Hotel Ti'Kaaj San Pedro La Laguna

... any of my anxiety about traveling on the roads. Everyone had to get off the bus and walk through the wreckage to wait on the other side. Several buses and car fulls of people waited and watched while the tow truck tried to drag the truck away.

One thing I love about Guatemalans and they just loooove to help, bless their hearts. Last week I was at the market looking for the moving ¨"men with guns" and it apparently was not very clear what I was asking. I clearly ...

... up the truck (as in lift it off the ground)
and move it. It was pretty hilar, but unfortch Susan couldn't get out
her ginormous camera in time to snap a pic and only caught the end
result. We watched some futbol yesterday, a qualifying match for the
world cup between Argentina and Uruguay. Because, as Teddy's teacher
says, it's not a world cup without Argentina. Right... Also did laundry
by hand last night, always a pleasure. With the same bucket we use to
dump ...

... their everyday lives having never met them before. Its not
always easy but its an amazing experience and I know at the end of the
2 weeks I will be really glad I did it. It also helps me keep vaguely
disaplined which would be near impossible were I staying in a hostel
still.

Last Saturday I finally got my drum & bass fix which was massively overdue - Bo! An English guy that has been living here for the past 5 years plays a bit of d&b and they'd ...

... And needless to say, Teddy ate the whole thing. And Susan's.
When we finished, we sat and got to chat with Maria while she ate,
which was a real pleasure. We learned all about how corn tortillas are
made, including an awesome moment when Teddy tried to ask if they also
made tortillas with "flowers" here (he was trying to say "flour").
Personally, I think that flower tortillas would be really pretty, Ted;
don´t beat ...

... a dirt road continued. I went a few more minutes until I reached the local town of Tzununá, where I hopped off and ran for cover at a nearby fruit stand. Everyone else in town had similar ideas and all around the main square colorfully clothed women and children gathered in the dry areas beneath the eaves.
After waiting 40 minutes it appeared this would not be a quick shower. With the whole town watching me ...

Still here in Xe la waiting for the whole card thing to work out. Since I might be here a couple weeks I decided to hunker down in a legit habitation. I found two other girls from Portland that are going to be staying a month, and we found a guest house together to stay it. Its a little more than I want to pay (about $110 a month) but the bathroom is clean and the kitchen is huge and it has a nice big open patio ...

On a relaxed Sunday trip to Las Fuentes Georginas, after a particularly heavy Saturday night, general talk turned to all of us doing a massive hike leaving Xela on the Thursday taking 3 days and arriving in San Pedro on Lago de Atitlan on Saturday. As the Sunday turned into Monday, the talk became a plan and we had a group of 9 of us wanting to do the trek. I persuaded my Spanish teacher to double up the hours so I could do 4 or 5 days in 3. Juan decided to stay on, instead of ...

... narrow and cobbled, the architecture a mixture of faded colonial elegance and small crumbling dwellings. Each building is responsible for maintaining the pavement in front so in places there are no pavements, which makes walking a bit tricky. Although most of Xela is safe especially around Parque Central
America, where the hostels and language schools are based, it is still not advisable to walk around after 10 at night even in groups. People are friendly and ...

... everywhere to cover their goods. The water collected in their tarpaulins and they kept poking it with a stick to clear it. Perfect timing it stopped just as we had to leave to meet the others at the servo to get back home. We didn't get a direct bus and had to change about 3 times - the last bus got totally packed - 3 sometimes 4 or 5 to a seat. Looking around to people in our group being swamped by locals and kids with their shopping was such a ...

... br> Each morning the sunrise turned the mountains a stunning gold, while the stillness of the sparkling lake would be broken only by a lone fisherman in a wooden boat hoping to snare dinner for his family.










Throughout the day, to the soundtrack of water gently lapping the shore outside our window, we'd see kayakers glide past and lanchas would pass regularly, delivering the ...