Day 5

On our fifth day, we began with an hour long bus trip to the hot springs near town. Upon arrival we took a hike for about a half hour until we reached the hot springs. The hot springs consisted of three pools of water. The hottest being around 120 degrees, the second around 110 degrees and the coolest pool being in the mid 90’s. The three pools are heated by the volcano that is nearby. After a grueling few days of work, spending some time in the heated pools was quite a relaxing experience.

After we completed our excursion to the hot springs, we visited the headquarters of Agua del Pueblo  (AdP) for their 40 year anniversary celebration. A presentation was provided that allowed us to see how the company started, progressed, and what the plans are for the future. It was very nice to meet the founders of the company, who were very passionate about their work. One of the founders, Bruce Clemens, was actually previously a professor at Western New England University. After his talk, Bruce spoke to us about his experiences and advised us to take charge of our professional careers. After all, he started AdP just after finishing college, and it is still making a difference 40 years later.

To complete our day, we decided to put on our jerseys and go to a local restaurant to watch the soccer game between Xela and Guatemala City. This was the final game between the two, and would decide who would be the champion of the Guatemalan league. In a nail-biting encoutner, Xela prevailed on penalty kicks to become champions of Guatemala. Being involved with the experience, we have never met a set of more passionate fans. As a class, we discussed the result and decided that the victory achieved in this game was equivalent to an American city winning the championship in every sport possible at the same time. After the game, cars were driving down the street honking the Xela chant with thousands of people chanting along. It was a truly moving experience and none of us will ever view sports the same way.

-Mike and Rahul