Notice the missing bridge!!



us and our guide Dera



The Cemetery of Santiago





Mashi-man





Santiago





Alright my friends We had our first venture out of Antigua on our owns this weekend. And well it was an adventure to say the least. We went to a HUGE lake about 2 hours north west of Antigua called lago attitlan. To start off with we left left the house at 7:30 in the morning because many many places advertised that they leave 8:00 in the morning. sounds pretty easy huh, well, it wasn't! lol we soon found out that none of the travel places where open in the mornings, and around 8:30 when we found our first location that was, they told us that we had to have our tickets the night before because there is only one bus in the morning and all the tickets sell out pretty quick. So, long story short we headed out for a town on the lake called panajanchel around 1pm. The ride there was crazy there where land slides on the main roads because of all the rain, so we took a long way around. the unfortunate part about that was 2 parts of the road had been completely washed away because of the rain also.The CRAZY driver ran off the road and went across the river with all of us in the van..lol later that night we reached the town and lucked in to a good hotel to stay in. In that there are normally a lot of tourists, but because of all the rain and time of year there where very few. so the vendors where like a starving pack of wolves. if one person would come over and talk to us then 2 or 3 others might join the attack. honestly it was pretty overwhelming, but at the same time was very sad too. we went out to dinner that night and even sitting in the restaurant people came in to try and sell us stuff. it was very heartbreaking and of course we bought a little from here. the next day we took a boat to the other side of the lake to a town called Santiago. on the way off the boat we met a guy named Dara who we just started talking to and he offered to show us around. We got a full tour of the city including the grand church, The center of town, the cemetery, a view of the whole city and the sad part of the tour, the local "deity" mashi-man. The best way i could describe it/him was equal to idols of other gods in the bible. they come to the mashi-man and bring offerings of money,cigarettes and alcohol. they light different color candles to represent what they want from the mashi-man. and they look to him for blessing in many different areas of their life. It was a open window into the life and beliefs of many of the people here and their need for a real living God in their life's. While we were there we also had some great times to pass out candy to many many children and also to some of the adults. It was such a gift for them and was a gift to us to see their smiling faces. Thank you all for your donations of candy. it has been a great way for us to love on the families and children here! Well to wrap up this blog, our trip home was fairly smooth except for the many landslides, including one that had the road shut down for over an hour and a half. but God brought us through safe and sound through the whole thing! it was an adventure, we learned a lot and learned even more about the real lives of people outside of Antigua. God Bless , Miguel





1 of many landslides on the way home