so we had a free weekend and a few of my friends and i decided to go to a little town called Juayua (pronounced why-u-a) and here are some of the adventures we had:
- its like a 2 or 3 hour trip (on 2 buses) and we got there at about 10:30am so when we got off the bus we started to look for a place to stay. we found this cute place called the Mirador thats right on one of the main streets where the market is. we went to our dorm style room to put our stuff down and 2 of my friends went downstairs to try and call a guide for these trails/waterfalls that we heard about. then this boy came up to them and said he could be our guide for the afternoon (we think the staff heard us talking about a guide and called him for us) but it was super random. he said we were leaving in 3 minutes so they came back upstairs and told us to get ready quick and we were off.
- our guide was 13 year old Omar who works as a guide on the weekends. he was awesome and wore sweet shoes so we liked him right away. we followed him on like a 45minute hike through the forest to get to the waterfalls. the first one was gigantic, Omar told us that sometimes people rapel(sp?) down the waterfall which sounded awesome but no one was doing it then. the second one we came to we could swim in. its really hard to describe but the waterfall had like Mayan-looking rock structures that had created like a pool area at the bottom of it so it was a sweet place to swim. we jumped into the pool of crystal blue water and then Omar said that we could jump off the rocks into the water. he went first to show us but he basically scaled the side of the waterfall like 30ft up and then jumped off of this rock that was poking out of the waterfall. of course i was all about that, so i was the first of our group to scale the side and jump in. it was incredible and we got some great pictures from it. the third one we went to was similar to the one before it but to get to the pool of water you could go through this underground tunnel. we followed Omar in this practically pitch black tunnel we could walk through but there was water in it also, at some points up to my chin. the end of the tunnel came out behind the waterfall so we swam through/under it. words cant do the experience justice but it was really sweet.
- we were super tired from the excursion so when we got back to the hotel we ended up taking like a 3 hour nap. we pretty much passed out, ha. then we got up and decided to walk around a bit and find a place to eat dinner. we came across this cute Mexican restaurant that had delicious food, our waitress was adorable, and they were playing Selena...basically an excellent place. then we all wanted to find a bar to chill at or somewhere with music and we heard some playing in the distance to we started to walk toward it. as we got closer we could tell that it was live music so my friend MaryBeth and i started like jumping and dancing in the street until Alexis told us to "be cool. be nonchalant." haha. when we got there we saw a big stage and were so excited for what looked like a live concert. we walked to the back and looked at the stage only to find out that we were standing in the middle of an outdoor Evangelical mass...wah wah. the "concert music" that we were hearing was the christian rock songs being played before the mass started. we were laughing so hard that we almost peed our pants.
- after the slight let down of the fake concert we decided to go to this ice cream place that we spotted earlier in the day that was playing music. we got ice cream but there was no music playing but they did have a jukebox. we picked a couple songs (michael jackson, 50 cent...the usual, haha) and had our own dance party on the porch of the ice cream place with just the 5 of us. then some salvadorans that were looking on put in some money for a couple extra songs too. it was pretty funny.
- sunday morning we woke up early and had breakfast at the rooftop restaurant that was in our hotel. the view was beautiful and the pancakes were delicious. then we packed our stuff up and went to the huge artisan market and food fesival that is held every weekend. so many beautiful things, i bought some sweet sandals and a painted yoyo. then from the food festival i found this incredible veggie sandwich that was muyyyy ricoooo. then we ran into Luiz (the guy who gave me the ring on valentines day that makes jewelry outside the UCA) in the artisan market. we were hanging out with a bunch of rastafarian guys who were making jewelry and i looked to my left and there he was. we both got really excited and hugged and then i was really confused as to why he was there. he apparently goes there a lot because they have a really good market on the weekends. he came up with his brother who is also a artist. he told me where his brother was painting so i went over to say hello but i found that his brother looks nothing like him. Luiz is really skinny with dreads but his brother was like clean shaven, wearing a button up shirt making these beautiful paintings with spray paint. i introduced myself and said that i knew his brother and he said that his name is Hector. his painting are beautiful so i said i loved them but i didnt have any more money with me. he told me to pick one that i liked and i could take it with me right then and give the money to Luiz next time i saw him. I picked a beautiful one of a waterfall with a vibrant red bird in one corner, its hanging in my room right now. He even signed it "para Andrea." we basically hung out with Luiz and the other rastafarians until we left in the afternoon, and he taught us how to make some jewelry. super random to see him there but it was so fun hanging out.
**sidenote: we´re going on a silent retreat this weekend in Guatemala which i´m super excited about. 1)because i´ve never been to Guatemala and i hear the place we´re going is incredible and 2)because im super excited for the challenge of being silent for 2 days. never done it before but im definitely up for the adventure. **
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