A quick recap since Atitlan:
guat’s up!
We were on the lake for 3 days and, as I wrote about briefly in my “comedic” blog post with Alan a couple weeks ago, the Mayan Ken ceramics workshop had been my favorite excursion to date. While it’s still up there on my list, we have done SO many amazing things since then.
To start…..I got salmonella! That was a bummer (not amazing). Catherine (our wonderful amazing TA) and Mily (the sweetest amazing on-site coordinator at Casa Herrera) took Hayley (another sickie) and I to the doctor together one morning, and aside from getting blood tests, trying not to throw up, and talking about our stool, we had a pretty ok time! I got my prescription and started feeling better so fast! By the next day I was well enough to travel with the group to Guatemala City. I was so glad I was able to go to the National Museum after learning so much about the San Bartolo Murals and talking about them with our very own Astrid, David Stuart, and Heather Hurst. We were so lucky that our program coincided with the opening of this exhibition and the accompanying reception at the Casa.
Leaving Antigua was bittersweet: we all quickly became very attached to our homestay families and had become comfortable and familiar with the city. I’ve been missing it since we left and continue to now that I’m back home in Austin! On our last day, Kawok performed a Maya ceremony with us to send us off with well wishes and safe travels. It was the perfect way to leave such a beautiful place and to learn about our personalized nawales from an actual day keeper.
After a couple days of buses and plane rides, we made it to The Jungle. Lots of bugs, very sweaty, but my favorite part of the trip. I got to wear Scilla’s cool red bandana (thanks Scilla!) so I wouldn’t get bot flies in my hair! We spent the morning at Tikal exploring the grounds and climbing Temple IV, the tallest of the temples at Tikal. But after lunch was actually my favorite part: a smaller group of us went back out with Astrid and Alex so we got more time to have conversations about where we were, what types of buildings we were standing in/on, and how the Maya would’ve interacted in the exact places we were standing in. And to top it all off, we climbed to the top of Mundo Perdido to see the almost sunset (although we’re lucky we got to see anything at all after the guard told us we weren’t allowed onto the platform after our strenuous hike up). Even though this 4-sided ceremonial complex looked relatively small from the top of Temple IV, I felt like I could see everything from the top. Totally worth the steep climb.
From there we went to Belize. I could talk forever about everything we did but I won’t. I’ll just say that I had a great time on all the boat rides! And… I got sick again, but enjoyed every minute of this trip regardless. I have made lasting friendships, and can’t wait for the day that I can return to even one of the fascinating places I was able to travel to in this past month that felt like a life time.
byelize!
xoxo KB