Mar 2007

i woke up this morning suprised i felt so well. we had partied pretty hardy with some people from BC canada, and Denmark. we had a really fun night. we were up late drinking and up fairly early for some reasons. Craig and I went out to the supermarket to get some supplies for mac and cheese. we had made it to the supermarket and bought the mac and cheese, milk and juice. but we werent able to find any butter right away and the place where we could get butter was up town; and when i mean up town, i mean a higher altitude. so we decided against that. we used oil insted, which we have now discovered as a bad choice. we went back to the hippie compound/hotel and i made the mac while craig went back to bed and while ryan was continueing to be in bed. we found out after we made the mac that our neighbors had butter that they would had lent us, oh well.

We have a interesting shower, the water gets heated as the water goes down through the nozzle. so i went to turn it on and it wouldnt rotate, i tried both ways fairly hard and nothing happened. well i eventually tried hard enough so it turned on. the shower works so that when you first turn it on its really hot, and when you continue to turn it it gets cooler. so i attemped to turn the noozle to make the water more cool i would get shocked, nicely i might add. and i was a bit wet by that point so trying to go against shower with the hanging wires and electrically taped connections. i had to eventually use a cloth to turn down the heat, but overall, a good shower.

we eventually got on our way up to the indians face, which is a mountain that looks like a face from the side. this wasnt no small mountain, it went up aboot 1000ft. to start we had to got around another smaller city because it was on the other side of the lake. We had made it around the town quite quickley and after a frustrating talk to the toll booth guy about our discount we headed up to the mountain. the first bit wasnt to bad we there were actually a few stairs. we had made it to the first hut/checkpoint of the mountain we stayed there to look at the town and the lake below, the view was amazing, there was a cold wind that blew over the mountains and passed over the town and went up the mountain we were on, the wind felt so nice after climbing in the heat for so long. as we got higher we found many farms on odd angles and wondered why someone would make a farm so high and at very slanty locations, but we then realized that there werent to many other places to build and that coffee beans grow better at higher altitudes. we saw a few workers carrying huge sacks of cofee beans both up and down the mountain. we didnt see any other travellers up there which was much better then all of the tourist places we have been too. the path got very rocky and sandy the higher we got up. at one of the overhangs at about 400ft we had stopped to take a break and i went and spat over the edge of the cliff, and to my astoundment the loogie just hung in the air for a while and flew back at me, i almost spat on myself. we continued up the mountain and made it to a point where the towns were starting to become hazy because we had made it to where some of the clouds hung, it was a really cool experience, i didnt like the clouds being there but, i didnt want the sun to be there just as much. By that point the air was getting a bit thinner and we had to take a couple more breaks. It took quite a bit longer to catch our breath´s but we eventually got used to it...a bit. we eventually made it to the top of the indians nose aka the highest point of the mountain. craig had already run out of water while ryan had a bit of water left and i had almost half left. i attribute that to the fact that i had the least to drink last night. the view from the to was so amazing, ive never experienced anything like it. standing on top of the mountain made me feel like was on top of the world. we all were relieved that the climb was over and took our time to enjoy the scenery and the amazing view.

when we all rested and got our fill of the landscape we headed down. it was a relief to be heading downhill and much easier too. the heat wasnt so bad the higher you get up because it got much cooler and more bearable. we did the same path we did before except at about 150ft from the ground we took a detour to the statue of santa maria and the cross it overlooked the town and was very nice. we noticed the path going up to the statue and thought we could get down that way. technically there was a way down but it was more made for water to stop too much erosion of that area, we took it anyways. there were many stones in my boot after that part of the hike. when we got down to the bottom we sat down to empty our boot me and craig sat down on some rocks and ryan sat a on an upstep. we saw ryan jump up and start shaking and hitting his leg, we went over to him and found out that he was standing on an ant hill. and they had bit him all over, im sure that wasnt the highlight of his trip up the mountain. we were all very thirsty and hungry at this point so we took the final trek back to the hotel.

today was definately a lot of work but definately worth it.

leigh

We arrived to Tikal at around 3:00 in the afternoon and set up our tent underneith an enormous tree. Sitting in the rather large tree was what we've dubed the "all in one bird," which makes such a strange call that you can't believe thats its only one bird. I'm going to post a video with the sound on facebook so that everyone can hear what I'm talking about. We then headed to the Tikal Park entrance to pay our entrance fee and climb one of the numerous temples to watch the sunset. We climed the building called simply "the Pyramid" and waited a top the temple for darkness to come. The views from these temples are nothing short of awe inspiring and no words I could post here would ever do them justice. Along our way we bumped into a fellow Canadian traveller and spent the evening together over a beer and some nahos! The walk back t our tent was just as amazing as the views with so much noise from the wildlife. We slept in as much as the sun would alow us and got up in our own time, taking our sweet ass time. We had a quick breakfast of peanutbutter and jelly sandwhiches and headed back into the Park with our ticket from the night before and did a four hour tour of the different plazas and temples. We climbed the highest temples and also hit the only temple which has writings on it "the temple of inscriptions." We were boiling in t-shirts and shorts, which by the end of our trek were absolutly soaked with sweat. After all that walking I felt that a cold shower was an absolute necesity and headed to the stalls directly. We sat down to play some cards and have some lunch after the showers. At around 4:00 we started packing up our gear and getting ready to take the shuttle bus back to Santa Elena. Once in Santa Elena we had to search for the bus station which turned out to be one of the longer walks we've been on with our packs because the guidbook was slightly outdated as to the location of the bus terminal. Once we found the terminal we purchased our tickets to Guatemala City, we headed across the street to eat at one of the 'Comedors' which are super cheap resturaunts and the three of us ate for just over $3 USD a piece. We then hung out at the bus station, played some cards and waited for our overnight bus, which left at 10:00 pm. Overnight buses, as I may have mentioned before, (Possibly only in my journal) are like trying to sleep in refridgerators. Your absolutely always too cold and the limited square footage is a huge downfall. The only real benifit is that you don't have to pay for a night in a hotel. We arrived over an hour early in Guatemala City, entirely due to our bus drives lead foot. At one point we were speeding in the opposite lane passing stopped vehicles and, as one might expect, a car was driving in the opposite lane heading straight for us. (As I see it, I just plain expect that the lane which is designated for on comming traffic... will have just that! ON COMMING TRAFFIC! Apparently the bus driver thought otherwise.) I was really wondering how we were going to go any further because beside us in our own lane is a solid line of traffic, STOPPED! Unduanted, the bus driver swerves onto the opposite shoulder and continues to speed! Menwhile, I'm stuffing my stomach back down my throat, and rubbing my eyes because some sort of white light blinded me. Once in Guate, we read that we were in one of the more dangerous parts of two, which happend to be the red light district. We took the books advice and splurged for a taxi ride to the other bus station. Some how, along the way from the first buss statin to the second we managed to lose the only phrasebook we had. I'm not point any fingers, but Craig was the last one to have it! We took the first bus too Panajachel and arrived there at around 12:00, just in time for lunch. We found a fellow gringo (local talk for white boy) who suggested a place to eat and we dinned with him. His name was Bill, and he was getting dental work done. Apparently he was saving money that way. EKK! After lunch we got enough money to stay the week in San Pedro, switched bills into smaller increments, and got a giant bottle of hand sanitizer. From there it was off to the boat docks to get our ride over to San Pedro, we let a couple boats go by trying to get a lower price, even had a few gents from the UK in on it with us, but it was all for not, the boat company has a monopoly and we needed to get to San Pedro. We paid our fare and headed acroos the lake.

Happy trails everyone,

adios,

Ryan.

P.S. Hope everyone made it through the blizzards alright and are safe and sound!

Miss you all.

Hola everybody,

So I heard the weather is pretty crappy up there, and its really damn cold. I´m sorry to hear that, but I think its an appropriate time to mention that it is about 25 degrees here, and I went swimming today in a lake.

Ok.. so I´m done being a jerk.

Oh ya.. the hippie thing, I shall explain. San Pedro is full of people who have dreads, kinda smell, know how to do this crazy dance called the flame dance, and don´t seem to do anything all day.

Oh, and the me fitting in type thing. I haven´t really showered since Tikal, which was 6 days ago, thus I smell, and I´ve started drinking this local tea called Rosa de Jamaica. No worries though, I don´t have dreads and I can´t do the flame dance, so my minor transformation is totally reversable.

Lecciones de Espanol estan ir a muy bien. I mean, Spanish lessons are going well. We have 2 more mornings of it, and I´ve made it through the first set of lessons. Its a bit easier to comunicate what I want, but still nearly impossible to understand whats being said to me. Hopefully it comes with practice.

So funny story, I was working on cooking a stirfry for our lunch today (it was damned good by the way) and one of the burners I was using stopped working (its a propane stove). In a few more seconds a huge flame burst out of the knob.. you know the thingy that controls the amount of flame you get. So I had to reach into this pillar and fire and turn it off before it completely melted the plastic knob. No worries though, I came out unburnt, so its all good.

Not too much else to say, Ryan and I went kayaking today in the huge waves on the lake. I dumped my kayak twice (again, no worries, I came out unscathed).

Take it easy everyone, please try to stay out of a snowy car accident, for me, ok?

Peace,

Craig

we got up for class like usual at 7:30 and left to get some supplies for some stir fry that we were going to make for lunch, after we came back to our hotel we had our breakfast of granola and yoghurt, eaten like a true hippy. the whole town is filled with hippies it blows my mind. but enough about the hippies. craig and ryan went kayaking while i stayed at the hotel and slept, i wasnt feeling the best, but now i feel much better after that naping. im glad to hear im in a temperated climate while it is -35celcius and snowing at home. Life in San Pedro has been super easy going, but soon i will be anxious for the adventurers life again.

So today is our fouth day in this uber laid back town, San Pedro la Laguna, and I am thoroughly enjoying myself! We got up this morning and had a much better breakfast than yesterday. Yesterday we froze the juice, yogurt and everything else for that matter... so we ended up with nada for breakfast. This morning on the other hand, we had yogurt and granola... at regular temperatures. We then headed out for our third session of Spanish lessons, which by the way are going pretty well. Esta muy bien! After our Spanish lesson we cooked a tasty, albeit unusual, stir fry with vegetables form the local market. Once we finished cleaning, I folded laundry with the plan to go kayaking for a couple of hours with the guys. By this time, Leigh wasn´t feeling great so he went to bed while craig and I headed out on the lake for some sweet kayaking. Since we are students at Orbita Spanish School we are supposed to get a discount on renting Kayaks, but when we showed our discount cards to the girl at the kayaks, she looked like she´d never seen them! We headed to our Spaish school to get Rene, the owner of the school to give us a hand. Finally after some heated spanish which Craig nor I understood, we paid the discounted price and got ourselves two Kayaks. We spent two hours on the water with nothign but our swim sorts on and a paddle in our hand. The water was pretty rough, so we had some good times surfing and then once we were tired we found some crazy huge reeds and laid out on our Kayaks to soak up some rays, and chat. I got some pretty good shots of the volcanoes surrounding the lake and one of craig paddling his swamped kayak.. which by the way he did twice! Once back on shore, we headed back to the Hippy compound and got Leigh, together we went to a local bakery, got some sweet itallian buns and continued on to the internet cafe I now find myself in. Tonight, were having cheap tacos and then heading back to the Hippy compund for una cerveza (a beer) and listen to craig play the guitar while we all sing Jack johnson, Sublime and Ben Harper.

Its going great, but I miss everyone too!

Happy trails,
Ryan.