On Friday, August 19, 2022, we awoke early in Flores, Guatemala to catch our flight to Guatemala City.
I had brought an old pair of expendable shoes, in case we ended up hiking a volcano, since I heard it can melt them. That didn't happen, but the shoes took a beating anyway, so I decided to lighten our luggage load by leaving them behind.
When Reyes heard that we didn't have a ride figured out to the airport, he was kind enough to pick us up and take us to the airport at 5 a.m.
The drive from the island across the bridge was pretty.
We flew out at 7am. The Kartchners weren't on quite as tight of a schedule, so they flew out a couple hours later. (Reyes took them to the airport, too).
The jungle around Flores was so green! Around 2018, a LIDAR scan was done of northern Guatemala, where they shine lasers down into the jungle and ignore the parts that hit the trees and record the lowest parts that are returned by the bits that reach the jungle floor. The result was that they found some 60,000 structures that people will be exploring for decades to come. It was far more structures than most people previously thought were out there.
Here you can see Lake Petén Itzá in the distance as we flew away.
Kartchners at Lake Amatitlán
We had visited the awesome tourist sites together, but at this point in the trip, we split up to go visit people in the different missions.
Mike, Shaylee and Jason actually flew home from Guatemala City to Utah that day. Sharon, Roger and Mikayla went on to see some of Mikayla's mission. They also stayed in this fun house on the shore of Lake Amatitlán, which is south of Guatemala City. (Not to be confused with Lake Atitlán, where we spent three days together, earlier in the trip).
This lake was beautiful, too.
Their house was facing east, so they had a nice view of the sunrise the next morning.
Roger captured a time lapse video of the sun over the lake on the second morning that they were there.
As the Kartchners drove around, they came across this rock that looks like a person's silhouette.
They also came across this river of mud that was carved out by a lava flow, taking out the highway with it. Fortunately, they didn't have to drive through the river this time.
Speaking of volcanoes, they saw this one erupting, shooting off a plume of ash more than once.
But they didn't let it phase them and went on a big swing.
They had fun visiting the Orozco family in Escuintla that day. Sharon reported, "Meeting Mikayla’s friends she met while on her mission was a highlight of our trip and a great way to cap things off! ...the Orozco family took us to have hot chocolate while overlooking a volcano (which we saw blowing smoke and later lava!). Then after ice cream, we went back to their place for tamales. They went out of their way to make sure we had a great day, and we loved meeting them!"
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| Raul and Evelyn Orozco, Mikayla Kartchner, and their son Alejandro and his wife Sarah (and little doggie Bruce) |
Later, about 7pm, they saw hot lava flowing from the volcano's peak. So cool! This volcano happens to be named Volcan Fuego ("Fire Volcano"), so that seemed especially appropriate.
Son-in-law "Alex" (he said to call him that cuz it's easier than his actual name) and daughter Andrea joined them for tamales, which were tasty.
At church on Sunday, Sharon and Roger got to meet Diego, who was baptized while Mikayla was there. He is planning to go on a mission in a few years. They said, "He is such a great guy!"
They also drove through one of Mikayla's areas and saw where she lived while she was there. They marveled at the many hills she had to climb. Here is a 1-minute video showing an 8-minute drive through Mikayla's area, sped up 8x (except for one scene where they saw some chickens).
Sunday they had dinner with the Samayoa family. Sharon reported, "The chicken enchilada soup was delicious and again there was lots of laughs, translating (their daughter spoke some English too), and just good feelings all around. So grateful Mikayla was able to reconnect with these friends after almost three years apart, and we will be forever grateful for their kindness toward her while she was serving there as a missionary. 🥰"
Wilsons in Jared's areas
Meanwhile, back on Friday morning, August 19, 2022, our family got another rental car (at the same place as before), and dropped by McDonald's for breakfast in one of the nicer areas in town.
After we got back on the road, we soon found ourselves in a traffic jam that lasted for some time, with no movement whatsoever. After an hour or so, it finally unclogged.
Our first destination was Sansare. Here is a vibrantly painted catholic church there.
This humble dwelling served as both the missionaries' home and also the meetinghouse for the local branch. There was a faint outline where the name plaque of the church used to hang. After COVID hit, the local branch was closed down, and most of the members we visited were still bummed about that, because traveling to the next closest church is a bit of a burden for them.
Kids there learn pretty young to ride scooters. (Not sure he's really supposed to...)
We were trying to find one of Jared's favorite families, but they had moved, and addresses aren't really a thing there. But Jared knew that if he tracked down a Tuk-Tuk, the driver would be the most likely to know where everything was. So he flagged one down and jumped in, and we followed them.
Sure enough, they dropped us within a couple of houses of where we wanted to be, so we went in and had a nice visit with Glendy.
I thought of our trip with Kelsi to her mission in Mexico, when Erika commented on how most of our time was spent on "sitting in people's living rooms and drinking juice." Given the hot, humid weather there, it was actually very welcome. Plus, I loved the grape soda there.
Glendy's husband Henry was the guy we had tried to meet up with in Guatemala City the day we arrived, but we hadn't been able to arrange that yet, because he works for a week at a time. So it was great that Jared could finally at least visit with Glendy.
They had a parrot, which somehow ended up on my shoe.
It was a lovely visit.
Next we visited Alex Dávila in his little shop and chatted with him and his mom for a while.
Jared was excited to point out the Super Chapincito fried chicken place. He said it was like Pollo Campero, but worse. But still nostalgic.
We went to visit another guy out in the country, and parked our car in front of this cow.
Then we realized we weren't in quite the right place, and people might be wondering what we're doing in front of their house, so we drove around the corner a bit further.
There we visited Byron Aguilar. We had a nice chat with him, though Linette eventually excused herself and ran to the car because mosquitoes were eating her alive. (She had welts for a couple weeks afterwards).
I'm not sure what monument this was, but it seemed handy.
Jared got nostalgic about this area where he had spent some time.
Eventually we made it to Llano Largo, a town on the northeast outskirts of Guatemala City. There we stayed at the home of Luís and Varinia de León. They had a nice house in a gated community, and were kind enough to let us stay there for the two nights we would be in the area.
The couple was not home that day, but their young friend Khrystal was there to let us in and show us where we were sleeping and such. Mercifully, they had a washing machine, so we were finally able to do our laundry there, and hang it to dry on the lines up on the roof (either under the roof or out in the sun, depending on the shifting weather).
Unfortunately, Sienna seemed to have come down with whatever cold Jason, Shaylee, Mike and Roger all got. So on Saturday morning, Sienna stayed home to convalesce while Linette and Jared went out to visit people. I stayed with Sienna so she wouldn't be alone, and because I was feeling pretty wiped out, too.
Khrystal was a sweetheart and made me a traditional breakfast (refried black beans, scrambled eggs, salsa and orange juice), which was perfect. She didn't speak any English, so I got to practice my Spanish as we had a pretty long conversation. She was a delightful gal.
Sienna pretty much just lay in her bed all day.
It actually felt amazingly good to rest up after over a week of going nonstop.
While Sienna and I were at the house, Linette and Jared drove to the Guatemala City Temple to meet up with one of Linette's old companions, Isabel Cordón Salguero.
While they were there, they saw some cute kids. I'm not sure if they were involved in sealings, or if they were waiting for a wedding party.
Linette and Jared ended up waiting for far longer than they expected, but eventually did get to see her friend briefly (I don't think anyone got a picture of her).
Jared was really excited to finally connect with Henry, who he had been trying to meet up with since we got there. Henry is a police officer and is often out of town for a week at a time. But he was at the airport that day and was able to spare some time for a visit.
Jared and Linette picked up Jared's missionary friend Marcos Navas. They hadn't been companions, but had been in the same area, so Marcos was happy to accompany Jared as he visited some families that they both knew around Azacualpilla.
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| Marcos Navas, Paola and her mother Mirza Rojas, Jared |
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| Marlon Gamboa and his sister Paola with Jared |
Sometimes there isn't a lot of room to park and you do "Guatever" you have to.
Alma Pascual was a recent convert as Jared arrived in the area.
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| Marcos, Jared and Alma Pascual. |
Here is Jared with Alma's father, Eduardo.
Meanwhile, Linette went inside and did Zumba with the ladies.
That evening, Luís, the owner of the house, arrived back at home, and took Jared and Marcos with him to see a movie in the upscale area of Portales. He invited me to go, too, but I wasn't really up for it and wouldn't have understood it anyway.
They watched Dragon Ball: Super Hero, which was a pretty big deal there.
Meanwhile, we met the missionaries who lived in the house across the street, and they helped us navigate the Domino's app so that we could order some pizza and have it delivered. When the app was being difficult, we suggested driving over to pick it up (since we could see the sign from the roof), but the grandma said it was too dangerous to drive even that far at night. So we ordered it and invited the elders to eat with us when it arrived.
Sunday morning, we all got ready and went to church at the Llano Largo ward.
Church was great. Afterwards, we got to meet Carlos' girlfriend, who was adorable.
Linette chatted with this lady for a while after church. (She walked with a cane, so sat on the step while they talked).
At church, Linette also visited with a gal name Maritza, who had been a missionary in Linette's mission back in the day.
It was fun to see Jared joking around with all these people he knew. (We had to wear masks inside due to COVID concerns. Apparently some of the wards only started meeting in person again recently.)
We took a few more people home with us than we had brought.
Back at the house, preparations for a surprise birthday party for Luís was underway.
One of the central features of the party was a piñata of Goku, the hero of Dragon Ball (the movie they saw the night before).
I also loved that they had a Groot in their planter section.
The missionaries lived directly across the street. Jared lived there when he was in the area, which is how he knew this family so well. Varinia and Luís are like parents to the missionaries, and are always feeding them and taking care of them.
They set up a big string of firecrackers to light off when Luís got there.
Here's a 14 second video of the firecrackers going off when Luís arrived.
Once the party got started, there was a dinner with a traditional chicken dish called Pepián, which was great.
It was delightful to be included in such a fun birthday celebration, where so many people from the ward came to join in.
This missionary was pretty new, but his Spanish was so good that it took us a while to figure that out. Apparently he had been in a Spanish immersion for many years. We took this selfie and then I texted it to his mom, along with a little message about how his Spanish was great. She responded, "Oh my goodness!!!!! You absolutely made my day! Seeing his smile and your smiles brought me joy!! Thank you!!!"
Here is Jared with Marcos again (on the right), and also Hansel, a member who became more active during Jared's time there, and who used to go on visits with him a lot. Great guys.
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| Luís, (Goku), Marcos, Jared, Randy |
Here's a picture with Khrystal, who was so helpful to us during our stay, and Marcos.
Sienna even ventured out of her confines to join in the fun for a bit. Fortunately, she was feeling quite a bit better that day.
Then the whacking of the piñata began, starting with the younger ones.
The bishop of the Llano Largo ward took a turn, but he just kindly tapped it.
Here's a little video of how various people approached the piñata.
Finally, all the kids dove for the candy.
We were so grateful for Virinia and Luís inviting us to stay at their home during our time in Llano Largo, and to Khrystal for her help while we were there.
Speaking of birthday parties, Jared had also been invited to another birthday party in the tiny town of Palencia, which was about a half hour away. We weren't quite sure of the address, but when we got into town, we saw two missionaries, and they were headed to the party, too, so we just followed them as they walked along, since there wasn't room in the car for all 6 of us.
10 minutes later, we arrived at the party.
It was the 6th birthday of Gimena, the daughter of Jared's friend Emily.
They played a game where you put an Oreo on your forehead and try to get it in your mouth without dropping it.
The ladies tried, too, and Linette seemed like she was going to pull it off, but ultimately, everyone, well, not so much tossed their cookies, as dropped them. And the dog ate some of them.
Here's a 30-second video of the musical chairs going on.
We stayed as long as we dared, but then we knew we had to bust a move to get to the airport. The rental car company gave us some hassle about a tiny scrape under the front plastic bumper (bottoming out the entire car on multiple huge speed bumps was apparently no problem). So that took some time, but fortunately we made it to the airport in plenty of time.
We had some quetzales left over, so we donated a few coins to "save the monkeys."
Then we bought some last-minute souvenirs at the airport in order to use up the last of our quetzales.
Or so we thought. When we got home, I realized that I had 1300 Quetzales (=$166) in my money belt that I had forgotten about. Oops. (And somehow that made it home in my checked luggage!)
The other souvenir that I quite enjoyed from Guatemala was this jade ring that Linette got me in Antigua (since my wedding ring got misplaced somewhere in our house).
We were on the same flight as the Kartchners, so we all met up at the airport and hung out until it was time to go.
It had been an awesome, amazing trip, but I think we were all ready to heading home.
We arrived in Los Angeles at about 10:30pm and made our way through passport control.
We took a free shuttle to a very nice Fairfield Inn & Suites near the airport, and then walked over to In-n-Out Burger for a late dinner. (This is a picture of it as we drove by it the next morning in our shuttle).
After a nice breakfast at the hotel, we just barely caught the shuttle in time and took it to the airport.
We boarded one more flight for Salt Lake City.
What a fantastic adventure! Antigua was charming. Lake Atitlán was gorgeous, and I loved the colorful traditional clothing and fun people all around the lake. Tikal and Yaxha were fascinating, and the wildlife was fun to see. And it was a great experience to meet some of our kids' friends from their missions.
It was also nice to be back where we could drink straight from the tap and flush toilet paper with wild abandon!
We had been a bit nervous about this trip, because Guatemala can be a dangerous place, especially in Guatemala City. So we were happy to have all made it back safely, and to have all those memories to cherish. And these reports were so long that now you probably feel like you've been there, too! :)
I appreciate all those on the trip who contributed many of the photos for this trip, and thanks to Sharon for being my proofreader.
And thank you for reading along!
