Well time is now starting to fly by quickly. Really wish I could post pics right now, but there will be tons when i get back. We´ve already stayed with our host families. The family I was with had a son who just got back from the Colorado Denver North Mission. That´s the same one I served in! At least his English was better than my Spanish.
I admit i miss the U.S. I could totally live here as well... as a hippie selling my poetry imprinted on leather or something. We bumped into some travelers from Germany and Guatemala selling handmade journals out of banna tree paper and old bike tires, flowers, wood, and other cool granola-type materials.
My favorite part of this trip is also the part I hate the most.. we move around too much. Yet I LOVE the fact that we get to see so many places cuz each one is different! We only stay in a hotel for a day. We spend soooo much time on the bus.. 7 hours today. Then we have to find out how to do homework. So we never know what to expect and our activities so far have been shopping with street vendors on the cobblestone streets, getting sick with nausea and some stupid head-cold that the whole bus is getting, being uber-tourists at museums and ruins (ruins are better), and trying to speak spanish to people who only know spanish as a second language (down here they speak Mayan and then Spanish). Not quite a Spring Summit experience, but definately a cultural one.
Speaking of culture, two days ago we saw orphans who survived a mudslide last year. I gave one a ride on my shoulders. He was pretty cool. Another kid showed us the scars on his back and legs from when he was pulled from the mud by the rescue team. His parents didn´t make it out in time. We gave them some toys and some money. The mudslide was caused by rapid erosion which was caused by deforestation. The rainforest is not being destroyed by logging companies. Rather, the natives were "sent away" and given the rainforest to live in. With nowhere to go they burned and cut down the trees and turned it into agriculture land (crops for corn, etc.). Pretty much half the rainforest down here is gone. It´s a tricky situation. You can visibly see where rainforest used to be. There´s people living there now. It would be like us telling the natives on the reservations they have to leave because our favorite trees are growing on the reservations. Where do they go? What about the dying species in the Rainforest and the rising CO2 levels?
Oh yeah we hiked a volcano and saw flowing lava! we had to come down early because it started flowing a lot. i got video!
