Mi Chulo-Mano Es Feurte

Back in Guatemala after a week of travelling. I am moved into San Pedro on the Western side of Lago Atitlan. I am staying at a hotel on the Lake for $2 per night. There is a dock right outside my room where I can go for a swim each morning. And needless to say the view is ridiculous and the weather here is awesome as well. Usually clear blue skies and 75-85 degrees. Only bad part so for was the dog barking full force for an hour and a half beginning at 1am. A real pleasure.

Last week I was in Honduras, travelling with RJ (who is living in Antigua right now). It was good to be back in the company of a good friend after 5 weeks in Guatemala solo. Our first stop was the ruins at Copan (a town just across the border). Mayan ruins dating from about 500 AD. We had the pleasure of being ripped off by a couple of the locals. We were promised a four hour guided tour on horseback of the local pueblo and ruins for 10 bucks. The price was quickly stepped up to 15 and the adults disappeared and left us with Hector, our 10 year old tour guide.

Hector was pretty charming and told us all about the drinking problems of our original tour guides. RJ and I rode proudly on a dirt road while Hector ran behind us throwing rocks. Yes - he didnt have a horse to ride. Hector gave us some vivid descriptions of the local sites, including such phrases as - Those are some mayan ruins over there - and - This rock looks like a frog. After 2 hours on the horses Hector told us to buy our admission to the ruins. When we returned to get back on our horses some other local kids informed us Hector had split. Luckily we ran into Hector again at 9pm that night and gave all four feet of him shit for ripping us off.

After Copan, we headed to La Ceiba and caught a boat to Utila in the Bay Islands (a group of islands off the northern coast of Honduras). Utila is a very small island with basically two roads one running east-west across the water front and the other north-south. In Utila we met up with four other friends and landed in a scuba class at the Utila Dive Center. Scuba diving was awesome and the hotel came free with the class. A few of the highlights included seeing a school of squid, a crab, a boat wreck, swimming in an underwater cave and tons of fish and coral. Our guide, Marcelo, was a cool guy from Brazil that chicks dig. His life consists of hooking up with chicks from all over the world, scuba diving, and going out every night.

After four days of scuba diving and four nights of impressing the locals with our unique brand of american humor. We left on Friday morning by plane to head back to Guatemala. The 9 minute plane ride was a quick start at 6am but the rest of the journey was a bit longer including 5 buses, two taxis, a pick up truck and some walking. Thirty-six hours later RJ and I were overjoyed to be sitting in Panajchel on the Northern side of Lago Atitlan drinking a few beers under a clear blue sky. That evening we met up with seven of RJs friends from Antigua at a beautiful lake front house near San Lucas (on the South-West side of the Lake) where we spent a day and a half. We were lucky enough to get out on the Lake for some swimming, water-skiing and cliff diving. A great end to the week.

Honduras was an interesting contrast to Guatemala. The island and the countrysides were beautiful. The air was clean and the weather much warmer than Xela. And the people were pretty friendly and helpful for the most part. The cities seemed to be a bit more Americanized than the cities in Guatemala generally. Including much more strip mall type business locations and a broader variety of fast food chains. Also, some of the people that we met seemed to only be interested in ripping off tourists. After only a week in Honduras I find myself much more cynical of people trying to help me figure out how to get around.

Today I have been getting acquianted to San Pedro with a couple of friends that have been living here for a while. This afternoon I return kicking and screaming to spanish classes. I am not looking forward to this at all after a very enjoyable week off. But I need to keep learning for my volunteer work in the spring.