2015 Guatemala Trip Day Four - Visiting Juan

Juan's family is a lot of fun to visit with, in part because Juan shows a lot of interest and curiosity about me, and in part because his niece, Damaris, is my biggest fan.  Ever.  Followed closely by Javiar, his nephew.  Both kids had wanted to stay home from school to see, but because school is out at noon (!) they were home just in time anyway.  I wish I'd thought ahead to invite them to join us for the horses and bikes - they would have loved it!

We met Juan and his mom, Ana, at the community center as usual, where they had the whole upstairs decorated.  Little Javiar is a Super Mario fan, hence the drawing.

We were then off to Finca La Loma again!  It is one of the few activities to do in the area and a great deal as it was about $10 for both of us to ride horses and bikes and about $2.50 to park.  Fortunately, having been on a horse last year, I managed a very smooth mount this time that didn't involve me laying on the horse and nearly falling off the other side like in 2013!  Similarly to how I wasn't as nervous in Guatemala this time, I found riding the horse to be much more comfortable as well.

After our horse ride, we rode around on bikes for awhile and chatted about his schooling and work, most of which I understood in Spanish!

We then went to the mall for shopping and lunch.  The store the staff take you to is very reasonable and for two jeans and two dress shirts, it cost about $50.  As we were leaving, we could see Fuego with a larger cloud above it than normal.  I noticed that after I'd been there about three days I had a sore throat that only went away when I was inside for awhile.  You could still see small amounts of ash on cars as well.

We then went back to the house and while I consider this family to be a little more "well off" than my other families, I noticed that they had rusted sheet metal and had patched areas (see behind me) with cardboard - like HALF THE WALL.  I did like their cute Christmas tree though.  Juan had remembered my favorite color is blue and picked out a scarf for me, then Ana gave me a blue and gold shawl from her.  They also remembered I wrote my favorite drink was Rosa de Jamaica and tamales on my last visit, so they had a little of both for me!  The families really are so amazingly generous and appreciative.  

Juan brought out his certificate of graduation from the vocational program and high school, which was really neat.  They also showed me all sorts of family photos going back to when Juan and his siblings were babies.  I also quickly learned that since the father is Juan that Juan is actually called by his middle name, Alberto, normally.  Oops!  Juan (the father) then asked if they could do a prayer blessing for me.  I always accept because I know it is an important part of the culture.

We then went outside where it was a receiving line of hugs from every member of the family before the drive back to Guatemala City!