Here's a map of Guatemala. This might help you understand where we are. Mexico borders on the west and you can see the other countries on the east.
Find Guatemala City........go west(left) until you see Chimaltenango. It's the first labeled city directly east. That's where we stay.

We're at 6,000 feet at the house and closer to 7,000 for the work sites.

We were told that you sunburn 27 times faster here than in the states because of closeness to the Equator and the elevation.
I find that hard to believe.
( Ex. If you sunburn in 3 hours, twice as fast would be 1 1/2 hours, 4 times faster would be 45 minutes, 8 times would be 22 1/2 minutes, 16 times faster would be 11 and 1/4 minutes, making 27 times faster roughly 8 minutes.
I didn't get burned in 8 minutes. It might be quicker here, but not 27 times quicker, sorry.)

Guate has 53 volcanoes
and 5 of them active. Seeing one spew twice yesterday was wild.

Driving anywhere involves lots of long steep hills and driving at high rpm"s in low gear. Pray the clutch on the van lasts until we get to the aeroporto.

Driving to the work sites takes us through, and to, incredibly lush and fertile countryside. Everyday we see them harvesting and bagging carrots as big as my forearm. I'm not exaggerating. Big as my forearm. Personally, I have no use for baby carrots, so carrots that big are just overkill.

They farm on incredibly steep hillsides. I'll try to find some pictures and post. It's unreal.

The indigenous people we are building houses for are very small. It's funny because we build the houses with doors and windows and hardly any of them are tall enough to look out the window.

Saw some pretty sweet boots yesterday with lightning bolts on the front, but not in my size so I didn't get them.

Driving is an adventure just about everywhere we go. People pass on curves, uphills, downhills, traffic coming, traffic stopped...... it doesn't matter.
Chimaltenango doesn't have any signal lights for traffic. Not one. You pullout when you can and just understand that people will pull out in front of you and expect you to slow down and let them in.

There's a cool looking town square that's lit up and busy at night with lots of vendors and activity, but we were told it was not safe for North Americans to go there at night. We'd stick out like sore thumbs and be targets for theft and violence. I was bummed about that. It looked fun.

Go to Wikipedia and check out "Chicken Buses". They're everywhere down here. My favorite is "ESMERALDA". They fly everywhere they go - in town, outside town..doesn't matter. And if you're directly behind one when they shift gears, it's Black Lung for everybody riding with you.

Ask Wes Davis what his definition of a fever is when you see him at church.

I'm out.