Up till now...

Arrived in Guatemala City from Washington D.C. on January 25th, spent first day hanging out with Manny, who is my pledge brother from Sigma Chi at Purdue, his wife Ines and their excitable 3 month old Boston Terrier. Got a cellular phone SIM which worked as soon as I put it in my Motorola Slivr. I also changed $240 into Guatemalan Quetzales [exchange rate is 7.68 Q's to $1]. That night, we went to a party thrown in honor of a friend of Manny's who was getting married. I met some of what I imagine were Guatemala City's elite. The house was beautiful and the food and drinks were great.

Surprizingly I got up early the next morning with zero hangover. We drove to 2.5 hours up to Ines's grandmother's vacation house on Lake Atitlan close to Santiago de Atitlan. Lake Atitlan is a beautiful high altitude lake surrounded by three volcanoes and is very deep, 1,500 meters at its deepest point. Manny and his cousin Phil [also a Sigma Chi] are big into kiteboarding where a large parachute-like kite pulls the boarder over the water. They checked that there were plenty of whitecaps on the lake [sign of strong winds] and also checked out that the motorboat at that house was in running order. Phil's wife, Mafe, and Manny's brother, Nacho, also kiteboard so it was a fairly large group that went kiteboarding that first afternoon. We met up with another kiteboarding group and kitrboarding took up most of that first day. The wind was the strongest anyone had ever seen on the lake so Manny was able to make his highest jump to date on the lake, about 10 meters. We jumped into the jacuzzi after getting off the lake, had a nice dinner with some wine and went to sleep early.

The next morning we had a nice breakfast at the Bambu lodge in Santiago followed by more kiteboarding. Later, Manny dropped me to the Santiago dock and returned to Guatemala City. From Santiago, I was able to catch a river taxi to Santa Cruz. This is where my backpacking trip really began. I met Nicole and Briony, 2 Aussie medical students from Adelaide. Along with an older American couple, we set about finding affordable accomodation in Santa Cruz. We ended up settling for Hotel Helen, a pretty crap hotel but the price was right. I got a triple+private bath with the Aussie girls for 30Q per night per person. It was cramped living for the two nights the girls were there but I stayed on 2 more days after they left and was able to have the triple room to myself for the same 30Q per night. The first night we grabbed dinner and some beers and went to bed.

As it turns out, San Pedro is full of wannabe hippies and coke fiends. drugs are everywhere and everyone is doing them. I figured I'd ask some hippies for some advice on life (from a different perspective). The stuff that came out must have been some of the dumbest and most simplistic shit I've ever heard. Too bad I'm not simple. After the Aussies left, I met 3 brits and a Guatemalan girl who one of the Brits had just married. We chilled and partied for a day. The day after that, I climbed Volcan San Pedro (an inactive volcano). The climb was 1,000-1,300 vertical meters and it took 4.5-5 hours to get to the 3,090 meter summit where we were treated to great views of the lake and surrounding volcanoes.

The next day I really hurt but I met up with a bunch of friends and went out anyway. The day after that, I went to Santa Cruz and stayed at La Iguana Perdida, a great little hostel where I had the most fabulous room in the whole place for 90Q ($12). My room came with a private balcony overlooking the lake and a volcanoe. I got a massage which the legs especially appreciated, still hurting from the trek. There was a fancy dress party for which everyone made and wore masks. I went with a tribal design which was a big hit. Later, for some reason, people attacked a pinata. While that was happening, a Mexican girl I had never met before came up to me, hugged me and told me she needed sex really bad. I joked with her for a while but seeing she was serious, told her I was married. She was skeptical since I wasn't wearing a ring but she moved along eventually with no hard feelings.

The next day I went diving in Lake Atitlan. I saw some fish and was able to pick up and play with a crab on a day when the visibility was pretty good for a lake. Meghan, my dive instructor, took me to a dive site called Agua Caliente. Diving about 11 meters to the bottom (Atitlan is approx 1.5 km deep at its deepest and very cold because of it's high altitude. We were wearing 6.5 mm thick wetsuits), I put my hands in some very hot mud. I went about 5 inches deep at which point it was scalding hot, due to the geothermal heat underneath, a remnant from the active volcanoes days. Very cool!

The same day, I left for Pana to watch the Superbowl. I tried some ultrapremium rum with the son of Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas who also happened to be at the same bar for the game. After thoroughly enjoying a Giants victory, I went to bed early.

The next day I left for Antigua where I stayed one night for 45Q en route to Copan (in Honduras). Whats funny is that we'll be back in Antigua when Colleen comes to Guatemala and then our hotel (which she picked) will cost 885Q. Women!

Copan was a disappointment. There are some pretty cool carvings but I was expecting more and on a grander scale. The underground tunnels between the pyramids were the biggest disappointment. However, it was a really peaceful spot in the jungle with all kinds of exotic birds cawing and a small tapir-like animal I still haven't identified running across our path from time to time. Also, the court where they played that ancient mayan soccer-like sport was very well preserved and it was very cool to hear the guide explain how the game was played.

On to Utila...