We started out on this trip with very little sleep. The night before we departed, we had tickets to the symphony. When we got home, we watched some of our guilty pleasure TV shows ("Survivor" and "The Apprentice"), did some last minute packing, and went to bed at around 2:00am. When the alarm woke us up at 5:30, we looked out …

We officially woke up at 6 o'clock, but we had heard fireworks and birds starting at around 5:30. We took nice hot showers and headed outside at aroung 7:20. We started to meet people from our group on the street in front of the hotel. It turned out that none of the people on our flight to Guatemala City were amongst the 9 other people in our …

I woke up at around 5:00 with a rumbling in my stomach. I headed into the bathroom only to find that the power was out, so I quickly had to rummage around in my bag for my flashlight. By the time we got up to take our showers, the power was restored. We met the gang in the dining room for continental breakfast of bread, muffins, and orange juice …

Today was our free day. All along we had hoped to go horseback riding, but in the end Andre hadn't been able to arrange it for us. So we decided to hike the San Pedro volcano instead. We woke up at 5:30, took showers, and were ready in the lobby by 7:00. Andre and his coworker Humberto had come across on the early boat from Panajachel. Humberto …

We got up a little later this morning and met the group for breakfast at 7:45. I got panqueques (pancakes) with bacon, watermelon, and banana. Craig got scrambled eggs and bacon. The service was very slow but we had a nice conversation with the other members of our group. Andre had been able to arrange horseback riding for this afternoon, so we …

We woke up at 6 and packed up our stuff. We met the group (minus the girls) for breakfast. Craig got scrambled eggs and bacon. I got panqueques with bacon. We sat on the patio of the restaurant overlooking the lake and the San Pedro volcano. We left our luggage in the lobby and walked into Santiago to meet up with Andre and the girls. There was a …

We woke up at 6 am. Craig took a shower and we found that it barely drained. I waited for about half an hour for the water level to go down enough so I could take my shower. We went to La Fuenta for breakfast, dropping some laundry at the hotel's front desk on the way. I had panqueques with honey and Craig had huevos rancheros with black beans and …

At 4 am we were awoken by the pounding of drums. We thought that maybe it was in celebration of the finishing of the carpet so we threw on some clothes and went outside. It turns out that the carpet wasn't yet complete, but it was well underway. Lots had been done but a few stencils still needed to be placed. Marco saw us and smiled. He asked in …

We woke up at 6:30 am and headed to La Fuenta for breakfast. Marcia had left for home bright and early this morning. Craig got an omelette and I got panqueques again. We also had a nice side dish of cantaloupe and papaya. As always the fruits here were incredible. After breakfast we briefly stopped at the hotel where Andre picked us up. Margaret …