Guatemala

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So lots of interesting things have happened in Guatemala. It is an amazing country I love it. The weather is wonderful and the people are super friendly. When we left San Ignacio and went through the Belize Guatemala border it was a breeze, no troubles. We had to walk across the border which was kind of cool it was just down the road. Then we drove 2 hours and crossed a bridge over Lake Peten Itza to get to Flores. All the streets are one way and are cobble stone, very hard to walk in flip flops. All the buildings are very brightly coloured and barred up. We went to Tikal National Park it is 550 sq. km´s of jungle and ruins. It is pretty cool because in 1848 they rediscovered the ruins and only some of the temples have been unbarried and partially restored. They are the tallest ruins in Central America. We saw awseome monkeys and parrots.
Our next stop was Rio Dulce. We are staying in little bungalos on another island but this one is all jungle and swamp, it is pretty cute but very loud you can hear the howler monkeys late at night and in the early morning. I stayed in my friend Tone and Helena´s room because one of the couples room had a rat in in and there was cocroaches and huge spiders and bugs in the rooms. And their room was sweet it was a house rasied up so no animals could get in and it has a great bathroom downstairs. The next day we took a boat across Lake Izabal an hour to a cute farming town to get to hot waterfalls. We had to walk 45 mins through farmers fields amongst the cows and corn it was cool I got great pictures of cows. Then we finally got to the river and followed it up to the hot waterfalls. It was really cool. The river was cold then we swam to the warm falls and climbs in the caves and went in one under the falls it was like a sauna. The me and Valerie and Ian climbed to the top of the falls where there is freaking hot water pools I was in only like 7 inches and for like 2 mins and had to get out and my legs were so red. And there were crazy people in it all the way. On the way back we stopped at a really beautiful spanish castle built in the 1800´s.
Driving here is crazy. Going from Rio Dulce to Antigua I think we almsot crashed like 60 times no joke. Passing people on sharp corners and hills and not slowing down to let others pass. Insane. It was a long 8 hours. Antigua is pretty cool it is at the bottom of a volcano and has really short buildings and more cobble stone roads. And I triied my first Mojito made with fresh mint it was fantastic. We took a chicken bus from Antigua to Chichicastenahgo. A chicken bus is an old school bus painted crazy colours with a crucifix hanging from the rear view mirror and packed with tons of people. There was at least 6 across the rows and Ian and Chelsea were in a row of 8 and the ride was like a cross between a race car drive and a roller coaster it was sick, and super fun all at the same time. And there was a huge man going up and down the isle collecting money and jumping in and out of the bus while it was going and climbing on top of it with people´s goods they were selling like huge sacks of hammocks and blankets and fruit. And the bus´s pass people and drive right through the construction sites on the dirt almost over the edge of the banks. This road was like twice as windy as the road to Tofino. When we switched chicken bus´s I had to jump on the back when it started to go and was on the stairs to the roof then the money man yelled something and the bus stopped so I could get in it was funny. Chichi. was a cool town we just stopped there for a couple hours at the market. I got a bag and then these little kids were going to sell me some stuffed animals I thought of getting one for Taylor and one for Colton but I couldn´t pick just one kid to buy from so I didn´t get one. I felt really bad for them first they said one for $25 and as I kept walking they got down to 3 for $1, which is like $.27 or something for 3, poor kids they were really cute too. Then we drove in a van to Panajachel. It is a nice town on Lake Atitlan which is surrounded by 3 volcanic ridges and 12 native villages. We had a pizza party and exchanged different countries drinking games good times good times. The next day we went on a lake tour and went to this cute little resturant bulit in 1994 I think, by an Alaskin couple it was beautiful tons of plants everywhere and a nice dock. Then we went to San Pedro where I went to this family run place where they grow the coffee beans in their back yard and roast and grind them there. This town isn´t very big maybe the same size as QB or smaller and has 4 chruches that we saw and we were only in the main city center. Then we went to Santiago which looked the same as San Pedro, so we just got off the boat and got some drinks. When we got back to Pana. we went to the market and to a really cool art gallery and I got a reproduction painting of some chicken bus´s with people everywhere in it it´s very bright. Today we came back to Antigua by van again and went to the market where I got most of my souvenir shopping done for most people. Tonight is the last full night of tour part one so 5 people are leaving on Monday but we are saying goodbye tonight becasue we have welcome meeting for part 2 tomorrow. I am going to climb an active volcano tomorrow it should be cool and not as scary as the chicken bus. Hope all is well at home.

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