Independence Day

For Guatemala´s 191st Independence Day we went to see the parade at the Capitol.  There were so many people at one point that we were seriously packed in like sardines.  While we were struggling to get past the bottleneck of traffic, I was thinking in my mind ``Don´t fall down or you will get lost under a bunch of feet and die...`` It was like nothing I´ve ever experienced.  We were on our tip-toes, we were so squashed and at one point the crowd started pushing and we almost all fell down.  There was a lot of shouting to get the people to keep moving.  So it was funny more than scary.  I´m just glad that we got past that and eventually found a good spot to watch the parade.  All the schools from Guatemala that had marching bands were represented in the parade.  It was funny because the family members of the students marched behind them, so there would be lulls in the parade were there were just a bunch of normal people walking by.  It was pretty cool to see all of the costumes and dancers.  I heard two songs that they play on our Independence Day- one of them was ``Johny Comes Marching Home`` and the other I can´t remember the name of.  I didn´t see any fireworks.

 Sunday we visited a place called Amatitlán- there is a lake there and we went with a group of friends after church, just for fun.  There was a looot of candy for sale, as you can see in the photo.  They sold little trinkets and stuff.  I bought some bracelets, but I didn´t really bring money so I couldn´t buy any more than that.  Though I got a new purse-it has the Quetzal bird and ``Guatemala`` on it.  Edgar (Monica´s brother) had me pick one out and he bought it for my birthday.

Loooots of candy...

The Lake at Amatitlán

L-R- Edgar, Dennis, Alan, Bryan, Chema (below), Diego, Rossanita, Kitty, Me, Chochy and Jose

  There was also a lot of food for sale, mostly fried fish and such, since we were right on the lake.  It had just rained, so there was a lot of puddles to avoid in the potholes.  After we walked to look at the lake, we went to look at the horses that were in the park.  They were for rent and everyone wanted to ride, but I didn´t really want to at first.  I had never been on a actual horse before, only on a pony a couple of times so I wasn´t too sure.  The workers of the horses were all right there, calling out for people to come ride their horse and they were kind of aggressive.  Before I knew it, this lady was like pushing me over to a horse and saying something to me in Spanish- I don´t even know what it was.  And there I found myself, on top of a horse, having no idea what to do.  The guy who helped me up told me to give the horse a gentle kick if I wanted it to go faster- I was thinking ``Yeah right.``  I thought that he was going to lead the horse around or something, because I thought he could tell by my face that I had never done this before, but no, the horse just went of by itself and I was left trusting that it wouldn´t freak out or anything. Thankfully, my horse was really tranquil and when I tried to make it go faster, wouldn´t budge.  Dennis and Bryan got their horses to go faster- it was really funny to see them go bumping around.  Afterwards, Edgar pointed out a wooden hand painted sign that was nailed high up in a tree- something about riding at your own risk.  Thankfully, no mishaps! I count it as a successful experience- my first horse ride ever.

Diego, Dennis and Bryan