Dia de los Muertos in Sumpango, Guatemala

On November 1, Guatemala celebrates Dia de los Muertos or "Day of the Dead".  It is often also called All Saints Day.  Regardless what you call it, the day is meant to remember and celebrate of loved ones no longer with us.  A great tradition in the area of Guatemala near Antigua is that several villages hold kite festivals on this day.  The thought is that by flying the kites, you are closer to your loved ones in heaven.  They make beautiful, intricate kites and put them on display before flying them.  I had the opportunity to go to Sumpango, Guatemala (about 20 minutes outside of Antigua) to watch the kites and check out the cemetary.  It was a really fascinating and colorful day!

We arrived as they were setting up some of the kites and you could still see the volcano in the background.  

Cemetery

Cemetery

Cemetery

Cemetery

Cemetery

Cemetery

Cemetery

Cemetery

Cemetery

Cemetery

Making small flags

Final prep on one of the bigger kites

Raising one of the largest kites - this was probably 3-4 stories tall!

People said it takes 4-5 months to put these intricate kites together

Intense support structure

All made of paper with beautiful designs

The kids flew the smaller kites at the beginning of the festival.  It was fun to see them bounce around in the sky.

By the end of our time there, many, many more people and kites were around!  It was great fun just to watch all the festivities.

Collecting moments

Well, it's been ages since I posted, but I've been out collecting memories around Antigua, Hawaii, and California!  I'm working on getting caught up on photos, etc, so you can expect to see more posts coming soon...

Life continues to go well here in Antigua.  After a month away in the US, I found myself falling in love with this quaint town all over again upon my return.  I'm grateful for the opportunity to live in this beautiful place and have a job that I love!  Daily life here seems "normal" now.

So, I often find myself thinking, "No one wants to see pictures or hear stories of my life."  Perhaps this is a side-effect of living abroad now for 3.5 years.  What used to be unique and interesting has now simply become my life.  I am grateful for that too.  I do love where I am and what I do...and I think that's the goal for all of us!  Many people ask me what's next, but I'm not sure.  What I am sure of is that I'm going to enjoy life here to the fullest!  What's next will reveal itself to me in time I'm sure...I'll be in Antigua at least through December of this year.  So start making your plans to come visit!  :)

In the meantime, a photo from the terrace of my work with an amazing view of Volcan de Agua.

Pretty lucky to see this every day at work

For Valentine's Day, we had a little party in the garden.  Our school is so beautiful!

Grateful to be surrounded by beautiful places and wonderful people

Tortuguero National Park - Costa Rica

Alright, I've been remiss about blogging lately!  In June-July, I spent a month in San Jose, Costa Rica for work.  It was great to spend time with great friends I met there on my first stay there for work.  I was also lucky to go to Tortuguero National Park in NE Costa Rica.  This beautiful area is a part of Costa Rica's ecotourism.  They decided to preserve the beautiful natural landscapes for tourism rather than use the land in other ways to make money and destroy the natural environment.  Just a few photos from this amazingly memorable trip!

Our first stop on the trip was for breakfast and we saw this painted map of CR.  I love the scale of the zipliner guy over the trees.

Baby sloth on the drive to the park.  Amazed he and his mama let us touch him.

Nisey - happy to be on a boat!

Once we reached the park, we took a two hour boat ride through the canals and then to a river to search for wildlife

We saw many birds and crocodiles - and this Jesus Christ Lizard (the one that walks/runs on water)

Our cabin/room at the amazing place we stayed.  The animal sounds were incredible in this jungle hotel!

The dock at our hotel where our shuttle boat always picked us up

Nothing like fresh, cold coconut water and meat by the ocean

Nisey is an expert coconut meat scraper-outer

At night, we went to the beach and were guided to see some of the turtles laying eggs.  We were lucky to see three sea turtles and watch one lay her eggs and cover them up again.  The turtles were over a meter long and just amazing to watch!  No photos were allowed, but this shot (stolen from Wikipedia) at least gives a glimpse of the size.  The turtles lay over 100 eggs and they hatch in 3 months time.  Seeing this firsthand was probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen.  Turtle conservation projects happen all over the world to help preserve these amazing animals.  It was estimated the turtle we watched lay her eggs was about 250 years old!  Most turtles are killed at a young age by poachers and predator animals.

The light outside our cabin - love the butterfly!