1/12/15 - Jaime Cuesta

Today the SAINTSMEN were arrived in San Lucas from Guatemala City.  We traveled by a van that could hardly fit 8 but all squeezed 13 of us squeezed in for 3 hours. After our arrival we were led by a young man named Jackson into the coffee warehouse where the coffee was made. It made us Saintsman realize how much hard work and effort had to be done in order to drink a small bag of coffee. Later that day we introduced ourselves at dinner to our other fellow volunteers and ended the night with a pleasant meal with the brothers of St.Augustine.

1/11/15 - Joe Ortiz

January 11, 2015

On the fourth day of the trip God said, "let the Saintsmen land in Guatemala."

Waking up at 8 am we began the exodus. We broke up into two groups one leaving at 9am taking the metro for the chance to recover their luggage from United Baggage. While the other departed at 10:30am aboard a taxi to head to the flight.

The first group ran into quite the problem when they met a drunk on the metro who insisted upon being their friend and guide. After he went from student to student insisting he had a lot of money and wanted to be a friend/guide. Soon he got off on what he believed where the stop was. The group stayed on while he excitedly exited telling them this was the stop. He exited and turned around. Making eye contact with the group as the doors closed. May he be ok after the loss of his "tour group."

Less than an hour later they retrieved their luggage after the whole mishap in Houston.

After linking up with the other group who enjoyed the seats of a taxi we boarded the Interjet flight 2912 headed for Guatemala City. Ryan, Kevin, and Joe enjoyed the sketchiest takeoff of their lives. Ryan praying the rosary, Kevin laughing and pointing, and Joe laughing and chuckling that we're gonna die. Hopefully the others aboard didn't experience this.

Eventually land came into sight, we could see the coast of Guatemala, the Promised Land. The sight from above was amazing. Down below ranges of mountains reached the clouds, volcanoe tips spewed gray smoke into the sky. However soon that picturesque sight was adorned by the farmlands and slums surrounding Guatemala city. The sight differentiating the main modern city and the rest of the city was as clear as white and black.

After we landed we were greeted by the sight of many workers jumping at the chance to help as it appeared we were the only plane to land in the last couple of hours. As we exited the the airport all 15 of us squeezed in a van that was topped off with all of our luggage. We then came to the conclusion that the weather was really similar to San Diego.

We soon arrived at the hostel. entering its quarter inch steel door. Inside it was great. All 13 saintsmen in a small 15' by 15' room with 3 bed bunk beds. From that point on it was a blur. A group of us held a council on the second floor creating our own government complete with custom headwear for each member while the rest listened to music and made jokes in the bedroom.

Around 9pm dinner finally arrived. The hostel host's mother made us either chicken, beef, or fish which came with salad and rice. 

After the meal we gathered around the table and reflected on the trip this far.

1/10/15 - Liam Maguire

Wake up today was 9:00 a.m. (7:00 in San Diego). Some of us were tired from the walking the day before, but we were all well rested and ready for a new day. Our breakfast was the usually cereal and toast with jelly. When we were all fed, we began our day with a two hour trip to the pyramids. We walked, took the subway, and rode on a bus to these amazing architectural builds. Wen we arrived, Father Kirk gave us our tickets and we entered an area of shops. We were given permission to explore whatever the pyramids had in store for us, or haggle with some of the nearby merchants. The group I particularly went with traveled to the top of the tallest pyramid. The view I we saw was amazing, and it was worth being completely out of breath. We traveled in the bus back to Mexico City, and we saw extra places we didn't see the first time. After more walking and subway rides, we made our way to The Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica. We made it just in time for mass, and It was beautiful inside. The lighting was awe-inspiring and there was gold to decorate the crosses and altar. After the Basilica, we went to dinner at a taco shop. There food was delicious! Then we toured around what I like to call "The Time Square of  Mexico." We went down a street with buildings on both sides of us. There was ice cream (which we got for dessert), clothing stores, people in costumes, and fake snow coming down as Christmas music played. Everyone was exhausted by the end of the day, and we couldn't wait to get to bed.

1/8-1/9/15 - Andreas Padilla

Hello all,

Today's Friday and at this current moment we are all sitting in a circle telling stories of our day.  From Ron accidentally pressing the emergency button on a light post to 5 of our group members laughing uncomfortably at the fact that their bags are still in Houston, Texas.  As the first blogger of the trip, I feel it necessary to inform everyone of the hectic two days behind us. Yesterday, began smoothly with our flight to Houston being delayed 45 minutes.  We thought this was fine until we arrived at our next gate to find that the Mexico City bound airplane had left 7 minutes before we got there.  We spent 3 hours at the first of many customer services while Fr. Kirk waited patiently for any news.  Thankfully, we were able to catch a ride with Aero Mexico!  We arrived at the Aero Mexico check in.  Only 8 tickets were printed out for us which granted a much needed ride for only 8 of the 15 in our group.  The other 7 were able to find a ride on our original airline, United Airlines (we also learned once we took off that there were 11 EMPTY SEATS ON THE PLANE).  This was the 2nd of 3 'customer services' that we were so blessed to visit.  From there we headed to the United baggage lost baggage claim where we had to describe our bags.  Our bags were found and put on our flight to Mexico City.  When we arrived, we met up with Ms. Mekrut and her group who had no bags (we now know that they were still in Houston).  Our night ended with driving to the hostel and crawling into  our beds because we were so tired.

Today was day 2.  Our day began our day at a harsh 9:00am. We all dressed for a day of traveling the city and walking many miles.  Our first stop was the National Anthropology Museum where we saw many artifacts from the hoops used during the 'Mayan Ball Game' to the bones of Lucy (who for those who don't know is the oldest skeletal remains to be found at 3.2 million years ago).  After we headed to the Frida Khalo Museum located in her former home in Coyoacan.  This location was where Leon Trotsky slept while he exiled to Mexico in 1937 and where Frida Khalo died and Diego Riviera spent his final days.  After we returned to the hostel and went out to dinner to celebrate Jake's birthday that was unfortunately spent traveling.  He is one of the people with no bag so he got a nice birthday present from United.  I now have my fellow group members bugging me about finishing so.......that's all from me for now! Thanks and continue to keep us in your prayers.


-Andreas Padilla
Class of 2017

1/8/15 - Johnny Bartel

Now I'm not trying to defame the Guatemala trip and it's experience. But we got trapped in Houston for the first night. Something to take out of this trip, don't fly united.  United transfers us to Aeromexico, which ends up being overbooked.