Tuesday, August 31, 2010

San Cristobal

San Cristobal was BEauTiful!
It wasn't too hot and it got nice and cool at night.
The streets were paved with bricks and the buildings were nice.


We started the day being immersed into the culture.


We watched this woman weave
And this woman showed us how she made tortillas by hand


They were delicious
Then we drove further into the town and walked around the streets



The people here were Maya
Then we had some free time, so a couple of us grabbed a taxi and went up to San Juan Chamula. This was the craziest of all the churches we visited. It was the only one where we could not bring our cameras into. (Some tourists have been put in jail for taking pictures inside)

Inside this church there were no pews. Instead they lay pine needles all over the floor and people will go in and bring their form of sacrifices to offer up. These sacrifices were very different than what you might be thinking though.
When we walked in we saw people kneeling on the ground, they would light candles and put them all around themselves, and then they would pull out sacrifices such as eggs, coca-cola, or even a dead chicken. They would begin to chant something in Mayan very loudly and give their offering. The reason they would bring coca-cola, or other soda bottles, is because they believe that burping is good, because it expels evil spirits from your body and sends them to heaven. When we walked in we saw one lady who had brought a dead chicken and when she took it out of her purse she snapped its neck and that was how she sent that sacrifice up.
This was a very interesting experience and it was really cool to see it all in person.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Crossing the Border

After we went to Agua Azul we got back into the bus and headed towards Guatemala.
This was my first time ever experiencing the whole "border crossing" thing. It was a little wild, but we all made it.


Adios Mexico
Hola Guatemala!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

St. George

After our little trip to California we headed to St. George for a visit...
Some of our exciting moments included...

Hiking through Zions National Park







Playing at Fiesta Fun Zone


And going to the Tuacahn theater to see Cats the musical





St. George was bundles of fun!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

California

(Just taking a quick break from blogging about my meso trip to catch up on more recent events)

Well when Ryan and I got done with our summer semester we decided to drive to California for a little summer vacation before we both had to go home and start working. My family had flown out there as well so it was fun to get together and visit with everyone. We had a lot of fun while we were there.

I finally got to see my brothers and my little cousin after a long time of being apart

We did a lot of swimming at grandma and grandpa's



We went bowling






We played some softball and Frisbee in the park





And we had a little family party




We had a lot of fun in California and it was nice to have a little break from school and play a little bit.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Agua Azul

After many many hot days climbing pyramids and walking the hot streets of Mexico we finally got to put on our swimsuits and take a stop at Agua Azul on our way to San Cristobal.
This place was like a postcard! It was so beautiful and it blew all of our minds looking at it! We went to the first waterfalls, which were nice. We walked around and took a few pictures.





Beautiful, ya I know! Then we got back on the bus and drove up the mountain a little more to here...



We got to go swimming and jump off the falls and relax. It was so nice! Definitely one of our highlights!