Back to nature and interesting weather patterns

Friday night, I spent the night at a little nature retreat called the Earth Lodge. As the name suggests, it is a hippy outdoorsy place with lots of foreigners, escaping various stressors of their everyday lives. However, it had an impact on me because it was in a tiny village called Aldea El Hato. This place is WAY smaller than my usual village, Parramos, and hardly even has real roads. Also, the natural landscape in El Hato is amazing. It was really beautiful and hilly. I slept in a cabin and went hiking through the hills in the morning. I got lost in the woods, until two helpful dogs who lived at the Earth Lodge showed up in the forest to guide me back home. Phew...lucky!

Guatemala has an incredible natural beauty, varied with volcanoes, mountains, beaches, forests, lakes, and everything else you could possibly think of. However, the people who live in small villages like El Hato dont have the resources to maintain it, and many times a beautiful lake will be littered with diapers and plastic bags and cigarette butts. Maybe when you live in a place so gorgeous your whole life you stop appreciating its beauty. At any rate, the government here has programs it is implementing to clean up Guatemala and encourage more tourism.

Unfortuantely, we have hit the rainy season yet again. The rains last year lasted from June (when I got here) to October. Since then, we have had about 4 months straight of sunshine and dust. But, alas, two days ago it became obvious that the rains had returned. So, from here on out, I will be getting up earlier to finish errands in the morning, because 2pm will bring an inevitable rain shower every single day, on schedule, like a clock.
Here are picts of the Earth Lodge and El Hato.