with two pinatas. I was able to both swing at and control the pinata. It was a good time for everyone and the mad rush for the candy was quite a sight. She had a really good time and seemed to enjoy her gran fiesta.
That is all for now.
