The Bad with the Good

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Two weeks into our trip and 2 muggings later, we both found ourselves almost reaching our breaking point on Friday night. We literally had our minds set on buying tickets to Costa Rica and opting for an easier way out of lying around on beaches and being in an area that we know would be a bit more gringa friendly and bring an ease of mind to the rest of our traveling. But, the thought was nothing that a couple of beers, a bottle of wine, the best slice of chocolate cake, and a ride home on the back of our waiter´s motorcycle couldn´t fix! South/Central America is really a place that in order to travel here you just have to take the bad with the good. Being defeated by a bunch of muggers one minute and standing in front of an incredible chruch looking down on the most colorful street market of unbelievably bright flowers and indigenous clothing the next minute...seem to go hand in hand here. Our spirits have lifted and we both have decided to continue on our original path of heading up north in Guatemala and over to the island, Caye Caulker, in Belize. We also decided that from here on out, we´ll just have to skip the local buses and microbuses when possible and take taxis and 1st class buses (when it comes down to it, they´re really only a couple dollars more than the chicken buses, but you feel a bit like you´re copping out on the real experience - BUT really, safety first and we did get to experience them already).

I also want to note that we are eating incredibly well by our host family, despite my last entry about my pure hatred of platanos. Monica, our host mom, loves to cook and whips us up some amazing vegetarian dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. (Thank god we both are runners and run the streets of Xela every morning or we´d probably get charged for carrying extra luggage home with the weight we´d gain!) We also had a great, authentic experience last night with our host family as they had a party for mother´s day with a bunch of friends. A lot of eating and making sure our cups were never empty of either whiskey or rum, and sitting around listening to them all sing along with a friend playing the guitar and singing famous ethnic songs. Maybe we weren´t supposed to go to the coast this weekend anyway...

Well, we´re finishing up with classes this coming Friday and then we´ll be off for our true travel adventures! Seriously, going to add pictures soon...

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