Pupusas!!!

Its still raining like crazy here. But in other news, Megan and I made pupusas for dinner tonight. They are delicious, but just a tad-bit greasy. Check here for a good recipe.

Glass Blowing Factory

This weekend we went to a cool glass factory just outside of Quetzaltenango. Everything in the factory is made of recycled glass. It was really cool because they allowed us to go out onto the factory floor and interact with the workers. 

The first thing you see is a huge pile of broken glass. 

Then they put the glass into a very hot oven until it melts. Once it is melted, they put a hollow metal rod into the molten glass and pull it out with a glob of glass "jelly" on the end.

Then they blow the glass through the metal tube until it makes a bubble. The workers let us do this part.

Then they form the glass into a product by rolling the bubble on various surfaces and using wooden tools that have been soaked in water. They also use scissors to cut off excess melted glass.

After 24 hours in a furnace, the product is ready for market. They have a cool store attached to the factory where you can buy all sorts of things.

So thats why its raining

Its been raining for 2 days straight. Fortunately the center of the storm is supposed to stay to the north of us.

This is what the main highway usually looks like after a heavy storm.

Tigers

Tomorrow is Independence Day. Down in the park they have some tigers in a cage. You can touch them if you want...

La Muela

James and I hiked one of the inactive volcanoes near Xela with our Spanish School. The peak we went to is called La Muela.

My Spanish teacher, Mario, was our guide. 

There were A LOT of volcanic rocks.

We went around some rocks.....

And down some rocks....

And up some rocks..... 

But we finally made it to the very top.

The view was very beautiful. You could see a few cities and pueblos from the peak.

There was also a volcano behind us with basalt rock as far as you could see.

On the way down we stopped to take a few pictures of the view and a small natural sauna in a hut. Mario told us that many of the indigenous people bathe there because they don't have their own showers. 

The sauna was too hot for me to try but I took pictures of James and Mario. 

Panajachel

This past weekend Megan and I went to a little town called Panajachel on the shore of Lake Atitlan. We had to take 4 buses and then walk 2 km to get there. We had to walk because there was a landslide on the highway which caused a big traffic jam. The bus driver decided that he had taken us far enough and kindly asked us to get off his bus. It was a little frustrating at first, but the walk was beautiful.

The town is very beautiful with a nice lakefront walkway with tons of shops and restaurants. We ate lunch, did some shopping and then headed to a nearby Natural Reserve.

The natural reserve was amazing. It cost $5 a person to get in. We went on a short hike through the jungle.

There were swinging bridges...

Waterfalls...

And wild spider monkeys!!!

We're definitely going back sometime. They also had zip lines through the jungle, but we decided to do that next time.

View Panajachel in a larger map