Fijate que... CAVAL!!.

The Guatemala adventure.... a few of my friends from different parts of my past all united with me to explore the natural beauty throughout Guatemala and a bit of Belize.

A.B my friend from Peru, Britney my friend from college, and Sophie my friend from childhood all pulled in the week of my last day of classes. As I was tying up a few loose ends the girls got explore the awesome market Antigua has to offer, joined me for a short chicken bus experience, had an appropriate greeting to the Guatemala rain season, and saw their fair share of restaurants and bars across the small city.

Monday morning we headed out for Semuc Champey which is a natural bridge that somewhat resembles a fresh water paradise. We bunked up at a popular backpackers hostel called Zephyr Lodge, they set up a tent for the four of us which looked out on an amazing view. The first day in the Semuc Area we floated down the latter part of the river that passes through the land made bridge. It quite an eventful float, we all hopped on our tubes ready to enjoy some sunshine only for a big storm cloud to cover any hope of bronzing. During the float we got doused in rain and I was completely amazed at how warm it remained, the Australians floating with us didn't agree though... they definitely left the water with blue lips.What was the best part of the trip was our new friend Adam loosing his camera. I know this sounds bad, but just hear me out. Adam had been traveling for eight months and set his waterproof camera on his lap while we were hanging out in a current free part of the river. He tried to dive and get it but couldn't get to the bottom so he offered a free bar tab to anyone who could find it. On the first dive an Australian successfully came up with the camera shouting "FREE BAR TAB!" I have never heard such unified excitement before, all of us travelers were extremely stoked.... we all know how hard it would be to loose so many significant pictures. What luck and skill! After the river we all returned to the hostel warmed up and siesta-ed the afternoon away. We spent the eve,ning in a local bar in town dancing and entertaining all the locals. The bar tender was thrilled to be getting so much business from the tourists, it seemed that typically those who visited Semuk stayed within the confines of their hostels. I love that we were able to give back a little to the local community too.

 Day two of Semuk was my favorite day of the trip. It fell on the 4th of July and was the most appropriate way to celebrate. Traditionally on the 4th I like to head out to our lake cabin and partake is some good ol' fashion bridge jumping, cliff jumping, and rope swinging. This year, celebrating in Guatemala, wasn't that much different from my typical Montana experience. In the morning we all loaded into the back of a pickup truck and made the 10 K journey in the open air of the truck bed. When we got to Semuk they pulled out an epic rope swing chair that we all got to jump off of, followed by an extremely high bridge that was quite a thrill. After that we continued onto a candle tour of the caves. This was quite a unique experience. The caves have fresh water flowing through them so it is a tour that involved swimming while maintaining a flame, climbing and going down a small waterfall, jumping from a small rock into a pool, and maintaining sanity from lack of sunlight. I was more than ready to see some natural light when we made our way out of the cave. From the cave tour we headed out the the actual beauty of Semuk, in the park. We hiked up about 15 minutes to a mirador that overlooks the many pools that are created by the land bridge, it is quite a sight to be seen. Once you see it the guide informs you that you are headed there next. Exciting no!? I have discovered that I am a fresh water fanatic and exploring the number of pools, no matter how hard the slippery rocks were to navigate, was an ideal way to top off our day of independence

After Semuk we hopped another bus, with nearly the entirety of our hostel to Flores for some ruin exploration in Tikal. As I have said before, the Incans really outdid that Mayans, yet with that said the grenadier of Tikal was still astonishing. We opted out of the guided tour of Tikal and toured ourselves around with our own personal teacher A.B. Tikal is full of a number of temples that are spread over a large jungle. The highlight of these temples was Temple IV where they actually filmed part of Star Wars. We hiked to the tip and the view was pretty fantastic. What made it even cooler was the audible conversations of the howler monkeys. As we were sitting on the top of the tower listening to the growls of the monkeys it was hard not to feel like you are sitting in Jurrasic Park. We kept the exploring of Tikal to a half day and got a very full tour with our American, Aussie, and South African commentaries about everything. We later returned to Flores where my the rest of my travel crew met their doom. Sophie was unable to see Tikal because she was hit by what we call the "Guate Gut" not far behind her in this experience were both A.B. and Britney. We think we can blame the hostel food for this. I was the only one who made it out without symptoms of sickness, and I was the only one who chose to eat street food (normally a riskier meal) instead of eat the hostel food. Poor girls, traveling at less than 100% is never fun.  Yet it didn't stop us...

The next day we left bright and early for the island of Caye Caulker in Belize. First off, it was really strange switching from traveling in Guatemala to Belize. Belize is significantly more expensive and they speak English. That is a switch after being accustomed to making our way around daily in Spanish. Yet, Belize in and of itself was extremely enjoyable.  Although we had to suffer through a bit of a tropical storm at the get go, the weather shaped up and made it ideal for us to get some sun time as well as a snorkeling trip. When the sun showed itself A.B. and I set up her hammock over that ocean water and vegged out listening to music in the Caribbean sunlight. Later that day we brought a package of Mac and Cheese that I demanded A.B. bring from home to a local (more or less) pizza joint. They were kind enough to cook up the Mac and Cheese to make my pizza of choice: Mac and Cheese. Nothing like a modified menu. The next day we set out to explore some ocean life, the weather was not a cooperative as the day prior, but the rain did hold out making the water perfect too see the world that exists under the sea. I must preface this with the fact that I felt like was living part of a number of Disney movies over the duration of the trip. "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming" from Finding Nemo was running through my head every time I was admiring the the coral reef. For my first snorkeling adventure I would call it a success- we swam along the second biggest reef in the world and saw manatees, sting rays, sharks, turtles, and an assortment of beautiful fish. This experience definatly  instilled a desire in me to get my dive certification, but that is all for another adventure.

From Belize, on a last minute decision, we headed for Rio Dulce near the Carribean cost of Guatemala. This turned out to a great end to the trip, to slow things down and have some time to catch up on everything we had been neglecting while we were go-go-going. We arrived in Rio after staying another night in the small inland island of Flores. Upon arriving we jumped on a boat and headed to our hostel located in the swamp area right off of Rio Dulce-this time I felt like I was living in the Princess and the Frog. What was great about our hostel was the amazing selection of Mexican food AND kayaks that we could take out to see the Castillo de San Felipe. This castle was constructed by the indiginous people to ward off the Pirates that made their way inland from the carribean coast. Needless to say we immediately took up this adventure, despite the fact that my Kayak was a bit broken we made our trip to the castle. It was pretty fun to expolore and fabricate events that may have taken place there... again can you see why I was stuck in a Disney movie? On our return journey my broken Kayak got the best of me and capsized about 100 meters from our hostel, I'm pretty sure we dumped out 400 gallons of water when we managed to flip it over. The next day we went to explore the natural beauity of the Rio Dulce area. For me this was just perfect, because it wasn't something we had to book a tour through and get everything done in a certain amount of time. We took a boat into town and hopped on a collectivo to Finca Paradiso. This site is a natural hot spring waterfall, apparently the only one in the world, it was quite beautiful and the perfect temperature to spend the morning swimming. From here we flagged down another collective to head a bit further up the road to a natural canyon to which the name alludes me. We payed a man with a boat to take us up the canyon and see the nearly untouched attraction. As I stated earlier, I am defiantly a fresh water fan and loved jumping out of the river to swim and explore on my own accord. From here we all headed back to the hostel to relax and indulge in their collection of bootleg DVDs.

The next morning we headed back to square one: Antigua. We have been here the past few days and are staying busy enjoying the food at all my favorite places to eat. It has been good to see everyone and say my last goodbyes....or until next times. I am sad to leave this place I can add to my list of homes, but I am ready to get back to some of the luxuries the United States has to offer...mostly not paying for agua pura at restaurants.

Aca pongo mi salute a Antigua, and cheers to the next trip. I keep finding myself leaving a little piece of my heart behind when I leave a place. Antigua will be no exception. Words can't fully describe the comfort of walking around this place. I feel like I have become a part of their community and I appreciate every general smile that comes my way. I big shout out goes to...
*Jose who walked me the last two blocks of my walk to school because he said I had a unique energy about me * The man working outside the gym near my house at 5 AM when I would run by,  who would notice and comment on the days I decided to wait until midday to run * The blind man sitting on the sidewalk playing his harmonica who returns every night to his three story house *The man selling sandwiches and hot rice drinks at the break of dawn every morning *The man who runs across the park to give a flyer to a gringo because he gets paid for every one that ends up in usful hands *The bar tenders who pull out your beer of choice before you actually order it *Coralia's big smile greeting me everymorning in class and every night when I returned to work * Those who tolerated me practicing my Spanish *Last, but not least, all of my alumnos that made me a part of thier lives and families.

Hasta la proxima vez!