June 24-25, 2013: Leaving Panajachel for the U.S.

Last pizza meal at Florencia

Marcos shows off his new shirt 
and new cards.

Mateo is camera shy today.

Manuel and Cat-o say goodbye to Ava.

The house pictures below are for Adam:

Hot tub in the distance

Garden storage

Back wall

Gate to alley

Kitchen with pass-through to outdoor dining area

2nd bath

2nd bedroom opening to main bedroom

Master bath

Outside of house/outdoor dining area

Living room

Master bedroom

On June 24, we leave Panajachel for Guatemala City, where we stay at the Quetzalroo hostel for one night.

We run into the girls' violin teacher at the Quetzalroo, where the girls give an impromptu violin concert before leaving for the airport.

We arrive in Ft. Lauderdale with no problems, but our flight to Denver will be delayed at least three hours.  The girls try to maintain good attitudes.

June 21-23, 2013: Goodbyes

Candelaria says goodbye to us and another student with chuchitos and cheesecake.

Gladys gives Ava her certificate for studying at Jabel Tinamit.

Amanda gets her certificate from Astrid.

José, Gladys, and Ava on the last afternoon of Spanish classes

Near sunset at the lake

Cat-o has a special basket.

Doing dishes at the Hurtado house

Ava and Manny

Amanda plays cards with Ellen.

Ava loves being taller than her mom.

Marcos has returned from the tienda with ice cream.

Our last evening at the Hurtados' house

June 19-20, 2013: Tamales and Xocomil

Jolie invites me to her house to learn how to make Guatemalan tamales with her friend, Cecilia.

We go to the market to buy leaves and ingredients for the tamales.

One of Cecilia's daughters and one of her granddaughters

Baby Juan David is carried by his mom.

Cecilia takes care of her grandson, Juan Pablo, while his mom works in town.

Juan David has a cold, but he gives us a smile anyway.

The sauce for the tamales includes tomatoes, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, cloves, two kinds of pepper, two kinds of chile, salt, and pieces of bread.

Cecilia stirs the tamal base, which is made from rice that she ground by hand with a stone early in the morning.

Lui shows us his machete skills.

We will add a piece of chicken, more sauce, and a strip of red pepper before we fold up the leaves.

Cecilia demonstrates the wrapping technique.

Ava is in love with Juan Pablo.

The tamales are ready to steam for one hour.

Dulce enjoys the finished tamal, which has the consistency of grits.

On June 20th, we go with the Hurtados and a few other friends to Guatemala's awesome water park near the coast, Xocomil.  I have no photos of the rides because my camera isn't waterproof :)

Lui, Ava, and Megan on the bus

Evelyn and Marcos

Friends from PCI: Manuel, Megan, Lui, Piper, and Ava

The kids goof around when we stop for dinner on the way home.