Guatemala & Belize

I had the opportunity to visit my best friend Anne Sidwell in Guatemala this summer. With me came our good friend Matt Fisher. What a great trip this was, for me, this was my first time outside of the country, besides Canada. First stop was in a little village called Patzy just outside Guatemala City. Anne lived here for 5 months! What a humbling experience it was to see how modest these people live and what little they live on. Sure does make me better appreciate what I have.

The picture above is the house Anne lived in. This house was very nice in comparison to others in the village, some homes are made up of sheet metal. We stayed here for one night. I was awoken in the morning to a dog on the roof! This was one of my favorite places we visited I think I liked it so much because it was one of the more culturing experiences on my trip. I got a glimpse of what living a impoverished life is like. For dinner that night a local made us a delicious plate of food. I was nervous to eat there food at first but to my surprise it looked and tasted amazing!

I love graveyards, so I got excited when we went to this small one in the village. They bury the dead above ground, I guess it take up less space? I thought this was a cool picture, the tombs are all so colorful. I guess I just like how peaceful a graveyard is, and its always interesting to see how far back some of the graves date to.



Look closely in the back at the dresses being worn, this is typical indigenous clothing of the Mayan women. The majority of women in Patzy dress like this daily.
The rest of the day in Patzy was spent at Anne's school parade. The Parade was so much fun, the kids don't have much money so they are pretty creative with their costumes. It felt like Halloween. I think Matt has all those pictures? Anne said her goodbyes to all her students, you could tell they really were going to miss her, she was so good with them. We flagged down what they call "chicken buses" and headed to Lake Atitlan in Antigua. Oh yeah, the bus ride just may have been the scariest adventure in my life! I don't know whats more dangerous riding on the back of a motorcycle or one a chicken bus. They are old American school buses converted into public transportation. The bus was packed full and would take fast wide careless turns. I held my breath the entire way there.
Lake Atitlan was absolutely breathtaking. The lake is a mile above sea level, and relies on 3 majestic volcanoes to hold gravity at bay. It is generally regarded as the most beautiful place in the world. We were particularly lucky, because the waters were calm and the sky clear. We took a boat to the other side of the lake and explored the churches, convents, and plazas that rested on land.
We spent the remainder of our day in Antigua preparing for our early morning descent up Pacaya a active volcano.
My favorite hotel we stayed at in Guat. I think we splurged on this one, $10.00 a person. Thats most we spent on a hotel, pretty cheap .






Not your typical Guatemalan dog. He just sat there so quietly in the window I had to snap a picture . I got 3 of these aprons, they were so cute. They are made out of the Mayan woman's clothing.

Volcano Pacaya
Here I just cut and pasted from Anne's blog. She explains best the experience we all had on top of the volcano, truly a horrifying incident for me.
Anne's volcano story...
Meg, Matt, Courtney (another volunteer) and I all hiked Volcan Pacaya. I had done it before, and we were all excited to get soo close to the lava. We got more than we paid for because when we reached the top, it started to be a little more active than we had expected. I became truly fearful when the guide himself started to run down the volcan from the volcanic rock that was being thrown at us from the crater that was only 150 m away (at least that is what I think he said). Luckily, there injuries were only minor cuts (Matt and Meg did a great job of caring for another wounded hiker), and the rocks stopped coming at us. . So, naturally, we stayed up there a while longer and got closer to the lava.
This was one of those times that I wished that I didnt understand Spanish because the whole 2 hour hike back, the guide told me horror stories of how several tourists had died on the volcan a few years back. It was quite comforting to hear the stories of the massive eruption in 2000 and how they resumed tours only 3 days later.

Anne's story is somewhat of an understatement of how dangerous the situation was. Besides being scared that I was going to get hit by flying hot lava rocks, I feared being trampled by people and falling into one of the hot pools of lava!
When we got out of the van, before hiking the trail to the volcano we were bombarded by a tone of kids. Turns out they wanted to sell you a stick for the hike. To my surprise we were greeted by the same kids on the way down and they take the sticks back to resale them.
What you see in the back is actually smoke from the volcano not fog. It can become very dangerous when it rains. When the rain hits the rocks it releases toxic gases and makes it hard to see.
This was our guide. You can see to his left is where the volcano goes up and then drops into a hole of lava! This surely was something you couldn't experience in the united states. Being up on the volcano you had to keep your feet moving or they would get to hot and the soles of your shoes would start to melt. Rivers of flowing lava were just inches below us! The lava rock had needle like edges if you feel you would be in pretty bad shape.


What was really scary was that some of the floor was mushy and there would be flowing lava right there next to you. I get really nervous when my surroundings are dangerous and it's crowded. It was especially crowded in the good picture taking spots. I didn't get very good pictures of me by the lava because I was afraid to take my camera out I think I almost had a panic attack up there.
We roasted marshmallows when we were up there. I think its pretty cool that I got to roast marshmallows over hot lava!

We really love the above pictures, so attractive looking.

Next stop Tikal National Park...
Tikal is a archaeological site full of old ruins that date back to ca. 200 to 900 AD. They lie throughout the rainforest. The neatest thing ever was walking through the tranquil rainforest at dawn. Howler monkeys were all over the place, and they are loud. We hiked to the top of a ruins in time to see the sunrise and meditate over the peaceful sounds of nature. It was surreal to hear the rainforest waking up, it's quite loud.
I thought this was a cool looking birds nest. oh yeah, we saw a toucan bird! My pictures of it are bad though.
I love this picture, 2 BFFs hanging out in one of the ruins.
Up top of a ruin. As the sun came up the fog would clear and you could see ruins pop up all over the place.

Anne Sidwell and Matt Fisher make great travel buddies.





This leaf grows on the trees here it's what is used to make allspice.

Our last few days we set out to Flores and headed to Caye Caulker island in Belize. The saying there is, "go slow". I guess we were walking around the island in a "speedy" motion because all the locals would stop us an say, "go slow". It wasn't until we were leaving the island that we saw this (pic. above) right on the floor entrance to the island.
These few picture give you a good idea of how we spent a good portion of our time...traveling. The buses are hot and smelly, bumpy roads and nasty bathroom stops.
We were lucky to find Gatorade and snickers on the way.
Crossing the border from Guatemala into Belize City.
See my blue back pack, that is all I brought with me for the whole 2 week trip. My BF Rob got that for me as a surprise gift for my trip out there. I love that guy, and I love that backpack, It was so comfortable to wear and I was able to fit a lot in it.
I had never been to an island before, I didn't really know what to expect so I was quite taken back by its beauty. We went to what they call the backpackers island. It was off season there, winter,believe it or not! We found a hotel right off the water, had the place to ourselves practically. I loved these 3 nights we stayed here, it was so relaxing.

Coconut milk is disgusting.
Anne and I wore these scarfs around our hair for most of the trip. We got them for 2 dollars each! They were great for keeping my nasty salt watered hair back.

Raise you hand if you think this picture is scary.

To bad we look worked in this picture, it's such a pretty setting. My favorite part of the trip was snorkeling in Stink Ray Ally and shark infested waters! When snorkeling we saw a morey ell! We spent the whole day out there on the water, it was so amazing. They feed us watermelon and pineapple as a snack.
This meal was so good. Perhaps it was because we were starving. It was a really cool outdoor grill, where you pick your meat and sides right there and they grill it up for you. yum yum
Outside our hotel on the dock reading the book Veronica Decides to Die.
I loved our hotel it was named Tom's Hotel. It was like a separate little resort, we would go up top at night and look out at the stars and reminisce about the past.

Anne and I scored this pineapple from our snorkel guide. We all enjoyed it on the roof of the hotel.

Enjoying piña coladas at the pool.

The dock of our hotel.
Look closely there is a iguana in the tree.

This is us leaving the island on a boat. We decided to fly back to Guatemala City rather then by bus. So by this point we had taken buses boats and a plan. Security was pretty weak at the airport. Notice our names on our plane tickets. When at the airport in Flores playing speed scrabble Matt ran into a old friend! We played speed scrabble often on this trip, restraints take forever with your food!
Thanks Anne for letting us come pick you up in Guatemala I had a blast!