The last day of my travels (phase 1)

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Hello!

Firstly, the photo glitches in my last blog entry have now been fixed.

I can´t believe that my travels in America have finally come to an end, and this time tomorrow I will be on a flight home.

The last week has been really interesting so I wanted to do a final blog update to tell you a bit about it. For a couple of nights we stayed in Rio Dulce, Guatemala, in a hotel by the side of the river which is very scenic. The highlight of this period was our trip to some natural hot springs, where we sat in the cool water of the river underneath a HOT waterfall, enjoying this amazing, relaxing experience for as long as possible before it was time to take a boat ride back to the hotel, in the setting sun.

Afterwards, we moved on to a village called San Jorge where we were all staying with local families. My family included six young children and was extremely welcoming, but none of them spoke English (and Claire, who was staying there with me, had no Spanish) so I had to use what Spanish I have learnt while I have been here and was so excited to be able to keep up a BASIC conversation with Rosario, the mother of the family! Her five-year old daughter Melanie was the cutest thing in the world and we had a great time playing with her.

We have spent some time on and around beautiful Lake Atitlan which is surrounded by volcanoes, one of which (Pacaya) we climbed yesterday. We were able to walk right up to the lava and some people found their shoes melting on the hot rocks. As we were there in the late afternoon, we saw the bright red of the lava glowing in the dark as the sun went down.

In addition to all of this, I have seen the sun rise over Lake Atitlan, tasted some delicious vegetarian Guatemalan food, and been in some of the most crazy markets I have ever experienced. My last few days here have been spent in Antigua, a pretty town with cobbled streets and colourful buildings and the Agua volcano as a dramatic backdrop. I have been having a wonderful time here in a very nice hotel with the rest of the group, but now one by one we are saying our goodbyes and drifting home.

I am really looking forward to catching up with you all soon!

xxx

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Photos

The hot springs in Rio Dulce
..total bliss!

Little Melanie..
from the Mayan family I stayed with for two nights

The market in Solola
more busy than Oxford Circus at Christmas time!

Comments

[Cheli]

Ta!
Thank you so much for sharing all your stories and photos with us - I'm so glad to have been a small 'part' of your trip just by reading along :) Have a safe trip home and hope the weather and culture shock isn't too great!