Adv. in Guatemala

So the last two weeks have been pretty crazy. In chronological order:

Panajachel and San Pedro. Both on Lago de Atitlan "the most beautiful lake in the world," a huge collapsed volcano. Panajachel was nice but there wasn´t much to do and nowhere to go swimming. The little girls were the most persistant little vendors I´ve ever seen. Well they were exactly the same as the old ladies except not so scary.

San Pedro: I met up with a friend of the friend I went there with, played pool, ate food and swam a lot. I guess this trip was 4 days of being lazy on the lake. Everything here is really cheap...a hotel can run you 3 dollars.

Semuc Champey and the caves. They were cool. Semuc is the most beautiful place I´ve ever been and there weren´t many people there. I went there with Jasper from Germany - Sarah´s friend from San Pedro. We stayed in Coban the first night in a hotel that sucked and then we were up for the 5am bus only to find that we were locked in and couldn´t find anyone to open the door. We arrived in Semuc early and it just happened to be the one day of the week that they offer a tour to the caves and the hot spring pool things. So we went. The caves were full of water and we had to swim through parts. I of course wasn´t allowed to bring my camera so no pics. We carried candles, slipped through little crevices, slid down little slides and I jumped off about a 10 foot ledge into the pools. They were fun.

Tikal. Tikal is a big Mayan site. It was pretty nice but after completing my history major I no longer have any interest in these things. I do like climbing huge structures and contemplating what the heck they were thinking when they built this stuff in 90 degree weather...I do this while the tour guide is at the bottom explaining it to everyone. Also Howler Monkies are my new favorite animal.

El Mirador. The largest Mayan ruins in Central America. I went there with another German dude that I met a few weeks ago at school. And we were of course the only tourists there!!! The reason for this is it´s a 3 hour car ride from the nearest city with internet...followed by 2 days of hiking through the jungle, one day of sightseeing and then 2 days back. To sum it up: about 50 miles in 5 days
about 10 of those on a horse (or a mule if you want to get technical)
90+ degree weather
the rainy season
15-30 horsefly bites
25-40 ticks.
50-100 mozzy bites
walking through mud up to my knees (New Balance....your "All Terrain" shoes need a new name).
Taking only DEET showers.
And I still love howler monkies.

And just wait until you see how studly I look riding around a mule. I felt kind of like those crazy death guys in the Lord of the Rings....only more badass. And I now know where the term dumbass comes from. Badass....I have no idea.

I had another fun day today but I´m too lazy to blog about it now...and I decided I´m going to Honduras in 2 days.

druk druk druk. That means busy busy busy in Danish for all you non-worldly people.

dag dag dag. That means bye bye bye in danish....but only weird people say it.

marcos