Still updating you on our first week!

Our next adventure was a tour through an ancient Mayan Cave outside of San Ignacio. The picture to the left is our hike through the jungle to the cave. We had to cross through three rivers on our way. The cave itself has a river running through it and is 1500 feet underground. We spent over 3 hours in this cave with only headlamps for light. The cave remains at a constant temperature which is around 22 degrees celcius, despite what the weather may be like outside. It was beautiful inside. It was so high and had sparkly stalactites on the roof of it, as well as lots of bat caves! Once we climbed through the cave for about an hour, we came to a large chamber where there were hundreds of Mayan artifacts in their original spots. There were skeletons from human sacrifices, and lots of broken pottery. The Mayan's did rituals that included blood-letting and breaking pottery because they believed that when broken, the pots released the spirit of the person who created it. They also believed that being sacrificed was an honour because once dead, the person got to join God instead of leading their hard life on earth. For example, if two men both wanted to marry Katie, they would have a competition for her. The one that won the competition would be sacrificed because he got to go to heaven and be with many Katie's, whereas

the one that lost got to stay on earth and live with Katie. That's just a little tid bit of history for

you! The picture to the left is an example of the pottery that we saw up in the cave.

The day after our cave tour we packed up and moved to a different hostel that was about a half hour 4X4 trip into the jungle. It was the coolest place that I have ever been! The picture below does not do it justice, but it can give you an idea. (The one on the left was the luxurious bathroom.) The family who runs this 'farm' as they call it make everything that they eat, and they know all of the plants in the jungle that they can use for spices, tea, birth control, snake anti-venom, and a malaria cure. There is also a vine that they can use to catch fish because it has spikes coming out of it that are so strong that they could withstand the weight of a large fish! They built all of their houses by themselves, and were so welcoming. They caught a wild rat in the jungle which they cooked up and let us eat. It was very good! They also took us on an unreal waterfall hike, as well as a horseback ride through the jungle. The waterfalls there are so high, and grippy due to limestone deposit that we could actually walk up and down them with bare feet. It was crazy; we felt like spiderman!

We were lucky enough to find this farm, and one of the gentlemen in the family even drove us four hours to Punta Gorda on Saturday January 6th, so that we could get there in time to teach on the 8th. Teaching has been interesting so far. It's definitely different than home, but I feel like we're adapting ok so far. This week was mostly observation and many unplanned teaching instances, but this week we will begin teaching our required amounts, so we will be prepared! We are excited and ready for the challenge. I will update you more on Punta Gorda life and teaching later. :)