January 18^th, 2007

Andy and I made it safely to Guatemala! Our flight was delayed out of Houston but once we took off it was a quick trip with an interesting landing with an applause ending :/ When we were on the ground we retrieved our baggage, and were glad to see our driver holding a sign with our names on it. Antonio drove us from Guatemala City to Antigua. It was about a 45 min drive in a gold Toyota (just like ours at home Pops). Andy was the first to be dropped off. I was dropped off 30 ft down the street. We both said hello to our host moms and then went directly to bed.

I awoke at 7:00 for breakfast, and reintroduced myself to my host mom, Elsa. I am now Raquel. I also live with two other students. Betsy, a native Canadian, and a German lady named Nadya. Both of whom speak many languages including English. I’m the only one that doesn’t speak Spanish, but hopefully that will change soon! Andy’s or Andres as we call him now, is living with a family of five: host mom and dad, Oscar and Aida, and their kids Oscar, Aidas, and Diana. They also have a toy poodle that is slowly warming up to Andy.

We covered a lot of ground today… Mostly everything in Antigua is accessible by foot. After checking in at the school, exchanging money, getting on the internet, and eating lunch, we took a hike to Cerra del Cruz which is a cross on a hill that gave us a great view of the city and some time to get to know Betsy and Nadya who invited us in the first place. So far our trip is off to a great start! Tomorrow we are taking the biblioteca bus to a village with Probigua. This weekend we plan to climb the active volcano, Picaya… if it is not to hot! Spanish school starts on Monday then we will have some studying to do. Till next time, Raquel y Andres