Adventure

As you probably know, I finished Peace Corps last month (June 22nd to be exact). So you may be wondering why the hell I'm not back in the U.S. yet. You make a point, but ever since I knew I was headed to Guatemala almost 3 years ago, I knew I wanted to take advantage of my southern location and travel before I was stuck back in the States again. Thus, I am on the road. And here is my story.

My college running friend Carly met me at the beginning of July to discover Guatemala and neighboring countries. To start the adventure, after much too much debate over the safety of the safety of climbing a volcano in Guatemala, we determined that we were okay in a group of five (3 women, 2 men, 1 being Guatemalan). And we were okay, except for getting lost for about 45 minutes. After 5 hours, we found the peak at 3722 meters, along with some cows and some clouds. Then we hurried on down, showered, and hopped on a 3 hour bus ride to Lago de Atitlan to take in some beautiful vistas and watch the World Cup final.

The next leg of the trip was in El Salvador. Rumored to have better beaches than Guatemala and to be a great place to learn to surf, that was the plan. However, it seemed that the recent tropical storms had strewn rock all over the beaches. So after one night at the beach, we packed up and headed to the mountain town of Juayua, where we scaled waterfalls and ate pupusas. We only spent four days in El Salvador, and despite being an extremely small country, it warranted much more time. El Salvador is very clean and friendly. I will definitely return one day.

At the end of that week, we took quite a long bus trip through unpaved mountain roads to the Honduras border and headed to the Mayan ruins at Copan.

After having been to various Mayan sites, I assumed I could do it without a guide. However, once I was in there, I realized it would be a wasted journey to this remote location to just stare at some temples and statues and not understand what was behind them. Thus we returned to the gate and paid the guide fee and re-entered the park. In the end, it was well worth the money and the time to use a guide. We learned about the Altar Q, which is where the most important animal sacrifices took place (15 jaguars and 2 scarlet macaws together). What I also found quite interesting was that they had painted all their temples red and had placed a white stucco floor throughout the grounds. Anyway, it was a very interesting place that was worth the long side trip.

From there we traveled to the port town of Puerto Cortes to catch a boat to Belize. Yes, it was a very short stay in Honduras, but as I look at it, it gave us a chance to learn what to come back for.

The boat was an adventure in itself. Dodging logs in the bay of Honduras nearly caused us to flip, but eventually we arrived in Placencia, Belize safe and dry. That was nearly two weeks ago, and I am still in Belize! Carly got a short taste of the country, since she flew out last Friday, but I'm pretty sure she still enjoyed it. We were in the sleepy ex-pat beach town of Placencia, then headed to Hopkins, a Garifuna village (black Caribs), but on the way had to wait for 5 hours for a bridge to unflood! In Hopkins we got to see local drumming and try to dance the punta. To end Carly's adventure, we took a boat out to the island of Caye Caulker, rented bikes and ate cinnamon rolls.

It was fantastic having a traveling partner as great as Carly! And now I am "on my own," but not really. Last Saturday, my first day sola, I did a full day snorkeling trip where I met a new friend, Hannah, and for the rest of the weekend (meals, runs and a fishing trip), I hung out with her and her friend Jennifer. Snorkeling was incredible, swimming with manatees, sting rays, nurse sharks, various fish, lobster and octopus. Then fishing, we landed some delicious silk snapper and baracuda, and even attempted spear fishing! Quite the adventure!

Now I am assisting with jaguar research. I met the professor who is doing the research at a population dynamics conference my senior year and have stayed in touch. Now I'm helping her hike out to check the cameras that she uses for camera trapping, but also, I get to take breaks with her, which entails heading up to the Mountain Pine Ridge, which is famous for rich white people and resorts. She has friends here that help fund her research and also offer room and board when needed, and well, right now it is needed! :)

At the end of the week, after being back in the field and being devoured by mosquitoes and mud, I will head back to Guatemala to say my final goodbyes and to meet up with my next traveling partner, Laura, and head south to Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. Then she leaves, and I will meet up with my Colombian friends, my Ecuadorian family, and then my (real) sister in Peru. I finally have my ticket home de una vez (for good, as we say down here) for October 13th. Do you think I can handle the US/the US can handle me?