Lake Chikobal and July 4th

Last night, the other students and I barbecued for July 4th because we could not forget our National pride in Guatemala. Really, we just wanted some traditional food for the night and a reason to celebrate. We barbecued hotdogs, Alex baked apple pies and we made smores. Of course, no July 4th is complete without it´s Guatemalan influence and so we drank Horchata as well. In a rather funny moment, Carolyn and I took pictures eating the smores although she looks like a lizard.

The next day, we checked out another Volcano and Lake although I lost couple cats since I don´think they are morning people. However, to Carolyn´s defense, she actually was sick. I set a 5:30 am start time and Billy, Jess and Melanie still made it out with me. Lake Chikobal is located in the crater of a volcano. It´s obviously inactive and a great place to just chill. We met up with a medicine man who guided us up the volcano while explaining the plant life. The medicine man gave us all a kernel of corn and we each made a wish and threw it into the Lake. According to him, the Mayan history is that man originally came from corn, then from monkeys and then to humans. By throwing a kernel of corn into the Lake, we reestablished our roots.

At the lake, he performed a short Mayan song and dance and blessed our watches in the water. At one point, he hit us all with a bunch of leaves in order to increase our energy within our bodies since we had just hiked a ton. The leaves actually hurt me when he whipped them all across my body. Later, we asked him to take photos of us at the Lake and he spent several minutes getting just the right angle to include a pair of forgotten shoes in the picture. At the end of the hike, we maneuvered through the corn field just following our guide until we eventually made it out. Tonight, we are all just chilling at home. The hike wiped us out.