Long Excursion

I just got back from an 8 day tour of Guatemala. It was a great trip and an incredible opportunity to explore more of the country. While we departed on a bad note (exams and one of the students witnessing his neighbor being shot and killed the night before) I arrived home to a valentines day note and welcome home flowers from my host mom. We all needed this vacation. We fit SO many things into the 8 days, that I think it might work best to just go day by day...

Friday, February 6th

- Exams at school

- Busride to Guatemala City

- Dinner at Frida's

- Stay at Holiday Inn

Saturday, February 7th

- Breakfast at Kacaos

- 10 hour busride to Flores, and island town with a population of approximately 23,000 people. The island was beautiful. It only takes about half an hour to do a lap around the entire shore, so we got to do a lot of exploring. It was also the safest any of us have felt since being here, and the first time I have felt truly comfortable walking around at night, it was great.

- Dinner at Captain Tortugas

-Happy hour at Las Raices (2 for 1 margaritas= 2 margaritas for 20Q= 2 margaritas for $2.50)

-Stay at Gran Hotel de la Isla

Sunday, February 8th - Free Day

- Sleep in until 10 (first time since being in Guatemala!)

- Shopping

-Lunch

- Boat Tour around the island

- Tuc Tuc ride to a fruit market

- Dinner at Las Raices- best food we've had so far in Guatemala...amazing kabobs, pasta, and nachos

- Chat poolside

Monday, February 9th

- Breakfast at the hotel

- Switch hotels (our other one didn't have enough rooms for all of us)

- Tikal! - Incredible Mayan ruins situated deep in the Guatemalan jungle. The Maya settled in Tikal around 700 BC and by 500 AD the city is thought to have been home to over 100,000 people. Exploration and excavation of the city began in the mid 1800s. At its peak Tikal boasted over 4000 structures. While several of them have been uncovered and partially restored, many are still buried deep within tree roots. The city lies in a flatland, so it was neat to know that undernethe every large mound/hill were ruins of some sort. We spent the day exploring and climbing... steep Mayan steps are quite a workout. The lack of safety regulations, even at a tourist site, still amazes me. There is NO way we would have been able to climb those structures in the United States...there weren't even guard rails! My favorite part of the day was climbing to the top of one of the main temples in the central plaza, and just sitting up there listening to my ipod and taking everyting in. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience.

-Dinner

-Happy Hour

- Stay at La Casona de la Isla, a beautiful hotel with a gorgous patio facing the water

Tuesday, February 10th

- Breakfast at the hotel

- Yaxha- a Mayan ceremonial site and the location of Survivor: Guatemala, filmed three years ago (as one of the few people who still watches Survivor, I was very excited by this fact and recognized many of the sites:) The money receieved from the 90 day Survivor taping was put toward further restoration. Once again we walked through the jungle and even had a picnic lunch (PB Sandwiches) on top of one of the temple ruins. A highlight was seeing both spider monkeys and howler monkeys in their natural habitat.

-Swimming at the hotel

- Dinner at a pizzeria

-Late night window shopping and ice cream (I have found the BEST ice cream here....up to par with Italy's gelato...yeah, I know)

Wednesday, February 11th

-Breakfast at the hotel

-Leave for a 6 hour bus ride to Coban. We had to take an 'Oregon Trail style' ferry to cross the river. It was pretty weird to be floating accross a river while sitting in our bus.

- Walk around the city

- Stay at La Posada (a beautiful hotel, although our window had three bullet hole punctures...it's amazing how immune we've become to little details like that)

Thursday, February 12th

-Walked to the panderia (bread store) for breakfast

- Bus ride to Semuc Champay- Dubbed as the most beautful place in Guatemala, Semuc Champay is known for its famous natual limestone bridge that stretches over 300 meters with natural pools carved out on top for swimming. The water in the pools was a beautiful turquoise, and the entire setting could easily be described as paradise. The bridge has been created due to erosion as the majority of the water from the Rio Cahabon shoots undernethe the limestone creating waterfalls and carving out caves. We spent the day hiking, swimming, and jumping into the river.

-Dinner/Stay at Las Marias, rustic cabins seated right along the river. Although electricity was only available for 2 hours per day, there were beds, mostly flushing toilets, and overpriced Snickers bars, so we were happy overall. Dinner consisted of two options: meat or no meat. I of course went with the meat, and paid only $2.50 for a meal of chicken, rice, bread, and salad. Dinner was at 7pm and everyone staying at the cabins ate together, summer camp style. It happened to be one of the CSB girl's 21st birthday, so we managed to construct her a cake made soley out of the ridiculously priced, tourist-trap candy bars. There was live music, food, cards (500 to be exact, I knew dad would be proud), and candy bars...a great night (minus the bugs).

Friday, February 13th

- Breakfast at Las Marias

- Cave tours- one of the craziest things I have ever done. With headlamps and candles in tow, a guide took us deep into a maze of caves carved out by the river throughout the years. Submerged in water the entire time, we swam with one hand while holding our candles with the other hand through the dark chilly water. I was fine with the swimming part, but climbing rope ladders and crawling through 'toilet holes' (water flushed down the hole with you) was a bit much for me. At one point everyone turned off their headlamps/blew out thier candles and we just sat in the water in complete silence/darkness. I think it was the first time in my life that I experienced complete and total darkness (no moon, no stars, no crack of light undernethe the door, etc.) It was just us, the bats and the infinite abyss. The tour lasted three hours, and by the end I was ready to see some daylight.

-Tubing- after the caves we hiked down a trail and went tubing a few miles down the river back to our cabins. I think this was my favorite part of the entire trip...a true lazy river.

-Busride back to Coban

-Much needed shower!

-Birthday dinner at the hotel restraunt- Since it was the last night of our trip a group of us decided to go all out and have a really nice dinner (we had all been pretty stingy for most of the trip). Each of us ordered a five course meal consisting of soup, salad, bread, a pasta dish, and a giant brownie with ice cream for desert. While extremely expensive by Guatemalan standards, each of us paid around $10-$15, including a share of the birthday girl's meal...not bad.

-Stay at La Posada in Coban

Saturday, February 14th

-Breakfast at the hotel

- 10 hour busride back to Xela (thank goodness for ipods)

Overall it was an absolutely incredible trip and one that I will remember for a long time. Phase II of the program starts on Monday (classes at both the language school, university, and service learning). I'm a little bit nervous about balancing everything, but excited for the change. I hope everyone reading this is doing well. I miss you.