Guest entry by my mom about her visit, part 7 of 14

DAY 6 (Champollap):

This is our first day at Elizabeth's place. The wake-up call came from her host family's turkeys in back of the house and the neighbor's cow across the street. 

We didn't stay in Champollap long. The three of us -- and 31 other people! -- squished into a 12-person van for a 20-minute ride to San Pedro. That's an intimate group, especially considering the jostling effect of all the potholes. A second van ride, also jammed, took us to Quetzaltenango, aka Xela ("Shay-la").

Vans (a popular mode of public transportation here) are tricked out with extra
benches and folding seats to create places for an impossible number of people to sit.

The young man who works the door and takes our money sometimes
has to hang out of the sliding door, holding onto a bar as the van barrels
along through traffic.

Babies always get the best seats.

 In most of these seats, legs as long as Brian's have nowhere to go.

In Xela, we pick up a replacement blender for Elizabeth (at Wal-Mart) and a bunch of groceries for the week's meals.

Two more van rides later, back home, the three of us use Elizabeth's camp stove to cook up chili and cornbread.

Elizabeth's host family comes up for dinner -- their first time ever eating chili. It's a pleasure to have these delightful people at our table. They stay for hours. 

Elizabeth's host mom tells Brian (in Spanish with Elizabeth translating) that he'll never
get used to Guatemala until he finds a girlfriend here.