Guatemala 6/22/2024 |
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Saturday, June 22, 2024 - Ian Ivan's 9th BirthdayAfter arriving so late last night, we slept in this morning. We had coffee and Paulina made us a lovely breakfast of juevos rancheros. We chatted a lot with Aracely, our first goddaughter. It's hard to believe that she will be getting married a week from today! We have known her since she was 2 years old. Now she is about to turn 19. She is also expecting a baby, and she showed us photos from her last ultrasound. We are so excited for her and her fiance Joel.Eddy came into the dining room and we almost didn't recognize him. We were thinking, "Who's this man that resembles Eddy?" He has grown up so much! He is now working at El Bambu Restaurant down near the lake, and had to work today. We are proud of him for working and going to school. Today is Ian Ivan's 9th birthday. Maybe this is why he had stayed up for our arrival late last night; he had been anticipatin presents! Paola had previously informed us that he is really into dinosaurs, so we brought him a Lego 3-in-1 dinosaur building kit as well as an illustrated reference book about dinosaurs. He immediately set to work, concentrating intently, and built the Lego kit. We walked down the alley to the street to admire Humberto's new tourism office. His Lago Aventura office shares a building with the family's shoe shop. Humberto was running the office and Yasmin was running the shoe shop. Humberto took us upstairs where there are two rental units with en suites and a roof deck with a gorgeous view of the lake. We ate lunch: chicken, veggies, tortillas, homemade guacamole, and fresh lemonade. Yoselin, who had been working in the satellite Lago Aventura office on Santander Street, came home for lunch, as did Yasmin. Both girls have been working hard and we are very proud of them. We chatted more with Aracely. She told us that she was supposed to have a wedding dress fitting today. At 5 o'clock, the dress shop called her and was ready for her fitting. She wanted us to go with her. We were honored. We took two tuk-tuks to get to the shop. Gone are the days when everyone was small enough that we could all squeeze into one. Ian Ivan and Paulina went in one tuk-tuk, and we went with Aracely in the other. The dress shop was on the second floor of an enclosed mall up by the market. Aracely's fiance Joel's mom and sister arrived as well, and we were quite pleased to meet them. The dress was gorgeous, and Aracely looked so grown up! We were glad that she got to have the experience of a wedding, dress fitting, etc. She would normally have had a quinceañera party like her sisters, but she turned 15 during the pandemic, so was unable to have a party. Rather than taking a tuk-tuk home, we walked. As we walked down Santander Street, we stopped at Sarita to buy Ian Ivan some birthday ice cream. Craig and I each got dulce de leche ice cream cones. We rarely eat ice cream at home, but we love to take the kids for Sarita when we visit Panajachel. We knew this would not be the last time during this visit that we would get ice cream. Next door to Humberto's office, his nephew Victor and his wife Rosa and family have started a restaurant called Taqueria El Charro. Humberto and Paulina decided that we would have dinner here tonight. Paola arrived home from her class in Guatemala City at 8 o'clock and the family walked over to the restaurant. Nelly and Alex were working with their parents. Julisse's young daughter was there too, wearing a cute little apron. We heard a light tapping as we were eating, and it turned out that she had somehow locked herself in the bathroom. Craig, Humberto, and Paulina had some beer. The family brought a bottle of wine from home for me, since I am allergic to beer. We had chorizo tacos, which were delicious. There was a bar of fixin's, and we all made our tacos to our liking. Manuel, the driver who had picked us up last night, ate with us as well. When Eddy got home from work, he met us there. After dinner, we walked back to the house. We learned that dengue fever has been very bad in Guatemala this season, and Panajachel is apparently a red zone. Paola had been sick with it but has since recovered. Yasmin is just getting over it, but isn't feeling her best. Vanesa and Danny are both sick with it now. Paola, a nurse, was going over to visit Vane and Danny's house to check on them. The other girls were going with her. They asked if we wanted to go, but we decided against it. It is not contagious, but we figured that if they were feeling that sick, they wouldn't really be up for company. The sisters are one thing, but we didn't want to bother them. So Craig and I went to bed. |
 Happy birthday, Ian!  In the tuk-tuk with Aracely  Paola with Octavio  Dinner at Taqueria El Charro Photo Gallery June 22 |
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