guatemala revisted

this post should carry a warning: many, many photos.

in anticipation of my 2009 global village trip to chile, i have decided to combine my new photoshop obsession with my favourite photos from my 2007 habitat for humanity trip to guatemala. these images bring back so many fond memories and i can't wait to create another collection of great travel photos.

the guatemala photos really did not need any work. i was almost reluctant to post the "artistic" versions because the original photos are just as beautiful. but photoshop brings a different dimension to the images, for which i am grateful because the trip now seems new to me again.

and without further ado, here is guatemala revisited.

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working away...


these are live chickens... both images. i couldn't bear to significantly alter the photo on the right because it is probably my favourite photo of all time - the image below is pretty much straight out of our little point-and-shoot:


we had the amazing opportunity to visit a local school. the way the children welcomed us and lined up to hug us before we left was truly an unforgettable experience. these are my favourite individual photos of us in guatemala:


after the boy got tired of arm wrestling the kids for prizes, he just gave away the stickers. i love the image on the left because it looks like there was some order to the madness whereas all my other pix reflect the actual chaos:


the little girl on the leftmost side of the image stuck to me like glue. she gave me lots of hugs and we took a ton of photos together:


the kids at our site were shy but so adorable. you can't tell from the photo but the little one in blue was crying up a storm and had boogers all over his face. i started to inch in for a close up but he spotted me and i was afraid he would start bawling again:


lots of stray cats and dogs...


we visited an active volcano and roasted marshmallows with the heat from the lava. the boy had fun breaking off pieces of solidified lava:


overall, a fantabulous trip!