(this update was composed by Parker last week - sorry I haven't been able to post anything for a couple of days!)
"Friday the 24th was the last day of work of our teams first week with the students International. We spent the day working on our usual projects, painting, working on the casa de pollo and designing the solar powered wood kiln. After work we would usually have a break before a group activity with the rest of the teams at S.I. Then we would eat dinner together, however today was different since all of the other groups here were only in Guatemala for one week. The rest of the teams were attending the farewell dinner while we just had our own team hangout (we'll be attending the farewell banquet after these next two weeks). We decided to go to Chad's host-family's casa and watch a movie, then go to dinner at the Cafecito restaurant. After dinner we went back to the house where the other 4 guys are staying and played Pictionary. We then went to the end of the farewell banquet after they had eaten, so that we could just watch the video that the media team had put together of all the sites that week, and also to say goodbye to the teams that were leaving.
Saturday our team traveled down to Monterrico, a beach on the Pacific coast about 2.5 hours from Antigua. We got there around 10am and the first thing we all did was head to the water. The beach was black sand from the volcanic rock and the waves were huge, close to 6-7 feet tall and breaking close to the shore. We were advised to be overly cautious due to the power of the waves, so we all stayed in the surf... The rest of the day was spent hanging out on the beach running, playing volleyball, reading, playing guitar and swimming in the ocean. We also found a great deal on a 9-person bungalow right on the beach (for the 8 of us + Marcos from SI). The bungalow had a straw roof, a few hammocks in its courtpard and a small swimming pool. We finished our first day by walking down to the small town center and grabbing a quick bite while watching the USA vs Mexico soccer match in the Copa de Oro (Gold Cup). (yes everyone there was for the US since Mexico beat Guatemala previously).
We planned our trip so that we would have a good part of Sunday to hang out on the beach, so we didn't book our ride out until 4pm. However, Sunday was spent majorly indoors. When we all woke up around 7 or 8am, it was pouring down rain and there was nonstop wind blowing the palm trees completely horizontal. It seemed that a tropical storm had hit! This wasn't enough to stop a few of us from hitting the ocean early, which we quickly realized wasn't the best idea... The waves were bigger than on Saturday and the surf was much stronger, but the real problem was the wind+sand combination. Every time we would get out of the water we would get blasted with sand, to the point that it was unbearable and we would be forced back into the water. We eventually worked our way back to our bungalow only to realive that all of the houses on the beach were getting beat pretty badly. We ended up with our courtyard covered in palm tree pieces and coconuts, asheet metal and lawn chairs in the pool, holes in our roof, and every crack around the windows and doors flooding!
Around 2pm a man came to the door of our bungalow and informed us that the roads into the little beach town had been washed out and flooded. Lucky for us there was a small river than ran from the ocea up to another small town. We ended up catching a small boat up the river and through the swampland/bayou area until we met up with our driver on the other side. Once there we were off on our way back to Magdalena. All in all we consider this a successful trip to the beach!
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