Sea Turtles

It has been a little cool here this past week and Dad really likes it.  He says it reminds him of camping, when you pull the covers up to your chin and breathe the cool air.

We kept busy this weekend.  Friday we went to a place here in the city called Kaminaljuyu.  It is like a little park that has been saved from Guatemala City gobbling it up as it has grown.  They have excavated a couple areas down to where there are some ruins and have a small area where they have displayed some items they found in graves here, they look like ceramics.   It is also a special spiritual place for some people.  While there, we saw some people burning offerings of plates with cinnamon, sugar, chocolate, foods and some candles.  Also they bring flowers and chant out loud under a tree, then leave the flowers at the trees. Some people believe that Kaminaljuyu was the City of Nephi.  

Saturday we went south to the Pacific Ocean to a beach with black sand.  Our group of 14 had made arrangements to be there when they released baby sea turtles into the ocean.  The season to do that is now through the end of January and they are such cute little critters!  We held them and they feel a little leathery.  They had about 30 of them, they passed them out and then drew a line in the sand, had us all set them down at the same time and let them race to the water. I took a video, but of course it is too large to send, so I found a website that tells a little about them. Also if you go to YouTube there are videos of seat turtles making their way to the water. 

The other interesting thing we saw on the way to the beach was the plant that the Luffa comes from.  Silly me, I had thought it came from a plant in the ocean.  It is really a gourd that they somehow dry out and keep the fibrous tissue in tact.  Here is a picture of the plant supported on a trellis and then the individual gourds hanging to dry.  So, if any of you use a Luffa, here is where it comes from!

This past week we started seeing the boys from the new school we screened in August.  Wow, they need a little more work than we thought!  We figure there are about 400 that need to be seen. That should keep us busy for quite a while and starting in January we begin seeing all the kids we saw earlier this year again. It is good to be busy!  I sure wouldn't want to be down here with little to do.
Hope you all had a peaceful Sunday!

     Love you!   MOM, Grammy