Day 4 – Dec 6, 2009 – Backpacker Hotel & Orphanage Day 2
The Backpacker Hotel was a unique and inexpensive hotel for us to stay in. At $10 per night for a private room for the three of us there was no reason to complain about the simple and basic accommodation we found there. The Backpacker Hostel/Hotel is located along Riu Dulce and hangs over the water of the river. I felt like I was in Venice. Our rooms perched over the water and boardwalks connected it to the hotel lobby and waterfront restaurant.
The Backpacker Hotel employs older children from the Orphanage so they can gain work and hospitality experience. It is an amazing operation as they are able to help support themselves and the rest of the kids in the orphanage. On top of all this the prices at the restaurant where we ate all of our meals were so reasonable. Finally after our second night it was time to check out early in the morning and put our bags in storage.
We spent the first half of our day again at the Casa Guatemala Orphanage. To start the day off we helped the volunteers who were on kitchen duty. While Alyssa washed the dishes and sifted through the black beans to pull out rocks, Jaeden and I were given 25 pounds of black dirt covered potatoes to scrub clean. I didn’t expect potatoes to take so long to scrub but they were dirty, fresh from the garden. By the time we were done they were going to need a bit of peeling and chopping but given our limited scrubbing utinsils we polished up the potatoes as best we could so they could be turned into fries.
After Alyssa and Jaeden went to the play area and passed out a bunch of tennis balls that they had brought for the kids. The young 4 to 7 year olds that were lucky enough to get a ball spent the next hour playing games and tossing the balls around. They were intrigued by Jaeden’s ball juggling abilities and watched in awe.
Eventually the older 8 to 18 year olds started a game of Soccar that Jaeden was only too happy to play along with. Sports are great games that don’t require the use of language comprehension. He fit right in and played along in his flip flop footwear. Perhaps not the most practical of footwear.
We were sad to leave Casa Guatemala. The kids expressed how they had wished we could stay longer and get to know each of the orphans that live here a little bit better. The orphanage and Backpacker hotel which employs and supports this facility are great places to visit on a trip to Guatemala.
