After loosing my job last year and being depressed at the bleak prospects that were out there, I decided to make a big change. On November 17, 2010 I fly to Guatemala to begin my Spanish Adventure! I will spend my first 2 month at a language school and after that I will slowly wind my way to South America on a voyage of language, exlporation, laughter, dance and randomness.
Ah Colombia! Arriving by sailboat is the only way to arrive! After 5 fabulous days at sea we pulled up anchor in Cartagena. Cartagena is beautiful city, just like in Romancing the stone. Serena and I started out at a hostel called Casa Viena, it was chill and full of fun people. After a few days we moved to a hotel with a swimming pool to help Serena deal with the heat. The place was much bigger and the vibe not has chill, but man was that pool nice! It was way more of a party hostel and we ended up having alot of fun there and many of our friends from the other hotel came to visit us there.We spent our days walking around the old walled city and eating street food. I spent my ... read more
The border crossing into Panama was a bit sketchy. You had to cross this rickety old wooden train bridge that looked like it would collapse at ant minute. Not sure how long it is but it seemed to go for ever! It was rainy so the patchy, rotten rood was super slick. AS I watched people slip on the wood, I tried to be super careful as you all know what a clutz I am! Well, a little more than half way down I slip and fall. Luckly I did not fall through the "gaurd rail" on the side, but as you read on FB, my beloved Kleen Kanteen did fall through at meet its eventual demise. Shortly there after a giant semi comes driving over the bridge as I'm a bit shaken from my ... read more
Ok, so the entry date for this blog says May 5th, today is June 2nd. I uploaded the3 photos May 5th but even that was a month late. I need to catch up and soon or I might leave out/forget some important things here! So on my last entry, I finished with my hike to El Mirador Santa Catarina. This should bring me to my trip to Ometepe. Ometepe is a magical island in Lake Nicaragua. It was formed from 2 volcanoes (Concepción y Maderas) that rose out of the lake and are connected by a patch of land between the two. It is like something out of a fairy tale. There is one major city on the island called Mogogalpa and it is where the ferry lets you off. It is also where the ... read more
So after Livingston, I set out to Roatan, one of the Bay Islands on the Caribbean Coast of Honduras to meet up with a friend from the states. 1 boat, and 4 or 5 buses over a period of 12 and 1/2 hours later I was in La Cieba Honduras! I spent a couple of nights in La Cieba which is a slightly seedy little dock town. Not much to write about but I did spend a bit of time with another traveller at a totally packed bingo bar! We were the only gringos there and the place wall full. Unlike bingo in the states, there was very few old people, most of the people were in their 30s or 40s it seemed. I spend one day just wandering through town, checking out the garbage ... read more
So I make it to San Pedro for a reggae festival my friend told me about. Traveling makes one loose track of days. I thought I had left Flores on Friday for the festie that weekend, well boy was I surprised when I was half way to Belize and I realized it was Thursday not Friday. So now I'm in San Pedro Belize 2 days before I'm to meet my friend Joe for the festie, what to do, what to do? First off I should tell you that Belize ( at least the coastal parts) is way different than Guatemala, way more of a Caribean vibe. Reggae and Punta drumming everywhere, tall dark dread locked Garifuna everywhere and a beautiful azul Caribbean Sea! A girl could definitely have some fun here! *** As a side note ... read more
Mayan ruins are amazing! I spent 5 days hiking to and from El Mirador in Northern Guatemala. I started in FLores wich is a small little island town on the edge of a lake. Flores is total chill, I spent my days swimming in the lake and reading in hammocks. On my second day day there I left for a 5 day adventure to see the tallest Mayan Pyramid yet discovered(72 meters tall!). With 3 friends ( 2 Dutch and 1 German) that I met in Lanquin we headed to FLores to arrange out trip. THe tour operator said we needed at least 6 people to get a lower price to we picked up 2 Austrilans and were ready to go the next morning. While waiting for our bus we found that there was another ... read more
Well its been a bit since a posted something here but it seems the farther north I travel the crappier the internet connections seem to be. Since I last posted I have seen and done a lot. I hiked a volcano! Volcano Pacaya to be exact. It is a small volcano near Antigua. As far as Antigua goes, I did not care too much for it. It i full of of gringos and all you hear is english. Which also explains why everything was overpriced there as well. The volcano was amazing. I didn't get to see any lava as it had just exploded last spring but we did get to toast marshmallows over some flames there and walk into a steam cave! It was definitely the highlight of Antigua for me. I spent about 4 ... read more
So my 38th birthday was last Sunday and I decided to spend it basking in the sun at Lago Atilian. My friend Liz came with me and Christi and her host brother met us down there. I did nt take many pictures of the lake as I took a ton last time I was down there. What I did take pictures of were lots of flowers. On Sat. Liz and I took a boat from San Pedro to Panajachel and spent the day walking around a nature preserve where we saw monkies and coati ( cute racoon like creatures with long snouts) and lots of flowers, a few waterfalls and crossed 3 or 4 swinging bridges. Before we even made it to the park we passed a hotel that had tons of flowers. I went a ... read more
So I left my host family last Wednesday and moved into a hostel. I loved my family, they are awesome but I needed to be on my own for awhile. The hostel I moved into is a music and art venue. There are live bands playing 4 or 5 night a week. I'm loving it. The walls are covered with crazy cool murals. SO Xmas was fun. Christmas eve is the big day here. I started the festivites at my school wehere we had a little party after classes. Whe n I returened to my hostel to take a nap, there were 2 other girls there, Lief from Germany and Cynthia from France. They are roomates in Guatemala City but came up here for the weekend. We hung ut for the rest of the day amd ... read more
I dont think I have complained that much about the cold here but, dam it's cold here! Xela sits at a little over 7000 ft in elevation. Thats right yours truely, whom as you all know hates the cold; chose to study in one of the coldest regions of Guatemala. I had heard that it can get cold here, but I thought there's cold and then there is Central American cold. WRONG!!!!!!!!!!! In the mornings it dips well below freezing! Luckily its warms up by 10 ish but classes start at 8 and are outside! Again, y'all know I dont like cold but I paid for 8 weeks of classes in advance, so here I am! So last weekend myself and 2 other students decided to go to the Lago de Atitlan for the weekend. The ... read more
