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We Be Divin

The title say it all. We finally made it to Utila and have been here for almost a week now. Today we went on our first official dive, two actually, down 12 meters and about 35 minutes each. The last two days we have been watching educational videos and taking quizzes but today it all paid off. Finding Nemo means so much more to me now. We have two more dives tommorow, 18 meters, and then we are officialy certified as PADI SCUBA divers and can, technically, go rent some SCUBA gear and go diving anywhere in the world.
Aside from that, Utila is a Carribean style place. Many of the people sound like a stereotypical Jamaican. The entire economy is based on eating, drinking, and diving. It can be pretty hot here but, there are plenty of places to go swim so its not too much of a problem. There are also sand fleas and they are extremely uncivilized and will bite you at their whim.
We are down to less than a week left, at least two days of which will be spent in a bus, so time is short. I wish we could stay longer, or had come earlier because they have all klinds of cool diving classes you can do once you finish the first one, but, we have to leave sometime. Even though it is fun here we are running out of excuses to clelebrate and I think it may be time to do something more ¨productive¨ and or ¨responsible¨ So, It isnt so bad to have to come back home after all. We miss being around people we know and speaking English, consistently, as well. I will be glad to see you all again soon, until then.

Boders and busses, corbodas and rum

Here is our updated MAP, it´s getting pretty impressive.

The last entry was back in Antigua and since then we have traveled in a bus from Guatemala city to San Benito in El Slavador where we stayed for one night. San Benito is basically exactly like a town in the US near an airport and is filled with American restaurants and hotels, not much indigenous culture. We met a guy who owns a restaurant there and he used to live in DC and work on the A/C in the FBI building. And he was a chef as well, he made us a teacup of some really good soup. We didn´t get to see much in El Salvador, but thats life on the road.
The next day we had the final 12 hour bus ride down the Pacific side of El Salvador and then Honduras, and then back out of Honduras into Nicaragua. The bus stopped in Managua which is the biggest city in Nicaragua and we then took a public bus to Granada.
Granada is pretty similar to Antigua in a lot of ways. Old colonial style buildings, some fancy restaurants. We stayed at a hospedaje called Esfringe, which is a very difficult word to say and casused some occasional confusion with cab drivers, but no major troubles. It was extremely hot and humid, and they have rolling blackouts across the whole country from 7-10 at night. We were not aware of that at first and it was a bit scary walking down strange Nicaraguan streets at night and then having all the lights suddenly turn off. They also turn off the water from 8 in the morning till around 11.
We have now switched to using Cordobas here which are worth about 5 cents US each. Granada was interesting and it had a lot of old churches to look at but, we only stuck around for 3 days and then headed towards San Juan Del Sur which is a surf town on the Pacific Coast.
We went to the beach and went swimming yesterday and met some people there who we went out with last night. Flor de Caña is made here and it is very inexpesnsive, it´s a rum. So now we are here plotting our next move, trying to figure out the bus situation so we can head up back into Honduras to La Ceiba and then take a boat to Utila where we will finally do some SCUBA diving, which we have been talking about for quite a while.
We are looking forward to the diving and also coming back home and staying in one place for a little while. Unfortunately they do not stamp passports here when you are traveling only within Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua so we will come back with only one stamp after all of this. Hopefully everyone will believe that we actually went to all of these places.
Well, that is all for now and we are excited to see everyone again. Hasta Luego.

blogsville

After Flores we rode on a bus to Rio Dulce. Best busride of my life. It was just really comfortable and fun and there was a lot to look at. The bus stopped for lunch in this random town, and we were starving and ate at a restaurant that we probably never would have, we payed less than two dollars for big plates of rice, beans, cheese guacamole and tortillas. yum.

Rio Dulce was a nice enough town, but the kind of weather where you go to bed and wake up sweaty and feel clean for about 10 minutes after a shower and then you´re ready for another one. we went in a little lancha on the river to Livingston. The boat ride was about an hour and a half, and was really pretty scenery, basically really tall walls of jungle-like trees on either side. WE stopped at a hot springs area, really nice. Livingston is like no place i had ever been, we got off the boat and walked into a saturday afternoon in this tiny caribbean town. THey are Garifuna, which is basically a tiny population of black guatemalans. They speak their own language. Right off the bat we met one of the towns musicians, his instrument the turtle shell. We got to our hotel, casa de la iguana, and were really happy with our big cabin that had a private bathroom and a big bed and a hammock and a FAN. Oh and we had an electrical outlet in the room which i was really excited about and thought i would blowdry my hair for the first time in a month. Bad idea. I must have blown a fuse or something because electricity in the ENTIRE HOTEL was out, and it was right before they served their family style dinner in the common area. Oh my goodness i was so embarrassed but the staff just told us that the power just goes out all the time so i kept my mouth shut. pretty hilarious though, the whole place had to eat dinner by candlelight just because i wanted dry hair. it finally got fixed, and everyone in the place (maybe 25 people) got together and played this wolf game and kings cup, it was a fun night, only one other american there but everyone speaks english so no problem.

That night when we went back to our room their was a GIANT spider in the bathroom on the wall and a scorpion in the sink. and the scorpion was especially disgusting because it had like fifty little tiny baby scorpions on its back. I am trying hard to not be a scaredy cat, but the huge insects really creep me out. We also found out the next day that our cabin was built on top of a crab farm area so there were tons of these creepy holes around the cabin with huge crabs coming in and out which actually wasn´t so bad, especially because i thought they were the giant tarantula holes that i kept hearing about.

So the next morning we went to get lunch at this little comedor that our musician friend told us was the best place in town, where all the locals eat. We got the livingston specialty, tapado, a soup that has a like spicy coconut milk base and lots of herbs and seafood in it. Crab, calamari, shrimp, etc. and really healthy portions of it. soooo good. The restaurant was also a good choice because we met this texan couple who had just started their own marina just a few coves over, and they were coming into town to get beer for their restaurant and supplies. They were also with a few of the yachties who were docking their boats at the marina. THey seemed like a fun bunch and the texans told us they had a cabana and we could stay there. THey said they made the best cheeseburgers in guatemala which sounded really good to us too so they gave us some time to pack up and then come with them on their boat to the marina. It was really really pretty, on a big hill of green grass and they had a really nice common area and restaurant. THey themselves were also really entertaining, telling us all these crazy stories. the burgers were really really good too. the yachties came up too and we all sat around until late. our cabana was kind of dicey... scorpion on the wall right off the bat and no electricity, plus it was really really hot. we got through it though, and the next day we went kayaking through all these little caribbean lagoons and saw some really cool animals.... like giant butterflies and howler monkeys. that night we heard about hurricane dean coming in and i kindof started to get scared... didn´t help when we got back to our room and there was some sort of creepy mangled tarantula looking spider on the wall and the derelict ceiling was made of metal so the rain coming down from the storm was really really loud and there was the loudest thunder i had ever heard and lots of lightening. and i of course had thoughts of scorpions and that mangled spider. joel was pretty calm about the whole thing but he was pretty miserable too. we barely slept that night, and we were ready to leave that next morning, early. It should be mentioned joel ate cheeseburgers four out of the four meals that we ate there.

We were finally back in rio dulce, and spent one night there. it was heaven to have a clean room that was bug free. we wanted to go to the bay islands in honduras next to do the scuba diving course, but everyone said it was a bad idea because of the hurricane, so we decided to just come back to antigua. We found this really nice hotel, Yellow House, and we have a really really nice room and a TV which was really nice. Really good price too. So we have been here just relaxing and reading for about two weeks. antigua is a really nice town, lots of fun restaurants and bars and really pretty churches, etc. there is a supermarket here and we have access to a kitchen so we have been making some of our own meals.

Oh, we also never go stamped on our way in the country, so we had to go to guatemala city to immigration to take care of it. we were a little worried about the whole situation, but it turned out to be just fine, we got our stamps without a hitch (just a fee) and got a chance to see more of the city as well.

we are going to managua, nicaragua tomorrow on shuttle. long entry, but i realized that we should use this blog as a kind of journal since it´ll be around forever. hope everyone is doing well, we miss and love you guys!

on to the Rio Dulce and Livingston

We are leaving Flores today. The last two days we went to go see some Mayan ruin sites in, La Blanca, Yaxha, and Tikal. Tikal was awesome, the others were interesting as well but much of what was there is still buried under vegetation so you pretty much have to imagine what it looked like. Tikal´s temples were huge and we got to climb up a few of them. We also got to see some spider monkeys, howler monkeys and a few Tucans. We have now had our fill of ancient history for a bit and we are going down south east, to the carribean coast, to a place called Livingston. Livingston is populated with Garifuna´s which are basically descendants of a slave ship that wrecked somewhere long ago and they have since spread down the coast. There is also a river that you have to travel on to get to the town that is called Rio Dulce which is supposed to be very beautiful. Most likely next we will be heading to Honduras to become certified SCUBA divers, that is going to be really fun. Other than that, we have done most of what we wanted to do in the area so who knows what happens after that. We are having a good time still though so, we are not worried about getting bored quite yet. Over and out.

Flores

So we have now made it to Flores, after another extremely uncomfortable 8 to 10 hour bus ride. Semuc Champey was extremely beautiful, we got to go swimming on the crystal blue water, we went into a cave with a candle and had to swim through many parts, jumped off a bridge (everyone else did it), and hiked up a huge hill. Also the night before we went to a different cave called the ¨Bat Cave¨and explored around there. At around six all of the bats came pouring out of the entrance and we stood there in the middle of it. Also the hostal that we stayed at was really fun and we met some people from San Jose and hung out with them, they are actually here in Flores now too so we don't have to make new friends just yet. I have been looking forward to the Maya ruins for a long time and I am almost done with my book, so on Monday we will go. The bugs are getting much bigger as well as we move closer to the jungle, we have been awoken in the middle of the night more than a few times by a cockroach, or more often unsettlingly large spiders. But, although its a bit scary, they are pretty cool once you are a safe distance away. Tikal is also known for huge tarantulas and other bugs so i´m sure we will see some amazing stuff there. Hasta luego.

TIKAL

We made it to Lanquin!

As you can tell from the title we are now in Lanquin about 10km west of Semuc Champey. Since the last entry we have been at la iguana perdida. For claire's boirthday we went to a hotel called casa del mundo in jabalito which is the next town over from santa cruz, it was very beautiful and hopefully someday we can go back. They sang happy birthday to claire, in english and spanish. It was very nice.
Also every saturday at la iguana perdida they have a coss dressing party every saturday, which we attended. They also have a "walk off" competition, which I attended, and took second place. Im pretty sure I deserved frist place, but maybe it was too much.
We had a lot of fun there and met some really cool people. Its wierd to keep meeting people, becoming friends, and then just as you get to know them, you leave. But, every place that we have gone we have met people to hang out with so at least there are replacements. I have updated our map as well which shows where we have gone so far. If you click on the different pins there is a litlle blurb there as well. Claire got a bit of a stomach problem, but we got some medicine today so hopefully that is in its last throes. The bus ride to Lanquin, 10 hours, was a little nerve racking because of the never ending shakeing and jostling, as well as very very few bathroom breaks, if you know what i mean. Anyways, we made it and this place looks eally cool as well. We are both getting more comfortable and knowledgeable about travelling. We are both really excited about Semuc Chapey and Tikal soon after that. Miss you all and talk to you soon.