Monday, March 26, 2012

March 25: Our weekend excursion to Monterrico

After we left San Miguel Duenas, it was off to Monterrico Pacific Beach (probably the most beautiful beach in the world)! The sand was black and the waves were humongous! We were only allowed to go into the ocean up to our knees or else we could be swept away! The food out there wasn't quite as good as Antigua, but it was still delicious!
The first night was a short one. After fooling around in the pool for a while we went to bed... and promptly woke up at 5am in the morning for our Mangrove boat tour. It was a different experience to say the least. We thought we would see more wildlife, but apparently the native Guatemalans tend to kill lots of animals because they compete for food. Basically we saw a stork, another stork, some more storks, a flying stork, a standing stork (etc) and mudskippers! It was interesting to see all of the different events happening around us: fishermen swimming, small ferry boats carrying cars, motor boats and storks! After our tour we returned to the beach for some more fun in the waves. Everyone was super tired after that and most of us had naps.

There were three CRAZY cats at the other hotel as well as two friendly Rotweilers. The cats were pretty much mini panthers because they could scale a palm tree in no time! It was pretty funny to play with them!
Today we drove back from the beach to Antigua. We finished up our last minute shopping and watched the procession (an Easter tradition) for a while. There were so many incense in the air that we were all gasping for pure oxygen by the time they left. It is a bit of a morbid tradition, but it is part of their culture and  we're glad that we got the chance to see.

Hannah (Sahali Secondary)
DWC Participant
Guatemala, March 2012

No comments: