Sha Ryan Ka Santa Cruz La Laguna

... br>frequently (ahem Ma, but I promise I´m doing my best! I´m still a
little behind, but the good news is that I´m well! We´re going to Tikal
tomorrow, but I´ll get to that more in a later post...hopefully soon.
San Pedro La Laguna, Western Highlands, Guatemala farrahfig

... has definitely been the best
and most rewarding homestay either of us has ever had - in terms of
cultural immersion, language immersion.. and just simple friendship. It
doesn't hurt that we also love our roommate Alan. He's an electrical
enginner from South Africa who is traveling for an entire year. He
started last December and is going all the way from Argentina to
Vancouver.. how sick is that? We thought he was pretty funny ever since
we met him, but we ...

... is a local cult figure worshipped by the Mayan - and he is crossing between Judas and local Mayan saints. Every year he lives at different homes, but everybody knows where he resides. Kind of a funny deity as he smokes and loves to drink!

It started raining, so Jarred and I got some lunch and then decided to go back. I convinced him to join us at La Iguana as apparently Pana should be much fun and only very touristy. And later in the afternoon, Mieke and ...

... of our acitivities and Luis, one of the spanish teachers was going to be our guide for the morning. We met up with some other students and chose our kayaks, opting to go in double kayaks with me and Al in one and Jules and Lynda in another. Lynda had never kayaked before and after a quick lesson we were on our way.

Or so we thought. Lynda it seems has one arm longer than the other and Julian was a little more hungover than we thought. Al and I ...

... be in a rundown pool hall decorated with Italian themed maps and posters run by a gay couple with a taste for mid 90s rock and that my night would have ended gathered around a karaoke microphone belting out Radiohead and Hotel California with a random sampling of the world´s gringos. It really wasn´t my plan...funny how things are working out.

Nice as that all is, hopefully I will be back in the sticks soon.

... br>At the end of the afternoon we moved on to the lakeside town of Panajachel on Lake Atitlan. This somewhat quaint town has a beautiful vista of cliffs on one side and the lake surrounded by three volcanoes on the other. Because we arrived after dark and we were tired from a long day at the market all we did was check into the hotel (which is quite a bit more rustic than the last) and walk into the center of town for some dinner. Tomorrow we will spend the day exploring.

... watching a movie, taking a boat ride to Panajachel to go shopping or spending the day reading a book in a hammock. I live in a wood shack/cabin that is pretty nice actually. It doesn´t have electricity which is kinda nice for a change. I have candles and stuff which i enjoy. There are also a couple large spiders who periodically camp out on my walls. Although we have become good friends, they eat the bugs and we leave each other alone as ...

... work there for two weeks....which I could have easily done...but I cant get stuck just yet...but I shall return.....Met a good amount of people as well...sure there were only like 8 people the first night but they were all cool and the staff was great....I met the crazy-est Irishmen in my life...a wine drinking pot smoking, yoga posing, cold water hating, space case Irishman....as well as a dirty jersey girl..a crazy Canadian ...

... when i was acosted by the irish guys off the diving course and forced to drink a rum and coke (how rude!) i escaped eventually and was tucked up in bed (minus gas lamp!) by 11pm Saturday woke up with a bit of a dodgy belly but perserveared with my banana for breakfast then it was straight in the lake for confined water 2 and 3. i could do most things but one of the skills is taking your mask off for 1minute, then puting it back on and clearing it. the way you clear it is ...

... water on the rocks, and you make clean by tossing mixed water on yourself. The latter is a little tricky because the ceiling is so low, but this gringa learns quick.

So, now I´m in Santa Cruz, which is not in Guatemala; it´s in Gringoland. I´m right on Lake Atitlan, and from here I can see the volcanoes ringing the water. My hostel is like an all-inclusive resort from cheap scruffy people. 2.50 bucks a night ...