Once our office based training ended Friday, we had a day off so we headed out to San Ignacio (aka Cayo) for the night. It was so nice to have a night away and just be able to relax, take a real shower and have a quiet meal. We ended up sharing our table with a family from Austin, TX and had a nice conversation. Cayo is a nice town that is just about ten miles from Guatemala. We can't leave the country as trainees, so we stayed in town and walked up the hill to the Cahal Pech ruins after a nice breakfast and leisurely morning. The walk was not too bad, it was pretty hot, but we took it easy and it was worth it to see the beautiful view of the landscape from the top. The ruins were fun to explore, especially since we were the only ones there! Ant's camera decided to quit on us right as we entered into the ruins, but luckily the museum had an outlet, so we just spent some time in there as it charged. {Once we get settled, we hope to be able to post pictures!} After the ruins, we took the bus back to Belmopan to spend some time in town. We'd heard about this great cafe called PerkUp that we wanted to visit for their high speed internet and smoothies! After a long walk - we definitely were sent in the wrong direction when we asked for directions - we made it. We didn't have our laptop, so we missed out on the internet, but the Mango smoothie and Lime Italian soda were worth the trip.
Our last night in Armenia was relatively calm - except for the lovely downpour right as Ginnie was finishing a bucket bath! It doesn't really matter since the bucket water is rain water (and the rain pouring down may have helped to get all the shampoo out for once!) but the clothes and towel got wet so they were not much help after the shower! It was bound to happen one day. Our "sister" Julissa loves her new Tom and Jerry movie, so she asked us to watch it with her again (we watched it on Wednesday too) and then we had dinner of stewed chicken, vegetables and, of course, tortillas! We also had this very sweet coconut dessert. Our breakfast to send us off to our new homes was cake! It was really good cake, we have had cake for breakfast too often this week, but it is tasty.
Our trip into Belize City was nice. We were driven in by Anthony from the Peace Corps and he pointed out a lot of sites and shared information on the area. This is Ginnie's first day in the city, so she was taking it all in. It's been a great day and we couldn't be more excited about living with Miss Udeen. She owns a restaurant that is attached to the house and serves lunches. It's really nice and we are looking forward to tasting everything. She was asked to speak to us in Kriol since that is the language we will learn over the next 6 weeks. We have a small foundation and can understand it well (when people speak slowly!) but we are not so good at talking yet. Miss Udeen lived in the states for many years, so she said she has to practice her Kriol, too! Her friend Miss Joy was working with us on it this morning, and I know she will be good at helping us to pick it up. We'll be working with the pikni (children) every Saturday and they will definitely immerse us right in, so we should be talking Kriol in no time!
Dinner seems to be near ready, so we're off for now!
This picture is from one of our last days in Armenia when we filled Mr. Pop's van with 30 trainees (plus Mr. Pop and the conductor). Being a yellow van, there was quite a fantastic singing of Yellow Submarine. By the way, the van is a 12 seater.
Cahel Pech Ruins in San Ignacio:
1 comment:
Hi, Mr. Tarzia! Julia and I miss you a lot! And so does the whole newspaper staff here! What is it like in Belize? Write back!
P.S.---The class letter package will probably be sent out around early October.
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