Long Excursion!

I have been travelling through Guatemala for the past week and a half! This excursion fell in between the two phases of our study abroad program. The first five weeks of the program were one on one tutoring, the first three weeks were with teacher Monica, and the last two weeks were with a different teacher, Julio. Both of them were awesome. I had to take two tests at the end of my time with both of them in order to receive a grade. So, after my I had taken my test with Julio, we left on our long excursion!

Friday : February 6, 2009
We left Celas at one o clock in the afternoon to leave for our first stop to Guatemala City. Guatemala City was basically a pit stop in the whole excursion because the places our director planned on us seeing were further north in Guatemala. All 23 student of the group, plus Josua (one of the directors at Celas Maya who works closely with our director Brian), Brian, his wife Terese, and their 2 year old daughter Carolina, and also two teachers from Celas Maya Marium and Loyola (neither of whom I have had but I have great things about them, they got chosen lottery style out of all of the teacher of Celas, they came to have Spanish conversations with us along the way and for their own vacation as well) all of these people travelled on a coach bus together for the duration of the trip.
When we arrived in Guatemala City after the five hour bus ride we ate together at a restaurant called Fridas. Then we returned to the hotel, I talked with my mom and dad for a bit and then I took a long shower. It felt AMAZING! Definitely an upgrade from my shower in Xela. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Guatemala only for one night. I roomed with Anna and Megan this night. The roommate situation for the duration of the trip was really fun because the girls decided to switch it up room with different girls almost every hotel.

Saturday: February 7, 2009
We woke up at around 6:30am because we all had to be in the lobby for breakfast by 6:55am. This was only one of the many meals that we planned to eat together as a large group (aka it was mandatory but fun to be with the group). Breakfast was actually kind of funny. During the trip we almost always had to pre-order any of the group meals we had because we had such a large group that it would take a lot of time to order if we didn’t pre order ahead of time. The day before there was a group meal there was always a menu and a list with all of our names so you could write what you wanted. This is sometimes funny because you have no idea what you are going to get because sometimes the description of the food can be a little deceiving. I ordered pancakes, and these pancakes were some of the smallest things! Haha. They were about the size of a cookie, and there was only two of them. Luckily Brian talked to the cook and got us some more. Food never goes to waste in our group, because everyone always passes around what they don’t want or if they are full or something! When we returned to the hotel a little after 8:00am we left right away. Our next stop was Flores, which would be about a 8 hour bus ride. We spent a lot of time in the bus. Most of the time I slept. Otherwise I talked with others. We only watched half of Finding Nemo on the TV screens on the bus. I was disappointed bc that was the only movie we watched on TV screens. People brought more movies but some brought their lap tops and DVD players so the group (including me) watched movies in pairs or triples on their own.

Saturday Night
We arrived in Flores sometime in the late afternoon. Flores is an island located on a large lake called Lake Paten. Our hotel was right on the lakes edge. This night I roomed with Angela and Shannon. One of the first things I did in Flores was jumped right into the lake. I’m not sure if it was really clean or not but it was a spontaneous thing that Jenna, Jordan, Doug and I did. We just jumped right of the dock that was outside of our hotel. The lake was pretty clean...but it was a little akward because I don't think it was a 'normal' swimming area. Afterwards we all showered and whent to a restaurant that was real nearby called Reices. I had a pincho which is a cabob with chicken and beef it was delicious, and a few cuba libres ;) Afterwards we headed back to the hotel and a bunch of us gathered in one hotel room to play a game called zoomie zoomie. Then that same group all went to the discoteca at Reices (which played more techno and American music than salsa). It was nice to have a fun place that was so close to our hotel. Overall I felt safter walking around the island of Flores than I do in Xela.

Sunday: February 7th, 2009
Sunday was fun because we had the whole day to do whatever we wanted, it was a complete FREE DAY. I slept in until about 10. Then I got up and had breakfast by the lake with Markie, Anna, and Laura. I thought it would be warmer out but it was kind of overcast with on and off rain which was kinda a bummer. Afterwards we went shopping for a bit. I liked the shopping in Flores it had fun stores and hence I spent a lot of money. Then I went to lunch but didn't have time to eat what I had ordered because a bunch of us wanted to go on an activity with Josua at in the afternoon to take a boat and go swimming and see the higher points so we could see the whole island. We took two boats across the lake to see a little bit of mayan history and go on a little hike. We took a hike to an overview so that you could see the entire island, it was really cool. As we were leaving we saw monkeys in the rain forest right before we left! The second part was going swimming in the lake. Josua said that he knew some nice beaches or places to swim. I was picturing like a cabin beach but really it just a random place to swim. The water was nice though, a bit chilly but not bad. Then we returned, I showered and went out to eat at a different place called Yaxha with some other people from the group: Shannon, Angela, Doug, Jordan, and Mike so that I could see some more places of the island, did a little bit more shopping, and then got some icecream at a very popular icecream place for our group called Sarita. I caught some of the grammies with the group back at the hotel, then a bunch of the group went out for happy hour but I was too tired so I just stayed in and basically went to sleep.

Monday: February 9th, 2009
Alrighty sorry its getting a little lengthy for me. I get a little stressed out sometimes, and through talking with my dad I realized that I don't need to be spending so so much time on my blog. So Monday we switched hotels in the morning to one that was real nearby where we stayed for the next two nights. I really like this hotel because of the beautiful overlook of the island, and it had a nicer pool than Hotel de la Isla. After dropping off our stuff we went took an hour long bus ride to Tikal National Park. We spilt up into three groups and explored Tikal. We went toured around the ancient mayan temples and pyramids and climbed lots of steps to the top of some to see of the pyramids to see some amazing views. We went out to Reices again for dinner this night.

Tuesday: February 10th, 2009
These two nights at the new hotel I roomed with my friend Steph. Everyone had breakfast together again. After breakfast we left for Yaxha which is another ancient Mayan site. It was a lot smaller than Tikal where we would have to walk 20 minutes in between pyramids and temples. There were still undiscovered ruins which were under mounds of dirt and grass and trees. I believe that they will one day be uncovered. We were actually told to bring lunch to Yaxha which was nice because at Tikal we just had snacks. We had a lil group picnic on top of one of the pyramids. At one of the last and tallest pyramids at Yaxha we could hear the howler monkeys! They were soooo loud they sounded like dinosaurs. At one point I felt like I was in the middle of Jurassic Park :)

Wednesday: February 11th, 2009
We took a long bus ride to Coban. The coolest part of the 6 or 7 hour bus ride was riding the fairy across the river. Our whole bus and a bunch of cars fit on this little wooden boat! Overall Coban was my least favorite city of the trip. It was more crowded, more busy, and more dirty than Xela. The main purpose for us being there was to have a place to stay before traveling to Semuc Champey. We ate dinner at our hotel because it is one of the best places to eat dinner. The hotel itself was actually pretty interesting...it was colonial style and every room was different. However the rooms were a bit damp and musky. We did a little bit of shopping this day as well, but not much since the city didn't have too many places to go. After dinner we went out for icecream, but it was hard to find a place that was open because everything in Coban closes at like 8pm (I think its b/c the city is dangerous). We found one place and the lady kept it open just for us! We love our icecream. We came back and watched a movie one Jenna's DVD player. I roomed with Jenna and Shannon this night.

Thursday: February 12th, 2009
We ate breakfast on the fly because we left at around 8:00am for Semuc Champey! Only the 23 students from the group and Josua went to Semuc Champey because it was a little much for a two year old and for the teachers. It took about 2 hours to get to Semuc. We stayed in rustic cabins, we were definitely roughin it. Only 3 hours of electricity at night and that was it. We did have bathrooms attached to our cabins though. There was five in my cabin: Jenna, Shannon, Brianna, Nicole, and I. It was really fun though. We got there pretty early in the day on purpose so we would have a lot of time to explore Semuc with Josua as our tour guide. We changed into our suits right away and there was a rope swing into a river right outside our hotel! So we did that first. Then on the way to see the lagoons and natural beauty of Semuc we crossed a bridge which we jumped off of!! Not everyone in the group participated but I was surprised by how many did participate. It was real scary and real high but awesome! Oh and the river had a slight/mediocer current which made it a little difficult to swim to the side after jumping. After that we went to Semuc, which cost to get in but it was definitely worth it! It was absolutely beautiful. I agree with the guidebook that it is pry one of the most beauitful places in Guatemala with its beautiful lagoons. First we hiked around and say the lagoons/lakes from the top, and then we went swimming! The water was clean and a bluish greenish color. It will take me awhile to get the pics up but i don't even feel that the pics I have do this beautiful place justice! On the way back a bunch of us jumped off the bridge again and swam with the current of the river back to our cabins! The second time was less scary because we had to jump one after another in order to keep up with the group as the current would pretty quickly pull them down the river. Then we came back and played some cards before having a family style dinner with the other people in the cabins and with the workers. It was the night before Markie's birthday so we celebrated and made her a candy bar cake and danced some salsa. There was a live Marimba band at dinner! After dinner we hung out, had a couple drinks, and had a little head lamp party out on the dock.

Friday: February 13th, 2009
We woke up around 8 and ate breakfast. We went to the caves this day. The caves were really cool and scary too. Josua was our guide for everything on this part of the trip. The walk to Semuc and to the caves were close to our cabins, about 15 or 20 minute walk. The only thing i wore to the caves was my swimsuit and shorts and we brought one disposable camera for the whole group in a plastic bag so we'll pray that those pictures turn out! We all put paint on our faces since it the caves are a sort of special place for the mayans. We did a combination of walking and swimming in the dark through the caves but it was awesome! The scary part was not knowing how deep the water was. But there were many cool formations and small waterfalls and things to see. Its hard to believe that our group only explored a very small portion of the caves, there was aparently a lot more! Afterwards we tubed down the river and it was finally a full sunny day! This was one of my favorite parts! It was just so beautiful and relaxing. I couple people parked their tubes and jumped off the bridge again but I opted out this time. We left the cabins after changing and having lunch back to Coban. We ate dinner as a group at our same colonail hotel. It was really good, I had pasta like I did the first time we ate at the restaurant, it was delicious.

Saturday: February 15th, 2009
We all ate breakfast at the hotel together. Then we packed up and headed home to Xela! It was probably about a ten hour bus ride overall! Thats all I have for now...I hope everyone is doing well.