Mexico/Guatemala!!

Finally! Just so you know, I had to upload these in 3's and it was quite annoying. So you better enjoy them! They aren't in order....just trying to make it fun for you :)

Just a little preface. I went on this trip with 4 girls from my ward, my Bishop, and his friend. All together there were 36 people on the tour. Our tour guides were Jack Marshall and Nacho. We went down to Mexico City first where we spent 4 1/2 days and traveled to all the sites. Mexico is pretty neat! Although, it smells like Taco's one minute and then it will smell like sewage! Gross! Mexico city is huge! It's a 60 mile diameter. There are also 60,000 LDS people in Mexico! That is awesome!

Then we flew to Guatemala for 4 1/2 days and saw the sites there. It was really cool and we did a lot of site seeing but also a lot of adventurous there too! I absolutely loved Guatemala! I would go back there in a heart beat!

Well enjoy the pictures! There are a lot of them and they took me forever to upload! :)

Me eating some yummy fruit that I can't pronounce the name of. It was a mixture between a squash/kiwi/pumpkin. It had an interesting texture but was mostly sweet. Nacho (Our Mexican tour guide) bought it off the street in Antigua for us to try.

This is also in Antigua. What I'm pointing at is a volcano. They are seriously all over the place! It's pretty cool to see the smoke spew out of them.

Guatemala Temple with our group! We didn't have time to go inside (next time). Across the street is the MTC and we also went there and had a little tour. It was pretty cool. We walked in on a class that was in session. They took a break to sing us "Called To Serve." It was really neat!

Nacho, Julio and I comparing tans. Pretty sure I'm tanner than both of them! Ok....just red :(

We went zip lining in the jungle of Guatemala....just saying that sounds cool! It was awesome though! And pretty cheap compared to others! It was 7 stations and the coolest feeling in the whole world! Above is some of the tour group that was there.

Pretty much the coolest thing (right up there with the zip line, of course) I've ever done! Swimming in a waterfall! It was so surreal! I absolutely loved it! It made me want to waterski :)

Just a big head :) Emilee, Me, Sarah, and Taya by the big head :)

Jumping pictures....we did this a lot! This is the Sun pyramid in Teotihuacan and below you can see just how tall it is. It is the second largest pyramid in the world with 239 LARGE steps! It was a work out for my glutes, that's for sure! There are 3 large pyramids and 12 smaller ones surrounding it (Symbolism maybe????)

The group :)

What did I tell you? Jumping pictures are fun! This is in front of Mexico's version of the statue of Liberty.

I tried to learn Spanish. :) Let's just say that in the mornings, I spoke it perfectly when we would get our wake up calls! Everyone loved my spanish! Especially Nacho! Siete's all around! (If you can't tell...I'm being very sarcastic....except the morning Spanish part....hahaha)

Lake Atitlan....or The Waters of Mormon!

The cutest little Guatemalan baby you'll ever see! This is Diana and she is seriously so cute! See that blanket she is wrapped in? Her mother let me try holding her with that blanket tied around me! It was crazy how they just fling that baby on their back and go about their daily lives! I felt like Diana was going to fall off and it made me nervous! But it was pretty cool!

Guatemalan Temple again!

Here you can see just how huge the pyramids we were seeing! They are seriously all over the place down there! And it is said that only 2% of them have been excavated! So 98% are still under "hills" and what not! Crazy!

Oh just a GIANT tarantula! Good thing I looked down when I was walking!

This is Nacho and Jack Marshall! Our amazing tour guides! They helped bring the Book of Mormon to life for me!

A Ceiba tree! These things are GINORMOUS! Seriously the biggest trees I've ever seen! They look big spiders at the top, too. Pretty neat!

Just a cute little Guatemalan girl on the streets.

We made friends with the local authorities. Not because we had to might I add!

This is Earl. He'd join us every morning for breakfast and we would feed him our left overs. Sometimes his friends would come, too. PARTY!

The trunk of the Ceiba tree! You can see now, just how huge they really are!

The River Sidon! We took boats down the river where we saw a couple Crocodiles laying out on the beach! The side that our group is on is Mexico. The other side of land is Guatemala. Does this count for being in two places at once?

In one of the MANY museums we visited. This statue in particular was my favorite because it is the Water God! We became instant friends!

This is a canvas drawing that dates back A LONG time ago! If you see closely, you can see the tree of life, the Jaradites coming off their ships, etc. It's actually pretty cool!

I have a thing for trees.

Just illustrating how tall the steps could be

And sometimes how narrow. It's really fun when there is a mixture of stairs :)

Back to zip lining again! I was pretty excited about it, if you couldn't tell! :)

Now this is what I picture when I read about the temples and pyramids in the Book of Mormon. This was pretty neat!

This was on top of Pyramid number 4. Don't worry, Nacho saved us! :) On the top of this, it over looks the tops of a couple other pyramids. Its actually where they filmed a section of the first Star Wars.

In the jungle!

Breath taking, right? This is supposedly where King Noah dwelt. He had quite the view if you ask me! This is in Palenque.

Another view from a different pyramid! I think I hiked just about every pyramid I could! I didn't want to miss out on ANY view! :)

I have a fear of dogs. When I heard this "thing" growling, I may or may not have freaked out. And it was a flipping person! But it was in the jungle...so you can see why I freaked out., right?

Either the same head or a different one. They are all over the place :)

Another view of the Sun pyramid.

Welcome to Mexico (I should have put this picture at the top....sorry!)

In one of the Museums. This is the Aztec calendar.