This has been a crazy two weeks. I can hardly believe that is was only two weeks ago that we helped take down the temple veils and clean out lockers. Here is a report on our trip during the break:
On Monday we rode to Guatemala City with the Meadows. After dropping them off at the airport we headed out to Antigua. Our first stop was to a tourist office where we picked up maps. The map identified the places of interest on what we referred to as the “yellow brick road”. We had parked the car in a secured lot and we started walking on all of the cobble stone streets. Some of the sites were only visible from the outside, but many had been restored. One Catholic Church was filled with amazing religious artwork from centuries ago. It was well displayed. Our favorite stop on Monday was a monastery, church complex that has a hotel and restaurant built around it. It was fascinating to see the fountain and the remnants of what was once a huge and beautiful complex. We spent a couple of hours there. We have since learned that there were tunnels underneath it that connected most of the church complexes in the 1500-1600’s. We missed out on seeing the tunnels. Our feet and legs ached from all of the walking on the uneven surfaces. We stayed at a simple, clean hotel.
Tuesday morning we visited a museum of tipico clothes. It was fascinating. Spencer bought a hat and I bought a jacket there.
We headed back into Guatemala City in the afternoon. We were in a wrong lane and got off the thorough fare that would have taken us on the route to the temple. We got into the city and we were so-o-o-o lost. I talked to Tuli on the phone and she told us how we could get back. But we couldn’t get turned around. Fortunately, the Holy Ghost was looking out for us and prompted Tuli. She called me back, had us stop at a strip mall and she came to lead us out of the mess. Then, while Spencer got us checked in to the Casa de Huespedes at the temple, she took me to PriceMart so I could buy a new camera. We were able to attend a session that night and really enjoyed it. When Hno. Percy brought our Visa Simples we were thrilled to find that he also had our passports. We felt legal finally. So I went online and made our reservations for the resort and our bus to El Salvador.
Wednesday we headed out to Chiquimula. We found a little hotel “Rio Jordan” that had secured parking, so we stayed there. You can see that in the heat, the owner and a guest just lounged outside in hammocks and a recliner lawn chair.
We drove to one house of a church leader and got a lot of information and phone numbers for the people we wanted to see. We were saddened to learn that our dear friend Tere is now less active—but she was still so happy to see us! So were her two youngest kids.
It was HOT Chiquimula. We were sweating the entire time. We remembered how hot it was once we got there! It made us appreciate Quetzaltenango (Xela).
But we were happy to find that several families we worked with have stayed the course and one family has gone to the temple. Gladis and her children are still active (you may remember her from before, because several of you contributed money so I could help get her kids back into school five years ago. Spencer baptized her daughter Michel. We made a second stop at her house on Sunday because the kids wanted to see us and she had them go to school on Thursday even though we were coming. On Sunday she had prepared a special meal for us and to honor Michel’s 16th birthday. It was so much fun. Her husband still suffers from alcoholism, which hurts the entire family. Gladis teaches in RS and the kids are active (except the oldest son who has married). Her son and his wife live in the same “camp”—you can hardly call it a house. They are poverty stricken, but happy.
Here are pictures of some of the families we visited who have stayed active, and one has their second son out in the mission field. Some people we wanted to see have moved.
We went to CUNORI and made contact with many people in the medical department and former students from our faculty class. They were all so happy to see us. They made us feel loved. In town I connected with one of my students from my church classes and hoped to see two others. Jesus gave me contact info for Rosana, but I didn’t know how to see Juan Jose, but just walking down the street, I ran in to him! It was awesome. We also saw the dentist that goes out whenever the LDS dentists come to town and the doctor that took care of me when I was sick. I’m not including all of the names, since it isn’t meaningful to you our readers!
Friday, we headed to Esquipulas. We visited one household where three families live. One couple has been to the temple with their kids. They shared lots of info about others. Once again we were saddened to learn that some have become less active. I’ll let Spencer tell more about that. But our greatest excitement was to learn that Benedicto and Reyna Martinez—our most favorite family—have been to the temple. We were never able to get all four of them out to church at the same time, but a year after we left he was called as the branch president for three years! The youngest son, Saul, just received his mission call to Monterrey, Mexico. What a great success they have been. Another family, the Perdomos, has been to the temple and are active. Two daughters are planning on serving missions. We loved going to church there. We missed some who have had to move because of economics and/or deaths in the family.
Sunday evening we drove to a town called Tetulutan on the highway. They had a great pool and we loved that—I was able to do my aqua aerobics. Yeah! There is a water park attached to it. But the slides and lazy river aren’t turned until 10 AM and we felt like we had to leave earlier than that to return the car, check in to the hotel and buy our bus tickets to El Salvador. Oh, how I wish we had stayed longer!!
Agustins met us and guided us thru the city to the Holiday Inn and then took the car to their house to wait for the Meadows. We went to the PullmanTur ticket office with our passports and Visa Simples. You cannot begin to imagine my dismay when they said that we could not buy tickets or board the bus. My best understanding is that with just our passport we normally could have, but now that it indicated we were residents of Guatemala, we needed a regular visa—not a simple. Guatemala citizens can cross with just their citizenship number. We were stuck. Hno. Francisco Ramirez from the Area Office came down and talked to them, but they adamantly refused. He took our passports to the other two express bus lines with the same results! So for the third time I needed to cancel our reservations at Royal Decameron Resort. We skyped with President Alvarado. He was also very disappointed. His secretary called to cancel our reservation—but they said that we had to call ourselves. It was a challenge because cell phones are prepaid and international calls use up the “saldo” faster. Spencer spent about 1½ hours on the phone while I was on the internet trying to cancel. He finally reached the resort and they said because we booked it thru Expedia we had to cancel it thru them. Because we had missed the window for cancellations without penalties, I couldn’t do it online. So we called the USA and used more saldo waiting and listening to voice prompts and music before I was finally able to reach customer service. She said she would cancel it and call the resort to see if they would waive the fee of one night’s stay since it was circumstances beyond our control. She wanted me to hold on, but I explained that I couldn’t. She didn’t call back like I was expecting her to. I tried to keep my tears of frustration and disappointment under control. We went to the pool and exercised again. We stayed to the last minute of check out then rode to the bus terminal with Hno. Percy and took the bus back to Xela. I still felt disappointed.
Once we had shopped and restocked our refrigerator, I called Expedia. They were awesome. They had been unable to reach Decameron on Monday, that’s why no one called me back. He called and talked to them, but couldn’t get a firm commitment on waiving the $142 fee. But Expedia decided they would assume the risk while working it out with the resort and they are returning our entire registration fee. They will be my friends for life!
Thursday we rode with the Mortenson’s to Chichicastenango to the Mercado. It is one of the biggest in Guatemala. I was so happy, because I really wanted to get some jackets there. It was busy, crazy, crowded and everything I expected. We couldn’t park in our first place because there were too many pigs in the parking lot—I guess on their way to be slaughtered. I bought a post card that shows just what it looked like.
Then we drove to Panajachel. We bought a couple of little things there—and did a lot more walking. It was fun. I don’t have those pictures yet, so I’ll include them later. It was a full, long day. We were tired when we got home.
I’ll let Spencer tell you about his hike today. I’ve been playing “catch-up” on cooking and getting ready for next week. We go back to work on Monday afternoon when we re-hang the veils. Then it is back to the normal routine.
We love you. We miss you so much and wish we could give all of our grandkids hugs and kisses!
We headed back into Guatemala City in the afternoon. We were in a wrong lane and got off the thorough fare that would have taken us on the route to the temple. We got into the city and we were so-o-o-o lost. I talked to Tuli on the phone and she told us how we could get back. But we couldn’t get turned around. Fortunately, the Holy Ghost was looking out for us and prompted Tuli. She called me back, had us stop at a strip mall and she came to lead us out of the mess. Then, while Spencer got us checked in to the Casa de Huespedes at the temple, she took me to PriceMart so I could buy a new camera. We were able to attend a session that night and really enjoyed it. When Hno. Percy brought our Visa Simples we were thrilled to find that he also had our passports. We felt legal finally. So I went online and made our reservations for the resort and our bus to El Salvador.
Wednesday we headed out to Chiquimula. We found a little hotel “Rio Jordan” that had secured parking, so we stayed there. You can see that in the heat, the owner and a guest just lounged outside in hammocks and a recliner lawn chair.
We drove to one house of a church leader and got a lot of information and phone numbers for the people we wanted to see. We were saddened to learn that our dear friend Tere is now less active—but she was still so happy to see us! So were her two youngest kids. 
It was HOT Chiquimula. We were sweating the entire time. We remembered how hot it was once we got there! It made us appreciate Quetzaltenango (Xela).
But we were happy to find that several families we worked with have stayed the course and one family has gone to the temple. Gladis and her children are still active (you may remember her from before, because several of you contributed money so I could help get her kids back into school five years ago. Spencer baptized her daughter Michel. We made a second stop at her house on Sunday because the kids wanted to see us and she had them go to school on Thursday even though we were coming. On Sunday she had prepared a special meal for us and to honor Michel’s 16th birthday. It was so much fun. Her husband still suffers from alcoholism, which hurts the entire family. Gladis teaches in RS and the kids are active (except the oldest son who has married). Her son and his wife live in the same “camp”—you can hardly call it a house. They are poverty stricken, but happy.
Here are pictures of some of the families we visited who have stayed active, and one has their second son out in the mission field. Some people we wanted to see have moved.
We went to CUNORI and made contact with many people in the medical department and former students from our faculty class. They were all so happy to see us. They made us feel loved. In town I connected with one of my students from my church classes and hoped to see two others. Jesus gave me contact info for Rosana, but I didn’t know how to see Juan Jose, but just walking down the street, I ran in to him! It was awesome. We also saw the dentist that goes out whenever the LDS dentists come to town and the doctor that took care of me when I was sick. I’m not including all of the names, since it isn’t meaningful to you our readers!
Friday, we headed to Esquipulas. We visited one household where three families live. One couple has been to the temple with their kids. They shared lots of info about others. Once again we were saddened to learn that some have become less active. I’ll let Spencer tell more about that. But our greatest excitement was to learn that Benedicto and Reyna Martinez—our most favorite family—have been to the temple. We were never able to get all four of them out to church at the same time, but a year after we left he was called as the branch president for three years! The youngest son, Saul, just received his mission call to Monterrey, Mexico. What a great success they have been. Another family, the Perdomos, has been to the temple and are active. Two daughters are planning on serving missions. We loved going to church there. We missed some who have had to move because of economics and/or deaths in the family.
Sunday evening we drove to a town called Tetulutan on the highway. They had a great pool and we loved that—I was able to do my aqua aerobics. Yeah! There is a water park attached to it. But the slides and lazy river aren’t turned until 10 AM and we felt like we had to leave earlier than that to return the car, check in to the hotel and buy our bus tickets to El Salvador. Oh, how I wish we had stayed longer!!
Agustins met us and guided us thru the city to the Holiday Inn and then took the car to their house to wait for the Meadows. We went to the PullmanTur ticket office with our passports and Visa Simples. You cannot begin to imagine my dismay when they said that we could not buy tickets or board the bus. My best understanding is that with just our passport we normally could have, but now that it indicated we were residents of Guatemala, we needed a regular visa—not a simple. Guatemala citizens can cross with just their citizenship number. We were stuck. Hno. Francisco Ramirez from the Area Office came down and talked to them, but they adamantly refused. He took our passports to the other two express bus lines with the same results! So for the third time I needed to cancel our reservations at Royal Decameron Resort. We skyped with President Alvarado. He was also very disappointed. His secretary called to cancel our reservation—but they said that we had to call ourselves. It was a challenge because cell phones are prepaid and international calls use up the “saldo” faster. Spencer spent about 1½ hours on the phone while I was on the internet trying to cancel. He finally reached the resort and they said because we booked it thru Expedia we had to cancel it thru them. Because we had missed the window for cancellations without penalties, I couldn’t do it online. So we called the USA and used more saldo waiting and listening to voice prompts and music before I was finally able to reach customer service. She said she would cancel it and call the resort to see if they would waive the fee of one night’s stay since it was circumstances beyond our control. She wanted me to hold on, but I explained that I couldn’t. She didn’t call back like I was expecting her to. I tried to keep my tears of frustration and disappointment under control. We went to the pool and exercised again. We stayed to the last minute of check out then rode to the bus terminal with Hno. Percy and took the bus back to Xela. I still felt disappointed.
Once we had shopped and restocked our refrigerator, I called Expedia. They were awesome. They had been unable to reach Decameron on Monday, that’s why no one called me back. He called and talked to them, but couldn’t get a firm commitment on waiving the $142 fee. But Expedia decided they would assume the risk while working it out with the resort and they are returning our entire registration fee. They will be my friends for life!
Thursday we rode with the Mortenson’s to Chichicastenango to the Mercado. It is one of the biggest in Guatemala. I was so happy, because I really wanted to get some jackets there. It was busy, crazy, crowded and everything I expected. We couldn’t park in our first place because there were too many pigs in the parking lot—I guess on their way to be slaughtered. I bought a post card that shows just what it looked like.
Then we drove to Panajachel. We bought a couple of little things there—and did a lot more walking. It was fun. I don’t have those pictures yet, so I’ll include them later. It was a full, long day. We were tired when we got home.
I’ll let Spencer tell you about his hike today. I’ve been playing “catch-up” on cooking and getting ready for next week. We go back to work on Monday afternoon when we re-hang the veils. Then it is back to the normal routine.
We love you. We miss you so much and wish we could give all of our grandkids hugs and kisses!
1 comment:
I am so glad you got to tour a bit and see some sights. Thanks for sharing!!
Post a Comment