lago de shitlan

Beautiful and one of the cheapest places in central america, where happy hour Mojitos are less than a dollar and a room with a private bath is less than $4 a night (not to mention private spanish lessons for roughly $2.50 per hour). I´m glad I got a chance to see it for 1 of the 10 days we were there. Yes the rest of the time I hung out in my hotel room with my little friend san pedro, who wanted to visit my intestions. I thought he was my friend but he betrayed me so I was forced to give him a lethal dose of antibiotics. Turns out he was the least of my many aliments, Apparently I had also picked up a viral infection that had my head spinning for yes 21 days, which I am still recovering from but now I can at least walk a straight line without holding Johns hand. Oh yeah did I also mention my bacterial infection as well, that was fun. Good times! Needless to say it was almost the end of the trip for me, but alas my body has held strong and good or bad the adventures must continue. ¡Vamos a viajar a Argentina!

The Tikal Ruins and Northern Guatemala

(Since we are at a standstill in antigua staying at a nice hotel and waiting for good health to return we thought we would do a little blog update). It almost felt like home coming back to Guatemala from Belize only this time we headed north to see some of the most impressive Mayan ruins anywhere. We were in the rain most of the time but this of course kept the scorching heat down and made for quite a fitting jungle experience--complete with monkeys swinging from trees and the largest and most spectacular Mayan ruins in Guatemala. Have a look for yourself.

Belize and Caye Caulker

Stacy is full of good ideas and her best so far has been leaving Antigua for New Years and going to Caye Caulker off the coast of Belize. It was like a vacation away from our vacation. We intended to only stay for 3 or 4 days over New Years and wound up staying for 9 days. A Caribbean paradise where we stayed in a cute little cabin 30 feet from the water with our own private hot water bath, porch and open air breeze. We rented some bikes for the week and spent most of our time cruising around, laying in the sun and swimming in the aqua blue water. This relaxation went perfectly with piña coladas and Belikin beer and our daily consumption of island specialties like fresh snapper, lobster burritos, and grilled barracuda steaks. We snorkeled with sharks and stingrays (a nice adrenaline rush), read 2 or 3 books a piece and quite simply lived in paradise. We even concluded our trip to Belize by heading mainland to see the Belize zoo (best zoo in central america) and the Monkey Bay wildlife sanctuary. This might have been a mistake as Stacy preceeded to get around 200 bug bites on both feet from sleeping in our rented tent--nothing better than both feet itching and burning all day. Other than that it was true relaxation and a much needed break from espanol. I think the pictures tell the story best.

John´s 30th Birthday and Christmas 2006

We finished our stay in Antigua by moving back into the Jungle Party Hostel from the host family and we´re glad we did. Prior to the move, our host family had a nice birthday dinner for me, and we finished up our 3 weeks of spanish school with a festive christmas party at La Escuela de la Fuente. A little salsa dancing, gift exchange and some good guatemalan food was an excellent way to start my birthday even though my salsa skills could use a little work. At the hostel, my 30th was more than I could have possibly asked for thanks to Stacy, our friend Amy, and the good people at the hostel. It started with a Piñata and everyone in the hostel singing Feliz Cumpleaños to me. Stacy arranged a glass of Johnnie Walker on the hostel to start me off and bought an excellent carrot cake from a local bakery to share with everyone. We played some games for free drinks and listened to some music while I opened a few gifts, and then headed off to the Rainbow Reading room, our staple restaurant in Antigua (and a highly recommended lonely planet suggestion) for some more cerveza´s and food with some friends. We finished the evening at the only local Irish pub in Antigua called Reillys for more drinks and conversation.
A few days later Christmas had it´s own special flavor. We organized a white elephant gift exchange with 12 other friends in the hostel for Christmas eve and then spent the night playing Mafia (a fun group card game) and had a late dinner at a local pub with the same group from the hostel--a real multicultural event with about 8-10 different countries from Mexico to Holland to Germany and Australia represented. We had the choice to stay for New Years, but feeling the need to travel a little and have a vacation from our vacation, headed off to a little island off the Caribbean coast of Belize called Caye Caulker.