Letter from Nate and Kia

Just got this great e-mail from Nate and Kia. Grandpa Garold

On Sat, Jan 28, 2012 at 4:05 PM, Nate Perkins wrote:Hey everybody,We thought we´d send a little update on what´s going on down here. We are currently in Antigua, Guatemala, which might be one of the top three highlights of the trip so far. The others would be Panama and the hollow fig tree in Santa Elena, I guess. It´s a beautiful colonial city full of old churches and ruins and little, friendly Mayan women. We found a really great hostel. There´s an excellent rooftop terrace that looks over the whole city, and we managed to end up with a fun group of people who happened to be here at the same time: a poet from Western Australia, Firefighters from Alaska and Idaho, rocknrollers from Portland, folks from Denmark and Norway and Germany. Yesterday we climbed up to the giant statue of the cross that sits on the hillside above the city, and we spent some time talking to traditional weavers. One woman told us that it takes a full month to weave a tablecloth like the one we have at home. Today was market day, so this morning went to buy vegetables and tortillas for breakfast. People talk about markets being colorful, but this was one of the most striking things I´ve ever seen. All of the women in traditional dress had their vegetables and bread and flowers out, and there were little kids running around and families playing. The woman we bought vegetables from thought my beard was so funny that she charged me 5 quetzales instead of 10. We think that you would all like it here very much. We spent the past few weeks in El Salvador and Honduras, which were both beautiful. All the people we met in both of those countries were so sincere and nice. Tomorrow we are headed to Samuc Champey, then Tikal, then Belize and up to Mexico, and we´ll be home on the 16th of Feb.We can´t wait to see everyone. Hope you are well, and we love you.Nate and Kia