Lagos de Montebello and Chincultik Pyramids

Our experience last monday (Jan. 18th,10):

Last monday a spanish brother from our Hall had arranged a trip to Montebello Lakes (as a sidenote there are 59 emerald green lakes, only 12 are accesible). Our experience started at 6 am in the back of a truck with no roof, cold as a glacier and with only one blanket for 9 of us!!!! Please keep in mind Jeannie and Richard had arrived the night before from a looooooooong day trip and gone to bed between 12 am and 2 am. We had been told that we were going to take a bus for a 2 hour ride, turns out a nice brother voluntarily offered his truck and took us to Hidalgo (the town where Alfonso -our spanish brother tour guide- grew up), it took us 4 hours.... here's the funny part:

Jeannie was car sick and since it was taking longer, she became very aggressive, Alfonso became very afraid for his life and began hiding as a cacoon in the corner of the truck, he was warned by Art and Richard of Jeannie's japanese Samurai Warrior abilities so he was very much afraid. I have to admit I had never seen that agresive behaviour from Jeannie before but I got to know my friend better hahahahahaha...then she began acting like the donkey from the Shrek movie, remember? "Are we there yet!!!!", then she added............"you told me 15 min.ago we were getting there!!!". The paramount came when we went together to the "Powder Room", we washed our hands like ladies should, then we wanted to dry them, turns out the Hand drier worked only with me :) hehe, so she crashed and became now very agressive with the poor hand drier, I saw the Samurai Warrior that Alfonso was warned about, I thought keeping my hands wet was the safest thing to do, so I let her used mine.

After that nervious breakdown we continued with our journey, we finally arrived with new looks in our hair but to our surprise Alfonso's family had arranged a wonderful breakfast for all of us (we were 13 big human beings in that little pick up truck), the sisters woke up at 5 am to make Delicious Tamales wrapped in banana leaves, coffee from scratch (from their own garden), home made tortillas, salsa, beans, everything cooked in a wood fire place (you can see the pictures down below), so here we go well fed we took off to see the Lakes. To Alfonso's benefit, his relatives contributed to keeping him alive, Jeannie was assigned to another car hehehe so he was safe, the Samurai warrior had gone away for a little bit (watch your back).

Alonso's relatives were wonderful and so hospitable, they took us all to every accesible lake to admire Jehovah's Creation. Jeannie had no energies to get in and out from the Van but she says everyone of them was especial, it had a different color and a different beauty, we ended up in Guatemala and bought few handcrafts over there. We met some brothers from the RBC that had just finished a KH in that community and were touring Guatemala boarder like we were. Then we went to an area called "5 lagos" where you can see 5 different gorgeous lakes, we were so thrilled with that scene, makes you be at awe with Jh's artistic abilities. We were done looking at water and we headed back, our tour guides (Alfonso and his cousin Aaron) took us to some Pyramids closed by called "Chincultik", the archeological area is closed for now because the Mexican government has so many Ruins to dig out that they dont have enough resources for these ones, so they were for free, in the "Free pass" was included a trip through 2 barred wire fences and walked and walked and walked up (you can look at the pics where our dearest Samurai Warrior was coming alive again....) but let us tell you was one of the most rewarding hikes we've done, when we got to the top we could see one of the blue lakes where they made some sacrifices, also 4 sacrificial altars, most of the Pyramids are covered with vegetation so we had to go around them, we saw the sunset from the top and came down. Another interesting sight was learning that there's a Volcano close by and the fish in the lake have been dying for the sulphur for about 3 years, before that timeframe, this lake was blue in color. Art was telling them Mount Saint Helens started like that 5 years before it blew up, the brothers were a little scared to know that. (By the way, yesterday at 3 am was a small earthquake here in San Cristobal, we slep right through it, we hope there's not a connection with that). After the Pyramids, Alfonso's family fed us all again with beef, beans, tortillas, and coffee, everything was sooooooooooo goooooooooooood.

Ok, we hope you enjoy our "brief" review of monday's adventures, hopefully you have some time to write us a brief comment and encourage us to take time to keep writing you, because ultimately we do it for youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. But we love you all. Please keep in touch when you can and we have to write still the Canyon's adventures, they were really interesting too. Good night, sleep tight........ don't let the Samurai bite and if she does, keep her happy.