To the beach!

    Last time I left off I was in the beautiful town of San Pedro, around the Atitlan lake. I stayed there for a bit more than two weeks, finished up my second week of spanish ( a bit hindered because of a few rowdy nights) and went ( drumroll please..) paragliding!

    Not parasailing ( the one pulled beind a boat), the one that you start realllly high up on a hill, run a bit until your ¨wing¨ fills up and then continue running off a cliff..
Amazing.
    We were in the air for alomst an hour, catching drafts from the lake and touching our toes on the forest canopy. My guide, a former French Canadian engineer, did loops and spirals, flipping right over the wing in some crazy tricks.

    My patched flying equipment held me safely, despite that the colors had been sun bleached out of it and my harness buckle that was missing ( BUT he was a very knowledgable knot man..). I got some amazing photos of the whole lake, and some of the best foot photos ever ( mom will vouch for this..).

    After my high air adventure I left the group for the Guatemalan coast, to try my hand at surfing.
I took six chicken buses, two taxies and two boats to get to El Paredon, a secluded little town on the west coast. A welcome difference from San Pedro, everyone in El Paradon goes to bed at 10 and wakes up with the sun.
    During the evening hours women set up little tables outside their house full of interesting (and always fried) food. I spent a good hour or two making my rounds of the village trying everything out. to add to entertainment, the choice for kids toys here is fire works. I twitched all night long as little 4 year olds set them off behind me or on adjacent streets. You would watch the ölder ones¨light them and then race away as fast as possible before the things blew up. Interestingly no one seemed to be missing fingers... they must be smarter than our toddlers...

The black sand beaches of Nicaragua (and El Salvador) are beautiful to look at.. but that is all. Dont even think of walking on it barefoot without burning the first few layers of skin off. Sandals are even worse, as it traps the hot sand in contact with your skin.. after the first time running and crying like a baby you remember to get to the the waves-fast.

A week trying to surf in Guatemala ( and failing miserably..) led me down the coast to El Salvador. Two days later ( the buses realllly suck.) I rolled up in the horrid heat of El Tunco. A surf town, El Tunco is a bit more pricey than Guatemala, but without excursions I have been able to keep at my 20 dollar budget. Here I met up with the group again, and met Katey and Brandon, who I know from back home. Small fricking world!
The waves here are a little more beginner friendly, as is the vibe. On a whole I am probably in the middle of the pack as this is a beginners beach. I happily rate myself as a 2 out of ten , instead of a 0- Progress!

Heading to Nicaragua tomorrow, bypassing Honduras for  now ( West coast of H is not very travel ( or anything) friendy) , on a FORTY FIVE dollar shuttle. It better have air conditioning. Although ten hours, it is significantly faster than chicken buses and will allow me to do some volcano boarding by the end of the weekend!

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope your snowy/rainy/icy holiday is lovely!
(..evil snicker..)

Do's and Dont's of Central America So far..

Carrying on with the time-saving point form of my last post, this one will follow the same theme!

IN Central America

DO

-Say Bueno Dia to every. Single. Person. you pass.
-learn how to say No Thank you.
-Eat out locally. You are going to get sick no matter what.
-Watch out for scorpions.
    -and have friends crazy enough to pick them up.
-Stand far away from boys and their fireworks. A half dozen 'Osamas' ( I didn't name them..), a few dozen smaller ones, flour and ketchup all stuffed up a Santa pinatas behind really does BOOM.
    -Make sure you don't live in this hotel...Santas along with melon/eggs/and papayas make quite  a mess.
-enjoy the cheap booze!
-Learn Spanish! Even if it feels like a huge chore in your otherwise empty day.
-Expect the lake to get choppy the minute you get to the other side.
    -enjoy the kayak 'tubing' when a boat takes pity on your useless attempt the paddle.
        -expect your kayak to break while 'tubing'..
- Go to afterparties that include neon face paint and forget about it the next morning.
-Expect to look like you have a bad case of the chicken pox. Damn Mozzies.
-Laugh when your private shuttle runs out of fuel and the driver asks for gas money.
-Enjoy the view.


DON'T


-peer curiously into a chicken coop.. there may be a naked man inside.
-Take the first price on anything..even at a supermarket.
-Lock yourself out after swimming. Running bikini clad down the street is frowned upon.
-Order anything that claims to have ham. It is Spam. There is no disguising it.
-Mix up Spanish vocab and ask you teacher if you have a nice ass.
    -if that wasn't enough, make sure not to mix up one letter and boldly say you masturbated for supper instead of paid for supper.
-Listen to the locals, if you want, feed the sad street dogs.. give them a pet.. just wash your hands after!
-Touch your electric water heating shower head. Even if the water is cold it is not worth it!
-Deviate from the usual chicken fajita at Jakus. Nothing else beats it ( and its 2 dollar fifty price!)
-Drink moonshine everyday. I think you could actually go blind.

And There you have it.. my do's and don't's so far!

Damn! Time flies!

Oops , it has been a while!
Point form is a girls best friend!

Flores ( Guatemala island on Lake Peten with a spanish colonial feel paired with some more traditional beans and rice meals.)
-best rope swing ever! Ok, so I know  I didn't travel across the continent for a rope swing.. but  I successfully completed a double back off it and feel pretty accomplished:) We needed to rent a boat to float us there, and then pay a "toll" (5 Quetzal= 50 cents) to use it by the locals who made it.. but well worth it!
- best water slide ever! Ok, I sound a bit repetitive.. but pretty freaking amazing! It is faster that would ever be allowed anywhere where there is safety standards. You skip like a rock 10 meters before sinking into the water at the end or if you are unlucky enough to not have your legs together youg et a good groin pull:) The local vaguely explained to us which slide to use. The one was fine to use ( minus the groin pulling) the other drops you into a crocodile pond. No joke. I did not volunteer to go first..
             ----on the topic on alligators, there is aligators in the lake as well ( we found out later) but our guide calmly explained that each year the kill all the big ones.. and the little ones are no bother. BAha. just some little corocs.. so they take off a toe or finger.. no prob..

 -Day of the Dead was celebrated here with colourful markets and lots of kite flying. Tourists celebrated it a tad different. A good party night. ( beer (tequila) pong bounce specialist right here !)

 Laquin ( smal mayan village in the middle of no where with badly cobbled streets and loud irritating morning birds)
-possibly the most picturesque hostel I have ever stayed at. "Zephur" was dirt cheap, no bed bugs ( hooray!) and was on the very top of the mountain looking onto multple lush valleys. The shower was an open wall shower so you could look out ( and the random farmers probably enjoyed looking in..). I was reativly clean here , because the shower was so great!
-We tubed the Coban river, went through some mountain villages and navigated rapids.
-Semuc Champay. look this shit up- doesn't get more breathtaking. A look out point shows the turquoise river, with cascading pools and waterfalls that cuts through the valley.
-Kan'Ba caves. A mandatory guided cave system of watefalls ladders and long swims.. all navigated by candle light. Ah safety. ( Mother and relatives, no judgement here) We successfully got a dry spliff into the caves.  (Something was needed to pass the time, the Irish girls were wimpy and took forever to do things..) The guide got a laugh out of that. There was one point where you had to drop yourself into a hole full of rushing water, and aim left where you were dropped into a deep ( dark.. no candles!) pool. Exhilarating!

-after the caves we took a detour to jump off the bridge on our way to a hike. 9 meters high- I got a great video of three of us doing simultaneous back flips, and learned one of the best sayings ever. In response to one of the useless Irish girls wasting our time Brett ( a fellow West Coaster!) said " Shit, or get off the pot!". ahh. I love Canadians. Patience may not be our key attribute, but dirty humour might be!

Antigua (former capital city, before Guatemala city took over that is a bit more expensive but is a fun walk around)
- group meals are the best! I spent less than 5 dollars on food yesterday and ate like a king! I have been travelling with a hodgepodge of fellow travellers. A good bunch of Canadians some Aussies and a Dutch who all appreciate fod ( and sharing;)  ) as much as I do
-(No heart attacks please..) Yesterday was an interesting day. Our hostel, which seems reasonably safe, as does much of Antigua ( if you use sense) was home to some one-of-a-kind experiences.  First a double murder ( DRUG related.) made our street blocked to traffic. I stress again, not typical, but definitely eye opening. Then an afternoon earthquake, just to help settle lunch. I was on the roof which has an impressive sway without crumbling to the ground. After that the volcano that I can see clearly through my room window decided to act up, pouring smoke into the sky. And to top it off there was a fantastic dry lightening storm acting up as the sun went down.
Damn!


Next to Lake Atilan, and Monday some Spanish lessons!


Budget-

OUT the window for Tikal ( entrance fee of 25 dollars, guide of 15, transportation.. overpriced lunch. plus a new sunscreen, 20 dollars!! UGhh.)

31 dollars a day for the 4 days in Semuc ( we did an activity each day.. and drank copious amounts of liquor. I figure I did fairly well!)

10 dollars a day  for the 5 days in Antigua! ( having a kitchen at the hostel really brings the price down.)

Belize!

Leaving Tulum was hard to do. The beach, the people, the food ( maybe put that down a few spicy levels for complete perfection..) .
But I managed to tear myself away and  Jake and I headed for Belize. We haggled for taxis and caught some chicken buses to the border town of Chetamul. At the border we were informed we had to pay a 30 dollar US exit tax.
This is where Lonely planet let us down... It said there was no such thing as an exit tax- and to just stay confident and say no. Bullshit. We ended up paying, what ended up being a legitimate tax after irritating the poor guards for a good ten minutes.
(The group after us made the guards so angry they were told to go pay it at a bank, and then come back with a receipt. A trip back to town to find the banks closed, and back to the border to have the guard laugh at them and say they can try again the next day.)
Disheartened, we tried to haggle for a taxi, with pretty rubbish results.
My sad face must have caught one of the Belizeans attention, because they invited us to catch a ride int he back of their pickup.
A half hour and downpour later we were dropped off a few kms fromt he bus station.
Blah blah blah- TADA. we made it to Belize city!
Pretty in the day time, a bit scary at night- the owner of the hostel took us for a walk as a "guide".
A long enough walk to realize he was bat shit crazy. He tried to teach us to gamble- lost all his (our) cash.
He told stories, but never finished them because he was always distracted by a pretty rock or fish, or headlights. He told us he was a healer, and a drug addict. He was a hippy, and seer and a nudist.
Bat shit crazy.

A boat ride the next day to Caye Caulker, back to the land of sand!
No shoes needed, anywhere, this sand island takes ten minutes to walk across and has everything from chinese food to tacos.
After settling in for the first day, Ythe second day I went fishing. The boys described it as "deep sea" so I was expecting a boat, and poles that are bolted down lest I get wrenched from the boat with my huge catch.
Umm, no. We had hand reels.. actually just a spool of line- with a hook on the end.
None the less it was fun. We got loads of snapper( yellow and red) dived and speargun fished for crabs, and caught a shark!

Today I need to spend less money! A day reading and swimming ( witht he stingrays!) is in store.
Tomorrow, to Guatemala (hopefully!)

Gran Cenotes!

Oops!
this is supposed to be a video blog... but it didn't load!
I will add it again soon:)

Off again!

Two years past and I am at it again!
 Different continent, but same idea. ...pretty much do whatever i fancy, whenever I want! This time I vow to have a budget ( average of 20 a day) and learn a language..and to post more photos so that when I get more senile than I already am I will remember!

 Day UNO * also known as mucho waiting\sad\excitement*
 Glen and I woke up relativly early for us (after groggily justifying two or three extra alarms..) Had breky and then drove to Sydney for a lovely last piercing cold walk along the water ( ok, so we saw the water, than ran for the cover of a coffee shop..). He was a sweetheart and dropped me off at the ferries and walked me in. It sucks to end a relationship when everything was going so well. It was the only thing that made it hard to leave. Ah, ¨c'est la vie¨ I keep telling myself ( although my inner voice should now be switched to spanish...asi es la vida!)

. I took the 1:00 ferry, for fear of being stranded on the island because of too much wind and ferry closures. Skytrained to the airport and waiittteddd for my 11pm flight. I may have done some handstands and dips to pass the time.. My flight took me into wintery Toronto where I , the sole wearer of sandals, parked my behind for another 3 hours. Noon the second day I arrived in Cancun and was greeted by instant clevage sweat and vendors:)

I´ve made it!!

 My new found couchsurfing friend Bere met me at the bus station a little later, and we bussed to her house. A cute two room apartment with her bed for me , and a hammock for her. The beach was our destination for the afternoon. The difference between ¨Mexican¨Cancun and ¨tourist¨Cancun is exceptional. This town was less than 100 people in the early seventies when it was scoped as a tourism project. Now its hotel zone is one huge building after another. To get from Beres house you have to take two buses. One rickety but working mini bus, and then transfer once you get in the tourist zone to a fancy american style bus. Many of the fancy hotels have half finished projects beside them and many shops are boarded up and unused. This city is entirely dependat on tourism. And , bere tells me , so is the entire country. They no longer grow crops, so everything is shipped from elsewhere. Even Corn! ( ***shocking Gasp!) Us rich Northeren folk who fly down to escape the cold really make or break their economy.

 Today I spent the day at the beach swimming and snorkeling while Bere was at school. I played some volleyball with some tanned Australians and stealthily ¨took¨( i returned after!) a hotel towel so that i could take a beach chair, and have no one question me  when I used the pool. Ah the benifits of looking like a tourist!

doesn´t get much better!

 Time now is needed inside before my white skin turns lobstery. Not to mention a nap to soothe my tummy. Apparently asking for no spices, saying I am a baby, still calls for really fricking spicy street food.

SO many thongs! 

 budget yesterday =17 dollars

 Budget today-
 bus 17 pesos
 food 60 pesos
 sunscreen 120 pesos ( ripped off!)
 mask and snorkel 130 pesos ( i think i will use it lots!)
 =317 pesos =24.39 dollars
darn!


 new word voy- first person ¨to go¨ - used getting home on the bus ¨voy a la grand plaza¨