The Tallest People in Central America

We were a little miserable...
Admiring the view...


Looking into oblivion...

Tallest people in Central America!!

Me against the sun.

The crater of the volcano!

Another volcano behind us and the sun casting a shadow.

Here comes the sun....

The sun is slowly coming out...

All the volcanos in the distance and one erupting!

Waiting for the sun to rise freeezzing!

Above the clouds!!

Chuck and his huge bag!

The group walking towards the volcano.... through the clouds....

So after leaving my site, we made our way to the nearest city called Quetzaltenango or Xela (sheyla) for short. We treated ourselves to Mcdonalds and I don't think we ever had better service ever at a McDonalds! They pumped your ketchup for you, pre-bussed tables, running in and out of the bathrooms making sure they were clean... all American McDonalds were put to shame. I think Chuck was even looking for future Brio staff :)

The next morning we headed to San Marcos to hike Valcano Tajumulco! The tallest peak in Central America! It was definitely a difficult hike. Carrying what felt like 100 pound bags for 4 hours to base camp. Then settting up camp in freezing cold weather. To say we had a good night sleep would be like saying eating a whole pint of Haagen Dazs was healthy for you. First it was freezing, and during the night condensation formed inside the tent, so if you moved you would get splashed in the face with water... ugh, it sucked. So we all woke up at 4am to finish the rest of the hike in pitch black darkness. When we got out of our tents and looked up at the sky, wow.... I have never seen so many brilliant stars in my life! It was so amazingly beautiful!! When we got to the top it was freezing and we all waited for the sun to rise. No words can describe how amazing the view was. You really felt like you were on top of the world. Unfortunately I didn't charge my camera battery, I actually left the battery charger at my host family's house, so I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted. But when the sun started to rise, it was amazing....

After the hike we headed back to Antigua and then Chuck left that Wednesday.... :( Overall, the trip was amazing and I'm so glad Chuck was able to come and visit me!!

Beautiful Lago Atitlan

Volcano San Pedro from the hotel.
One of the balconies at the hotel.

Trying to take a picture with the volcano in the background.

Chuck taking off!

Coming down the zip-line!

In our zip-line gear ready for business!!

So after our dreadful overnight bus ride, a 2 hour or so wait at the stinky bus station, an hour bus ride to Antigua and then another 3 hour bus ride to the Lake.... we might have been a little crabby. I had a problem at first with explaining everything that we were doing to Charles, as well as translating... so adding lack of sleep, and frustration, I'm pretty sure Charles has images of drop kicking me to the floor.... thankfully he didn't. I got better though! It was weird to have a visitor, or anyone for that matter that I had to explain everything to because I've been so used to people being in the same boat as me. So this was a learning experience for me as well... so next time he visits my Spanish will have improved and I'll be a better tour guide.

We stayed at a beautiful little place called Casa del Mundo that was only accessable by boat. Each night they served family styled meals where you were able to meet everyone that was staying at the same hotel. We met some really great people from all over... France, Canada, Holland, various US States... and the food was always really good! We were also able to meet up with my sitemate Valerie, who was supposed to stay with us at the same hotel, but the reservations were mixed up. Both Chuck and I, Val and her friend went to a nature reserve and zip-lined through an old coffee farm/beautiful jungle-like scenery (not really sure what to call it being so close to the lake).

Chuck and I did some exploring at some of the little towns around the lake and then we headed to my site, Santa Maria Chiquimula where we had lunch with my host family. Unfortunately, we arrived too late and we were only there for a few hours. He also wasn't feeling too well... after a long 3 hour trip from the lake and then taking a pick-up for an hour to my site while winding in and out of the mountains...

And I also found out that Chuck is a seriously better bargainer than I am... I am totally a wuss. Chuck had no shame. But he got some great Christmas presents out of it!!

Ahh this is a soo lobely!

The view from the top, you can see Temple 1
The view from the top of the "Stairs"! I wasn't up here for long, the height was too scary for me...

The view from the bottom!

Chuck and I in front of Temple 1

The famous Temple 1 from on top of Temple 2

Borris our animated tour guide telling us about the human sacrifices performed on this rock! They didn't chop their heads off, only druged them with mushrooms and cut out their hearts while still alive!

Standing on top of one of the ruins. One of the many great views of Tikal.

Charles holding the taranchula! Guiding it up his arm!

The poor litte Chiwawa all by itself in the middle of the Flores airport.

Charles and I getting on the plane to Flores!

TIKAL!!! What more can I say?! This place was definitely a great wonder of the world. We decided to take a plane to Flores... a last minute decision which I think saved us a good amount of sleep deprivation, but then that changed when we took an overnight bus from Flores to the capital... more about that later.

Flores was about 1 and 15min from Tikal. It is a small little town in the center of a lake. It was a very quiet, cute little town, almost too quiet. We stayed in a pretty cool hostel. We met people from all around the world staying there. You had the option of renting hammocks, communal rooms or little tree houses. There was no hot water, but it was so humid there it wasn't needed. They had a restaurant and travel agency within our hostel which was definitely a bonus.

We arrived at the Flores airport and while we were getting our luggage we both couldn't help but notice a little chiwawa on top of all the luggage. We watched how everyone grabbed their belongings and eventually the poor guy was left in the middle of the airport, in his little carrying case. Probably one of the funniest/cutest things. So we took a picture :)

We found out that if you went to the park after 3 pm your ticket was still valid for the next day. So we took a little bus at 3 pm to the park and walked around the main square of Tikal until 5:30. It was definitely amazing! There were no people around so we were able to explore without all the tourists and take pictures without people in the background. However, on our way back to the parking lot we got lost! We both were freaking out, Charles thought we would be sleeping in the jungle and I thought we would never get back to our hostel and the whole trip was going to be ruined! Well... we made it out... in pitch black darkness. We "enjoyed" a nice bus ride back with an angry French couple and we found out later we almost ran over boa contrictors :) But our driver was pretty awesome. We were pretty sure he knew everyone in town. He reminded me of a taller, grey-haired Danny Divito who spoke Spanish and needed to pull up his pants every 5 minutes... and probably shower.

The next day we got up really early for our guided tour of Tikal. We had a young, dynamic, tour guide named Borris. He like to call us "Mis Chavos" or "My friends" and every time he talked it was full of animation and full of information, so much sometimes I just stopped listening and enjoyed watching him get so into his explanation. He was great. We were able to climb almost every ruin and we definitely took tons of pictures. One of the first things we saw on our tour was a taranchula! It was pretty nasty... and Charles and I held it! This of course after it took a dump on one of the Australian tourists. It was definitely a beautiful experience (not the spider, Tikal), one I know we both will never forget.

Later that night we took an overnight bus ride to Guate. This bus was so small, it was small for me, imagine how uncomfortable it was for Charles!! There was no way to get comfortable. Needless to say we were both slap happy during our 7 hour ride. At different points during the trip I would wake up to Charles pointing out the window because the bus stopped and it appeared as though they were loading illegal cargo onto the bus due to random people running to and from the bus to a nearby alley. Then I woke up half asleep to turn my head and find myself face to face with a man sitting on a stool in the middle of the aisle. Charles later told me he ended up laying newspapers on the floor and fell asleep. We got off at a sketchy bus stop in Guatemala City... where people were sprawled out on the floor or couch dead asleep, nasty bathrooms and dirty old men. The shuttle was late, but it came... and took us to Antigua where we took another shuttle (after I made everyone late by getting coffee... the bus driver was none too thrilled with me and on top of that no one opended the windows! it was so hot on that bus!) to the lake. Our 12 hour trip definitely made us really cranky and poor Charles ended up getting sick. Good thing we were at the lake for 3 days...so we took a much needed day off the first day we were at the lake.

Cafe Americano

All the coffee trees which are being shaded by trees... one of 2 ways to grow coffee.

The coffee bean inside the red berry.

A Picture of a coffee tree... the red berries mean they are ripe and ready to be picked!

A picture of what the coffee tour looked like.

Charles reading the info about how coffee originated before our tour.

Well... Charles came, and he went... I will definitely be on the sad train for a while. I was definifely a spoiled little puppy :) Going from 3 full meals a day to my standard oatmeal and cornfalkes for breakfast and one fried egg for dinner will definitely take some adjusting. Then by the time I'm adjusted my parents will have arrived and I'll have to start all over again :)

The trip was nothing short of amazing! Poor Charles, I ran him to the ground. We went all over Guatemala and the traveling definitely took its toll on his health a few times. We started the trip with a coffee farm tour. I think Charles liked that, being the coffee lover he is. We were able to see how they grow, harvest and mass produce coffee. Guatemala I believe is #6 in coffee exports.

After the coffee farm we took a music tour. Basically a tour of all the different instruments that have been used and originataed in Guatemala. At the end of the tour we saw a video of the different departments of Guatemala and it showed how they use the instruments for ceremonies, fairs and holidays.

After the 2 tours we went to visit my host family from training. Charles gave them banana bread as a gift and we ate a yummy chicken dish. Charles and I should have switched plates because I got the bigger piece of chicken... I also learned that this wasn't his first time eating corn tortillas...