Tuesday 8/8/2017 - A Quiet Day in Panajachel We had a very comfortable and deep sleep on our first night back in Guatemala. I woke up early for work, as we are again 2 hours behind our home time zone. It was cool and cloudy this morning, but it burned off in the early afternoon and the sun came out. For breakfast, we had scrambled eggs, fried plantains, refried black beans, and cheese. Eddy played his ocarina that Paulina had bought him in Ecuador, and he let Ian try it as well. When Aracely had visited Ecuador last year, she had developed a taste for a certain flavor of lime Doritos there. This flavor is not available in Guatemala, so she had asked if we could bring some home for her. Though we wondered how well a large bag of Doritos would fare in our luggage, we brought her home a bag. The bag survived perfectly, with no chips crushed during transit. Aracely opened the bag this mmorning and shared some with everyone. She and Ian sat outside next to me on the patio while I called into a meeting at work. For lunch, we had chicken and green beans in a red sauce, with rice and tortillas, served with fresh lemonade. Paulina was glad to have her beloved tortillas on the menu again, after a week without them. Eddy led us up to the roof and proudly showed me the beautiful sunflowers that he and Paulina had planted prior to the Ecuador trip. They were flowering now, glowing in the sunlight. When I was done working for the day, we took Aracely and Eddy to Calle Santander. We had some errands to do, and thought that we could get some ice cream while we were at it. We stopped at a local bookstore and offered to buy each of them a book of their choosing. We want to encourage them to read for pleasure. Eddy picked out a Spanish language version of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", and Aracely chose a book of Spanish poetry. The shopkeeper was very sweet and gave them each a Spider Man sticker and two candies. We continued along Santander Street to buy gifts for the kids' cousin Rocio's new baby. We have not seen Rocio for several years, but she was always around during the first few years that we came here. Se's a lovely young lady and we were delighted to hear that she had a baby boy just a couple of weeks before our arrival. We will be visiting them tomorrow night. We saw the kids' cousins Allison Margarita and Chilo on Santander Street, as well as Nancy, the lovely administrative assistant at Aracely and Eddy's school. Pana seems like such a second home to us; every time we go out, we see people that we know. We probably know more people here than in our own town! After shopping, we stopped at Sarita for ice cream. Craig got a banana split, I got a shake, and the kids got cones. It was starting to sprinkle rain, but then it let up. We walked home, and not 5 minutes after we arrived, a torrential downpour started. That was several hours ago, and it has not let up. It must be the tropical storm in the area. There is a lot of thunder and I think I saw lightning. Vanesa gave us some churros (soft fried dough sticks sprinkled with sugar). Paulina made us tea, and Eddy asked me to read the first chapter of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" to him. He was captivated and I really enjoyed it, though I struggled with some of the unfamiliar Spanish words. Everyone was tired after a long day yesterday (we stayed up late as Paulina and Eddy recounted tales of their adventures in Ecuador), so soon after a dinner of homemade tomalitos, we said our goodnights at around 8:30.

Ian and Aracely enjoying Ecuadorian Doritos Eddy shows us his sunflower See all photos from August 8, 2017