Lago Atitlan Part III

Well, I went to the lake again. A group of students from the school and two of the girls from the Tikal trip went. It was relaxing and fun to hang out with friends I´ve made that will be leaving soon. I finally got the guts to jump off the really tall rock in San Marcos. I thought the other one was scary, but this one was terrifying. I went three times to prove to myself I could do it, but it only got scarier each time. Definitely worth it, but never again :-)

Yesterday, I went on another field trip with my teacher. She has family in Huehuetenango (about a two hour bus ride from Xela). She brought her five kids who are really fun (ages 1 - 16), but the baby Marco had an upset tummy on the bus ride and projectile vomited all over his sister, me, and the young guy in our seat. You wouldn´t think a kid that size could hold fifty gallons of milk in him, but he did - for a little while at least. I felt the worst for the guy in our seat. He had baby puke on his leather jacket, hair, and face. I gave him tissues to clean up with, but he still had a patch on his cheek when he got off at his stop. The rest of the day was much more relaxing. We visited ruins and hung out with my teacher´s family. On the bus ride home, the nine year old used my camera to take all kinds of pictures. She was trying to work with reflections in the windows and all kinds of cool stuff. Her pictures turned out pretty well considering how much we were bouncing and flying around the curvy mountain roads.

Today I am dealing with a moral dilema. My host mom really wants to go along on the trip I´m taking to Semuc Champey this weekend, but she and her husband decided they shouldn´t spend the money. No problem, except that today when Pepe was gone she told me she has quite a bit of money that she keeps for emergencies because Pepe is careless with spending. She had talked to her daughter who suggested she tell Pepe that I was paying for her trip as a present and use her secret bank account. I didn´t have the guts to say no. So, during lunch she told Pepe how nice I am that I´m paying for her trip. I hated lying to him - especially since he was out volunteering with the Red Cross while we were home scheming. I was thinking about paying for her trip to make it not a lie, but that won´t erase the fact that we lied to Pepe´s face (not to mention the fact that I´m cheap). I´m going to leave it be and let it be their problem. Oh well - just put it on my bad karma tab.