San Pedro "mucho relaxo"

Yesterday after 5 different busses and a boat ride we finally arrived in San Pedro. It is very beautiful here, we are in the middle of these huge towering mountains and Volcanos in this little tiny hippy town.
The boat ride was absolutely hilarious. Zoe and Sage got absolutely drenched. I was sitting more in the front of the boat, so the only part of my body that truly got wet were my feet (which were submerged in 6 inches of water). My new mighty converse (the fake kind called "gaito stars") proved to have a very weak dye, and now my feet are a turquiousy dr.suess colour.
Sopping wet, we found a pretty nice hotel for around 7 canadain a night (for all three of us). My bed is very suspicously canoe shape, and I find myself curled up in a ball in the middle with all my blankets when I sleep. It was pretty funny, last night we were all so exhasusted that we slept fom 7 at night untill 830 then next morning. I was awakened a couple times in the night though, by the sound of a very large cockroach buzzing near my head. So tired though, that I didnt care and just hid under my sheets.

Today was absolutely gorgeous. We went down to the lake (only a 5 min walk) and hiked down the rocks to the shore. I of course, being fairly clumsy slipped and my leg got stuck between two huge boulders. It was truly hilarious, although I am not sporting a nice bruise and scrape. I hope that by the end of the trip my body wont be completely covered in blisters, scars and bug bites (har, har, har...)

The water was very nice, although a little chilly. The water is this turquousy blue clour. Tres nice...
We just lounged around on the rocks for a while, eating yummy candy and MM's.

I think we're probably going to stick around here for a couple of days, and move onto another town called Santa Cruz. Its supposed to be good there, but I guess we'll see for ourselves...

Because of my stupid sickness, I stayed home from climbing the volcano today. Very sad since I really wanted to see lava flowing out of a giant rock...I told them to take alot of pictures, and they better because I feel like Im missing out. When Zoe and Sage left this morning at the crack of dawn, I continued sleeping (which was tres nice) Today has been the first real day that I have spent alot of time by myself. It was weird because I am with Zoe and Sage all the time. I think I have almost forgotten how to amuse myself... But I did, and today I went to the market and looked around. I was tempted to buy a lot of stuff, but I didnt because we wre going to Chichcastenango (huge ass market) soon, and I want to buy alot of stuff there. I think Im going to go to Central Park now to study some epañol and eat some helados (ice cream) Tomorrow we continue our journey on to San Pedro. I cant wait to GET RID OF THIS COLD, relax and have a good time...

Secretness

Today we started our super secret spanish lessons. They didnt start untill 2 in the afternoon, so we hung out at home for a while. We got a new book from Spencer called the Kite Runner and I am already half way through it. It is REALLY good. Zoe stole a book of mine that I have already been reading. It is very creepy with a plot line including exacto knives, homosexual preists, and pyschos who kill dogs. Every few paragraphs Zoe gasps, or says something like 'this book is so fucked'.
So yeah, book land is treating us well.
We are all still sick and my goddamn cough wont go away. Once it starts up I go into this fit of coughing that makes me feel like Im going to vomit out my lungs. Its not very pleasent.
So after the book reading, and the watching of MTV for a while we went to our secret lessons at our secret destination. Our secret teacher lives in a small town beside Antigua called JocoTanango. We met her at Central Parque and went to her house. The lessons went pretty well. We learned past tense, and 'imperfect' tense...
Tomorrow, more lessons and probably more kite runner.
We're feeling pretty knackered lately...

Yesterday was Spencers birthday, he turned 19 and we celebrated with style!
The concert was ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS. We had general admisson, but in the end they let everyone in the VIP area, it was great! So good, we were standing right at the front, I could practically feel the drops of sweat fly on to me...The concert was pretty long, and we danced and sung the night away. Spencer had his birthday cigar...it was all very cuban. There was alot of intresting people at the concert. Alot of drunk dancers (one girl with an especially see-through shirt), a very angry english man beside me, and this rasta who played a cowbell (???) for the whole night.

Spencer also got a Bob Esponge pinata. Wait, not one, but TWO. I think he has enough candy now to seriuolsy harm someone. I got some great pictures of him beating Bob to death, I cant wait to see them developed.

Today we laid low, ate some tacos and yogen Fruz and just chilled out. It was really good. Everyone seems to be feeling a little sick (and no, not from drinking). I have a crappy cold, sage has one too, and dean and zoe both haev sore throats. This is no good at all. So doing nothing at all was pretty good.

Tomorrow the dreaded lessons begin. At least there not at the crack of dawn... We are living a very secret life since none of our family can know that we are going to a private school on the side. Our 'father' is the princaple of the school we were attending. We are being very very tricky.

Yes, the spanish lessons have finally finished. That is officially. We start our super secret under the table lessons on monday. Hopefully I will start to grasp this language soon. It seems my brain is just a massive jumble of shit.

Today we go to the concert to celebrate Spencers birthday. We also got him a Bob Esponja Pinata filled with goodies such as lolly pops and cigars. Tonite should be fun although everyone seems to be suffering still from yesterday night.

My stupid god damn cold is starting to get better I think. Although I sound like some scray lung cancer old man. I think it is travelling to my brain because suddenly I have become illiterate4.

Maja y Faja, i think i may phone tomorrow.

espaNol

I know I have been kind of a slacker on the blog lately but...
Spanish school is going well, although it is alot of stuff to remember. We have two more days of school with a private teacher, and then after the weekend we are doing a super duper secret lessons with sages teacher outside of the school. It will be WAY cheaper, and in the afternoon.

Im getting pretty excited for the weekend. The concert is going to be so good, I just know it. And being Ehspencers birthday Im sure theres going to be lots of dancing, bar hopping and good times.

One crappy thing is that I am sick with a stupid chest cold. It dosent seem to be that bad, and I hope it clears up mostly by the weekend.

Other than that, we've just been hanging low, eating ice cream and studying. Oh, and laughing at our hilarious roomate Jarret. He and our 'madre' have this thing going on....(bow chicka chicka bow bow...)

I go to school.
because I am so cool.

Jesus

Today is Sunday which means that our family does not feed us. They are also Catholic so they were gone for a majority of the day at Church etc. We slept in really late after a greatr night of dancing and hauled our asses to the market. We went back to the liquado stand and soothed our stomachs with milky-strawberry goodness. Sage and Zoe also bought their tickets for the concert, and we did a huge load of laundry. Today there was a special religous parade celebrating the weeks before the Holy Saint Semana day. Men in purple robes walk 8 km carrying a huge temple type thing of Jesus Christ with the cross. It is absolutely humongous and weighs about a tonne. These men walk all day with this thing on their shoulders. It was absolutely beautiful and I got some really great pictures of it. To see the dedication to their religion was amazing. Their backs must be killing them, but they kept on truckin' to show their faith. The parade pretty much went on all day but we just saw it in the afternoon and at night. It was incredible at night to see everyone with their candles singing different prayers as they walk by. There is school again tomorrow, and I am kind of in denial about going. This weekend was so fun that I dont want to go back to a classroom. EVER. EVER. But I will, because this will better me in my travels. Har Har. P.S. RIP my precious, you have served me well.

Sad news in clare world.

I have very sad news to announce to the world right now. I belive my Ipod may have been stolen. This is truly tragic, and the only way to console myself is with copious amounts of alcohol and cigarettes.
We think it was stolen in the school when we were storing our bags in the 'principals' office. There is a teensy teensy slim chance that it is still mixed up in our stuff, but we have done a very thorough search.
My heart is broken for one of my bestfriends is GONE.
No more Jason Mraz, Led Zepplin, or Ani Difranco. Arrrrggggggggg!!!!

Besides this tragic news there has been good things too. We had our first day of school on friday and it went really well. My teacher only speaks spanish but I think that already I am begining to learn things. School was for 5 hours and after we met with our family. They are all really super nice, and their house is really cute. There is also another student staying with us whose name is Jarret. He is absolutely hilarious, and we had a good time over dinner talking with him and our family.

We finally met up with Dean and Spencer and we had a really good time. We got some drinks then went to a Bar called La Sala where we danced the night away. It was great, and I think we are going to return tonite. Spencer can shake his ass so well that it truly scares me sometimes. The only man who has shaken their hips better is Mauricio who has had years of practice. Its pretty funny...

Today we got up and went to the Yogen Fruz which was FRIGGEN GOOD. Its a good breakfast after a night of dancing and drinking. We also went to a really beautiful art gallery where I enviously stared at all the paintings I wanted to buy. It was possibly the best art gallery I have ever seen with this really nice court yard in the middle. There was so much beautiful art, and the building itself was also stunning.

We also ventured into the crazy ass market today. It is SO big with so many people sellings things. People are in your face trying to sell you the most randomest stuff ever like feather dusters and TV attenas. We stopped at a smoothie stand (licuaods) and i drank about a litre of pineapple smoothie. It was damn good and only cost 80 cents. Sage ended up buying some jeans to replace the ones she lost and Spencer bought this hilarious shirt of a picture of Jesus catching this guy. Its bright purple and beautiful.

Now I think I am going to go back to the fam and eat some dinner.
Oh yeah...for Spencers birthday (which is on the 25th) we are going to a concert! its called the Bueno Vista De Carazon and we are all really pumped for it.

travelin´ on a bus, and a car, and a boat and a...

Yesterday we travelled and travelled and travelled.
We left Livingston at 730 in the morning and arrived in Atigua at 630 at night. It was possibly the longest day of my life.
We first took a boat from Livingston to Pto. Barrios where we walked to the bus station and got a bus to Guatemala City. The bus ride was excruciatingly long, stuffy and horrible. It was 5 and a half hours long and when we arrived at the bus station, we all wanted to kill ourselves. After getting a taxi we drove around the city looking for a good photography shop that sold old-school lens, and batteries for Zoe and Sages cameras. No such luck. But there was one good thing...
WE FOUND A SUBWAY.
It was gloriously delicous. Still not as good as Canadas Subway, but still very yummy.
We then took a very funny bus to Antigua. Antigua is really nice and I have really enjoyed it so far. We're staying in a hotel called 'Shalom', and tomorrow we go to stay with a family. We are staying with a family because we are actually starting spanish lessons. The lessons are going to be for 5 hours a day for 5 days. Should be good, although I am terrified of the thought of 'going to school' again. Ack. Its pretty awesome because we can live AND get spanish lessons and still stay in our budget. Hopefully I will become a very skilled spanish speaker (haha, we´ll see...)

We still havent seen Dean or Spencer yet but hopefully they will turn up soon. Its spencers birthday soon and we're thinking of getting him a fat piñata. Should we get Dora the Explorer, or Clifford the Big red dog? This is a very hard decision. It is going to take a lot of thought and any input will be appreciated.

Dad, your dream has come true...Once again you can say 'SCHOOL TOMORROW'

We're really not up to much here in Livingston, but we're having a good time. Today we found a beach pretty close to our hotel. The stupid locals and our guide books convinced us that there was no such thing as a beach, but we proved them wrong. The water is REALLY nice, its really shallow and has these dodgy squishly sections. I found a creepy fish spine, and a fish's beak. It was...interesting.
Oh, and my crappy ass bank card isnt working and now I have about 4 dollars to last me the rest of the week. Im not really sure how this is going to work, but it will. Somehow I will squeak by. Maybe I will pimp out Zoe. I bet I could make alot of money.

Yesterday we sat on the dock and watched the sunset, it was great. The air is nice and cool by the ocean. All these scary flat fish swim by and Zoe is convinced they are snakes and are going to eat her. If only that would happen...Hahahaha

We're probably going to stay here another couple days and then move onto Antigua.

red wine...a new arch enemy

Well, last night was absolutely nuts. We decided to go out for some nice dinner since it was going to be our last night in Flores. We went to this cool resteraunt that looked over the water, and had a really good time. Lets just say that we payed for it today(and in zoes case last night...) We then had a 3.5 hour bus ride at nine o´clock in the morning, and our bus driver was absolutely insane. He would pass people on blind corners, and he almost hit about 60 motercycles. Then we had to take a 2 hour boat ride to get to our new home Livingston. The boat ride was very bumpy, yet very beautiful. Good on the eyes, but not so good on the stomach. Our boat driver pointed out some cool wildlife (I saw a pelican!), some hotsprings, and this random castle. We couldnt really understand him, but thats ok...

Livingston is really cool. Really laid back, and beautiful. Once again we are back on the ocean, which is terrific. Our hotel is kinda dodgy, so i think we are going to look for another one tomorrow. I also think we are going to go on a tour on monday. The tour will take us to a white sand beach, and we´ll get to do some kayaking. Its a good 5 hour tour and it will only cost us $8 canadian. Ahhhhh, love the deals in Central America!

Mother and Father, every time I try to phone you your not home. I am going to try again tonight, and HOPEFULLY youll be there!

Tikal

At 4:30 in the morning, the alarm sounded. I actually contemplated suicide. It was ridiculousy early. We havent gotten up that early since we left Vancouver to catch our flight. So besides the fact that it was scarily early, we hauled our asses outa bed to meet the tour bus outside. They were late of course, so we amused ourselved with this parrot by feeding it crackers. The bus did finally arive and we drove about an hour and a half to the ruin sight. On the way Zoe talked to this guy from Nelson and he told us about a bunch of cool places that we should go to in Guatemala. Oh, and our bus broke down (it over heated) and we had to wait untill our driver found some water, and then took half an hour to find the damn radiator. Which freakishly turned out to be under the front seats. We got to Tikal, and it was absolutely enormous. We decided not to get a guide and just walk about on our own. We saw some really cool ruins, and we climbed a couple of the really steep ones. Its so amazing to think that thousands of years ago, these landsites were actively used in prayer and meditation. The structure is so perfectly put together, each rock fits next to another, and each engravement is so detailed. It was pretty stunning. We walked around, and tried to look at as many ruins as we could. It was friggen alarmingly hot, so we decided to go back on the early bus. Plus, we were all ridiculously tired from getting up at FOUR. So, back to the hotel we went to rest up. We then got some fat nachos, and now were sitting here. Doing out blog thing. We were actually hoping Dean and Spencer would email us back because we might try to meet up with them, but they didnt, so Im not really sure what were gonna do. We might leave Flores tomorrow, or we might stay another day. I guess we´ll se tommorow. The language barrier is pretty funny, and Im pretty sure that soon I am going to end up ordering a lizard or something. People always talk to us, expecting us to understand, and we just kind of sit there and nod with a couple of ´uh huhs..´ thrown in. Sage is actually kicking ass at spanish, it probably has something to do with that weird-ass course she took...

Flores

So, we finally arived here in Guatemala.
This morning we checked out and got a Taxi to the border. The border was a little nuts, we of course got harassed by money changers and ripped off by the border guy who demanded that we each give him two american dollars. We then demanded for a receipt, and he signed my paper and said ¨there. receipt¨ It was pretty weird...It was crazy because as soon as we crossed the border, everyone spoke spanish and I never knew what the hell was going on. Oh, and the stupid money changed too, and now its confusing because I have to divide everything by 6. Soon, I will get the hang of this. After the border we got on a very spiffy greyhound like bus that took us almost all the way to Flores. We did have to transfer onto this dinky mini-bus thing and they drove us to the bank where my debit card acted like a peice of shit. It took three diffirent bank machines to find one that actually worked.

Flores is crazy. Its this kind of psuedo island that is surrounded by a huge lake. It is also very nice. We got a very nice hotel which only cost us around 6 dollars canadian each a night. We get our very own bathroom, with a NICE shower and our own bed. It is truly GREAT. We also booked our tour for Tikal tomorrow, which is picking us up at FIVE in the morning. It is going to be scarily early but its supposed to be the best time to go. Tikal is enormous, so by the end of the day we are going to be bushed.

Tonight we just hung out and went our for dinner. Had some guacamole and a couple margaritas, and everything is just dandy. I think I am going to return to the hotel now and lie in my very fab bed.

Ah, this is the life.

Pancakes, Sleep and trashy novels. This is what our day involved.
Its good to be alive.

rollin' rollin' on a river...

wow.
The canoe race was absolutely INSANE!
The first day started out pretty good considering the shop where we were getting out canoe/life vests/paddles from never friggen came when they were supposed to! But finally 'David' showed up hung over half an hour late with no keys. He had to break of his lock with a crowbar to get our stuff out.
The first day was pretty brutal. We paddled strong for the first 3 or so hours non stop which was pretty good because we thought we only had to paddle for 6. Turns out or measly 6 hours turned into a gruelling NINE AND A HALF. We quickly gave our canoe the nickname "the tank" because it was impossibly huge, heavy and couldnt tip if we wanted it to. And lets just say we didnt get in first. Or second. Or third. Ok, so we came in last. Dead last. By the time we actualy got to camp we were so exhausted we just set up our tent and went to bed. We also did meet some very nice british boys who were also very yummy. They of course whooped our ass by getting in at a very respectable place of 60 something.
The second day was very intresting. It was 12 hours long. 12. We paddled from dusk to dawn. It was very intense. Along the way we did see some scary howler monkeys that make the freakiest sounds ever. Kind of a cross between a warthog and a dog. Oh, and it also turential downpoored. It was pretty freakin intense. And of course we came in last. Again. By the time we got to camp it was dark and we had to set up our tent. We met up with the brits and ate some dinner which consisted of a mound of rice and to my utter enjoyment, a chicken foot. It was truly grim.
The third day was hard. There was strong winds and it was very hot. It seemed that day went on and on and on and on. Forever. At this point my ass is very sore, and both my hands were covered in blisters. Our bodies were basically rapidly deteriating. We finally arrived. Last of course. We thought we were going to die, but we trucked on and rejuvinated ourselves with beer and a swim.
We hoofed it so hard on the fourth day. We paddled very strong for around 4 1/2 hours straight. We were determined not to come in last place again. And we didnt. It was great passing the finish line knowing I wasnt going to have to sit in a canoe again for a very long long time.
All in all, we did come in last place. But we completed the damn thing, and that was our one goal. In fact, out of 102 teams nine droppeed out. And we finished. Three girls with no canoing experience in a tank of a boat. It was great. A very challening but rewarding/good experience. I have also learned a very important lesson. Do not listen to Belizeans and expect an honest answer. They are the BIGGEST liers EVER. EVER I SAY. DO NOT TRUST THEM.

Now we are sitting in a laundermat cleaning all of our stinky wet nasty clothes. I think we are going to bus back to San Ignacio today and spend another night there relaxing and doing absolutely nothing. We definetly deserve it.

Mom and Dad, I think I am going to try to phone you tonite...

Tomorrow is the canoe race. It starts at 7:00 Am and it ends four days later in the afternoon. I am not going to be posting for a couple days for I will be in the middle of the jungle with no internet.

So everyone wish me luck, and I'll be back soon!

Nothingness

I didnt post anythng yesterday, because we didnt do anything. But today we found a bucket for the canoe race. We are going to put some clothes, and food and water in it so if the canoe tips, it will float and stay dry. We also have this little pouchy water proof sack to hold our passports, and they will always be on someone worn as a money belt type thing. Big H will take our baggage from stop to stop.

The race is in TWO days. Tomorrow we have the meeting and opening ceremonies at 5 o'clock. This is going to be absolutely nuts. Its getting pretty exciting though. Just think in another weeks we will be wallowing in our thousands of dollars we are going to win. Ha Ha. I only can wish...