As promised the bed was sooooo comfortable, 6.30 came round far too fast!

So, today is a day that I have not really been looking forward to. 

It is the visit to the school and then the home hosted lunch. I bought quite a lot of stuff for the school children, colouring pencils and books, a recorder, a watch, some felt tip pens and other bits and pieces. Unfortunately it all got bundled together with everyone else's offerings

This day was the reason that I nearly didn't book with this travel company. I really don't feel comfortable about it. Nevertheless, stiff upper lip and all that. 

We went to the town of Jocotenango where we met the mayor's assistant. The mayor was out, apparently.

That was riveting. 

And off to the school we go. 

We were met by one of the admin staff of the school and she gave us a brief idea about how the school was first set up. By an English lady, no less, feel proud you Brits! 

It has been built on a piece of land which was donated by a rich coffee plantation owner. It is on his land and serves children who come from homes in extreme poverty. The school also supports the families of the children, providing them with water filters and other hygiene aids, also helping the adults to understand the importance of educating their children to get them out of the poverty trap. 

We were asked to help out with one of the English classes. This proved to be a disaster as they had only done one year of English and it seemed that they were free to come and go in the room, as they saw fit. My four girls just sat and giggled but I did get them to give me their names and count to 20 in English. Luckily it was only for 20 minutes. 

I found out later that the giggling was due to the fact that I had a spider in my hair! Ah well, ever the clown, you know me!!

The gifts I bought were all pooled together and I was disappointed not to see them given to the children. Not sure I would bother again. 

We were taken into the kitchen and introduced to the ladies who cooked the meals. Some of them had children at the school, others had more grown up children. The meals are chosen by a nutritionist so provide a decent balanced diet, and for some, the only regular food they get. The water is all drawn from the tap but then filtered to make it safe to drink. 

It was an OK visit but I didn't feel empowered after it. The Grand Circle Foundation has provided $38000 for equipment such as computers and other visual aids, also the showers and basic school equipment. This is the charity side of the holiday company, which donates part of the cost of our holiday to support the local community. 

The next stop along our way to our lunch was to see a man who made the most amazing pictures on the road, outside his house during Holy Week. He gave us a small demonstration of his skills on his patio. 

First he made a small frame with pieces of wood around a ply stencil and sprinkled dyed sawdust all over the inside of the frame. Then he laid down the template for his picture. This was to be a bowl of pink flowers with green leaves. The sawdust was packed into the stencils, in various colours, tamped down and then glitter was sprinkled over. Removing the template was quite an art as you had to be very careful not to move the sawdust or it would bleed into the next colour. 

Hard to explain really but the result was stunning. I thought this would be a great idea for a wedding, so took loads of photos to show Debs and Chas. 

On the way back to the bus we were invited in to see a wood carver at work. 

These little towns are full of skilled artisans, many of them continuing the same trade as their fathers and grandfathers before them. There is a fear that, as children receive more education, improving their literacy and job prospects, that these trades will slowly die out which would be a pity, as they produce high quality work. 

This man was working in a shed with hardly any natural light. He was currently producing a batch of wooden apples. He could turn a lump of wood into an apple in less than five minutes, unbelievable. His son then painted and varnished them. He had already produced a batch of large over sized coffee beans  and some red peppers, all of which were immaculate. 

He sold them to wholesalers for a pittance. All that skill deserves more than that, then the youngsters would be more interested in carrying on the family traditions. 

He had a small area at the back of his shop which was a treasure trove. I just wish I hadn't filled my suitcase up with clothes! 

We were then set loose into a small market with some money and the name of an item of food, in Spanish. Our mission was to come back with the right food to give to our host family. I had no idea what I had to buy but it turned out it was sesame seeds which was available at the first stall I went to. 

It was only a short drive to our home hosted lunch. We were welcomed into the host family's home. Their home consisted mostly of a large courtyard, an open air kitchen and some small living accommodation.  We were introduced to the family which consisted of four generations.

They had set out tables and chairs for us all in the courtyard and appeared to have nearly finished their cooking. The men in our party were set the task of making lemonade and we were allotted the tortilla things. I struggle with all things Mexican. Depending on which way they're folded, they're called something different. The fillings seem to be much the same. Not the most imaginative cuisine. 

These may have been tacos, anyway, open shell shaped crispy tortilla things, seems to fit the bill. 

We ladies appear to have picked the short straw. We had to make guacamole, salsa, chop parsley, grate the cheese with a fork, oh and make that awful dog turd coloured pureed beans stuff.

The tacos were assembled with loving care and skill by us, the potential finalists in the Great Guatemalan Bake Off. They were to be the first course. Everyone seemed to enjoy them, I managed to eat one with Salsa but they weren't really in my top 10 of starters. 

The main course had been cooked by the family. It was the kind of meal that they would cook and eat on special occasions. Chicken portions, chunks of beef, rice and squash and then all covered in a sort of broth cum gravy. Whilst we were waiting, I gave the host family's 9 year old girl the set of hair bands, hair slides and scrunchies that I had brought with me,on the off chance that the family had a daughter. She was over the moon and thanked me in English which I thought was really nice. 

I struggled through the meal. I kept seeing in my mind's eye, all those chickens for sale on the meat stalls in the markets, the ones that the flies liked to sit on! The beef was too tough to eat and I'm not keen on squash, so it was a kind of rice soup for me. 

They had an adorable little kitten who hid under the tables waiting for these clumsy strangers to drop some bits of food. He was lucky time and time again. 

I have to say that the men made a really good lemonade for us. I wouldn't mind the recipe for that. 

Once the meal was over, my little 9 year old friend suddenly appeared and kissed me on the cheek, whispering. 'Gracias'. I was quite taken aback but absolutely delighted that I'd chosen the right thing for her. 

It was soon time to leave and return to the hotel.  I didn't really enjoy the day, apart from my lovely nine year old, who reminded me a lot of Ayla, and I think in future I will probably stay in the hotel on the school and home visit day, I can feel a migraine coming on already!!

It had been a really busy day, Overseas Adventure Travel seem to pack as much in as possible. So, just when we thought that we may be heading back for an early finish and a chance for a cooling glass of wine, we discovered that we were going to get a ride on a Chicken Bus. 

HM Government website specifically advises against travelling on one of these due to the high possibility of being held up by armed gangs, kidnapping, rape and other delightful things. 

By now, I had a lot of faith in Ivania, so just thought, what the hell, why not? 

It was an old US school bus, beautifully painted. They do a kind of cut and shut, which is illegal in the UK, cutting it through the middle and shortening it, then rejoining it back together again. There is a driver, who works for a percentage of the revenue, the rest goes to the owner. The driver has an assistant who goes around collecting the fares. It is up to the assistant to make sure that they get all the fares in. 

It was a bit disconcerting when the assistant suddenly opened the door at the rear of the bus and jumped out onto the back bumper, leaving the door swinging just behind me! I think he was on the look out for more passengers. Wouldn't find them doing that in London! 

We emerged unscathed and climbed back into our own bus and headed for our hotel. It was an interesting experience and felt much the same as travelling on a dolmus in Turkey. 

Dinner was on our own tonight. This meant that it was not already paid for, so Sharon and I headed into town. We found some lovely pups along the way and I practically had to drag Sharon away. 

The Guatemalans have proved to be very kind to the stray dogs and the few stray cats that we had seen. Most of them were allowed to stay around the vicinity of the homes and shops. They were never chased away and on the whole most of them were well nourished. 

A lot of our fellow travellers had decided to go to a free showing at the local fleapit cinema. I'm not sure now what the film was about but we didn't fancy it much.

We went into the main plaza which surrounds a square shaped park. It is a beautiful old town, with more character than the others we have visited. I think this may have been due to the fact that a lot of the handicraft shops were all accessed via a small door and not spilling out into the streets. Once through that door though, it was like entering a Tardis. The stalls stretched back almost a whole block.

We finally decided on Cafe de la Condesa for our evening meal. This was another Tardis. It stretched back along, long way and part of it was an open air patio. As it was a lovely balmy night we sat down and worked our way through the menu.

After much thought (not!) we ordered a bottle of chilled Sauvie and then decided to have just a pud, apple pie and ice cream in my case. How very nourishing!!

Just as we were scoffing our last mouthful, Ivania came in with the cinema-goers. Obviously we had chosen well, if the Boss was there too!