after my sister came to visit me, she said “it was nice to see you in your second country.” i feel like that is what guatemala is for me now, a second home. it is the only place i have lived outside of maryland and dc.

when i arrived more than a year ago, my plan was to live or travel in latin america for a year. i planned to spend the first two months in guatemala, but was open for what came next.

soon after arriving, i made some good friends, a couple of whom were also foreigners and fell in love with xela and stayed longer than they originally intended. it didn’t take long to realize i would do the same.

i have a lot of friends here that remind me of friends in dc. my life-style is also very similar, except for the luxury that i barely need to work.

i have two more weeks to wrap up my life here, which mostly includes studying more spanish, being with friends, some volunteer work and dj-ing. it will be an interesting transition to be back in dc, especially once i am back to full-time work.

* * *

my brother came to visit a couple weeks ago. it was great to have time to catch up with my bro and show him a bit of my life here. i was happy to introduce him to my girlfriend, too.

he’s a teacher and just took a long weekend, so we went to lake atitlan for one night and then to antigua to see the old city and climb the pacaya volcano. here’s my pacaya video, if you didn’t see it before.

the lava was flowing well and we walked onto the volcanic rock and stuck our walking sticks in the lava. it felt like flowing peanut butter. or… what was that marshmallow spread called?