Jay's Birthday

After a great week of studying Spanish everyday and making several afternoon trips to the market (to learn how to haggle) and to neighboring towns (to learn the culture, etc), Carey and I celebrated my 34th Birthday on Saturday. Note: the Spanish word for old is viejo.

We fixed some kick-butt omelettes (notice a trend with eggs?), and then headed out for our big adventure at one of the lake towns called San Pedro La Laguna.

Carey with the avocado-filled omelettes (avocados here are dirt cheap ~ hallelujah!)

Sodas are 1/2 price if you have them put the soda in a baggie instead of taking the bottle : )

The dock in Pana where we departed for San Pedro (we got done like suckers trying to negotiate the price of the boat ride).

A photo taken while we were waiting for a "rescue" boat to get us because ours ran out of gas. Carey says I look too "shiny" and touristy. I happen to think I blend in with the locals like a highly-skilled ninja.

Enjoying some down-time at a very cool local place in San Pedro called 'Zoola' (means "a place to relax" in Hebrew). San Pedro seems to attract the hippie refugee crowd.
While exploring some trails near the beach, we ran into a large group of children flying kites (look closely and you can see them in the pic above). It was so amazing and reminded me of a scene from 'The Kite Runner.' Kites are inexpensive and are popular past time for kids here.

We spent most of the day exploring the town. San Pedro's economy is highly dependent upon exporting coffee beans and entire families (even very young children) take part in collecting and drying the beans during the months of November and December once school ends (school just ended this week for children across the country - "summer" vacation lasts until Jan. 1st, but the majority of the children and teens here must spend that time working for their parents.

Carey and I went out to a local restaurant in Pana to end our night. It was our first time to venture out at night and we felt perfectly safe (wow, that sounded very American, didn't it?)

We'll be in Spanish school again all this week, with the exception of Tuesday, when we're going to visit the preschool and one of the clinics in Camanchaj where we'll be working come November 1st.

Thanks for checking in on us. I recognize that blogs can be nothing more than a celebration of our narcissism, so I'll try to give you as much info. on the culture, people, country, etc. as possible to make it worth your while.

Peace,

Jay (and Carey)