Earth Lodge

We stayed a few nights in the hostel where we stayed when we were in Antigua before then found about this place called Earth Lodge. It looked like a pretty cool hostel where the accommodation was tree houses and we decided we would go there for 2 or 3 days to chill out. The driver picked us up in his pick up and we drove up the mountain and walked down the steep track which we grew to know so well! Coincidently, we had 4 weeks to wait for our passports and Earth Lodge needed 2 people to work there for 4 weeks. We loved Earth Lodge and the people so much that we decided to stay there! It couldn't have worked out any better as Emma, another person that permanently worked there also teaches English in the local school in El Hato. As it was the summer holidays she was running a summer school for 2 weeks starting so I was able to help her run that. Every day we did different art and sports activities and had between 10 and 40 children coming every day (mostly 30 every day!). It was great fun for all of us.
Also, I taught English to Martha and Mirinda, 2 girls about my age, who didn't speak a word of English when I began teaching them but after 4 weeks of 3 hours a week we could have a small conversation which was really nice.
Our day to day job at Earth Lodge consisted of playing with the dogs, Rufus and Lola, chilling out in a hammock, going on hikes and drinking our drink specials 'Helen's apple eruption' and 'Jon's Jibber Jabber' (Jon's drink changed
each time he made it). But we also had to do some proper work, like checking people in, answering the phone (in Spanish sometimes), calling our driver, Otto, in Spanish, to arrange pick ups for guests, restocking beers etc, making drinks at the bar, feeding Fortuna and keeping guests happy! Pretty damn good!
While we were there it was Thanksgiving so we had a big dinner for about 90 people which was great fun! We also visited a charity called Camino Seguro in Guatemala City who run a school and adult education classes for people who would otherwise be working on the rubbish dump. Classic line from our guide while visiting Camino Seguro: "If you go left out of this road you will need to bring your own body bag with you"....nice. Parts of the city really were not nice so we stayed well clear! While in the City we also picked up our passports and went to hooters for beer and chicken wings! We ended up staying for 5 weeks and left, very sadly but excited about the next part of our adventure.