Hostel Oasis- my new home. So here I am. In the middle of Central America, with a ridiculously large cast on my leg. As though I didn´t stand out before as a tall, blonde, american woman. I spent the weekend at Nadia´s house- she graciously offered that I stay there while I began to recover- I can´t thank her enough for her incredible hospitality. But, Nadia and her husband Manolo left to go Spain on Monday, so I have now relocated to a nice hostel here in Nicaragua called The Oasis. There is a pool here (that I can´t swim in, [View Full Entry]

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Worst Case Scenerio: you break your ankle smack dab in the middle of a 4 month long "once in a lifetime" adventure-filled vacation in Central America. Yup! So no more hiking, biking, climbing, swimming, or volcano exploring for me. Managed to fall and break my ankle a week ago on a rather rocky path at the Laguna de Apoyo a volcano crater lake . At first, thinking it was only a sprain, I resisted going to the hospital for 4 days. That´s right, 4 days of walking on it- with elevation and icing it in between. Man, didn´t realize how stubborn [View Full Entry]

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After spraining my ankle, this was our second option since hiking volcanoes was not going to help me rest. See next blog- this one is only pictures. [View Full Entry]

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Arrived in Granada, Nicaragua for the wedding after a long, but surprisingly comfortable bus trip over 2 days. I met a nice traveler from New York at the Guatemala City TICA bus station and adopted him as my travel buddy and Valentines Day dinner date for our overnight stay in San Salvador. Granada is as hot as I expected- with the low temp here being the same as the high temp in Guatemala (96F high and 72F lows in Nicaragua)! As I stumbled around the main square searching for a place to eat, I really wished I had left some of [View Full Entry]

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I am finishing up my first month of the trip and tonight is my last night in Guatemala. It will be so hard to leave! Today as the boat pulled away from San Pedro a fellow tourist and I looked longingly back at the shore of this small pueblo we have called home for what seems like an eternity. The highlight of the stay in San Pedro was my family stay. Experiencing life with them was so interesting, challenging, and eye opening all at once. The last night I was there, I made them a small gift- a family tree with [View Full Entry]

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¡No, quiero dinero! Wish this country could figure out the money situation and fill up the ATMs! Left Antigua last week and took a few days to check out Xela- Guatemala's second city. At first I thought they meant it was just the second largest city in the country, but after chatting with my teacher this morning, I realized that there really are only 2 official cities here- the rest are merely pueblos (towns). Wow. Xela was not too impressive for me- but I don't think that I experienced it the right way. Xela is a city that you go to [View Full Entry]

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Back in Antigua after a long weekend traveling from Antigua to Livingston, Rio Dulce, and then on to the infamous Tikal ruins in the northern Guatemalan jungle. Check out the map. (Antigua to Puerto Barrios to Flores and back) It was another great weekend with a few friends from the trip to Semuc Champey last weekend, and a few new friends from Holland, England, and Israel. We left Antigua early early early (4am) and started our journey towards the smaller set of Mayan ruins at Quiriguá which is on the way to Livingston. This trip we did not have guides, but [View Full Entry]

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It´s Friday! Never thought I would feel that way while on a *vacation* but these past two weeks really are more like school-work than playing around. I am looking forward to taking a week off next week to travel around Guatemala- on the plan is the Carribean, up to Tikal ruins, and then over to Xela for some more Volcano climbing. Will start up classes again in beginning of February. The spanish is getting better though. I am starting to have more and more conversations with the local people at the businesses or restaurants. An American couple I met at a [View Full Entry]

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SO- today I am having a really really tough day, man. The spanish thing is really hard and I feel like I will never get it. I try to have conversations and nothing comes out... OR I am in class and the teacher is correcting every single word I am saying. It really really really sucks. I feel worse today than I did a week ago, but maybe it is just that with every day that passes, I gain more insight into what I don´t know. I find myself wanting to speak English more and more, simply so that I can [View Full Entry]

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It is Monday of the second week of spanish and day #10 in Guatemala. Can´t believe it is already the second week of the trip- in some ways it feels like I just got here and in some ways, seems like I have been gone for so long. I decided to stay in Antigua for one more week with my school and the homestay family. Even though Antigua is quite touristy and I am able to speak a lot of English with the many other travelers here... it is also easy, safe, and a good jumping point for weekend adventures. This [View Full Entry]

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