Tuesday SOL 11/25/14 - Guatemala 2014 #3 - The Sites of the Country

As we flew towards Guatemala City, I looked out the window and saw clouds and more clouds and then something dark and big jutting above the clouds.  The mountains loomed large ahead and beside us.  Their peaks pushing upward thru the clouds and then the sky opened and below us was lots and lots of buildings and roads - closely pushed together in the bowl between the mountains.  Guatemala City is a big city with lots of people and traffic.  Fortunately, we didn't spend much time there and headed northwest toward Antigua, where we spent our first night.  Familiar territory.  It was where stayed last year.

The next morning we headed to Xela.  It was a five hour drive and the scenery was beautiful and yet, so much poverty all around.   Buildings in need of repair or still being constructed. People everywhere cramped into buses, pickup trucks or walking.

Mountains and clouds, lakes and trees.

Green, lush, fertile.  Cows tied to the side of the road.  Crops planted on every little scrap of land on the hillside and in the valleys.

 Buzzards watching us as we worked on the house.

The mountain overlooking the work site.  The puff of cloud above it, is from an active volcano that this behind this mountain.

 The work site was surrounded by mountains and houses.

Some flowers growing out of the rocks.

 Central plaza in downtown Xela

Beautiful flowers.  Clean.  People going here and there.  Children playing without a care.

One afternoon we traveled further up in the mountains to an altitude of about 9000 feet to a spa with three different areas, each having a different temperature.  One extremely hot that only a few ventured into it.

As we drove up, the sights were unbelievable.  The farmers planted from the top of the hill to the bottom on very steep slopes.  The ground was very fertile from the volcanic ash.  Along the way we saw trucks loaded with vegetables and stands along the road.  The carrots were the size of a baby's arm, the heads of cabbage were enormous.  There were beets, lettuce, beans and strawberries.  




 We were so high up that we were in the clouds.

The entrance to a cemetery in the mountains.




These pictures only give a small glimpse of what we saw and don't show all of the beauty.  Guatemala is a truly amazing country and I feel so blessed to have been able to experience this again this year.  Even though there is beauty, there is so much poverty and yet the people feel that they are blessed to have what little they have.  They smile, they sing, they dance and they wonder how they will make through the night.  I feel humbled in experiencing their faith and gratitude.  I embrace this experience and come home looking at all that we have available to us.  I'm thankful to God that He has blessed me so greatly and I pray that for the short time we were in Guatemala that we made a difference in their lives. I pray that by sharing my experience with others, that they too will look at their lives differently and will help those in need here in the States.  I hope each of you enjoyed my journey.  What can you do share your love and God's love to others?