Big Orange Backpack

On the recommendation of a bunch of Israelis, we headed to San Marcos de Laguna on the Lake of Atitlan. The ride here was unbelievable, we veered and swerved our way through roads blasted into the mountains for over two hours, and I´m definitely going to need some dramamine on the way back down. We arrived to the lake and took the last ferry boat from the main village on the lake to San Marcos. It was night, and by miracle alone, we found our hostel, La Paz. Our accommodations keep getting cooler by the city. Its in a hut, and there are four beds, two in the loft, which is where Vanessa and I are staying. Michelle and another woman are staying below. Yesterday was a lazy day, hanging out and making new friends. We went into the wet sauna here and spent over an hour and a half. The sauna was basically a small stone home that you can´t stand in, and the ¨door¨ is the size of an oven door. You throw water onto the heater to create steam, and it got really hot really fast. It felt amazing. We all jumped out once to take a cold shower, but we used salt to exfoliate, and today my skin feels really soft. We also sang some niguns (shabbat songs) and the acoustics were really amazing, it was great fun and I think we´re going back today. We had dinner in the Paco Real restaurant last night and the night before, and it was so amazing. I thought before I came here that I would lose weight on this trip. I was so wrong. We have not had a bad meal, not even a meal that was subpar. We leave Monday for Antigua, and on Tuesday at 4am we go to Copan in Honduras. I kind of don´t ever want to leave. We´ve met some really cool people, and it´s funny how the Isrealis have been looking out for us little American Jewish girls. I´m off for an appointment with a woman that feels your chee or shakras or whatever and then makes a piece of jewelry to compliment it. San Marcos is all about all that mystical shit, and I think if I do yoga or meditation my membership in the Republican party will be revoked. I´m excited to get back to the States and start my internship at Republican Youth Majority (RYE). We´ve been talking a lot of politics, and I´ve realised how much of a Republican I really am, and I can´t wait to work for an organisation and work with people that are like-minded. Anywho, off to get my shakras assessed.

We`ve decided on a change of plans. According to our itinerary, we were going to stay in Flores two nights, but after our trip to Tikal (we got back by noon), we felt as though we had tapped that beautiful island, and wanted to move on. We found out that our hostel had an arrangement with a travel company that had overnight buses to Guatemala City, and shuttles to Antigua directly after Guat City. We took the bus last night, and I´m writing from Antigua presently. I had these visions of this place being magical and like from 18th century Spain, but its just polluted and decrepited. Its quite interesting, but not worth the days we were prepared to spend here. We arrived in Antigua this morning at about 8am, and we are spending the day here before going to Lago de Atitlan. Between the amazing recommendation of Eric and the many Israelis we´ve encountered here, we figured that was a place to devote as much time as possible. We will be there until the 2nd, and we will spend the night of the 2nd in Antigua before getting on a 4am bus to the Copan Ruins in Honduras, where we will spend one night before moving on. We´ve been traveling at break neck speed, but I dont feel tired yet, so I want to keep moving as much as possible. We are meeting so many Israelis and its really quite amazing to connect with them, as Jews and as travellers.
This morning in Antigua has been totally magical, we walked into the market and had an amazing meal at a food stand only frequented by Guatemalans, and had this great big meal of rice, beans, and eggs for only Q10, which is about $1.20. We walked through the artists market and then stumbled upon the Cultural Center here, which was probably the most beautiful building in this entire country. There was an amazing exhibit on about the ¨disappeared¨ of South American countries in the 1970s and 1980s during the civil wars down there. There was also this very fancy reception also going on. We brushed our teeth in the bathroom like true backpackers, and we´re currently waiting for the rain to subside before we head out to some churches and other town site-seeing before our bus to Lago at 4pm. This has been an absolutely amazing vacation, and I never really want it to end.

Since I last wrote I feel like its been forever. Excuse my lack of an apostrophe through this entry, I cannot find it on the keyboard. On Sunday we traveled down to Chetumal, which is the southern most city of Mexico. We arrived at 6pm at the bus terminal, and we asked when the bus would be leaving for Flores, Guatemala. We were told it left at 5am, but we had to be there at 4am in order for them to ensure that there were going to be enough people on it in order to run the bus. We decided to sleep in or around the bus terminal, since we would only spend a little time in a hostel bed before having to leave again. We walked around Chetumal, and took our first real look at the ocean. After watching the sunset on the pier, we went and had an amazing pizza meal. I ate too much pizza that was apparently loaded with garlic, and I threw up all over the sidewalk. It was a crowning moment in my time in Mexico, I have to say. We went back to the bus station and saw some Menonites, apparently theres a large community in Mexico of them. We ended up deciding to sleep in the park, and we laid out towels and a sleeping bag that Juan had, and we ended up watching Juan play a game of futbol (soccer) before slowly falling asleep. We only slept for two hours at most before the stray dogs in the park started barking and woke us up. We went into the bus terminal and waited for our bus for a few minutes, and met an Israeli "couple" (a guy and girl traveling but who were not romantically an item) who were also going to Flores. On the way into Belize we lost Juan. He had apparently snuck past the Mexican authorities, and thought he could bribe slash sweet talk his way into Belize because he didnt have his passport. He was wrong. He was turned away from the Belize border and he had to sweet talk his way back into Mexico, which was far more successful, apparently (he emailed Vanessa after getting back into Mexico).
We ended up going through Belize City on our way to Guatemala, and we spent 45 minutes in Belize City itself. It was far more run down than I anticipated, very Phnom Penh-esque. I really felt as though I got a good sense of Belize, it was lush and beautiful and very different than Mexico or Guatemala, I felt as though they were indeed distinct countries. The border into Guatemala was a bit frightening in its ghetto-ness, I was at first a bit nervous about coming into the country when the border was so disorganized and frantic. The bus (which was already a minibus) broke down very close to Flores, and for the last hour or so we were all stuffed into an even smaller bus. Finally, we arrived in Flores, and came to the Hotel los Amigos with the Israeli couple that we met. We had been awake (save the nap in the park and a few naps on the bus) for 24 hours, but we were starving and desperately needed to change our clothes and shower. We walked through Flores after dropping our bags at the hostel looking for an ATM machine and passed by the lake which surrounds Flores Island. We stood there deciding that we would first go to the ATM, then get food, and then go swimming. However, while us ladies were standing there, Roi, the guy Israeli, was stripping down to his underwear behind us and jumped into the water. The four of us stood there, admiring the lake and thinking how much we wanted to go in before we gave in and stripped down and got in too. It was unbelievably beautiful, and completely refreshing. We then walked towards the ATM, and on the way met a group from Quebec. Its been confusing already speaking Spanish English and Hebrew, but when I threw French into the mix, my brain went on overload. As we were at the ATM we were passed by a funeral procession, and I really wanted to photograph it because it was so interesting, but I held back. We then went to a wonderful restaurant on the lake and had great food and happy hour margaritas, which were the best Ive ever had. We came back to the hostel and passed out, having been awake for 36 hours with only a few naps in between.
This morning we woke up at 4:30 and went to the Tikal ruins. It was loads of fun, and we were climbing and hiking through the jungle for about 3 or 4 hours. Were about to have lunch, and then go rent a canoe for the lake, and go onto another, smaller island to a beach with almost no-one on it. Weve changed our plans a little, and were leaving Flores a day early. Tomorrow were traveling to Antigua, and the next day well go to Isla de Atitlan (on the recommendation of Eric of Singapore), and then well return to Antigua for another day before making our way to Copan in Honduras. Its great fun and Im loving every minute of it!

Last night Vanessa arrived here with her friend Juan, we were starting to get worried because it was two hours after she said she'd be here. We went out last night and very close to our hostel there was a square with a stage with dancing people in traditional Mexican clothes and lots of food booths. It wasn't at all for the tourists, we were some of the few white people there. There were hundreds of families there, eating, talking, dancing. It was a great time. Today we're going to probably catch a bus to Chetumal, and tomorrow catch a bus to Flores Guatemala. Juan has been talking about buying a car instead, but we're not quite sure if he's serious. We'll see! It's amazing how much Spanish I've been understanding, I hope I pick up a lot from Vanessa, Juan, and everyone and everything else around me for the next month.

We just arrived. Its hot and very touristy. Looking forward to moving on from drunk Americans. Hostel seems really nice. Going to buy bus tickets for Chutemal now. Keyboard sucks. Vanessa will be here tonight.

Oh, down in mexico
I never really been so I dont really know
Oh, mexico
I guess Ill have to go

May 25: Cancun
May 26: Cheutmal
May 27: Travel to TIkal Guatemala
May 28-29: Tikal
May 30: Travel to Antigua
May 31-June 1: Antigua
June 2: Travel to Copan Ruins
June 3-4: Copan Ruins
June 5: Travel to Tegucigalpa
June 6: Travel to Managua
June 7-9: Managua
June 9-11: Granada (it's 45 minutes away)
June 11-14: Isla da Omepe (3 hour boat ride from Granada)
June 15: Travel back to Managua
June 16: Travel to San Jose, Costa Rica
June 17: San Jose
June 18: Michelle + Bethany return to USA