Fully completed with pictures

Just finished our Tikal tour. It was amazing. But to go back just a little:

Mornings have been working at the dog rescue. We've changed more beds and are hoping to clear up a garbage pit and the small house they have where volunteers can stay. I'm always exhausted after work and need to walk for 20 min and then my two buses to get back to my house. 

Wednesday was spaghetti for both lunch and dinner. Breakfast was sugary cereal with hot milk. Thursday was a processed ham sandwich w/ ketchup and mayo for breakfast, spaghetti/chicken soup for lunch and chicken soup for dinner.

Friday morning I left for Tikal. My roomate T and my dog rescue friend Michelle came as well. T and I both did not feel very good starting that morning and we think it was something we had at our house.

We drove for about 4 hours with one break and then had lunch at a beautiful restaurant in a town called Rio Dulce. We continued driving and finally arrived at our hotel in Flores. Nice place with air conditioning and a beautiful lake view. It was actually on a small island so we walked around the whole island before dinner.

Our hotel is on the left, and the lake was immediately across the street.

Dinner was at decent restaurant as well. They had a giant fake tree in the middle of the room and earthy gold accents on the wall along with a silver moon bathed in a blue light. I had nachos, which were a bit disappointing. Just after we finished eating, it started to rain. Not just rain, but absolutely pouring. There was like a river going down  the street outside. We waited awhile and then some of us decided we were going to run for it.

It was a very small island, but still we weren't sure where our hotel was.  We got directions and dashed out. The sky was lighting up with lightening and the rain was pouring. We were all laughing and the locals watching us thought we were crazy.  We stopped for a break at an overhang of a bank. no one knew where we were. I knew the hotel was just around the corner, so we ran again. Just before the corner, the lights went out. So here we were in the middle of the road in a strange place with almost no lighting. Luckily the hotel was right there so we cut through an alley to get to the front door. Unfortunately for us, there was a giant deep puddle in the alley that we all ended up stepping through.

We saw the restaurant across the street had a generator so we went there to hang for a bit. We returned to our hotel and watched the storm from the balconies. Shortly before we went to bed the power came back on and we could enjoy our air conditioning.

We woke up early for breakfast and ate at our hotel with a beautiful lake view. We drive about 45 minutes to Tikal and entered the park. There were several main temples as well as living quarters we could explore. The first temple we went up was a bit small, but the steps were so terrifying. They don't want you to climb the ruin steps so they build  stairs/ladders to get to the top.  Imagine wooden steps that are two planks in depth and then take away every other plank. I thought I was going to fall through.

We walked into the main courtyard and I wad able to meet Chaac, a giant stone face under a hut. He was the Mayan's God of rain.

We then went to temple 4 which was the tallest. Luckily the stairs were fully planked and climbing wasn't too big an issue. The view from atop was beautiful. As far as we could see there were trees and the other temples rose above the canopy.

Deadly stairs.

Little ants carrying giant leaves.

Crazy tall tree. I believe it's the tree of Guatemala.

More deadly stairs. These were practically a ladder. One of the hand railings was broken so they roped off the bottom of the stairs. It stopped me from climbing it, but not others.

These were the nice, luxury stairs up temple V, the tallest one with the most beautiful view.

View from temple V. You can see the other temples poking out of the tree tops.

Drop off of temple 5. Don't get too close.

We saw a whole group of these animals searching for food in the forest. I don't remember what they're called, but they have a face like a possum and a tail like a monkey. There were also some adorable little babies.

This is Chuuk, Mayan god of rain. His face has deteriorated a little bit.

If you look closely, you can see a spider monkey in the middle of this next pic. We saw him swing around for a bit. There were also a few toucans around with their giant beaks. They were too far and too quick for me to get a photo.

Creepy looking spider. It was decent size, but really really flat.

We left the park and had a late lunch at a nearby restaurant which also had a beautiful lake view. I had chicken fajitas, which were a bit disappointing.

We got back into our van and drove back to Rio Dulce. We checked onto a cute little hotel and prepped for dinner. 


I only took one lonely photo. I'm hoping to steal others once Michelle and T post them on Facebook. 

Our restaurant was a boat ride away so we all piled into a small bout with 4 of us per row. Our ride was slow and it sounded like the engine was dying, but we finally made it to this cute little restaurant right on the water. I'm actually not sure if you can get there by land. We were greeted by two wet and smelly fat dogs and sat in the patio outside.  We could see the forest on one side with shallow water in front of it and the river on the other side. I had vegetable soup and a salad, both of which were ok but the environment of the restaurant more than made up for it. Owned by an Aussie, it is a restaurant, hotel, and his home. What a cool place.

We took the boat back and long before we reached shore we heard thumping music. Of course it was coming from right across the street of our hotel. we peeked in and it looked like a high school dance. Luckily for me I was so tired that I was able to fall asleep pretty quickly despite the noise.

Sunday was another early morning as we returned to the same restaurant by a bigger boat. I had scrambled eggs with some really good toast. We were also all served melon juice, which was quite tasty. Bear and Fat Albert were there again to greet us with their smelliness.

We then took the boat on a nice tour of the river. It was a slightly bigger boat and the engine was pretty good. 


Our first stop was an old Spanish fortress that looked out over the water. It was built at a narrow channel to allow for the cannons to reach any ship that might pass through. The fortress even had a moat and a drawbridge. We walked in and went through narrow corridors and then we were in total darkness in the dungeon. It was rather creepy. There were teeny tiny cells and absolutely no lights. We excited the dungeon and went up to a lookout point. We then had time to explore the fortress on our own. It was pretty cool, but the narrow door ways and the steep/tall steps with narrow openings were a bit creepy.


Next was a natural hot springs. You could see the steam off the water as it came out from inside the rocks. It reeked of sulfur but was nice. There were waves of heat followed by cool waves. It was a nice variety.

We continued out towards the Caribbean. We saw some beautiful scenery and tiki huts with grass roofing all over. We finally reached the sea and had a great breeze. The water was beautiful and the weather too.

We stopped at a park with 7 pools. These are natural occurring pools and during the middle of the wet season they are all overflowing and connected via waterfalls and small rivers. We hung out at the largest pool which was gorgeous. Several people chose to jump from about 15-20 ft up into the pool. I wanted to just chill.


After the pools we started to backtrack and stopped in Livingston for lunch. We were still in Guatemala, but I could have sworn it was Jamaica. I've rarely seen black people in Guatemala, but suddenly over 50% of the town was black. I could hear Bob Marley as I walked down the street and many of the small shops were selling rasta hats and hippie sweaters. It was pretty cool.


For lunch I had a great drink, fresh squeezed lemonade mixed with sparking water in a giant margarita glass. It was excellent. Others had pina coladas and their drinks were delicious as well. I ordered a burger which was called a "special burger" but because there was no description, I figured nothing of it. What I received was a thin burger patty with a pile of ham on top with the buns smothered in mayo. I had to dissect it and dig out my burger and cheese to eat safely. But I wasn't the worst. Someone else ordered the burger, but said she only wanted the cheese and lettuce, and that's what she go. A slice of cheese and some lettuce between the bun. It was pretty funny.


We completed our trip by going back to Rio Dulce, hopping in the van, and then driving for about 5 hours to get to Guatemala City. We had dinner at Pollo Campero, a fast food chicken place. I got chicken strips, and they were actually quite tasty. We had a waiter, which I'm not sure if that is normal or if they  just did it because we were a big group.


We completed the last hour of our drive and I was dropped off at home. It was about 9p and I was so exhausted that I didn't shower and simply went to bed. It was a great trip.


Now today is Wednesday and I am still exhausted. I get up at 6, have breakfast, and take the long ride to the dogs. The last two days we scrubbed crates and today we hosed out some runs. They have quite a buildup of dirt/poop and we had to scrub pretty good.


On Monday I was talking to some people at my placement and I mentioned how last week I had several days where lunch and dinner were the same. They said I should tell Maximo because it's sort of silly. So I went home and of course it was pasta for lunch. I went over to Maximo and mentioned that we'd been served a lot of pasta and that several days dinner was identical to lunch. Shortly after I got back home, my host mom came and talked to me. Apparently Maximo had said it was me that complained and she was asking me if I wanted different food. I wasn't really sure how to respond, so I just stumbled through it. She ended it by saying if there's a problem, to speak with her first. It was a rather awkward situation for me.


However, dinner was quite delicious. It was refried beans, fried plantains, and some sort of round, green vegetable that looks like a kiwi which had a light breading and was fried. Marta came over to me several times to ask if it was good. At least me and the other volunteers had a good laugh about it.


Tuesday morning I decided I was going to climb Pacaya, a local volcano. The climb was that afternoon, so I went home for lunch hoping it would be substantial. It was tomato soup and salad with corn, carrots, and cheese. But that was fine. I'm not complaining.


So I went over to Maximo, paid my entire $15, and hopped into the van for the 1.5 hour drive. We drove partially up the volcano and the road turned into dirt and was quite bumpy. We finally reached our destination at the base of the park. The second we got out of the van, there were kids there trying to sell us walking sticks. That should have been the first warning.


We gathered our group and started up. We had 3 horses following us to ride, which was a bit tempting, until I realized the horses were extremely small and just not the size to carry adults. Of course, they do carry adults and sadly I realized at the top of the volcano that one had problems with its hips, most likely due to carrying passengers much bigger than it should. It was rather sad.




This is the view of Volcan Agua from atop Pacaya. It looks to be about double the size. Agua is right next to Antigua, and when it is heavily active they need to evacuate.

Cool volcanic rock.

The peak of Pacaya. All of the ground up here is loose volcanic gravel. It's quite hard to walk up.

And just for you mom, this sign talked about how the Hormigo tree is used to make marimbas. I had no clue.

The views were beautiful from along the hiking trail and and at the top. It was a great day to go.

Back to the hike, the first part of the volcano was rather steep and I was like, what have I gotten myself into?? But luckily the incline decreased (a smidge) and we took breaks every 15-20 minutes. It was exhausting. My legs felt like they were going to die and then a break would follow shortly and I would recover. Repeat this about 6 times over about 2 hours and we finally made it to the end of the trail. From there we were in an area of loose volcanic rock. Most went over to roast (read: warm) marshmallows and some of us went for a slightly more difficult path. Many in my group climbed some cool rocks while I attempted to keep my balance on the loose gravel. We hung out for awhile and made our way back down. That was a fairly quick descent. I was tempted to run, but I don't think I would have been able to stop.


Michelle, T, and I were going to hang out after Pacaya, but things got complicated. I called Marta to tell her no dinner for me and T and we went to Michelle's to help her move (host family got a new house) so we could then go out to eat. We go to the new house and find out that Michelle's host mom had made dinner and expected her to eat there. So at this point T and I were hungry but we didn't want to pay to eat out. So we wandered around, bought some chips and then managed to get lost and walk in a complete circle.


Once we finally figured out where we were, we stopped in a shop for another snack. I wanted ice cream, so I grabbed an ice cream bar, a bottle of Coke, and a large "individual" size bag of chips. I went to the counter and the guy told me 36Q. I was rather shocked and confused for a minute. Apparently the guy wanted to charge me 15 for the chips, 15 for the ice cream, and 6 for the drink. The last bag of chips I bought was 1Q and even though this new bag was bigger, it definitely was not 15x bigger. I said no to the ice cream and chips and simply got the Coke. T's food was cheaper. I guess he realized that we weren't stupid Gringas. We walked out and went to another tienda. I got the same ice cream bar for 8Q. It pays to be cheap.


So we finally got home, I showered, and promptly fell asleep at about 10p.


Nothing too exciting today (Wednesday). Went to the rescue, came home, and want to guess what lunch was? Pasta. There was also cream of mushroom soup, and some sort of chewy meat product that was fried. There was an electrical problem which led to no electricity which led to no water heater. I really wanted to shower, so I went anyways. It was freezing! I was just barely able to stand it so luckily I wouldn't smell. I now sit at Maximo, have 30 minutes until my class and have 100+ photos to upload here. Not to mention a giant bag of laundry I need to get done, but want a cheaper laundromat than where Marta takes it. There simply isn't enough time here. I dont' have plans for Saturday so that may be a photo upload day.