Feliz Neuvo Anos....!
Trip Start
Nov 25, 2006
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8
16
Trip End
Feb 17, 2007
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Antigua,
Guatemala
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
After recovering from Chistmas excesses i did a flying day trip in a tiny plane to the North of Guatemala to visit Mayan ruins called Tikal. Lots of precarious temples to climb built about 800BC and views of the jungle and monkeys made for a great day. Usual lack of health and safety rickety ladders and no barriers made it very interesting but the views were always worth it. Also made friends with a family who are living in Guatemala city, the father is a diplomat at the US embassy, a useful connection and lovely people to spend a day with. Really enjoyed Tikal and should be interesting to compare it to future Mayan ruins I should be visiting.
After returning I headed off to visit lake Atitlan, about 2hours from here. The journey there was pretty hard going after a late night in town the night before but made it and survived a 45min boat ride to our destination a tiny place called San Marcos. Spent 2 very very relaxing nights there. Was literally nothing to do but relax, eat some nice food (lots of melted cheese and nachoes here!), have long naps, read and have massages (normal and shiatzu massages, i'm now well versed in the differences). Found myself chatting about having my energy realigned, my aura and general spiritual, mental and physical well being (clearly didn't know what I was talking about). But very important in San Marco and we became chilled out hippy chickies for a few days.
All volunteers early on NWE
All quite amusing and very pleasant way to relax before New Years mayhem!Back from the Lake on the 31st...about the same time as most of you would have been throwing champagne around Henley Rowing Club and seeing in the new Years. We were starting to feel like the only people left in 2006 for a while. Spent the early part of the evening at Dom and Doreen's house (project managers) we had a BBQ for all the volunteers, i made more brownies and we stuffed ourselves with more food. At 11pm we headed out to the center of Antigua for a huge street party around the central park and the Archway. The streets were heaving, lots of street performers and alcohol flying around. The fireworks at midnight were spectacular and went on in all directions for at least an hour. No one loves fireworks more that Gautemalans who owww and ahhhh at every one. Highly amusing and lots of fun! After the sky fireworks began the craziest thing ever, man stapped on a wooden frame with lit fireworks attached and is called El Torro...The Bull then runs through the crowd as the fireworks go flying off into the crowd!! Completely ridiculous but also slightly hilarious at 1am on New Years Day! Causes mayhem and we left shortly after to bop in a bar to Guatemalas hottest punk band! A night without salsa dancing but moshing and bopping around was a great end to a very memorable and crazy New Years.
Spent yesterday convinced I might die, standard New Years Day behaviour and shared by most of the volunteers. Almost everything was shut here, so no internet and no nice cafes with comfy sofa and free films to entertain us so spent much of the day in bed and failing to plan my lessons. Oops
Today, equally memorable, was the Civil Wedding of Dom and Doreen! Very exciting and really beautiful ceremony in a hotel, only 50people, including all the volunteers and a lovely meal after. Had steak for first time in a month and had a generally great day. Their Church wedding is not until next November but felt really lucky to be able to share in their special day (cheesy?!). Back to school aka work tomorrow so off to make a plan. Verbs I think!
