Goodbye Xela, Hello Panajachel, See you tomorrow Antigua

It's Allison and Sarah here! We began Saturday morning with our last breakfast at our host families. Also the last time we would hear 'buen provecho' from them when getting up from a meal. The families then walked us to the school where we said our goodbyes. It was a little emotional saying goodbye to the families as they allowed us to live with them for an entire week and did so much for us. We then got on our bus for a two hour bus ride to Lake Atitlan and the Panajachel area. We then went on two boats to cross the lake over into a village on the other side.

Immediately after getting off the boats, we hopped into the beds of pick up trucks. That was quite the local experience with bruises for all. We traveled into the highlands to learn about the solar filtration water systems at a local clinic. We then went to the homes of three families to see how the filtration system worked in their home. It was eye opening to see how the water filtration was helping each person in these families and to hear the families' personal stories.

We then traveled back to Panajachel by boat to explore the area's shops. The locals definitely got a lot of our money yesterday :) We finished the day with a relaxing dinner and reflection. We were all so excited for dinner because it was maybe the first time the entire week that they knew what they were eating (spaghetti!). Everyone ate an entire mountain sized portion and loved every bite! We reflected upon the first week of our trip with topics such as, what first comes to your head when thinking about the week and what advice could you give to future students going on the Guatemala trip. It was sad to say goodbye to our first week, but we are all excited about the week to come. Today was a big transition day for all.