Brianna writes……We were excited and we loved the first day of the house. We got to sleep next to the garden. We got to go bug hunting and we got to play music with the piano and the guitar.
The second day we went on the Hobbitenango mountain. We got to go on swings, in the little house, we got to go on a hand. A big hand. Mommy went on a big swing and she flew out and Luca went on the big swing and flew out and Michele went on the big swing and flew out too. Bianca was screaming when Luca was on the big swing.
We have fun playing with Luca. We call him Lucky 🍀 . We have a fun time.
On the third day daddy went to the airport and then after we went to a farm. We got to go in the silks. They are big things that people can go on and pretend they are swinging and going in a cocoon. It was so fun that my back hurt. Bianca was screaming having fun. 🤩
The fourth day we walked to school and it was so much fun. We learned about animals, colors, body parts and we learned about Luca 😂 . When we were walking to school we saw volcanos and they were pretty.
The people at the school are so nice. My teachers name is Keyla. Bianca’s teachers name is Noemy. Luca’s teachers name is Kenia. 🤩
The thing we started to cook is spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner tonight. My favorite thing we ate here was homemade Chipotle bowls. Luca’s bowl was spicy. 🌶️
I’m looking forward tomorrow to go to school again. The end.
Luca writes…Today was a sad and exciting day for me. I have a new Spanish teacher. So it all started with me waking up at 6:26 am and then I ate cereal and a banana for breakfast. I got dressed and then packed up my backpack 🎒 for school. Then me, Brianna, Bianca, and Tia all were participating in school. When we all got to school, we had the best time ever because the kids played games together and we threw paper airplanes across the room. Tia was just having the best time learning Spanish with her teacher 😂. I really miss my old teacher (Ms. Lucia) because she was 300% perfect and my new teacher is 150% perfect so I really miss her Ms. Lucia.
Luca writes… Today, I woke up at about 6:00 and ate scrambled eggs for breakfast. As you can see in the title, the most tiring part of the day was a 5- 10 minute walk which felt like forever just to get to the bus place to drive up the mountain. When we got to the first part of the trip, we went on a smaller truck to go to Hobbitenango, an amazing place in Guatemala. As you can see in the title, the most exciting part was the swing. We went on the biggest swing in Guatemala. Me, Tia, and Titi Carla (Brianna and Bianca’s mom) went on the big swing. Titi Carla went first and when I saw her, tears almost came out of my eyes. Then, Tia went and this time, 2 tears came out of my eyes. Then it was my turn. The best thing about the swing was that I was brave enough to not scream! I went about 100 feet in the air and when I got used to it, I wasn’t scared. I wasn’t scared that I wanted to go again! Then, I went on a tire zip line and it was also fun. We walked some more and then I went to the playground because the place had one. Then, we went on this old trampoline and I loved it. Then we walked around the place and we were about to do jumbo Jenga but there was a big line of people wanting to do it so we skipped that and then we walked to our truck to get down the mountain and then we went to the bus and then drove to the bus place and then we walked back to the Encanto house. Then we chilled and then we had Chipotle for dinner. Then we took a shower and then we watched some of Wonka (a movie) and then we went to bed.
Sometimes being brave goes unnoticed because everyone’s brave looks different. What comes easy for me might be hard for others and vice versa. One of my favorite parts of traveling is forcing myself to be outside of my comfort zone. It’s not something that comes easily for me. I, like most people, like familiar, safe, comfortable things. But I have a strong belief that sitting in discomfort until it no longer feels as distressing is the only way to learn and grow. Familiar only become familiar by doing. But this takes courage. Sometimes small amounts and other times it takes every ounce we’ve got.
Luca has been big brave our first two days in Guatemala. He used an airplane bathroom for the first time. Something I thought was a simple ask of him took a lot of courage for him to do. I had no idea he was afraid to use the airplane bathroom.
He made me think about all the times people don’t do and we don’t understand the reasoning behind it. Also, it made me think about how infrequently we are brave enough to just say “I am scared” or “this makes me nervous.” Not only does it leave us feeling isolated in our own fear, but we rob those we love of the opportunity to help us through hard things.
The second time Luca was brave, he asked me to be brave first. Yesterday we had the chance to swing on a pretty big swing at Hobbetenango. Due to weight, age, height and all the things,only Luca, Carla, and I qualified to go. Luca asked me to go first. Now this was big brave for me. I don’t necessarily have a fear of heights, but I do have the fear that comes with aging. I have far out grown the stage of life of being invincible. The knowledge that a broken bone or even a simple injury could ruin an entire trip, not just for me but those around me. This is the fear that stops me. But Luca asked me to be brave and go first, so I did as he asked. I flew through the air with all the espresso filled adrenaline rushing through my body and I loved every minute of it (though the coffee right before might have been a bad idea). Those moments were thrilling and freeing. No time to hesitate, analyze, or talk myself out of it. Just moments of pure joy.
My excitement continued as I got to watch Luca conquer his fear. For two years he has wanted to do this and backed out each time. This time he told us he was nervous, he voiced wanting to do and then decided he was gonna be brave and try it. Afterwards he told me while he was on the platform he was so nervous he wanted to cry. I told him that there’s lots of times in life that he will feel this way. We were all so proud of him, but most importantly he was proud of himself. Shoot, even I was proud of myself lol. Not gonna lie, my legs trembled for a good 15 minutes even after I was back on solid ground, but it was worth every minute.
So be brave, tell others when you aren’t feeling so brave. Do the hard things till they don’t feel so hard. It reminds your brain that you are capable of tough stuff and not as fragile as the voice in our head tells us we are.
Tell others when your proud of them and create safe spaces for them to tell you when they aren’t feeling so brave. Today I am proud of Luca for being big brave.
Luca writes….woke up at 7:00 and our flight was at 11:20. Grandpa picked us up at 9:00 so we wouldn’t miss our flight. He drove us in his truck and we went to the airport. Brianna and Bianca met us at the sitting station at the airport. Brianna and Bianca are my other cousins, this is their first year in Guatemala. When we settled in the airplane, we took off. 2 hours and 13 minutes later…. We arrived in GUATEMALA. Then, the guy drove us to our Encanto house. This was the most boring day because all of the grownups were unpacking their suitcases. We did drawing activities,played outside, and had some alone time. Then we walked to dinner and we had some delicious dinner. After that, we went to Guatemala’s Central Park and walked around the park. After that, we went to see if the ice pop place was open but it wasn’t open. Then, we went home to take a shower and go to bed.
Luca writes…Today I woke up for an amazing day. We went to breakfast when Uncle Sam ( Brianna and Bianca’s dad) had to leave because he had to work in Florida. Then the most exciting part of the day was the aerials, silks, and acrobatics. But first, we had to go in a uber car 🚘 to get there. Once we got there, we saw bunnies and a dog 🐕. We had to go straight to the best part of the day (which is the silks) and we started to stretch. Mommy did the stretches which took a lot to convince her to do it. Then, we went into the action. First, we did simple exercises on the silks. Then, we went upside down 🙃 doing an exercise called the mariposa which means butterfly 🦋 in English. After we ate lunch and I had bison burger. It was delicious. Then we played on the playground. We went home and I played with Brianna and Bianca. The end.
I’ve only known since the last day of our last trip last year to Guatemala that we would be leaving tomorrow to return.. but as it goes I will always be a last minute kind of girl.
Funny thing is packing this year, while I may have put it off to the very last minute, was a breeze. I texted Nicole asking what was missing because with only a carry on backpack, and a personal bag, I have far too much extra space. Antigua has taught me a lot, including that we actually require very little in life when the focus of life is on experiences not what we looked like while we were living them.
Also as always, you can plan and prep and then… life happens. Depending on what report, or what local group chat I am in the estimation varies on the number of earthquakes Guatemala has had in the last 3 days ( I am talking numbers like 150) with two significant ones being 5.4 and 5.7 ratings. The 5.7 was in a town 25 minutes from us. Thankfully Antigua is fine with minimal damage and the roads are all reopened. Santa Maria hasn’t been as lucky. I’ve learned a lot about earthquakes in the last few days. Mainly I’ve learned that there are far more happening around us than anyone realizes. Unless it’s a 4 or higher no one gives it much notice. Sooo are we crazy to be going to an area that is so heavily active at the moment? Maybe, but I truly feel like there is risk in life always. Some risk are more calculated than others. There’s many times in life that fear of the unknown has stopped me from doing exactly what I knew I wanted to do. So I choose to stay informed and proceed on the be exactly where I wanna be. I can’t wait to return. #year5
Follow along if you’d like. This year we have a few new additions to our Encanto house. I’ll let Luca introduce our first set of guest. T – 12 hours.
I woke up at seven o clock and me, mom and Tia walked to breakfast. Today I had a really special breakfast and I had bacon and ice cream!!!!! After breakfast I was thinking of something creative that I could do so I found a raft made out of wood and was filled with seaweed but I didn’t touch it and then I found a stick and I used it for like an oar and I swam out to sea. I tried to catch fish with my hands but it didn’t work out quite well. Here’s the first sad part of the day, I was trying to catch fish and I accidentally scraped my right foot on a piece of wood and I was bleeding 😔. But I was just fine and I got in the ocean 🌊. Did you know that saltwater is the best healing method for a boo-boos? Me and Kayla jumped off the dock into the water.
Here’s some videos and pictures
Then I saw fish on the shore water and I tried to catch them, but I touched 3 of the fish but I didn’t catch them. Then I saw stingrays and I petted them! Then someone else fed them but the leftovers the stingrays didn’t eat the food so I grabbed it and fed it to them again. Then me and mom took a picture in front of the The Split sign. Then I jumped off a ladder thing and it was so fun 🤩 And then me and Tia fed tarpons!
Then I ate lunch and this is the second bad part of the day, my stomach hurt and I had rice and beans and 2 legs of chicken. It was delicious but still my stomach was still hurting and I had to go to the bathroom 🚽. Mommy and Tia rented a golf cart because there is no cars on the island and I had dinner at the restaurant called Pelican Sunset and I had a hamburger and fries. I looked for fish and I saw needle fish and minnows. Then mom took us on an adventure around town on the golf cart. And then I went home to go to bed.
Today I woke up at about six o clock and got ready for the biggest day on this trip. Snorkeling with sharks!! But first, we had to get there where the ocean is. We went on a fancy boat called a Catamaran and had 4 bathrooms and 4 bedrooms but they only use the bedrooms for tours but still that’s crazy! When we got there I was so excited but also a little nervous. We had to use a face mask and flippers. We saw different types of coral, barracuda, hogfish, a baby green sea turtle, jack fish, a stingray, and about 10 nurse sharks!! The captains of the boat are Carlos and Carlos Senior who made us all lunch and we had rice and beans with 1 leg of chicken. It was perfect for me and for my belly 😄. The girls said they loved everything they did today but there was 1 problem, our feet, our feet were hurting so bad that mom had to take me all the way to the boat that’s how much my feet were hurting and same as the girls. There was 4 different parts of what we got to see the fish! The main captain was sick yesterday and he had a fever so today he was feeling the same thing as yesterday so it was a sailboat so he had to use the wind. I was so tired because whenever I go in seawater, my eyes start to get really tired so I took 2 naps on the boat.
Here’s some pictures
When we got back to Caye Caulker, we had to walk to dinner it was called Happy Lobster and I had grilled shrimp and fries and I ate the whole thing. Me and mommy walked back to our house and I tried new toothpaste but it was minty but all I had to do. Then the rest of the crew came back home and me and mom went to bed.
…And it’s definitely not reciprocated. Just wanted to put that out there. No matter how much bug spray or oils I use. It’s the mosquitoes, bees, all the flies every type of them. I’ve been thinking that maybe I should just accept it and become one with insects. What yall think?
Ants too how could I forgot those little guys. The fire ones actually covered my whole foot at one point when we were at the lake in Petén. Isn’t that so fun?!
Apologies in Advance 