It´s been another one of those three ...

It´s been another one of those three countries in three days times, so right now I´m really keen for some sleep and not really too energetic for much. So it´s probably a good thing that I´m in Peru with nothing to do as such until the rest of the group arrives. Although we´re not exactly sure when everyone will be here as people have missing flights and not been at the airport as expected, although that may well be communication difficulties rather than anything else.

Changing of the guard

Since last time I´ve been in Antigua for a couple of days which I really enjoyed. Can see why the travellers recommend that place to make your base for Guatemala travels rather than Guatemala City. It´s a pretty place with the cobbled roads, old housing all painted with the bright colours and flowers coming over the walls and roof, ruins and churchs (that have survived the earthquakes) and a nice setting. It´s a town that is nestled in the valley between hills meaning that it is contained and you can see the volcanos surrounding it. And you can also see the smoke and evidence of eruptions from one of the volcanos which has become a lot more active than normal in the last couple of weeks. I heard that it even made it onto the local news in Australia, although I´ve been completely out of touch with what has been going on lately.

While in Antigua I met up with some other travellers I´d met on the road in other places so it was nice to spend a day with a semi-familiar face or two. I also had the most upfront pickup by one of the locals yet. I was sitting in the park waiting to meet someone and a guy came up to me and started trying to have a conversation - although not so easy when I don´t speak Spanish and he doesn´t speak much English. But the message comes across clear enough when it comes down to someone saying I love you and want you to come back to the hotel with me, and...... the rest you should be able to fill in the blanks. That´s the time when you are busy looking out for the person you are meeting, so that they can temporarily become your boyfriend to discourage the unwanted suitor. That´s all part of the travel experience though, and it makes me have another reason to want to learn the language!

While in Antigua I mainly just did some sightseeing and spent some time with other travellers - went wandering the streets, went through the chaotic local market, and the sleepy artists market, looked at some of the churches and went up to the Cross on the Hill for a look over the city (with tourist police escort). Because of the crime against the tourists in the past, the businesses have put money into setting up a tourist police who provide escorts to the tourists free of charge. The businesses have realised how much they gain from encouraging tourism and so have invested into making tourists feel safe about being there and so more likely to come and spend their money! It´s a set up that works quite well, and has seen a decrease in crime against tourists which is always a good thing when you are travelling!

Monday though marked the end of this part of the trip and meant another day of travelling - one I wasn´t too keen on because it took me in the opposite direction to where I wanted to end up. From Guatemala to Miami is not exactly on my way to Peru! And to make for an even more fun day I got up early to give myself lots of time at the airport, only to discover that the plane was delayed significantly meaning a lovely 6 hour wait in the airport. So by the end of the day, a 2 hour flight resulted in 13 hours travelling time between leaving Antigua and arriving at the hostel in Miami.

And the Miami experience was not exactly an enjoyable one - from losing half a day there and so spending the entire next day running around organising things and getting lost multiple times, to finding buses don´t give change, getting on the wrong buses, getting in a train carriage who´s doors wouldn´t open so we couldn´t get out, to the best bit of discovering that the things I needed to get I could have bought three blocks from where I was staying rather than travelling all the way across the city (only finding that out afterwards!) So after a day of unhelpful people and transport problems, the highlight of Miami was pretty much having a toilet that you could flush toilet paper down. Okay, it wasn´t that bad, but knowing the transport system now and where a few things are in the city I could have done things totally different and actually got to see the beach and stuff! But when you rock up in a new city every couple of days it takes a while to work out yet another system and so a lot of time gets wasted - all part of the travel experience.

So now I´m in Peru, currently in Lima, heading to Puerto Maldonado sometime in the next couple of days before an 8 or so hour boat ride down the river to our base for the Greenforce project in the Amazon. I´ve met a few of the people I´ll be spending the next 10 weeks with and hopefully most of the others will be arriving tonight. Not sure what the next part will bring but it will certainly be interesting with a lot to learn and some hot and humid weather. Hopefully we´ll get to see/hear some interesting wildlife and I´ll get to learn a lot, although right now, sleep is proving to be the most important thing on my agenda.