last days

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Soy Ryan. Quick summary since Copan. Stayed in some groovy hotels in Antigua. The 2nd of the 4 nights in Antigua we took off to the Earth Lodge - a neo-hippy commune 30 mins outside of Antigua in the hills. They have a-frames, dorms, and 2 tree-houses. We had reserved the super sweet tree house, isolated with a great view. As you must know, I am a tree house expert, and was delighted to learn some new techniques for future tree houses. Our house was basically built off of just the main trunk, with only the hammock and some of the deck supported by the upper limbs. Most of the people there are volunteers for the local school and then volunteers working at earth lodge for free place to stay. Pretty sweet, and great food, including another big family style dinner. Oh yeah, and got to see one of the 2 volcanoes nearby spewing smoke and lava for most of the night.

In Antigua, we’ve just been eating and shopping. Brad is gonna be upset because we found all the cheap wooden face masks he was looking for. $50 in the states, $5 after bargaining in the market. We got enough crap today to fill 2 big mayan carry-on bags. The best values in these parts seem to be masks, flip flops, socks, and cheap cheezy bracelets. All go for about 1 to the 10 americana prices. I got me about 20 pair of socks, all groovy styles, for about $6.
One thing I hadn’t noticed before - all the chicken buses have their own special name painted in calligraphy on their front window - Grace Julio, The California, and my favorite ‘Yolanda’.

Our last day was today - visiting a bunch of ruins after shopping, then a nice dinner. Packing is done and a noon flight takes us back to the so far most foreign city on our trip = ft. Lauderdale. Friday back in Denver for a few days of work, baseball, errands, and packing again for next Thursday’s trip to the west coast. Over and out.

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Photos

Ride to Earth Lodge
we sat with the dinner

View from treehouse
pretty amazing way to wake up.

Volcano erupting at earthlodge
view from the main lodge

Gettin whipped
by the witch doctor. reeds soaked in whiskey

Weird guy
who whipped us and hangs out at San Simon church

Paying homage
to san simone, some prostitute, one of the many who hang out there. Nice glowing sign.

Aerobics
in the ruins with old Guat women.

Shopping
Just browse throught the piles of clothes.

Cemetery Antigua
nice view for this person

La Merced
one of 4 ruins we visited

convent
lindz hanging out in one of the 'retreat' rooms.

Comments

[anonymous]

You stayed healthy, didn't get robbed or mugged and looks like you had a great time. Success! Safe travels - and welcome home. PS.. LOVE the treehouse!

[Jonny]

Great blog, sweet pics, see u guys tommorrow!

[Peter Strachan]

You are exceedingly good looking. Delicious. I have saved this photo. It makes my palms sweat. When you split with Ryan, give me an email and I will come over right away. I'll be there :) x