Jade, June, Jaguar

Holla!

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. This week has been great so far! On Monday we went to this local guy's home in a little village near Antigua where we learned how to make jade items. THis guy has been working with jade for over 50 years. He made a jade mask that was featured in National Geographic in September 1987 as a replica of an ancient Mayan burial mask. He goes into the mountains to find his jade and has made some pretty amazing stuff. The four of us started with slabs of jade, used a diamond cutter to cut it and then we shaved the corners off with a diamond sandpaper type thing. We molded the top as well to make it nice and rounded. THen we had to put it through ten different levels of sandpaper. It was crazy how much work goes into it! We spent about four hours on it! So now I will have a jade pendant for a necklace-it's beautiful! The family that lived there was so wonderful-they invited us in for tea and cookies and chatted with us in Spanish. All in all it was a fantastic day, probably one of my highlights of my trip so far.

Yesterday we spent the morning at a Macadamia nut farm and the owner of it was a bit of a nut himself but that mde the tour all the more interesting. In the afternoon we hung out in Antigua. A few of us went for a horse carriage ride around town which was fun. it was good to get a full view of the town and now I know the places I want to go explore more. THere's some really cool ruins I want to go check out. Actually in the morning we also went to an old convent which was super interesting.

TOday we spent the day in Guatemala City. We first went to the slums and walked around which was super eye opening and interesting. Then we went to the National Palace which was quite the contrast. Then we went to the Museum of Archaology which i didn't really enjoy, but i went through it quickly and then went and enjoyed the art gallery which had a lot of local Guatemalan art. Increasingly I'm gaining an appreciation for art and it's pretty fun.

Tonight we're going out for a fancy dinner and now I think I'm going to go take a nap!!

Oh, and for all of you who have had rain for the last little while, I'll appease your jealousy by letting you know that the rainy season just started here and right now it is pouring.. it's still really warm mind you, but ya.. hee hee..

Okay, have a great day friends!!