San Pedro and some Lanquin

The ride to San Pedro was pretty standard for the most part, but on the descent into San Pedro, we had a beautiful view of Lago Atitlan. It kinda reminded me of the Shuswaps in BC, where it´s a huge lake, just surrounded by huge mountains.
We ended up in quite the dump of a hotel that night, as we weren´t exactly up for looking around too much.. at least we had real matresses there. That night we headed out to look for a p`lace to eat with some guys from the states we met. We ended up booking a horseback riding trip and having the guy escort us to a little hole in the wall restaurant. The food there was not only very good but surprisingly cheap. A little under three dollars for the first meal in a while that actually filled me up.
After a hearty breakfeast of two meals each, Pat and I met up with the machete totting americains and headed off for our riding. It started off a little slow, but after a bit, we were on our way to a beach a little more then a hour away that was only reachable by horse trail. The ride was through some pretty thick jungle and we gotta see some pretty cool animals, even a snake. After stopping off at a viewpoint, whcih was spectacular, we jumped off our horses and hiked down to the beach. We met some locals here who were making a stew from the crabs and fish they caught in the lake, and one of them liked one of our firends shorts so much that he made a quite impressive attempt to buy them off of him. Our ride back proved to be an experience. Our horses got ahead of the guide, and by the time we were on an open trail, we went from a little trot to galloping. I had an absolute blast, i never knew how muhc fun riding horses could be. Pat, who was a little skeptical of the horseriding, had a great time as well... quite the experience for a first time riding a horse.
The rest of the day consisted of wandering the city and laying in our hammacks eating the oranges and peeling the limes growing in our hostels yard because it was ranning.
The next morning we rented some motorcycles and headed off to ride aroudn the lake. It was pretty early so there wasn´t much traffic to deal with and the chance of robbery was much lower, as that route has been known to be frequented by theives. The views were awesome and the motocycles made me want to buy one when i get home. They weren´t as powerful as i hoped, but im slightly glad it´s over as Im done worrying about getting into an accident or breaking something as I usually end up doing. The rest of our day consisted of a little more then ten hours of driving and me arguing with our shuttle driver who didn´t feel like driving us the whole way and wanted us to stay at the hostel he was associated with. He finally realized we were set on going, so we ended up in Lanquin/Semuc Champey that night, which is reached by a solid hour of bumpy driving on a very iffy road.
We headed out the next morning for our tour in the back of a pickup, which took a good half hour of offroading to get us to the destination. We went caving first, which was alot different then the last time i did it. The water level is much higher now, because the wet season is further along, and the caves required alot more swimming and tightspaces then last time. It still was an awesome experience, as it was pitchblack in there and we all only had a little candle for light, which made swimming a little more difficult.
We jumped off the rope swing into the river after that... where i managed a perfect backflop, which instantly gave me the feeling of a terrible red hot sunburn on my back. Oh well, it adds character right? Then we tubed down the river, which looked like something youd see in a jungle movie. Then after jumping off a decently high bridge we headed off to lunch.
Using the small hike as a workout, we turned the hour and fifteen minute hike into a fifteen minute run, with a small break for pictures. We then took advantage of the beautiful pools of semuc shampey and cooled off in those. The pools are essentially a shelve, which a small amount of the river water runs over, and the rest of the water runs under it. We got to see where the majority of the water runs under, and its was a little intimidating. Some serious rapids which then disapear into the darkness under the shelve.
Since then, weve been relaxing at our little hostel, wandering out in the town for meals, swimming in the river, which has an impresively strong current and just hanging out.
The plan is to leave tomorrow to Rio Dulce, whcih is almost on the east coast, and take our trip from there. Possibly just day trips or some sailing perhaps.
I also am starting to realize im on the last leg of my trip. My camera is as close to broken as it can get, with onyl the power and the takepicture buttons working. My footwear is down to some running shoes holding on for dear life and my clothes no longer pass the smell test.

Lava

So we took the hike up to Pacaya Volcano, there was a thunder storm but it wasn't so bad but it was real foggy up there. When we got there, we saw big rocks whcih were red hot tumbling down the mountain. This rocks wound up quite close to us, and if you touched almost any rock in the area, it was quite hot. Then we walked over all this black ropck, which felt hollow and therefor very sketchy. In between these rocks, you could see the red hot lava, but not too much of it flowing. Then we hiked a little higher and got to come real close to the flowing lave. WOW it was hot.. the bottom of our shoes were becoming real hot and you could smell the plastic of your jacket starting to melt. It was too hot to stay around for too long becasue it felt like our leg hair was actually burning off. So after running off for a bit to cool down, we came back adn enojyed some marshmellows which were cooked overtop of the lava.
One really weird thing there was the sound lava makes, its like a mix between glass bottles hitting eachother and popcorn popping. The hike down proved to be slightly more challenging because it was as the sun was going down adn by the time we reached the bottom, it was pitch black... a perfect recipe for rolling your ankle. Another thing was the kids of the town, as soon as you got out of the van, they would absolutely rush and surround you, trying to sell you walking sticks, ponchos, and marshmellows... i mean these kids were pretty vicous, knocking eachoter around to get infront of you. And when you get back, they all try to steal the sticks back from you.
All in all it was an awesome experiecne, and today PAt and i are headed off to San Pedro on lago Atitlan for a couple days where well do soe swiiming relax and maybe csome more climbing.
THats it for now

Alright i;ll try to jam as much info into this entry as possible with the little time i have.
I met up with Patrick, my friend from Red Deer, last tuesday and we;ve gotten quite a bit done since. The first day we took it pretty easy, i showed him around the city and allowed him to stay in the "safari suite" in my host family;s house. Its not really a suite though, it has a bed, wooden table, and a couple pages from a safari magazin up on the concrete walls. The next morning, we set off to hike the Santa Maria volcano.
We decided to take an alternative route to climbing the volcano compared to most other people... to do it without a guide. Overall the Trail was pretty easy to follow, and we only managed to get lost twice. The only thing I was concerned about was getting robbed on the hike, which has happened to many travelers before.
The first part of the hike was pretty easy with a nice and open trail. But the second half proved to be quite the demoralizing experience. Every single turn leads you to a trail which appears to be the top, only to turn that corner and see another trail. So for the last hour of hiking, we thought that we had reached the top only to see another tree line further up. The trails weren't anything crazy but the altitude proved to be one of the more difficult aspects of the climb. Patrick noticed it alot more then i did, where he found breathing to be a little difficult coming from a very low city in alberta to nearly 4000m ontop of a mountain in around 24 hours. Nevertheless, we did reach the top, which was clear of most vegetation and just one big rocky plato. We layed down and had some snacks then got ready for the descent. We were in the middle of the clouds up there, and it took us a little time to find the trail we came up on. With the weather, altitude and lack of food and water, our patience was running a little thin for finding this little trail. We ran down most of the mountain, and ended up cutting an almost two hours off the expected descent time. We got home, had breakfeast with the host family, then headed straight to a pizza place to fill the restr f our stomachs.
That night, i introduced patrick to the wonderful world of Cantenas= a hole in the wall with plastic chairs/tables and cheapest booze available. The gautemalateca we met there that night had a particular disliking towards mexicains... lets say my slang vocabulary expanded once again.
We decided to head towards the coast right away, and take a break before anymore hiking, so we went to the black sand beaches of Monterrico. We stayed in a dorm room in one of the nicest hostels on the beach for around 5 bucks a night. This place reminided me of an all inclusive resort without the drinsk and food. It was a nice change from my recent lifestyle. Those four days consisted of lots of seafood, nice weather whihc caused the black sand to becom boiling hot and relaxing on the beach. The waves there were huge! they also crashed very close to the shore. It was fun playig around in but you had to be really careful andn we received many warnings about the power of the undertow and the waves, whcih really would knock you around, filling your nose ears and what ekse with sand. But on our final sday there, 4 people passed away about a km away in the waves. I also managed to give myself a nice cut over my left eyebrow which probably couldve used a couple sticthes. Alcohol was not a factor in the injury, although it was used a mild painkiller later on. A little polysporn and alot of bandaids/tape and my head was good as new. Most our days consisted of walking into the town to find places to eat with some people we meet there and sitting on the beach just watching how powerful the waves were. Jus by playing in the surf, they would knock you over, and flip you around. Our last nght, there was a big party on the beach in front of our place, where we got to observe the drunks staggering and the kids playing dodgeball with everythign from coconuts, glass bottles and live crabs. This was one of the most enjoyable places ive been in Guate.
We got a shuttle to Antigua with some other people we meet there, which was a little adventure i itslef. We managed to get passed by some sort of porsche touring group, with over ten of them flying by us at well over 200km/h. We switched drivers half way through, and our second driver insisted on doing no more then 30km/h on all the roads, no matter what the speed lmimt was. I think Pat was angry enough for all us passengers.
We got into Antigua yesterday were we clebrated my birthday. As i got to pick our restaurant, we found a place that sold all types of fast food eats, like burgers or hot dogs for a little under a dollar each... we ate our hearts out... and i thinkg the man who was serving us was quite disgusted. The large amounts of alcohol in our systems may have saved us from food poising, because the food ooked a little sketchy, but i dont' think much would be able to survive in the alchohol rich envirmoents of our stomachs.
I don't have muhc time left, as Pat and I are heading off the climb a volcano where wel get to roast marshmellows over flowing lava. Ill try to add some more stories and maybe pictuyres later.

boats n .....

I´ve got some time on my hands for the next couple days because i am finished with my classes and am not waiting on the arrival of my friend patrick. Im juts going to be doing some little day trips because i don´t wanna do anything to big then go do it again when patrick gets here.

So last night was my graduation party. I was presented with a little certificate and had to do a mini aceptance speech. Well we hung around the school for a while.. had some beer pong games then went out to some salsa bar. Come to think about it, around this time last year, i was abusing alcohol after my graduation... maybe im falling into a habit. After hanging out with everyone at the bar, said bye to some other friends and some teachers as they stumbled away. It´s usually a good idea to walk home in a group in guatemala after dark but i haven´t had any trouble until last night. Ha although it wasn´t much trouble really. A very inibriated man asked me for permission to rob me. Well i didn´t agree, i did chose to chat with him... and discovered he wanted my money, and my phone if i had one. Armed with a little rock and alot of alcohol in his system... his mugging didn´t pass my standards. At that point I asked him very nmicely to leave, where then he apologized for the atempted robbery. I´m guessing he wasn´t too experienced in this and in exchange for some experience, i got a funny story.

After the first day of sleeping in since i got here, me and some others went to a small town called Zunil, where there is a well know following of a character named Saint Simon. This saint is a manaquin dressed up who smokes and drinks, believe it or not. The manaquin itself changes places every year, so when you get to Zunil, you need to ask some locals where he is, kinda like a scavenger hunt. We finally found him in a a big cement room. With tons of candles, bottles of alchool, tabaco and even cowboy boots before him as offerings, this looked somewhat like a type of shrine. We watched some person undergo a ritual in front of the maniquen and was drenched in alcohol and some sort of oil. They were even spat on by the leader of the ceremony. This was one of the most awkward things i have ever witnessed. Bare in mind, that this is a manaqaquin with a smoke in his mouth that is taken out every now and then so people can pour alchohol down his throat. I was pretty speachless the whole time as the people were very attentive to the ceremony, while others were yelling right beside them, listening to the soccer ground and spitting all over the ground in the room. I was continually baffaled by all the aspect of this ¨religious following¨ with a beer cooler in the coner and pictures of half naked girls on the walls..... sounds like my kind of place. After the ceremony we took our turn of feeding Saint Simon the cheapest booze we could find. It was quite the experience all and all. Ill try to put some better pictures up when i get them from the other peoepl i went with.

Update

So it looks like i know have a life plan that extends farther then tomorrow. I´m trying to get a rough draft of what Patrick ( friend from Red Deer who´s coming to meet me) and I will do. I´m guessing we won´t ahve too mjuch planned out just a couple things we wanna get done. I think we´ll stay around the highlands for a bit and do some hiking, maybe to the highest mountaion in C.A. and to many others where yu can watch the lava flow. After that, maye head down to the coast and get our burn on and maybe pick up surfing for a couple days. That´s about as far as I want to think ahead. Maybe head towards the East coast after that and maybe Belice and Honduras.

Im finishing up my last week of school, and feel like I´m raedy for it to be over. I saw this trip as a chance to relax from school, but i chose to ignore the fact that i chose to go to a school for this chance to relax. Not exactly what i hpèd for, but it was an awesome experience to say the least.

This weekend i took it pretty easy ebcause i wasn´t feeling 100%, but then again, eating in a plce liek this, you can´`t expect much less. Me and my host family went to a local hot springs for around 75 cents each. We got acess to 3 ssoccer feilds, a small zoo, a large steaming pool and several small cooler pools for the day. Let´s say i stuck out like a sore thumb. Out of the 200 or 300 peoeple there, me and Hong(host sister from chinA) were the only non-guatemaleans... and we can agree, that she might not stick out as well as i did. But we had an awesome day and bbqéd our lunch there and went swimming.

Don´t have much else to talk about at the moment but i´ll put some pictures up... most of which i hope you can figure out the story behind wihtout explaination

some pictures

Juts some pictures... most of them are self explanitory
just pictures of the family i am now apart of here
and there one of the sun with a big circle around it.. it was way nicer in person... uit looked like a rainbow halo around the sun.

some pictures

A little bit of everything

Since i got back from my trip to lago atitlan, i haven´t been up to too much... hanging around Xela and trying to bear down on some homework. although i did manage to gather a couple stories from this week.
Before i forget, there was a earthquake in Honduras the other night, which sent quite the shock through Guatemala... or so i hear. I managed to sleep right through it and the next morning I had no idea what my host family mom was talking about when she said everything was shaking and some things were falling off the shelves last night. Then she explained that she heard on the radio about the earthquake.. Although I´m not exactly a earthquake hunter, i wouldn´t have minded waking up just to have a little more of an idea of what everyone was tlaking about. There was a small one whcih i did feel a couple weeks ago.. but i was told that wasn´t much in comparison... picturing myself shaking while sleeping did make me chuckle a bit.

Something a little more intresting, i went to another soccer game last night. This was completly different then the one I went to earlier here. This was the quater finals and the stadium was packed. It has a capacity of around 13000 but most people told me they usually sell around 20000 tickets for a game like thsi.. guess we just squished in. But these fans blew me away once again.. It was just as fun to be part of the crowd as to watch the game. You get frisked before you go in, but these fnas manage to bring in tons of fireworks for the start of the game, we couldn´t even see the other side of the feild for a bit because of allthe smoke from the fireworks... which are set off during the game. We sat in one of the crazier fan zones known as*the curveof the devil* because the fans. I mean people brough enough instrum,ents for a full band and the chants were nonstop from half an hour before the game and half an hour after the game.,. onlys stopping at half time. The chants themselves, i could write a story on. After learning some more street slang since the last game i understood the chants a little better. I couldn´t imagine a single person saying something this profane at a sporting event in US or Canada, but these fans are just booming with them in unison. Men, woman, teenagers and even some younger ones are all yelling for their lives. Xela ended up winning 3-1, but scoriong the last two goals with ten minutes to go... the fans went nut, jumping onto and climbing the fence to sit on the top and wave their shirts around or shoot roman candles(fireworks) from their hands. Most of the arean has a fence with barb wire seperating the feild and the seats, but the fans cut off the barb wire hereso they could go ontop of teh fence. At the end of the game, the fans stayed to chant for a good half an hour and we watched the oposing team´s fans and Xela´s verbally tear eachother apart. They were seperated by a little gap and alot of fencing, as their not aloud to sit with the oposing teams fans, nor is alcohol allowed here.

Short story is that futball is crazy here, I got to see first hand a faked injuried(in which they will og as far as to get carried off by a strecher, then back five minuteslater) and they just make one big party out the game. I am also now a proud owner of a Xela jersey, which i hope will get tp use in th esemi and the final finals.

Don´t have much else planned for my near future. Ill probably hit the books real hard for another week then take off to travel when my friend Pat gets here, allaroudn Guatemala,. and maybe Belize and Honduras.. but who knows.

And for everyone dying to knwo how fat i´ve gotten on this trip, sorry to disapoint you, but i don´t think my meal portions would allow for it even if i made an effort. But for exercising, i have a little 12x18 foot cement courtyard with a couple chairs for dips and a skiping rope for equipement. So with a little food and skipping rope, hopefully ill be able to keep the fat off for now.

i can get you that fo sho

Im back in Xela from lago Atitlan and here goes some of my free time for some stories.

I had some night classes on Friday because my teacher needed to go to a funeral during the day. We set out on foot to walk around the city to practice my conversational spanish and to find some place that could fixmy camera. We ended up taking a microbus ( a large van that holds around 20 people, but only has about 10 seats and serves the same purpose as city buses in canada) to the repair shop a good 5 minutes away. We had some time to kill while the guy was checking out the camera, and after walking around for a bit, we decided to sit at a small little bar on the street. One thing lead to another, and after talking like we´ve known eachother for years for an hour, we were a bottle of rum down and 15 minutes late to go check on my camera. Luckily the repairman was still there and he gave me a ¨specail price¨of around 60 dollars for the repair. He said i got a deal becasue we both know the guy who refered me to him, but im convince my deal was a rip off because he took me for a ¨stupid gringo¨ like every other white person here.

But i´ll live, so me and my teacher couldn´t find the micro bus stop, so we walked our way back and talked. I honestly felt like my spanish really improved that night becasue we didn´t say one word of english and we ahd a group conversation with some other people at that bar.
After we got back, he showed me a place for some cheap beers, so i grabbed some and headed out to the party for the people who are leaving the school this week. We had a meal, then hung out and consumed a couple bevys (beverages) for a while. Then we watched a celebration for the mayan new year, which was intresting, but got a little boring after a while as it was very repetitive and we weren´t exactly in the mood for a quiet celebration. After that we hung out for a while longer, then i headed off to bed.

I went to lago atitlan the next morning, where we took 3 chicken buses and a small boat to get there, but it was well worth it and i hope to return. It´s quite popular among hippes as there are many meditation and cleansing centers there with quite the atmospher. We walked aroudn teh small town of 3000 and then settled down for dinner as the daily rain storm came in. We ate at an italian restaurant where i polished off a whole large pizza to myslef to make up for the starving i´ve been doing.

A couple examples about my food intake. Last week, i only had a banana for breakfeast... and at that, i wasnñ´t even sure if it was a whole banana. It was in three pieces which looked like quaters of the banana, meaning someone else got a quater of ny banana. And for supper the one day, i had two mini-burgers..... so did the four year old girl...

the next morning, we got up early and i went for some pancakes, which are now my new favorite breakfeast.. its official. We then walked a little to a small place known as ¨the sacred rocks¨where we spent several hours swimming, hanging out, and jumping of big cliffs and rocks into the water. Note- I recieved a terrible farmers tan the day before from the boat ride, so i had to apply sunscreen to my burns and hoped for the rest of my body to burn into the same colour.. im still waiting on some results. After taking our time in the water we were on our way back on the boat. I then send bye to the couple from england who hung out wiht us quite a bit in the last couple weeks, their off to Belize now. Another little note, that my life went before my eyes twice on the chicken bus today, the first time we almost hit a truck then skidded to a halt before we went of a cliff. then next one we almost flew right through a construction site. Most of the passengers were most annoyed with the awful smell of rubber then the fact our driver was a moron.

Now i´ve been thinking of what to do with my time left here. My spanish is improving rapidly but i would still like to take another week, or possible two to really solidify the language. After that I´d like to travel around and maybe spend a week volunteering.. Any suggestions anyone?¿?¿ maybe to different countries in central america like mexico, belize, honduras and el salvador. I would like to go to cuba before it changes too much, but im not sure if that will work into my plans, with the airplane tickets and what not. But if anyone could help me out wiht some ideas, i´ñd love to hear them.

Vacation from a Vacation

This is gonna be long if i try to include most of my little tri`p but here it goes.

We left on Friday and drove for a solid 10 hours until we got to a place called Coban in Northern Guatemala. I was pleasantly surprised when i got there, it looked somewhat like an old castles but the rooms were what really did it for me. A nice clean room, with towels, a hot shower and even a color TV! So as soon as i got there, ripped off my clothes and jumped in what i thought was a hot shower.... it was ice cold, they forgot to turn the water heater on for us, just my luck. But i finally got my hot shower the next morning, and it was well worth the wait. As nice as this hotel was, i had trouble sleeping, because whenever a chicken bus or a big truck would drive by the street out my window, my bed would actually shake, but the comfy matress made up for that.
The next day, we drove out to semuk champey, which involved around a hour and a half van ride through rough rooads at a very slow pace, then cramming 11 peoeple and their backpakcs into hte back of a small pickup for another half an hour of rougher terrain. We were welcomed on the way up by a small boy who deecided to flash us while lauhging hysterically. I found it quite funny.We arrived at a pretty sketchy hostel, which was pretty much as many beds as you could fit into a room, and walls with so many holes in them, the bugs just had free rein over the place.
This all proved to be worth it, as we were right next to a very warm river which we could swim and use the rope swing into. We took a small hour and a half hike up a mountain, which realistically couldve taken twenty minutes if everyone was in shape, but it had a beautiful view from the top. When we went down the other side, there are small pools of water formed by the river which we spent a couple hours in. It topped anything else i´ve seen in Guatemala and i could´çve stayed there for days, my favorite place so far. On the way back we spent a little bit jumping off a pretty tall bridge into the river, which was a blast.
That night we did some swimming then had supper and hung out wiht a couiple beers, but i held back because i wasn´t feeling to well.
The next morning, we went on a cave tour which was a phenominal experince. It took us around two hours to explore a km into the pitch black cave though water with nothing else then a small candle in our hands. It involved swimming, jumping off mini cliffs inside the cave and hiking up laders and climbing ropes. I kept on thinking while swimming through how this tour would absolutely never be allowed to happen in the western world, i could just see too many things going wrong.
After an hour of getting out of the caves a different way, we took a small hike up river and floated down the river on inner tubes to enjoy the hot day. By this time, I was really not feeling to well, i was having a little trouble walking but everything we were doing was too good to say no to. I just relaxed on the way down and by the time i got there i threw my tube aside and went and fell into my bed. I had a serious fever, my head was getting stuffy and i sould barely move. So we, more like the others, packed up, and we jumped back into the pickup for the ride back to our van. I just sprawled out in the back of the pickup and tried to get threw the ride. By the time we were at the van, I wasn´t doing to much better, and the driver wanted to take me to the Hospital. I said i could go when we got to the next city andthankked him. Let´s just say the eight hour drive was nowhere near pleasurable for me. I sat in the front seat with my head out the window ready to give last nights dinner to the ditch the whole ride. I didn´t eat all day, but by night I was feeling a little better and could walk around a bit. I´m guessing it was the salad i ate the night before that made me sick, beccasue most people stay away from lettuyce and cabage around here.
Thankfully, the next morning, i felt good enough to walk, and decided to Go to Tikal wiht the others. We hired a guide this time, and taught us alot about the people, culture and the civil war that just recently ended in 1996. His father is actually one of the leading guatemalan archeologists in Tikal and has made some big discoveries lately. After some history, wildlife watching, we went searching for Tarantualas, which are alot easier then i thought to find. We found a couple small ones, and a large one, which are, according to the guide, nonpoisinous, but can leave a nasty mark. We also saw spider and howler monkeys, crocodiles, a bunch of birds and some other intresting animals. Tikal ruins were overwhelmingly big. For reference, in pure Volume of size, they are larger then the biggest pyrimides in Egypt. We got to walk up them(quite high) and learn about all the history and the way the mayan civilization functioned. An odd fact, is that the winning teams coach in their ball game is sacraficed to the god´s after his game.... something random for you. They just started excavating the sites in 2004 and if they don´t keep them clean, nature can cover the larger ruins in as little as 10-15 years.

Upon reaching the hotel, we went for a swim in the pool, and the lake, which was so warm, almost hot, and i was feeeling a little better. We walked around then headed out for supper and enjoyed it by the beach, the first time i´ve had pasta since i got here. We spent the night hangnig out and walking around.
The next day we had a solid day of driving again, with a small stop in Rio Dulce, where we swam in the river and had some lunch. By this time i was feeling healthy again and could enjoy myself once again.
We spent our last night in Antigua, which is a very touristy and expensive city in the south west. I was considering spending some time down there for spanish lessons but im glad i saw it, because i much prefer it in Xela. That is more of a tourist city, where xela is more of a backpacker/spanish studnet community. We hung out at an Irish Pub that night then went to bed for another early morning.

We did a large amount of driving, which is now why i have a nice sunburn on my left arm...while the right one is still in good shape. I mustve forgot alot of little deatails while writing about this long trip, but maybe ill edit it later. Although i did manage to end up wiht a broken camera half way through the trip, so im notsure about that situation, maybe buy a new one or try to fixit. Id like to study spanish for another two weeks then maybe volunteer or whatnot. Im also expecting a friend who might be coming down sometime in june for the last part of my trip.

Trhats it for now

A Hot Shower

The things i would do right now for a hot/warm/ even lukewarm shower right now would probably land me in Jail. There´s many things about roughing it that i don´t mind, but i´ve seriously considered the possibility of cutting down to one or two showers each week. It´s almost like my daily workout, jump in the freezing cold shower for a good two minutes, and shiver furiously for mintutes after. I´ll try and get some other subjects now...

I left off before i went to the soccer game on saturday. We went out to a bar for pizza and drinks before the game, then took a ten minutes walk or so the Xela Stadium. They gave us facemasks with out tickets to wear becasue of the swine flu, but because it was raining very hard (just like it does every say here) their weren´t as many fans present. The Xela soccer team is know to have to craziest fans in the league.. they show up every game, all dressed up to the max, bringing drums,trumpets,fireworks and sing/chant all game long with no breaks. The soccer game was more amusing then i expected and Xela won 1-0, scoring their goal with ten minutes left, driving the fans crazy as Xela was the underdog going into the game.

I didn´t stay up too late that night because of the hike I was planning on going on the next morning. A group of 6 of us took a micro bus to the chicken bus terminal, which is also a small market, the dirtiest place i´ve yet to see in my travels. The chicken bus ride took a little more then an hour and was very good considering what there usually like. Imagine a retired north americain bus with 6 grown men, a couple children, and some unidentified objets on one row (two benchs) of seats. This supposedly wasn´t even crowded... on the way back we asked to ride back on the top of the bus but it´s not allowed in guatemala, only in mexico.

The hike itself was very nice, taking around two and a half-three hours, with an absolutely beautiful lagoon at the top.

I uploaded one or two pictures on my facebook for those who´d like to see it, i made a open album for everyone to see my pictures from Guatemala, i´ll try to post a link at the bottom of this post.

The lagoon was crystal clear when we arrived, allowing us a perfect view of it, i was very impressed.... top 5 most beautiful places i´ve seen in my life. I posted 2 pictures in the album, 1 of me when we got therre, and 1 twenty minutes later, where the fog was so heavy, you could barely see a meter in front of you. The clouds came in so quickly that we actually sat and watched them rush in. The lagoon is in the crater of a volcano, making the hike even more interesting.

We got rained on a bit on the way down, but this sprinkle was not bad at all considering how it is usually pouring at this time.. i´ve learned to expect rain everyday, my umbrella is with me nearly all the time.

I got back and decided to treat myself and eat a small restaurant when i got back. After that I did a good two hours of homework. The spanish classes are something I havenñt tlaked about alot on here, but they have been great so far. Each day when i find myself tlaking to a vendor or some other locale, i notice the improvements in my spanish each day. The school itself it much more intense then i had predicted... well i really didn´t even think about the span¡sh that much before i got here, but it´s five constant hours of 1 on 1 intruction.. not like school where you dooze off or start daydreaming.

Yesterday was monday, and i wasn´t feeling to well, so after my classes ( 8-1) i went back to my hostel and sleep/read most of the day to try to feel a little better. I think it worked|| this morniung i felt muich much better. I was convinced that i might have got food poisoing or something similar becasue all the different food Içve been eating. Half the time Im not even sure what im eating when the family feeds it to my, but i usually donçt mind iut...... The only person i can honestly say that would enjoy this food would be my brother Vince.

Im going to move back in wiht the host family again becasue on friday im taking a 6 day trip all over guatemala, seeing Tikal, going to the caves, hot pools and ab bunch of other places. Im really excited to go and use my spanish some more.

Today me and some others took an optional two hour class on slangs/swears in local spanish. To say the least, i now would have no problem initiating a confrontation on the street.

Later on, there´s a movie on child labour and abuse in central america that i think i´ll go to...

I feel like I just wrote a novel, my fingers are hurting....
thats it for now

link for pictrures http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=110385&id=513794304#/photo.php?pid=2624642&id=513794304

i hope it works

High Class Living

Alright im back a little ealier then expected

I was suppose to be sleeping right now because i was planning on talking a fullmoon hike Santa Maria last night from 12 to around 4 this morning, wait around for the sunrise and be back in town for 10thismornin. But the rain was so bad last night the bus wouldn´t take us up to where the hike started. The company that we went through also wasn´t going to give us most of our money back but after a brief conversation and one of the guys that we were hiking had a stern conversation with the owner, we ended up getting all our money back.... 100 questzals, which is only around twelve dollars.

So yesterday morning i walked around Xela for a couple of hours.. check out some bookstores, markets and make some ´purchases´. I had a breif scare when I found out my debit card wasn´t working at any of the machines and I was almost out of money. I ran around town trying all the machines to no avail. Finally I got back and a girl that´s going to the same school suggested one last one and it worked!!

Anyways i had a nice long lesson last night then everyone at the school had a little graduation party for those who are leaving the school, which just entails a small speach then everyone hangs out and brings a couple bevys(beverages). Most people went out to the bar after but my and the others who were planning on goign on the hike tried to get some rest before we were hopefully going hiking.

So this morning I woke to what i honestely thought was bombs being dropped all over the city. Sorry to dissapoint you, but this was not the case. The little bottle of contact solution i had was wobbeling all over the place it was so loud. The school right next to my families house has band practice on saturday mornings, as do all the schools in Xela. So I decided to get up and enjoyed eggs and frijoles for breakfeast, as i did last night for supper as well. This monring i moved to a hostel a little further from the school, but with many backpackers staying there. After getting all my stuff moved over, i hurried to the school, where I meet up with some others and we went for a hike up to Los Vahos, a small mountain that overlooks Xela with natural hot springs at the top.
We refrained from the hot tubs, as their level of cleanliness would disgust most people back home, as would the garbage all over this city/country. Ill post some pictures later if i can figure it out.

Although i have not been hit by a car yet, im not getting my hopes too high, as walking along the practically inexistant sidewalks is quite dangerous. Tonight a bunch of us are meeting up for some drinks then going to a soccer game... I´m hoping for some really intense fans, but not sure what to expect... although i was told not to wear certain colors.

Tomorrow, if I can wake up early enough, i´m planning on catching a chicken bus ( those who´ve been to central america should be familar with the term... try looking it up on google for somepictures... itç´s an old school bus with as much people/stuff/animals crammed into it as possible with a sick paintjob) to hike a Volcana which has a lake in it´s crater ( David, i don´t wanna hear it haha) then hike down after spending some time there.

Now a little bit about the rain, because it is the rainy season here. I haven´t been ghere too long, but içve found out that rain is something you should plan for, and expect. This rain doesn´t hold back, huge rainstorms with lots of thunder, but nothiung a good umbrella and a good rainjacket(which i need) can´t fix.

Other then that, everythings been pretty cheap with quite nice people.. the only thing is nightime is still quite dangerous, but as long as your in a semi large group, your usually ok.

Thatçs about it for now, if you have any questions, let me know.

PS I got a big bag of ms vickees chips when i left canada, and although they have a real large dent in them, they are NOT finished yet... if anyone knows how much i like chips, they should realize how much of a feat that is... If thats notwill power, then i don´t know what is.

Kevin

First Entry

Hey everyone,
I´ve finally got a little time to spare so i figured i´d sit down and let you know what I´ve been doing so far. This typing might be a little off as this keyboard is all over the place and in spanish.

The plane trip was pretty good, i didnçt see any sign of concern for Swine flu until i got to Guatemala where they passed out panflets and made us fill out questionaires on our current help. Many of the security guards were wearing those masks.

I got to the Airport and it wasn´t too busy, and after a good time minutes of waiting-serching i found those who were there to pick me up. They brought me to their bed and breakfeast where i had a quick bite, tried to read, then passed out. I was suppose to leave the next morning around 730 to cathc the 4 hour bus to Xela, but i´m not sure if it was because i slept in, or my driver didm becasue we had to wait until aroundf 10 to catch the second bus. So that morning i had some time to walk around and see a small part of Guatemala city. The bed and breakfeast was in a gated community with guards armed with shotguns at the entrances. This place still looked a little sketchy to me, as alll buildinigngs were surrounbded by fences and razor wire. I later learned that almost everywhere you go, everything is caged, fenced, and covered by barb wire.

The bus station i got off at was a little rough, as most of the hustlers and such hang out around bus terminals in Guatemela city, so i didn´t wander to far, and the terminal, like almost every other semi-respectable buisness, had a guard with a shotgun standing watch. The busride was around 4 hours and i barely slept for any of it. It always had somehting to see out the window and kept me occupied. It took us a little more then an hour to get our of the ´city´, which looks like you see in some of the movies, where you could almost jump roof to roof across the city on the tin roofs.

I got to Xela and everything went fine, got a cab to the school adn then meet up with my host family. Wow, was i surprised when i got there. I´ve had a decent amount of travelling with some pretty iffy places, but this may have been the poorest. Not exactely dirty, but very very very basic. There is a large metal door for the entrance like everyhouse, then a kitchen and 2 rooms. The kitchen is not much larger then my walk in closet and consists of a small table, three chairs, some shelves for the little cooking tools, and a camping like propane stove. She also runs a very small store out of the front door selling not much more then paper, gum, and pencils. My room is across the courtyard, which is more like a ten by ten concreate square for hanging clothes, then up an extremely small staircase, which i can barely get up. The room itself is much nicer then what the family has. I have a small table with a chair, a little bookcase and rods with some hangers. I don´t know how that´s exactely suppose to work b-c the pole is inches away from the wall, but i`´ll make due. The bathroom is quite simple as well, wiht a small sink, toilet, and a shower with a heater that´s attached to the shower head (similar to what´s in most of central america). Lets say that the heater doesn´t do much. The family doesn´t have to worry about me taking long showers, because the water is so damn cold, i can only take it for around 2 minutes. I think i´m goign to start waiting till itçs really hot out to shower, so i can try and use it to cool me down.

All in all, i have no complaints about my housing, some suggestions maybe, but I´m fine with whats here. I´m considering moving to a hostel for next week as some people i´ve been tlakign to recomendf that for the first week or so then to go immerse yourslef in the language with teh family. When i arrived yesterday me and my hostess could not communicate at all. But last night, we held a semi-ddecent conversation at supper..... i think.

Today i woke up quite early and had cornflakes with HOT milk... which is alot better then i thought. I then went to get a haircut and shave, which costs me 20 quetzles, around three dollars. This is the first time i got a straight blade shave, and was quite amused and impressed with it. The haircut it half decent, more then i expexted.

There´s not much time left, so that´s it for now. Hopefully i´ll have some spare time in the nexy couple days.



And if anyone knows how to add pictures to this thing, I wouldn´t mind some help