Mucha!

 

Hi First Graders!

In the title, I said Hi kids!
I am in Guatemala. The language here is Spanish, but there are some special words that are different from the ones used in other countries. Mucha! is one of those words. How would people in Mexico or Puerto Rico say, "Hi Kids" ?

Ms. Gentry took me along on her vacation.  and I am having a good time. We are staying at a hotel by a lake. This is what I see when I look out the window. Do you see the mountains across the water? They are volcanoes! They are not active now. They are resting, but the people here say that sometimes smoke comes out of the top.

Lake Atitlan

 

On Sunday we went to church. Doesn't the church look fancy? It has many colorful curtains hanging on the walls and from the ceiling, and the altars are painted gold.



 

After church, we went to visit a coffee plantation. Did you know that coffee comes from a plant?

Coffee grows only in places where it is hot all year round. Look at the purple fruits. They are called coffee cherries, but they are not good to eat. The reddish-purple ones are ripe, and ready to pick. The green ones will have to stay on the plant, and grow some more.

 

After they are picked, the fruit is taken off of the seed, which is called a coffee bean. The beans are set out in the sun to dry. Behind me, you can see piles and piles of them. Later, they will be roasted to get the dark brown color.

 

 

Afterwards, we stopped at a little snack stand to get some food. We saw this sign, and didn't know what pupusas were, and wanted to find out. We ordered some, and they are corn tortillas stuffed with pork, cabbage, bens, carrots and onions. They were warm and yummy! The servers were very friendly, and posed for a picture with me.

 

When our meal was finished, we took a walk around the town before going back to our hotel. We saw some musicians playing a xylophone. It was very lively, happy music. We listened for a long time.

 

That 's all for now. I will write to again after I have had more adventures here in Guatemala.

Your friend,
Flat Stanley