Tela, Honduras

I made it to Xela (Quetzaltenango) and stayed there for about 5 days. The chicken bus experience was not as bad as I´d expected, although sometimes splurging on a shuttle and avoiding the 5 people to a seat on an old US school bus is worth it. Also, I wasn´t sure why they´re called chicken buses, but there´s no uncertainty now; I sat next to an old woman and her turkey. It´s polite to greet your seatmate, and also her chicken.

Xela is a nice city, even more overrun with foreign students than Antigua! But it was really nice, and I met lots of people and have been travelling with 2 of them since then. We made it to Honduras a few days ago, after some delay due to a bus driver strike, and stayed in Copan Ruinas, a cute town that people pretty much just go to to see the Mayan ruins. Hence the name. The ruins were beautiful, and I´d post pictures of the ruins, my new friends, the beach, and even more if the internet here didn´t take (literally) 10 minutes to open one page. Now I´m in Tela which is a beach town, and near some Garifuna villages which I´ll visit eventually. I haven´t tried the seafood yet, although it´s looking more and more tempting every day. I also haven´t eaten meat yet (that I know of)...but as it turns out I REALLY like ice cream :-)

Honduras is really hot, compared to Xela which was in the highlands. In Xela we were cold every night (especially with all the rain...), and people were even buying sweatshirts and jackets. But here in Tela it´s really humid and hot, not that I´m complaining! Today we walked to a beach and then bought some bread, cheese, tomatoes, avocado, and hot peppers and made sandwiches. It´s great to use the money here (in Honduras they use Lempiras) because I always feel so rich buying things that cost 100 of anything. A dollar is about 18 lempiras, and a Cola light (they´re everywhere! It´s fantastic!) costs about 15 lempiras. Not too bad.

I think the people here in Tela are friendlier than in Guatemala...just very helpful and eager to chat. My spanish is improving (I think) and the people I´ve met from Central or South America seem to think my accent is pretty good. Amusing, but good.

My hour of internet is up (getting the blog to open took about half of it!) so I´m going to go get some ice cream and take a nap before the salsa dancing begins!

-Jessica

San Pedro, Lago de Atitlan

Spet a few days in San Pedro, a small town around the lake known to be backpacker stoner heaven. But it actually was not really that bad. Here is a picture of my room which had a private bathroom!! And a shower!! And cost me almost $3. First the room, then the shower..this is why it was $3. Maybe you can see the lovely wires, that supposedly connected the hot water. They did not actually do this.

And, San Pedro really likes Jesus. A lot. Here are some examples.




And finally, a few pictures from my kayak outing on the lake.


That is all for now...the power has gone out 3 times since I started trying to post these, so more later.
Jess

Volcan Pacaya, Antigua

Yesterday I hiked one of the few active volcanoes in Guatemala: Pacaya. The hike was almost 2 hours, but it was worth it. It was so hot near the lava I thought my face was going to melt. But I got there and made it out alive, and even have pictures to prove it

(well, I guess you´ll have to take my word for it that I made it out alive...)

I guess it´s fairly obvious, but the glowing orange surrounded by ash is the lava. A few years ago Pacaya erupted while some tourists were hiking up, so I guess we were lucky! Internet costs $1 which is a lot of money for me...so I´ll leave you with that. Hasta luego...

Antigua

Here are two pictures from Antigua...again sort of testing my blog posting abilities. The first is one of the many volcanoes surrounding the city, I can´t remember which this is, but it´s kind of like the others...oh, and unfortunately that´s a cloud behind it, not smoke.

The second photo is the quintessential Antigua Arch picture. It opens to Church de la Merced, of which I´ll post pictures later. It´s actually impossible to take a picture that´s not gorgeous here. And today was hot and sunny; the rain hasn´t come yet. I bought some vegetables at the market and am off to cook dinner at my hostel with some girls from Argentina. Buenas noches!

Antigua, Guatemala

Just a quick update because I´ve been awake for a long time...
I made it to Antigua, an old colonial town, very cute with cobblestones and all. It is definitely the rainy season; it´s pretty much been raining since I got here about 3 hours ago. But apparently it´s sunny in the mornings...we´ll see! I will try to take and post some pictures soon, but now I think I´m going to bed.

Ohio to Maine

My sister and I successfully made the trip back to Maine, and our U-Haul Draggy #2 also made it, intact, and still connected to the back of my car. So, I suppose this is what you could call a good start. I'm really just testing my blog to see if I know how to use it.