We made it safely back to guacamole, I mean Guatemala! We got in Friday night, and we were very happy to leave the snow and ice of Tennessee behind us.
Saturday was a very big day. We got up early and ate breakfast and then boarded our bus about 8 AM to travel to Quetzeltenango, a city about three hours from here. We saw this smoking volcano on our way there!
Quetzaltenango's indigenous, or native, name is Xela (pronounced shella), and it is the second largest city in Guatemala with a population of about a quarter of a million people. Right before we got into the city, we stopped at a glass factory. They take recycled glass from all sorts of broken bottles and turn it into beautiful glassware. Everything here is made by hand.
The workers will go through all this broken glass by hand and sort it into different colors.
Doc is standing beside one of the ovens they use to melt the glass so they can make it into beautiful recycled glassware.
Our next stop was the oldest church in Guatemala which was founded by the Spaniards in the mid 1500s. It was beautiful!
Across the street from the church was the house of a weaver/winemaker. We got to visit with him, taste his wine, and watch him weave.
This is the fruit they used when they fermented the wine. The wine was delicious but very strong! At the very top of the house was the weaver's loom. Here's a picture of Brit and Karlee climbing the VERY steep stairs to the top of the house.
He was weaving a traditional Guatemalan woman's skirt. It takes him about eight hours to weave one skirt.
There are about 130 different communities in Guatemala, and each one has its own distinct weaving pattern. Women wear the woven fabric in their community pattern as a skirt during the day, and then they use it as a blanket at night.
Next we had lunch and went to an underground market near the city square. We met this little girl who waved and said "hola". She became a little camera shy when I tried to take a video of her!
We also visited the city cemetery and learned about Verushka. She was a beautiful gypsy who lived in Guatemala many years ago and fell in love with a wealthy Spaniard. They planned to get married, but his parents were not happy about it so they took him far away. The legend is that she died of a broken heart. People come and place fresh flowers on her grave every day.
Then we went to a family owned chocolate factory. The family lives in a small house where they turn cacao beans into delicious chocolate. We dipped fruit into a chocolate fountain, learned the history of the cacao been, and had wonderful chocolate milk.
On our way home, we stopped at a beautiful resort to have dinner. All in all, it was a wonderful, educational, and delicious day.
Hope you are staying warm! We miss you and love you very much!
Sweetie and Doc
Welcome back, Sounds like a great day.
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