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Published: August 11th 2013
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Finally the long awaited moment in my travels had arrived. A friend from back home was coming over to visit and spend the following three weeks traveling through Guatemala, Belize and Mexico with me. Although I had managed to survive almost nine months without getting properly sick, I chose the day before Tian arrived to get a cold. After an early night, some moping around the hostel and a visit to the pharmacy to get the strongest over the counter meds that they were willing to give me (aka prescription meds back home) I manned up, jumped in the car with my driver for the night Reaoul and headed off to Guatemala city to collect Tian and her backpack that was almost as big as she is.
During my time traveling I quickly discovered that there is no point being prissy about food and that more often then not, the best food is on the street in the stalls that litter the side of the road. As Tian was only here for a limited amount of time I decided to throw her straight into the deep end and took her to to local fair to fill up on tacos and
other greasy delights. The following morning we added to the experience by channeling our inner Gaston from Beauty and the Beast and downing OJ with raw quail eggs in it. Living the dream.
The hostel that we were staying at (The Terrace) was having a hats and wig party on the Friday night so we headed to the local market to track down our hats. Ahh the delights. If you ever needed to fully stock a costume cubord this was certainly the place to be! Hats on the other side were not in particularly large supply and after a thorrough search I found a really cute veil with a pretty blue bow on it - however when I picked it up I discovered that it was attached to the back of a gstring! Although I got a few odd looks when I purchased it, I enjoyed seeing the look on peoples face that night when they complimented my veil and I told them what it really was.
Back home, Tian is an avid Latin Dancer and one of the things she was most looking forward to was getting her grove on in some of the local clubs. Although
I was more than willing to take her, I certainly was not aware of just how good she was and the commotion that it would lead to. The men here are very hands on to the standard individual - but when you can shake your booty like Tian cannot help but do, they just don't know what to do with themselves. I literally had to stand behind her sometimes to act as a barrier from the guys that get so mesmerized that they couldn't help but reach out to touch it. By the end of the night Tians verdict was that the local men aren't even that good at their own dace, they're all just too interested in trying to grope you.
After a few nights in Antigua, a very touristic but fun choocolate cooking class and a few random outings with some very good people we packed up our bags and headed off in a shuttle to Shemuc Champey. Or at least we tried too. About half way through our 8 hour journey we came to a standstill on the road and were told that there was a strike going on at the top of the hill and
we'd have to wait until they were done. I would just like to point out that we were in the middle of NOWHERE. There were no towns around this road, let alone cities. During the three hours that we were left stranded there in 37 degree heat we wandered up to the protest to check out what was going on. They had put rocks all over the road so the vehicles couldn't pass through and there were a lot of men standing around with hard hats on. A group of gringos walking through the crowd however seemed to be way more interesting and quite a lot of them stopped to stare as we walked past in search of food.
When we finally arrived at Sheumc Champey we checked into a hostel that had been recommended by a number of other travelers along the way called Utopia. It was a new a very beautiful hostel on the side of the river with a massive opened aired dorm and a bar that had swings everywhere. Unfortunately however, no one who recommended the hostel to us mentioned that it was a vegetarian only hostel and in the middle of nowhere it was
not possible to eat anywhere else. 48 hours later Tian and I were suffering from meat withdrawals. It is still undecided as to which of us loves eating meat more. I like to believe that no one can match my love for bacon, however Tian believes that her overall love for meat is stronger. Point of the story is that neither of us had ever gone such a long period of time without eating meat and we were oh so excited when we saw chicken on the menu during our cave tour.
On our final day there we signed up for the cave tour. Yet another one of those moments in my travels were I thought to myself 'there is no way known you would be allowed to do this in Australia." The guide literally gives you a candle stick, lights it and swims off into a set of caves where you need to clamber, crawl, paddle and swim over rocks and up rivers and waterfalls. The kind of thing that horror movies are made from. Overall though it was really good experience and a really interesting way to see the inside of the caves. After that we were taken to the pools. On the walk up to the mirrador in the mud Tian and I made the rooky error of hiking up the track in flip flops. After a few blowouts we quit at the shoes and finished the rest of the hike in bare feet. The pools that we looked down upon and spent time swimming in were absolutely stunning and the photos I have don't fully do it justice. As we headed back home we were walking along the boardwalks on the path and my foot slipped between the planks and I fell over getting coated in mud and grazing my knee right in front of the whole tour group. This was the one and only time in my life that I have ever come close to wishing that I had a pair of Jesus sandals. Don't worry- it was a very brief moment and my sanity quickly returned.
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