Trip Pictures - Part 5

Thursday p.m./Friday ~ We visited and stayed in Santo Domingo (the place we've been assigned to go after language school). Kyle got sick during the night, but seemed a little better the next day. Unfortunately, it was I who got sick on Friday! Not fun! I spent a lot of time in the bathroom...which was interesting in and of itself. Let's just say, no toilet seat, and then you had to use buckets of water to flush... I spent the day with Benjamin's dear family (well, mostly in bed) while everybody else went sight-seeing. That also explains some of the pictures...Michael had the camera!!

Mountain scenery.

This is the Casa Grande. A German man moved and started the town of Santo Domingo in the early 1900's, I believe. He built this house and also started their coffee industry. I'm sure there's more history to be told, but you would have to ask someone else. I wasn't along on the grand tour!

This is a very strange styled house for Mexico. Also, a lot of the houses in Santo Domingo and areas surrounding it, use wooden planks instead of the typical cement block/brick for their houses. This resulted from the German influence in their beginnings.

Benjamin, his wife, and one of his daughters with her child. Benjamin is a convert of Hery Santiago working in Marydel, MD. This is our main contact in Santo Domingo.

Friday evening ~ Just a snap shot as we were crossing into Guatemala. We spent a lot of time at the border trying to get our papers and permits...it was nuts! At one point, some fellow we were using to walk us through, left, with our truck title and a few other very important papers. Needless to say, we were a little concerned! Fortunatey, he gave them to some other guy who contacted us, and helped us to finish everything!

We spent the night right across the border with Grace's family and acquaintances. Saturday, we spent driving 8 hours or so to Jalapa where the conference/retreat was held.

Click here to see Philip & Collette's first post about our trip! (They have some coffee plant/bean pictures that Michael didn't think to take.)

One more trip post to follow!