Our last day in La Reforma the village women put a little market together in the schoolroom to show us the things they made and sold to earn extra money for their families. How cute are the little dolls and the hand stitched cloths? I bought a bright purple table mat that now sits on my night stand.
A lot of the little girls had braided hair but they had never seen a french braid or a fishtail braid so I had a fun time teaching them how to do those braids.
Later that night we hiked up the hill to their church so that they could send us off with some prayers of safety. Since we there long after sundown the church was really dark, except for the few candles they lit and all the flashes from our cameras - hence the grainy pictures...
^ the xylophone church band
The elders of the village were the ones praying for us - the different colored candles representing the different things in their prayers.
After the church service we walked back down to the main field and had a huge celebratory sendoff that I can only relate to our fourth of July celebrations - complete with fireworks and everything! But this was not your typical firework show, oh no, this was the symbolic burning of the bull and burning of the devil. Two poor village men put on these wooden contraptions, complete with fireworks tied all over them, which were then lit and as the fireworks went off the men danced around in a circle for our entertainment. Dangerous..
The men in the village insisted Conner get a picture with the devil because they were the only bearded men in the village :)
The next morning we got up bright and early to leave and the whole village was there to send us off.
After a few hours on the bus we go to the beautiful Semuc Champey {the seven pools} and it was seriously the best after a very long and bumpy ride and a week without a good shower. This place is breathtaking. The seven pools are connected together, cascading down the mountain and there is a hike you can take to look over the whole thing. The best part is when you can swim in the water though, which is just as warm and inviting as it looks in the pictures.
^ the stairs you climb as you hike a majority of the mountain to get to the pools and the overlook point
Isn't that amazing?
Not pictured: some of the crazy men {such as my husband} climbing to the top of a large tree and jumping about 30 feet into one of the pools below.
Also not pictured: Our trip into Antigua the last day we were in Guatemala. My phone was dead so we got a few pics on Conner's phone but he's at work all day so I don't have any of those. Antigua has a great market where we all bought our souvenirs, some awesome shops and restaurants, and great old architecture. It's kind of the ritzy vacation town of Guatemala.
A great place for a destination wedding I say, if anyone is looking for something like that :)
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