happy 4th of july! independence day....after being in central america for a month, the meaning of this has more depth for me now. i wish i was there to celebrate with you all. today i woke up feeling sad...my first bout of homesickness :( it has been a month since i've left home and i'm missing my friends and family and the conveniences of life in Philadelphia. right now i am in dangriga, belize....waiting for a boat to take me to tobacco caye. tobacco caye is rumored to have access to some beautiful coral reefs. unlike the reefs in caye caulker, [View Full Entry]

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the saving grace of moving from one place to another is that you can get by on a minimal wardrobe. you can wear the same clothes over and over and over again and nobody notices because they're all new people :) i arrived in livingston, guatemala 2 days ago....exhausted. for the past week+ i have been travelling at least 8 hours a day and when i arrived in livingston, the exhaustion hit me. i arrived in livingston at noon and was too tired to walk around and absorb the environment. so took a nap shortly after i arrived and woke up [View Full Entry]

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am i glad i did....extremely when am i going back...NEVER the past 5 days have been quite an experience. i´m not even sure where to begin. whenever i thought things couldn´t get any crazier...they did. so i suppose i will start with the journey home from la mosquitia. we (cami, katie, tour-guide-reynaldo and i) woke at 3am to begin our 13-hour journey. the first 3 hours by boat (a 4 person canoe-with 7 people on it - powered by a tiny motor). the first hour on the boat was fine...we were cruising along, in the dark, wide open lagoon...no problems. then [View Full Entry]

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our dives were cancelled for yesterday afternoon. one of my classmates became ill and the UK was playing in the world cup. my instructor is english so he could not fathom the idea of missing the game. we did our first two open water dives this morning. amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the first dive was a bit scary for me and i spent most of the 50 minutes underwater playing with my buoyancy and equalizing the pressure in my ears. so i did not enjoy it as much as the second dive. the second dive i was much more relaxed and more skilled with [View Full Entry]

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR LINDA, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU. I LOVE YOU!!!!! ENJOY YOUR DAY! i first want to say that i love your comments. i am glad that you are all enjoying my blog and that you are inspired to write. it makes my heart smile to hear from each of you. jill, kate & vera - i was thinking of you all while doing the scuba training yesterday afternoon. it is a lot like headstand....it requires a good deal of trusting in yourself and your own capabilities. i miss practicing with (and [View Full Entry]

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hola amigos. i am now in honduras. just when i was getting used to the quetzales in guatemala....i now have to adjust to the lempiras in honduras. the exchange for quetzales is approx. 7.7 to the dollar and lempiras is approx. 18 to the dollar. yesterday i took a bus from san pedro back to antigua because antigua is the hub for getting to honduras. my bus left antigua at 4 this morning and arrived in copan, honduras at 10:30. it was cool to cross the border....the imaginary line that separates two countries. i have to wait here for a bus [View Full Entry]

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hola from san pedro. so far this is my favorite place. san pedro is the second largest village settled along lago atitlan. very tranquil... the lake is amazing!!!!! blue...surrounded by volcanoes and mountains....villagers floating by in their small boats. i left antigua on tuesday via bus. it is a 2 hour bus ride from antigua to panajachel, lago atitlan. i arrived in panajachel on tuesday evening and spent the night there before taking a bus across the lake to san pedro on wednesday morning. i settled into a room with an amazing lakeview and a PRIVATE bathroom at hotel sak' cari. [View Full Entry]

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today was my second to last day of spanish school in antigua. i might return after travelling around a bit but for now, i am anxious to get out of this town. my spanish is coming along WELL. i am impressed with how much i've learned already. i try to speak and think in spanish as much as i can. i sometimes wake in the middle of the night with an english word in my head & i MUST know the spanish equivalent for it ASAP. so apparently my subconscious is studying even when i am sleeping. after school i climbed [View Full Entry]

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hola. i just returned from my first salsa lesson. not bad for a first timer...i'm already doing turns. uno, dos, tres...uno, dos, tres... update on my living situation: i stayed one night with a family in antigua and they were warm and accomodating but my room was very cold and there was no hot water. since i left the US with some strange virus i thought it best that i find a warm bed to sleep in a place that has a warm shower, so i am now staying in a hostel called "casa amarilllo". so far, so good....warm comfy bed [View Full Entry]

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hola. well i made it to antigua. don't ask me how!!!! lol...my spanish is awful. i called for a taxi to pick me up at patty & bob's house...here is how the conversation went: TAXI: "blah, blah, blah, taxi, blah, blah, blah" ME: "buenos dias, necesito un taxi por favor" TAXI: "blah, blah, blah, blah" ME: "no comprende" throughout the conversation i would understand a word and they would understand me and after 5 minutes i had reserved a taxi...YEAH! explaining to the taxi driver that i needed to go to the bus station where there were chicken buses to antigua [View Full Entry]

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