San Cristobal Tour

Saturday morning arrived and we all loaded into a mini-bus driven by one of the teachers at the school (and a heistbox player for the rival team) and headed to San Cristobal, a small town about 30 minutes away for their basketball tournament.

The Hoops Sagrado Knights reign as the 3-time defending champions of the San Cristobal tournament came an anticlimatic end, when, after winning their first game in a nail-biter 60-59, they fell to a team from Suchitepequez/Mazatenango that reached the finals of the tournament under dubious circumstance (it started to rain and the team they were playing--Hoops Sagrado archrival team Xela--ran off with more than a quarter to go...slum).

The 30-minute rain delay and hot dog and Doroito lunch (courtesy of the host city) provided some sluggish play from Hoops Sagrado early on in the "championship" game. After cutting a 20 point deficit to 6 on the geriatric backs of their coach and counselors, the Knights ultimately fell to Suchi (slum). A rematch is in the works for later in the trip.

Xela will get a taste in the Cantel tournament on August 12 (weather permitting). Slum.

After the games were over, everyone headed to the fair where they sampled some of the local delicacies (corn on a stick with mayonaise, ketchup and picante), threw water bags at a guy in a wrestling mask and rode a ferris wheel in the rain. All lived to tell about the ferris wheel ride, although their stomaches may have had other ideas.

The bus ride back to Xela was referred to by one student as "the best bus ride ever." After the group ran out of rap songs to sing (and the oldsters on the trip couldn't convince them to sing some old-school rap), Hoops Sagrado reached an all-time program low when someone started (and sadly everyone joined in) a pathetic version of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." (If any of you would like to feel old, have a 14-year old sing you "Lip Gloss" and show you the dance that goes with it. Now we have a sense of what our parents must have thought about The Cabbagepatch.)