Lake Atitlan

While our guests were here we visited Lake Atitlan, a two hour drive west of Guatemala City.


Lake Atitlan is said to be one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. It has clear blue water and is surrounded by three volcanoes.

We hired a boatman to take us across the lake to visit two Mayan villages. Our boat, Isabel, is the one on the left. There are 12 towns nestled around Lake Atitlan. Each one is named for one of the 12 disciples.

One of the towns we visited was Santiago (James). I was amazed by the beautiful native costumes worn by the women. The ladies wore purple striped shirts decorated with intricately embroidered flowers.

This is one of the few places in Guatemala where many of the men still wear native costumes. In the town of Santiago the men wore white and red striped shorts, some with beautiful embroidery.

There were no McDonalds or Burger Kings in town! We ate lunch in a very small "open-air" restaurant. It took a long time (approx. an hour) for our burgers and fries to arrive. At one point we saw the owner hop on his motorcycle, later returning with food, probably bought at the market.

More Guests

On Saturday, Feb. 28, four of Nick and Ben's friends arrived for a week-long visit.



On Sunday, we took our guests to visit the town of Antigua. This photo was taken at the overlook above town. From left to right: Nicole Weaver, Austin High, Ben, Joe Weaver, Jonathon Towles, and Nick.

A father and his three young sons were playing the marimba and turtle shells in front of the famous Arch of Santa Catalina.

We discovered this lovely picture created from colored sawdust inside La Merced catholic church.

We ate lunch at McDonalds in Antigua, and Tony enjoyed climbing on this statue in their courtyard.

Charlie put our guests to work for a day. On Monday, they went to a feeding center in Santiago where the guys did some stucco work.

Painting at Home of Angels

On Thursday, Feb. 26, our family and the Freed family spent the day painting at Home of Angels orphanage.

Nick and Ben got up on scaffolding and painted an outside wall.

Emily and Risa helped paint a wall in the courtyard.

Alisha and Abby spent most of the day up on scaffolding.

Even Tony got to paint, with a little help from Maredith.

Orphan Resources Warehouse

Nick and Ben are at the ORI warehouse this morning, Saturday, Feb. 21, helping to unload a container of milk. I thought I would include some pictures of the process on our blog.

Denny, Buddy, Ben, and Charlie unloading beans from a container.

After the container is unloaded, the items are sorted and stored for future use. Here Charlie is operating the forklift.

Denny and Ben are loading sugar on the pick-up truck. Currently, ORI makes food deliveries to 38 orphanages on a monthly basis.

Nick, Denny, and Maredith securing the load on the back of the pick-up. ORI provides the orphanages with rice, beans, sugar, milk, corn flour, and cooking oil.

Part of the warehouse is a workshop. Charlie, Nick, and my dad (Eugene Horning) are building bunk beds for one of the orphanages.

Auto Safari

On Saturday, Feb. 14, our family and the Freed family visited the Auto Safari Chapin, the only safari park in Central America.

Tony loved the animals! He thought these tapirs were so silly looking. He also kept telling me, "I want to ride a giraffe."

The girls enjoyed spending the day with their friends. (left to right: Abby, Alisha, Emily, Risa, and Maria)

It is always very warm when we travel down out of the mountains, and we enjoyed relaxing in the swimming pool.

Tony was a little nervous around the water and didn't really start enjoying it until it was nearly time to leave.

Guests and Valentine Fun

We had more guests the weekend of Feb. 6 - 8.

Charlie's brother, Lester, and his sister's husband, Dale Martin, flew over from Belize for a quick visit. We enjoyed having them.

Lester and Dale went along with the work team, and Lester spent the day laying block.

Tony loves helping his big brothers wash the ORI vehicles.

We invited the Freed girls over to make Valentine cookies.

They had lots of fun with frosting and sprinkles.

Mixco Viejo

On Friday, Jan. 30, we also visited Mayan ruins at Mixco Viejo.

It was a beautiful setting, in a valley surrounded by mountains.

The Mayan ruins were impressively restored.

The children had fun climbing the monuments.

And, of course, Tony had to climb up too! Some of them were very steep.

The girls and I were impressed with the practical restroom, complete with flush toilets and running water. Notice the toilet paper dispenser mounted by the doors. The water from the sink drained out a pipe to Alisha's left and ran onto the ground below.