The Castle of Copan

We went to Copan Ruinas, Honduras last week and my old co-worker Blair hooked it up big time! We got to stay in this little castle. It was pretty magical.


You know how I like my feet in pictures...


The view was quite spectacular.


Me viewing you viewing the view.


We also went to Mayatan to see my enormous students (they were in second grade, now they are in sixth!). I didn't get many pictures, but I did capture two smiles from Ezra playing on the playground equiptment.


He can smile!


I did bring some toys but the matchbox and cheese grater proved more interesting.


One bad thing about our trip was the the majority of the time we were there the power was out. I forgot how common this is in Copan. At least we had some candles in the castle!


When we returned to Chiqui Ezra certainly missed the kittens. I love how grouchy he looks with a lapfull of adorable kitties.


On Sunday Cristian and Ezra were cutting branches from the mango tree so that Jumproap (the parrot) can't escape. When we were in Copan he took a little jaunt over the neighbor's house and it caused quite the ruckus. Ezra liked helping out and being on the roof.


We took the kite up the mountain again and although there still wasn't very much wind it did fly! Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of it flying because I was the one who was flying it. I was the champion kite flyer!


These guys did not get the kite flying.


When it came down from flying it landed in a puddle and was deemed unflyable so they dismantled it. You can see Oso the dog resting on the pipe with a necklace of kite string.


Two pictures of me in one post!? I get sick of trying to take pictures of Ezra and Cristian because guess what, NEITHER of them like having their picture taken. Ugh.


The kite wasn't the only thing that got wet. Ezra's pants were soaked so for the hike down he was sin pantelones.


Random photo from when we went out to McDonalds.


Ezra at the mall, where we can spend hours and hours and hours and hours if you can imagine.

Sunday Funday

Sunday is the only day Cristian doesn't have to work so we made the absolute best of it last weekend. The night before we planned what food we wanted to make and in the early morning I drove the motorcycle to the market and got all the supplies, which included buying the meat of a cow's udder. Yes I tried it, no I didn't like it. It was really tough surprisingly! I thought it was going to be like butter. Anyhow, Cristian likes udder so he lucked out that I didn't like it (I guess).

The only other note about the market that morning was that I actually got good prices. Usually the vendors take advantage of me not knowing the price of things and way overcharge me. An example from the last time I went to the market: I asked how much the mandarines were, she said 5 for 10Q, I only had 5Q, she said “Oh I will gift them to you then, for your son, and sell you 2 mandarines for 5Q”, I gave her the 5Q and she gave me the 2 mandarines, later I realized that she did not gift me anything as that's even more expensive. On Sunday's visit to the market I paid 1Q per mandarine (not from the same lady). Thanks dude with the wheelbarrow of mandarines!

So when I got home Cristian marinated the udders and then got to work making a kite. October is kite flying month here in Guatemala and the kites are not plastic and covered with commercial characters. They are largely homemade using paper, needle, thread, glue, and thin sticks. Cristian and his brothers made dozens of kites every October when they were young of every size, but he hadn't made one in roughly a decade. He spent most of the morning piecing it together.


When it was finished Ezra and Cristian made a fire to cook lunch (yes, fire roasted udders). Ezra really enjoyed making the fire and when it was done he sat in his chair around the fire and even had a poker stick. Such a Minnesotan. Cristian didn't understand. I made a pasta salad and some guacemole. The guacemole turned out really good, I think I've got guacemole down. The secret? Not so much lime juice. Well, I had put in too much lime juice the last time so that was the secret to this batch anyways. There are limes all over the ground from all the trees so it's easy to put too much in when cooking. Although the neighbor told me the other day that lime juice is good for relieving the itching of insect bites, so that's good to know and good to have in plenty.

We sat around the fire and flipped tortillas and ate a good, fire cooked meal. After a digestion period, we took the kite and walked the opposite way down our dead end street than normal, towards the river which is called El Rio Taco (accent over last 'o'). We crossed the river at a narrow point, zigzagged along the river bank and followed a stony path up for a short while. We arrived at this beautiful, sunny, stony piece of land that Cristian's grandmother actually owns. It felt as though we had walked far, but when I looked back over across the river we were aligned perfectly with our own callejon (dead end street, it rhymes with own). It was weird to see our familiar street from such a different perspective. The old men were propped up on the sidewalks in the same places, only viewed from the other side it appeared so strange.



We tried to fly the kite, but tragically there was no wind. Spending the whole morning to make and kite and then having no wind when you want to fly it is a bummer. But we had a lovely time walking around, especially Ezra. He collected sticks, jumped between the rocks, and walked along this pipe.



We waited for wind to come and watched the rain clouds approaching. There was a small wind growing and we wanted to wait to see just that the kite would fly, but looming rain and darkness didn't allow it. As we walked back home the wind grew strong, but we continued and got home just before the rain started. Hopefully next Sunday the wind will be more timely in her arrival.



Ezra really enjoyed himself.




They are becoming closer each day, it's so so so so so so sweet.



There was this cliff and Ezra was very keen on standing right at the edge. I don't know how helpful the t-shirt pinch was for my nerves really.

Play Dough Power Hour(s)

Ezra and I spent roughly two+ hours playing with play dough today. Whew. It was intense. Who knew that a garlic press is the perfect play dough accessory? Hopefully I will be able to clean it out and use it for cooking again, but if not it was worth it.





It's a bit more difficult to occupy ourselves here as there are no libraries, parks, science museums, community centers, etc. Besides Play Dough we do a lot of puzzles, books, coloring, painting, and going out for smoothies.

7 Cats, One Parrot, Oso the Dog, 2 Armadillos

We have a bit of a menagerie going on down here, as usual. I think there was somewhat of a menagerie last year when we were here, but the mama cat had a litter of 6 kittens two weeks ago, upping the anti substantially. I'm sure once they're bigger, eating more and whinier I won't like them as much, but right now they are just so gosh darn adorable I can stare at them for a long time. Ezra can too. Although of course he is more interested in picking them up than gazing, which can get irksome since they sleep 90% of the day.

Ezra comes up with names for the kittens all the time, and the names he has suggested so far include: Droofy, Pantelones, Cup, Pan, Fork, Sinky, Vensy, Bobsvu, and Bobsy. We have more names than cats currently.






The parrot, Homero Jumprope of course, is up to his same old wiley tricks. He sure likes to nibble on the clothes I hang on the line. I figured out though that if he's gnawing on something that I don't want him to I just give him some peanuts (in the shell) and that satisfies his need to pick his beak.



I mentioned the armadillos, but really I've never even seen them. The story goes that someone was selling one male and one female armadillo, live, and Cristian felt sorry for them because they were tied up and looked scared so he bought them. The sellers intention was to sell them as something tasty to eat, but they were released into the backyard and are currently burrowed down somewhere out there. I'd expect baby armadillos considering the couple, which would be adorable. Although baby kittens and baby armadillos might be a bit much.

Guatemala Extravaganza

Ezra and his Papa, snuzzling. How sweet!

Yes, it is photographically proven to be true: we are indeed here in Guatemala.
We spent the first week in Chiquimula, hanging out with Cristian (Ezra's Papa) and the rest of the Morataya family. Ezra is especially fond of his cousins Angie and Julie (10 & 8 years old) who live with his great grandma. He even likes to spend time with them without me- woo hoo! I think this is good for his Spanish as they speak no English.

Speaking of Spanish, Ezra has so far acquired: pantelones (pants), buenos dias (good morning), buenos noches (good night), hola, adios, gracias, moto (motorcycle), rio (river), "Mama tiene chiches" (Mama has breasts, funny joke) and he knows how to respond to the question “como te amas?” (what's your name?). Poco a poco (little by little).

The second week we went to the school in Rio Dulce called Casa Guatemala that I had mentioned. You might remember that I had intended us to be there for 8 months. We were there for 3 days and have now returned to Chiquimula. There are a number of reasons for this:
1.)The school is 20 minutes by boat from town, meaning that there are no stores. The boat comes fairly infrequently.
2.)Three meals a day were provided, and all three were rice and beans. Ezra ate rice the first dinner, but hardly ate anything for the other two days. I myself was craving fruits and vegetables, but...
3.)There was no electricity, meaning no refridgerater so even if we purchased fruits, vegetables, dairy products, etc upon a random trip to town in the boat there would be no way of preserving them.
4.)The ninas were CRAZY about Ezra. Like obsessed. Whenever they saw he they hoarded around him, trying to kiss him, touching him, and saying things like “You want be my boyfriend?”. He punched, kicked, spit and stuck out his tongue at them trying to make them go away but this only made them giggle devilishly and amplified their fixation. It made us not want to leave the house and was really overwhelming for Ezra. I imagine that after time the girls wouldn't bug him as much, but I have no idea how long.
5.)The beds were SUPER hard. I usually sleep through the night without waking but I woke up at least every hour to assess my aching body.
6.)Breakfast (of rice and beans) was at 6 o'clock in the morning- it's hard to wake up that early, harder for rice and beans, but when it's all there is and you have to it's even worse.

I'm sure there's more but those are the key factors causing our extremely premature departure. There were some good things about it. Ezra loved the 12 young boys that lived there. The boys house was right on the river and they jumped off the first and second story decks into the river. Ezra spent a lot of time in their house, swimming, wrestling, and being shirtless with the likes of Felix, Oscar, Edi, and Walter, among others. The boys were adorable and so sweet to Ezra. They always let him go to the front of the line for dinner (if only he'd eaten it!) and wanted him to sleep over at their house.

A lot of the children were amazing. After only being there for 3 days I had tears in my eyes and felt really sad watching Ezra give his friends hugs good bye. I do wish that things could have turned out differently, but the issue of food was a major and there wasn't really a plausible solution.

So now we are back in Chiqui, living at Cristian's house again. Ezra is really happy to be here. When we were here for the first week he said that he didn't love his Papa and wouldn't give him hugs or play with him. After our week in Rio Dulce however Ezra came to realize that he does love his Papa and since we arrived they've been playing, snuzzling (snuggling), and getting along great.

I'm looking for work here and today while Ezra and I were running some errands we ran into a man who I had met last year who wanted me to give his son English lessons. He took my number again and said that he had friends with children who were also interested. I'm also going to call around to some schools to see if they are in need of an English teacher. I am optimistic. After all, I am the only gringa in Chiquimula!

I'll give you the job update soon, but for now here's some pictures of our time so far:


We are spending a lot of time at the swimming pool.


This is as close to a bath as we can get. At least until he no longer fits!


The parrot, Homero Jumprope is still hanging out, mostly in the mango tree. Although he does come around whenever I hang up clothes to dry because he loves to gnaw on the clothespins.


There's a gang of kids that live on our quiet street. They play in the afternoons in front of our house and sometimes Ezra joins them. I think as he gets a better handle on Spanish he will have a lot of fun with them.


A friend of Cristian's invited us to the pool with her and her son. Ezra and the 10 year old Noa had a blast! Really, he was having fun even though he looks pained in this picture.


The boys sure like to watch movies together. Remember last year how they sat on opposite ends of the couch? I'm glad that this year they're getting cuddly.


This picture was taken at the hotel where we stayed for one night in Rio Dulce before heading to Casa Guatemala. It was right on the river and right under that big, noisy bridge. I hardly slept a wink that night because the semi trucks were belching all night long.


Ezra on the other hand slept just fine.


The next morning we walked over the bridge to get supplies to take with us to Casa Guatemala. Not so smiley but a beautiful view!


While we were in town we had breakfast at a little restaurant. Ezra likes to eat the corn tortillas, but he likes to put them on his head even more.



Spiky flowers.


A little ice cream before the boat trip to Casa Guate.


I didn't take too many pictures in Casa Guatemala, but this one shows the girls hoarding around poor lil' Ez when he simply wants to play in the dirt by himself.


Ezra loved watching these ants carry huge leaves in a constant stream in front of our lodging site.


There were some crazy mosquitoes so we brought this net. The view from the outside...


and from the inside. It was kinda fancy feeling to sleep in the net actually.


For fear of being swarmed by the ninas we spent a lot of time in the lodging quarters. Ezra really likes this shape activity that I brought.


Swimming in the river was the best part by far about Casa Guatemala. The only bad part was that the rules were the you couldn't swim until after 4 because all the kids were in school until then and if there was anyone swimming the kids instinctively jumped in, in their clothes, and it was a hassle getting them out. Here Ezra snuck in a solo swim a little early.


And shortly thereafter all the boys joined him. All the boys could swim, even the youngest a 4 year old named Felix who was absolutely adorable.


This photo is from the morning that we decided we had to go. We are waiting on the dock for the boat to come to take us back to Rio Dulce. Wondering what he's got in that backpack?


Snuzzler and Amos of course!


Happy, yet extremely sleep deprived.


It was a beautiful place.


What a lovely commute.


Back in Chiquimula we went to the mall and there was a big jumper thing. You might be able to make out Ezra's new "How to Train Your Dragon" shirt as well.


It's also good that Ezra and his Papa can be together and play. I am SO GLAD that he has someone else to attack now!

And these final pictures are just weird things found out and about in Chiqui:





Hope you're doing well!