Only one more sleep!

As one of my little brothers or sisters used to say, "there's only one more sleep till" Nealy gets here!

Pretty exciting! Going to pick her up from Guatemala City tomorrow night!

I have more good news - I passed my test today! Adios Grado C! I'm taking next week off since Nealy's visiting, so I've got a little break before I start Grado D. Grado C was tough - it covered the past imperfect, future imperfect, and conditional tenses. There were also a bunch of prepositions and gerunds. Past imperfect is really tough - it's difficult for me to discern when to use past imperfect instead of just regular past tense.

Last night, instead of studying a much as I probably should've, I went out with Kara and Ann-Marita and got ice cream! We finally made it Helados Exoticos! It was fantastic! Officially my favorite ice cream place in Antigua, and you know me - I'm a bit of a connoisseur. They have some pretty crazy flavors. I tried two different types, one of which was called "doble secreto." It turned out to be exactly like that fruit and jello salad that your grandmother makes! You know the one - lots of pineapple, tangerine, a little bit of coconut, and cool whip.

The "pastel zanahoria" (carrot cake) flavor was surprisingly delicious! And the "choco x5" flavor was pretty much like eating a brownie!

We ate our helado (ice cream) in the park and it started raining so the girls shared an umbrella. My favorite thing about this picture is the random Guatemalan couple making out in next to them! Haha! The park is a pretty popular make out spot.

Tonight we found ourselves at La Pena de Sol Latino again. Jake and Grace love the band there! They danced for awhile with a friend they made earlier today at lunch! Pretty cute.

Audrey (whom I think I will start calling "Dre" ... we'll see if it sticks) and I went for a cruise tonight. We stopped by the carnival - there were more food booths this time, but still no elote loco ... I'm going to keep checking  back until I find some! Taylor and I had some outside of a theater in Mexico City a few years ago and I'm looking forward to having some more!

There was also a concert near the back of the market! We checked it out for a little bit - not half bad! The band members were doing this funny little dance! I wish I had my camera with me! I'm hoping to catch another concert so I can show you guys this dance ... I think you're gonna like it.

I'm legal!

I've logged 500 kilometers (or maybe miles?) on my motorcycle! So today, during my 10am break from class I took it into the VRC shop for the first service!

When I showed up, I was shocked to hear that my license plate had arrived?! What?! Hahaha! Just a week or two ago, I double and triple checked, and was assured and reassured that there were several additional steps I needed to complete before I could even apply for plates! But now, through some fluke of Guatemalan bureaucracy, I have not only my license plate, but a title in my name and the little green card that I think the police told me I needed when they pulled me over on Saturday! Crazy.

So glad I got the license plate! I was a bit nervous about crossing the Honduran and El Salvadorean borders on a motorcycle without plates ... Plan B, which I was going to resort to tomorrow, was to visit motorcycle repair shops until I found someone willing to sell me an old plate off a defunct cycle. Glad it didn't come to that!

On Friday, I'm taking the test for my third book - Grade C. Accordingly, I've been studying more diligently than usual. I did, however take a break to go to dinner with Tony, Sarah, Donna, Heidi, and Josh around 7:45. Tony treated us all to Casa Santo Domingo! It was fantastic! Most of us had a steak dish called "Beef-Beef," which despite its goofy name is one of the better steaks I've eaten! Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera ...

The disappointing truth is that I haven't really taken any pictures for awhile. These are just random pictures that I haven't yet used - a random boat in Rio Dulce with a rebel flag, a view of Livingston from the Caribbean, and the Chapin checkers I found near the entrance to Tikal.

Didn't really do too much today, but I did recently run across this video on Superpunch. Those of you who, like me, imagine yourselves connoisseurs of cinema will appreciate this:

Montezuma strikes!

I've got some crazy GI issues (that's gastrointestinal for those of you who don't have about twelve family members in medical professions) going on right now.

I'll spare you the gory details, but after three days of being increasingly dehydrated and tired, I sallied forth on mi moto tonight and picked up some Ciprofloxacin - an industrial strength antibiotic - at a pharmacy. This is one of those special medicines that requires a prescription in the States, but is sold over the counter here in Latin America.

If after three days this stuff doesn't do the trick, I've got to step it up to some pills that kill parasites - also over the counter! I'm actually not sure what you can't buy without a prescription down here ... Weed isn't on that list! I think I'm up to 8 offers to sell pot now. You'd think word would eventually get around with these guys that I'm not in the market.

I've got bad news, circus fans. Joe and I went up to Jocotenango to check it out and it was gone! Que triste! (How sad!) My teacher lives in Jocotenango and she said that a couple days before Joe and I tried to visit she saw a bunch of police there. She speculated that one of the lions got loose and attacked someone. Pretty sure she based this on zero actual information, but I kinda wish I had been there to see it. After my experience holding a baby lion, I think I could've helped subdue the beast and avoided any casualties.

About a week later, we found the next best thing - a carnival! It's behind el mercado. Carnies hold a special place in my heart after I picked up a hitchhiker who turned out to be a carny who had just been released from prison ... But this carnival was kinda disappointing. There was almost no one there - probably cause it had been raining earlier. The Gilmores rode some bumper cars, though!

Also, I bought some churros ... kind of. They weren't churros like I'm used seeing in Mexico. These churros were thick, square, soggy donut like things. And they poured chocolate syrup over them. I had one and Audrey had one. I didn't really care for them and gave the last one to one of the carny's kids.

On Saturday, Tony was nice enough to chauffeur everyone to Guatemala City. We visited Miraflores and Walmart! This Walmart was eerily similar to Walmarts in the States! I bought a bunch of Mountain Dew - people here in Guatemala don't drink it. I haven't seen it for sale anywhere else so I picked up about eight cans to pass out to people at my school.

Happy 4th of July!

I celebrated with the folks from Ixchel Spanish School - Erin's old school!

They had a "bbq" at their school! It wasn't really a bbq, but it was fun. I'm actually really looking forward to real barbecue when I get home ... on the big green egg!

During the barbecue, the need arose and Kara and I had to make an ice cream run! Once again, I had ron con pasas (rum raisin) in honor of Bo.

When we made it back to the school, we were locked out! Fortunately, Ann-Marita let us back in just in time for everyone to leave. After wandering around Antigua for awhile, we finally settled on Mono Loco, the Guatemalan equivalent of Señor Frogs.

I was a bit pensive at first - I tend to avoid touristy places, but it turned out to be pretty great! They had a hot dog eating contest, watermelon, an American flag cake, baseball and Nascar on the tvs - pretty fantastic! They were also playing American music - lots of Springsteen and Mellencamp (both of whom I have no time for) but also some Skynyrd and Journey! Listening to "Sweet Home Alabama" took me back to my days on the Tennessee River with Simon and Plan C!

This is (from left to right) Heidi, Laural (who assures me her blog is better than mine), Ann-Marita, and Kara enjoying some watermelon!

I was a bit disappointed by this 4th of July though ... I was really looking forward to some payback. At least twice a week, I am rudely awakened at 3 or 4am by firecrackers. My plan was to buy a bunch of firecrackers and then tear through this city on my dirt bike while my passenger/tail gunner lit and tossed firecrackers. I was going to wake up all of Antigua!

Laural said she was going to join me wrapped in a flag and dressed as the statue of liberty, but I'm pretty sure most of what she's said to me has been entirely fabricated.

But I couldn't find any firecrackers! I haven't given up yet, though. If I find some tomorrow, I'm still going to do it. I'm giving myself a one day buffer :)

The wait staff was even wearing overalls!

Oh - last night or the night before, the Ixchel girls and I went to Papuseria Cheros! It was mi primera vez (my first time)! Kara told me to post a picture of it on the blog to remind Erin of what she's missing. Seemed kind of mean, but Kara insisted :) They're missing you at the house, Erin!

Back to Flores

Erin and I had breakfast in Ruthie's kitchen. She made us frijoles, jeuvos revueltos (scrambled eggs), and flour tortillas. After two months of corn tortillas, these flour tortillas were amazing! They were thick, a little fluffy, and had just a hint of sweetness!

After lounging on the beach for a bit, it was time to head back to Guatemala. We took a series of buses, and about 5 hours later we were back at the border. The border crossing went smoothly again and we hopped aboard a van headed for Flores.

We arrived in Flores just before sundown (I think) and checked into a hotel with a view of the lake. It seemed nice enough and there were lots of people staying there - usually a good sign. I dropped my backpack in the room, locked the door, and we headed out to explore.

We found an internet cafe so I could print my ticket for the flight to Guatemala City. This was a little hard to do, though, since it started raining. Every time it rains here, the power fluctuates pretty wildly. Fortunately, between blackouts, the power stayed on long enough for me to print my ticket!

Erin wanted some more souvenirs for gifts so we browsed through some artisan shops. She ended up buying a few purses ... making the total 9 ... I think. I guess you can never have enough purses?

Anyway, we wandered through the rain for awhile before we found a restaurant that suited us. It was great - not really authentic Guatemalan, but tasty nonetheless! We had some kind of barbecue chicken fajitas. The included dessert was less great ... it was watermelon with maple syrup. Yikes. I doubt even Canadians would appreciate that!

Upon arriving back at the hotel room, I found my backpack open and my cash gone! Someone had come into the locked room and stolen my cash! They took roughly $280 worth of Quetzales. I checked, rechecked, and triple checked every part of my backpack to make sure I hadn't just misplaced it. But it was gone. We was robbed.

I went downstairs and talked to the incredibly shady desk attendant who assured me that the hotel wasn't responsible since I didn't leave my cash in the locked drawer at the front desk. I didn't know about this drawer, but I wouldn't have left my cash with him even if I had ... Pretty sure it was an inside job and he was my number one suspect. But I knew it was the height of optimism to even tell the hotel that my money was stolen. I thought there might be an outside chance they would question some employees since the thief probably had a key (or could pick locks).

Just really frustrating.

Tikal

Sunday morning, we got up bright and early so we could hit the road at 5am.

Once we arrived at Tikal, we spent the next 4 hours walking around and climbing pyramids ... with our insane guide! Haha! Pretty sure we didn't learn anything about the ruins ... at all.

Our guide (whose name I can't remember) is a shaman. He had a strange way of guiding. He would say crazy things and then allow us absolutely no time to process them. For instance, he would say "the message of the Mayans and the message of Jesus Christ are the same. Okay let's go over here." Or, "inside this ring of pyramids is where the Mayans contacted extraterrestrials. Okay, let's walk toward this temple." Or, "many cultures have misappropriated the symbols of the Mayans - for example, the Jews stole the Star of David from the Mayans. On our left, we can see a sweat lodge."

I asked him how he became a shaman. Evidently you're trained by other shamans to meditate and achieve astral projection. This involves smoking a lot of pot, doing mushrooms, and licking toads. Not joking! He told me this - there are witnesses!

He informed us that that being Mayan is not an ethnicity, but a state of mind. Evidently, according to our guide, Mayans are responsible for most of mankind's ingenuity. He gave them credit for soooo many things! It was ridiculous! At one point, I could've sworn I heard him mention the large hadron collider! When I asked what he believed caused the downfall of the Mayan culture, he informed me that he believes in the disappearance of the Mayans. He went on to elucidate that the disappearance of the Mayans is akin to the rapture talked about in the Bible ...

I'm pretty sure we didn't learn anything ... anything that's true, anyway. But he was super entertaining!

The ruins themselves were pretty cool. Honestly, I wasn't too excited to see them. I've seen a lot of ruins in Mexico, and after awhile all these pyramids start to look the same. But there were some good views - especially from the top of temple four. Our guide told us that George Lucas did a little bit of filming from up there for one of the Star Wars movies. As soon as he said that, I thought to myself "yeah, this does look a lot like the opening shot of Yavin IV in A New Hope. And then I felt the appropriate amount of shame for being such a huge nerd - haha! But according to Wikipedia, this is true! So I guess we did learn one true thing ...

We also saw a decent amount of wildlife - these things that are kinda like raccoons, some spider monkeys, a fox, a howler monkey, and a tarantula.

After we left Tikal, the van dropped off Erin and I at a crossroads about an hour south of the ruins. We said good-bye and waited in the rain for a bus to Belize!

We flagged down a passing van and rode for an hour or two over intermittently paved roads to the border! When we arrived in Melchor de Mencos (the last Guatemalan town on the road to Belize) we tramped through the pouring rain across the border. The border crossing was quick and easy, and on the other side we caught a cab to San Ignacio. Once there, we took a bus to Belmopan (Belize's capital) and then another bus to Dangriga on the the coast.

We were both really surprised by how different Belize is from Guatemala - the differences were apparent immediately after we crossed the border! The houses were different, the people were different - even the chicken buses were different!

Every Belizean speaks English ... kind of. it's a very Jamaican sounding English and is difficult to understand. Most of the Belizean's we met were very friendly and very talkative. We arrived in Dangriga after dark and were directed by a random guy on a street corner to Rudy's ... which we later found out is actually Ruthie's - the accent was responsible for the misunderstanding. Ruthie is an older lady who has owns a few cabanas on the beach.

Before turning in for the night, we took a stroll through the city to find a restaurant. But evidently on Sundays Belizean restaurants and stores are all closed. The only restaurants that were open were Chinese. There are a surprising number of Chinese people in Belize.

Before bed, we sat on the beach and chatted with another guy who was staying at Ruthie's - Clayton (he goes by "Boya"), a Bahamanian guy who lives in Atlanta.

On to Tikal!

On Saturday, before breakfast, we all piled back into our boat and headed to Siete Altares (Seven Altars). It's just a little ways north along the coast from Livingston.

Siete Altares is a series of waterfalls that flow down from the mountains into the ocean. It's really beautiful and the water is great. There are also a bunch of mosquitoes there, but as long as you're in the water, they're not a problem.

The last waterfall that you hike up to is the tallest. It's maybe 20 feet tall ... but, I'm' not very good at judging distances. We all jumped off the top! Everyone except Courtney (whose name I was informed last night is actually Connie - sorry).

After probably an hour or two there, we boated back to our cabanas and had some frijoles and juevos revueltos (scrambled eggs) for breakfast. The family that cooked for us fried up some kind of delicious bread too - almost like sopaipillas.

The boat ride back to Rio Dulce was mucho mas relajante (much more relaxing) than the ride to Livingston. It's really beautiful country too - the river is surrounded by verdant mountains part of the way between Livingston and Rio Dulce.

Halfway through the boat ride to Rio Dulce, we stopped at a little cabana in front of which was a hot spring! Kinda cool, but it smelled so strongly of sulfur that none of us opted to hop in.

Back in Rio Dulce, we grabbed lunch at Bruno's before we got back in the van. Then it was off to the hot waterfall! There's a finca (farm) somewhere out in the middle of nowhere where there's a hot spring that's a waterfall! At the bottom of the waterfall, a cold stream meets the hot water. It was a lot of fun to swim around right where the cold and hot water met. A few of us also climbed up to the top of the waterfall and lounged in some hot pools. Unfortunately, we had to climb back down - this waterfall wasn't for jumping off of. Probably cause it's about three times higher than the other one.

We all piled back into the van and headed to a little town about 20 minutes outside of Tikal. On the way we stopped in Flores for about half an hour to have a look around. Flores is a pretty neat city - it's super touristy, but it's on an island in a lake. Unfortunately, I was kinda robbed in Flores on Monday so I'm not a huge fan of the place ... but more about that later.

Exhausted, we arrived at our hotel outside of Tikal and crashed after dinner. I was kinda excited cause there were two fans in our room - one for each of us! There was also a tv that purportedly had cable. Much to my dismay, someone had cut the power cord on one of the fans! Why would someone do something so senseless and evil?! Also, the tv didn't work. But that wasn't a big deal since we were too tired to watch anything anyway.

We needed to get plenty of sleep cause the next day was gonna start at 5am!