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..)