Guatemala

I know this is very late, but better late then never :)

We were able to visit the Guatemala City Zoo one morning. Victor was busy so he had one of his assistants take us. He was wonderful, he spoke perfect English and was very helpful. The Zoo was really very beautiful. It was very green and shady throughout the whole park. I was so excited for Kolby to see all the animals...... he could have cared less. It was so funny he was far more interested in all the school kids walking through the park then the animals. But Dewey and I had a great time, it was so interesting seeing animals we had never seen before. Kolby made it about half way through when he fell asleep. The tree behind him in this picture is Guatemala's National Tree.

The day before we left Guatemala we were able to go to Antigua for the day. Victor picked us up from the hotel to take us on our tour. A little about Antigua......

"Spain divided the New World into three sections. The section now known as Central America was controlled by Antigua. Located in the Panchoy valley, the city was founded in 1541, after the destruction of Ciudad Vieja, by an enormous mudslide from the Agua Volcano.
Antigua was one of the first cities in the New World to use the Spanish grid design in the layout of the streets. Today, Antigua retains its original charm and still has cobble stones streets and Spanish Colonial architecture.
As the capital of Guatemala, Antigua was destroyed by the earthquake of Santa Marta in 1773. At that point, the government moved the capital to Guatemala City, where it is today. "

I LOVE Antigua, and hope to go back and visit again. It is an incredibly beautiful town nestled in a valley surrounded by volcano's. There is so much history there. The streets are still cobble stone. All of the homes and business come right up to the streets. They are all painted different bright colors. They have large courtyards in the rear of the buildings full of gardens and flowers.

We were able to tour a Jade factory. We had a tour guide there that took us through a small museum at the factory. It was fascinating learning some of the history of the area. I had no idea there were so many different kinds and colors of Jade. The workers at the factory still work with the Jade in the way they have for 100's of years.
Victor took us to the top of a hill where we hiked a short distance to a stunning overlook of the valley. Spain built a huge cross on the hill where it could be seen from far away. We were told they wanted to make sure everyone knew they were Christians. For this reason they also built numerous cathedrals. Some of which are still standing and in use.

We were able to go inside one of the cathedrals, the architecture was amazing. We just walked around in awe of where we were and the beauty that surrounded us.

Now you all know I LOVE LOVE my coffee. So thrilled was I to be able to go to a real live coffee plantation. It has been a working coffee factory passed down in the same family for a few hundred years. They have set up a small museum with the history and customs of Guatemala. We love all the celebrations, music and dancing that is part of their lives. The plantation itself was just beautiful, hanging vines with huge flowers everywhere. Huge trees and green everywhere. And they gave us some FRESH coffee, ummmm heaven. And as if it could not get any better they also train horses and have an arena set up that made Dewey drool. Yep we could have easily just stayed right there all day or week or longer....

By this time we were all hungry. Victor took us to the perfect place to eat. It originally was a home of a Spanish family. It has now been converted into a hotel and restaurant. A hotel that I really hope to stay at one day. We walked though some of the rooms and can I just say spectacular. There is a large courtyard with fountains and gardens in the middle of it all. The food was yummy!! Just perfect!! They had some dancers practicing in the room behind us and invited us to come watch. It was just a wonderful lunch.

It was an amazing day and the perfect way to end our pick up trip to Guatemala.

Our flight home was an adventure. Kolby was a WILD man on the plane. Who knew there was so much one little person could get into in such a small space. But we made it to Houston all in sort of in one piece. Customs was terrible, two different waiting rooms, almost two hours before Kolby could have his file stamped. But it was of course worth it, he is an official U.S citizen now.

Once we got through everything and out of the international area we had a nice surprise. My Grandma, mom and brother who all live in Houston were waiting for us. I was so glad that Kolby got the chance to meet everyone. Luke has met his G.G (great grandma) a few times and he just adores her. Kolby had not slept at all at this point but he was still very sweet with everyone. We all went out to eat for dinner then it was time was us to get on our plane to Las Vegas.

On our last flight Kolby finally fell asleep, he pretty much slept the whole flight. We landed in Las Vegas at 1am (which is 2am Utah time). My amazing hubby drove us three hours to get home. Kolby and I sorta slept the whole time. We arrived safe and sound at home about 5am.