Guatemala....

So recently all my plans for spring break fell through... tentative plans for montezuma and solid plans for nicargua were off in one simple day, through a few facebook messages. I had no idea what to do for spring break, all my other friends had plans, and I really didnt want to get stuck in san jose for an extended period of time. So I worked it out with my mom and got plane tickets to guatemala to visit pennsylvanian dave. Last minute decisions seem to work out for me. We have been on a whirlwind tour of the country, we spent our first night in guat city, meeting up at a hostel.. where i randomly met two americans studying abroad at UCR, the university right down the street from me in san jose. They also happen to be on the same return flight. We chilled out, and saturday morning tried to exchange my colones for quetzals. Lets just say there is not a single place in guatemala that will exchange costa rican colones. Be forwarned. The one place we finally found was of course in the sketchy part of the city, and ther were going to take about a 100 dollars cut. Eff that. Ended up borrowing from dave the whole week and we figured out a way to transfer money to his account. We then hopped on a 12 hour bus ride up to tikal in the northern highlands of the country. Through mountains, through desert, through farms, with people crammer in the aisles, random food vendors hopping on, and for the first two or three hours, the bus pulling off to the side because it thought it was breaking down. It was however well worth it, because Sunday was the most amazing day in guatemala.
We headed off to Tikal bright and early and wandered around the mayan ruins. It was in the jungle with huge trees springing up everywhere, spider monkeys, howler moneys, birds, lizards, spiders, and tons of other wildlife in the midst. There were five large pyramids or temples and we were able to climb three of them for spectacular views, and there were several other smaller pyramids, but still immense in size. Temple 4 had an awesome view of the other temples poking through the forest, and temple 5, was the scariest pyramid i have ever climbed. granted tikal had the first pyramids i have played on, this was one frightening climb... but well worth it. The larger pyramids had stairs built for safety and to protect the ruins, but for some reason, temple 5s staircase was more of a verticle ladder going somewhere around 180 to 190 feet in the air. Did I mention to anyone what a klutz I am? oh yeah... my heart was pumping, when dave and i got to the top we were both hugging the wall, but it had an amazing view of the jaguar temple and some of the other ruins showing through the forest. It was breathtaking. So was going back down. But I made it, no slips, no falling (for once) and we moved on to further exploration.
We made a few friends along the way, including two crazy brits who had found the best view in the ruins, climbing up to a random spot right by the central plaza where you could see basically everything large and everything close by that was all cleared out. Luckily there were cool guys, because when we got the last microbus back were literally crammed on top of them. Lets just say we were friends real quick.
We spent the night eating some of the best vegetarian food I have had. It just happened that our hostel had the only vegetarian restuarant in north guatemala, and the food was bomb. Hung out with a couple of different people we met that night at the hostel, very chill, very fun night, lots of random stories and the normal crazy happenings when a bunch of travellers hang out who have never met before. Good stuff.
We hopped on a micro bus down to semuc champey next, which I really had no idea where we were going. dave said it was cool, and i was down for whatever. We were going down windy dirt and rock roads through the mountains, had to switch to a pick up truck which we rode guatemalan style in the back in the baking sun, picked up a few other travellers (kids from spain, poland, germany.. random assortment) and the chuttle dropped us off at the hostel that the shuttle driver just happened to own. There was a sweet bridge to jump off of which was about 40 or 35 feet high and the hostel was right on the river so you could go swimming right there. The hostel had the scam set-up. Not only did we get dropped off there,, but if you didnt eat there you were charged more for a room, so they basically forced you into eating there, but luckily the food was wicked good, and it was a good chance to meet the other kids staying in the hostel. Oh and they put everything on a tab, and if you didnt have enough money you could pay them when they return you back to town because they would take you right to an ATM. Can you say scam? It was good though, and at least they werent scamming expensive things. We threw back a few beers, I joined the hombres de españa and jumped off the bridge at night, and eventually called it a night. We got up nice and early for a tour, which dave ended up bailing on because he spent a few too many quetzals on beers the night before. My new friend Karen, the girl from Germany, and the three spanish guys, along with our guatemalan guide went tubing down the river, which waas wicked chill and pretty (although you had to be careful not to run into rocks). He then took us hiking through the park, we went up to a pretty look out of the river and all the natural pools, which was actually a decent hike, showed us around a little and then took us to the cave.
There wer other caves but this one was under the waterfall so in order to get there you had to swim to a rock, and from the rock you dived off and swam as hard as you could across the river before the river would sweep you into the rocks. It looked and sounds scarier than it ended up being. Well it was a little sketch, but we all made it across. Then you climbed up the rocks next to the waterfall, and crossed over the waterfall into the cave. Note that everything was a little chilly and very wet because it had been lightly raining that day and was cloudy all day. Carlos then took us into the cave which didnt go that far back, and were all very confused as to where were supposed to go, and I was wicked nervous about slipping and falling into the rapidly flowing river down below. Next thing you know he points to a hole in the cave wall and says we are going down there. Karen and I were like youre joking. But nope, we climbed down an almost sheer face to the lower part of the cave, were there was a spot you could sit and look into the cave, see the river below you, and watch all the bats flocking around. It was pretty much awesome. To return you climbed back up the sheer face into the upper part of the cave, crossed to the other side of the waterfall, walked or climbed down half the waterfall, scootched over it again to a good spot to jump, and jumped into the river, where once again you had to swim very quickly to the rock on the other side in order to not get swept away. This description does nothing for how spectacular this place was. Afterwards, Dave and i quick went back to the hostel, packed up our stuff, and hopped on the back of another truck back to the town crossroads, hopped in a microbus heading to cobon where we chilled for the night. It was rainy and cold, and to be honest were both pretty beat from all the travelling and the full days of activities, so after a drunken man would not leave us alone we just crashed out.
The next day we started taking a series of buses, a to get to chichicastenango, a very cool traditional town that has an awesome market on thursdays. We ended up just buying a bottle of cheap guatemalan rum and hanging out on the roof playing cards because the town doesnt have much of a nightlife, but we woke up wicked early and spent the next morning exploring the market, spending too much money on very cool traditional handmade items. Everything was actually pretty cheap... but too much money when youre travelling on a budget. We made friends with a 13 year old guatemalan boy who showed us some of the mayan ritual sites, where to get stuff the cheapest, and was the sweetest kid. I was really proud of my spanish and how much we were able to communicate with him. We took him out to breakfast as a thank you, but i wish i could have done more. He had 4 brothers and sisters, his dad was passed away, so he helped out and worked after school. Good kid though, he wasnt begging, just sweet and hardworking. I wont lie, I def. bought a few extra things from him and his family, but i think it was well worth it. plus i love the belt his mom made... wearing it right now in fact.
We hopped on a chicken bus to panachal next where we got right on a boat to san pedro on lake atitlan. We ran into daves friends meadow and kyle right away, and a few other kids we had met in our travels. Its a very hippy town, lots of foreigners just hanging out, good live music, great places to eat, with the guatemalan town mixed in, but more traditional the further you get from the coast of the lake. We really just ended up hanging out, but it was awesome here. We got burritos from the best burrito place with meadows friend lindsey. i was about 3 dollars for two large burritos, and it was the best food i think ive had in guatemala. SO DAMN GOOD. We walked up to the upper parts of town and watched a procession for semana santa which had this crazy smelling incense going, lots of people in traditional costume, and then groups of guatemalans would carry these large and heavy looking wooden structures with crosses, and jesus statues on them. It was very cool. We checked out the buddah bar which had live blues music, and another small latin dance bar, where omg, these kids could dance.
So todays my last day in Guatemala and we were going to head to antigua because its where semana santa is supposed be the largest, but dave isnt feeling to well, so we decided to hang out in san pedro. Its a pretty sweet town however, and I think Im just going to catch a direct shuttle to the airport and hangout over night till my flight. I have a 640 flight in the morning, so hopefully it wont be too bad. I know one other guy doing the same, so im figuring theres worse things to do, and its nice to relax my last day. Im actually going to go buy my ticket for that shuttle right now. Update again when i return to costa rica!