So after all of the travel, adventures and near misses with death, we figured that we might as well attend the wedding ...which technically was the reason that we came down here to begin with. The maid of honor asked the married couples if they had any advice they would like to give the bride and groom, and she would include the tidbits in her speech. Generally, most stories settled on "she´s always right" (insert your own joke here). After getting ready we all took tuktuks over to the church, which is in the center of town. Being the grigos we are, we arrived at 3pm for (get this) a 3pm wedding. The thing we forgot is that we´re in Guatemala, and time here just doesn´t have the same requirements. Needless to say, around 3:45pm, the wedding got rolling ...right on time. The mass was in Spanish ...but I´m told it was incredible (all hear say at this point). The bennefit of growing up Catholic is that you know when to stand/kneel/sit ...but being the only person on the brides side who knew when to do this, there we´re a few moments when I was definately "that guy". The churches in Guatemala are quite a bit more conservative than they are back home. Upon completion of the ceremony, the bride and groom weren´t even allowed to kiss... breast feeding on the other hand apparently was allowed...but how that agreement was reached is beyond me. Two people joined forever expressing their love?...nope Boobs?...yeah, why not. I´ll spare you the details and just let you know that the ceremony was great...and breast feeding is NOT as beautiful as everyone would lead you to believe.
After the wedding, we went to the reception at a resort on the lake. It was yet again another example of "places Josh shouldn´t be allowed to enter". Food was traditional and outstanding. Viño. Dancing. The hotel set off fireworks over the lake and tried to release a hotair balloon. The balloon was about three feet big, and used an open flame as a heat source... you do the math. The thing got about 20 feet of the ground, hit a tree and burst into flames (everyone agreed that this was not a reflection on the bride/groom). Everyone from California flipped out figuring we had just started a forest fire... the locals weren´t so worried. Remember, it rains here just about every day this time of the year. While we we´re trying to figure out how to put the fire out, they went back to dancing... 30 seconds later, the fire put itself out.
About halfway through the reception, a lightning storm kicked up across the lake. The lake is freaking huge though, that it only added to a spectacular evening. The rain didn´t materialize until 15 minutes after the reception ended, which was plenty of time to get back to the hotel and chance without getting soaked. A number of us gringos spent WAY too much time trying to take pictures of the lightning...but in the end, Baly got a hell of a snap shot with the volcano illuminated in the background .
After the reception, we all headed out to the local discoteque "Socrates". A good time. The place was packed, and you could pretty much count on NEVER getting a beer unless you had boobs... fortunately, I know some people who do, so it worked out. I should point out here that Guatemalan discoteques play music that is neither 'disco', not 'tech'. Its basically salsa...except not. The locals can get down to it, but most of the gringos in the group only made it about 45 minutes before crapping out. Suzanne made an appearance in her wedding dress, which I was quite impressed by. A number of the local students were out dancing, drinking and smoking... and I don´t mean local college kids, nope...I mean the local 8th graders. It´s either that or I am turning into "un hombre viejo" and just don´t know it yet.
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